The First Poet Laureate of Mars

by T E Olivant

  He could not lift his left arm at all now. It was a shame because he would have dearly loved to punch the actor in the face. Preferably hard enough to break his perfect nose.

  “How did you get involved with the Merchants?” Tolly asked, more to keep his mind focused on the present than out of any real interest.

  “They wanted to get into the Entertainment sector. The biggest single consumable of the twenty-seventh century. And up until now the Augments have had control. The Merchants have been buying actors and studios for months now. Between that and Utopia, they are going to control everything that matters in the entire solar system.”

  “What is Utopia?”

  “You’ll see for yourself. We’re just about to land.”

  The automated system brought the shuttle down a tunnel underneath the Martian surface. Derek had managed to find a maintenance trolley from somewhere and he lifted Tolly on to it.

  “Did you really cause the Venus disaster,” Derek asked while Tolly shivered in pain.

  “I… don’t know. I may have done. I could have done.”

  “Then I’m not sorry for this. I had a cousin who died that day.”

  Tolly said nothing. He looked up at the ceiling as he was pushed down a long ramp. He was only half aware of his surroundings and thought he might have passed by some guards, but he didn’t much care anymore. No one was going to help him anyway. He was an Augment in a Merchant base, and a sick Augment at that. He was on his own.

  Finally, the trolley rolled to a stop. Derek came around and pulled him gently into an upright position.

  “Take a look at Utopia,” he said.

  Tolly blinked and then stared around him. It was an impressive feat of engineering. It was also triggering some memories, but nothing so strong he could make it out. There was definitely something familiar about it.

  “It is very impressive.”

  “Is that all you have to say?”

  “I have a small headache.” Like the atmospheric pressure on the surface of Venus was boring down on his skull.

  “You’re not really dying are you? I thought that was all just to get Hester to do what you want.”

  Tolly’s eyes rolled around his head, but he managed to focus on the scene below him. “It is impressive. Whoever designed it did a good job. But I remember when Sat Three looked just like this. The problem is no one ever maintains them. People get greedy and start stealing from each other. Or they get lazy and they let things slide. People make a Utopia. Not the environment.”

  Derek’s knuckles whitened on the handle of the trolley. “You really are sick, aren’t you? I should have taken you to a medical center. I thought Augments lived forever.”

  “Not true.”

  “If you live long enough you become a god, isn’t that what the Augments say?”

  “Augments don’t say that.”

  “Really? They sure seem to think it. Why did you do it, Tolly? Why did you become an Augment?”

  “My father asked me to. Not my biological father, but a man called Hume.”

  “Why is the name familiar?”

  “He created the first Augment. In other words, me.”

  Derek stared at him in horror. “I never realized that you were the first Augment.”

  “I don’t talk about it much. H-men tend to be irrational about it.”

  “Imagine that.” Derek looked around him. “Look, they haven’t arrived yet. This was a stupid idea. I thought you would be able to escape the Merchants yourself once I had persuaded them to trade, but you can’t even walk. I’ll think of another way to get Hester out.”

  “Too late.”

  Tolly had heard the footsteps. He just about managed to focus on the three figures walking towards them. Three Augment figures trailed by one h-man.

  “I thought you were giving me to the Merchants.”

  “So did I. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t waste your breath. Just let me get close enough to Rowhan so I can rip his spinal cord out through his neck.”

  “Ummn, you don’t look like you should be getting into any fights.”

  Tolly ignored him. True, he was experiencing spasms in most of his muscles, and his brain was getting slower and slower, but he had enough energy to take the other Augment out. No wonder h-men enjoyed the thrill of mindless violence. It was intoxicating.

  Rowhan arrived flanked by a young male Augment known as Joi, and a familiar face on the other side. Tolly tried not to look at Cybill, but he could see the young Augment’s muscles twitching.

  “Welcome Augment,” Rowhan said, as if Tolly had arrived to receive a commendation.

  Derek had walked over to the male h-man that had arrived with the Augments.

  “This was not the deal, Fisher!” The actor wailed. “I said you could have him, not them. And where is Hester?”

  “We’re going to get her now. You of all people must know how important it is to have an audience.”

  Tolly saw Derek shudder. “In the movies it never means anything good when the bad guys talk about stage three,” the actor muttered.

  “On the contrary it is wonderful,” Rowhan replied. “The completion of an earth-like home for our people. What could be better?”

  An elbow dug into his ribs and Tolly cried out in pain.

  “Please try to remain conscious, Augment,” Rowhan said. “You will appreciate witnessing the next stage,” the other Augment said, bring his face to within an inch of Tolly’s, “it was your project, after all.”

  Chapter 40

  Fisher arrived bang on time.

  “Do you get a result?”

  “I did. Until I deleted it.” Hester’s voice didn’t sound as brave as she hoped it would.

  “I see.” She could understand how he managed to control the other merchant gangs. He barely flinched.

  “You will be punished for this, of course. I’m afraid it will most likely be painful, but probably brief. And all rather futile unfortunately. Simean, did she notice the recording device?”

