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 said, “So some of these
extraterrestrials wrote in metal on satellites and some wrote on stones – like
the Ten Commandments? That doesn’t make any sense!”
Paolo nodded slowly. “I thought of
one way it might.”
Judas frowned, clearly trying to
parse what Paolo was certain of. “I don’t see it.”
Paolo hesitated. He was going to
have to speak up sometime. Saying it out loud to one man would only risk a
bloody nose rather than speaking to a group and risking a lynching. He said,
“The satellite came first, probably scanning Mars for landing sites and that
kind of thing, some sort of survey. Likely communication, the same way we use
them; maybe surveillance of Phobos and Deimos. Maybe Earth – though there were
likely only dinosaurs there at the time. They were most likely spying on Venus.”
“Venus? What was on Venus?”
“Another intelligence. You remember the
Solar Explorer’s twelve year mission? They returned with evidence supporting
that there was some sort of war that happened here between a civilization on
Venus – that released a weapon or had a weapon released against it.”
He shook his head, scowling. “That’s
a subject for a much longer discussion. Why would they turn around and write on
rocks?”
“Because it was all they had left
after they were marooned here, doomed to die.”
“Why would they be marooned on a
dead planet?”
“Because Mars hasn’t always been
dead. The Northern Hemisphere held Oceanus Borealis, the Paleo Ocean. It
covered a third of the surface. There’s also strong evidence that Mars had a
warm, dense atmosphere. Leaving behind a contingent of observers wouldn’t have
appeared to be a problem. In fact, for a long time, it wasn’t. Then something
huge nearly collided with Mars, stripping its atmosphere away and letting the
oceans boil away into space. It wouldn’t have happened overnight, so the
survivors would have fallen into panic, despair, and finally barbarism. The
rest of the Solar system would have been in turmoil as well. If it happened
sixty-five million years ago, it would explain the acceleration of dinosaur
extinction on Earth. There’s even a chance that the something might have struck
the moon of Venus, propelling it into a new Solar orbit, and laid on the planet
a cataclysmic impact so destructive, it reversed the planet’s rotation…”
Judas hadn’t said a word and Paolo
could see that for an instant, he’d grasped the vision. He suddenly shook his
head violently, “Sheer speculation! I’d have used another ‘s’ word, but I gave
up cussing for Lent.” He snorted, adding, “A pretty picture, I must say. But
pure fantasy…”
Paolo added before he could nod in
self-satisfaction, “Which happens to explain a whole lot of things. Including
the Solar Explorer mission.”
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.”
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