by Ian Miller
"Then can we gather supporters?" Misako asked, eager to help.
"You must approach nobody," Gaius warned. "At the moment, we are too weak, and some of your friends might sell you out."
"They wouldn't do that!" Misako protested. "I know them, they're –"
"Not even to get themselves off the draft?" Gaius queried, and when he saw her look of near anguish, he nodded towards her and said in a more encouraging tone, "Make a list of possible support, but do no more. If you know of any professional soldiers, their names could be useful."
"The Brownshirts killed all those they could get their hands on," Misako said. "There may be some in hiding, but . . ."
"Then do nothing," Gaius ordered. "This won't be easy, so don't make it harder by blundering around. I shall tell you what to do, and when to do it."
"But how do we know you'll even come up with anything?" Misako frowned. "It may be too late when we find out you can't."
"You'll have to trust me."
"But you'll put your own interests first, won't you?"
"Misako, don't annoy him. He's all we've got," Akiro urged.
"We don't really know we've got him," Misako countered, almost angrily, "but we've always got ourselves."
"Well said," Gaius interposed, stopping Akiro's pleading. "You're quite right. You don't know where my interests lie. But you should still wait. By all means, form your own plan, but don't involve anyone else. Don't do anything before you've cleared it with me."
"Then you could turn us in," Haruhiko interposed. "You could be –"
"No!" Misako shook her head. "Whoever you are, you're not one of them."
"How can you be so sure?" Haruhiko asked, as Gaius' face remained emotionless.
"I saw what happened in the cornfield," Misako said quietly. "I don't know where you came from, but you knew nothing about the Brownshirts."
"That could be a ploy," Haruhiko warned.
"For what?" Misako asked scathingly. "No," she added, as if suddenly coming to a decision, "we'll trust you. But you trust us. Tell us who you are."
"I can't do that yet," Gaius replied quietly. "All I can tell you is that I'm almost certainly your best hope, and I'm not going to let you down. I can also assure you I have no love for the M'starn. Amongst other things, they killed my wife and they shall pay, but whether you're to be a help or a hindrance to me remains to be seen. If you want to help, get information, and remain inconspicuous. Don't start anything you can't finish, and don't let anyone know what you're thinking!"
The group looked at him. Akiro was about to speak, but Misako raised her hand. "Let's watch the news," she said, changing the subject.
* * *
Gaius decided that he would explore the settlement. Apart from the need to be able to find his way around and make a first assessment of the state of human technology, he felt that he should at least appear to the Shibatus that he was trying to make progress on their problem. That seemed almost insoluble, for there was no solution but to overthrow their oppressors. From what he had seen of the Brownshirts, a squad from the twentieth would find it to be pitifully easy, but the fact was there seemed to be almost nothing in common between these settlers and the Roman soldier. The lack of skill was not an issue, for the enemy was not that skilled either, but the almost total lack of fighting spirit was critical. Could something be aroused? He was unsure, and he was also unsure whether he should try, because if he failed, they would pay a terrible price.
He strolled towards the waste recycling area, where every piece of trash was processed, where every piece of garbage was recovered for reuse or for compost, and where every drop of effluent was treated. The treatment not only recovered the water, which was precious in the desert that was Mars, but also every gram of carbonaceous or nitrogenous waste, which was far more valuable for the food production systems. Everything seemed efficient and tidy. He then ambled around to the hydroponics and aquaculture areas, but quickly beat a hasty retreat. It occurred to him that these were amongst the most important areas on Mars, but there were very few people working there. A stranger would be immediately obvious, and a number of armed men wearing these ridiculous brown uniforms were inspecting the few workers present.
Running from the back of this area were the great pipes that ran to the electricity generators outside the dome. These carried the waste heat from the great magnetohydrodynamic generators, and following the dictum that nothing was wasted on Mars, this heat was recovered and piped to the food producing areas of Hellas, helping to keep the interior of the dome warm. Gaius noticed that these too were guarded, although the exercise was almost pointless. These areas were vital to the governing power, but they were also so vital to everybody. There could be no winners from disruption here. Within Hellas there was so much that could not be touched without risking the destruction of all life within the settlement, either quickly or slowly, that there was a very strict limit to what anybody, Brownshirt or settler, could do.
