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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