Where to go now? Maybe I could try to find Aria again like I’d always planned to after retiring, though I kind of preferred our leaving things on good terms. I couldn’t be there to play hero every time she got in trouble working with terrorists. She made her own choices, and I’d taught her well enough to be sure as hell she wasn’t a captive. She’d either done the smart thing like I’d taught her to and run or had convinced her people I was the enemy and was back on Titan taking care of those injured in the revolution. Helping people always came so natural to her.
Either way, she’d be safer on her own. Nobody outside of Titan except me knew her role in sparking the revolution, and people didn’t hunt down innocent doctors. Plus, if I did find her, I’d probably wind up screwing up again and someone else who didn’t deserve it would die.
Yeah, she was a lot better off without me.
So, there I stood, an ex-Pervenio collector with a second lease on life who’d just turned down a chance at being a director. No future assignments. No handler. Nothing to do at all. I suppose it was finally time for that drink I owed myself.
Five
Kale
I won’t say I was scared as I watched the ruddy, light-speckled orb of Mars grow beyond the viewport of the Cora. Anxious maybe, though I’d become an expert at keeping myself level enough to always appear composed. It was, however, my first time visiting a world beyond the Ring. Sure, I’d stepped onto many of the moons and stations orbiting Saturn since our revolution started, some as a soldier, others to keep the peace, but never anywhere so close to Earth.
We were nearing the end of our month-and-a-half-long journey to Mars. Earther influence on the Red Planet remained strong as always. Venta Co. and Red Wing Co., the two most significant Earther corporations remaining after Pervenio’s decline, called it their base of operations, though Venta was in the process of transitioning much of their operations to Europa. Still, the USF Assembly had the nerve to consider it neutral ground. They initially asked to hold our formal meeting on Earth, where gravity would crush us into submission, so at least on Mars, I’d be able to walk without my heart feeling ready to explode. G-stims could only counteract the effects of gravity stronger than Titan’s so much, and I needed to remain vigilant.
I twirled one of those very g-stims between my fingers, the Pervenio logo engraved into the pack, a constant reminder of how they’d taken everything from us. The concoction of chems used in them was actually a Titanborn invention from before the Great Reunion, when our ancestors started harvesting the gases of Saturn, which were far more efficient sources of fuel than Titan’s abundant methane lakes. That was just one small part of our forgotten history, revealed from data logs after we occupied Pervenio Station.
After the plague that claimed so many of my people half a century ago, Pervenio took over production of the g-stims like they had everything else. The logo remained proof of that. We’d driven them out now but were left with their highly advanced manufacturing plants and labs, and very few with the skills to do anything more than operating the machinery. Some of the elements required to develop their specific product lines also weren’t prevalent on Titan, meaning our supply was limited. We needed to be careful wasting any until we were able to strip back the formula to what our ancestors used. Boosting gas-harvesting yields to gain leverage over Earth was crucial, and Titanborn couldn’t operate the manned harvesters under Saturn’s gravity without g-stims.
So much was crucial…
I tried to act brazen around my people, but I knew the kind of struggle that lay ahead. It was like Luxarn Pervenio had been prepared that in the event we took over, they’d still be able to make our lives a living hell. My people had to simultaneously fight and teach themselves an entirely new stratum of technical skills to make use of their equipment. Not to mention all the repairs necessary after the heaviest of the fighting. From factories to ships, Titanborn men and women had put most of it together when we were their slaves, but like Rylah once told me, “Knowing where the pieces go isn’t knowing how it works.”
I didn’t even realize that I was crushing the g-stim pack out of vexation until it cracked in half—releasing its chems into the air. From my perspective, the pieces floating out of my grip swarmed about the looming Red Planet like a field of the meteors Earthers were so afraid of. I wondered if Earth looked similar to Mars after their infamous M-Day Meteorite hit, if it was wreathed by red flames racing across its once verdant surface.
“Have you been awake the entire time?” Ambassador Aria asked, her voice groggy. A month in a sleep pod and it was like her vocal chords had forgotten what it was supposed to sound like.
