Mercury - Part 14

Part 14 – Saturn

SECURITY CAMERA 1, BIO-TECH, 01/02/2025, 4:12 PM

(A six-year old cheetah recom sits in front of the camera, staring at it with wide eyes. It wears a bio-tech jumpsuit and a headset. In the background, there are a couple of motionless slumped over bodies and a six-year old rabbit recom stands by an exit door, wearing blue bio-tech pyjamas)

SATURN: "Hello, camera!"
URANUS: "Saturn, please explain what's going on to the camera, we're keeping this video so we can watch it later."
S: "Oh, Uranus, nobody told me we'd be making a movie of the game, too!"
U: (smiles, looks towards the camera and shrugs, looking back into the hallway)
S: "Setup summary, camera! Starting positions for all markers: One and Three are together after zero stage! Use Marker One's 'artificial respiration', Marker Three survives. One and Three have access to the weapons storage from where they are at the body storage."
U: "You're doing great, Saturn! Marker Two is doing weight training. Two will suspect something is strange soon. I think we'll see Two during Stage two of the game..."
S: "My game!"
U: "Yes, of Saturn's game."
S: (beams at the camera) "Marker Four has left the play area. Uranus, is there music time today?"
U: "Oh, I'm so sorry Saturn, but today there isn't. But we'll have plenty of music times later, okay? Tell the camera more about Marker Four."
S: "I was going to teach everyone a dance I made up."
U: "It sounds like fun!"
S: "Yep! Marker Four has left the play area and is now gathering supplies. Marker Four opens in the supply closet. Marker Five and Marker Six are together. Five and Six open in the security room. The guards are all sleeping! Marker One put something from the chemical room in their water... I'm so thirsty, Uranus!"
U: "We'll have water too, after the game is over."
S: "Oh, okay! Marker Seven is being prepared for an experiment right now. Seven opens in the interview room. That's everyone, Uranus! That's all the markers, none are damaged!"
U: "Great job, Saturn! Stage one is starting soon. Turn on your headset."
S: (nods and becomes more serious, focus turning away from the camera and towards some security camera feed)
U: "Begin the first stage of Saturn's game."

***

The rest of the dinner was great. After our little dance number (in which we both performed well enough to gain the applause of the other diners), we ate our meals, paid our bills out of the mission budget and headed back onto the street. We were still on a tight schedule, especially since we opted for getting dinner instead of lunch.

We continued our conversations from the restaurant as we walked down the tunnels, which were illuminated by soft lighting in the evening. Given this romantic atmosphere, I could understand why some honeymooners would choose Mars as their destination. "Did you see?" said Samara, as we walked out of the restaurant, "Everyone was watching us! They must have been impressed."

"They were watching you," I said, smiling at her, glad that she was in a much more exuberant mood now, "I was just an accessory."

She grinned at me and said, "Quite the charmer when you try, aren't you?" She took my arm and pulled herself up close, walking along next to me as we headed down the Amundsen tunnels. We weren't going back to the hotel quite yet, instead going to pay our visit to Lewis and Daniel's abode.

I nodded at her and said cheerily, "That's what all the ladies tell me."

The conversation continued in about the same vein until we arrived. Their house wasn't far from the restaurant, probably because both catered to people in about the same kind of price range. As always with Martian architecture, the outside of their home wasn't much to look at. It was hard to put much pomp into underground openings. I hit the buzzer and waited.

It didn't take long to get a response. A male mixed species-type recom opened the door, only covered from the waist down by a towel. He looked like a cross between a rabbit recom and a housecat recom and his coloration was jet black. Unlike most young Martians, he wasn't sporting any kind of decorative tattoos and the reason why became clear as soon as he spoke. "Oh, Mr. Racer! To what do I owe this pleasure?" he said in a strong Oceanian accent.

"Hey Daniel, I'm just looking for something that Lew may have stumbled across," I said, looking past Daniel into the home. While I didn't see Lewis there, I saw another thing common of Martian architecture: while the outsides of buildings were non-descript, the inside had a very clean classy modern look. I leaned back to a more natural position, facing Daniel.

