Rosetta (Jim Meade: Martian P.I)

by RJ Johnson

  "Call it what you will, but it's not just a matter of fighting for something you believe in, you're stuck here in orbit with no where to go and completely dependent on shipping the ORI to...." Meade trailed off as he realized. "The engines. You're going to use them."

  Lazarus's Cheshire catlike smile returned. "Something like that."

  "Now, my problem is what I should do with you Mr. Meade." Lazarus returned his attention to the Private Investigation. "I understand you have no real alliance to the men who brought you to our station and were only here to find Sanjay Sinjakama's killer. As you have found the man responsible," Lazarus took a small bow, "I think you'll find my offer reasonable. In my eyes, you are left with two options. You can join me, or I can release you and Ms. Hunan in a life pod after I have set my plans in motion."

  Meade considered the proposals and he didn't like his options. On the one hand, he had Sinjakama, Koschei and the rest of the Consortium ilk planning to move Rosetta into orbit around the Homeworld to crash the Coalition's economy. There was no guarantees that the Martian colony would survive without Coalition support so there was that to consider. Even if Rincon succeeded and crashed Rosetta into the Homeworld, it was possible the Martian colony would whither away and die without the constant support it received.

  On the other, there were also no guarantees he could survive a battle against Consortium forces fighting with Lazarus and his idea of a working man's revolution. No matter how he sliced it, there was no good way this would end.

  "All I can say is you ain't exactly giving me a lot to go on." Meade finally answered. "Don't get me wrong, it ain't like I have a lot of love for the Consortium - far from it in fact. And everything I've seen here on Rosetta tells me you probably think you're doing the right thing, even as I know you're gonna get yourself killed."

  "What can I say to convince you?" Lazarus's voice was soft and honeyed. Meade shrugged.

  "I'm not the type to kill innocent civilians."

  "Innocent?" Lazarus's voice thundered. "Every man woman and child living in Uptown are just as responsible for the inequalities our people face. They all participate within the system dozing as they are, turning a blind eye to the near enslavement of nearly ninety percent of the Consortium population so they can have a neat and tidy existence. If it's not the orbital cities, it's the prison colonies on Luna. The slums of Calcutta on the Homeworld, and vast stretches of territory where people go to bed hungry while their "elites" feast on the finest of foods. And now the Consortium seeks to expand this system of slavery into all aspects of Humanity. Rosetta is only the first step. You've seen our slums here in Downtown and the opulence of Uptown. Is that how you wish to see your neighbors on Mars live in five years? Can you truly tell me that you believe that those people are innocent and aren't just as guilty as Koschei and Sinjakama? Their names might not be as important as them, but they're just as culpable."

  Meade looked up in defiance. "And for that, they must die?"

  "Not one person who lives in Uptown has ever attended any of the dozens of funerals we have to hold here in Downtown because of the horrid conditions in the Pit. They don't care that our men and our women suffer from the worst kinds of cancer as they built the dome to prevent Heavy Rain from killing their upper class children. No, they prefer to remain safe and ignore that which the underclass provides for them, taking comfort in the idea that they somehow deserve their success simply because of who their parents were and that they were born into luxury because they were somehow better than you or I in a previous life. They treat us as if we are somehow lucky to feast on their meager table scraps. They complain about our people starving, they talk of the horrors how they had to deal with an underclassman in some way during the course of their day. Their contempt for us is validated daily by the media and they all step over our starving children's bodies as they walk to another restaurant full of the type of gluttonous cretins who are able to throw away more food in one meal than many of my people see in a month. They belittle us, and speak to our face about how ugly, desperate we are and how we must have chosen to live like this, or somehow deserve this fate of abject poverty because we are not as smart as they are.

  "It is for all these sins and so much more that they deserve no more consideration from me than I would give a roach scattering under the refrigerator. They are a cancer on humanity and need to be excised before any more damage is done. The meek shall inherit the world and the rich will reap the whirlwind they have sown." Rincon's voice thundered through the room, "And I will be the one who brings their overdue destruction."

  Meade snorted in disbelief. "Look, I'm sure you think you've got the right idea on hitting the reset button here on Rosetta, hell, if you caught me at a different time in my life, I might be convinced on signing on, but if there's one thing I've learned as a Runabout on Mars, it's that the Coalition and Consortium grips on power ain't going nowhere."

  Lazarus smiled and withdrew a knife from its sheath and placed it between him and Meade.

  "What's that for?" Meade asked.

  "Men have been killing each other for thousands of years. The first such murder was likely done with a knife not all too dissimilar from this one. As time passed and technology progressed, mankind has always found new and innovative ways to destroy each other, each time better and more efficient with every weapon invented becoming orders of magnitude more destructive than the previous weapon conceived. The Last War proved that unless unchecked, Humanity's ultimate destruction is only a matter of time."

  "That's why they called it the Last War," Meade replied. "There are laws and treaties against weapons of mass destruction from being propagated. Hell, now non-lethal weapons are the only thing allowed in combat, and that's assuming the Coalition and Consortium ever go to war again. Leaders on both sides don't want to go down that road again."

