Alan Scarlett & the Scarlett Virus

© 2024 Duleigh Lawrence-Townshend. All rights reserved. The author asserts the right to be identified as the author of this story for all portions. All characters are original. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental. This story or any part thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a review or commentary.

This story is my 100th story for Literotica and it had to be BIG. This is a rollicking planet-to-planet Sci-Fi brawl written in the style of the 1950s Masters of Science fiction. The

Alan Scarlett series

is a prequel for the

Captain Scarlett series

. The Captain Scarlett series will be followed by the

Scarlett Planet series

. Every hero needs an origin story, and every origin story spawns a hero.

A tragic accident leaves young Alan and his sister Christa Scarlett orphans, cared for by their bachelor Uncle Ray. As the story unfolds, plots and subplots are revealed and people aren't who they seem to be. The colonies of Mars and Luna are still recoiling from the tremendous loss of lives that devastated their colonies in the 2080 Earth wars. Now a group of madmen want to build a doomsday weapon from Martian pre-history. Only the disaffected colonists can save earth, and only a Martian can bomb Mars...

Alan Scarlett and the Scarlett Virus

EPISODE 1 in the Alan Scarlett series

Will humanity cease to exist because of the Scarlett family?

Bradbury Canal, October 7, 2131

Quadrant Meeting Day

It was another Quadrant Meeting Day on Bradbury Canal, the oldest and most boring colony on Mars. Boring for a ten-year-old boy. Alan B. Scarlett was a third generation Martian and like all native born Martians, he was tall and slim. He took after his dad with dark hair and penetrating dark eyes. Unlike his dad, Alan was far from quiet and introspective. Alan never whispered when a shout sufficed. His older sister Christa took after their mom with light blond hair, sparkling eyes and a slim figure that was starting to draw admiring stares from the men of Bradbury Canal.

Their parents, Harrison Scarlett and Laurel Clark-Scarlett were scientists, xenobiologists studying fossilized viruses. That's what they said, at least. Alan heard them quietly say the terms "Project X" and "Project X point One" when they thought he wasn't listening. Alan loved to pretend that they were secret agents trying to eliminate the threat from the Eastern Bloc with their research, but when the day was over and they sat at the table for dinner, they were still Harrison and Laurel Scarlett.

Alan's parents Harrison and Laurel were both born there at Bradbury Canal. How much more boring could you get? So were all four of his grandparents. Grandma and Grandpa Scarlett were among the first humans born on Mars, Stuart Scarlett and Judith Resnik-Scarlett; they were born on Bradbury Canal while it was under construction.

Bradbury Canal, the first permanent human settlement on Mars, looks like a revolving space station. That's because when it was being built, they had everything needed to build a revolving space station, so they just built a revolving station on the ground, then later they filled in the gaps. It was named Bradbury Canal in honor of Ray Bradbury, who wrote The Martian Chronicles, a famous early science fiction collection of stories about Mars. Of course, every prediction that Bradbury made was wrong... except the one about the atomic war on Earth. He got that right. But they're still a fun read.

Naming the station canal was almost a joke. At the end of the Martian Chronicles, an Earth family had just settled on Mars and the children wanted to see the Martians. All the native Martians were dead, so the father of the family took his family to a Martian canal which was full of Martian water and said, "look in the canal and you'll see the Martians." So, the family looked and saw their reflections on the surface of the Martian water, telling them they were the Martians. Therefore, if you want to see the Martians, just look in the Canal, and that's how it got its name.

Even ten-year-old Alan got that message, but what he didn't get was, "what's a reflection on the surface of the water?" In the Bradbury Canal, water came in pipes. Everyone had a graduated water bottle that you would connect to a dispenser coupling and an exact amount of water would be transferred to the bottle, and that was part of your daily ration. An open body of water in the three dozen colonies was rare. There wasn't one on Bradbury Canal but Alan's mom's brother, Ray Clark, said that at Perseverance station there was an ornamental canal. On Mars, the word canal had become synonymous with any open body of water. If an ocean mysteriously appeared on Mars, it would be called a canal.

The residents of Bradbury Canal were mostly scientists with a sprinkling of poets mixed in. Nobody knew why hard science breeds bad poetry, but it's there. The residents of Bradbury Canal were to a person vegetarian and proud of their diet and their colony. Alan was nine years old when he discovered that the "Martian Steak" his mom had been feeding him was tofu.

