Drafted Page 7

  "The shot?" I asked.

  Inside was a pure white room with a metal table in the center. A doctor in a white coat messed with some test tubes on the opposite counter. Why hadn't doctors' offices changed much in the past several centuries? It was standard practice to make them cold in every possible way. This one didn't even display any comics on the walls. Maybe comics weren't a thing here in the colonies.

  The doctor turned. She was just as green as Matt. I read her name tag. Dr. Sharon Komorowski. She had dark brown hair that gave her the color profile of a tree. Just that thought made me feel more homesick than ever.

  "Name," she demanded.

  She, too, wore a Mars Identity patch on her lab coat. I wondered if people like Matt were the minority.

  "Tess," I said, resisting an urge to cross my arms over my patch. I didn't feel safe giving her all of it. In fact, her glare made me look away, at the rest of the room. A red disposal container for syringes hung on the wall, complete with the biohazard symbol. Holographic images of skeletons decorated any wall that wasn't taken up by metal cabinets. I felt like I'd stepped into some evil scientist's lair instead of a doctor's office. They had given this one the bare essentials.

  Sharon motioned to the metal table. "Be seated for the scan," she said.

  I could deal with a health scan. There was one thing I was dreading that had nothing to do with that. I sat on the table, which was cold even through my pants. I shivered, eyeing a row of empty syringes on the counter, all resting on an open towel. A brown bottle waited next to them, complete with a white label. How many injections did Dr. Komorowski give in one day? In one hour, even?

  Turning my gaze to Matt, and then the syringes, I blinked. He stood at the edge of the room, leaning against a counter. It was as if he were waiting for something.

  The doctor flipped a switch on the wall, and green lines raced over me, scanning. I remained still, waiting for it to be over and praying that she'd dismiss me once she got her readings. Dr. Komorowski held a tablet and eyed it, holding it away from Matt to protect my patient privacy. "Hmmm," she said. "You have a fast metabolism, Tess."

  "Isn't that a good thing?" I asked. "I work out."

  "Not here, it isn't," she said. She spoke as if it were my fault. "Your health readings are excellent, considering that you spent three weeks unable to exercise. Keep up the good work. But you see, food is not plentiful here on Mars. We are still working out the logistics of feeding everyone." She placed the tablet face-down on the counter. "We need to reduce your need for food. It is for the common good." She glanced at my patch. "I'm surprised that you haven't removed that yet."

  The doctor walked over to the row of syringes. She plunged one into the bottle and withdrew a liquid that resembled pea soup.

  "What is that?" I asked, even though I feared the answer.

  "Nanotechnology," she said, purposely leaving out the rest.

  "I'm not taking that injection," I said. I knew what it would do. "I'll work for my food. You're not messing with my body."

  The doctor held me in her steely glare. She held the needle almost as if she were brandishing it. "You need to take this," she said. "Life here will be tough for you if you do not. Now, hold still. It will only hurt for a moment."

  I jumped down from the table, heart racing. For one, I had never liked needles. Why hadn't we come up with something better over the last several hundred years? And for another, I knew what that stuff inside of it would do to me. "You can't give me something without my consent and without telling me every single side effect that it can cause me. Go."

  Dr. Komorowski stood there, flabbergasted. It was clear that she wasn't used to new meat talking back.

  "I do not tolerate patients with attitudes. Sit on that table. You need to stop being deluded and join the rest of Mars. I will have the guards hold you here if I need to." She eyed her tablet.

  "Then they're going to have to hold me down," I said. My heart raced. I tried to think of a way out of this. "I am not letting you make me the color of the Frog Prince."

  The doctor fixed me with her intense glare again. "Then the guards, it will be," she said. "We cannot have people like you sabotaging our rightful future."

  "Who said that I was staying here?" I asked.

  Dr. Komorowski said nothing to that. She motioned for me to get back on the table. I refused. These people were trying to take away who I was, and I hadn't even been on this planet for ten minutes.

