Lord Banshee- Fairy Dust

by Russell O Redman

  She glared at me with eyes that grew harder by the minute. “What do you mean, indefinite contract? My contract terminates in three months, and I damn well will take up my new position in Paris. You have no authority to stop me. No one does!”

  I repeated, “Something is very wrong. I hope General Molongo has some answers for us. Regardless, I do apologize.”

  Marin, Leilani and I all startled as General Molongo broadcast a summons to us and all the other agents and doctors. “Your attention please. All agents and physicians will attend a meeting in the Officers Briefing Room at 18:40 UTC, in roughly ten minutes. Ship surgeons will assist in reactivating anyone still under sedation. An honour guard of marines will escort you to the room and provide assistance for those with mobility issues. That is all.”

  Marin blanched, then got angry again. “You are using the comm implant! And I am seeing more than just the basic comm functions. Have you been monitoring me? How dare you!?”

  “What? I just got this implant! Leilani and I have played a few games with it. Is it even possible to monitor people?” Then I shut up, realizing that everyone else in the room was watching us. I switched to the comm unit instead. “Monitoring must be a physician function. I have not found it, and it would probably be dangerous for an agent in the field to broadcast or receive that kind of information. Are you monitoring me now? I need a way to shut off monitoring outside a secure facility.”

  She subsided, then looked a bit embarrassed. She gave me the string of codes needed to access the monitor broadcast modes, which I docked. Broadcast was indeed on.

  I asked “Can I turn it off safely now, to verify the interface?”

  “No, we need to monitor your pain. The wrong mix of anaesthetics could paralyze you,” she replied, “Wait until your legs are functional and I have adjusted the anaesthetic levels.”

  Doctor first, angry victim of injustice second, I thought. I am grateful Doctor Marin, for your firm sense of priorities.

  A group of marines arrived at the door to our room, leading a pair of ship surgeons. Our four doctors huddled with them briefly, then went back to their patients with some packages containing wire-like instruments. One of the surgeons came with Marin and explained, “We are in a hurry to get you mobile, so these are battlefield anaesthetics that we would normally give to injured marines. We will insert one wire in each leg, then turn off the nerve block and adjust the strength of the anaesthetic. This can be painful, but no worse than being shot in the first place.” He (she? I could not really tell) - ze gave a wicked grin and showed Marin how to insert the wire in one of my legs. She imitated the operation on my other leg. She turned the nerve block off and an electric shock of pain jolted down the bones of both my legs. Then the pain damped down to a mild ache.

  My face and arms still hurt. The wires apparently only worked on the nerves from my legs. “After you have attended to Agent Pinter, could you supply some topical anaesthetic creams for our arms and faces? We have some in our personal effects, but they have not been delivered yet.”

  “Oh, certainly,” ze said, and dug out a small tube of ointment. “Do not use your fingers to apply it. It is quite strong and you would not be able to feel anything afterwards. By the way, the wires also dampen all other painful sensations in your legs, so you will have difficulty feeling normal cuts and bruises. Be very careful moving around or you might end up even worse off. They are intended to be used when a marine is about to die because the pain prevents zim from fighting. It seems we do not have time for subtlety right now.”

  Then ze turned away to repeat the procedure for Leilani and moved off to help with the other agents.

  My sex stims were still higher than I had been used to for several years. I might never have a chance with Doctor Marin – hell, I was scared to even call her by her first name in my own thoughts – but the ship's surgeon looked intriguing. Firm muscles, effeminate face, narrow hips and what were either small breasts or well-developed pectorals. And a slightly quirky sense of humour regarding pain. Could be fun!

  Probably forbidden, of course. Marines and sailors were drawn from the ranks of spacers and maintained similar traditions, but the military had very strict rules about fraternizing across ranks. An officer in battle could not hesitate to send someone to their death just because they had made love the night before, nor could a surgeon dally over a dear companion while other troops died. I approved of the rule, remembering how much it had hurt to give those orders on Mars, and how many of my closest friends I had lost through my own hesitations. I had been forced to stop loving people on Mars.

  I wiggled my toes, fun in its own right after a couple of days without being able to feel your feet. Then I rotated my ankles. Regular feeling was still there, just not much pain. I would probably feel the floor beneath my feet, but might not notice a stubbed toe. Then I flexed my legs and realized that Marin had told the truth about cleaning the marrow in my bones. Anesthetics could only do so much. I could move but would have to be careful.

  I checked the instructions on the package of topical anaesthetic. It was to be applied by dabbing on a damp cloth and spread on skin while wearing surgical gloves. That did not sound like battlefield medication, but I guessed the marines would be wearing gloves and carrying water in combat so maybe it made sense. Regardless, I had neither cloth nor gloves. I looked over to Leilani and asked, “You ready to get up? The marines look ready to go.”

  “Sure, I have not had enough abuse today. Let's go hear some bad news to cheer things up.”

  She must be really hurting too, I thought. That was not normal.