I quickly snatched broken g-stims out of the air and shoved them into the pouch on my belt rather than my mouth. I didn’t want to be numb on one of their worlds. Mars’s gravity wasn’t excruciatingly higher than Titan’s. Enough to notice, but tolerable. I had to feel everything.
“Couldn’t stomach going under,” I said without looking back at her. Our course was on autopilot, and any danger would rouse the crew, but after watching everyone load into their pods, I couldn’t do it. Instead, I’d roamed the halls of the ship alone the entire time, with nothing but yeasty ration bars, stars, and my thoughts to keep me company.
“Mal—” She stopped herself. “My father never liked it much either. He said it was like sleeping in a coffin, but that it was better than months with no company but space. Too long with the blackness could drive a man mad, or something like that.”
“Not me,” I replied.
She deftly pulled her weightless body along the bars on the ceiling until she was hovering behind me. This may have been my first long-distance space trip, but she was an expert at zero g. Her hand fell gently upon my shoulder, and with it, a stream of auburn hair that somehow after so long in stasis still smelled fresh. That got me to glance up, and we froze momentarily as our gazes met. Her usually rosy cheeks were a light shade of green from sleep sickness. I’d heard her vomiting a few times right after waking, but decided not to draw any attention to it.
Neither of us held each other’s stare for long. She instinctually bowed her head out of respect, causing the pendant on her necklace to fall out from her collar. It was an old Ark Ship figurine she said her father had given to her before he disappeared and she raised herself.
“You need to rest more, Kale,” she said softly. “I know there’s a lot to deal with, but I’ve seen how you lie awake every night.”
She was right. I hadn’t had proper rest in longer than I cared to remember, and that didn’t change during the trip. But something about artificial sleep made me uneasy. If I went under that long, maybe I would risk losing some memory of what Cora looked like. How her infrequent smiles made the tip of her nose wrinkle. How her silvery hair shimmered under the right light…
“How would you possibly know what I need?” I growled.
She didn’t back down. Instead, she drew herself around me, so I had no choice but to stare straight into her bright green eyes. She wasn’t born on Earth, but she wasn’t Titanborn either. Somewhere in between, same as any first-generation offworlder born on Mars. Her skin was exceedingly pale like mine, though rosy on her cheeks and dappled with freckles. Curly ginger hair tumbled over an ample chest like nobody born on Titan could ever boast.
Whether or not she was one of us, her beauty was unquestionable. The loose-fitting dress she wore didn’t hide it. She could’ve easily been Cora’s red-haired sister, and every time I beheld her, my mind was brought back to that moment on Pervenio Station when we’d found Cora’s empty cell shortly after she was spaced.
“I’m your doctor too, remember?” she said. “It isn’t healthy pushing yourself like you do.”
“After we’re done here, I’ll try. Will that make you happy?”
Her lips formed the beginnings of a smile. The tip of her freckled nose creased as they did, causing my heart to race. Before I could turn away, she took my hand and wrapped it around her waist, pulling h
erself close. “Don’t do it for me,” she whispered.
“Never stuff me into one of those fucking things again!” Rin barked from the cabin behind us. The sound of a few other Titanborn puking echoed along with her.
Aria released my hand and immediately put a few feet between us. I was grateful for the opportunity to breathe. Being around her was equally suffocating and intoxicating.
“Kale, are we there yet?” Rin questioned. “I can’t take another second of zero-g.” She floated into the command deck, bits of vomit stuck in the crags of the scars marring half of her face.
All I did in response was point through the viewport, where Mars filled almost the entirety of the view. I could now perceive the clusters of metal and bright lights indicating the many domed colonies dappling the planet surface. Thousands of Earthers and first-or-second-generation offworlders were crammed into each of them.
Rin shoved Aria aside and took her place at the central navigation console beside mine, in front of a curving field of screens, holo-displays, and switches. Everything was top of the line. It made the command deck of the Piccolo seem like something out of the dark ages. Rin started picking at keys as if testing each one for poison.
