The Lawyers of Mars: Three Novellas

by Pam Uphoff

  Xaero nodded her acceptance of the position.

  Feritu continued. "You've both met Major S'trooth. His Specials are now based in Sun Town, along with a substantial part of the Imperial Science Institute. Some of them work there, some work at the Space Base and live in Sun Town. The Specials and scientists will form the core of the explorers."

  Xaero chewed a claw thoughtfully, looking at the map of the Blue planet. "Are you going forward or back in time?" she asked.

  "Back." Feritu said. "While the possibility of a history change can't be ruled out, the likelihood of encountering something truly startling is lessened."

  "Startling, as in intelligent life?" Trev asked.

  "Exactly. From our own history we know that eight thousand years is plenty to get from stone age to space travel. The odd time and space relationship of the gate means we'll have to travel back nineteen million years. The past we can probably safely assume will be simpler, the future would be much more uncertain."

  "So long as we don't change things—again." Xaero said.

  "Doctor M'kabon is setting up protocols to avoid problems of that nature."

  Xaero and Trev exchanged quick glances. "Dr. M'kabon. You're letting . . . or do you mean some young version who hasn't done any time traveling yet?"

  Feritu snickered, "Oh Trev, the look on your face. Dr. M'kabon came from forty years in the future, you see. He's lived through the progressive collapse of the South Rim and the advanced erosion of the East Rim. Being part of the effort to save all the people he saw die has helped him immensely. Plus his medicines are carefully monitored and adjusted. The young Dr. M'kabon is fine, not having spent three days trapped under a collapsed building with his injured friends dying one-by-one around him. We haven't told him anything, he thinks the elder Dr. M'kabon is a valuable colleague with an amusing coincidence of identical names. The elder is a bit offended by his younger, untraumatized, frivolous self.

  "Trev, no doubt you wonder why we're sending you. To be brutally frank, I want someone there who can and will call me if something seems off. Oh, we've got excuses, your trip overland to the Space Base gave you some very valuable experience, having a Royal on hand can keep the bureaucrats at bay and so on. No doubt a lot of the others will think you're abusing Royal privileges and shoving in where you don't belong, but you're used to dealing with that. What we really want is a safety override." She nodded apologetically to General R'manga, who shrugged.

  "Really, we understand the dangers. We're being very careful." He assured her.

  She nodded to him, and turned back to them. "So, when can you both leave?"

  ***

  The monorail was nearly empty going toward the damaged area. They had plenty of time and privacy to discuss the situation.

  "If it weren't for M'kabon, I'd have no qualms at all." Trev said. "Even though our time didn't have the foreknowledge of the cavern collapses, we were all too aware of the crisis in the uranium supply. We were having to refine more and more, well, no one with any decent standards would call them ores, just to refuel the existing plants. We've been debating how we could possibly fuel new plants, which are desperately needed, because the geothermal plants are all experiencing large temperature drops."

  Vee snorted. "I still can't believe they let him out."

  "It seems odd that transporting such a heavy commodity from another planet would be economical." Xaero replied. "Without the gates, it wouldn't work at all. Getting the vehicle off the third planet even completely empty would be impossible."

  "Yeah. That high gravity really worries me." Trev admitted. "No matter how much they try to use machinery for the mining, it's going to be a real strain."

  At Daeda they transferred to the train to the Space Base. "I should have realized they had a station at Sun Town, even if it was closed up." Trev said.

  "They might not have, before," Xaero pointed out. "Your family has made good use of those history books. I checked and there are easily triple the number of surface sites than existed before."

  "Time travel makes my head hurt." Trev informed her, as the train slid into their stop.

  It was a long hike through tunnels from the stop to the town. There was an electronic security gate at the station and a manned one at the last ramp up to the surface. They were expected, and Major S'trooth was waiting for them.

  "Welcome back," he greeted them. "And welcome to the Space Exploration Team."

  "We're actually on the team?" Xaero asked. "Not just training them?"