He strolled slowly down the street, taking in everything he could without appearing to be too interested in anything. He came to an intersection, and to his left, down a very short street, there was the transport centre. He leaned against a wall, and watched. Because there appeared to be a nearby neutral town, and because all trade had to be carried out through this centre, this was a key facility. As expected, Brownshirts were checking papers of everyone who came and went, and as far as he could see, the inspections were reasonably thorough. When someone produced papers with an image on it, the Brownshirt would actually study the face of the bearer. Behind the gate there seemed to be considerable activity and he thought about examining this more closely, but at that moment one of the Brownshirts appeared to notice him. He strolled across the road, and continued walking. He must not draw attention to himself.
Very soon he came upon a further intersection, and down a similarly sized short street, there were the Theppotian salt and cactus processing facilities. This area was fenced off, and was largely deserted. Salt, potash, and a number of other important chemical raw materials such as oils and waxes were simply not available to the initial settlers. Direct importation from Earth was out of the question, and hence initially commodities such as soap were difficult to provide. But the pressure for chemicals was too great, as apart from the biological need to maintain adequate salt levels to replace that irreversibly lost from bodily wastes, and the desired comfort of having soap, industry was not possible without adequate supplies of certain salts.
The answer to the salts problem was surprisingly simple. In many parts of Mars there were the channels of ancient watercourses. These had long since dried up, and the watercourses in general did not run into any noticeable sea or lake. Nevertheless, the water had dissolved some salts, and these remained where the water had finally evaporated. At the end of some watercourses significant deposits of certain salts could be found, and these were the treasures for the salt miners. It was later that he learned that Hellas had been founded in the wrong place: it was on the side of a gentle slope, and accordingly fluid flowed away from this settlement towards Theppot. Theppotians developed salts processing and cactus growing, but as the industries grew they sited facilities in Hellas to take advantage of the enormous surplus of electricity and waste heat available there.
Mars had its resources, even though they were usually in an inconvenient form. The early Martian atmosphere was quite different to the present atmosphere, and most of the original nitrogen now lay beneath the surface in the form of what was left after the passage of four billion years of the chemicals of prebiotic soup, including urea. This 'urea' had been a mixed blessing initially. Theppotians had made the initial discoveries and the Hellenes were offered two choices: "buy in or sell equipment to the venture". The chance to make quick money had been irresistible, but now the discoveries and processing had matured, the factories were producing, and although fertilizer was so important, only a few Hellenes were involved.
The Theppotians, he knew, were neutral, a
lthough why such neutrality was permitted was a difficult question. Perhaps he should investigate this area? Yes, why not? He began to walk slowly towards the gate, but he had only walked halfway when an android appeared, and began to study him. It would be recording his appearance, which was a nuisance. One option he had would be to try to erase the android's memory. The energy required would take most of the small portable power pack he carried, but it could be worth it. He quickly thought better of it. He walked towards a door, pretended to knock, and when, obviously, nothing happened, he shrugged and walked away.
If his information were correct, the Theppotians would operate this android. Provided he did not enter their territory, they would not care what he did, unless he tried but failed to erase his image. The Theppotians would recognize advanced technology, and think the M'starn were involved. They would complain about a breach of neutrality, and the M'starn would have his image, and a record of his use of Ulsian technology. This would be about the only way he could lose what little advantage he had for absolutely no gain. He had to be a little less impulsive!