  "Leave her alone."

  Matt took a step forward, standing in front of me. He balled his fists.

  "Back," the doctor ordered. "I have two more patients after this. You are holding me up." She reached for her tablet. Apparently, people didn't use contacts on Mars. It was no wonder that no one heard back from the Red Planet. We were isolated out here with outdated technology.

  Matt stepped in front of the tablet, stopping her from reaching it. The two of them stared at each other for what stretched into seconds. The doctor didn't seem to know what to think. She was used to patients who didn't realize what that injection would do to them. Matt dared to glance at me before flicking his gaze to a glass jar of cotton balls. A container of bandages waited beside it. I got his drift. If I was going to get out of here without looking like I belonged on an alien planet, I had to fool the guards.

  "I will have you reported for insubordination," Dr. Komorowski said. Her voice had become calm, but confident, and it was scary. She had her back turned to me. I stepped away from the table and lifted the lid from the cotton balls. I snatched one and a bandage. I hoped that Dr. Komorowski always injected the right arm and that the nanobots in that syringe took a while to change someone's color.

  Matt seized the tablet. The doctor gasped in shock. I slapped the bandage on, placing the cotton ball underneath it. It looked as if I had just taken an injection.

  My animal instinct took over again. I walked away, leaving Matt and the doctor to argue. Matt had provided me a diversion. Dr. Komorowski said something about patient privacy. Now she had some morals.

  "We don't have those laws here," Matt said. "I can look at your tablet if I want."

  "Those are my ethics," she said.

  I left the evil doctor behind and pushed open the medical bay door. The two miners stood in the corridor, waiting their turn. One of them checked out my bandage and frowned.

  "I hate needles," he admitted.

  I ignored the guy and strolled past the guard as if I hadn't broken some colony code. All thoughts of what might happen to me later didn't matter right now. I had gotten away.

  "To the lobby," the guard said to me, nodding at my bandage.

  "Thank you," I said.

  I hated that I was leaving Matt behind, but I was doing what I guessed he wanted. The longer he stalled the doctor, the longer I had to get away and hide. They wouldn't be able to track me without my contacts.

  I hoped.

  I picked up my pace as soon as I turned the corner. The hallway went on for a short while before ending in some swinging double doors. I felt light. I had a small victory. Or it might be the reduced gravity here. I barged through the double doors and emerged into a room where sunlight poured down through a glass dome.

  And I stopped.

  A pinkish sky stretched overhead, lifeless. The sun shone, smaller than before, and its rays landed on my regular, Earther skin. About two dozen people sat in lounge chairs underneath the dome, among potted plants and an ugly tiled floor. A few turned to face me before going back to their reading. No one said hello.

  Most people were as green as Matt, but a few looked as if they were in the process of going from normal to plant-like. I counted three children and two teenagers among them. Everyone read tablets or played games. There was no one like me sitting underneath the dome. I stood out.

  And no one spoke.

  "Tess," Matt said from behind me. "You don't want to stand out here. The glass blocks most of the radiation, but you can get burned with your skin. This way."


  I faced Matt. The double doors swung shut behind him. I waited for the doctor or the guard to come through, but it was all clear.

  "How did you manage that?" I asked, stepping to the edge of the room and outside of the direct sun. I had to remember that this was a dead planet, not meant for life. At least, not right now.

  "They can't force you to take the injection," Matt said. "There's no law about it. You did the right thing. The Mars Identity people want to make it law, but they haven't yet. Until then, you're fine. Don't let anyone guilt trip you into turning green if you don't want to do that. Dr. Komorowski couldn't make the guards hold you down. She was just saying that to scare you."

  "That's the first good thing I've heard all day," I said. "Matt. Thanks." He hadn't had to help me, especially after the way I treated him on the ship.

  A dark look came over his face. "I wish I had known what that injection did when I took it," he said. "My dad knew, but he didn't tell me."

  "I'm sorry. That sucks."