  “The one you put on my shirt?” the guard grinned, exposing sharp yellow teeth. “She never even looked at it.”

  “Excellent. Let’s take a look shall we.”

  Hester moved away from the console to let Fisher sit down. The guard called Simean placed a hand on her shoulder. It was about as pleasant as an unexpected cockroach landing there.

  “You see, I had my suspicions that you might be the noble type. Idiot hackers protecting one another, that kind of thing. I wanted to make sure that if you deleted everything, we would still have a copy.”

  “Very clever,” Hester said through gritted teeth.

  “I thought so. And now…” He clicked on a file. A tinny musical sound came from the speakers and moving blocks appeared on the screen.

  “What the hell is this?

  “A retro moving blocks game from the old Earth days,” Hester explained. “It is proving quite popular with people for playing on their datapads. People like your guard here who was playing it when I deleted the video feed I detected within five seconds of sitting here. Did you forget that you were dealing with a god damn hacker!”

  Fisher clicked at the screen desperately but nothing he could do would stop the cascade of blocks falling downwards.

  “Idiot!” Fisher turned around and Hester saw he was holding a stun gun. She didn’t even have time to scream before he pushed it into the guard’s chest. There was a pulse of light and the big man was flung backwards. The whole room shook with the impact as he crashed to the floor.

  Hester tried to breathe, but she could only take ragged gasps. “I thought… they were non-lethal.”

  The guard’s eyes stared up at her blankly.

  “I modified it,” Fisher said, and the calmness in his voice chilled her soul.

  “You didn’t have to kill him.”

  “If I’d told him to kill you, he would have done it with his bare hands. Don’t waste your sympathy, I can’t afford to work with incompetents. Alro,
clean up in here. You, hacker, you’re coming with me. I’ve got some friends who will want to deal with you and I’m afraid they won’t be as merciful as I am.”

  Fisher took her by the arm and led her out of the room. She was trembling all over and if it hadn’t been for Fisher’s arm around her, she might have fallen. It was a strange combination of intimacy and repulsiveness.

  Hester barely saw where they were going. She kept getting flashes of Simean’s blank eyes staring up at her.

  “What a shame that the Augments will want to eliminate you. You really are the most talented hacker I have ever seen. It is such a waste.”

  “You could tell them you shot me already. I could… maybe we could make some sort of deal.”

  “Sorry, I find it better to work with people who don’t have any principles.”

  Hester shivered. She was running out of options, and when she saw the group of Augments approaching she realized she was out of time too. Then she saw the trolley.

  “Tolly!” She wrenched free of Fisher’s grasp and ran to the Augment’s side. Tolly’s eyes had rolled back in his head. His chest was moving up and down but apart from that he was completely still.

  “You’ve got him flung on here like scrap metal! He’s dying, can’t you bastards show him a little respect.”

  The Head Augment – Rowhan, that was his name – gave her a typical blank look.

  “The Augment could have saved himself if he had not rejected the memory erase.”

  “You told him it was going to be a week, you liar!”

  Hester flung herself towards him only for a muscular arm to wrap itself around her shoulders.

  “Leave it,” Derek said.

  “Get off!” Hester said, but she felt the fight go out of her a little. If she lost her head, she would only be letting Tolly down. Tempting as it was to beat Rowhan to a pulp, it wouldn’t change anything.

  The Augments and Fisher were having a discussion. Hester didn’t have to guess what it was about.

  “You erased the evidence of the identity of the hacker?” Rowhan said.

  The hacker! She had almost forgotten about it, the sight of Tolly’s broken body putting everything else out of her mind. But there, standing not two feet away from her, was Cybill. Hester wanted to reassure the Augment that they were safe, but instead she made sure to look away.

  “I did.”

  “What is your price?”

  “My price?”

  “You are now the only person who knows who the hacker is,” Rowhan said and his brows creased for a second. Hester recognized the expression of irritation and was pleased to crack through the Augment’s mask. “I ask again, what is your price? H-men always have a price.”

  “Not this one.”

  Rowhan’s cheeks flushed.

  “You should check your hormone levels,” Hester said with mock concern. “Probably time to dope up on the happy drugs.”

  “You –”

  Cybill stepped out from behind him. “Perhaps we should give them some time to consider their position, Augment. We have business to attend to with the Council.”

  Rowhan worked his jaw for a moment. Then gave a curt nod.

  “Take them to somewhere secure,” he said to Fisher. “We will send for them shortly.”

  Fisher said nothing as he led them to another cell like room.

  “For a Utopia this place makes an awfully good prison,” Hester said as he waved them inside.

  “Just you remember that if you’re tempted to escape. Alro here will be stationed at the door and he has my permission to shoot you if you put one foot outside.

  With that he slammed the door shut. Hester rushed over to Tolly and felt for his pulse. Still faint, but still there.

  “Look, I’m sorry about the Augment,” Derek said. The actor rubbed a hand over his gaunt cheek. He had aged a decade in the last couple of days. “But he wasn’t exactly your friend, was he? Persus told us he was responsible for the Venus disaster, never mind what else he got up to over the last three hundred years. I’d trade his life for yours any day.”

