February 15, 2018

MARTIAN HOLIDAY 120: Paolo In Burroughs


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, 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.

Judas scowled. “We have more immediate problems – outside of recent history and ancient history. The mind police will be looking for you and they’ve already marked some of our Church members. They’ll be tagged again and some brought in for questioning.” He paused, adding, “They don’t question Burroughs citizens like they question citizens of Opportunity. Here, they use lead pipes.”

Paolo shuddered. “I’m sorry. There’s really only one thing to do, then.”

“What’s that?”

He walked down the corridor and popped the hatch again, saying, “I turn myself in.”

Judas exclaimed, “No!” He ran after Paolo.

“Only way to keep the fellowship safe in Burroughs and for me to prove that the vast majority of Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, and Artificial Humans don’t mean anyone any harm…”

“They’ll argue that some will! Some have!”

Paolo nodded, “Then we’ll tell them that that is true. I plan on leaving unsaid that some people with the Unified Faith in Humanity can also intentionally harm others. Any number of murders, assaults, embezzlements, and even an atrocity or two have demonstrably been perpetrated by someone not belonging to one of the banned philosophy groups.”

“Nothing has ever been banned…”

“Rightspeak then, if you insist, ‘non-guaranteed philosophy groups’. Crimes have been committed by people whose philosophical foundation is guaranteed by Martian Law to be held innocent of intentional harm. People who have ancient faith foundations are not.”

Judas exclaimed, “If you preach…”

“I already preached. From here on out, I plan on living my faith.”

“You could die!”

“I could go outside and be caught in a micrometeorite shower and die. I could have a seal blowout. I could trip and fall off the edge of the platform.” He shrugged, “I could stroke out right here.” He held his arms out, palms toward Judas, then let them drop, “I guess not at that moment. So, I’ll keep living for Christ and I’ll keep gathering artifacts to prove that Humans are not alone in the universe.” He stepped out, then looked around the airlock door, “In fact, some of that non-Human intelligence might still be around.”

“There’s nothing…”

Paolo saluted him, said, “You’d better get out of here. I assume your children are already safe. I can see that the mind police are here for me.” He pushed the airlock closed and leaned against it. The mind police, whose tools included numerous ways of digging into someone’s mind. Some were chemical, some nanotechnological, some involving sound, radiation, or even, rumor had it, physical persuasion. He found himself grinning, anticipating experiencing some of the things his namesake had experienced.

He didn’t see the spindly tall man running on the sidewalk that ringed the gMod platform until it was too late. He tried to step back, but the lock had closed and he couldn’t turn fast enough to activate the palm lock before the runner crashed into him.

Their limbs tangled as both went down, scattering the crowd around them as well as tumbling themselves. Even as they collided, Paolo wondered at the irony of it. About to go into the world and give himself up, he not only succeeded, but drew the attention of the crowd, this time inadvertently.

The man who’d plowed into him rolled free and staggered to his feet, saw Paolo and offered his hand. “I am so sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going! I don’t know what I was thinking!” He was young, had a head of flame-red hair, and a spattering of freckles. The coloration was so rare on Mars as to be nearly unique and referred to as Lotharians, after the reclusive, auburn-haired alien species of Edgar Rice Burrough’s Barsoom books.

The gathered crowd went from scowls to eye-rolling quickly. Some even bent over Paolo and asked if he was all right. Smiling, he waved them off gently, saying, “No harm done. I’m fine, just a little bruised.”

The young man’s eyes were wide and extremely blue as he fussed around Paolo. People were shaking their heads, smiling, and returning to their business so that none of them noticed when he lean into Paolo and whispered, “You have to leave immediately. I’ll meet you outside. I’ll be walking the secondary road heading northwest toward Cydonia.”


Then he was gone.


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