Plains of Utopia: Colony Six Mars

by Kilby, Gerald M.

  One of the guards jerked his weapon at Gizmo. “Tell your droid to stop what it’s doing and move away.”

  “You don’t understand, the entire population of Jezero, and Mars, is at stake here.”

  “I said move it, this is your last warning.” He raised his weapon while the other guard talked into his cuff. “Need some backup here. They’ve located the device.”

  Xenonists, thought Mia. Goddammit, they must be everywhere. She took her chance and dived behind a large fan unit as a plasma blast sailed past her head. She paused for a beat, pressed herself up against the unit, and returned fire. But it was wild. Just random blasts, as she couldn’t see where she was aiming. Yet a scream told her she had hit one of them. She chanced a quick glance around the side of the unit. One guard was down, the other was nowhere to be seen.

  “Gizmo, you’d better get a move on. We’ll have a load of these guys on us any second.”

  “I have deactivated the tamper mechanism and disconnected the air flow feed. But I estimate five more minutes are required to disable the activation system.”

  “We don’t have five minutes, we’ve got seconds.”

  The droid extracted itself from beneath the air duct carrying the entire apparatus. “Then our only option is to get it outside via the external airlock back in the industrial unit. We have time to make that.”

  “Okay, but stay behind me.” Mia shuffled forward and stuck her head around a set of vertical pipes to scan the area. A plasma blast sailed toward her from her right-hand side. She ducked back just in time.

  “Looks like just one guard so far, over that way, around ten meters away.” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “Get ready to dash across. I’ll give you cover.”

  She reached out and started firing in the general direction of the other guard. “Go, go.”

  Gizmo sped across the gap and disappeared in through a maze of machinery. Mia kept firing and followed the droid. She made it in through the gap, but in the corner of her eye she saw several more guards running up toward them.

  “There’s more coming, hurry,” Mia shouted down as she arrived at the hatch. Gizmo was already inside, speeding away. Mia dropped down, closed the hatch, and spun the locking wheel. She considered jamming something into it, but there was no time to think. She dropped down onto the floor and ran down the tunnel.

  Ahead, at the far end, Gizmo had stopped at the base of the ladder. “What are you waiting for?” she shouted. “Go, go.”

  “I cannot climb the ladder and hold this apparatus at the same time.”

  “What?”

  “Unlike you, I do not possess legs. I require both arms to haul myself up.”

  “Goddammit.” Mia could hear the other hatch being opened. “Give it to me. Quick,” she shouted.

  Gizmo handed her the unit, then clambered up. Once up top, Mia threw the unit to the droid, then started up the ladder. She had only gone a few rungs when a plasma blast slammed into the sidewall behind her, sending dust and rock flying in all directions. A second blast hit the wall just centimeters from her hip, but it was enough to send a spasm of electrically charged energy coursing through her body. She screamed out in pain and lost her footing, hanging onto the ladder by just one hand.

  Gizmo looked over the opening and reached down.

  “Leave me,” Mia shouted. “Get that out to the surface.”

  But the droid ignored her, instead grabbing her wrist and hauling her up as two more blasts hit the ladder beneath her.

  “We are already out of time, Mia. I will not be able to cycle through the external airlock. But there is another option.”

  Mia struggled to think of what that might be. The pain in her upper body was excruciating. At the same time, her lower body was beginning to go numb; she was losing the ability to use her legs.

  “My apologies in advance, Mia. But you have a slim chance of surviving.”

  “What?”

  “The airlock. It is your only chance.” With that, the droid picked her up and flung her across the area with as much momentum as it could. Mia sailed through the air, hit the floor hard, and tumbled into the open airlock. She finally came to a stop when she slammed into the outer door.

  Mia lifted her head up to see several guards piling out of the tunnel, taking aim at Gizmo, who was racing across the space at high speed. Then she realized what it had meant by another option. It wasn’t planning on using the exterior airlock, it was just going to drive straight through the outer wall of the unit.

  “Oh shit.”

  Mia crawled across to the side of the airlock, grabbed the handrail, and threaded her arm around it just as the droid smashed through the end wall and out onto the Martian surface.

  The hole it left began to rapidly widen, with the sides being torn off by the pressure of air being evacuated. One of the guards clung onto the edge of the hatch while two others began to be sucked out. They clawed the floor, looking for any purchase.

  Mia shimmied along the handrail and tried to reach the control panel to activate the door. She strained and stretched as she began to feel the pull on her body. She was being lifted off the ground.

  With one final effort, she stabbed at the button and the doors began to close. The evacuating air began to pull at her until she was almost horizontal, and the pain in her elbow joint became almost unbearable—it was the only thing keeping her from being sucked out. The doors continued their achingly slow closure as Mia felt her lungs beginning to struggle for air. Every fiber of her body screamed in pain. Her head swam, her strength began to fail, and finally she blacked out.