  "But don't you see Mr. Meade?" Lazarus hissed. "The Leaders have only agreed to not go to war with each other. They've shifted their focus from wars on each other to a war on the underclass and they won't be satisfied until we are all slaves to their dominion once again."

  Meade shrugged, "Maybe that's the Consortium way, but in my experience, Coalition folk aren't all that interested in anything but making money, leaving each other alone and retiring in a nice orbital city."

  "Don't fool yourself." Lazarus shook his head. "They'll take your freedoms one at a time just as they did to our people in the Consortium. First they'll make it impossible to make a living by raising the cost of goods and services a little at a time. Then they'll insist you take outrageous credit loans to because there's no money for raises this quarter as the economy is so bad. Strangely though, even as you and your neighbors are laid off, they take outrageous bonuses, and their lifestyle and position in society is secured. Soon, you're deeply in debt just to maintain a basic standard of living. Anyone who attempts to change the system is shouted down, bought off, or killed." Lazarus stared at Meade, his black eyes raging fire. "They've done it artfully well in the Consortium and Coalition leaders have begun the process on Mars, even if you're too blind to see it for yourself."

  "So, what?" Meade challenged, "We should just give up? Or steal from those who have all the money?"

  Lazarus shook his head, a low rumbling laugh emanating from the mountain of the man who sat opposite him. "The key to beating the system is not to cheat. Cheating only gets you so far until you're discovered and put into jail, or the rules are changed so that the 'elites' can cheat better than you. No Mr. Meade, the only way to beating the system is to destroy it whole cloth and rebuild from the pieces that are left. Then, and only then shall every man, woman and child have the potential for a decent life and freedom from the chains that bind us together."

  "And that starts with murder and genocide?" Meade nodded to the knife on the table between them. "How did killing Sinjakama accomplish that? He might be important to someone back home, but his death ain't gonna bring about the downfall of the Consortium."

  "Of course
not," Lazarus said, a lazily smile spreading across his face. "The plan is much much larger than the death of one man."

  "So what then?" Meade didn't have a good feeling about this. The man was clearly insane. He might be right about the inequalities of their society and Meade knew how terrible it could get for some and hell, things were starting to get real ugly for folk back on Mars, but even so, in the Coalition men and women were considered equals and people working hard enough could sometimes claw their way out of poverty. In the Consortium however, he knew your life was set on one direction from birth. While that way of doing things may not be right, killing everyone didn't seem like a good way to go about changing things.

  Lazarus waved his arms around the room. "This is my plan."

  Meade cocked his head not understanding. "You mean Rosetta? Taking it over and starting your own society? That won't last long when Consortium warships show up and you know it."

  Lazarus smiled maliciously, "My dear boy, Rosetta is the merely the bullet that I will load and shoot into the heart of the Consortium and Coalition, ridding the world of their decaying corpses."

  "So what's your plan?" Meade challenged.

  "It's already been set into motion and I have you to thank for it."

  Meade was confused, "Me? I haven't done anything."

  "Oh, but you have." Lazarus leaned forward towards Meade and Emeline. "We found ourselves locked out of the navigational controls thanks to that meddling scum Sinjakama. It's why he was leaving the station that night, to lock Rosetta down and keep my coup from succeeding - a task he nearly accomplished incidentally. But you found the final piece of the puzzle to help my plan come to fruition."

  Meade looked at Lazarus horrified. "The Entanglement drive."

  "Precisely Mr. Meade." Lazarus picked up Meade's ArmBar and handed it to Vicktoria who began scanning it with her ArmBar. "You found the key to unlocking the frozen controls on the engines. Sanjay discovered we were going to take over the navigational program after start-up and froze the controls before we could dispose of him. When I killed him, I was unaware of what he had done. Sufficed to say, the last few days have been... trying. At some points, I was sure I would have to call the whole operation off. Koschei found the first entanglement drive on Sinjakama's body before I could get to it."

  "His ArmBar, it is locked." Vicktoria said disgusted.

  "Well, that is a simple matter." Lazarus replied. He glanced back at Meade and smiled. "If you wouldn't mind...?"

  Meade sat back and folded his arms. No way he would help this man.

  Lazarus withdrew his Rattler and pointed it at Meade. "Please Mr. Meade, I have no wish to use this on you."

  "Go ahead." Meade challenged. "I don't think killing me will make it any easier for you to get my ArmBar decrypted."

  Lazarus nodded. "Perhaps not." He pointed the Rattler towards Emeline. "But, you have three chances to give me the code to unlock it."

  The magnets inside the Rattler spun up, the energy charging, Meade swallowed and glanced at Emeline who shook her head at Meade. The message was clear: Don't give in.

  Meade was proud of her defiance, but he couldn't let someone else he cared about die because of him. He held out his hand for the ArmBar. Lazarus grinned and waved Vicktoria forward.

  "No funny business." She warned. Meade nodded and put the ArmBar back on, opening it up for the data transfer. She hovered over him while the data finished downloading on her ArmBar.

  "Got it." She said quickly to Lazarus. The men surrounding Meade quickly wrenched his ArmBar back off his wrist. Meade grunted in pain and rubbed it in pain.

