Time dragged on by the hour.

      Time was all they had.

      The sun's hot rays glared unrelentingly as the days went by.

      The twelve-man crew of the EAGLE 1 ECOLAB had landed in a valley.  It was descriptive of previous probe photographs.  The blue-green and red planet was full of rocky craters, valleys and canyons.

      The air was hot and stagnant.  GEOS 1 was a relatively new discovery in the Sun Belt.  It had taken ten years for GeoTech to formulate plans for the expedition to Geos 1.

      Geo Technologies made their bid for the rights and thus named it Geos 1.  Geo Technologies was one of the big land grabbers of the day.  They were rich in property: tenements, slums, ghettos, small cities, suburbs, etc. They had most every kind of real estate anyone could want.  Wherever the sun rose and set there was Geo Technologies.  A sign went up.

      The crew of Eagle 1 Ecolab had been promised back wages, paid vacations, and bonuses for discoveries.  Geo Technologies contracted out the crew of twelve men and women.  All were qualified scientists.

      “We have arrived on Geos 1, ladies and gentlemen,” announced Major Ross Erwin, geologist and physicist for Geo Technologies, Inc.

      Lieutenant Larry Trotski entered the cockpit first. 

      “What day is this, Major Erwin?” asked Trotski.

      “April 15, 2065 A.D.  I hope you paid your taxes.  If you didn't, I hope you gave them this address?” Erwin asked.

      Trotski grinned.  “I gotcha, Major Erwin.”

      “Oh, by the way, you can drop the formality.  Out here nobody knows who you are or cares, Larry,” said Erwin.

      “We've made it to Geos 1.  I'm going to wake the rest of the crew,” Trotski said.  He disappeared through the porthole door.

      Erwin started working on an agenda of things to be done, before the first foot could be set on the soil of Geos 1.  The day was ruled by drenching rains.

      From inside the Eagle 1 Ecolab things looked bleak.

      “Wake up, Alex, we're here!” said Lieutenant Trotski.

      “What?” said Alex.

      “We're here on Geos 1.  Help me wake up the rest of the crew.”

      Alex looked up at Trotski and removed his blanket and got up, his eyes still heavy with sleep.  He flexed his muscles underneath the thermal T-shirt.  His black skin was ashen from lack of sunlight.  “So we're here at last, Larry?  Let me get some clothes on.  You know how I am about the ladies.”

      Alex grunted as he pulled on his jumpsuit.  He followed Trotski down the corridor of the hatchway.  When both had reached the next sleeping compartment, they woke up Ben, Matt and Zebulon.

      “Alex, we're going to wake up the women,” said Trotski.

      The crew was up now and dressed.  They ate.

      Trotski organized an assembly for their meeting.  They had seventy-two hours until they would be landside acclimatizing themselves.

      There were other ships coming.  They were on their way.

      Eagle Ecolab 1 was the flagship of its day.

      The crew was given an hour or two to re-orient themselves to their environment.  They were within sight of Geos 1.  It was the child prodigy of planets with its white clouds and a nearly breathable atmosphere.  There was thin oxygen around.  Microbial life-forms were abundant.  There were volcanoes there, and there was water from the steam created by the volcanoes.  It would be no easy first landing.  They were now within a moonshot of their goal.

      The planet obviously had a fuel source.  This was good.  Maybe the first colony could tap into it.  Industries on Earth were oil-based.

CHAPTER 2

     As a matter of fact it was all oil-based on Earth.  Industry and machinery relied on oil on Earth.  The Ecolab 2 had to establish a base camp which, as more people were sent there, would become a permanent settlement. 

     Supplies came with the new crew.  They were unloaded—the solar panels for electricity, housing units that had to be delivered to an on-site target.

     Geos 1 had some plant life on the surface, as alien as it was beautiful.  It provided a much-needed breathable atmosphere.

     The dust settled after they landed to join the other colonists who had arrived there ten years before the second expedition of Eagle Ecolab 1 arrived finally.

     The trajectory had been right.  They landed once again on the Geos 1 colony site.  The new crew was coming in for a landing on the airstrip.

     There was a forest there now, ten years tall, and grass growing there now in the colony.  Lieutenant Trotski needed all the hands to be on deck when they arrived.  Major Erwin sat there piloting beside him.   They slept in short shifts until the day of their arrival on Geos.  Things looked bleak—that is, until they saw the green shimmer on the surface.  They had orbited twenty-four hours before they targeted the landing strip.  The clouds were clearing out, thankfully.

     “Major Erwin, contact the colony A and B and let them know we're landing?” asked Trotski.

     The volcanoes there created the natural hot springs and cloud formations created rivulets of water down below the mountains.  The artesian well system and natural geysers made for a beautifully weird and surreal landscape.  There were many pools of water in the craters that were transformed into lakes.  There the two oases formed on both sides of the landing strip, that is, Colony A on the left side and Colony B on the right side.  There was a thin growth of forest ten years strong.  The grass was growing profusely.  The fungus grew thick in places, like thick fibrous strands of black and brown spaghetti noodles.  Geos was not as sterile a world as was once believed.

