On a well-settled Mars, the five major city Council regimes
struggle to meld into a stable, working government. Embracing an official
Unified Faith In Humanity, the Councils are teetering on the verge of pogrom
directed against Christians, Molesters , Jews, Rapists, Buddhists, Murderers,
Muslims, Thieves, Hindu, Embezzlers and Artificial Humans – anyone who
threatens the official Faith and the consolidating power of the Councils. It
makes good sense, right – get rid of religion and Human divisiveness on a
societal level will disappear? An instrument of such a pogrom might just be a
Roman holiday...To see the rest of the chapters and I’m sorry, but a number of
them got deleted from the blog – go to SCIENCE FICTION:
Martian Holiday on the right and scroll to the bottom for the first
story. If you’d like to read it from beginning to end (70,000+ words as of
now), drop me a line and I’ll send you the unedited version.
“You probably have a tracker on you!”
Aster Theilen shook her head, “Dad, please give FardusAH some credit.”
“Who’s that?” said Abedne
Halle-Theilen.
“She’s a friend of mine.”
“How did you meet her?”
Aster frowned, then said, “She’s one of the Artificial Human who serves the
Mayor. She knows I want to use my position to change Martian society. I’m sure
anything the Mayor put on my to track my whereabouts – and I don’t think it’s
come to that yet – she would have neutralized or redirected…”
“It’s not the Mayor I’m worried about, Aster. It’s vo’Maddux…”
A woman’s voice in the darkness said, “And you’d be correct to worry about
just that, Madame Consort. Entirely and completely correct…”
Aster and her father spun in different directions and ran out of the tunnel
junction into two of the three corridors what didn’t appear on the map. Aster
shot a glance over her shoulder. There were no lights and she didn’t hear
anything behind her. Only the voice and only the one time. She did, however,
know vo’Maddux. She ran and didn’t stop until she had a stitch in her side.
Finally, chest heaving as she gasped for air, she stopped to lean against a
wall she could only feel in the stygian darkness.
The same woman spoke again, low-pitched, threatening, “These tunnels may be
dark to you, Madame Consort, but there are those who can see in them as if it
were only twilight instead of cave-dark. Others could see you glowing as if you
were a lantern because they have genetically engineered eyes enhanced to see
into the infrared.” She paused, “I am one of those.”
“You can’t do anything to me vo’Maddux. Even you can see that the Mayor
would suspect you if I disappear.” Aster kept her voice level, calm, as if she
were speaking to FardusAH. “He’s never trusted you.”
She heard the shrug in a faint rustle of fabric. “I don’t want his trust. I
want his job.”
Aster shook her head. “That’s not how it works, Dear.” She used the diminutive
on purpose. vo’Maddux had a well-known temper, goaded by certain people with
ease. “Besides if you can see me, then you must have genetic adaptations. What
makes you different from any other Artificial Human?”
“I’m not Artificial!” the woman shouted, then cleared her throat. “My gene
scan will show that I’m almost seventy-four percent Original DNA Human.”
“Hmmm. Not as high a percentage as I am, but I suppose that’s adequate. It
certainly keeps you in a respected job.”
She didn’t speak for some time. When she did, her voice was very low, “I
may have underestimated you, Dear.”
Aster pursed her lips. Her own hearing, while not genetically enhanced, had
always been superb. From movements, breathing, and the location of the woman’s
voice, she was certain to within centimeters of where she was; where her throat
would be. vo’Maddux finally spoke, “I won’t do so any more. Your career in the
Mayor’s office…”
Aster cut her off, “…was not anything I ever cared for. You would have it
if I could give it away.” She paused, waiting for the other woman opened her
mouth before she cut her off, “But I’m the one who has it and you won’t get rid
of me as easily as you got rid of the other Consorts.”
There was a long pause, the vo’Maddux said, “Don’t make the mistake I just
made.”
Aster hummed and waited for the sound of receding footsteps, the followed
after her.
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