Mars Rising (Domeworld Saga Book 1)

by John Corwin

  "Who is that?" William asked.

  "The leader of City 7," Scarlett said. "He'll kill us all."

  Chapter 41

  "It's true," Fulbright breathed. Anger glowed in her eyes—anger she turned on Thomas and William. "You never told us about other cities or habitats. Who do you think you are to keep us in the dark?"

  "Your leaders!" Thomas shot back. "It was for your own good."

  "Ignorance of the people benefits no one but those who want power," Scarlett said. "The reason we were kept in the dark was so Alderman and people like him could rule unquestioned."

  "I don't see Simmons with him," Max said. He knew there was only one hope of staying alive. "Fulbright, if I give you back your weapons will you help us fight them?"

  The captain nodded. "If we survive, I expect a bloody reckoning after this. You will show me everything."

  "You got it," Max said.

  Yana stared at the captain. "This woman was prepared to blindly carry out the orders of the science council. What makes you think she can be trusted now?"

  "Self-preservation," Scarlett said.

  Max tried to form a plan, but he had no experience with war. Every scenario flashing through his head ended with Alderman slaughtering them. The entrance to the science station lay fifty yards south. Alderman's people would cut them down before they reached it.

  Max looked at Scarlett and saw a future with her lying dead on the jungle floor—another body claimed by the progress of man. Utopia held plenty of evidence that mankind would never be perfect.

  Daggers pierced his chest as Scarlett's death played out in his head. He'd grown too close to her over the past few days. Then again, maybe he'd felt closer to her all these years than he realized. There was something between them he would never be able to discover if she died. It left him with only one option if there was to be any hope of survival.

  Max gripped Scarlett's hand. He leaned down and kissed her fiercely. She wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him closer. When at last he pulled away he saw tears in her eyes. Max caressed her cheek. "I'd like to finish the journey I started with you, Scarlett Flynn, but I reckon there's only one way to keep you alive."

  "Don't you dare do something stupid, Max." Scarlett grabbed his arm. "Don't be a big fool!"

  Max chuckled. "I am a big fool, Scarlett. Guess when it comes to you I'll be the biggest fool ever." He gave her his blaster. "Don't follow me."

  "What are you planning?" Yana asked.

  "I'm sick of seeing death," Max said. "For once in my fucking life I'd like to solve something without anyone dying."

  Scarlett's lip trembled and she gave the blasters to Yana. "You're not going without me, Max."

  "I want to keep you safe," Max said. "Can't you see that I'm doing this for you?"

  She grabbed his hand. "I won't let go, Max. You start walking and I'll be right beside you."

  Alderman's forces halted outside the station doors, weapons aimed at Max and Scarlett. Fulbright and her marshals aimed back at him. If fighting broke out, Max and Scarlett would be caught in the middle. Drawing in a deep breath, Max stepped forward, Scarlett by his side.

  The leader of City 7 stared at them with a blank expression. Max expected the man to gloat or to say something profound as he often tried to do before sentencing yet another soul to die.

  Instead, Alderman simply said, "It was fake."

  Max wasn't sure how to reply. "What was?"

  "What we thought was the outside," Alderman said. "The space between our dome and the tunnel here. I blew the airlock doors between this place and the jungle once I figured it out. There's no more vacuum."

  "That means you can't kill people by sending them out there anymore," Scarlett said. "No more feeding the father."

  Max didn't know what was wrong with Alderman, but he saw an opportunity. "We found another city. I want to show it to you."

  The governor's eyes tightened. "What do you mean?"

  "Utopia," Scarlett said. "The Promised Land."

  Alderman stared with disbelief. "It's not finished yet."

  "The time for killing is over," Max said. "What we have to show you might convince you of that."

  The governor's eyes filled with steel. "We'll see about that."

  "I want everyone to come," Max said.

  "Who are those people?" Alderman asked.

  "The people who run this habitat," Scarlett said.

  "Drop your weapons and come with us," Alderman shouted. "I won't repeat myself."