     Major Erwin made contact by radio.

     “Colony A, come in.  Major Erwin speaking from Eagle Ecolab 1. Please respond.”

     There was radio silence.  Major Erwin waited for a response.

     “How is it coming?  Any reply?” asked Trotski.

     “None at all,” said Erwin.

     “Alex!  Get everyone ready!  We're going in!” yelled Trotski.

     “YES SIR, Lieutenant!” said Alex.  He was halfway down the hatch to the flight room.

     So far there was still no reply.  Trotski prepared the crew.  A little later they were all assembled outside the spaceship.

     “We shall maintain radio contact.  We will go in groups of four and spread out and meet at the Colony A site,” said the lieutenant.  “Ross, you and I go together.  Alex and Shayla will stay here and watch the spaceship.  Captain Balfour, you and Sergeant Whitman and your wives will go as one team.  Corporal Somers and Private Stockman and your wives will take the left.  Captain Balfour and Sergeant Whitman will take the right lead!  Let's go!”

     They started their search mission for the other colonists.  The hybrid power plant was up ahead of them.  Trotski and Erwin went on ahead.

CHAPTER 3

     Each party spread out, taking a section of the Colony Forest that grew near the airstrip on Geos 1.  The thin forest had adapted to a sparsely-populated world with some natural growth of its own.

     Trotski and his crew canvassed the area in their search.  Colony A lay up ahead.  They entered the colony cautiously.  Trotski and Erwin followed by the rest of the crew walked into the village.  They were locked and loaded.  Trotski gave a hand-signal to his men.  He motioned Private Stockman and Corporal Somes to the left side of an aluminum hut. 

     Trotski felt like the eyes of Geos 1 were upon him.  He approached the door of the aluminum hut.  It was ajar.  He opened the door slowly.  Erwin did a sweep with his gun ready and his stun-gun in his belt.

     “HELLO!  ANYBODY THERE?” he yelled.  “SHOW YOURSELF!” he demanded.

     Trotski fell in behind him with his firearm at the ready, followed by Stockman and his wife, Private Leanna Stockman and Corporal T. Somes and his wife Corporal Paloma Somes, along with Captain F. Balfour and Sergeant Zebulon Whitman.  It was the communications center.  They explored it further.  It appeared abandoned.  Erwin went on ahead.

     “I see something!  A shadow?” he said.  “Who's there?  COME OUT!”
He waited for a reply.  There was none.  He forged on around the corner.  There he found a body, decomposing where the man had died.

     “Lieutenant!  Over here!”

     Trotski came forward.  “He's dead, that's for sure,” he said.

     “What happened to him?” asked Somes.

     “We can't be certain what killed him or who did it.  It's sabotage,” said Trotski.  “Let's move on and see if we can locate the colonists and find out what's going on here.”

     They left the communications hut and went searching other facilities on the Colony A site.  They discovered a few more bodies in the street as they walked along.

     “JEEZ!  Lieutenant, this doesn't make any sense!” said Erwin.

     “Let's keep moving.  Keep your eyes open.  Let's keep looking until we find someone who will tell us something,” said Trotski.

     They walked on down the street of Colony A.  There was the smell of rotten eggs in the air as the water filtration system was up ahead.  It pumped water into a holding tank.  It was one of the priorities of establishing the colonies—securing water and making electricity.

     “The water system looks okay.  It's intact, still working,” said Trotski.

     “Where are the colonists?” asked Erwin.

     “I don't like this,” said Somes.

     “I don't either.  Everybody stay close and alert,” said Trotski.

     That was the second time Trotski warned everyone.

     They had not encountered a living soul yet on their walk-through of the perimeters.  They moved onwards to the center of Colony A.

     “Who's our contact?  Where is he?” asked Erwin.

     “It's the communications officer, Eric Corter.  Apparently that was him we found dead.”

     “No, who's in charge is what I meant?” asked Erwin.

     “That would be General Scott Rosse, if we can find him,” said Trotski.

     “Let's move on then.”

     They checked each hut, sweeping through the area. 

     They had checked Colony A out, but there were still more places to go.

     “Everybody break off the detail.  We'll start back up in an hour,” Trotski ordered.

     “So what do you think happened, Ben?  This is weird.  They all just disappeared like that?” said Private Leanna Stockman.

     “I'm sure there's an explanation,” said her husband, Ben.

CHAPTER 4

     The air on Geos was hot, mixed in with a whip of cool air quickly dissipating. 

     “So, Lieutenant Trotski, where do we go from here?” asked Major Erwin.

     “We keep searching,” said Trotski.  “Let's FALL IN!” he ordered up the crew.

     “Look over there!” yelled Paloma.  “I saw someone!”

     Everybody turned and looked over in the direction to the east.  Paloma dashed off in that direction, followed by Corporal Somes.  Everybody else joined in.  They could not let anyone go off alone.  Paloma and Somes were ahead of everybody.

     “Paloma!” Somes yelled after her.

