To his credit, Murphy collected the requested items quickly and quietly. Having the gun so close to her was terrifying and if Murphy had complicated things… Solaris tried not to think about it too hard.

“Here”, Murphy said in a strained voice as he offered the respirators and water bottles to Sirius. Sirius shook his head.

“Put em on the floor, and when you’ve done that, get into that cell over there”, Sirius commanded.

Murphy set the items onto the floor in front of him and then backed towards an unoccupied cell and rather reluctantly shut himself in. Sirius brought the two of them closer to the door while he checked that the it was properly shut and locked. Then he pushed her forward, gently, but insistently.

“Let’s go”, he said, “now”.

Solaris complied. She’d find her out later, she could probably lose him when they got outside. Plenty of space to run and he didn’t strike her as an athlete. But why was he going back to the caves?

“So, you do know something about the Henge”, she said. He’d have no other reason to go back there otherwise.

Sirius only grunted an affirmative and shoved her forward, “Let’s go”.

They proceeded through the admin offices, Sirius pushing her through quickly enough that the administrative employees at their desks barely noticed the hostage situation going on. She wanted to shout out, but she was pretty certain he wasn’t afraid of making good on his threat to kill her if anything went wrong. They arrived at the outer airlock and she looked at him for confirmation they were going outside.

“Lids on”, he said and paused for her to put her respirator on. She did, and unprompted he stepped forward, reaching for her. Solaris stepped backward, hands up ready to deflect, maintaining her distance as much as possible. Sirius stopped and looked questioningly.

“Seal check”, he explained. “Don’t want anything breaking. Up to you if you’d rather not”.

“Uhhh…It’s fine…I guess”, Solaris said. It felt odd that he cared enough about the seals while still pointing a gun her way, “You can check them if it makes you feel safer. I can check yours too”.

Sirius stared, then nodded slowly, “…Sure, we can do that”.

There was something patently absurd about the two of them, hostage and captor, checking each other’s respirators before going out into the hostile atmosphere. They couldn’t be more opposed, but yet there was a weird moment of solidarity, even care, as they did the safety checks. Checks completed, they stepped out, Sirius moving cautiously but quickly.

“So far, so good, doc, keep it cool and you get to walk out of this”, he reassured, “Now, show me the way back to the Gate”.

“The gate? Do you mean the Henge? Does that mean it’s some sort of entrance? Or portal?”

“Let’s just go, maybe you get some answer then”, Solaris noticed his English was accented, something Eastern European, maybe.

They stepped out into the pale sun and dust. Solaris led the way, she could try to lose him in the maze of the research village, she knew it better than he did.

What stopped her was that she also wanted to find out more about the man’s relationship to the Henge. The mystery was just too tantalizing. It was a massive cavern system anyway; she could try to lose him once she got enough information out of him – she just had to play nice for now.

Her coworkers passed by each consumed by their own quandaries, each oblivious to the danger she was presently in. The walk to the caverns took a while, and Solaris tried making conversation with her captor, but he seemed resistant. She needed to draw him in somehow, make him see her as human and maybe he’d feel any further violence was unnecessary. It didn’t take long for her to find an opening.

“Stop!” Sirius coughed out, he sounded winded. They had only just left the outer limits of the research village. Solaris stopped and looked at him, waiting to find out what his next move was. She could see he was breathing hard. Had the short walk already exhausted him? Quite a short-lived escape, if so.

“Don’t run, yeah? I can still shoot just fine from here. Just need a moment”, Sirius sat down on the baked earth, and gestured that Solaris do the same.

Solaris sat and watched as Sirius peeled off the respirator and threw it to the side. She started to say something, but he glared at her.

“I’ve had worse air than this”, was all the explanation he gave. He cracked open one of the water bottles and drank it quickly, then threw the empty canister aside with a satisfied sigh. He grabbed the second bottle and offered it to Solaris, “You want?”

She shook her head. Sirius shrugged in response and drank more slowly from this one. The last third or so, he poured onto his face and scrubbed some of the dust and dirt off with the sleeve of his flightsuit. He looked a lot less ghoulish now that the grime had been removed.

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“Where are you from?” She asked him, trying to fill the silence, and then volunteered, “I’m from Mars, Olympia. Now, what about you?”

“Space” he said. Another long silence followed.

“What do you do? For work? I’m a biologist”, she told him, “This is my first real field job”, she added.

“You’re fuckin’ talkative for a hostage”, was his answer, “Maybe I don’t like that, huh?”

“Sorry, I talk too much when I’m nervous” Solaris apologized, “Mum says it’s rather annoying”.

“Sounds like a bitch”, Sirius commented, “Let’s fucking go. That security fucker won’t wait around all day”.

Solaris stayed quiet for the remainder of the walk to the caverns, her mother was a difficult person and their relationship had been extra strained of late, why of all other things to talk about had she brought her up? At least it was only a short way before they arrived at the entrance of the caverns.