  “That’s the thing, Derek,” Hester replied, her eyes never leaving the Tolly’s pale face. “I never thought lives were something that should be traded.”

  They stood together in sullen silence for a minute.

  “Life isn’t like in the movies, is it,” Derek said quietly, his eyes on the floor.

  “Maybe you just had the movie wrong. You wanted it to be handsome hero rescues the damsel in distress and saves the day. Turns out it’s plucky heroine knocks out traitor and saves the day.”

  “I don’t understand?”

  Whap. Hester slammed the insta-tranq into his neck. Derek’s eyes bulged for a second, then he fell to the floor.

  “Bastard,” she said, giving him a prod with her toe. “Good riddance.”

  Chapter 41

  Tolly had been drifting through space and time. There was nothing but the endless blackness of the universe. Then there was a voice. It grew stronger, more insistent. In fact, it was kind of annoying. He wished the voice would just let him go.

  Then he heard his name.

  “Tolly! Tolly, you total lazy bastard. Wake up and help me or I’ll kill you myself.”

  Consciousness hit him like a slap to the face.

  “Hester?”

  “Who else would put up with you. Come on now, time to sit up.” As the girl pulled him off the trolley and helped him onto a seat, he thought he could see the tracks of tears on her cheeks.

  “Have you been crying?”

  “It’s been kind of a rough day.”

  Tolly saw a body slumped on the floor. The muscular form was crumpled and snoring gently. Someone appeared to have stolen his shoes. “What happened to the actor?”

  “A nice little hit of insta-tranq. I liberated them from your pocket. To be honest, I mainly knocked him out to stop myself from killing him. He’ll probably thank me when he wakes up.”

  Tolly pointed at Derek’s shoes. “And you took his shoes?”

  “Yeah. I spotted a garbage chute in the corner of the room so I threw then down there.”

  “To stop him from escaping?”

  “More from general badness. I really don’t like people that hurt my friends.”

  Tolly digested this for a moment. “All right. What did I miss?”

  “I know who’s been trying to help us. It’s a hacker from the inside.”

  “It’s Cybill.”

  Hester’s eyes went wide. “In the movies they call that a spoiler.”

  Tolly massaged his temple. “I met with Cybill after you and Derek left. They told me about the Augments and the Merchants working together, but they didn’t know why. They seemed to think that the Merchants had a hold over the Augments. Something to do with the Venus – aargh – disaster.”

  “Do the memories still hurt you?”

  “Like a meteor smashing into a planet. Yes.”

  “Well, someone gave me access to a computer, which was really dumb of them but really good for us. I know what’s going on, or at least some of it. The Augments let the Merchants build Utopia on Mars because it’s all for them. The Augments are expanding, Tolly. They are going to make three hundred more Augments.”

  “Impossible.”

  “Don’t you dare start that with me.”

  “The Council would never allow it.”

  “According to Fisher, they already have.”

  Tolly groaned. The only way humanity had suffered the Augments to keep control for as long as they had was that the Augments had always agreed to limit their numbers. If the Council went ahead with its plan to recruit another three hundred members, it could mean war.

  “That’s not even the bad news yet. The Utopia project is about to enter stage three.”

  “I don’t like the sound of stage three.”

  “You shouldn’t. Utopia had a big energy problem. To make it so beautiful costs a lot in terms of energy. They are only operating at thirty
percent right now. To get to full power they need to begin what they call ‘power transference’. It’s a fancy name for stealing. They are going to take the fuel cells from the mining base.”

  “What about the h-men that live there?”

  “They’ve been trying to rid of them, but the miner families won’t move. I can’t find the evidence but I know they’re planning something terrible. And from everything I managed to find it seems like they are going to do it today.”

  Hester slumped back against the wall and shut her eyes. From the fog of his own pain he realized how exhausted she looked.

  “I suppose now is the time that I must apologize for getting you involved in all this,” Tolly said slowly. Each word felt like it was being pulled from the gravity of a star.

  “Don’t. Please. Don’t waste your energy. Just try to rest.”

  “It won’t make a difference, Hester. Please, just talk to me for a bit. I’d like to listen to a human voice.”

  She made a sound that might have been a laugh or a sob. “All right. What would you like me to talk about?”

  “Not about colonies or power transference. I need some memories that don’t hurt. Tell me how you know so much about Augments. For a h-men you seem very well informed.”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “I have time. Some, at least.”

  Hester blew out a slow breath. “Ok. You’re not going to believe me, but ok. I had a friend who became an Augment.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  Hester flung her hands up in frustration. “I told you that you wouldn’t believe me. Can’t we just sit here in silence like when you were unconscious? That was much more fun.”

  Tolly really missed his oxytocin. He fell back on his meditation that he had embraced in his quiet decade. Three deep breaths from his diaphragm.

  “I apologize,” he said slowly. “Tell me your story and I will not interrupt.”