ANOTHER EXCERPT FROM THE NOVEL 'WE ARE MARTIAN.'

“I would consider it a sign of Universal camaraderie and goodwill if you would remove your hand from your weapon and drive on to the city, Drew. We mean you no harm and all will be explained when we can sit down in comfort, face to face and have a relaxed chat. Also, as I do not like repeating myself, would you be so kind as to contact the rest of your crew and have them meet us in your usual common gathering area when we arrive.”

“Don’t do it Drew! Why do a ‘Trojan Horse’ by driving him through our defences and into our city, not to mention herding our people into one place to make it easier for Gonad and his space goons to contain and/or kill us all.?!”

“What choice do we have, Nick? Take another look upwards and see if the Spaceship is still above us if you like. Check the load in your pistol to see if it still has any bullets in it if you like, it doesn’t really make any difference anyway. The Spaceman is unarmed and alone and therefore supposedly vulnerable while he‘s with us, but obviously he doesn’t consider that he is. I bet he’s got a couple of remote control buttons on his watch that control the Airlock systems of our City, and what defences would we be driving him through as we don’t have any, and I’m damn sure Gorad knows it. I suspect that if he had wanted to wipe us out he could and would have done it without putting on this histrionic pantomime for us just to introduce him-self.” I glanced back at the Spaceman,

“You buggered up Nick’s Oxygen regulator as well, didn’t you? How did you manage to do that?”

“I sent out an electro-magnetic beam that partially closed off his regulator to reduce Nick to a state of semi-consciousness for a while when I waved to him. Shall we proceed on to the City where we can continue this conversation in more comfortable surroundings, Drew?”

I did as Gorad had asked, all of it! Dick answered when I put out the general call on the R/T Comm. Channel,

“Dick, can you get the whole crew to meet us in the ‘Hangout’ cafeteria? We’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”

“I guess so, why?”

ONE MORE EXCERPT FROM THE NOVEL,'WE ARE MARTIAN.'

“Oh right. What the Fuck are you talking about?”

“Don’t worry, Drew. It will all come back to him as his brain recovers from the oxygen deprivation.” said the Spaceman.

“Who the Fuck said that?”

“The Spaceman that fell out of the sky,” I replied helpfully.

Nick jumped as a gloved hand appeared before him from behind,

“My name is Gorad, the Spaceman that fell out of the sky, Nick. I am very pleased to meet you.”

Completely surprised and flustered Nick took the gloved hand and shook it. His consternation was greatly increased when the gloved hand withdrew and then re appeared holding Nick’s gun by the barrel.

“Yours, I believe.” Gorad then sat back in his seat as Nick took the gun and holstered it before adding,

“Don’t worry Nick. We’ll be back in the City very shortly, just a few more minutes at this speed.”

Nick was understandably totally surprised and flustered, but I wasn’t too far behind him. As I drove towards the city I thought back over the conversations and events that had transpired after meeting the Spaceman. I was pretty damn sure that I had not mentioned Nick’s name to the Spaceman, and yet he knew it. I saw Nick’s gun when Gorad handed it back to him, the hammer was down and the safety was engaged. I wondered if it was still loaded or whether the bullets were now resting safely in a pocket of Gorad’s Spacesuit. But what really worried me was how the hell he knew where the City was, and therefore how close we were to it. Suddenly another thought exploded into my already overloaded and rapidly overheating mind, causing me to slam on the brakes, bringing the buggy to yet another sliding, dusty stop as I twisted in my seat to look back at the Spaceman, who was still sitting placidly in the back with his hands resting calmly on his knees while my right hand rested tensely on the butt of my pistol.

“What the Hell did you fall out of, or should I say jump out of?”

Still sitting placidly in the back seat the Spaceman answered,

“Look up Drew.”

I did as I was told, as did Nick. I had never had much time for, or much interest in, movies or television in my adult life and even less in Science Fiction (Yeah I know, surprising when you consider that I would eventually wind up living in a Science Fiction adventure). But a phrase from one of the few Science Fiction movies I had seen sprung into my mind as I looked up,

“RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!”

Hovering quietly about eight hundred meters above us was a spacecraft similar in size and silhouette to one of our Star-ships.