The next small street, he knew, went to the bay available to prospectors, who also frequently departed from Hellas. Prospecting was a time-honoured early profession on a newly settled planet, Gaius recalled from his Ulsian lessons. On Mars, core formation had been less efficient than on Earth, and Mars had not sustained massive tectonic recycling, hence the surface was richer in elements that had been extracted to the core in significant amounts on Earth. Unfortunately there had also been a lack of geochemical processing to concentrate these elements, and while there were relatively more of them, they were frustratingly difficult to find in large amounts. The Hellesponticus ranges to the west would have melted hence crystallization of rocks would have occurred. Accordingly, it was relatively easy to find certain silicate crystals, but who wanted them? The lack of riverbeds also meant a lack of a natural means of collecting rocks from a wide area to give clues. However, despite the difficulties, the possibility of valuable minerals was an eternal magnet for southern-hemisphere prospectors.
The life of the prospectors was hard, but they had developed large vehicles with their own recycling equipment, solar collectors, water distillation equipment, and even simple hydroponic tanks. These vehicles were totally self-contained, and a prospector could exist for months away from the domes. Sometimes he had to, and at such times it was imperative that he had plenty of resources. The great dust storms, which could last for months, could make land transport impossible and solar energy collection very difficult. Although the winds sometimes reached over two hundred kilometers per hour, the thinness of the Martian atmosphere made it difficult to utilize energy drawn from the wind. On the other hand, the infernal dust would get everywhere, and was particularly dangerous to air seals. Consequently, in a dust storm the miners would put giant tents over their vehicles wherever they were working. They had quickly developed the technique of camouflaging themselves, by using red-brown tent material with slightly redder darker smudges to hide themselves from satellite observation; nobody wished to let competitors know which channels had the richest deposits. They had even developed the camouflage technique to the level of having reddish solar energy collectors.
The desire for secrecy was so complete that the miners had themselves constructed a ring road around the Hellas basin with radial feeder routes. Inevitably they would set out to the north west, on the InterMars highway, then they would turn off onto the ring road, generally at night, and they would leave this road before sun-up. There were known feeder roads into the wastes around Hellas, but the miners generally ignored these, and would leave the roads in places where either no tracks would be left, or there were so many there already that a further set would not be noticed. There were three basic directions they could take: to the west lay the mountains of the Hellesponticus, and further, the tortured deserts of Noachim; to the south, the colder wastes, and to the east, the Terra Prometheus and Terra Cimmeria, which included the few more channelled regions near Hellas.
Because it was the first civilian settlement on Mars, Hellas, with its massive energy production, was the centre for metal smelting, fabrication, and hence it was the major engineering centre on Mars. Accordingly, it continually attracted many of the new settlers.
The Hellas basin was kilometers deeper than most other sites on Mars, hence it had a higher atmospheric pressure. Hellas Planitia was one of the very few places on Mars with sufficient atmospheric pressure that water could exist in the liquid state, even before man's intervention, and although it would still evaporate only too quickly, it was at least possible to maintain life.
Theppot, at the bottom of the basin, was a research centre, and a chemicals manufacturing centre. Being at the bottom of the basin, it had even greater air pressure, and accordingly, that was where the first plants could be grown outside domes. Theppotian scientists had developed through genetic manipulation special plants that could grow in the new "soil" outside the domes. These plants ranged from the famous "Mars cactus", which looked more like a rock than a cactus, although it was thick and grew like a cylinder, to "tree-like" plants, although these could only grow at the very bottom of Hellas. The cactus was a minor miracle for Mars, as it had made copious amounts of wax esters and a biosynthetic detergent, as well as a valuable cellulosic fibre, not unlike cotton. Although not necessary for life, the cactus was very important for making life more comfortable. Thus while one could do without cosmetics, most women did not wish to.
A further advance had been the development of the 'gardening android', which watered, harvested, and generally tended to the cacti. This was a machine that looked like a human, and if it was given a supply of parts it self-replicated at a rate to match the workloads of the advancing cacti. It spent its life in the wastes of the Hellas basin watering plants, ensuring that cactus reproduction took place, and harvesting mature plants. The origin of these androids was something of a puzzle at first to the Martians, but eventually they found that they were the result of a machine replication crisis on Earth. Earth had overcome these androids, although it was never quite clear how they were so safely re-engineered.
