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.
Stepan Izmaylova knelt to study the
artifact again, went back into the airlock, and opened one of the storage
compartments. Inside was a box of specimen bags, usually used for geological
samples. He took one, shook it out, and returned, picking up the glass and wire
object – ‘cyclops glasses’, he decided finally – into the bag. He gently tied
the top and stepped out of the airlock, debating whether or not to close it.
He looked up and called, “Quinn?”
He wasn’t expecting Quinn to have been
joined by four other heads, peering down at him, silhouettes in the brilliant
light from above.
***
Fifteen minutes earlier,
Quinn had stopped at a hollow lift tube, slapping the activation pad. The floor
glowed a dim red as he stepped onto it.
“I’m not riding on
that!” HanAH said. “It’s so old it’ll quit halfway up!”
The boy shrugged, “Suit
yourself. The stairs are down the corridor and to your left.” AzAH, DaneelAH,
and MishAH stepped in with the boy.
DaneelAH waved. “See you
upstairs.”
HanAH strode forward,
muttering, “Someone in this pod has to use their head for something more than a
battering ram!” He squeezed between the boy and his vat mates as the gMod lift
tube started up to the surface. They rose up slowly – if the lift had been a
mechanical elevator, it would have creaked and groaned, rattling to the surface
where it deposited them like a cat vomiting. “This is a pestilential hole!”
Quinn spun around and
would have kicked him in the shin if DaneelAH hadn’t steered him ahead of them.
To HanAH, he said, “Temper, temper, mate. This is where the boy and his hero
live.”
Quinn looked up at
DaneelAH, jerking free of his hand, saying, “He ain’t no hero, but he’s a good
man! He tryin’ to make the Rim a better place.”
AzAH spoke before her
vat mate could. “What’s he been doing?”
“He’s got plans that can
help – like we’re looking at the roof of this big old warehouse thing he’s got.”
“What’s he want with
something like that if he’s a preacher?” HanAH snapped.
“He’s growing plants –
fruit, veggies, stuff like that. I think personally he should grab some chickens
and guineas. I know exactly where I can nab a few to start us off.”
DaneelAH sent AzAH and
MishAH a lop-sided grin. MishAH lengthened her stride until she was alongside
the boy. She said, “Why would he do that?”
Quinn shrugged,
lengthening his own stride, challenging her. MishAH kept up with him easily –
she spent many of her free hours strengthening her body. He glanced at her and
said, “He wants to feed us on the Rim.”
“You need food?” He
snorted. She tilted her head and half-smiled. “I see.” He turned suddenly,
going down crumbling steps and into a huge, deeply shadowed warehouse. “This is
it?”
“On the roof.”
“What’s on the roof?”
HanAH said.
“My pastor.”
“Does he have a name?”
asked MishAH.
“Pastor. The name he calls
himself Stepan, but it ain’t his real one.”
“What’s that mean?”
asked DaneelAH. They reached the back of the warehouse. “What are we going to
do here?”
Quinn whistled sharply.
There was a clank high overhead in the darkness and a moment later a battered
gMod disk floated down and thunked on the ground. “We have to go up one at a
time.”
“There’s no stairway?”
“Nope…well, yes.”
“We’ll take that up, then,” said HanAH.
“We’ll take that up, then,” said HanAH.
“If you want. Meet you
up there.” He stepped on the disk and with a whistle, it began to rise.
“Wait!” HanAH said.
“What?”
“What’s wrong with the
stairs?”
“They haven’t been
touched since somebody put up boards and sealed the thing.”
“How are we supposed to open
the boards?”
“The cop guy thinks he
knows how. Let him.” With a whistle so high they could barely hear it, he rose
quickly and disappeared above.
“What was that all
about?” HanAH said.
AzAH snorted with
laughter then said, “He’s tweaking you, mate. He thinks you’re a puffer.”
“Me?”
All three of them
laughed. A moment later, the gMod disk floated back down. They wasted no time
in ascending to the roof one at a time. The Martian sun, even magnified and concentrated
by lenses built into the Dome structures, still had to be supplemented to grow
Earth plants and keep Humans in peak physical condition. HanAH said grumpily, “The
place is still a dump.”
AzAH said, “Dumping
ground more like.”
Quinn suddenly screamed,
“Help! Help! Stepan is trapped!”
The boy was face down on
the roof, head sticking out over a square hole in the roof. The others dropped
down to their chests and peered over as well.
Far below, the pale face
of a man looked up. DaneelAH said, “Mr. Izmaylova, I presume?”
“It is, but I have
something very interesting I’ve discovered.”
HanAH snorted and said, “What
exactly do you think you’ve discovered?”
“A wearable computer
screen – ancient and possibly not of Human origin.”
“How can you tell that?”
“Well, as far as I can
tell, the Human would have to have a brain case thirty centimeters across and
have one eye…”
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