     “I saw a child.  Don't stop me, Ted.”  She searched with a stealth-like determination.  “Come here, child, I won't hurt you, I promise!” she said loudly, as she slowed down her search.  The boy stopped running.

     Somes caught up to both of them first.

     “CORPORAL SOMES, WHERE ARE YOU TWO?” yelled Trotski.

     There was no reply as they came in not far behind them.

     Paloma grabbed for the boy.  She felt a sharp pain above her knee joint.

     By this time Somes had a good hold on the boy with a combat maneuver.  He grabbed the boy by his left wrist.  “DROP IT!” he yelled.  He squeezed the boy's wrist.  The boy reluctantly let go, struggling.

     “Paloma, are you all right?” asked Erwin.

     “No, I'm bleeding,” she said as she applied pressure to the wound.

     “Leanna, help Paloma!” Erwin ordered.

     Lieutenant Trotski came up to Somes and the boy.  He assisted with the boy, who struggled.  His face was painted half black with an orange strip of iron rust coming down across his nose.  He was ten years tall at least.

     “What's your name, boy?” asked Trotski.  “Where are your parents?”

    “NO!  I won't tell!” the boy yelled back as he fought, as Major Erwin banded his wrist.

     “Show us where or tell us where everybody is!?” asked Trotski.

     “You'll see!” the boy yelled.

     “What's your name, little boy?  Cooperate with us—we're here to help!” said Trotski.

     “My name is Branor.  You're too late!  Let me go!”

     “It's not too late, Branor.  Where are the rest of the people?” Trotski demanded.

     “I DON'T KNOW!” yelled Branor.

     “You're lying.  What happened here, Branor?!” Erwin asked.

     “Ask the old people,” said Branor.

     “Take us to them, then.  Show us the way,” Erwin said.

     “They don't want you here,” said Branor.

     “Of course they do.  It's part of the plan,” said Trotski.

     “The older people say they're not coming back.  We're all gonna die.”

     “Calm down, Branor!  No one is going to die.  We're with you,” said Trotski, going on to add, “Where is everybody?”

     “You don't want to know.  You better leave this place,” Branor warned them, adding, “Take me with you?”

     “We can't leave the people behind, Branor, they're part of our mission,” said Trotski, adding, “Show us, son?”

     “Branor, what's going on here?” chimed in Major Erwin.

     Branor looked at them with his dirty face and tattered clothes.  It seemed nothing could pry those lips open.  It was like the cat had his tongue.  Speaking invoked fear in him.  Whatever he might have said was unspeakable.

     “We've got to know what happened,” said Trotski.  “Everyone listen, we will cease and desist here for the night.  Let's check out these huts!  We'll form a burial detail for the dead citizens!”

     “I'll radio on ahead to Alex and Shayla,” said Erwin.  “I'll let them know the situation.”

     Corporal Paloma Somes was helped by Private Leanna Stockman to one of the huts there on Florida Street.  They were followed by Private Ben Stockman and Corporal Ted Somes. 

     “You'll be all right, Paloma, you're in good hands,” he said.  “We'll be back soon. Leanna will be here with you.”

     “No, it's not all right,” said Paloma.  “I'm scared.”

     “Toughen up, Paloma, fear is a sign of weakness.  They look for it,” said Somes.  “They sense it like wolves.  I'll be back soon,” he said as he got up to leave.

CHAPTER 5

     Burial detail was finished.  Somes, Erwin, Trotski and the others were back at the living quarters on Florida Street.  The night was falling all around.

     “Captain Balfour and Sergeant Whitman take the first watch,” ordered Trotski.

     “Yes, sir!” said Captain Balfour.

     “Aye, sir!” said Sergeant Whitman.

     Six hours later the shift rotated.  The time was now ten p.m. Geos 1 time.  Erwin and Stockman took on guard duty next.

     “Everybody, time to get up,” said Trotski as he went around waking the crew.  “Branor, wake up!” he said as he shook Branor awake.

     Erwin and Stockman were still outside the hut.

     Major Erwin lit up a cigarette.  “You ever think this is what hell is like, Private Stockman?”  he asked.  “No cigarettes, no nothing, no water to drink.”

     “No, not at all, Major Erwin,” Stockman said.  “This is probably close to it.”

     Meanwhile, inside the living quarters, Lt. Trotski gathered everybody.  “Come on up, Branor!” he said as he grabbed Branor by the arm.  “Time to go.  Don't wimp out on me, boy; ups-a-daisy.”

     “What's what, Lieutenant Trotski?” asked Private Leanna.

     “Time to get a move on, that's what.  It's a direct order,” said Trotski.

     Captain Balfour and Sergeant Whitman were back inside. 

     “Need some help?” asked Balfour.  “Come on, Branor, up!”

     “I have to go!” said Branor.

     “Go where, Branor?  You're going with us,” said Balfour.  “On your honor, Branor?”

     “Yes!” said Branor.

     “Francis and Zeb, watch him anyway!  Let's fall in!” said Trotski.

     “Come on, let's go to the bathroom.  Where is it?” asked Balfour.

     “It's outside, don't you know?” asked Branor.

