"You're very beautiful," said Yuki, suddenly and surprisingly. "Thank you, even though that is such a strange comment to hear," I whispered back. Her hand slowly moved from my face to gently touch my neck. I shivered a little with her caress. Gift Of The Red Planet - Part 6 by Alys

---

Part 6
 

There was the slightest rumble in the ground around the tank.

"Was that it?" I asked.

"Of course it wasn't," answered Christine angrily," there's no way a one megaton underground nuclear explosion would feel so feeble!"

"Look at the TV signal, no effect on it at all," said Brenda, pointing at the screen where the Norah show break ads continued, oblivious to the peril we faced.

"....finding it hard to work that extra hour of your daily thirteen, take megamind stimulants for an explosion of energy......"

"Why is that significant?" asked Bella.

"It means that there's been no EMP," explained Christine," you know, electromagnetic pulse, wipes out electronics, from any nuke."

"So what's happened?" asked Yuki.

"No idea," answered Christine," apart from what is blindingly obvious, let's hope that no nukes is good nukes."

"Why wouldn't it be?" I asked," what else could be happening?"

"They could have decided to search for us instead," suggested Yuki," but I felt something, there must have been some sort of explosion."

"Detonators," responded Brenda," high explosive charges. I'm guessing that the stop command came so late that they only had time to slam the safeties back on the nukes."

"So we still don't now if the threat has disappeared or not," I pondered aloud.

"No, we could still be in danger from Hollis and Mars Corps," said Bella.

We all sat and looked at each other trying to decide on our course of action, as the Norah show ad break continued to blare out the usual inanities.

Our uncertainty was ended by two almost simultaneous changes in the background noise inside the tank. Firstly there was a buzz and vibration on my wrist CPA, indicating a message and then the hostess herself returned to the show being patched onto Brenda's display screen.

"Welcome back to the Norah show," said the stunningly beautiful presenter," we have an unexpected change to our schedule today. Ladies and Gentlemen please welcome President Ali Hassam, live from the Oval Office"

The picture shifted to show the nation's leader sitting at his desk in and looking at his audience with his usual perfect, wide grin.

"Thank you Norah," he said," I am extremely grateful for you finding a space for me to appear on your show at such short notice."

"It's always my pleasure Mr President, especially after you informed us of your momentous news," Norah replied, smiling with her lips only.

As I watched the interchange, between two of the most proficient media performers of a generation, I flicked open my CPA. To my surprise the small screen indicated a message in text format rather than the usual video. I read it quickly.

Thanks 4 message. Watching show? Told him stop nuke or I'd support Johnson :-) Good luck. XX Norah.

I smiled at the idea of such a prominent progressive supporting the reactionary Johnson, leader of the 'Back to the Homesteads' movement. But a very real threat to Hassam's re-election chances given Norah's huge popularity.

I turned my attention back to the broadcast.

"..............so you see Norah," the President was saying," the news from our mission to Mars is as startling as I have just explained."

"Life on Mars, what a discovery! This is indeed a momentous day," Norah responded," and what is the latest news from our brave astronauts, Bella Itani, Yuki Chan and Alexa Dupre?"

"They are well and are as excited as the rest of us with the confirmation of their discovery. I understand from Fred Hollis at Mars Corps that they will be allowed out of isolation in a few days. When that.............."

Suddenly Christine reached over to tap Brenda's touch screen and close the patch.

"OK, Brenda, that's all we need to know," she said abruptly," get us out of here so that we can unload our guests as soon as possible."

"'K, Chrissie," responded Brenda, before setting the shovels to dig us out of the sand," let's go baby."

The tank camjector suddenly flickered into life and the image of a man in his late thirties, sitting in a tank, returned.

"Green leader to green group, initialise encryption code alpha," said the disassociated head.

Brenda quickly typed the requisite keys, causing the Green Leader's head to flicker and then re-stabilise. By this time we had slowly resumed motion forward as the ponderous vehicle made its way through the sand back onto the road.

"Message from command to Green Group," said the disembodied man," rendezvous twenty minutes six-nine-six-zero-one-seven, repeat grid reference six-nine-six-zero-one-seven in twenty minutes."