  "We decided to make you equals. They all have specialties, and train each other as much as possible. There's quite a bit of competition for the few crew spots among the young and fit. You're late comers, and since you don't have any training on the vehicle, probably won't be seen as competition."

  "Hmm," Trev eyed him, " 'Probably won't' will turn to 'sure will' quickly, when they see Xaero in action on the surface. I'm a bit un-useful, I'm afraid."

  "Am I in on this as well?" Vee asked.

  "No, we decided we might as well admit you're Trev's guard, rather than try to explain you otherwise."

  "Don't tell me," Trev said. "I'm a useless Royal pushing in where he's unwanted and unneeded."

  "A bit," S'trooth admitted. "But that book about the herfit has given the three of you quite a bit of credibility where surface exploration is concerned."

  Trev snorted.

  They were just in time to join the other potential traveling explorers on a training run out on the surface.

  The lizard in charge took a moment to check that they could properly don the odd breathing masks, had six bottles of oxy each, in a heavy backpack, and were wearing the heavy boots they'd been issued.

  "I'm Beri T'yedh, in charge of physical conditioning for the heavy gravity and surface travel that will be required. I'm starting you three out with lighter loads than the others, you'll have to work up quickly to where you can carry more than your own weight in gear."

  He eyed Xaero especially. "I understand that you will be teaching wildlife observation. I haven't seen anything out there in the four tenths I've been here, but sound off if you do." He looked her up and down again. "Assuming you can keep up with this much weight."

  As they followed him out to meet the rest of the team, Vee murmured. "Army Sergeant. Had one much, much worse in basic."

  "All right, we're late getting out, so you can all introduce yourselves while we march."

  Xaero settled the heavy pack and tromped out in the heavy boots. She supposed that support of the foot bones and ankles of the explorers would be critical, but she hated the way the thick soles removed the feedback on surface conditions, which she hadn't even been consciously aware of. The supposedly more fit lizards they were joining had weighted wraps on their legs and arms, and thick vests, in addition to the backpacks. T'yedh checked and adjusted everyone's oxy as they passed out the doors to the surface. Within three breaths she was feeling euphoric with an oxy overdose and dialed hers down.

  "If you feel nauseous, cold or dizzy, dial it back up," T'yedh growled at her, as he led off north at a brisk marching pace.

  After the first rise they upped the pace to a slow run for a split, then back to a march. As they climbed a slight slope Xaero thought briefly about pulling off the awkward mask, but refrained and called out as best she could, "Rockhopper colony to the left forty strides."

  T'yedh quickly swung the group to the left and the sunbathing rockhoppers scattered, living up to their names as they jumped from rock to rock, never landing on the sand in between.

  Speaking awkwardly around the mask she added. "The way they hopped from rock to rock means that they are used to being hunted by pikes, which dig down a bit into the sand and ambush anything that passes by."

  "Huh," One of the other lizards looked at her curiously, "We go this way all the time and I never spotted any of them before."

  "They were sunbathing." She said. "somewhere close by they'll have tunnels that go all the way down to the permafrost laye
r." Hopping up on a rock herself, she looked around carefully. "I think they probably forage over a wide area. Occasionally you'll find a pocket of soil with a lot of vegetation, and a huge population of hoppers and cheepers, but I don't see any sign of anything like that here."

  "What do they eat?" a dark lizard in that indeterminate stage that stretches between forty and eighty years of age asked. Xaero blinked and tried not to stare at him. It can't be!

  "They're omnivorous, like most Mars animals." She said. Couldn't they see? Well, if they were used to the domesticated plants and animals, probably not. She stepped off the rock and patting her pockets, pulled out a pen and used it to poke a little brown sand lettuce. It whipped a couple of cords around the pen, and she pulled them aside to expose the seeds pods at the center of the cluster.

  "I didn't even see that." The dark lizard said, sticking out a hand. "Doctor Nyxe M'kabon. Call me Nyx, there's another Dr. M'kabon around and it'll save a lot of confusion."

  It is him! The younger version, the sane one. "What's your field of study, umm, Nyx?" Xaero asked as T'yedh chivvied the group back into marching order.

