The Lost Martian

Author's Note: Thank you for initial feedback, I've tried to refine my writing, hopefully you can tell the difference. Feedback is always appreciated.

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Earth, Undisclosed Location - 2012 April 17th 01:33

Corporal Edward walked with confidence, his head held upright and he had his eyes trained straight at Dr. Patrick's office, accompanying him were two armed and uniformed soldiers. Dr. Steven Patrick was the lead atomic physicist working for the United States Department of Energy, at least that's what public sources show.

In fact Dr. Patrick was hired by the US Department of Defence as the Director of the Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. He was in charge of overseeing the task of collecting, analyzing, and distributing geospatial intelligence, and recently anomalies have been appearing all over the globe.

Dr. Patrick was staying up late looking through the week's activity log, a task he had to do bi-annually.

Corporal Edward walked into Dr. Patrick's office without knocking and shutting the door behind him. The two accompanying men secured the door from outside the room and wouldn't allow anyone in. Dr. Patrick looked up and saw a black Zero Halliburton suitcase handcuffed to Corporal Edward's arm.

This must have been important, the only other person who would ever carry a Halliburton suitcase was the aide-de-camp to the President of the United States. The only thing the President ever needed in a suitcase like that was always either State Secrets or the Nuclear Football.

"Look here sir" Corporal Edward told Dr. Patrick as he pulled out a retinal scanner from his pocket and pointed it towards Dr. Patricks face. The scan was done before Dr. Patrick could react to the intrusion, "And place your fingers here sir" Corporal Edward then turned the retinal scanner on its back to reveal a fingerprint scanner. Dr. Patrick knew all too well the biometric security could have only been for Project Black Data.

He placed his forefinger onto the scanner and a green LED indicated the positive identification of Dr. Patrick. The handcuffs connected to Corporal Edward unlocked itself, and another click can be heard coming from the suitcase. Corporal Edward placed the suitcase onto Dr. Patricks table besides his laptop and proceeded to salute the man before turning and leaving the way he came.

Dr. Patrick opened the suitcase to find inside a folder holding a stack of papers, with "TOP SECRET" stamped in red, on it. There was also a hard drive and an unbranded government laptop. He first took out the folder and started to read through it, his jaws dropped with each line he read.

Halfway through the first page he started to realise the importance of the document he held in his hands. He reached for his desk phone and dialed 2, the central stations desk. A few seconds of the usual dialing tone and the phone clicked.

"Stat Ops" a woman on the other line replied.

"This is Dr. Patrick wake up the station director, bring me General O'Sullivan and wake my research team. Also get a secure line set up with Director Kevin Reynolds of NASA"

"Right away Doctor, is there anything else?"

"No, thank you" he replied before hanging up the phone. He got up from his desk with the intention of making some coffee. "This is going to be a long night" he thought to himself.

***

Earth - TIME UNKNOWN

She started to feel cold, the wind started to bite her, her fingers curled up, but her head was now no longer spinning. She felt a wet and warm sensation glide over her face, a bit more relaxed now she decided to open her eyes. It was dark, but the light coming from the moon's light revealed enough for her to see the outlines of the camel, it was still there, still with her, with its tongue sticking out. She decided to turn to her stomach, and with what felt like years she managed to turn over.

She pushed, she pushed hard, she paced her breath and eventually she was sitting up straight. She was physically exhausted and her muscles have deteriorated. Not using them for too long have made them numb and she could have been paralyzed and no one could have told the difference between her and a person waking up from a coma.

She grabbed onto the camel, expecting to feel fur she felt leather. Looking up she saw a saddle and supplies strapped onto the camel, but no rider. This camel must have wandered off and somehow managed to find her, she reached the saddle and unhooked a bag, her stiff fingers causing her trouble. It fell into the sand right at her feet, she reached her hand in and felt a cold metal, pulling her discovery out, she found a canteen.

She shook it and the most beautiful noises ever heard were made, water splashing. Immediately she took her other hand and pulled the cap. After struggling for some time she managed to pry it open. She made sure not to drink to fast as to not spill the little water she now had. Cold and tasteless it went easily down her throat without resistance.

Carefully she put it back into the bag and decided to feel around again, she pulled out a gun it was an M1911A, having seen combat footage from the early 20th Century she was all too familiar with these antique firearms, unclipping the magazine she found it full and looking into the bag again, she found 3 more clips but it she only needed one bullet.

Her breaths started to sedate and the world around her started to faze out, she placed the gun to the side of her head, making sure it was behind her ear. It now pointed directly towards her cerebrum, a quick fast instant death. No more pain, no more suffering.

She closed her eyes, thinking only of the gun, the cold metal against her ear, the weight of it, the rough texture the grip. She pulled, but her fingers didn't react, she tried harder! But the cold kept her hand frozen, she screamed and cried out throwing the gun away. She looked down at her hands, her physical state wouldn't let her die. She started to sob and huddled herself against the resting camel. She would have to huddle against it for warmth if she wanted to survive the night.