  Epilogue

  A sleek, state-owned transport shuttle gracefully lifted off from its pad on the outskirts of Jezero City, slowly rising up into the early morning Martian sun. As it ascended, it rotated to orient itself on the correct transit vector, then moved forward, slowly at first, but picking up speed as it passed over the crater rim.

  On board, Dr. Jann Malbec sat in a well-appointed passenger seat and gazed out the side window at the landscape. The shuttle flew low, skirting the peak of the crater rim. The air was clear, and the sun still low over the east, casting long, early morning shadows across the dunes below. The outer edge of the craggy peaks of Jezero Crater swooped down into the Isidis Basin, morphing into low, undulating sand dunes that carried on for as far as her eye could see. The shuttle banked, orienting itself for a direct flight to its ultimate destination, the former enclave of Xenon Hybrid.

  Argon was dead, as were many of his followers. The battle that had raged for control of the enclave had been brutal, as the Xenonists fought with typical ideological zeal, preferring to die defending the facility rather than surrender. Even though they greatly outnumbered the MLOD forces, they were no match for the battle droids and attack drones utilized by highly skilled operatives.

  Yet in the aftermath, many of those who survived felt they had been betrayed. Few of the foot soldiers within the cult knew of the plot to release a pathogen to exterminate all but those with enhanced DNA. Apart from Argon, only a handful, less than twenty, were in on it. For the others, the revelation came as a shock. Most were initially in denial, then came revulsion, then anger that their trust and belief had been so heinously violated. Yet there were others who, while not condoning the action, were sympathetic to the principle.

  For the Martian state, the problem was what to do with these extremists. The surviving ringleaders were tried and subsequently incarcerated. But it was not practically possible for the fledging state to lock up over one hundred and fifty followers of the cult. And some of these very disciples had now become so angry that they began to argue for governmental reforms, so that no group could be hoodwinked in this manner ever again. Ironically, far from seeking the demise of the Martian state, they now advocated for its enhancement.

  But the most seismic repercussion was how the entire episode affected the general citizenry. Shock was an understatement. It seemed that the population had entered into a daze. The audacity o
f the plot was almost too much for people to fathom, and so for quite a while they simply did not know what to think, nor how to react. It was as if the people of Mars were suffering from a collective post-traumatic stress disorder. Not surprising, considering they had just come through a rebel revolt in Syrtis along with the worst sand storm ever recorded on Mars, and now this. Something needed to be done to lift the population out of its collective funk.

  “Dr. Malbec?” the flight steward called over from the flight deck companionway. “The captain wants you to know that we’ll be arriving in twenty minutes. Also, she’s just received a message that all the other delegates have arrived.”

  Jann nodded. “Okay, thanks.” She then went back to staring out the side window at the flat, barren landscape rushing past beneath the craft.

  The other problem, of course, was what to do with the head-of-state position. Xenon had abdicated, feeling that he had ultimately done the office a disservice, that the title that was bestowed on him only served to award him an unwanted cult following—one that was all too easy to infiltrate and corrupt.

  Therefore, who should be next? Should there even be a head-of-state? All these questions and more were now considered of critical importance for the future of the Martian population, and so they entered a long period of soul searching. If the society were to survive and prosper on Mars, then they needed to get their act together and give some serious consideration on how it was to be governed.

  Their current system of ad hoc arrangements, tacit agreements, unwritten rules, and corporate contracts was no longer sustainable. A much more formal system was needed, one that would allow for some modicum of political and social stability.

  The irony, in Jann’s mind, was that while humanity’s technical brilliance enabled people to live and work on another planet, they still struggled when it came to the messy business of governance. There was no AI that could be applied. No grand computer that could make these decisions. No algorithm that took its inputs from all parties, vested interests, social needs, security concerns, and disparate cultures—and then spit out an elegant solution.

  In that sense, Mars was no different than all past human civilizations that struggled to govern themselves. Any injustices, perceived or otherwise, if left unchecked soon developed into agitation, protest, insurrection, revolution, chaos, and ultimately collapse. Yet for some, those societies that bring themselves to the very edge of the abyss and glimpse the horror of their future pull back from the brink before it’s too late. After which, a long period of soul-searching begins. And this was the point at which the society on Mars had finally arrived. To go forward, a new paradigm was needed, one that offered a future free from strife.

  Yet, no one was under any illusions that this would be an easy task. Where, in the entire history of humanity, had it ever been? But it was not impossible, and most agreed that it was absolutely necessary. So, after a period of acrimonious discussion between the representatives of the multitude of interests on Mars, it was agreed that the current ruling council would be moved out of Jezero City to a more neutral location. The process of selecting councilors would also be reorganized, to better represent the patchwork quilt of people and interests that existed on Mars. But where was this neutral place?

  In the end, a radical solution was proposed. The old enclave of Xenon Hybrid would be repurposed. It was big enough and far enough away as not to be seen as aligned to any of the primary population centers of Jezero, Syrtis, or Elysium. It was also the site of one of the earliest research outposts, therefore its history could be traced back all the way to the foundation. So, the old bio-labs and cloning tanks were ripped out and destroyed, and a new administration facility built in its place.