“Show me how to get down to the Henge”, Sirius asked.

“It’s not far, just down the tunnel”, she said as they stepped into the shadows.

“Uhhh…I guess that comment on your mother was a bit unfair?” Sirius asked her, he seemed a bit more relaxed now that they were under cover of the caverns and away from the open desert of the village. She’d heard Spacewalkers tended to be more agoraphobic while Planetsiders were more prone to claustrophobia. It had to do with the vastly different environments they spent their lives in.

“Only a little…I haven’t been able to get along with her for as long as I can remember. It’s why I took the job here – to get away. I needed a break”, Solaris explained.

“Made the right choice, family tends to hold you back. Best to leave before they can really get a hold of you”, he said.

“Is that what you did? Leave your family?” she asked, then immediately regretted it. It was too direct a question to ask a guy pointing a gun her way.

“No, I’d have to have had a family to leave” was his response, but he didn’t seem offended by the line of questioning – he was just stating the facts according to himself.

“So, can you tell me what you want with the Henge now?” she asked again, “What did you mean when you called it a ‘gate’?”

“It’s a weird story and I’m not sure I trust you enough to tell you”, he deflected. He was getting more talkative, perhaps she’d get out alive after all.

“Funny you’re talking about trust when you’re the one pointing a gun my way”, she retorted, Sirius stopped then grabbed her arm. Hard. She’d probably have bruises. Had she finally said too much?

“Then tell me the truth”, he insisted, “Have you ever experimented on people without their consent? Like with bioweapons, shit like that?”

Solaris nearly laughed but his expression betrayed not even the slightest indication of a joke. In fact, there was real fear in his expression, so she answered carefully.

“No. I research animals, plants, bacteria sometimes. My work tends to keep me away from people. Above all, the kind of research you’re talking about is illegal, has been for a long time. For good reasons. We have really accurate computer models anyways, why would anyone want to do it?”

He seemed to think it over and decide her answer was good enough for whatever standard he’d set, then released her arm, “Okay. I believe you. I’ll tell you a little of what I know”.

As they walked further, the man began to describe without mincing the details the events that he claimed to have happened before he awoke to find himself at the Henge. He had an odd way of talking. Short sentences interspersed with heavy profanity. He stumbled over some words, too, as if he wasn’t very comfortable with English.

As he talked, Solaris noticed that certain details of his story didn’t add up. Like his background and the events that led up to his arrival. He kept mentioning something called the Anna Karenina and referred to Earth like it still owned half the solar system. Even more improbable was his description of what she guessed was an experimental bioweapon. It all sounded like basic conspiracy theory talk but even though he left no detail out about the graphic details of his symptoms she noticed that his hands started shaking while talking about it. Whatever had really happened to Sirius, his story seemed very real to him. Once Solaris had decided where to start with her many questions, she stopped walking and he stopped next to her. In the dim light, he reminded her of a zombie flick she’d seen.

“You mentioned you grew up in the Program, but that’s impossible”, she began, “Not to mention you’ve got a few things mixed up”.

“What you mean?”

“Well, to start with the first thing I mentioned, the Program’s been decommissioned for nearly 60 years, maybe more. I was never good at history but it hasn’t been a thing for a looong time”, she explained.

“60 years?!”, Sirius seemed genuinely shocked, “but that means – what year is it?!”

“It’s 3075, August 15th today”, Solaris told him. His face fell from shock to anguish which was quickly replaced by disbelief. Solaris wondered why the news would be distressing – sure, she hated Tuesdays as much as the next guy but the distress on his face was genuine. Too genuine for it to be a simple case of losing track of a few days.

“No”, Sirius said, “That’s not true. The year is 3005 – maybe 3006 at the latest – I was in that cell for a long fuckin’ time but not for 70 years!”

Great. So, he was delusional.

“Look”, she took her Comm out and opened up the calendar – it showed today, August 15, 3075. The man looked suspicious, and in a moment of empathy, she realized that she could easily be faking the device’s date. She opened a random news application and showed him the screen again. It showed an article discussing some proposed legislation on the table in the Martian United Planetary Congress – it was an awfully dry article, but it had the date very clearly listed multiple times. Faking an article like this would take too much work so she hoped it would help convince him.

Sirius took the Comm and started reading it, he took a long time to read it. Long enough that she almost doubted that he even could read it given his difficulty with the spoken English language. He looked confused and disappointed then handed the Comm back without question.

“Are you alright?”, she asked gently. Solaris felt kind of sorry for him, he really seemed disappointed.

“I will be”, was all he said in a semi-choked voice then started walking faster. Solaris had to practically jog to keep up with the man’s long legs.

They arrived at the outer ring of the Henge quickly at this pace. As Sirius drew close to one of the Monoliths the purple vines seemed to react to his presence, their glow brightening as he drew near. He was muttering to himself as he examined the cavern space for some evidence that only he seemed to know how to find then his face fell.

“It’s dead… Why is it all dead?”