  "Genetics." He kept chatting cheerfully as they marched. "I started out in physics, but got this incredible opportunity to get into genetic engineering just as it took off, and grabbed it."

  Ha! S'trooth diverted him from anything that might have led to a time machine. So . . . why did anything change? How'd we get the space and time gates? That was an incredible risk, but I suppose they didn't realize how important to our future the technique hopefully will be.

  "So, you're hoping to be the discoverer of a whole new planet full of life?" she asked.

  "Hoping, yes, expecting . . . I'm not sure." He was starting to pant a bit as he tried to keep talking. "The G'gen Theory of cometary life and or the V'blas Theory of meteroric biotic transfer will certainly be tested."

  "Meteroric?" Trev said, coming up on Nyx's other side. "I remember reading something about that years ago. Large meteor strikes can blast debris completely off the planet, in chunks large enough that bacteria inside it could survive reentry, either back to the original planet or a different one."

  "Right," Nyx said, "A good look at the DNA should settle the matter, one way or another. I'll get quite a paper out of it."

  Xaero blinked a bit at the thought of any M'kabon whose highest ambitions ran to publishing papers. "And if they match, how do you decide if life started here and went there, or started there and came here?"

  "Oh, it almost certainly started here," he replied. "With our lower gravity and thinner atmosphere the likelihood of material being knocked completely out of the gravity well is much higher than the same on Big Blue." He broke off for a few panting breaths. "And then the third planet is still so hot, molten core and all, it wouldn't have had a life-friendly surface for millions of years after Mars had oceans stuffed with all the necessary chemicals and ripe for biogenesis."

  T'yedh waved them to a halt, lined them up and started checking their oxy bottles. He had three of them change bottles, including Vee. "You big ones use up oxy at a faster rate than the skinnies. That won't actually matter on Big Blue, plenty of oxy there." He frowned at Xaero's readout. "Did you change already?"

  "No, sir, I have a long history of low usage." She told him.

  "Really?" He gave her a big toothy grin. "Well, as long as we're taking a break, perhaps you'd like to take your mask off and see how long you can breathe without it."

  She hauled it off with relief, "Delighted. Is this a regular part of your training?" She dialed the oxygen flow off to conserve it.

  "Yes." He nodded decisively. "You all need to understand the importance of your breathing gear. On Big Blue, just like here, losing it can kill you. For different reasons, of course." He switched his toothiness to Trev. "One at a time; you can test your endurance at the next stop."

  As he stalked off to check on the other lizards just trailing in, Xaero turned to Nyx. "So, you'll be looking at the DNA. How about studying and classifying the biota on a larger scale?"

  "Oh, I'll be doing that too," He waved an airy hand to dismiss minor matters. "It's the molecular level that is genuinely important."

  "Ha!" A sandy colored youngster joined them, "I'm Aura R'unk. Despite Nyx's determined single mindedness, the majority of us are multidisciplinary and prepared to do anything. I'm a geologist first, but I've got a solid grounding in biosci as well. And I can cook."

  "We're going to make Aura collect and classify all the creepy crawlies." A tall pseudo male told them, "while most of us stick to studying the plants. I understand you have some experience with the . . . interesting . . . collection back at Sun Town, Miss L'svages?"

  "Yes. Quite astonishing, aren't they?" Xaero grinned in recollection. "I'll be using them as examples of the perils of approaching unknown biota."

  "Rumor has it they killed any number of lizards while it was an REM base." Aura said.

  "And rumor is all it is. Let's head out." T'yedh was back, frowning at bit a Xaero. "Sorry, but we need to keep going, this is supposed to be a conditioning run for those who've been here and getting in condition for tenths. Put your mask on and let's continue."

  They picked up the pace now, running in a slow gradual curve to the east, and then south. At the next oxy check, Trev took his mask off, and already gasping for breath after the run, collapsed within a split.

  "Pretty good," T'yedh admitted, as he helped Vee get the mask back on and oxy flowing again. "From his pics I'd assumed he was overweight and flabby."

