Suddenly I smelt the most beautiful perfume, I noticed it was coming from the little white object in Bella's hand, somehow I gained some strength from the wondrous odour. I reached over and grabbed the pill from my crew mate, and popped it into my mouth, I felt the pains receding, but it was a brief respite. "Hey what are you doing, that's my contraceptive pill?" asked Bella in surprise Gift of the Red Planet - Part 1 by Alys

Someone was shaking my shoulder.

"Alex, wake up," said a familiar voice, which I couldn't place.

"Leave alone..want sleep," I mumbled, I felt so tired and lethargic. I fought against the efforts to rouse me and shifted my body to find a more comfortable position to escape back to slumber.

I felt a sharp pain in my arm and heard the hiss of a hypodermic as something was injected into me. My head cleared enough from the dose of adrenalin to recognise the black haired, delicate, Asian face of Yuki Chan. She had a very worried look in her dark brown eyes.

"Yuki, whassup?" I slurred, the plastic pipe in my mouth, carrying my essential oxygen, making clear speech difficult.

"How do you feel," she asked.

"Like..death warmed up, and soon..be death nice and cold" I rambled in reply.

"I'm sorry," she said," listen there's going to be a phone call for you and we have to get you ready"

"Mom?" I asked, hoping for the miracle that had kept me clinging to life since the final stages of the mysterious illness had hit me.

"No, it's the President," Yuki explained, deflating my hopes.

"The President?" I enquired, " Mars Corps?"

"No, it's not Mars Corps, it's The United States President, you know, President Hassam," she replied.

"Tell him...get lost," I mumbled, breathlessly" ..not talking to...murdering bastard"

"Alex, you've got too, it's a live feed to all the networks," Yuki urged," and he's recording it to use in his campaign ads"

"Please Alex," pleaded another voice from the other side of my bed, " control says you have to take the call, it's due in twenty minutes"

I painfully rolled my wizened body a little and turned my face to look up at the beautiful honey skinned face of Bella Itani. I noticed the fear in her beautiful green eyes.

"Why, Bella?" I asked.

"I'm sorry to have to have to ask you to do this, especially after what he did last week, but....." she started to explain, before putting her mouth close to my ear to whisper," they threatened to cut off the air supply if we couldn't get you to talk to President Hassam. To think I voted for the slimeball in 2016"

"OK," I mouthed, however much I hated Hassam for ordering the missile attack on the Pot Noodle factory in my hometown of Crumlin I couldn't let my fellow crew members be asphyxiated.

"Thanks," responded Bella.

The two women took my shoulders and carefully pulled me up the bed until I was sitting up. Each movement of my body meant sharp needles of pain radiating out of every joint. Bella noticed the effect on me and increased the flow rate of my pain meds.

Yuki draped my now oversized Mars Corps jacket over me and placed my uniform cap on my head. Bella brought the bed table up towards me and set up the camjector phone.

Without warning the three dimensional disembodied head of Fred Hollis, Mars Corps missions CEO, materialised above the camjector.

"Hey Alex, how are you doing?" he boomed with complete insincerity," thanks for doing this, son. It's a sort of quid quo pro for Hassam, so you put on a good show now boy and we get next year's appropriations."

I stared at his corpulent features, the result of way too many corporate lunches, and wondered when the last trace of common humanity and decency had departed from his conscience.

"Need anything now, before I hang up?" he asked, pausing for half a second," no, I guess you're well cared for by Bella and Yuki, you lucky bugger having a couple of lovelies like that to look after you."

He gave me a suggestive wink and then closed his connection. The nausea that overwhelmed after the distasteful interaction almost took my mind of my general body pain for a few moments.

I drifted into semi consciousness until I was revived by another adrenalin shot.

"Alex," said Yuki, softly, "it's time for the call from the President"

A well groomed head appeared above my bed tray.

"Hello Alex, you're live on the Frank Worris election 2020 show and I have President Hassam taking time from his busy schedule to talk to you," oozed the oily presenter.

The presidential campaign music came over the camjector and the 3D image of Frank Worris's head was replaced by that of President Ali Hassam.

"Alex, it's an honour to be able to speak to you at last and to be able to congratulate you and your crew on your successful mission to Mars" said the Aramco funded President, "I trust that you are feeling better now?"

