May 23, 2019

MARTIAN HOLIDAY 146: Stepan of Burroughs


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 (100,000+ words as of now), drop me a line and I’ll send you the unedited version.

QuinnAH tightened his arm around Stepan’s waist and said, “You can come back when the people aren’t going to murder you and feed you to Mayor Peta Nasseri.”

Squirming, Stepan finally gave up to hang limply over Quinn’s shoulder. “You know I have to…”

“You have to live today so you can come back and keep doing your God’s work!” Quinn threw Stepan over his shoulder. “You’re gonna go down the chute…” Quinn opened the floor chute and kissed Stepan on the cheek, then shoved him into the chute and slammed it shut. Outside the crowd got uglier. Looking at the door, Quinn sighed, then hurried to the secret stairway door. A moment later, the warehouse was empty.

Half way down to the stuffcap tubes, he stopped on a landing. “Wasn’t here before,” he muttered. All Artificial Humans had perception enhancement – it made them more useful to Born Humans. He could see into both the infrared and the ultraviolet. His hearing range had also been altered. Where Humans could hear sounds between low-pitched speaker hum, up to a high-pitched, nearly unheard squeal – not volume, but sound, felt more than heard. AH’s couldn’t quite hear the low hum, but could hear dog whistles, which some Humans used to “call them”.

He heard a sound, just at the edge of his hearing – and he had better hearing than most of his friends. An oldster had quipped, “New model upgrade!” and slapped him on the back of the head.

Quinn stopped in the dark, kneeling, and felt around. An object, roughly spherical but…he rubbed his hands over it…dented and smooth now, but maybe with a rough surface once a long time ago. He dropped the sphere. What if it was something that had belonged to the alien who’d been in the weird space suit Stepan had found and given to the older Artificials? What if this was another artifact? He reached gingerly out and found it, picking it up. Maybe it would be worth a lot of money? Maybe her could buy his freedom. He tucked it into his pants and continued down into the underground as the tunnel of the stuffcap shook around him.



Stepan hadn’t intended to lie to Quinn, but God had laid a call on his heart, not only to feed the poor here on the Rim, but to bring hope to the hopeless. He was fairly certain that the rioters outside the warehouse had been set up for this by his father – if not personally, then set up by agents acting for the Home Owners District. He just didn’t know if the mob was made up of Rimmers or hired thugs from the HOD. He shook his head. There was only one way to find out and Quinn tossing him down the chute had taken that chance away. He sighed. Not that he could have fought himself free.

He had no idea what Quinn would think of him if he knew he’d once been a HODder himself. For an instant, he felt like he should spend some time praying, then smiled. An old Christian he’d known had been leading an underground – literally underground, in the maintenance tunnels under the stuffcap tubes – service when Security blundered into one of their alarms.

The smile faded. If he couldn’t be honest with the boy, who could he be honest with? He needed an…agent…in the area. Someone to speak to his honesty…realizing the irony of that thought made him shake his head and sigh.

First chance he had, he’d tell Quinn everything. This time he did stop and get down on his knees, holding up the entire situation to God, and asking Him to both orchestrate the moment and prepare Quinn’s heart.

And his own.


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