     “On Earth they're indoors.  Let's go, Branor,” said Balfour.

     “Okay, this way, follow me,” said Branor.  “If you untie my hands, I can show you better.”

     “Just walk in that direction and guide us, son.”  Balfour and Whitman followed him outside the hut.  The rest of the crew followed Trotski, who headed up the team.  They walked on from Colony A, trying to get to Colony B.  They had to know what was going on there at Geos 1.

     “I don't like this situation at all, Lieutenant Trotski,” said Corporal Ted Somes.

     “I don't either,” replied Lieutenant Larry Trotski.  “We can't leave anyone behind.”

     “On this mission, this far from home, we can't have a choice,” said Major Ross Erwin.

     They walked back towards the airstrip where they would drop off the wounded Corporal Paloma Somes.

     A couple of hours later they were back at the spaceship.

     “Alex! Shayla!” radioed Lieutenant Trotski.  “We're outside!  We need your help!” said Trotski.

     The stairs from inside the spaceship descended from the doorway.  Alex and Shayla greeted them.  “What's what, Lieutenant?  We haven't heard from you since the day before?” asked Alex.

     Trotski said, “We'll rest here while I prepare a report and continue our search in a day or two.  Alex, take Branor to the bathroom.”

     “Who?!” asked Alex.

     “The boy we found,” said Trotski.  “Major Erwin will go with you.”

     “OH!  So there are survivors?” asked Alex.

     “Yes!” said Trotski.  “I have to contact the GEOS 1 base.  You can go now, Alex!”

     “Yes, sir!” said Alex, as he left to go to the other part of the spaceship where the rest of the crew and the boy Branor were.  “Major, you and the boy come with me.”

CHAPTER 6

     “What's going on, Lieutenant Trotski?  Why won't the boy talk?” asked medical officer Shayla Smythe.

     “I think there's been an uprising, Shayla !” said Trotski.

     “What do you mean?  I need to do an analysis on the boy.”

     “Proceed, then…with an air of caution.  He already gave Paloma a nasty cut above the knee.”

     “I'm going to tend to Paloma's wound now,” said Shayla as she turned to leave the lieutenant's office.

     Captain Balfour entered the office followed at close quarters by Whitman and Stockman.  “Lieutenant Trotski, there's something wrong here, very wrong,” said Balfour.  “”We'll interrogate the boy further and follow any insights we can gain.”

     “I know there's something wrong here,” said Trotski.  “We won't make any moves until we can assess this situation.  Find out from the boy Branor what you can.”

     “Right, Lieutenant, will do.  We've seen it first-hand ourselves,” said Whitman.

     “We'll get a team out and take samples tomorrow,” said Trotski.

     Meanwhile medical officer Shayla Smythe went to the sick bay where Paloma awaited them.  She sat there on the examining table in her shorts and tank top.  Shayla entered.  She washed up and put on rubber gloves.  “Hey, Paloma, I heard what happened to you,” she said.  She examined the gash above Paloma's right knee.  “I have good news.  The wound is not that deep.  I believe I can stitch it up.  You're in some luck.”

     “And what's the bad news?”

     “You're going to have to stay on board the spaceship.”

     “If it's not that bad why do I have to stay out of the mission?”

     “It's just too risky, your re-injuring yourself, Paloma.  That's an order!”

     Meanwhile Dr. Alex Storey was taking care of Branor.  He and Major Erwin worked on cleaning him up.  “Branor, where are your parents?” asked Alex.  “What happened to them?”

     “They went to the other colony.  They'll be back soon.”

     “No, Branor, what really did happen to them?”

     “Come on, now, tell the truth, son,” said Erwin.  “What are your parents' names?”

     The screws were turning inside Branor's head at the thought of the questions put to him.

     “I don't know.  They said they'll be back.  They promised!”  Branor said.  “They promised,” he repeated.

     Private Leona Stockman came in.  She knocked on the door.  “Major, here are the boy's clothes from the cargo bay you asked for,” she said.

     “When was this, Branor?” asked Erwin.

     “I don't know,” said Branor.

     “Was it a few days ago?”

     “I don't know.  Maybe longer.  I'm hungry!  Can I eat?”

     “Okay, Branor, we'll stop here for now and eat,” Erwin said.  “You must tell us more about what happened.”

     They left to go eat.  They had a couple of tons of MREs on board the spaceship.  Supplies for the colonies—medical supplies, clothes, computers and other technologies, books, and other things.

     They would find out what they could and get a team out tomorrow to collect samples.

CHAPTER 7

     Lieutenant Trotski and the crew were out taking Geiger readings, and writing field notes about the fringe of Colony B on the left side of the spaceship.

     “Lieutenant, the Geiger readings are high.  Are you getting the same readings?” asked Major Erwin.

     “Yes, Ross, this is just a small area and there is a lot of volcanic activity on Geos 1,” said Trotski.  “That would account for the radiation levels.”

     Meanwhile Dr. Alex and Shayla were doing the lab work.  Sergeant Whitman was assigned to watch over Branor.