The mining depots were empty. As Gaius mingled at the back of a small group of workmen near the front gate, he learned that there was a high level of concern. The M'starn had originally demanded a tithe of metals, the Brownshirts had promised delivery, but the miners had stopped delivering. Theppot controlled most of the ore, and they had apparently informed the M'starn that neutrality meant that while they would deliver ore, they required payment. They would not accept thaler that had to be spent in Brownshirt occupied Mars, and they did not accept the fact that many Theppotian-owned businesses, such as the breweries, had been stolen by the Brownshirts. The salts and cactus businesses still remained nominally in Theppotian hands, but only because the Brownshirts were too afraid of the gardening androids present. Accordingly there would be no mineral sales from Theppot until these Theppotian-owned properties were returned. The owners of the other mining ventures had apparently decided to side with Theppot, and they were either hiding out in the wastes, or they were getting supplies from Theppot. In either case, supplies of metals to the smelters had ceased, and these were reduced to processing general dust. The M'starn were taking supplies of iron, magnesium, aluminium and silicon, but it appeared other elements were regarded as more important. What was interesting to Gaius in this information was that the Theppotians were resisting, and the M'starn were not enforcing anything, at least on the Theppotians.
One man, Karl Groza, was standing on a box, lamenting the state of matters. "Fellow workers," Groza implored, holding his hands in front of his face, "we've got problems! The miners won't come in, and the Brownshirts are threatening executions unless they get their metals."
"And if the miners do come in, the Brownshirts'll torture them," one worker chipped in, "then kill them. If you were a miner, Karl, would you come in?"
"Not bloody likely," came another voice from
the back.
"So we're all going to die!" Groza whined.
"If you can't think of anything better than that to say, Karl, get off your soapbox," a voice chipped in. There was a mumbled upwelling of support.
"Someone's got to make them miners see reason," Groza implored.
"Best of luck," someone called. The meeting began to disintegrate, as some of the workers headed for a tavern across the road. Soon, Groza was standing by himself on the box, making futile calls for people to listen.
"So you think the settlers should help the M'starn?" Gaius said softly, as he approached the lonely Groza.
"Stuff the M'starn," Groza whined. "I've got a wife and children, and there're other settlers. The protest's futile! The miners can't stay out there forever. I mean what are they going to do? What –"
"How many M'starn are actually on Mars?" Gaius asked.
"No more than three per settlement," Groza replied. "Why?"
"Just curious," Gaius replied, and he turned away. He was no longer interested in listening to what Groza wanted to say. The man was not a collaborator, but was merely frightened, and with good cause. There may have been few M'starn in each settlement, but the Brownshirts were numerous, and additionally, the M'starn had given the Brownshirts the means to make strange tank-like land vehicles. Apparently they were redesigned Terran war vehicles, and were not of M'starn origin Finally, they were considered so ruthless that if any revolt succeeded, the settlement would be destroyed.
Gaius chose to follow the others to the tavern, to see what else he could find out. There he found a number of little groups sitting at tables, drinking half litres of Hell's Ale. There was little to discover. Basically, the Brownshirts were taking over everything they could, and nobody could stand up against them because only the Brownshirts had guns. It appeared that there was trade between Hellas and Theppot, but this was restricted to Theppot supplying settlers and taking something in return. Theppot refused to trade with the Brownshirts because they refused to offer anything useful in return. Oddly enough, the Brownshirts did nothing about this, which in turn implied that the Brownshirts were afraid of Theppot. Mineral deliveries had stopped, and the miners had decided to wait for . . . What? What did they know that nobody else knew? Whatever it was, it seemed to work. Although everybody feared that the M'starn might destroy the colonies out of simple spite, a strange thing had then happened: the M'starn removed their threats and requests relating to minerals, and had concentrated on salts and manufactured items.