The Mars One Incident

by Kelly Curtis

  “I’ve seen your file. I’ve been watching you for a while now. I know who you are, Alma.”

  “And you still think I’m a good member of society? “she asked sarcastically.

  “I think you’re exactly what this government needs.”

  “Mr. Vice Pre… Roscoe, I think I’ve a long way to go before I’m the beacon of good citizenship for anyone anywhere in the galaxy.”

  “What if I were to tell you that there are many people who feel like you do? That they feel isolated, surrounded by so many happy and helpful faces. That these people believe that humanity has gone too far in our quest for peace and now is the time we must scale it back. I believe as they do, we must slowly reintroduce a bit of privacy into our lives again.”

  “Privacy through technology?” she asked.

  He nodded.

  “Doesn’t the President always say, ‘Our best future is behind us’? Aren’t we supposed to be living in a utopia now?” Alma asked the final question in a whisper. It was something they had been taught at school, that the JC was a utopia for humanity, and to suggest otherwise was blasphemy. She could lose social points for just having this conversation if someone heard her and was offended. Yet, it was a surreal conversation to be having with the Vice President of the JC of all people and at a crowded Midsummer’s party too. She resisted the urge to pinch herself to see if this was just a dream.

  “And do you believe that? Do you feel that when you are here alone at a Midsummer’s party you are in utopia? Everyone here in their clean summer clothing with smiles and cheerful conversations.”

  Alma swallowed some gin and tonic. She thought, If there was ever a time to be honest, now was it. “No, I don’t feel that this is utopia for me. But, I can’t imagine how we could live in a way that would be any closer to a utopia than this.”

  “I feel like more of a balance would create a better life for everyone. Every year we have more and more people feeling dissatisfied. Social credits drop every year. As a government we need to act on this before it goes past the point of no return.”

  “How would introducing personal technology help? We’ve already gone down that path and almost destroyed the planet.”

  “This is why I need you. You understand.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes, you’re dissatisfied but it’s not due to the lack of technology. Aren’t you a bit happier when you are working on your ship? More social? It’s the small amount of privacy that technology provides that allows you to be a better citizen.”

  Alma laughed, “Everyone who knows me thinks I’m unhappy precisely because I use technology.”

  “Not everyone and you know that. I’m being serious here. I want to show that actually what you, me and all these other dissatisfied people are missing from society are days to be alone. That there is a strong need for some privacy, we can’t always be happily altogether all the time.”

  “Unless drugs are involved,” Alma said it as a joke, but when she saw Roscoe’s face she knew she had stumbled onto something. Immediately she remembered ‘the peace is in the water,’ and she checked her face expression.

  “No drugs,” Roscoe said quietly.

  “But there must be a better candidate you can use for your model dissatisfied citizen?” Alma waned to change the subject quickly.

  “Do you know that you have never lost SCs when you are working?”

  She looked at him in disbelief going through her mind trying to remember a time she had been marked for anti-social behavior.

  “You’re our ideal candidate. What we’re also trying to do, is to dissuade people from joining Terra Nova. There are so many people who are unsure why they feel dissatisfied with society and unfortunately they are the most likely to be taken in by Terra Nova’s radical propaganda. I’ve been working with a lot of clever people across a lot of different academic fields and we’ve come up with a way to slowly reintroduce more private life for people, to not punish people like you and me who prefer not to be so social all the time.”

  “It seems unlikely that the rest of the population would agree to the reintroduction of technology through a referendum,” the JC was a direct democracy and everyone over the age of 16 years old had a vote and there were ten referendums a year. Otherwise, things were explicitly handled by the government. It was the only system the people would accept after the extreme propaganda and excessive cheating before the Great Leap Backwards.

  “These are only baby steps,” he assured her. “No need for a referendum.”

  “And so what do you need me for? I mean besides being your model example citizen.”

  “To stop Terra Nova from pushing too much by whatever means necessary.”

  Alma dropped her drink in the grass. Neither she nor Roscoe bent to pick it up.

  “You think I should’ve destroyed the Dante with all those innocents onboard?” she asked in a whisper.

  “I think if I would have been able to talk to you before, if Admiral Jackson would have been more straight forward with you about Terra Nova and their new tactics, you wouldn’t have hesitated in destroying them.”

  “Are you telling me, if I come across any Terra Nova, I should destroy them?” Alma almost laughed at the idea. It wasn’t as if anyone announced themselves as being Terra Nova members.

  “I’m just saying, make sure you follow orders next time. There’s a lot at stake.”