     “What does this do?  Can I touch it?” asked Branor.

     “No, Branor, it's not a toy!” snapped Whitman.  Branor made him jittery asking him questions, which was all right, but touching and playing with the important equipment was not.  “Please don't touch anything unless you know what it is and does,” he implored the boy.

     “All right, I just wanted to see what it does,” said a pouty Branor.

     “That's dangerous on a spaceship, Branor!”

     Lieutenant Trotski had a sense of foreboding about the mission.  Something had gone terribly wrong.  He would have a meeting with the crew about their next jaunt into the colonies.  He would have to reassess the mission and reorganize their search.  First of all and foremost he needed some answers from Branor.

     Branor seemed dazed and confused.  Maybe with some clean clothes, a good bath and some attention he would come around to their side of things.  He had grown ten years tall on the rough edges of the colonies on Geos 1.  Branor was unsure.  He did not know whose side to be on.  He was one of the second generation born of the Geos 1 colonists, which had existed for twenty years there on the planet.

     The crew was back before nightfall from their excursion into the parameters.  On board the Eagle Ecolab 1 they relaxed.

     “Well, Alex, how are the cultures coming?” asked Lieutenant Trotski as they were sitting at the mess-hall table.

     “I should know in a day or two.  I'll have a full report in that time.  These are unlike any bacteria known on Earth,” said Dr. Storey.

     “They couldn't be that different?” Trotski said rhetorically.

     Corporals Ted and Paloma Somes were eating and drinking in the mess-hall now.  Paloma scratched her face.  It was just a slight itch.  “Ted, can you give my back a scratch?” she asked.

     “Sure, babe,” said Ted as he scratched her back.  At first it was a mild itch, but she dug until she bled from her face.  Ted looked over at her.  “Paloma, STOP!  You're bleeding!” he ordered.

     “Paloma, what's wrong?” asked Dr. Storey.

     “It won't stop.  The itching won't stop,” she said.

     “I can give you an anti-itch cream,” he said.  “Meet me in the sick bay later.  I'll be there.  Or better yet, Shayla is still there.  She can assist you if you go now.”

     “All right,” said Corporal Paloma as she and Ted left the mess-hall table.

     Branor and Sergeant Whitman and Privates Leanna and Ben Stockman came into the mess-hall as they were leaving.  They all got their meals and drinks, then they sat down to eat.  Branor would be grilled next.

CHAPTER 8

     The next day came.  The crew of the Eagle Ecolab continued their search on the Colony B site.  They rendezvoused on the outskirts of Colony B.  Their search was for survivors.  Lieutenant Trotski tried to ascertain all the information he could from Branor.  He learned there was a disease that claimed the colonists, at first one by one.  It robbed the minds of the colonists, causing mass hysteria.  At first the deaths were attributed to illness or hereditary disease.  Alarm bells went off when key personnel started dropping out like flies in the colonies.  The unknown contagion was a bacterium in the water supply and coming from the hot springs.

     “Lieutenant Trotski, we need to find the lab.  Perhaps we can isolate this bacterium.  If we find the lab notes, we can identify the strain,” said Dr. Storey.

     “Well, doctor, I hope you packed a bag lunch.  These colony streets aren't well-mapped as you know,” said Trotski.

     “Why didn't we bring Branor?  I'm sure he knows these streets better than you or I,” asked Storey.

     “He would just get in the way.  You know what he did to Paloma.”

     “I don't see why not.”

     “That kid could disappear on us and we'd never find him again.”

     They entered Colony B from the left side of the airstrip.  They walked down the trail through the thin forest.  It led into Colony B.  There were several street signs pointing in different directions.

     “That was easy.  Now let's follow the street signs,” said Trotski.

     “Let's move on!” said Major Erwin.  He signaled to the others to follow suit.  Both Private Stockmans acted as the rear guards.

     “OH! BRANOR!  Come out wherever you are.  My mom needs our help,” yelled a little girl of eight or nine.

     “Lieutenant, did you hear something that sounded like a child?” asked the doctor.

     “No, it's the wind, perhaps,” said Trotski.

     “Shh!  Listen!” said Dr. Storey.

     “BRANOR!  You're making me angry!  Come out!” she yelled, pleading somewhere at a bungalow on another street somewhere.

     “Lieutenant Trotski, we've got to get to that little girl!” Storey said.

     “Yes, I know.  We don't want to scare her.”

     “There's a possibility she might not be aware of our presence here, lieutenant.”

     “What do you suggest as the way we should approach her?”

     They were crouched behind a quonset hut building discussing their approach.

     “Let me go, sir.  I'll try the feminine approach,” said Leanna.  “She obviously has a great deal of concern about her mother, sir.”

     “Well, it might work.  It's worth a try, Private Stockman.”

     “I'll go with you,” said Ben.

     “No, it's a woman's job, dear.”

     “I'll follow behind you about twenty feet.”

     “Okay!”  She got up to walk down the street.  She approached slowly and cautiously, surveying the area with her eyes as she walked toward the girl standing there.

