A Fair Captive from the Sky

After the long journey in which we raided the incubators, I and the Tharks again arrived in the abandoned city.

The strange architecture and the adornments on the walls still as bizarre to look at as I remembered.

But no sooner did we enter the city, did orders arrive for a hasty return. A small patch of Tharkian warriors that had stayed behind in the cities alarmed our group to take cover.

And the Tharks moved for cover. They moved with such simple and silent movements that one would not associate them with the war loving and ferocious race that I had come to know.

In just a small amount of time, we all blended into the surroundings. The green martians hastily retreated into the openings of the large buildings and soon, the entire group of chariots and Tharks was nowhere to be seen.

Sola and I retreated into one of the buildings that overlooked the valley in front of the city. The same one in which I had fought the white apes.

"What is it?" I asked in martian tongue. I had gotten quite proficient in speaking the one common language of Barsoom. Dare I say that anyone that I engaged in a conversation with would not be able to tell that I had learned the language in no more than 3 days.

"Flying Men..." Sola said in the same hushed tone that I had used previously. Nobody except for Sola and the infant she adopted knew that I was capable of such speech. The reason behind that being that I simply didn't want to talk to other men of the Tharkian race. I had heard them talk, and all they ever talk about was fighting and strength. Rarely did I ever see an exception.

"Flying Men?" I asked

"It is the race of Red people. They have learned how to construct gargantuan structures and are well-versed in the ways of science. They are able to construct ships that allow them to sail through the air." Sola explained. "The Tharks, generally, do not see them in a positive light. We are, but a war loving race. Completely opposite to the red men that have adopted feeling such as love and compassion." She continued with a tone of contempt in her voice.

But her expression betrayed her words. Her expression told of a sense of longing.

I had noticed several times before, but among the green martians, Tars Tarkas and Sola were the only people that I had known to exhibit the feelings of love and friendship. Even then, it was very well concealed.

"Is it an attack?" I inquired further.

"Possibly." She answered.

This entire exchange was done in just a few words. Such was martian tongue. Most of the talking was done through telepathy.

Wanting to see such majestic ships that sail through the air, I leapt up towards a nearby window and peered into the valley beyond.

"John Carter!" Sola called out to me but I ignored it.

And there I saw the craft. Long, low, and grey painted structures that roughly resembled the amalgamation of an airplane and a cruise ship came into view from the nearest hills.

And following the first, came another and another and another. Until finally, a total of 20 ships hovered slowly above us.

All of these ships carried a strange banner that swung from stern to stern and on the top of each ship was some odd device, seemingly a solar panel that gleamed in the sunlight. I could see people moving about in the forwards decks and the upper works of the air craft.

I was utterly amazed by such mechanical wonders. Sure, we had things like airplanes on Earth but how could they possibly compare to the absolutely stunning spectacle that were these air crafts?

This seemed like something straight out of a sci-fi movie, which wasn't too off the mark, since the place that I stood was actually the surface of Mars.

As I continued to peer at the air ships, the people on said things were in for a rude welcome.

Just as the ships entered a distance of 200 meters from us, a series of gunshots, akin to explosions sounded.

And with that, a huge volley of attacks fell upon the ships one by one.

Instantly, the relatively peaceful scene was changed into a battlefield. The front ship which seemed to be leading the others swung broadside in our direction and small windows opened up from its side. From these small openings, giant guns that were the side of cannons came out.

Bringing these guns into play, the front ship which had taken most of our fire power returned our attacks with full force.

The front ship, after returning our fire for some time turned back to form a giant circle, which would bring it back to a firing position upon us. The other ships followed in its wake. They all created a giant circle of ships, which although seemed small in diameter when compared to the actual size of the ships, was 180 meters in radius.

And so, three at a time, the ships returned our volley of attacks with their own. Our own attacks never diminished. Every time a bullet shot was heard, a man on the decks fell down with a sound of explosion.

Martian weaponry was unique. Their bullets were loaded with a special type of material that would make them explode when it came in contact with sunlight. This was the reason battles at nights were mostly avoided and if there were any battles, normal bullets were used. For if special bullets were utilized, then upon sunrise, the battlefield would be instantly enveloped by thousands of explosions.

It was also the reason that I had thought that the aim of Martian creatures was bad. And to compensate for the lack of accuracy, they had invented these explosive bullets… Oh, how wrong I was.

Never before in my life, had I ever seen such frightening and pinpoint accuracy. A little figure on one of the craft dropped at the explosion of each bullet, while the banners and upper works were enveloped in a spurt of flames.

The retaliating fire was also quite effective. Nowhere as effective as the Tharks, but effective nonetheless.

So effective in fact that a bullet impacted 2 feet from the window that I was standing on. The resulting explosion destroyed the stone and from the resulting debris, one embedded itself into the upper portion of my right arm.

"Shit!" I cursed out as I covered my arm. I looked towards my arm and noticed that not much damage had been done. It was just a small, sharp piece of metallic stone that was embedded into my bicep.

I slowly pulled it out and held my arm, which, interestingly enough, was not bleeding.

"John Carter! Are you alright?!" Sola called out from below me.

I didn't say anything, lest the Martians find out that I can talk, but merely nodded my head. I'll only reveal that I can talk when I get a better control over this telepathic power that I'd developed.

Now, being more careful than before, I hid myself behind the window more carefully and watched the ensuing battle. The wound on my arm stopped hurting the moment I pulled out the sharp piece of stone.

It seemed like the Tharks all had their own specified targets beforehand.

Some fired for the guns, some fired for what seemed to me to be the main control room of the craft, some fired for the people on the upper works, and the others fired for the steering gears and propellers.

