Doom 3™: Worlds on Fire

26

KANE PUT DOWN HIS TRAY OF FOOD, HAVINGselected a table where only a few solitary jarheads ate. He hoped that he radiated the strong wish not to be bothered, until Smitty and another new marine from the transport came over.

“Hey, Kane—mind if we join you?”

Kane looked up. Perhaps this was the worst part of his punishment for his Terekstan breakout. He had to treat these clowns as equals. He nodded, and then speared something that looked like meat, but which he knew could not possibly be anything that had ever sprung from something alive.

“Did you see the size of this place? Man…”

Another nod. Probably all the encouragement that Private Tobias Smith needed. “It’s kinda weird here, don’t you think?”

Kane looked up. “Weird?”

“Yeah. I mean people seem jumpy. Like something happened, or is gonna happen.” Smitty leaned close. “I saw someone who looked like they just lost it.Snapped. Some guards dragged this guy away. It just looked, I dunno—”

“Weird?”

Smitty nodded, and Kane took a sip of some lemony drink. Had to be a way to get a real drink up here. That might be worth exploring—

Then he heard a voice from behind. “Get all your homework done?”

He turned and saw Maria. Kane smiled—guess he didn’t want to repel everyone here.

“Have a seat.”

“I wish. Ate already, and I have to do one more circuit in Alpha.”

“I’m supposed to finish getting this place locked into my head. So I guess…more vids, more maps—”

She smiled. “They’ll put you to work tomorrow. Wish I could say that it will be exciting.”

Smitty cleared his throat. “Hey, you’ve been here awhile, huh?”

Maria looked down at the newbie. She shifted her tone. Not a lady to annoy. “Yeah. So?”

“Um, what’s up with everyone here? Like they’re all tense and stuff.”

Maria nodded. “Well, you see, that’s because—” She leaned close, and her left side brushed Kane’s shoulder. Touched, and stayed there a moment. “That’s because”—she looked at the guy’s name tag—“they’re real tense…and stuff.”

Kane laughed.

Then she pulled away.

“If I don’t see you in the a.m.,” she said, “be careful your first day. Big place, you know.”

“Got it. And thanks.”

She nodded, smiled, then turned away.

“Wow. She’s something,” Smitty said.

Kane didn’t confirm or deny. He just went back to his meal, eager to hurry up and finish it.

Hayden’s PDA made a small trilling noise, then a transparent screen appeared above his desk. An ID at the bottom identified the message as coming from the Comm Center. He recognized the face of the marine lieutenant but didn’t know his name.

He touched a space on the floating screen, and the name appeared.Lieutenant Hiram Kohl.

“Lieutenant Kohl, what’s up?”

“General, we have a major dust storm that moved across Ridge 93 and hit Site 3.”

“And?”

“We’ve lost all communications.”

“Right. Okay, but those sandstorms can do that, right? That happens?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And is the storm still out there?”

“Yes, sir. The weather sat shows it kind of swirling around the area, just sort of waiting, even building a bit.”

“Okay. Then that explains the communications drop.”

“Sir, do you want to send a team out there?”

“No. Not with a storm still running around the area. They have plenty of air reserves, right? And when it’s gone, I’m sure we’ll hear from Graulich and her team.”

“Should I inform Dr. Betruger?”

Hayden hesitated. Tricky one, that. Betruger could easily go nuts if he wasn’t told what was happening.

“Um, let me do it.” Hayden wanted to just get through the next twenty-four hours, the new experiment, with everything turning out just fine.

“Yes, sir. And shall I update you about—”

“Only if something is happening that requires my attention.” He took a breath. “And that doesn’t include dust storms. I can check the situation tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir.”

Hayden put his hand to the screen image floating in front of him, and the transmission ended. Twenty-four hours. A good experiment result. That was all he needed, and Mars could return to normal. He laughed to himself at that.

Kane looked at the small PDA screen, listening to Ian Kelliher talk.

“And this is just the beginning. What was once a base, a remote outpost on a distant planet, has started becoming a city of the future. Already people have started new lives, living on this new world. As the UAC, in partnership with your government, starts putting more resources into this great project, these new ‘settlers’ will be able to look forward to a future where they will grow their own food, produce all their own energy, and even mine the planet for resources.

“The dream of a Mars restored to being a living planet is not too long in the future at all. So join us, as we create the dream that is, and will be, Mars City.”

Great,Kane thought.Has me all excited. From what he saw, Mars City, so far, appeared to be a series of massive bunkers, tunnels, and corridors sunken into the Martian ground. No playgrounds going up yet.

He flipped to one of the other vids, “Inside the Hydrocon.”

“For centuries, people on Earth have waged war over two things vital to human existence—fuel and water. As part of its ongoing commitment to creating safer worlds for everyone, the UAC recently unveiled its development on Mars City of…the Hydrocon. The Hydrocon, though still in early experimental use on Mars, will, in one dramatic move, forever end all shortages of water and fuel.

“By splitting iron oxide molecules, the Hydrocon produces oxygen and hydrogen cheaply and safely without the need for large amounts of electricity. The hydrogen is then used for—”

He stopped that one. Unless Kelly had a quiz in his back pocket, he had seen enough for now. He put his PDA on the bunk beside him. He could hear the chatter of other marines. No matter. When you were this exhausted, you could sleep through a circus.

Betruger lay in bed, too anxious to sleep.Tomorrow, he kept thinking. Not even one more full day.Tomorrow, and everything changes. The suits from Earth, Hayden, the marines here—everything changes for them.

Sheer adrenaline could keep him going for days. Maybe sleep wasn’t even needed at all anymore. But for this last night…

He needed to once more shut his eyes. To let the images come, the dreams, the—

(Instructions.)

So he paced his breathing. In, and out. Counting each breath. Clearing his mind until, in the quiet of his expansive room, off to the side of Delta, he fell asleep.

And they were there, waiting. At first, Betruger could just see the cave. No, not a cave. This was the gate, the true entrance, sealed so long ago.

When he first started having the dreams—what he then called “dreams”—he just thought that the results of the experiments must be getting to him. He was—he admitted in his personal journal—even a bit scared.

After all, he started walking through that cave, the walls alive, things moving on them, like bloodred vines shifting, changing, coiling—all in response to his steps. Like now. Only now he knew what was ahead, the fear long gone.

After all,he thought,you can’t be afraid of yourself, can you? That would make no sense at all.

Into the cave now, the feeling familiar, then the smell. That gust of otherworldly gas, totally unlike any earthly smell. If you didn’t really belong here, you would fall to the ground.

(Which, of course, was wet, pulsating—not like “ground,” or “earth,” or anything known here. In this world. In this solar system…galaxy…universe…. )

Fall to the ground, and begin hacking, your insides gurgling, the smell, the gas…turning you inside out.

But if you belonged here—you could take that deep breath now.

(As he did. Right now. On this last night.)

Deep. Hold it. Belonging here. One of them. Until the cave and walls gave way to…another place. What madmen had seen for centuries but no one ever believed was real.

They awaited him. Welcomed him.

For Betruger, he was home.