“Alright, Zed, spill it. What exactly am I not gonna like?” Commander Jones sighed.

  It never ceased to amaze Zed how Commander Jones managed to tower over people when literally everyone in the colony was taller than her. Clearly, presence weighed more than stature.

  “It’ll be easier if I just show you. But we need to get to the vehicle bay, like, right now. I left Janice and Baat there, and I don’t want them ending up victims of whatever crazy plan Andy’s got going on.”

  Bao snorted. “Yeah, he definitely was looking to murder you. Full-on killer eyes.”

  Commander Jones shot him a disapproving glance and then turned to walk down the corridor, but not in the direction of the vehicle bay.

  “Um, Commander, the bay isn’t that way,” Zed ventured.

  Commander Jones didn’t stop or turn. “I’m well aware of where things are located in my base, young man. We’re making a slight detour to grab reinforcements. I won’t have us coming up short-handed again.”

  A few minutes’ walk found them standing in front of the locked door to the mess hall. Zed could hear people talking excitedly inside. He felt stupid for not having thought to open the door remotely sooner. He could have done it with the Bubble in Time program from where they had been, but then no one would have been there to tell them what was going on. The chaos of that might have done more harm than good, so perhaps it was for the best he hadn’t thought of it.

  Commander Jones stood in what Zed was realizing was her default “on” pose: hands on hips, jaw set, and sharp eyes taking everything in.

  Zed fumbled with the virtual Bubble in Time buttons and eventually found the right one. The mess hall door slid open, revealing a crowd of confused colonists. Zed realized that, other than the distant explosion, they would have had no idea just how dire the situation was.

  Commander Jones went straight to work informing the small crowd of the situation. Zed noticed that she left out the bit about how they were completely cut off from communication with Earth. He couldn’t blame her. No reason to make people feel even more isolated while also panicking about the mutineers now controlling the colony.

  The group was divided into two teams. One would follow Commander Bao in an effort to get internal communications back up while also freeing people who had been trapped in random locations throughout the colony. The other team would follow Commander Jones to the vehicle bay to, hopefully, confront Johns and his people before they made their escape.

  The two clusters of colonists headed off down the corridors in opposite directions. Zed fell into line behind Commander Jones. She was about to start marching when she turned around to face Zed and opened her mouth as if to say something to him. She stood like that for a beat before abruptly setting her jaw and continuing toward the vehicle bay.

  Zed knew he’d somehow just avoided being told to stay put. He wouldn’t have, of course, and maybe Commander Jones realized that.

  Considering the fact that there were no guns on Mars, the advantage of numbers felt like a pretty surefire win, unless Johns and company had already made their escape.

  After a short walk, the group slowed as they approached the entrance to the vehicle bay. Commander Jones and a few others positioned themselves around the door, ready to fight or give chase. The Commander gave Zed a curt nod. Once more, he fumbled for the virtual lock until he found the button he was looking for. He held up three fingers for the Commander to see and started counting down.

  He realized as he was doing it that it was a bit over the top, but he didn’t care. He’d seen it in a movie somewhere, and it felt cool.

  The door popped open. Bodies filled the doorway before Zed could get a good look inside. The colonists finished rushing through, and Zed hobbled after them. His eyes darted around the room, desperate for any sign of Baat or Janice.

  The bay was empty. Other than their little band of would-be rescuers, there was no one in sight. Not only that, but the Monstros were missing as well.

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  “Damn it!” Commander Jones said through clenched teeth. “Johns and his people must already be on their way.”

  Just as she said that, the sound of the outer door of the vehicle airlock opening reverberated through the bay.

  Commander Jones nodded. Her jaw muscles twitched and flexed. “All right, people, we’ve got the time it takes for the airlock to cycle to figure out how we can effectively go after them. Ideas, now.”

  “I might actually be able to help with that,” said a distant voice.

  Every head turned toward the back of the vehicle bay, where Janice and Baat had just stepped out from behind a stack of containers.

  “Janice! Baat! You’re OK!” Zed shouted as he ran toward his friends as fast as his cast would allow. “I thought for sure I’d gotten you killed, or at least kidnapped.”

  “Close, but not quite,” Baat said.

  “Yeah, a little too close for comfort. I almost opened my big mouth when I saw Johns come in, and then I heard him talking with Andy and pulled Baat out of sight before they noticed us.”

