Space DogS

"Wow - that’s deep" exclaimed the space suited Nef. He looked down into the dark chasm in the Claritas Fossae region of Mars. As he stood near the edge, he dislodged a few small stones from his boot and watched them tumble slowly into the darkness until they were engulfed by distance.

Nefarious Reasons was a large man standing six foot six inches tall. His space suit looked a bit 'stretched' as one size definitely did not fit all. He looked back up and focussed on the ping in his helmets visual display. He had been following the in his suite internal navigation system for the past few hours. It insisted that the rendezvous was five hundred metres diagonally across the ravine, but he could not see a way to cross. He carried on following the ravine roughly in the right direction.

Three hundred metres to go and the ping now moved to point to the middle of the ravine.

“This thing is broken.” Thought Nef. He could not communicate with the ping sender as the meeting was supposed to be secretive. As he continued to walk, he saw a dark shape appear across the ravine. “Well I’ll be” A rock bridge spanned the ravine a few hundred meetings across. Lights appeared from the land bridge and seemed to pierce the darkness below the bridge. It had been obscured by the bend, but he could now clearly see some kind of structure.

“That explains it.” thought Nef. He looked over to the land bridge and zoomed in on the source of the spot lights. He could make out a metallic structure just below the bridge. It had a large array of windows all overlooking the ravine and a walkway around which people seemed to be looking from. He approached cautiously. As he got closer, a road appeared that led to a vehicle park to service the buildings clientele.

Welcome to Dante’s Leap Restaurant and viewing Gallery, announced a sign in the vehicle park. It was a well looked after sign in green neon. The vehicles ranged in styles and inferred a mixed clientele. “Not completely exclusive then” thought Nef.

He approached the entrance which was positioned in the centre of the rock bridge. Behind the glass airlock were two burly security guards with the compulsory sunglasses and hearing aids. Nef went through the airlock.

“Hi” he said grinning.

One of the security guards spoke. “Welcome to Dante’s Leap. You may remove your suit in the restroom.” The guard indicated a room to the side. “Dusk is thirty minutes away, so if you wish to see the art displays, make your way to the viewing gallery after de-suiting.” The guard handed Nef a leaflet.

Nef lifted his helmet visor up and read.

“Dante’s Leap. All art works may be purchased from the owner and subject to negotiation.” On the other side was a list of food and drink prices with the slogan. The best eatery this side of Hell. Nef scanned the menu. There were a lot of meat dishes. The restaurant’s speciality was Beef Wellington with a red wine jus. ‘ Hum, I might try that later’ thought Nef.

Nef went to the restroom, removed his suit and flattened the creases in his attire. He put on his own glasses which displayed the ping to his contact, now only a few dozen metres away downwards. Nef followed the ping. He went through corridors that had been hewn in the rock. There were a number of rooms which contained bars, nightclubs and restaurants. Eventually he came to a large expanse which seemed to be the main restaurant. The room contained hundreds of tables with various people sitting  eating, drinking, ordering food and complaining about the slow service. The hassled waitresses and waiters zipped between the throbbing crowd as best they could.

The ping led Nef out onto the viewing gallery that he had spied on the way in. The walkway ran around the whole of the main room. Nef made his way out and looked up. The restaurant was effectively suspended below the land bridge. The spot lights pointed to the edges of the ravine and highlighted the artworks. There were several hundred statues hewn into the ravines side. The statutes were based on Dante’s Inferno masterpiece. The various depictions of hell were made into grotesque statues and friezes. Some space suited artists could be seen in the far reaches working the pieces. The artwork was continually evolving. The statutes stretched down the ravine into the darkness. You could just imagine this being the entrance to hell itself. Some of the viewers had opera glasses and were appraising various pieces.

“I see Hugo is about to encapsulate a new piece” a woman said to Nef’s left. He looked at the crowd and followed their eyes downwards to where one of the artists was working. There were two assistants with a body between them attaching the body to the rock face. When they completed the attachment, the artist moved from limb to limb, moving various body parts into a position he was happy with and then sprayed something onto the body part to keep it in place. When he was finished, he sprayed the whole body with what looked like a thin layer of red coloured cement from a portable spray gun attached to his sut. A new art piece had been constructed made from flesh and stone.

“I hope the body was dead” thought Nef aloud. The group turned as one to him. The woman who had spoken first said. “Of course young man. They donated their body to be created into an art piece that will last till the end of time - just before they suicided. There is nothing abhorrent in that.”

“How would you go about purchasing a piece then?” asked Nef grotesquely curious.

“This is just the viewing gallery. If you like a piece, point it out and a copy will be made for you  as soon as a new body is donated.”

“Well I will bare that in mind, thank you” said Nef with a fixed grin. Suddenly the idea of Beef Wellington made his stomach turn.

Nef went to find his contact.