  Overseeing this, as well as the installation of a state-of-the-art AI to manage the life support, was Nills and his team, assisted in no small part by Gizmo, who had now become almost an appendage to Langthorp. They were seldom seen apart, and Nills had become borderline obsessed with protecting the droid, and would countenance no discussion around its future other than the one he had envisaged for it. But no one really argued with him. After all, the droid had become a national treasure, and whatever Langthorp wanted was okay with everyone else. Including Jann, and Mia for that matter.

  The shuttle banked again, and the outline of the enclave came into view through the starboard window where Jann sat. She could see where new additions to the facility had been made, including a new shuttle port, already packed full of craft as people assembled for the inauguration ceremony. She took her eyes away from the vista and looked across the interior of the craft to where Mia Sorelli sat, in the seat opposite. Mia was looking straight ahead, deep in thought.

  “You okay?” Jann said over the noise of the engines that were changing tempo for a landing.

  “Yeah, fine,” Mia said as she shifted in her seat. “But you know how I hate these…ceremonies.”

  “Three sols. It’s going to be a long one. But you don’t have to stay for it all, just your part.”

  “I don’t see why they’re giving me this medal. It seems so…unnecessary.”

  “Every society has its rituals, Mia. They signal the value system. It matters—and let’s face it, you’re a hero. Someone deserving of this accolade.”

  “I don’t know. I just did what I had to do, nothing more. And really, it should be Gizmo getting this accolade.”

  “Perhaps, but I’m not sure we’re ready as a society to elevate droids to such an exalted position.”

  “I’m not making a speech, I told them that. They can give me the medal up on the podium, but that’s it.” Mia shifted again in her seat, then rubbed her right thigh.

  “How’s your back?”

  “I still get a twinge down my side from time to time. Which is fine. For a while there I didn’t think I’d walk again. So, I can live with a bit of discomfort.”

  “Can I get you something for it?” Zack leaned out from his seat, his face eager to execute his new duties as aide to Envoy Sorelli. He had made a full recovery, and when word got out in the MLOD that the position of assistant to the envoy was available, he jumped at the opportunity. In the end, it was Mia herself that insisted he get the job. A more suspicious part of Jann’s mind considered that maybe there was more there than simply mutual respect. But she would leave that speculation to the social commentators.

  “I’m going to stay for the full event, by the way. I can’t miss your inauguration. Although, I don’t think you can get away without making a speech.”

  “Thanks, I need all the moral support I can get. It can get lonely up there on the pedestal.”

  “You’ll make a great head-of-state, a real one this time. Having Xenon was a mistake, he was just too weird. Didn’t take it seriously.”

  “He did in his own way, I suppose. Xenon was a philosopher. He saw it more as a passive symbol of our unique culture rather than something civic. But who’s to say he won’t take the office again sometime in the future? Seeing as how his genetic profile indicates he could live to be two hundred.”

  They were silent for a moment before Mia spoke again. “Nervous?”

  “About taking it on?”

  “Yeah. You know, it’s a lot of responsibility.”

  “I’ll be honest, Mia, I hesitated when it was first mooted. Why me? Surely there were others more worthy.”

  “Nonsense, Jann. You go all the way back, almost to the beginning. You brought independence, prosperity, and have seen off multiple plots to undermine the colony. So if not you, then who? No one else fits that bill. You are the best person to represent this new era we’re entering into.”

  “I appreciate the moral support, Mia. And you’re right, we are entering a new chapter on this planet. Hopefully one where the only law on Mars is no longer your own.”

  THE END

  I hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it for you. If you did, then please leave me a review. Just a simple ‘liked it’ would be great, it he
lps a lot.

  Author’s Note

  I hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it for you. If you did, then please leave me a review Just a simple “liked it” would be great, it helps a lot.

  To receive updates, including notifications on future books in the series, please join my Readers Group or connect with me at www.geraldmkilby.com. You will also get a link to download my techno-thriller REACTION and the follow-up novella EXTRACTION for FREE.

  Also by Gerald M. Kilby

  Why not check out my other series, The Belt.

  Grab all four books of the thrilling BELT series, in this great value 1000+ page sci-fi box set!

  Commander Scott McNabb and the crew of the science vessel, Hermes, are three years into a five-year-long survey of the asteroid belt when they discover a derelict spaceship in orbit around a binary asteroid. The ship contains an experimental quantum device, lost while en route to a research colony on Europa.

  However, once word of the crew’s discovery gets out, they soon realize that ownership of this technology could fundamentally change the balance of power within the colonized worlds, and they now find themselves at the very nexus of a system-wide conflict.

  This is an epic tale of humanity’s struggle for survival and meaning in a time when artificial intelligence has finally out-paced our own ability to control it.

  About the Author

  Gerald M. Kilby grew up on a diet of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clark, and Frank Herbert, which developed into a taste for Iain M. Banks and everything ever written by Neal Stephenson. Understandable then, that he should choose science fiction as his weapon of choice when entering the fray of storytelling.