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 140,000+ words as of now), drop me a line and I’ll
send you the unedited version.
“What the hell are you doing up
there?” QuinnAH, the artificial boy disciple shouted from the foot of the
stairs.
Stepan Izmaylova, preacher,
estranged son of a Martian revolutionary, almost dropped the remains. “Language,
please.” There was silence. He relented. “I found something,” he shouted down.
“Something that’s gonna scare you.” The sound of Quinn’s pounding feet as he
charged up the stairs like any other teenager confronted by mystery; stopped
abruptly. “What…”
Stepan tilted the helmet back,
shining the light into the cavity. QuinnAH squeaked. One foot still in the air as
his mouth worked, but no sound came out. Stepan said softly, “I think we’ve
found ourselves another alien.” He squeaked again. Stepan couldn’t help but
smile.
QuinnAH came out of his freeze and shouted,
“Why would you do that to someone?”
“I didn’t do anything to you that
hadn’t happened to me.”
The boy opened his mouth to argue,
then sighed. “Fair enough, Preach.” He paused. “But what now? That b-born pod
left and I don’t think they’re coming back.”
“Why not?”
“They don’t belong here. They be on
some sorta quest. They lookin’ for something and it…”
“I’m not your friends. You can speak
regular English with me,” said Stepan, smiling a bit.
QuinnAH hung his head, “Sorry. I
forget you’re not a normal person.”
Stepan laughed and stood up. Gently
toeing the suit, he said, “We have to move this, probably bag it up, and send
it to DaneelAH and his vatmates. They have the cetacean spacesuit now, and one
of them has access to a Virtual Reality unit that fits it. I have no doubt that
there are other artifacts scattered over Mars.” He pursed his lips then leaned
down to QuinnAH, “And I think something big is brewing on Mars. Something that
will change everything on the Red Planet.”
“You mean like what your god did to
Earth?”
Stepan met his defiant gaze then
slowly nodded, saying, “He did change Earth. But people grabbed what he said,
twisted it and used it for personal gain.” He sighed. “It’s what Humans do as
easily as breathing.”
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