***

Earth, Undisclosed Location - 2012 April 17th 03:12

Some sat around the table and others separated around the room looking at their own computer monitors trying to make sense of the newly acquired data. Dr. Patrick sat on said table with General O'Sullivan besides Tim Hughes, the station director. Accompanying the men were researchers from Dr. Patrick's team.

"Sir, these images show lensing around the edges of the clouds" came a voice from the screen, his title reading head researcher of The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex.

"An undeniable claim would be these are characteristics of an Einstein-Rosen Bridge." Piped a female voice coming from the screen, her title showed she came from The Langley Research Center.

"Just what in the hell is an Einstein-Rosen Bridge?" General O'Sullivan asked with genuine curiosity.

"General an Einstein-Rosen Bridge is a theoretical connection between two different points of space-" came a voice.

"-wormhole" Dr. Patrick Interjected.

General O'Sullivan became frustrated, he joined the military to help defend his nation, but instead had been assigned with Dr. Patrick. Babysitting boys and girls in lab coats chasing their tails at everything.

Tim Hughes the station director wasn't that happy as well, it has been a few minutes since he was abruptly woken from his sleep and dragged around a table forced to listen to men talk about science. Not only that but he had to give up a portion of his station to the Department of Energy to accompany Dr. Patrick, space that could be set up for better use.

"Here General what do you see?" Dr. Patrick asked the General before handing him a photo.

"Stars." The General replied with disinterest.

"Not our stars sir, someone else's" Dr. Patrick then motioned to a another photo in the middle of the table to be passed. "These are our star alignment for our time of year in this quadrant of the planet, and unless Earth Minor decided to take a long day off, these stars are not meant to be seen until January." Placing both the photos side by side for the General to see.

"So you're saying this magnetic storm caused a wormhole" Tim asked with a raised eyebrow at Dr. Patrick.

"Not necessary sir, but regardless we have coordinates of the anomaly site and at 6:10 our satellites will orbit back into positions so we can take more images from space" The voice coming from the screen.

***

Earth - TIME UNKNOWN

Clara felt her eyes sting, something was poking it. She slowly open her eyes to see the glowing red sun rise. "It might be best if i get up, i don't know exactly where i am or where to go, and i don't want to burn daylight" She turned over to see the camel still there, the camel sticking its tongue out licking its own nose.

Clara got on her feet and decided to go and retrieve the gun she threw away last night. She placed the pistol into the bag and hooked the bag onto the camel. She pulled the camel up, making it stand on its feet.

She'd never ridden a camel before, but she did on a few occasions rode a horse. At least in a simulation, she recalled back to her time on Cal-Nev-Ari where they placed her to sleep, but before that, they placed a helmet on her with wires sticking out connecting into a computer, it was a simulated reality.

While learning about the wars of the ancient world, the academy offered the chance to try their new simulated reality program. They ran the scenario tittled, Battle of Dertosa 215 BC. In this scenario she was a Decurio, a Roman cavalry officer in charge of the Roman right wing.

Her task was to flank and engage enemy troops even though being outnumbered, and having her cavalry force divided into two. She learned many things about her experience, including the effectiveness of light mobile divisions.

"How different can it be?" she thought to herself, and with that she grabbed onto the saddle and mounted the camel. It wasn't cooperating at first but eventually it stopped resisting and she turned the camel and started to head west, keeping her back to the sun.

Remembering seeing the southern cross last night, near bottom of the horizon she knew she was in the northern hemisphere. "Could be in Central America, maybe-. No. I saw the stars due east, i must be either in North Africa or the District of Persia." She contemplated if going West was a good idea now. She pushed such thoughts to the back of her mind, as finding any source of water would be priority number one. With that in mind she pulled the Canteen from the bag and drank more water, it was still cold from the night before.

She pulled the other bag she didn't look in the other night to investigate its inventory. There was a khaki linen robe, and two green rectangular pieces of cloth made from cotton. She removed one and started to fold a Keffiyeh, a desert scarf headdress which will protect her skin from the sun.

She also tore off her medical garments she was still wearing and decided to put on the Khaki Robe. If only she bothered to wear these last night maybe she could have gotten a more comfortable sleep. Putting it on wasn't easy as she nearly slipped off the camel, she thought about stopping and getting changed but moving was more important.

Regardless she once again peaked into the bag to find a Jambiya dagger, she now knew she must be in the District of Persia, or at least near it. Looking back into the bag she found some dry dates, it wouldn't last her long but the human body can last longer without food than water. She ate some of the dates, and hid the dagger underneath her robe, if push comes to shove she was now well armed with a gun and a dagger.