1899- Journey to Mars

Together they made it to the hatchway and into the ship.

[ 98 ]

Avi led Billy up the staircase from Mort Prime’s ruined laboratory. They emerged into a large domed chamber that had to be the upper floor of the castle. In the center of the floor were three large concave mirrors, each with a large lightbulb. On the opposite side from these against the far, curved wall was a simple cot. On the cot was John Koothrappally.

“John!” Billy called, then began running. Avi was fast on his heels.

John Koothrappally raised his head slowly.

Billy came to the side of the cot and grabbed John Koothrappally’s hand.

“I am...dreaming,” Koothrappally said.

“Maybe you are,” Billy said. “And if you are, well it’s a damned good dream, my friend.”

Billy helped the man sit up on his cot. His frame was weakened and very nearly emaciated, as Avi’s had been.

“Mort Prime?” Koothrappally inquired.

“Dead,” Avi said. “Like his pet Cyclops.”

“Who is this?” Koothrappally asked, and looked up at Avinash Rathamandu.

“A friend,” Billy said. “A fellow countryman of yours. Nine of us came to rescue you. To bring you back to Earth.”

“The war,” Koothrappally said. “They mean to control Mars. Then they will attack...Earth.”

“Not if we I can help it,” Billy said.

“Ekka? Tesla? The others?”

“Ekka is my wife now. Tesla is in New York. He’s the richest man in the whole world, and free to invent anything his heart desires. You saved us, John. You have to meet our boy, Dakota.”

“You and Ekka?” Koothrappally asked.

Billy smiled and nodded.

“I suppose congratulations are in order,” he said, and with that his eyes rolled upwards in their sockets and he fainted dead away.

It took a few minutes to revive him, and in the meantime Avi found the controls to open the roof up to the sky. The domed ceiling split apart in six separate sections and recessed into the floor, revealing a sun not an hour away from the far horizon.

Avi found food and water in Mort Prime’s laboratory and brought it up. John Koothrappally sat and ate slowly, chasing each mouthful with a swallow of water.

When Avi was well enough to speak again, Billy had a question for him. “John, what happened after we left you on the Moon?”

“I stayed there among the aliens for three years, learning their language, their math and science. I was a subject of study for them, like a caged animal. Then, suddenly, one day they put me on a spaceship and brought me to Mars.”

“I haven’t seen any of those aliens here on Mars at all. What happened?”

“I believe I understand it,” Koothrappally said. He spoke slowly, trying to piece it all together as he went. “The aliens abandoned the Moon. They brought me here and turned me over to the clone of Dr. Conklin, Mort Prime. At first I did not understand that it wasn’t really him. He seemed...uneducated about the simplest things. After awhile I pieced it together. He was a copy of Conklin. Apparently Conklin was killed during the return journey.”

“He was. Conklin was Jack the Ripper, the most notorious murderer of all time.”

“This explains much,” Koothrappally said. “Not long after I came here, other copies began showing up. Then those orange-headed vampires that are nearly impossible to kill unless you cut off their heads. The aliens departed, however, when the Golden Man came.”

“The Golden Man,” Billy said. “I’ve heard a great deal about him, but I haven’t seen him.”

“You will. I believe the aliens left because he has come. He has come to destroy.”