“You have to switch the auto-pilot course off first.” Aria indicated a screen to their left.
“I know that,” Rin said.
She struck the command with verve, like she knew it the whole time, and took control. The Cora shuddered a bit but quickly leveled out. Countless readouts and automated fail-safes ensured it was impossible to mess up flying too badly, short of piloting us straight into the side of Olympus Mons. Aria had spent much of the weeks before this voyage training my reluctant aunt, who refused to put our lives in the hands of an outsider unless it was absolutely necessary like in the Ring Skipper raid.
As I watched Aria provide Rin with subtle clues to prepare her for landing, I realized how hard it was to bear the sight of her in a navigator’s chair as well, no matter how much I trusted her. Especially the Cora’s.
The ship shook again, this time from breaching Mars’s thin atmosphere. Nobody seemed shocked by it. It was nothing like being bowled side to side by the stormy Titanian skies upon entry. Gravity pulled me tight against my seat, straining my lungs just a hair beyond their comfort level since I’d decided against injecting a g-stim.
“Unidentified vessel, you are intruding on the airspace of the USF and its affiliated corporations,” an operator spoke through our coms. “Venta Co. security has been dispatched and will be forced to fire if you do not reply.”
“What are they talking about, girl?” Rin asked.
“I… I don’t know,” Aria replied. “I submitted our transponder codes before we left.”
“See, Kale? This is the kind of sloppiness we can expect with an outsider in charge.”
“I swear, I sent them.”
“I altered the codes,” I said matter-of-factly. They gawked at me, but I leaned forward and gazed at the tremendous web of segmented domes stretching between and filling a collection of craters. “What's New Beijing like?” I asked Aria.
“Kale, what the hell were you thinking?” she questioned. “I know these people. They aren’t bluffing.”
“Watch your tone,” Rin interjected.
The boom of two fighters breaking the speed of sound on either side of the Cora made my bones chatter. Their bows were visible through the corners of the viewport. The dual white and blue overlapped V company logo was imprinted on their flanks.
“What’s the plan, Kale?” Rin said, struggling to keep her eyes straight ahead.
“What’s it like?” I asked Aria again.
“I repeat, identify yourself, or we will fire,” the Venta operator demanded.
Rin held our course and kept quiet. Aria’s eyes darted from side to side nervously as she clutched the pendant hanging from her neck. “It’s like anywhere else,” she said. “Clean on the surface, dirty underneath.” The fighters dropped behind us, and Cora’s advanced defensive matrix started beeping as they targeted us.
I couldn’t tear my gaze away from New Beijing. Every dome comprising the city extended toward the light. Their glass enclosures were tinted from radiation shielding and the diamond pattern of structural beams holding it up, but everyone below got to look up and see a real sky. The vast interiors were brimming with ad-covered skyscrapers and vertical layers of narrow hanging walkways. They were organized similarly to how the old cities of Earth I’d seen on documentaries were, only clustered more densely.
I’d heard about the great Martian domes, but seeing them was something else entirely. Only Earthers would be audacious enough to treat Mars like it was their homeworld. Just slap a lid over their ridiculous tower cities like a glass jar and be done.
“Kale!” Aria shouted.
I switched on our end of the coms. “This is Kale Trass requesting entry into the New Beijing Spaceport,” I said calmly, earning a collective gasp from Aria and the other stirred members of our crew who had gathered behind.
“M… Mr. Trass,” the operator stuttered. “My apologies, we didn’t realize the vessel belonged to you.”
“We’re having some trouble with our new transponder.”
“There is—” He paused, likely to speak with a supervisor. “No problem. Our fighters will escort you into your designated hangar to ensure your safety.”
And to make sure it’s really you, I knew he wanted to add. That settled the debate that had raged in my head while I sat alone throughout the journey. Hearing only my voice and name offered no certainty it was really me, but they couldn’t risk shooting us down or denying me entry. That meant they were starting to take us seriously enough to at least be cautious.