     “Hey, little girl, what's your name?”  Leanna asked.  The girl gasped.  She was startled.  Her eyes opened wide as she flinched in shock.

     “Who are you?” she asked in a shrill little girl voice.

     “Don't be afraid,” said Leanna.  “We're here to help you and your mother.”

     In the meantime, Ben and Erwin had fallen in behind Leanna and the little girl.  Trotski and Storey followed as well.

     “My mother is sick.  Can you help her?” she asked.

     “Show me where she is,” said Leanna.

     “In the hut,” said the little girl as she pointed.  “Do you know Branor?”

     “We'll take you to him shortly.”

     The other members of the team came out of hiding and followed them.  They followed the little girl into the hut.

CHAPTER 9

     They entered the hut.  The little girl stood in front, guardedly.

     “What's your name?  I'm Leanna.”

     “My name is Morcades.  I can't leave her.”

     “What's your mother's name?”

     “Her name is Linette.  Come with me?” she asked.

     The team followed her to the room off to the left side.  “She's in here!” said Morcades as she half-ran, guiding Leanna by the hand.

     Stockman and Erwin followed, doing a visual sweep of the rooms.  They were looking for renegade citizens of Geos 1 colonies, any survivors.  The former citizens of Earth, now living out their days in the colonies there on this hellish place with its primitive life-forms where algae slicks covered the water, where there were acres of mushrooms growing.  It seemed all was clear for the moment.

     “Show us your mother, Morcades.”

     The rooms were Spartan in appearance.  There in the middle of the room was her mother's bed with heavy netting hanging over it.  But that wasn't all—a black cloud had descended upon her mother.  Private Leanna parted the veil.  Out came a black cloud which hit her in the eyes, the ears, the nose and hair with a bombardment.

     “OH!  Get them off me!” she screamed.

     “What's wrong with Mom!!” screamed Morcades.

     “Open the window!” bellowed Trotski.

     Major Erwin rushed over and cranked open the window.  The black flies swarmed.  They were as vicious as they were hungry.  The black swarm finally abated as it left the room.  There were some hangers-on.

     “MOM!....What's wrong!?” yelled Morcades.

     Her mother Linette's grizzled remains lay in the bed.

     “Leanna, take her outside now!” ordered Trotski.  “Dr. Storey, go with them!  Explain to her that her mother is dead! As best you can!”

     “Will do, lieutenant.  I'm on it.  You should close this place off.  It's a bio-hazard, lieutenant.  This is an instance where the dead should bury the dead, sir,” said Storey.  “She's not here, sir,” he added.

     “We'll evacuate the premises.  Men!  Fall in!” ordered Trotski.  They were all back out on the streets.

     “Morcades, sweetie, your mother is not here any more.”

     “Yes, she is.  You saw her.  What's wrong with her?  She won't wake up!”  Her voice faltered slightly with a rising and falling pitch.

     “Morcades, listen, I'm telling you…she's not alive any more.”

     “What!?”  Her eyes filled up with tears.

     “Easy, now, Morcades, just let it go,” said Dr. Storey.

     “No—where's Branor?  I need to talk to him!” she said, sobbing.

     Trotski, Erwin and Stockman stood nearby watching and waiting, listening, while Trotski plotted their next move. 

     “Morcades, do you know where the old people went?” asked Storey.

    “They said not to tell or they wouldn't help me,” said Morcades.  “The elders go to a secret place they said I couldn't go, me and Branor, that is.”

     “Where, Morcades, did they go?” asked Storey.

    “Past the colony limits to the big cave,” she said as she pointed to the direction west of town.  “It's been an awfully long time since I seen them, but don't tell,” she begged.

    Trotski, Erwin and Stockman were listening.

     “Can you show us, hon?” asked Trotski, who chimed in on the questioning.

     “Yes.  I'll be in big trouble,” said Morcades.

    “No, you won't, but they will,” said Leanna.  “if they are doing something they shouldn't do they will be in trouble.”

     “All right, then follow me,” said Morcades.  She grabbed Leanna by the hand, leading the way.

CHAPTER 10

     Morcades led the crew to a narrow ravine where there lay a gully full of lava caverns.  At the end of the ravine lay a huge cavern.  “This way—follow me!” she said.

     The crew followed her to the caverns, now empty of lava, just hollow lava tubes there where the lava once flowed through the hollow chambers, and it was squeezed out like toothpaste or like icing piped through a pastry bag.

     “Over here, I think!” said Morcades.

     “Are you sure, Morcades, this is the one?” asked Leanna.

     “Yes, I am almost sure of it,” she said.

     “Let's go!” signaled Trotski, by motioning with his right hand to move forward.  In a single file they walked into the cavern, which was lit by natural light from naturally formed skylights in the cavern's vaulted ceiling.

     “Where could they be, Lieutenant?” asked Storey.

     “Probably up ahead,” said Trotski.  “Let's roll on.”

     “Morcades doesn't know when all this happened,” said Storey.  “It couldn't have been but a month ago or so indicated by all those flies.”

     “Or less,” stated Trotski.