  Vee gritted his teeth, "He's been undercover, he gets ster shots to make him retain water whenever he has to do a public appearance as The Prince."

  "I see." Aura snickered, "Fulfilling his stereotype."

  "Right, and then the low lifes he's conning tell him how much he looks like a Royal, and start speculating about him being an unacknowledged bastard."

  Trev sat up dizzily. "Nobody's ever mistaken me for a prince."

  That got the requisite laughs, then they started running again, Trev and Vee bringing up the rear for awhile.

  "Pike, forty strides to the right." Xaero called out, as she saw the rough spot in the sandy stretch. T'yedh started to veer that way. "Large one! Sir, dangerous! Stop."

  Fortunately he believed her enough to stop, although he turned and glared at her. "How large can it be? I don't see a thing."

  As an opportunity for a lesson, it was unsurpassed. She picked up a gypsum nodule and let fly, hitting it on its exposed nose.

  It erupted indignantly out of the sand, ten strides across, before it shook off the dust and sucked its spiny sides in close and humped up. It glared with tiny eyes through hand length spines as if considering their edibility.

  "Stand still, so you don't trigger any chase reactions, sir." She glanced around, unsurprised to see Vee, laser pistol in hand, studying the critter. "A half csplit on the nose, low down on the front edge, would probably discourage her," she told him. "I'd hate to find out how long it would take to kill one just shooting at the center of mass."

  The pike raised its head, or at any rate the forward end of its roughly hemispherical body, and Xaero said. "Try it now."

  In daylight the beam was nearly invisible, but the pike squeaked, a ridiculous sound for such a massive animal, and backed up, crouching down and flattening again so the spiny plates of its topside nearly brushed the ground as it decided it didn't like this place, and retreated between rocks and disappeared neatly.

  "I've only seen one larger than that," Xaero commented, as the group sort of relaxed, while scanning the surrounding rocks. "My Grandfather swore the big ones hunted herfit and would occasionally snatch a child if they could."

  "Well," T'yedh said, "I knew the domesticated pikes were a dwarf variety, but that exceeded my expectations by an order of magnitude." He stepped out where he could look between the rocks the pike had retreated between. "I don't see him, but that doesn't mean much."

  Xaero climbed a tall rock and
checked, "She's still moving. Their noses are quite sensitive, she may head underground for a few days to heal."

  "She?" Aura asked, "You can tell?"

  "The males aren't so completely circular when they're flattened out in ambush, and are noticeably longer than wide or tall when out on the surface."

  "They eat herfits?" Trev asked.

  "Think how many rockhoppers or cheepers one that size would have to eat in a day to maintain itself." She told him, jumping down. "Herfits are the only other large animal left on the surface."

  T'yedh snorted, "So it wouldn't have actually attacked?"

  "Hard to say." Xaero said. "How hungry was it? Do we have any info not released to the public about the size range of Blue life?"

  "Unfortunately not. The fifty eight point six csplits of the camera sinking into the swamp is all there is." Aura wrinkled her muzzle. "Just enough to confirm plants and small animals, although of course they weren't really insects, they just looked quite similar."

  "Right." Xaero masked her disappointment. "Well, perhaps I should cease to point out the wildlife."

  "So I don't really get eaten next time?" T'yedh grinned wryly. "Perhaps I won't run right up to the next critter you spot."

  "I'll try and be clear about the danger level." She said.

  They alternated running and marching for another ten splits before she called out the next sighting "Live pocket, behind us to the right."

  They stopped briefly to admire the tiny oasis. "Collapsed lava tube," Aura pointed out, "it must have some ice in the bottom to support this much foliage."

  Xaero nodded agreement. "They're spotted around all over the plain. A wide variety of plants, plus rockhoppers and cheepers, like you see here."

  "Those are the scrawniest cheepers I've every laid eyes on." The bulky youngster who had introduced himself as Albe N'rom was apparently some sort of math wiz, working on the calculations to bring them safely back from Big Blue and training on the controls of the reentry vehicle. He was eying the cheepers hungrily.