“It’s not smart to coerce them like that,” Aria scolded as the Venta Co. airships sped out in front of us. “Madame Venta isn’t known for her temperance.”
“I told you to watch your tone,” Rin bristled.
“Quiet, both of you,” I said. “I wanted to see how close the Cora’s stealth systems could get us before they noticed. In case we need to leave in a hurry.”
Rin obeyed for a few seconds, and then couldn’t help herself. “This better not be another trap, ambassador,” she muttered to Aria as if I wouldn’t hear her.
“If I wanted you dead, Rin, you’d have never left Titan,” Aria remarked. She didn’t wait for a response either. The moment the last word escaped her lips, she patted my aunt’s tense shoulder and drew herself out of the room.
I snickered. Rin shot me a sidelong glare. “She’s lucky I’m flying.”
“None of us are lucky for that,” I replied.
The Cora suddenly banked so hard around the crest of a bulbous, barren mountain that my stomach lurched. Judging by how smoothly the ships leading us made their approach to New Beijing, it wasn’t an accident. Turbulence was as alien to Mars as we were.
“You shouldn’t encourage offworlders to talk to us like that,” Rin advised. “Kale, are you listening? I don’t care who they are or what they’ve done in the past. Earth’s authority this far into the solar system is strong.”
Our ship leveled out and headed straight for an open portion of a smaller dome bulging from the side of New Beijing’s main one. I unfastened my restraints and stood.
“How I missed your lectures while you were asleep,” I muttered. As a fellow Trass and experienced combat leader, Rin answered to nobody but me. I valued her opinion more than anybody’s, but Aria’s position within our fledgling administration had been our first disagreement.
“I’m serious,” she said. “You let one of them in close, they’ll spread like a sickness. Just like last time.”
“Well, this one got us a meeting with the USF Assembly. She’s given as much as any of us for the cause. Besides, even you know we need her.”
Rin rolled her shoulders. “For now.”
“Just try and pretend you can stand them at least a little bit. I have a feeling this will be the only meeting we get.
For now, they have to see we come in peace.”
“You’re right. I’ll just keep my mouth shut and let the Earther… offworlder… whatever the hell she is, speak for me.” She licked the corner of her lip, and I could see the side of her tongue wriggling through the crater in her cheek.
Her support was always welcome, but maybe keeping her mouth shut was a good idea for now. Diplomacy wasn’t her specialty. Plus, I could remember how terrified I was the first time I laid eyes on Rin. Even in a sanitary mask, there was no way to completely hide the horrors of what Earthers had done to her.
And now we were about to arrive on a planet full of them.
Six
Malcolm
Sol was filled with rotten and fuzzy memories. Everywhere I considered going in my retirement, I could think of a job that got ugly, a night that got out of hand, or a hotel where my daughter looked disappointed when I smuggled her in. I guess that’s what happens when you get to be my age. No matter where you go, the past is lingering to haunt you.
So I searched for a place that was still a part of civilization where I could disappear easiest. I settled on New Beijing, Mars. Of all the shit memories I had, at least a handful of the good ones came from there. The expansionist propaganda rampant on Earth would drive me to put a gun in my mouth if I stayed there too long. Development around Jupiter was happening too rapidly to relax. I’d seen too many asteroid colonies busted open or wither when their wealth dried up to choose one of them. And the Ring... I’d rather board a Departure Ark out of the galaxy than go back there, even if it wasn’t a war zone.
New Beijing it was.
The city both where my daughter was illegitimately born to a streetwalker and where I’d lost her. A city mostly free from that damn Pervenio logo I’d spent too much of my life honoring. News feeds all portrayed the grandeur of New Beijing with its vast domes, shiny towers, and cascading garden terraces. It was home to some of the wealthiest people, most elegant hotels, and best entertainment venues in Sol. Of course, that was all above surface level. The parts of New Beijing I knew best were where I’d once operated. In the shadows. I’d spent so long hunting offworlders that, ironically, they wound up being the people I felt most comfortable around.
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