  "Thanks. You need to go to the next step in processing."

  "I told you. I'm not staying here." I pressed against the wall, just feet away from the dangerous sun that these green people sat in without issue. Matt had said something about the plant cells in peoples' skin collecting sunlight and turning it into energy. Lounging in this dome might be these peoples' version of having lunch. I couldn't wrap my mind around it. "This place sucks. Do they even serve actual food here?"

  "You won't get a lot of it. That's why most people take the injection eventually. It helps to have another source of energy."

  Back on Earth, I hadn't been hungry. Mom and Dad always kept the fresh plants, meat, and eggs coming. The Earther Network was good at making sure everyone in the community, no matter what their political party, could access real food. There would be none of that here. I'd heard about societies in older times where people had to forage whatever they could to survive.

  I might have landed in one.

  Matt led me out of the dome and down another hall. I almost missed the real light pouring down, because the only other lighting besides sunlight were dim, ugly, yellow bulbs. It was all cheap stuff. Nasty stuff. Beauty didn't exist here. Everything served survival.

  We pushed through another set of double doors. There was a lack of holographic signs here in this room, and it was hard to tell where to go. No transport belts waited to serve us. How did people move around?

  This second room was another dome but made of brick instead of glass. More ugly yellow lights lined the perimeter. A few plastic chairs sat in rows, empty of bodies. A single desk had a green man behind it, typing on a tablet. It was an old model, one from ten years ago.

  "She needs a place to stay," Matt said to the guy.

  The man--also skinny--faced me with no expression. He must be only ten years older than me. Hope and emotion weren't things that belonged here. It seemed like there was nothing other than survival and passing the time.

  But at least he didn't wear a Mars Identity patch.

  He sighed.

  "Geez," I said. "I'm sorry that I'm here. I didn't get off that ship out of my free will, you know."

  "We're getting too many people," the man muttered, typing on his tablet. "We're not going to last too much longer."

  I glanced at Matt, trying not to panic. It was no wonder the Grounders didn't want this planet. It was better to kick us off the good one and take that. People had done this to each other throughout history. We didn't need aliens doing this to us as well.

  We stood there and waited while the guy scrolled through his tablet. "There might," he said, "be a space in the W Wing. You're on your own once you get there. Hopefully, you can find a sleeping bag and get there by the time they serve dinner."

  My stomach managed to rumble now that I was away from the scary doctor. I needed food. I had to find Winnie and Lin and Blake and let them know that there might be a way out of here, even if it was going to be dangerous. Matt still had some things to explain to me, but we couldn't do that here with anyone listening in.

  "Thank you," I said, following Matt once again through yet another door. "Have you seen anyone named Winnie arrive?"

  The man thought. "No," he said. "If you're looking for a relative, they might have landed in a neighboring colony, especially if they left hours before you did."

  I thanked the guy again and left the desk. That made sense. Winnie couldn't be far.

  "This place is a maze," Matt explained once we had entered a third desolate hallway. "This isn't a busy part of the colony. I think we're in Colony M. They had to build this quickly and didn't have time to plan it very well. Most of the colonies are like this, to tell you the truth. Some of the older ones are nicer than this."

  "I can believe it," I said, walking with him.

  Just outside of here, there was no air and deadly radiation. Frigid temps. A desert.

  And below us, the Grounders' original lair.

  I tried not to think about it. But what if there was an oxygen leak? I hadn't seen any emergency tanks lying around. I'd been searching ever since I got off the ship.

  "We don't have much for entertainment," Matt said. "You'll find a tablet if you're lucky. Just stay out of the sunning domes. Only people with skin like mine use them. The best time for you to hit the cafeterias is around noon when most people are soaking up the rays."

  "What is this? A beach?"

  Matt managed a smile. "I wish."

  "Why did you help me back there?" I asked. "I treated you like crap on the ship."

  "Well, we both want to get back to Earth."