  "Excellent." Lazarus replied looking at Vicktoria. "Does he have the navigational keys?"

  "They're on here." Vicktoria said satisfied. "May I dispose of them now?"

  "NO!" Meade shouted and Emeline cowered behind him.

  Lazarus shoved Vicktoria's ArmBar down. "Don't be an idiot. I'm not through with Mr. Meade. Take the keys to engineering and give them to our people. They need it to proceed."

  Vicktoria glowered at Meade and retreated out the door of The Bitters.

  "Thanks to you and Dr. Sinjakama, we are now only mere hours away from launching Rosetta towards the Homeworld. At the speed Dr. Sinjakama's engines will provide us and the enormity of this asteroid we call home, we shall purify the Homeworld and only then, shall the meek inherit the Earth."

  Lazarus' voice thundered through the small room and Meade could only look on in shock. It all suddenly made sense. He figured out what Lazarus Rincon’s plan with Rosetta really was. The man had clearly gone over the edge. He swallowed and looked around the room before finally settling his gaze back on Lazarus.

  "You can't possibly be serious!" Meade was shocked, he couldn't, no, wouldn't believe what Lazarus was going to do to the Homeworld. "You'd be killed, so would every one of the people you supposedly sworn to protect and lift up for your revolution!" Meade glanced back at Suresh whose eyes were as wide as saucers. Destroying the Homeworld had obviously been a shock to his young friend. Despite his betrayal, Meade felt a twinge of sympathy. Suresh obviously didn't have a clue that this was what Rincon was up to.

  "Those Lightbringers who have made the ultimate sacrifice know that they will have helped lift billions more out of poverty. Hell, by our projections, the Coalition's Martian colony would be the first to recover. Mars would be unaffected by the impact, as would the Luna colonies run by the Consortium - but the governments of the respective nations would be utterly destroyed. Every single one of those responsible for starting the Last War and every nuclear weapon remaining will be purified by a cleansing fire not seen since the impact that killed the dinosaurs. Rosetta will reunite our people on both sides of the political spectrum, horrified as they are with the complete and total destruction of the Homeworld. They will have no choice but to work together and share the resources. And I will be the one who will unite our people!"

  "You'll die!" Meade was frustrated, how could any rational being think was a good solution to Humanity's ills? "How can you possibly survive? Your people, everyone you supposedly care about will be killed once Rosetta is set on course to crash into the Homeworld."

  "As I said, some will have to make the necessary sacrifice." Lazarus agreed, "But they know it is for the greater good. As it often does, the Universe provided a way for many more to survive." Lazarus smiled. "The Garuda is an excellent ship, extraordinarily well-stocked and will provide safe passage for me and one thousand of my closest followers. My people weren't just repairing the Garuda, they were preparing it for our exodus off this rock. Those who are not able to accompany us on the Garuda will eject in the many life pods the elites have for their personal use. That should save another fifteen thousand. The rest..." Lazarus shrugged as a cruel smile spread across his face. "Well, let's just say the rest are either part of the problem, or willing to die for their belief and have prepared themselves for this day for a long time. The Garuda shall provide an excellent base of operations. From it, the Lightbringers will bring Humanity back together and be the harbingers of a righteous revolution!"

  Meade narrowed his eyes. Lazarus was crazy, but not suicidal. Maybe he could negotiate his and Emeline's release by appealing to the man's sense of fairness. He didn't want to kill them, if Lazarus had wanted them dead, they'd have already been shoved outside the station to breathe vacuum.

  "We didn't come here to incite a revolution. Emeline and I were hired to find Sanjay Sinjakama's killer and as you say, thanks to you, we have. Far as I'm concerned, my business has concluded on this rock. I'd prefer it if you'd let us return to Mars peacefully. I'm a Runabout and Em here is Coalition born and bred. We got no dog in your fight. What happens next is up to you of course, but I'd take it as a kindness if you let us go back to our lives on Mars and let us get ready to help rebuild our society into something decent."

  Lazarus nodded. "I understand. I had hoped that would be your response. This new age will need men and women like you." He nodded towards Emel
ine who only glowered at the man."You must understand of course that I cannot release you."

  "Be reasonable..." Meade started but Lazarus raised a hand to silence him.

  "I only mean to say I cannot let you go now. There is too much riding on having the element of surprise to make the plans I have set in motion work. They begin in the morning and after our initial revolution is complete, I give you my word that I will allow you and Ms. Hunan to eject in a life pod. We will even use the Mass Driver to launch you on a trajectory towards Mars."

  Meade shuddered. That was bad news, but at least he and Emeline might survive this man's brand of crazy yet.

  "If you let us go now, I can assure you we will have no contact..."

  "I'm afraid further attempts to convince me will do neither of us any good. I assure you, you will be made comfortable for the night."

  Lazarus rose from the table and turned to his men standing behind them. "Find them comfortable quarters and make sure they do not leave until I give the order." He turned and nodded to Meade and Emeline and left the bar behind. He turned and looked over Suresh and Amla.