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 (They are HanAH, the
security expert (m); DaneelAH, xenoarchaeologist (m); AzAH, language
expert (f); MishAH, pattern recognition (f).) – 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 (100,000+ words as of now), drop me a line and I’ll
send you the unedited version.
“What about Stepan?”
DaneelAH said.
“Like I said, he’s a big
boy,” said QuinnAH. “If he can’t talk the crazies down from a suicidal riot,
then he ain’t who he says he is. Fact, if he gets hisself killed, then seems to
me like he don’t serve this god he’s talkin’ about – it’d have to be as
‘maginary as U-fee.” He slithered into the hole.
HanAh gestured to AzAH,
then DaneelAH, then MishAH. He looked up to the roof. He couldn’t see Stepan, but
knew he was watching. He whispered, “Good luck…” he snorted, changing his
invocation, “Your God protect you and go with you, Sir.” He followed the
others. A moment later, the wall door and the floor hatch closed. There was a puff
of air, and the dust they’d disturbed was evenly sprayed over the exit, and it
was gone.
DaneelAH followed the
muttering group until they came to a wider room. Pale, biological light came
from some growth on the ceiling. “This is where you gotta go down first, cause
I gotta close and lock the door.”
“What?” HanAH exclaimed. “There’s
no way…”
QuinnAH bent and tugged. A
deafening shriek went along with the opening of a circular floor door. “This here
tube is a slide into the underground. Once you’re down, I’ll follow and we can
catch a car from here to the HOD after I seal up.”
HanAH hesitated. AzAH took a
breath and pushed past him. “We’re in this up to our chins. We either go
forward…” she shrugged, “There is no ‘or’.” She sat down on the edge of the
black hole and pushed up, vanishing. MishAH followed, then DaneelAH.
He said, “Either stay or
come. It’s up to…”
“Shut up and go so we can get
this over with!” HanAH snarled, shoving him. The sound that followed DaneelAH
was clearly laughter.
HanAH turned to the kid, then
pointed two fingers at his eyes, turning the same fingers to QuinnAH’s face. “If
you hurt any of them, I will either find you and kill you myself, or I will
haunt you from the grave.” He dropped down the hole without sitting on the edge.
They slid down a filthy metal
tunnel that angled into the Martian crust. Before Stepan could protest, the boy
twisted in the tunnel and grabbed Stepan’s wrist, dragging him headfirst into
the hole.
The dust was so thick in the
enclosed space, he was wondering if they’d suffocate before they reached the
bottom. The angle decreased until they rumbled to a rusty, dusty stop.
Standing at the bottom of the
cavernous tunnel, lit dimly by a row of LEDs set into the ceiling. They didn’t
exactly illuminate the tunnel, but were definitely brighter than the ghostly
bio. They waited in silence until QuinnAH popped out next to them, rolling
neatly to his feet.
“You done pretty good for old
folks.” He hawked and spit. He set off across the platform until they came to a
rail. “Walk or ride?”
HanAH snorted, “Burroughs is thirty
kilometers across. It takes about five hours to walk across it.”
“When you walk on the surface
in the streets.”
“How long does it take
through the tunnels?”
“Five hours or thirty
minutes.”
DaneelAH frowned as he stepped
up to the rail. In the distance he could hear a deep rumbling overlain with a
static hum, like a cheap fluorescent lamp from the early 21st
Century. “Where are we…”
Quinn lifted a hand that was
deep purple in the light. The ground started to shake. “We’ll be in the HOD in
thirty minutes.”
“How?”
The ground shook like the
million-year marsquake was about to let loose.
“Get ready!”
“For what?” cried DaneelAH
and MishAH together.
“To...” Quinn grabbed them by
the wrist and crouched. “Jump forward
when I tell you to!”
An instant later, a circular
wall filled the far end of the tunnel, the boy backpedalled abruptly, dragging HanAH
and AzAH with him, screaming, “Don’t jump!” He waited for a split second, then
screamed, “Run!” dragging them behind him. Then they were running together. He
screamed, “Jump!”
They did, and fell in a heap
as a noise like a violent rushing wind filled the whole tunnel where they’d
fallen.
“What is this?” DaneelAH
shouted, his voice over loud in the rumbling, empty chamber they were riding in
now.
“A stuffcap. Usually enclosed
capsules full of stuff for the HOD. Me and Stepan had to walk to the HOD, but
this one was open. Everyone in the underground hitches rides on them have been
able to hitch a ride.”
“Thanks, then,” said DaneelAH
as he got to his feet.
“For what?” QuinnAH said.
“Saving our lives. We owe you
a debt.”
In
the flickering light from above, they could see QuinnAH shrug. “Just get the
Wilkerson back to his gardens. We need him.”
HanAH
said, “Don’t worry about your pet preacher, kid. He can take of himself. But we’ll
keep an eye out for him. We have a mission to accomplish,” he gestured to
DaneelAH. “You have to gather the evidence, then present it to the Mayors.”
“I
can’t do the presentation. I’m not Human.”
AzAH
said, “Stepan can do it, but we need to get word to people who can help him.”
HanAH
snorted, “Like who?”
“Our
mystery guide, Paolo. He seems to know what’s happening on Mars. He’s certainly
been manipulating us.”
“I
don’t trust him,” said HanAH.
“You
don’t trust nobody,” said QuinnAH. “‘at’s why we get along so well.” His street
urchin drawl had returned. “I don’t trust nobody, neither.”
AzAH
said, “You trust Stepan.”
QuinnAH
snorted, then dodging the statement, “Sit and take a breather. Once we get back
up and into the HOD, we have to pass through it to get to Breachport.”
“Then
we keep on from there. Paolo has some kind of plan to gather the artifacts and
change Mars,” said MishAH. HanAH snorted derisively as the stuffcapsule slid
through the tunnel deep under the surface of Mars.
No comments:
Post a Comment