  "Do it," Max called back. "We're going to the Promised Land."

  Fulbright hesitantly ordered her people to drop their weapons and the group from the science station approached.

  Alderman turned to Max. "Lead the way, Constable Planck."

  "That's not who I am anymore," Max said. "Live or die, I'm a free man now, not your puppet."

  "We'll see about that," Alderman replied.

  The group made the trek in mostly uneasy silence, though William and Thomas tried to engage Alderman in conversation as fellow scientists.

  "I'm not a scientist," Alderman spat. "I was recruited because I was the fucking mayor of New York City. They told me I'd have full control to create the perfect society."

  "They promised us we'd have the power to create the perfect ecology free from the spoils of man," Thomas said. "That we would terraform this world into an unspoiled wilderness."

  "Plenty of lying going around," Scarlett said. "Guess keeping the truth from you was just to keep you safe, though, right?"

  The irony wasn't lost on Alderman, William, or Thomas.

  "I'm sure they had their reasons," Thomas said.

  They reached the tram station and everyone climbed onboard. The anticipation even on the faces of the stoic marshals was plain to see. Alderman and the two scientists rode in front, eyes glued to the tunnel ahead.

  Scarlett squeezed Max's hand and leaned against his shoulder. "I think Alderman will kill us when he finds out what his perfect city looks like."

  "Maybe," Max whispered. "Just be ready to run."

  The tram reached the station and Alderman rushed out of the door and past the scorched sign greeting arrivals. When he saw the fatally wounded city he stopped and stared.

  "Oh, god," William cried. "What happened?"

  "There's information in City Hall," Scarlett said, pointing to the central tower. "From there you can see everything outside the dome."

  Alderman began walking. Still prodded forward by guns, the others followed.

  "They're all dead," William said as the group passed the skeleton after skeleton.

  "Why did they kill each other?" Thomas asked. "I don't understand!"

  "Civil war from the looks of it," Fulbright said.

  "Some of them are wearing uniforms," one of Alderman's marshals said. "Why would they turn on each other?"

  "Mouth shut and eyes forward, Calvin," another marshal said.

  Alderman took it all in, but remained silent.

  When they reached City Hall, Alderman stopped outside. "Marshal Grim, Marshal Antony, a word." He stepped aside with Grim and Antony and spoke with them a moment then returned. "Marshal Grim will accompany Max and I inside. The rest of you will wait here until I return."

  "But, I want to see too," William said.

  Alderman turned a stony gaze on him. "You will wait here. My men are under orders to shoot anyone who leaves."

  William swallowed hard. "Please, sir."

  "There's plenty of food and water," Alderman said to the others. "Marshal Antony, make camp and remember your instructions."

  Antony's jaw perceptibly tightened as he nodded.

  "You're not leaving me behind," Scarlett said. "I know how to access the information you want."

  Alderman replied with a terse nod and headed for City Hall. Grim motioned Max and Scarlett forward with his blaster and they followed him in.

  Scarlett and Max showed Alderman the operations room. What Max feared most was the killswitch. Wh
at if Alderman found the password for it? Hopefully that information died with everyone else in Utopia.

  Alderman noticed Max uneasily looking at the killswitch command and regarded him with a grim smile. "Don't you realize by now I have access to a killswitch in City 7? How do you think I reimaged the population?"

  "Reimaged?" Scarlett asked.

  "Choosing the memory wipe option merely renders everyone unconscious and puts them into a highly receptive dream state," Alderman said. "There is a special group of scientists constantly working on ways to improve the method, but for now, it requires a tremendous amount of legwork. Every individual must be gathered, evaluated, and placed in pods below science campus where the new truths we wish them to learn are shown repeatedly to them until it overwrites the old memories."

  "We read the history of City 7," Max said. "We know about the resets."

  "Then you'll know I'm not a complete monster," Alderman said. "I never authorized a complete termination."

  "And you never spared a single life you could have either," Scarlett spat. "There's a list of everyone you fed—you killed."

