One Day on Mars

main elevator shaft of the city. The Separatist troops had not bothered to make it as far below the city yet. Hopefully they would keep it that way.

For a brief moment, Senator Moore and his AIC had considered walking out of the dome through the lower levels, but that would place them at the edge of the dome more than seventy kilometers from the evac point south of the dome—too far to run to in time. On the other hand, if they traveled up the elevator to the maintenance shaft and then up again to the top of the dome they could base-jump with the gliderchutes and cover the territory in ten or twenty minutes, depending on the prevailing winds. Jumping still seemed like the best option. The other alternative might be to hide out in the city bowels until the city was liberated by the American forces, but that seemed dangerous. The fact that it seemed more dangerous than jumping off the top of the city dome might have been debatable but Alexander preferred action and escaping rather than evading and hiding in occupied territory. He had been captured before in his life and it was no fun then. He didn't care to repeat the experience, especially with his wife and six-year-old daughter, an adrenaline junkie, and an older woman from Triton as his responsibilities.

'Okay, we get in the elevator and go up through the hatch on top of it. We'll ride up there in case it opens on the occupied floors. And everybody keeps quiet. Got it?' he said.

'Got it' was the answer he got back with firm nods. The group had learned in the process of their trek just who was in charge and making decisions. Nearly two decades as a Marine had that effect on people.

'Good. Let's do it.' He pressed the elevator button. 'Everybody hide. If nobody is on the elevator then we get on it.' They backed down the hallway to a crossway in the halls and turned around the corner out of sight. Alexander stood to the side of the elevator door with his back against the wall.

The elevator seemed to be taking its time, as if it were making multiple stops along the way. He had been afraid of that. If the Seppies were guarding the elevator then it should be obvious that it would not descend to the lower levels unless somebody had pressed a button. The elevator stopped at the ground level in the open court according to the display above the elevator door. Then it started up, again pinging with each floor level it passed. Ping, basement level one, Ping, basement level two, Ping, basement level three . . .

Good luck, Major! Abigail shouted in his mind. Oorah!

Oorah! His fight-or-flight reflex was on full alert and adrenaline coursed through his body. It's been a long time.

The elevator opened with a whoosh and then there was a click as somebody hit the stop button inside it. Alexander pushed himself back against the wall as tight as he could as the flood of elevator music washed over the quiet hallway. Had he pressed back any harder he might have crushed the drywall. The dull gray barrel of an HVAR rifle poked out the edge of the elevator door on the opposite side, pointing in a direction that was just in front of him by a few centimeters. A second barrel pointed out from his side of the elevator in a similar fashion.

Move, Major!

Alexander grabbed the rifle barrel closest to him with both hands and yanked it back against the elevator door, using the leverage of the door facing to force it free of its owner. As the rifle flung loose he adjusted his grip on the barrel and slammed it butt-first against the barrel of the rifle across the elevator door, pinning it against the door facing. He rushed the elevator door and stepped inside the firing path of the pinned-down HVAR, then recoiled the HVAR in his hands, and then hit the man holding that weapon square in the nose through his open faceplate with the butt of the rifle, cracking the bone and tearing a bloody gash, stunning the man. Alexander then used his body to wedge the man's rifle against the wall of the elevator.

In a single spinning motion, Alexander turned clockwise, jamming the barrel of the HVAR he had commandeered completely through the open faceplate of the other Seppy bastard in the elevator. By this time the Seppy soldier who had taken the rifle butt to the face had regained his composure and was fighting for control of the rifle Alexander held. In the process, one of them, and Alexander wasn't sure which one, he or the Seppy soldier, managed to pull the trigger just as the barrel began to recede from the faceplate of the other soldier's helmet. The hypervelocity round removed a major portion of the back side of the man's head and punched a hole through the elevator wall, splattering red foamy gray matter and skull across the wall of the elevator's plush green and yellow decorative wallpaper.

Alexander struggled with the soldier on his back for several seconds trying to get an upper hand or elbow or headbutt, with little luck or effectiveness. Neither of them could seem to get advantage on the other or maintain a grasp on either weapon long enough to do any damage to the other one. Several times the HVAR in Alexander's hands was triggered, sending hypervelocity rounds down the hallway and through the walls.

Jumpboots, Major! Abigail barked at him in drill-sergeant fashion.

Alexander dropped below the Separatist soldier, allowing the man the high ground. He took the bait and bear- hugged Alexander from behind and wrapped up on his e-suit helmeted head. Once Alexander was certain that the man's head was above his, he squatted lower, tucked his own head in as best he could, and bounced his jumpboots. The boots accelerated the two of them upward through the elevator ceiling, snapping the Separatist soldier's neck, and killing him instantly.

Stunned and uncertain of his attacker's condition, Alexander continued to fling wildly at the body behind him but both were stuck in the hole they had made.

At EASE, Major! Abigail calmed him. Sir! Senator, he's dead.

It took a few seconds for Alexander to regain his focus, but the jumpboots had worked. Now he was stuck in the elevator's ceiling with a dead man on his back. He squirmed and tugged for a few minutes until he managed to work his right hand free. A few more tugs and he managed to pull himself up through the hole in the elevator ceiling and turn himself over onto his bottom, sitting with his legs hanging through the hole. He dropped the dead Separatist soldier back through the hole and began checking himself for damage. None that he could see. Good.

That could have gone better, he thought.

How do we plan to get past them now? No doubt they will stop the elevator if it starts to move again, Abigail noted.

Shit, this isn't going well. We'll have to climb. I should have had a better plan. Too late now. Alexander had been a slow-thinking politician for the last decade or so and had been a long time away from combat strategy and tactics. He was angry with himself for now having given their position away and for endangering his wife and daughter. He had to think. But first things were first.