March 1, 2018

MARTIAN HOLIDAY 121: DaneelAH & Company, and Stepan 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 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. They are HanAH, the security expert (m); DaneelAH, xenoarchaeologist (m); AzAH, language expert (f); MishAH, pattern recognition (f).

The four Artificial Humans from Malacandra stepped forward. Stepan looked at them then pulled something from the bag. He set the bag down and lifted what he’d found. It was another bag, narrowing half-way down then flaring at the bottom; four meters long and obviously ancient. Darkened, it was obvious even so that there had been metallic parts that pierced it.

They stared, uncomprehending until suddenly AzAH said, “I recognize this.”

“You’ve seen something like this?” HanAH said.

“No,” she said.

HanAH looked at her, scowling.

“Not something like this. Part of this.”

“What?” said Stepan, AzAH, and DaneelAH in unison.

She shook her head. “I can’t even begin to speculate how they’re related, but I can only state that Mayor Turin, in his personal collection of Martian geological artifacts, has something like this. It has more metal and what were once four protrusions, though two have been torn away. Seeing this, I can only come to one conclusion: the two halves together would make a spacesuit.”

Stepan shook his head, “It can’t be. No one could fit into anything like that.”

AzAH paused, “Not one of us, people. Not something Human.”

HanAH guffawed, throwing his head back. “What are you talking about? A goat space suit? An orangutan space suit? A…a…tuna suit?” He laughed again.

AzAH rolled her eyes and held out her tablet. A hologram solidified above it. Material dark and crumpled, rags hanging from a helmet so badly scratched it was white. But it was in one piece. The neck was a wide ring, the bubble swept down first to a narrower smaller bubble, ending in a blunt cone. “You have the tail of the suit, this is the front.”

“It is not!” HanAH exclaimed. “They aren’t…”

“Don’t act stupid just because you were mistaken, AzAH,” said DaneelAH. “They’re part of the same suit. HanAH crossed his arms over his chest, scowling. “Stepan, what do you think?”

QuinnAH nudged him, “His name is Pastor Stepan.”

Stepan smiled slightly, “What does it look like to me?”

DaneelAH shrugged, “Sure.”

“It looks like a spacesuit a dolphin would have worn.”

“What’s a dolphin?” QuinnAH said.

“A…sort of small whale that lives on Earth,” said DaneelAH. “At one time its kind were feared extinct, killed mostly because they were so smart, that the Humans of the time thought the creatures might be better than they were.”

Everyone stared at him. AzAH said, “How would you know something like that – and what could it possibly have to do with Mars?”

DaneelAH snorted and shook his head. “After that kind of response, I’ll just keep my thoughts to myself.” He pointed at the wiry contraption with the glass rectangle. “What do you think that is, Stepan?”

He shook his head. “A spacesuit with a skeleton in it had this clutched in its glove. I don’t have any idea what it might…”

“VR,” said QuinnAH.

MishAH nodded, “Exactly. But not of Human design and not made for a Human head, either.” She held out her hand. DaneelAH handed it to her. She spent several moments examining it. She looked up, “You found this in the glove of a dead Human, turned to dust and bones in their spacesuit?”

“Yes. In a room built into the base of the Dome – and on the other part, an airlock that lets out of the Dome.”

“An airlock?” HanAH said. Stepan nodded. “Then this must have been part of the very first settlement here.” He swept them with his eyes, “The skeleton could be two centuries old.”

AzAH shook her head. “This VR set is a lot older than that.”

“So it’s another artifact,” DaneelAH said, “The stele, the dolphin suit, there are probably other artifacts scattered all over the surface of Mars.”

“Why?” QuinnAH said suddenly. “Really? So what?” There’s all kinds of artifacts out there! Why should any of them matter to us?”

“Good question, Son,” said Stepan. “They wouldn’t matter if we know what they were doing here. If there is life elsewhere in the universe, what was it doing on Mars?”

QuinnAH shrugged, “Dying?”

HanAH lifted his hand to strike the boy until Stepan said, “It could be.” He shook his head, “But we won’t know.” He handed waved to them, “You can have the tail piece as well as the VR unit. We,” he looked down at QuinnAH, “have work to do here.” He nodded. “Good luck.”

DaneelAH said, “Thank you, Stepan. Whatever we find, we’ll send word.” He gestured to the floor opening, “May we take the steps down to the floor?”

“Be my guest. Be careful of the spacesuit with bones.”

HanAH saluted, “We will, Reverend.”


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