  Alderman closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Nothing worked. Nothing ever works"—he opened his eyes and scowled—"with humans."

  "As if you're not one of us," Scarlett said. "You're every bit as flawed as we are."

  "Yes, I am." Alderman turned back to the computer screen and began reading once again. Max busied himself reading more history on the tablets, Scarlett leaning on his shoulder. Marshal Grim leaned against the wall, blaster ready as if he expected an attack from Max at any second.

  Hours passed. Max's vision blurred from too much reading and his backside ached from sitting. "Can we take a walk?" he asked Alderman. "I need to stretch and a bathroom break."

  The governor looked up at Grim and nodded. "Accompany them, Marshal."

  Max and Scarlett went to the bathroom then wandered through the other offices in the building, Grim keeping a silent sentinel behind them.

  "What do you think will happen?" Scarlett asked.

  Max ran his fingers through her hair, journeying down her pale neck and up to her chin. "Do you still hate me, Scarlett?"

  She rolled her eyes. "You're such a fool, Max Planck, and I was a little fool." Scarlett touched his hand and pressed it to her cheek. "You're a far better man than I thought. Of course I don't hate you anymore."

  "There's something so familiar about us." Max traced her lips with his thumb then leaned in and kissed her as the sunrise peaked into the atrium. "All I ask is for more sunrises with you, Scarlett."

  Grim groaned. "I think you've walked enough." He waved the carbine toward the second floor. "Back to the office."

  Alderman stood at the second floor balcony looking down at them. He walked down the stairs, shoulders sagging, eyes haunted. He stiffened and offered them a smile. "Did you know that once upon a time before the second—or was it the third—reset, that you two requested a marriage license from me?"

  Scarlett staggered back. "What?"

  Alderman chuckled. "Oh, yes. Before Max Planck was constable, you two were quite smitten with each other."

  "You monster!" Scarlett shouted. "How can you erase love?" She threw herself at him, fists pounding his chest.

  Grim stood to the side, his jaw working back and forth, then finally stepped forward and pulled Scarlett off the governor. He stared daggers at Alderman and finally said, "Did you erase me too, Governor?"

  "No, you were always a loyal marshal," Alderman said. "Very little had to be done to make you accept each new micro-reality."

  Grim didn't seem appeased, but neither did he seem ready to commit treason.

  Alderman nodded. "Always loyal, Grim. That's why I chose you to come inside with us."

  Max didn't like the sound of that at all. Much as he wanted to punch the smug look off Alderman's face, he wrapped an arm around Scarlett and held her close. "How is it possible to change emotions like that?" he asked in a tight voice.

  "Hate and love are two sides of the same coin," Alderman said. "It took several hours of reimaging and the death of Nathan Harris to change her love to hate."

  "You killed Nathan to make me hate Max?" Scarlett screamed with outrage. "You're worse than a monster, you bastard!"

  "Why keep us apart?" Max said. "What made it so important to you?"

  "You two were rallying the population—the civvies as you call them—and requesting a special election to unseat me." Alderman shook his head. "I couldn't allow that." He blew out a breath and looked at them. "It appears nothing I did could truly keep you apart."

  "Ever since I reached this dome I've been having visions of me and Scarlett." Max's eyes widened. "Are those memories?"

  Alderman raised an eyebrow. "The water in City 7 has an agent in it to help keep memories repressed. It seems once you came here, the agent wore off." He nodded. "Yes, I believe those were memories. I wouldn't be surprised if more leak through."

  "I've been having them too, Max." Scarlett wiped away a tear. "I didn't understand how I could love and hate you at the same time."

  "It was necessary," Alderman said. "Nothing I did would dissuade you, but I was convinced that killing you was the wrong thing to do."

  "Because of Lyle Babbage?" Max said.

  Alderman's lips tightened. "It seems he was working with the founders and I never knew until I read your biography in the computer."

  "Then you saw—"

  "Yes, I read the recommendation that you lead Nova City." Alderman face went blank. "Governor Planck."