How do you tell if a Martian is from the Bradbury Canal? Don't worry about it, they'll tell you.

Another thing is that they're political. Many were Marxist, and some were actually aware that Marxism has ended in abject failure and misery every time it has been tried. Their reasoning for being Marxist was that it's never been tried on Mars! That's the difference. Meeting after meeting was held to iron out the possible content of their new socialist constitution. Meetings were held by quadrants, and the Scarlett's home quadrant, Quadrant C, was lagging far behind in their input on the upcoming constitution. The head of the PMP (People's Martian Party) Dr. Herbert Burgman was getting angry with Quadrant C lagging behind, and kids at school said he blamed Alan's parents.

"Burgman is going to space you and your folks," they taunted. Alan was sure that the kids were teasing him, because he was the smallest, youngest high school senior on Mars. It's tough being a child prodigy in a closed society like a Martian colony.

"Do I have to go?" whined Alan. "I want to program my robot." Alan had received a two-foot-tall programmable robot named Noxie for his eleventh birthday, which will happen in five more days, on October 2, 2131. It was from Uncle Ray and Uncle Ray said it was ok to open early. Alan had a magazine article that described how to program his robot and it should be able to fly.

His sixteen-year-old sister Christa rolled her eyes with the practiced pain filled disdain of a teenage girl. "Stop being a baby!"

"Alan, you've done nothing but play with that toy since your Uncle Ray gave it to you," said his mom Laurel. The way his mom acted, you would think that Laurel was sure that her brother Ray could do nothing right, but Uncle Ray was cool. Even his science was cool. He was an astronomical engineer, and he specialized in propulsion research. Alan was sure that Ray was going to break the "light barrier" and go faster than the speed of light.

They got to the Auditorium, and the place was crowded already. "Come on," urged his father Harrison. "Doctor Burgman is going to be angry if we're late." Harrison hated politics and wanted to be somewhere else. Anywhere else.

Alan looked at his water bottle. It was almost empty. "I want to fill my water bottle," he cried. He didn't want to sit in an auditorium, listen to a boring speech with a dry throat.

"Young fellow," said a bearded stranger, "There is a dispenser right over there." He pointed to a water dispenser across the corridor.

"Be right back!" and Alan dashed over to the dispenser and connected his bottle.

"Go with your brother," Laurel told her daughter, Christa. "Hurry up, we'll wait for you," said their mom from just inside the auditorium.

"We have to show a united front as a family," said his father.

"I can't help it if this dispenser is slow!" argued Alan.

Nobody heard him because alarms started going off throughout the colony. Everyone looked around but there were no warning messages on the info boards that hung from the ceiling. Alan looked at the Auditorium doors as the auditorium pressure doors slammed closed with his parents on the other side. "MOM!" he shrieked.

The terrified look on his mother's face was etched into his memory as the pressure doors slammed shut between her and her children. Then suddenly, an enormous thump was felt. It was like somebody hit Bradbury Canal with a giant hammer. Alan and Christa pounded their fists on the auditorium door, shrieking and wailing in agony as pressure doors slammed closed throughout the entire colony and the info boards proclaimed a hull blowout in Quadrant C.

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Perseverance Colony, October 7, 2131

Convair Intergalactic Testing Labs

Ray Clark was double checking the math from his terminal with a slide rule. Yeah, computers are infallible, but programmers weren't. As he angrily wrote down another error, Steffan Bridges stepped into his office and helped himself to a half cup of coffee. "Hey Ray," said Steffan. "Don't you have family on Bradbury Canal?"

"Yeah my sister and her kids, why?"

"They had a hull breech."

"What?" Suddenly everything went dim. Something told him that Laurel and Harrison were gone. He knew deep down that the PMP saw them as a roadblock to taking over Mars. He didn't want to believe what his friend, Dr. Steffan Bridges, just said, but his gut told him it was true. He grabbed the telephone and dialed Harrison Scarlett's personal telephone, but there was no answer. He tried his sister's personal telephone, but again, there was no answer. Then he tried to call her office telephone and somebody answered.

"Marconi-Edison Bio-Electronics, how can I help you?" The woman who answered sounded flustered.