The head dissolved as Brenda typed in the grid coordinates.

"How does that look Brenda?" asked Christine.

"Not good Chrissie," she replied," we'll barely make it in time and it's the road junction, right next to the derelict farmhouse. You know... where we were going to dump our passengers."

Christine thought for a few minutes as Brenda busied herself bringing the tank up to speed.

"OK ladies, it looks like you're going to have to walk," said Christine firmly.

"What?" responded the three of us almost in unison.

"Not too far," reassured the tank commander," but unfortunately it's going to be a bit hot. Let me explain."

★★★★★★★★★★
     
Fifteen minutes later Brenda brought our forward motion down to walking pace. The three of us jumped out, making our way quickly off the road to a small group of shrubs that Christine had spotted on her binoculars. We quickly lay down in the hot sand, throwing the sandy coloured camouflage netting over our heads.

Within a few seconds the tank, having quickly resumed full speed, was out of sight leaving a massive dust trail behind to slowly settle out of the air.

"How long till sunset," I asked.

"About ten hours," replied Yuki.

"I'm already warm under here," I responded.

"It's going to get hotter, it's not even midday yet," stated Bella.

"Do you think they're looking for us?" I asked.

"Of course they are, why do you think that Brenda and Christine's command were ordered to meet at the road junction?" Bella responded.

"Yes, I see," I said," I guess they're blocking all the roads out."

"Of course," added Yuki," unless you can fly, the roads are the only sensible way of getting through the desert."

"I wonder what they'll do if they don't find us?" I said.

The answer to my question came with the almost simultaneous buzzing of our CPAs. We all flicked them open and the image of our corporate boss was revealed. The discordant noise of Fred Hollis's video message, slightly out of sync, on our three receivers, failed to lessen the impact of his threats.

"You know we'll find you, what did you think you were doing breaking out this morning!" he yelled," But don't think I'm not a reasonable man. So here's the situation. It's simple and easy to understand. If we haven't heard from you within forty eight hours, telling us where to collect you from, then one of your relatives will have an accident!"

The repellent face faded away as the CPA system voices continued," if you'd like to reply to this message please tap twice on the icon and.."

"Bastard!" I spat out.

"Yes, what a complete lump of shit he is," agreed Yuki.

"You realise that Hassam put him up to this don't you?" asked Bella.

I nodded my head and lay there thinking about all the horrible things that I would like to do to our erstwhile head of mission. Most of them involving a spaceship, an airlock and the utter vacuum of space.

"You know what I'd like to do to him?" asked Bella, with a little smile on her face, after a few minutes of silence between us," as long as you're happy with it, Alexa."

"I can guess," chuckled Yuki.

"What's that Bella?" I asked.

"Well maybe he need a little blood transfusion," she replied," I wonder how he would look as an eighteen year old woman!"

I joined in the laughter for a few seconds but then had to stop as even that minimal amount of movement had caused me to sweat heavily.

"How much water do we have?" I asked.

"Two litres," said Yuki, indicating the water bottles in the corner.

"That's not going to be enough is it?" I asked, feeling really concerned about our chances of making it through the day.

"Well if we can move and make it to the farmhouse to get shelter, it might be OK," suggested Yuki.

"I don't think so?" said Bella," those tanks are going to be there all day. No ladies, there is only one thing we can do if we're going to have to stay here."

"What's that?" I asked.

"Strip off and use our clothes to protect us from the heat of the sand underneath, along with the thermal blankets Brenda gave us," she explained.

Yuki and I accepted the wisdom of Bella's idea so we all quickly removed our clothes. I noticed as I did the difference between the three of us. My alien induced female body was so much firmer and younger looking than theirs.

"It's not fair," said Bella as she noticed my glance," I spend all those hours in the gym and am still nowhere near as strong and supple as you, Alexa."

"Sorry Bella," I responded as sympathetically as possible," but I did the same gym routine when I was Alex, remember."

"You know what I mean," responded Bella, pouting and poking her tongue out at me.