  Max turned to Grim. "How can you follow someone like him? Don't be his puppet!"

  "Order is better than chaos, Planck." Marshal Grim trained his weapon on them. "I won't break the order."

  "Then you're a fool," Scarlett said, waving her hand around the room at the skeletons. "What good is order if we're all dead?"

  Alderman motioned to an elevator glowing with light on the west side of the atrium. "I restored the elevator controls from the computer. Now it's time to see what man has created."

  Grim stepped to the side and nodded his head at the elevator.

  Holding hands, Max and Scarlett walked across the room and stepped into the elevator. "This might be our last sunrise," Max said.

  Scarlett glared with hatred at Alderman and nodded. "I'm taking that bastard with me."

  "Deal," Max said. "We all go down."

  "In case I don't have another chance to tell you," Scarlett said, "I want to learn to love you again, Max. Maybe a part of me always remembered that no matter how much I was supposed to hate you."

  "I want to remember what we had, Scarlett." He kissed her forehead and wished he could do it before they died. "Maybe there's more to this world than cold science after all."

  "Like magic?" Alderman said in a scoffing tone. "This is what scientists call coincidence."

  Grim jabbed a button. The elevator doors closed and the cage whooshed upward at frightening speed.

  "Where's Simmons?" Scarlett asked. "I'm surprised he didn't come with you."

  "He is otherwise occupied," Alderman said.

  The lift stopped and dinged open to an undamaged section of the glass walkway. Even Grim looked uneasily at the transparent structure before stepping onto it and motioning them out. The group climbed the stairs and exited to the crown outside.

  "Wow," Grim said. "Are those other domes?"

  Alderman didn't answer, but went to the binoculars and looked around. "It's a shame Nova City wasn't finished," he said without removing his eyes from the binoculars. "It would have been interesting putting Max in charge of an all-Martian population."

  Grim looked from Alderman to Max, as if some sort of realization had just hit him.

  Alderman spent several more minutes looking through the different binoculars and finally pulled away, face pale. He waved an arm toward the dead city. "Look at all that man has wrought. Look at all he has destroyed." He turned to Max. "Man is the greatest creator a
nd the greatest destroyer of all his good works."

  Scarlett tensed. "Be ready," she murmured.

  Max saw Grim's hands tighten on the blaster and knew something was coming.

  The governor face contorted and tears flowed. "I was promised the path to perfection. I was given control over life and death!" He raised a fist to the sky. "I was a god!" Alderman walked up to Max, rage gathering in his face. "Nothing I did worked. Humanity is too flawed."

  "We thrive on order and chaos," Max said. "Without the two we will never advance, never evolve." It felt as though the words he spoke came from an older version of himself, a version long forgotten. "You cannot force perfection, you cannot legislate it, and you cannot induce it by science, Alderman. All you can do is let man tear himself apart and build himself back up until one day he finally evolves to a point where the conflict is no longer needed."

  Alderman laughed. "The exact words you told me the day you two came to demand my resignation." The governor gripped Max's shoulder. "I never hated you Max. I never desired to make your life miserable. What I hated is that you were right and I was wrong." His grip tightened. "A good leader has to make hard decisions."

  "Killing people who disagree with you is always the wrong decision," Max said.

  "Perhaps it is." Alderman offered a tight smile. "Goodbye, Max. Goodbye Scarlett."

  Max knew this was the moment, that Grim would raise the blaster and—

  Governor Alderman walked away and vanished inside the building.

  Max waited for the blasts that would kill them. Instead, Grim lowered his weapon and watched them.

  "Well, are you going to kill us?" Max said.

  "Quiet," Grim said. He remained that way for several minutes then looked over the side of the building.

  Max looked down and saw a lone figure leave the building—Governor Alderman. Instead of heading back to the main group, he turned away and walked into the dead city.

  "Where is he going?" Max asked.

  Grim holstered his weapon and shook his head. "By order of Governor Alderman, all authority is now transferred to Max Planck." He holstered his weapon on his back. "What are your orders, sir?"