     They walked farther.  Major Erwin followed behind them.

     “Light your glow sticks!” said Trotski.  “It looks like the interior of the cave to me.  We're going in.”

     The cavern's large chamber was half-lit by a natural skylight from above, but it was still dark in the deep recesses.  “Everybody spread out and take a look around!” ordered Trotski.

     “Flies, flies!” yelled Morcades.

     “OH MY GOD!” gasped Leanna.  “LOOK, LIEUTENANT!”

     “I see it.  The room is crawling with flies!” said Trotski.  “I've seen enough.”

     Enough flies moved to reveal what he could survey with his glow stick around the room.

     “Lieutenant, there must be over two hundred corpses down here.  What were they doing?” said Storey.

     “Doctor Storey, Major Erwin, take a look around here.  I see campfires and cooking pots,” said Trotski.

     Storey went over to the campfires.  There in the pots were the remains of their last meals.  He examined the contents and looked at the food they cooked.  “Lieutenant, it's mushrooms, poisonous mushrooms!  What were they thinking?”

     “We should leave, then.  There's nothing else here.  We can figure this out after we get outside, then we've done all we can do here,” said Trotski.  “Let's go!”

     They followed the paths of light back out of the cavern until they reached the outside again.  Then they made the long hike back to Colony B side.  It was mid-afternoon by then.  The sun would be going down in a few hours so they had to make it back to the spaceship.  They would be taking Morcades along with them.  She was one of the two survivors.  First they had things to assess on their mission.

     Dr. Storey had to get to the lab where he could find some answer, but that would have to wait until another day.

CHAPTER 11

     They left the great cavern for the outside.  Once outside they stood there discussing the finer points of their mission.

     “Why?! Why?!  Lieutenant, did they eat the mushrooms?  They knew they would die,” said Doctor Storey.

     “Whatever disease is killing them—that is, they already knew that, doctor?” said Trotski.

     “Yes, well, it probably is a fungal disease or bacterial or both,” said Storey.

     “They had food in the form of MREs and they were doing sustainable agriculture somewhere,” said Trotski.

     “I need to get to the lab, lieutenant,” said Storey as he hurried down through the ravine back to the Colony B site.

     “Hey, where are you going, doctor?” yelled Trotski after him.  “Let's all stick together. That's an order!  Let's everyone get a move on!”

     Storey had stopped by then in his tracks.  The rest of them joined up, falling in behind.  They walked the path through the ravine, down through the NASA Way street.  They searched for the lab.  Finally they found a culmination of huts marked Bio-Hazard.

     “Over here, Lieutenant Trotski, are the huts.  I'll just suit up and go in myself,” said Doctor Storey.

     “I'll go with you, doctor, you're not going alone,” said Trotski.

     “Lieutenant, don't risk it.  It is for me to do.  I know what to look for,” said Storey.

     “And I don't.  We can move much faster if we work together.  There are not lone rangers here,” said Trotski.

     “All right, let's suit up then,” said Storey.  “We're going in.”

     They suited up in the Hazmat suits to enter the lab.  The lab had notes lying around in journals.  There were microscopes and slides, plenty of them, in the lab.  Dr. Storey went over to the lab desk to look at the notes.

     “Help look, Lieutenant, through the notes?” asked Storey.  “Look for a specific date.”

     Trotski started leafing through the pages of the journals.  There were twenty years of journals to look through, sitting there on a bookshelf.

     “I'm looking for the last entry.  We can backtrack to the beginning of when it started,” Storey said.

     “Find anything yet?” Trotski asked.  “I'll keep looking,” he added.

     Storey picked up each journal, looking at the year on it.  Finally he came across the last journals, which had been laid out in a sequence of the last years of life on Geos 1.  There were four volumes of the last two years.  Each set represented one year.

     “Lieutenant, we need to look at the computer models.  I need to make a copy of it,” said Storey.  “Here, hold these journals.”  He handed them over to the lieutenant.  Then he searched for a blank disc, which he found—a stack of discs sitting on the desk.  He copied the genetic copy of the disease to the disc.

     “I think we should go now, Lieutenant,” said Storey.  “I've got what we need.  We should be able to track the origins of the disease.”

     They left the lab to go to decontamination.  After decontamination they were back outside with the rest of the crew.

CHAPTER 12

     They had the journals and disc now and little girl Morcades in tow.  It was back to the spaceship waiting on the airstrip now.

     “Major, everybody, let's move out back to the shuttle,” said Trotski.

     They were back to the spaceship.

     Doctor Storey carried the journals and discs aboard the spaceship.  He would do further analysis.  His officer Shayla Smythe would look for answers to their questions, Dr. Storey took the journals to his lab to study them.  Would they find the necessary answers to all their questions?  The questions that preyed on their minds like the one—were they hunted by a disease or contagion that would shut down their systems one by one or all at once?  Would they be felled by a rampant organism?  That would make the Eagle 1 Ecolab a doomed vessel.