  We swung ourselves slowly off the beds and shuffle-walked through the crowd to the door. A marine wearing an exoskeleton greeted me, “If I may sir, it would be faster if I picked you up.” He scooped me up like a child and almost ran down the hall, out into a corridor, up a couple of levels on a ladder, along another hall and into a room with two rows of chairs, a podium and a blank wall that might have been a monitor.

  General Molongo was already there and directed me to a chair in front of the podium. The marine slid me into the seat and buckled a light belt that would hold me in place even if I moved in the low-G of acceleration. Molongo continued, “Marine Sa'id, would you agree to attend to Agent Douglas for the next day or two while he recovers?”

  “I would be greatly honoured, sir”, he replied. “If you have any needs, please ask me. Have you been supplied yet with gloves to apply that anaesthetic?” He reached into a pouch and pulled out a small package that contained the required gloves and application cloth, squirted a little water onto the cloth from a nozzle on his wrist, and applied a dab of ointment to the welt across my forehead. The relief was immediate. I undid the button of my pajama shirt and gently slid it off my left and right shoulders to expose the welts left from the operations on my arms. Again, the relief was immediate although it did little for the deep ache in my bones.

  I was thanking him and pulling the pajama shirt back into place when Leilani arrived in the arms of another marine, with Chou carried in close behind. I noticed that she already had gloves and a cloth and was carefully applying the anaesthetic to her arms by herself. She paused while Molongo guided the marine to place her to my left in the front row of chairs, then pulled her pajama shirt back into place and did up the buttons. Chou, clearly not used to the ways of space, boggled as discreetly as he could out of the corners of his eyes. I was going to have to have a beer with him later.

  I ran a quick sweep for bugs in the room. I could not do a complete job without walking around, but was also not surprised to find the room clean. The other agents arrived one by one along with our four doctors, all carried in by marines, and were ushered into their seats. As each new person was carried in, I ran a more focused sweep, as discreetly as possible. Still clean, which was a bit surprising.

  Before she sat down, Marin came over and handed me the missing package of gloves and cloth, with a sweet smile and a completely insincere apology. I thanked her wi
th an equal lack of sincerity and mentioned that Marine Sa'id had proven very skillful as a battlefield nurse. I glanced over where he stood at ease in the exoskeleton, my gaze lingering a little longer than was appropriate. Marin also looked, and her gaze lingered even longer.

  Very, very quietly she murmured, “Damn, but I would not pass up a tour in a freighter with him.”

  To which I replied equally quietly, “Nor would I.” She glared at me. Apparently Marine Sa'id was not an admiration she was willing to share, nor was he a source of rivalry that I could safely tolerate. I was going to have to check the levels of my sex stims, and set them to suppression again.

  Molongo cleared his throat as an older woman was carried into the room. I recognized her as one of the ministers who had come to the Mao with us, but did not know her name or ministry. She had been quite quiet, unlike some of the others. We all settled into our places with the agents in a semicircle around the podium and the doctors behind us. I sat in the middle of the semicircle, Chou to my right, Leilani to my left. I noticed that the marines all left the room to stand guard outside the door.

  Molongo started, “I would like to introduce to you Senior Minister Anastasia Singh of Extraterrestrial Affairs. It is the opinion of the Terrestrial Council that Mars is preparing a replay of the Incursion. It is currently unclear whether the recent events involving the Fairy Dust, the shuttle Laika, and the freighter Hanuman are part of the attack, but the coincidence of three such events together is extremely disturbing. There has clearly been a severe security breach on the earth station Khrushchev, and probably on other earth stations as well.

  “We have moved the senior people from the ministries to the Mao for their safety, but there is not sufficient room here for the rest of their delegations, who have been placed in safer quarters on the ESK. Station Security has been ordered to place the delegates under 24-hour protection. They have also been ordered to investigate who had access to the tug prior to the arrival of the Laika. They will copy their report to this committee through my office.

  “We recognize that everyone is concerned about the Mao moving from its orbit close to the ESK. As mentioned, the security situation on the ESK has become troubled. The Mao is moving to improve our tactical maneuverability in case the situation worsens, to speed the pickup of crew members from other earth stations, and to finish loading supplies. We expect to return to the ESK when the situation is back under control, but until then may move amongst the earth stations.

  “For the next day or two, this team will be confined to the three rooms along this short hallway. This room is nominally a briefing room, but has facilities to serve as sleeping and eating quarters, with waste disposal and storage in the corners. Across the hall there is a small exercise facility, and to the left at the end of the hallway there is a washroom that doubles as the airtight room for use in an emergency. The doorway to the right is an armoured airlock, so it should rarely be necessary to use the airtight room. There will be marines on guard in the hallway twenty-four hours a day, both for your security and to provide such service as is required.

  “I need to pass the same information to the Ministers, who I understand are getting exceedingly anxious about their delegations and Council duties. If you have urgent questions, I will try to answer them, but otherwise I would like to pass the meeting to Senior Minister Singh.”