Not twenty minutes after the first volley had been fired, the ships were reduced to a pitiful state.

All of them turned towards the distant hills and made for escape.

Some of them were limping perceptibly. It was clear that they had lost their will to fight and were in no position to make any kind of resistance. The green martian warriors climbed atop the buildings and continued with their attacks.

But it was all for naught. The ships slowly retreated over to the nearby hills and disappeared one by one. And in the end, all that was left was a single one.

The ship was the most pitiful out of all of them. It could not even retreat properly, seeing as how it turned right back towards our direction instead of getting over the hills.

From the place that I stood, I couldn't see a single moving soul on the deck of the ship.

The Green Martian warriors went outside into the open grounds to meet the air craft. It was clear that the air ship could offer no more resistance. It was not even able to hover in the air properly.

The Tharkian warriors, upon reaching below the ship realized that it was still too far up. The ship hovered about 15 meters above the ground and was heading towards the same building in which I was.

When the air craft was only seconds away from crashing into the building, green martian warriors leapt up from the buildings and onto the air ship.

Upon getting onto the ship, they all tied the major anchor points with ropes that they carried and threw down one end of the rope. The rest of the green people latched onto the ropes and held the air craft in place. With the propellers of the ship damaged, keeping the ship anchored in one place was quite an easy feat for the Tharks.

With that, the big boat was hauled to the ground by the collective efforts of the warriors below.

After making the boat land safely onto the ground, the green warriors boarded the ship and searched the entire structure. Presumably for the sign of any survivors.

I continued to watch as the green martians carried out the various smaller figures out into the open. These smaller figures were vaguely humanoid in shape. I could not tell very well because of the distance but I could tell that they had a red color, and had two pair of appendages, unlike the green martians who had 3 pairs.

After some time, some warriors came out of the ship while dragging behind them, a live walking figure. The figure stood at about half of their height. Resembling a normal human in that standard and was also humanoid in shape. And as you might expect, it was also red in color.

They moved the prisoner from the grounds and carried her away. Where? I could not tell.

After they finished examining the vessel for any live people, then started the plundering of the vessel.

For several hours, during the course of which I moved downstairs, the vessel was thoroughly emptied out of any type of resources.

A number of chariots were required to transport the resources from the ship, including but not limited to, weapons, ammunition, silks, furs, various types of food and liquids, and most importantly, liquid water.

Oh! How I've missed you my precious liquid water!

I was beyond happy seeing the jars of water being carried out of the ship. It means that the red martians either have some way to artificially produce this water, or they have some reserviour of water that still hasn't dried up.

Inwardly, I decided that someday I would visit the red martians.

During the time that the martians plundered the air ship, I noticed that the wound on my arm had now been healed up. Not even a scar remained.

I was deeply amazed at my own ability to heal from injuries. Perhaps my intense meditation in the previous days had done more than just unlocking my telepathy powers. I was beyond elated at this discovery. That means that not only would I have the strength and telepathic advantage, but also an advantage in cell activity.

It would seem that Barsoom is all full of surprises for me.

After everything was done, the green martian warriors towed the ship away from the city, over to the hills in the distance. When they were a sufficient distance away, they started what seemed to be a systematic dismantling of the ship. They tore away at the wooden parts and the excessive metal parts. Basically, everything that didn't serve to keep the ship afloat was taken apart.

When the ship was thoroughly dismantled, one of the Tharks threw something onto the deck and waited. And not a moment later, the deck exploded into a sea of flames.

Slowly, the vessel drifted away, ascending higher and higher as the flames ate away at her wooden parts.

I watched the vessel in awe. A wave of nostalgia and regret passed through my mind. For a moment, I had an immense wish for the rest of the vessels to come back and retaliate against the Tharks that had attacked them so unfairly and out of the blue.

I shook my head and went back towards the plaza along with Sola, with the hound, Woola following closely at my heel.

When we reached the plaza though, I witnessed my biggest Martian surprise yet.

Instantly a wave of relief flooded my heart as I gazed upon the prisoner that remained unharmed until now.

The prisoner, who was actually a red martian woman, was being dragged into a nearby building by a couple of green martian females.

The red martian female who had not yet took notice of me was in every way similar to the woman of Earth. Only her beauty transcended the levels of mortal beauty.

Her face was oval and beautiful in the extreme, her every feature was finely chiseled and exquisite, her eyes were large and lustrous. Her head was covered by a mass of coal black, waving hair, that absorbed all the light of the sun. Her skin was of a light reddish copper color, against which the crimson glow of her cheeks and the ruby of her beautifully molded lips shone with a strangely enhancing effect.

As fr her clothes, she was as dressed as all of the other martian woman dress. Save for her highly wrought ornaments, she wore no clothes on her otherwise naked figure. In that moment I was sure of one thing. No matter which Earthly woman was presented before me, none would ever be able to match the majestic beauty that laid in front of my eyes at this moment.

Just as she was about to be carried into the building, she turned to look back at me.

Her eyes met mine and as her gaze rested upon me, her eyes opened wide in astonishment. With that brief hint of surprise that crosses her face for that moment, she made a little sign with her fingers. A sign that I, of course, did not understand. In that instant that I did not reply to any of her signs, her gaze that previously looked at me with astonishment and hope were now replaced with a look of dejection, loathing and contempt.

I felt that she had made a call of help to me and it would have been better for me to respond. But sadly, what was done was done. What was I supposed to do when I don't even recognize the culture of the Barsoomians. I mean, I learned of the culture of the Green Martians, the Tharks, but I was still as ignorant of red martian culture as I was of Tharkian culture on my first day on Mars.

With that short exchange, the prisoner was dragged into the building.