     Geos 1 was already set up with the geological components that were the basis for life on a virtually unknown planet that would one day evolve new life forms.  It was the primordial soup of the universe in a seething hot cauldron on a planet that was still a relatively young planet and that had aged over a billion years, give or take a million or two years.

     A comet or an asteroid could easily take out the whole ecosystem of Geos 1 as well.  The Universe was a volatile place full of gases, explosions, rocks, water and what have you, but that was beside the case of the two colonies.

     Doctor Storey had to find an answer.  Answers did not always mean a solution was at hand.

     The crew and the two children settled in for the night.

     Dr. Storey and Medical Officer Shayla Smythe were going over the medical documents and gene models on the discs.  Trotski and Erwin came into the sickbay to talk to both of them.

     “What have you found, Dr. Storey?” Trotski asked.

     “Well, according to the medical journals they kept, it's three things, a fungus, a virus, and deadly bacteria.  People lost their memories slowly at first.  Then they became ill and died.”

     “About how long does this take?”

     “Months, a period of days, weeks?”

     “Well, two heads are better than one.”

     “Lieutenant, that is so cliché, so true.  There is a cure.”

     “Let's hear it, then.”

     “A course of antibiotics will work.”

     “Well, why didn't the colonists use them?”

     “That's what I am hoping to find out in these notes.”

     “See what you can find out,” Trotski said as he turned to leave.

     Just then Corporal Paloma Somes came into the sick bay.  “I'm burning up,” she said.  “I've tried everything to cool down.  Nothing works, doctor,” she said.

     “Here, have a seat on the examining table.  Shayla, take Paloma's vitals and her temperature.”

     “Yes, doctor.”  She came over to conduct the examination.  Storey came back with a bottle of antibiotics and a glass of water.

     “Here, Paloma, swallow this pill and take these two times a day until they're gone,” said Storey.  “I'm sorry you don't feel like your old self, Paloma.  You will be back to normal soon.  I have work to do.  If you don't feel better, come back to see me.”

     “Okay, Doc,” Paloma said as she slid off the examining table to leave.

     Dr. Storey was back to the books.  He decided to quit and come back to it tomorrow.  Sometimes you could not see ideas.  Then the next moment ideas would hit you in the face.

CHAPTER 13

     Lieutenant Trotski prepared a report for Geos 1 Technologies headquarters.  He would send it on ahead.

Eagle 1 Ecolab Report

To Geos 1 HQ

     Our first day on the mission we encountered problems upon our arrival.  Lack of initial response from the communications command center at either of the colonies.  We landed on Geos 1, the company-owned planet owned by Global Energy & Offshore Technologies.  There were not any greeting committees on our arrival at the airfield. 

     We traveled to Colony A where we discovered the communications officer dead and corpses lying on the streets.  We investigated further and found one child, Branor, roaming the streets.  We investigated the Colony B site and found another child, a girl, named Morcades.  They were the sole survivors of the colonies, after a disease ravaged the two colonies, causing the colonists to lose their minds and form a suicide pact.  They were like lemmings to the sea.  The colonists disappeared, leaving a boy and a girl as testaments of their lives, as well as documents of a pattern of the disease that wiped out their existence, like a spot on a window erased and it was gone. 

     Dr. Alex Storey had isolated the cause of the colonists' demise to be a strain of bacteria, fungus and dangerous gases they breathed in the Geos 1 environment.  I believe this contributed to their disphoria and disorientation that led to their eventual suicidal thoughts.  General Scott Rosse is believed to be among the victims and thus could not be located.

End of report.

Signed,

Lt. Lawrence Trotski.

     Lieutenant Trotski clicked SEND.

MESSAGE SUCCESSFULLY SENT

appeared on the screen.

CHAPTER 14

     The seventh day into the mission, the crew of the Eagle 1 Ecolab's Mission, they prepared the spaceship for takeoff.  Branor and Morcades were cleaned up and given new clothes and spacesuits, and put on a course of antibiotics.  They were the traumatized poster youth of the failed colonies.

     “Let's prepare for takeoff at 0600 hours tomorrow.  Sergeant Whitman and Captain Balfour, you better school these children on spaceflight procedures starting today, pronto!” said Trotski.  He picked up the microphone and announced, “Attention, crew.  We will be taking off tomorrow at 0600 hours time.  Please be prompt.”

     The next day at 0600 they suited and buckled up.  Lieutenant Trotski and Major Erwin were checking the control panel, flipping the necessary switches for initial takeoff.

     “What's going on?  We're moving!  Why are we moving?” asked Morcades, with her big blue eyes looking at Paloma who sat next to Branor and her.

     “We're going on a trip,” said Corporal Paloma Somes.

     “Where to?” asked Branor.

     “Home base,” said Paloma.  “Sounds nice.”

     Branor and Morcades sat back in their seats, Morcades tearfully and fearful of leaving a place she had known in her short span of nine years of life.  Branor sat there stunned by the news.

     There were adjustments to be made, leaving the big ball planet.  They were on a new journey in life.  The nightmare that had been their life now ended.  A new vista emerged in the sky.  There were opportunities ahead.

     “We're airborne now,” said Lieutenant Trotski.