"I need to speak with Doctor Scarlett."

"Uh... there's a bit of... there's..." and he heard the telephone drop and the woman began crying. Then a man picked up. "Hello, can I help you?"

"I need to speak with my sister, Doctor Scarlett, or her husband, Harrison Scarlett."

"We don't know where they are, the colony is in a bit of an uproar."

"Why? What's going on?"

"Nobody knows for sure, all the pressure doors closed about fifteen minutes ago, they're opening up one by one now."

"Thank you. If you see them, tell them that Laurel's brother Ray called." Doors opening one by one means the system is testing to see how widespread a hull breech is. His next call was to his wife, Tammy. "Honey, something happened at Bradbury Canal, I've got to go see what is happening and check on Harrison and Laurel."

"I take it you won't be back for dinner tonight?"

Ray rolled his eyes. She knows that he'll be on the train going there by dinnertime. "No, I don't know how long I'll be. I'm worried about Laurel and the kids."

"Maybe you can sleep with her while you're there," said Tammy as she hung up, slamming the telephone down in her drunken rage.

Ray shook his head and logged off his terminal, he didn't have time to deal with Tammy. He got up and stepped over to his boss's office. "Doctor Sax, I have to go to Bradbury Canal. I hope it's nothing, but..."

Dr. Monika Sax looked up from her terminal. "Travel is restricted to there."

"My sister and her husband live there; I have to find out..."

"I'm sure they're fine," said Dr. Sax. "But go on ahead. Don't forget your pressure suit, the train isn't going to couple to Bradbury Station."

"Yes ma'am."

"Ask your brother-in-law for me how his project is going."

"Yes ma'am." Fighting against the knot in his gut, Ray Clark signed out a pressure suit, helmet, and air pack, then headed over to the train station. It's been ages since he's been to Bradbury Canal. It's where he grew up, and he hated the place, and the moment he was able to get a job in Perseverance City, Mars' unofficial capital, he jumped and never looked back, except where his niece and nephew, Christa and Alan were concerned. They were his "spare kids" and he was their "emergency back-up dad." Since Tammy wasn't interested in having children with him (her daughter from her first marriage would have nothing to do with Ray) he poured his energy into Christa and Alan.

The ticket counter at the train station was crazy. Travel to Bradbury Station was for citizens of Bradbury Canal only. Luckily, Ray was able to produce evidence he was a citizen of Bradbury Canal. "Bradbury Canal please," he told the ticket agent.

"Travel to Bradbury Canal is restricted to residents of Bradbury Canal that are traveling in a pressure suit," said the agent in a bored sing-song voice.

"Does it look like I'm wearing Armani?" said Ray, tugging at the metal collar of his pressure suit.

The ticket agent handed him a ticket that was marked "UNPRESSURIZED" meaning that he was ticketed for an unpressurized car and he was going to have to wear the helmet all the way to Bradbury Canal. "Better hurry," said the agent.

Ray moved as quickly as he could while putting his helmet on. He got to the gate for the train to Bradbury Canal and when his ticket was scanned, the gate shunted him to an airlock out to the open platform where he found his car at the tail end of the train. He got aboard just as the doors closed and he found a seat where he could plug into the train's oxygen and electrical.

The car was full of men and women in pressure suits. It's unusual seeing people in pressure suits coming out of Perseverance this time of day. Normally, people wearing suits are outdoor workers and they leave the city at sunrise and return eight hours later.

Ray dimmed the faceplate of his helmet and tried to get some sleep, but he continued to call Harrison and Laurel's private telephones with no answer. After what seemed like an entire day, the train pulled up to Bradbury Canal and, as advertised, it didn't pull into the station. Over his headphone he heard, "All off for Bradbury Canal." The doors slid open, and they weren't even at a platform. He had to jump down to the ground, then he helped other travelers off the train. Straight ahead was a service airlock with a big number 6 above the door, letting anyone approaching the airlock know what clock position on the circular colony station the airlock was facing.

Ray checked his air level and decided that he had enough air to spend some time outside. He walked around the exterior of the station from the #6 air lock to the #9 airlock. As he walked around the parameter he saw it. Dozens of people in pressure suits were trying to clean up the mess and the bodies. A section of the station hull was blown outward like a flower that blossomed. The metal around the gap was torn and scorched. Some bodies were near the hole and they were blown to pieces. Using his helmet cam, he captured all of this. He searched around the dial on his suit radio but he couldn't find the frequency the cleanup crew was using, but he got what sounded like maybe a couple of cops.