  “What made you realize something was wrong?” Zed asked.

  Janice grimaced. “Oh, nothing in particular. Just the fact that Andy was going on about how, and I quote, he was ‘gonna kill that curly-headed, gimp-legged, mushroom-munching little worm.’ And then Johns said something about there not being time because they had a rocket to steal. So yeah, not sure what’s going on, but that was more than enough reason to avoid drawing attention at that moment.”

  Commander Jones joined the conversation. “Glad you two are all right. Can you tell me how many of them there were?”

  Baat cleared his throat. “Glad to see you are fine as well, Commander Jones. I feared the worst. I knew you, Johns, and Zed were meeting. After overhearing Johns, I was afraid that perhaps you—I mean, we were concerned for your safety.” Baat cleared his throat again. “I’m glad you’re all right. You as well, Zed.”

  You dog, Zed thought.

  “Thank you, Baat,” Commander Jones said, “but you didn’t answer my question.”

  “Oh, of course. Aside from Johns and Andy, there were four others.”

  “Six mutineers,” Commander Jones said quietly, more to herself than anyone else. “They took all three Monstros, so probably two people per vehicle. The Monstros are slower than the Chariots, but there’s no way we can stop them. If we tried to get in their way, they’d just drive over us and carry on.”

  “Um, Commander?” Janice said, raising her hand. “It didn’t really make sense to me while I was doing it, but now it seems obvious that the mods Zed had me make to the Chariots could give us a chance of stopping, or maybe boarding the Monstros. At least, I assume that was the point, Zed?”

  All eyes turned toward Zed.

  “Care to share, Zed?” Commander Jones said. Her hands were back on her hips.

  “I told you you weren’t gonna like it. Janice, you wanna do the honors?”

  “Uh, sure. I’d just finished up on this Chariot here before Johns and the others came in.”

  She led them to a nearby bay with a Chariot parked in it. At first glance, the Chariot appeared to have some kind of turret on it, right in front of where the driver stood at the back.

  “Is that—Is that a gun?” Commander Jones asked.

  “No, no, no. Well, kind of,” Janice gave a nervous laugh. “Zed, do you want to explain it? This was your idea after all.”

  “It’s a harpoon gun,” Zed said. “They use them for when vehicles get stuck and stuff like that. I didn’t know all of what was gonna go down, and I certainly didn’t expect things to get crazy all of a sudden like they did, but I figured if someone was going to steal something and make an escape, they’d have to steal a Monstro. These might give us a shot at stopping them.”

  “Explain. And make it quick; time is short.”

  “Janice, how many of the Chariots did you manage to mod?”

  “Including this one, six.”

  “OK, so we take these six Chariots out, with one gunner and one driver in each. We get in close, fire the cable into the axle or a tire. Whatever will slow the Monstros down. Hopefully that’ll be enough to give us a chance to stop them.”

  Commander Jones was nodding slowly. “It’s a good plan, Zed. It’s fairly safe, even, which is surprising coming from you. It’s not as if they can shoot back.”

  Zed smiled and tapped his head. “See, aren’t you glad I ate that Martian shroom now?”

  “Don’t push it, Zed.”

  Commander Jones turned to address the small crowd. “Alright, people, we’re going after those Monstros. I need six of the best drivers, preferably people who have practiced in the Earth Day race, and six gunners. If you’ve got military experience, that’s probably a plus.”

  Zed immediately stepped forward. “I’m the best driver here next to Janice. And like you said, it’s not that dangerous; you just need good drivers.”

  Before the Commander could answer, Baat stepped forward. “And I have military experience. I’ve actually used vehicle-mounted guns extensively. I’ll keep an eye on the boy.”

  Commander Jones glanced between them for a moment, gave a quick nod, and went back to organizing.

  Zed made a mental note to ask Baat more about his past. Clearly, there were plenty of good stories there that hadn’t been shared.

  “Thanks, Baat. I really need to do this.”

  “I know. Besides, if she didn’t let you, I’m sure you’d have had Janice finish modding one of the other Chariots and headed off on your own. At least this way, I can keep an eye on you.”

  There was a loud mechanical bang as the inner airlock door began to open.

  “Time's up, people!” Commander Jones shouted. “Mount up and catch these traitors.”