1899- Journey to Mars

Something snatched the highlander out of the ship.

[ 65 ]

“Ian!” John yelled. He scrambled through the opening, with Pat right on his heels. They had to force themselves through the sticky opening beyond the ship’s hull, and John worried about when they would not have air to breathe, but he continued forward, intent on his friend.

John pushed his head through the web into a dim, blue-tinged world. It was a cavern, with a dome-like roof at least a hundred feet above him. He turned his head, looking for Ian and sucked in his breath when he saw the highlander – and a monster the size of a small hill in front of him.

Ian had his back to a small monolith of stone and he kept his sword in front of him, the point towards an enormous spider-like thing with ten long legs. The creature towered above the Scotsman. It’s overall shape was like a Wolf Spider, but one that was thirty feet tall, with a body five boxcars long. The head, though, was what made John’s heart beat hummingbird-fast.

It was reddish, and smooth, roughly shaped like a wolf’s head with the ears flattened against its skull. But that was the only resemblance to a wolf. The slightly open mouth showed two rows of large, triangular teeth as long as his forearm, and John could see the teeth were serrated along the sides like a carpenter’s saw. It opened its mouth wider, and John saw huge mandibles spread outside its cheeks, as if to work pieces of food into its maw.

It had six eyes spaced across its forehead in two rows of three. They glowed an eerie green, and moved separately in their sockets.

The monster moved toward Ian and the Scotsman flashed forward and swung the claymore, slicing off a six-foot section of the thing’s left front leg. It reared, flailing with the front four of its legs off the ground.

Ian yelled, “Come on, ye hideous beast! I am Ian Mackenzie of Clan Mackenzie! And I am not afraid of ye!”

The creature stopped as if it heard him, then lowered its head and looked at him through six green, glowing eyes.

Ian held his sword at the ready. Pat and John ran forward and pulled their pistols. The Ten Leg flicked out one rear leg in a flash and knocked both men rolling across the ground for thirty feet.

Pat crawled around on his knees feeling for his pistol. John got to his feet and looked for his pistols, but didn’t see them. He ran to Ian’s side, unarmed. He was not deserting his friend, no matter what.

The creature opened its mandibles and fluid dripped from its teeth.

Pat’s first shot put one of the green

eyes out like a turned-off light. It jerked away from Ian and John, turning toward Pat. Pat aimed at another eye and shot. The creature flicked a massive leg in front of its eyes and the bullet hit it. The Ten Legs quivered, but turned toward Pat and held two legs up to guard its remaining eyes. It started toward the lawman in a skittering, crab-like movement.

Ian ran after it and swung the glittering bright blade across a rear leg, cutting completely through the appendage like it was no more than a stalk of celery. The creature whirled, and Pat shot it from behind, sending the bullet into its center.

The Ten Leg didn’t spin back, but instead jumped far to the right, landing some forty feet away. It backed away in the dimness until the only things they could see were five green eyes slowly backing away.

“I believe we ran it off,” John said.

Pat joined them. “Did anybody notice that we are breathing out here, on the red planet’s surface, without helmets?”

Ian and John looked at him, then around the cave. “I don’t know how, but I’m grateful,” John said.

Pat said, “So am I. How about we get to the ship and free it while we can?”

Ian led the way, saying, “With me arms swingin’ free, the sticky canna stand long against the steel.” He stopped by the Argent and swung the claymore several times, parting all the strands covering the hatchway. The result left a long strip of the Argent visible around its circumference.

John put his hand on Ian’s shoulder before the highlander swung again, “Get inside.”

Ian said, “What?”

He pointed, and both Ian and Pat looked. The five green eyes were growing larger as the creature returned. And on each side of it were six green eyes, only slightly smaller. They started toward the hatch when a long leg dropped over it and they looked up into the six green eyes of an even larger Ten Leg, standing on top of the Argent, looking down at them.

[ 66 ]

Inside the Argent, Billy and the others felt the ship move from the Ten Leg’s weight. They looked at one another, then hurried toward the hatchway and the other three men. He stopped and said to Dakota, “You stay here. Guard the ship.”

“Aw, Dad.” But he shuffled back toward the command room.

Billy tried to open the door, but it was blocked. He picked up the pry bar, but then the door opened. He ran outside, followed by the others, all still in their spacesuits. They stared at what was before them.

The three creatures were spinning thick strands of webbing together, and building a circular fence around where a tall stone monolith stood like a finger to the sky. Billy could see the tops of the heads of the three men inside the fence-like enclosure.