"Blowout? Blowout my ass," said a voice that sounded pretty damn angry. "A pressure blowout is always a tear along a seam, this was an explosion that ripped open a hole. And a pressure blowout doesn't mangle bodies like that."

"The poor bastards," said the second voice. "They never saw it coming. Somebody must have really hated socialism."

"Or loved it," said the first voice. "The Bolsheviks have a history of sacrificing a group of their own, you never heard of the Red Terror? You were either fully on the bandwagon or you were dead."

Ray checked his radio and made sure he was recording this. He walked through the crowd of workers who were desperately trying to clean the mess off the Martian desert while a team of metal workers began constructing a patch to seal off the hole. Nobody noticed him because they were wearing common pressure suits and nobody questioned the camera system on his helmet. He soon made it to the Nine o'clock airlock and entered the Charlie Quadrant. When Ray took off his helmet, he found it was cold inside Bradbury Canal. Charlie Quadrant was frigid and Ray was thankful for the pressure suits over eager heating system. Thermal control must have been knocked off by the blast. He walked to Harrison and Laurel's apartment by memory and tapped on the door. He never rang the doorbell because Laurel gave him so much grief for waking up the babies in the past.

The door slid open and there was little Christa, all grown up, her eyes were red from crying. "Uncle Ray!" she cried and threw herself around him. She looked so much like her mother that Ray almost wept with her. Young Alan staggered out of his bedroom like a zombie and didn't recognize Ray at first. But he soon dashed to Ray, and they ended up on the couch, not talking about what happened. It was clear the kids knew.

After a very long session of tears, Alan looked up at Ray and said, "What do we do now?"

"I'm going to take you guys back to Perseverance City with me as soon as I can get us on a train. Do you have a pressure suit?" Both Christa and Alan shook their heads no. "Ok, we're going to have to wait for the train station to open again. Until then we're going to clean up this house and get ready to sell it."

"Sell it?"

"This is a condominium. A three bedroom is pretty rare here on the old Bradbury Canal, we can get you guys some college money."

An hour later, the kids cried themselves asleep on their parents' bed and Ray was staring glumly at a picture of his sister and tearfully forming a 25 word maximum emergency radio gram to his parents.

DEAR MOM DAD, I AM SO SORRY TO HAVE TO SAY THIS, WE LOST LAUREL & HARRISON IN A BLOWOUT. I HAVE THE KIDS. RAY.

He made sure that the address was correct and stumbled through a station he moved out of over two decades ago. He found the MARS station (Martian Affiliate Radio Service) and luckily, there was a clerk at the window. He stared at the form and vowed that he was going to get whoever forced him to write this to his parents in their retirement community on Earth. They were going to pay.

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Bradbury Canal, October 8, 2131

Marconi-Edison Bio-Electronics.

Harrison and Laurel Scarlett's Lab

"You are not going to bring those kids into my house!" shrieked Tammy.

"They are my responsibility and it's my house," snapped Ray into the telephone. "We will be there as soon as we can get on a train. When we get there I expect you to be warm and caring until they head off to college. If you cannot do that, get the fuck out."

"No! Not in my house!" Tammy shrieked.

"It's not your house," Ray repeated. "That house belongs to Convair Intergalactic Technology and is leased to

me

. If you don't like it, go back to earth, there's a passenger shuttle shoving off twice a week."

"How dare you!" she snarled.

"I'm giving you a choice, be nice or be gone. Pick one." He hung up. Ray knew that there was no way Tammy could be nice to anyone that wasn't going to buy her a drink, and her daughter Sheila was just as bad. He honestly didn't care where she's going to as long as she takes her whining ass and her slut daughter away. Letting that woman move in was the biggest mistake he's ever made in his life and he's going to be sure to never repeat it. The moment she moved in, she got what she wanted, a luxury apartment, and the sex became rare and cold. Luckily, Mars still had a severe shortage of men, so an occasional "arrangement" was easy to find. Ray was sure she would be packing because being nice wasn't something she's ever been good at.