  I sensed that there was more he wasn't telling me, but I didn't push it. I had problems more urgent than this. I wanted to know how Matt and his people wanted to get back to Earth. Most importantly, I wanted to help fight the Grounders.

  We stepped through another set of double doors. Where were the emergency airlocks? They at least had those on the moon. I wondered why the Grounders didn't send us there instead.

  Maybe it was too close to them.

  Matt and I emerged into a large room that had another sunning dome on one end and a cafeteria on the other. I felt like I was standing in something a hundred years old. Menus above the cafeteria counters read off a short list of available foods, none of which looked appetizing, but the smells made my stomach growl. About a hundred people sat in the dome, reading on tablets, while the plant cells under their skin turned sunlight into glucose. The sunning domes reminded me of greenhouses. Just with people, not plants.

  A young guy and a girl eyed me from the edge of the dome. Both looked to be a couple of years older than me--and they wore Mars Identity patches. I didn't like the vibes they were sending my way. I turned away to hide mine, regretting my show of weakness right away. This whole thing was turning me into a coward. First Winnie, and now this. Mom and Dad would not be proud.

  But then again, they weren't here. Mom and Dad were comfortable at home where there was enough food.

  The cafeteria couldn't be that bad, right? One of the items on the menu was fried mushrooms. It was something natural, at least. Mushrooms must be easy to grow underground. The rest was synthetic meat and vegetable meal. A sign above the list of food limited one item per person. A couple of cooks, neither of them green, worked at fryers. They didn't appear as skinny as Matt or the others in the sunning dome. The cafeteria was bare. Only one other normal-skinned girl and two green men finished off their plastic plates. It seemed that even the plant people had to eat some food. People couldn't live on just glucose, after all.

  "I don't blame you," Matt said. He nodded to me. It was my cue to walk up to the counter and request something. So far, there were no prices listed. Maybe the food was free.

  The counter had no line. I walked up to the cooks and ordered the fried mushrooms. I was right that the food was free. My stomach roared. One of the cooks grabbed a red, plastic plate and scooped a few things that looked like breaded nuggets onto it. Without a word, he slid the plate t
owards me.

  On my plate were exactly four mushrooms, rationed out.

  Four. Each one was only about five or six centimeters across. They had given me a snack, not a meal.

  But I took it without complaint. Earthers weren't supposed to gripe, after all. I sat down at one of the red tables while Matt seated himself opposite me.

  I was hungry.

  The meal only made my stomach growl more. Maybe my stomach would feel a bit better later, once I absorbed this into my system.

  Why was I kidding myself? It was no wonder everyone here was borderline underweight.

  I waited for Matt to say something about how every meal would be like this, but he stayed silent. "Done," I said, searching for a trash can.

  "Look, you don't have to pretend that this doesn't suck," Matt said. "It does. I hope that you get better quarters than most people get here."

  I tossed the plate into the recycling bin. The machine whirred as it reclaimed the plastic. I wondered if it also reclaimed any crumbs left behind.

  We got moving again. Matt explained that he wasn't familiar with this particular colony. He had come from the N Colony, which neighbored this one. Most of them were the same, so he was able to navigate the corridors and the doors that led to the living quarters. On the way, we passed struggling greenhouses (for plants, not people) and small food factories. Strange smells filled the air. Matt and I wove around a few workers milling in and out. We passed a closed steel door that led to humming machinery and another sunning dome, one probably meant for workers, and finally passed through another set of doors with a sign that read LIVING QUARTERS above it.

  How bad could the quarters be?

  Quite awful, it turned out.

  "Sorry that we don't have any transport belts," Matt said. "We have rails that go between some colonies. If you want, I can get you out of here tomorrow. The monorails run once every morning. It takes too much energy to power them more than that. You might have better luck finding a place to sleep there."

  "Out of this colony, or off this planet?"

  "Off this colony," Matt said. "To be honest, I don't know when you'll be able to go back home, or even if our plan is going to work."