I nodded my head according to the instructions that I had been given.

"That's really good news, son," said the President," at last the great medical team at Mars Corps seemed to have found the answer to Martian Plague. Let me tell you Alex that I shared the grief of the whole nation at the news of the tragic deaths of your crew mates Captain John Sanders and Commander George Jerson from this mysterious illness that all of you men developed on your return"

I nodded my head again.

"Sorry, I would love to stay and chat but I have a country to run and an election to fight. God bless you Alex and give you strength," commented Hassam.

I smiled and I noticed the President turning away to talk to someone on his right. I caught the words, ' you got enough? do we need another take?", before the connection was terminated.

The strain of the phone call along with my mounting anger at having to interact with the man who had probably caused the death of my family caused me to slip back into oblivion.

Some time later, something dragged me back. I opened my eyes, it was dark in the room apart from a side light where Bella was sitting, next to my bed.

Suddenly I smelt the most beautiful perfume, I noticed it was coming from the little white object in Bella's hand, somehow I gained some strength from the wondrous odour.

I reached over and grabbed the pill from my crew mate, and popped it into my mouth, I felt the pains receding, but it was a brief respite.

"Hey what are you doing, that's my contraceptive pill?" asked Bella in surprise.

"Need more," I croaked, as the attenuated perfume coming from the packet in her other hand assaulted my senses.

"Give him your packet, Bella, quick" said Yuki," it seems to be helping him,

Bella handed me the half full blister pack, I quickly stuffed them down, the relief from pain was unbelievable. I sat up, unaided, and took the oxygen tube out of my mouth.

"What's happened Alex?" asked Yuki.

"Whatever was in the pills have made a huge difference, " I replied, "what was in them?"

"There's just standard low dose contraceptives, " answered Bella, "combination estrogen and progesterone"

"We'd better relay this to control, maybe they'll have some ideas about how to take this treatment forward," said Yuki, before leaving the medical room for the main communications area.

"Bella, do you have any other packets?" I asked after a few minutes of sitting and marvelling at the experience of being pain free for the first time in weeks.

"Why?" asked Bella.

"I can feel the pain beginning to return," I explained.

"OK, " she responded, " I think I have some more in my room, I'll fetch them"

By the time Bella had returned with some extra packets of contraceptive pills I had been forced, by my returning breathlessness, to return the oxygen tube to my mouth.

She quickly handed me the pills from the packets and once again my symptoms were alleviated.

Yuki, burst into the room, carrying some syringes.

"What did they say?" asked Bella.

"They told me to try some Depo-Provera, so I injected some of the mice that we infected with your blood and they seemed to make an instant recovery," Yuki responded.

"It's a risk though, Yuki," cautioned Bella," we can't know what the long term effects might be"

"What's the alternative, Bella," asked Yuki, " without trying some different treatments Alex will be dead in less than a day, look at how quickly the others went"

"Just do it," I said, "what have I got to lose"

Yuki gave me the injection and as the hormones coursed into my body I felt an almost miraculous improvement. I stretched my arms and turned my body to put my legs on the floor.

"How do you feel?" asked Yuki, concerned.

"Hungry," I replied, laughing.

Some hours later, after my fourth steak and fifth bowl of pasta I felt the hunger pangs receding.

"I don't know how you managed to put all that away," marvelled Bella, as she cleaned away my plates from the dining table in the middle of our crew room.

"How are you feeling now?" asked Yuki," do you need another shot?"

I stood up and stretched. So far there had been no return of the pains, which had disappeared completely after the first three injections.

"I feel great, I've not felt this good for ages," I replied," although there does seem to be a strange metallic smell in the room"

"I can't smell anything," said Bella, looking puzzled, "what sort of metallic smell, something overheating you think"

"No, it's not something specific, it seems to be a general thing, all around the room," I explained.

"Maybe you should sit down a bit, it could be a side effect of the Depo-Provera," suggested Yuki.

I moved back towards the sofa. Before I could make the sanctuary of the soft cushions I was overwhelmed by the strangest smells and tastes and the feeling of falling.

My last memory before everything went black was the shocked look on the faces of Yuki and Bella.