We all lay back, using our rolled up clothes as pillows and attempted to rest and avoid any unnecessary movements. Bella had set her CPA to give us regular water breaks. I hoped that the supply would last until the evening.

★★★★★★★★★★
     
I felt a hand caressing my face gently. I turned to see Yuki gazing at me. I noticed that Bella was deep in an uneasy sleep.

"Hi, how's it going?" I whispered through my dry lips.

It was over four hours since we had settled down in our hideout and we were all suffering.

"I want a nice cold soda with ice," responded Yuki looking into the distance as if to create a vision of her drink.

"Best not to think about it," I said, even though the my body was screaming for more water than the two mouthfuls Bella was allowing us every hour.

"You're very beautiful," said Yuki, suddenly and surprisingly.

"Thank you, even though that is such a strange comment to hear," I whispered back.

Her hand slowly moved from my face to gently touch my neck. I shivered a little with her caress.

"You have such amazing breasts," said Yuki, softly, as her fingers traced the outline of my upper body before circling around my aroused nipple.

"I didn't know you liked girls," I responded, remembering the sweet moments I had spent with her in her cubicle on the mission.

"Neither did I," she responded, smiling, " until I saw how you had turned out. How about you? Do you still fancy me?"

I nodded and returned the gentle caresses.

Our exploration of our hot and sweaty bodies was suddenly cut short by Bella's alarm awaking her and preparing us for our next liquid intake. Soon we had all returned to keeping still and conserving our energy.

★★★★★★★★★★
     
Yuki pushed the half broken door open as I helped Bella over the threshold.

"Get me water, water....a nice cold coke with ice," muttered Bella in her semi-delirium.

She had suffered the worst from the exhausting heat while Yuki with her smaller frame and myself being physically a lot younger had coped with it better. It had been a struggle to get her the last mile to the derelict building.

"I think the sink is over here," said Yuki, as we made our way into through the detritus and rubbish of rooms that had had no-one inhabiting them for years.

The warm brackish water from the taps tasted like an elixir to our parched mouths and we were soon feeling quite a lot better.

We carefully made our way to the empty store room before getting on all fours to search for the entrance to the cellar where Christine had told us to wait, until one of her friends from the city came along to pick us up and take us out of the desert.

"They'll knock in a particular sequence, only open up if you hear it," she had warned.

After some minutes we finally located the trapdoor. Entrance proved a little difficult as first Yuki and then her and Bella combined failed to overcome the resistance of the corroded hinges. Finally they turned to me and I found, to my surprise, that my youthful strength was able to complete the task without any great difficulty.

I waited as the two of them made their way down the concrete steps, locating a few sacks and then to our relief and surprise a few cans of food still within their date limits. Closing the trapdoor behind me I slowly and carefully made my way down the steps in the pitch darkness feeling the wall as I went. Suddenly the blackness disappeared.

"Wow, did someone find a light?" I asked as I looked down at the room clearly illuminated in a ghostly green.

"Nope," responded Yuki," why?"

"I can see everything really clearly, can't you?" I asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about, it's completely black here, I can't even see my fingers from one inch" said Bella.

I walked straight towards them, while explaining how the darkness had suddenly disappeared for me.

"Amazing," responded Yuki," I can't wait to do some proper tests on you."

"I bet," I responded, smiling at the thought of Yuki experimenting on me. She would love it so much and I myself was curious about how exactly my body had altered.

We settled down to wait our rescue.

★★★★★★★★★★
     
Some hours later the silence was suddenly broken by the crunch of heavy footsteps on the floorboards above. They sounded like they belonged to two or three separate individuals. I was immediately alarmed as Christine had only mentioned one person meeting us in the farmhouse.

We could hear some muffled male voices, too indistinct to make out.

"Must be a search party," I whispered to Yuki who was sat next to me.

The steps moved away from the store room above and grew fainter as the people above us wandered around the rooms. Then there was silence again.

I sighed with relief.

Suddenly there was the sound of running above us, getting closer as the strangers moved quickly back through the building.

Until they stopped, directly above us on the trapdoor!

---

To Be Continued...
 
End of Part 6