  I did have questions; since Station Security had failed so notably with both the Fairy Dust and the Laika tug, why should we trust them to guard the delegations? Why should we ask them to investigate their own failure to protect the Laika? Could we even expect them to give us an honest report? Also, both Leilani and I, through our teams in CI, undoubtedly now had information that would be vital to their investigations, but having changed ID's we could not access it. None of these seemed urgent compared to the irate Ministers from the Terrestrial Council, so I let them pass until a more appropriate occasion.

  Senior Minister Singh took the podium.

  “Thank you all for coming. Unfortunately, the secure and quiet working environment we intended to provide has proven to be anything but! For that we apologize and hope that conditions will improve soon.

  “This committee is a collaboration lead by the Ministries of Military Affairs and Extraterrestrial Affairs. It gathers the foremost experts in the Terrestrial Government with experience in interdicting the flow of weapons and technology to terrorist groups operating with Martian support, including the pirates who have been attacking our asteroidal mining bases. As mentioned, we anticipate another attack on the Earth and fear that the recent upsurge in these activities indicates that the attack is imminent. General Molongo has been recently been appointed as the Deputy Minister for Military Intelligence specifically to deal with the threat. Your expertise will be needed if we are to stop this conspiracy before they strike.

  “General Molongo and I have been aware of this threat for some time and have been laying concrete plans for over a year. Those plans are now quite complete and include a much larger department, for which this committee is intended to form the governing council. Combining your expertise with the resources of MI and ExA will make the new department the foremost authority on the goals, strategy, tactics, and resources of the Martian independence movement.

  “The Fairy Dust and Hanuman incidents have pushed forward the schedule for the creation of this committee to coincide with this meeting, although the original timeline had scheduled several months for recruitment and training. We understand that this will be an unwelcome surprise to most of you. We hope you will take the next few days, when your duties should be relatively light, to read the background material we will provide and to discuss amongst yourselves whether and how you will serve.

  “This committee will report to General Molongo and myself through our offices. I should not need to tell you that everything you do is classified as ultra-secret. Even with an MI-A1 or ExA-L1 security rating, outsiders will not have access to the documents you generate. A new code, EM-AL has been generated that is specific to this project and will be used for all future documents.

  “The existence of the committee is public knowledge, specifically because it has not been possible to hide the Fairy Dust incident from the news feeds. The Hanuman incident appears to be equally provocative, but has not yet become public knowledge. It cannot remain quiet for much longer. These two incidents, plus the very public attack on the Laika, provide a convenient cover for the less visible activities of the committee. These three incidents are our most direct evidence for well-coordinated Martian involvement in the growing unrest.

  “You may be wondering why the four doctors were included in this session. The doctors were selected for their expertise in management, space medicine and pharmaceuticals. They will form the core of a new medical facility for the department with the appropriate level of security, since the whole department will be kept in isolation for the duration of the emergency. Doctors, you will be receiving details of your imminent promotions and new responsibilities within the week.

  “We are aware that some of you are due to retire from service in space and have already made arrangements for your future employment. To the extent possible, the new department should allow us to match the responsibilities and resources of your planned careers, if not always the financial remuneration. More details will be provided over the next few days through my office. Please do not trouble Agent Douglas about these arrangements, because he is hearing them for the first time right now, just like the rest of you.

  “I hope this has addressed some of your immediate questions about why this particular group of people has been assembled in this particular room.

  “I would like to turn now to the larger issues that have made this team necessary. I will begin with a summary of developments over the last twenty years, beginning just before the Martian Incursion and finishing with recent political developments.

  “Mars, before the Incursion, had a rapidly growing population concentrated into almost one hu
ndred urban centres, some of which are best described as cities, others as industrial or agricultural complexes, along with a thousand or so smaller farms, mines, and plants. Mars was not, and is not, a major source of minerals; most mining is done on asteroids in the inner Belt with only the refined metals being delivered to Mars and the Earth. However, the Belt has never been suitable for industrial or agricultural development, so that Mars provided much of the food and technology needed in the Belt, especially for medicine, mining and transportation. Naturally, Belters turned to Mars for their education and government.

  “Mars, however, has not been a happy colony. Housing is overcrowded; working conditions are harsh; discipline is harsher to keep the workers under control. Families are required to raise their children almost like livestock, with an education system intended to churn out obedient labourers and soldiers. Each of the urban centres drew most of its population from a just a few regions of the Earth, often from one or two major cities on the Earth, so the people have preserved the traditions and rivalries of their former homes. As you are all aware, the Earth still has not pacified the rivalries amongst its different ethnic, religious and political traditions; these rivalries nurtured the growth of political factions on Mars that have instigated violence repeatedly in the crowded slums. The Martian Government, therefore, relies upon unbiased administrators from the Earth to control their turbulent and almost ungovernable planet.

  “The only cause the factions agree upon is that the Earth is the source of all their problems. The government of Mars before the Incursion had three parts, modelled on some of the Earth's more successful colonial governments. There was an administrative branch headed by a Governor, who was appointed by the Terrestrial Council, an elected Martian Council to advise the Governor and represent the people, and a judicial branch to enforce the laws. Many members of the Martian Council abused their privileges by organizing the rebellion that we now call the Martian Incursion.