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 (36,000 words as of now),
drop me a line and I’ll send you the unedited version.
He nodded, “And I think I’ve gotten
myself an irreplaceable new fund-raising coordinator.” He paused, adding,
“Depending on how well you pull this one off.”
**
Aster Theilen stared across her father’s
dinner table. Abedne Halle-Theilen sighed and said, “The amount of money that
goes into the decorations for the
Mayor’s fund raiser...”
“Dad, Mayor Etaraxis may not be the
best Human on Mars, but he has strong feelings about these kids. He felt the
Orphan Fund was something that people should contribute to when it’s really an
ugly issue. Humans meddling with the genome of other Humans to create Martians.
We were left with a legacy of twisted Humans and we need to do something about
it. He said that he thought that the undercity is beginning to look
Post-Industrial England.”
“The Mayor of Opportunity reads Dickens?”
“He might do more things than we think
he does. He also knows more than I realized he knows.”
“What?”
She shook her head, “Forget it. Change
of subject.” She stood up and picked up the plates and plasticware, taking them
to the kitchenette. “As to the fund raiser, His Honor has pretty much given me
carte blanche to take the whole thing in a new direction…”
“Are you ever going to call him by his
first name? You are, after all, his wife.”
Aster stared at him, mouth open. Finally she said, “I’m not…exactly…his
wife...”
“What are you then? I understand that
you’re a sort of icon, a sort of Queen of Opportunity, I suppose you could say.”
“My title now is Mayoral Consort.” He
nodded and smiled a bit. Inexplicably, she was irritated and snapped, “What’s
so funny?”
He held up both hands, as if
surrendering. “There’s absolutely nothing funny here, daughter.”
“Then why are you laughing?”
He nodded slowly and reached for his
Bible. Aster knew what it was, though it was disguised as a standard computer
tablet. Which it was. But Dad kept it separated from the broadband connection,
walled by heavily encrypted firewall. Even if an aggressive worm got onto his
tablet, it wouldn’t be able to get into his illegal Bible. He held it up and
said, “Your story bears a number of touch points with the story of Esther.
Without giving you a concise synopsis, suffice it to say that if you read it,
you’ll find that she had the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of
her entire people, the Jews.”
“Dad!” Aster exclaimed. Mention of
specific old Earth religions was specifically prohibited by law. While this was
supposed to be sweeping, in practice people – even Artificial Humans like the
Mayor’s secretary – could be fined for mentioning them. In practice however,
mentioning any other of the old divisive religions other than Christianity or
Judaism or Islam would result in mild rebuke. Mention one of the Gang of Three,
and fines were typical; jail time likely. But no one had heard him. Aster
leaned over and said, “I have to get back to work, Dad. If you think of any way
to get people to donate to the Orphan Fund, let me know.”
He accepted the peck on the cheek with
a smile and said, “I will, Sweetie.”
She headed out of the apartment,
scowling. Why did his advice bother he so much? She wasn’t doing anything wrong
– but she wasn’t on a crusade, either. She was so occupied, she didn’t notice
someone following her several dozen meters behind her.
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