He seemed to ignore my statement, though, more focused on Samara, who was still holding onto my arm. "Oh, Mr. Racer, do introduce me to your boyfri-"

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Samara's previously elated expression shift into a bitter scowl, so naturally I interrupted Daniel sternly, "Wife. She's my wife. Tamara Olsenfheimer. Tammy, meet Daniel Rooks."

While Samara continued to seethe, I could see the insides of Daniel's unusually large ears turning a shade of bright red. "Oh, I'm so sorry. Um. Please come in. I'm going to go get Lewis..."

Daniel turned around and ran back into the house, which would give him the luxury of being able to reclaim some clothes as well as a little bit of the composure he normally had. Before we went in any further, I said to Samara, "Sorry about that."

She just shrugged and walked into the house, looking around to evaluate whether the room fit her standards for standing in. After a few moments of looking around, as if trying to detect a flaw in the room, she nodded her approval for the decor. That made sense, given that her preferred style seemed to involve the dark parallel lines and cleanness that at least the front room seemed to offer.

Daniel came down the hall, now wearing a nice looking royal blue housecoat, with a nervous looking Lewis in tow. Lewis had a brown envelope in his hands and was looking at me with a bit of anxiety. I figured that while Daniel only saw me as a kind of saviour after I rescued him from being kidnapped, Lewis saw a little more of what I did in order to stage the rescue. It was no wonder that the ferret recom was a little scared of me, while Daniel had only cheery respect.

"Um, here you go, Mr. Racer," said Lewis, as he extended the envelope towards me. He wrung his hands nervously as he watched me look it over and glance inside the envelope. Yep, it looked like everything in there was in order. I smiled at the ferret recom.

"Well, there you go. That wasn't so hard, now was it?"

Lewis didn't reply, instead looking to Daniel to speak for him. The cat-rabbit (the day I call anyone a cabbit is the day hell freezes over) asked me diplomatically, "If they realize what happened there, would it be possible for you to help us relocate?"

Samara shook her head and said, "You're just repaying a favour owed, there's no reason to provide you any further services." She smirked slightly at Daniel's uncomfortable expression and continued, "However, Lewis has been so very understanding through this whole ordeal, so..." She glanced over towards me, so that I could finish her sentence.

"I think we'll be able to figure something out if something goes south for you guys." I gave them both a brief nod, tucked the envelope into my bag with the Designer Genes uniforms (we could hardly have left them in the hotel, after all) and said, "But we must be going."

"We've got a honeymoon to attend," added Samara, smiling slightly, and walking back out the front door.

***

I pushed the door to our hotel open while kissing Samara's neck. I have to admit, it was strange and kind of awkward, but in another way it was kind of nice. I pushed her back until she was against the wall, underneath the camera, but "accidentally" bumped her head up against the wall hard enough that it made a dull thudding sound.

"Oww, damn it, Larry!" said Sam, rubbing her head lightly and looking up. "Ah, um, what's that up there?"

I looked up at the camera and pulled a chair up to it, climbing up to look at it directly. I furrowed my brows angrily and said, "It's a camera. Ugh. What would they want to..." I trailed off and said to Samara, "Look around for any others. I'd really feel self-conscious if I knew I was being watched while we, um, you know."

Samara nodded at me and said nervously, the character she was playing clearly distraught over the presence of cameras, "Yeah, okay, okay, I'll go look." She wandered off to look for further cameras. I was pretty sure that there weren't any others in the room, but we still had to check and make sure. While Samara did the sweep, I carefully started disconnecting the camera in front of me, cutting us off from being watched. This way, we'd be able to prepare tomorrow morning without giving ourselves away.

Around the same time as I finished dismantling the setup in front of me, Samara came back and reported to me, "I couldn't find any others."

I chuckled softly and put the mostly intact camera onto the dresser and said, "So, what you said the other night? Are we still on?" I grinned dumbly at her after that. I had only really said it to be funny. I didn't honestly think she would be interested.

"Darryl," she said, putting her arms around me, her hands resting on the small of my back. "I'm sure we'll be able to figure out something to do." She rested her head against my shoulder and noted softly, "I still have gloves on. We could dance for hours and hours."

I was glad that night that the camera was gone.