  “I will,” she said thinking, I’ll do what is right and hopefully it will fall in line with orders as well. “Tell me about these small changes in personal technology you are proposing.”

  “Last month we reached out to the Shimbahn Unification of 5 for trade, just as we do every year.”

  “And they ignore us every year. We’ve nothing they would want to trade for.”

  “Oh, but there you are wrong. They may be the wealthiest, most advanced technological military powerhouse in the galaxy, but they don’t have art or music or delicious food. They don’t have anything that is worth living for. What is the point of being the most powerful and having all the technology in the world if you don’t enjoy it. There is nothing in the Empire that brings them joy and now they have responded and said they would be open to trade.”

  “How are more universal credits going to help us if no one will sell the JC technology or arms?”

  “That is the beauty of it. They’ve agreed to trade technology and weaponry.”

  “Unification technology and weaponry for human art? I can’t believe it.”

  “I know it seems too good to be true, but you know as well as anyone in the galaxy, the Unification never goes back on its word. They’re powerful but honorable. This is just the break the government needs. We can use this as an opportunity to introduce some personal technology to help guilds trade directly with the Unification.”

  “Your plan is to reintroduce technology under the guise of trade?”

  “Not under the guise, this is all transparent,” he replied. “Slowly, slowly and a bit of privacy will be provided for those of us that need it through that technology. I believe we must slowly and peacefully integrate a little technology back into our lives or humanity will die from this constant social happiness. You don’t disagree do you?”

  “I’ve never thought I would die from people being too social or smiling all the time,” Alma admitted sarcastically. Was it possible to die from too much smiling and teamwork?

  “I’ve thought about it a lot as have many of the great minds today and we all agree that some changes must be made or we will die at a cocktail party with an everlasting smile on our faces. We must take our society back the other way to have some balance.”

  “I must admit, I like the sound of that,” she was charmed by the thought. One of the things Alma loved most about being on ship was being alone in her quarters and no one expecting her to be nice.

  “Good, so I can count on you?”

  “To go very slowly with legal trade with the Unification?”

  “Yes, and to thw
art Terra Nova when you see them. They would destroy what trust we are trying to build with the people to reintroduce some technology. It’ll be just a slight change for a more sustainable society.”

  Alma didn’t know all that she was agreeing to but what Roscoe said sounded good and not too much out of line with how she really felt. “You have my support.”

  “Good. Now if you will excuse me there are other people I must speak to. It was good to finally meet you and I’m sure we will meet again soon. Good luck.”

  Alma watched the Vice President walk away. She was stunned. She reached down and picked up her empty wet glass from the grass.

  “Drinking too much already?” Scott asked cheerfully as he came up behind her. “You must come and socialize with people.”

  “I have been. I just had a long conversation with Roscoe Bloom, the Vice President.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, he’s right there,” Alma said indicating a group of smiling people Roscoe was talking to.

  “And he came to talk to you? Was he upset about what you did last week?”

  Alma didn’t want to tell Scott all of what they had talked about, “We didn’t talk about that. Apparently the Unification has made a deal to trade with the JC.”

  “No, that’s a fantasy.”

  “It’s true. The Vice President just told me. I’m sure our criers will announce it tomorrow or soon, when they know all the details.”

  “What an opportunity. Did he say what they wanted to trade?” Humans traded goods as well as foodstuffs and recipes and cuisine. It was not unheard of for some chefs to send over specific dishes frozen for the voyage.

  “No, he didn’t go into details.”

  “I’m sure they are going to want human food. They’re almost the same as us genetically so their taste buds must be the same.”

  “There are some small differences. They’re all grey to begin with and their planets have lower temperatures than ours so maybe their taste buds are slightly different too.”

  “Alma, can you please try to be positive about this?”

  “I’m being positive,” she defended herself and then went back to the bar to pour herself another drink.

  Chapter 8

  July 6th 2635, Mars One Station, Mars

  “Captain, Mars One Station has cleared us for mooring,” announced Selma from the communications station on the bridge.

  “Take us in, Eito,” Alma replied.

  “They certainly have done a lot of work to Mars One since I was here last,” commented Christopher.

  “They want to increase traffic to the colonies by becoming more of a hub, an official stop for inspections,” Alma said. Mars One was the first successful station and colony to be built on the red planet in 2085. It was humanity’s first real backup plan if anything was to ever happen to Earth. However, like all firsts, it was not the most ideal place to start on the red planet and subsequent colonies and stations quickly thrived overtaking Mars One’s importance.

  “Inspections of what? What would be the point of bringing contraband all the way out here?” asked Jason.

  “How often do we closely inspect things from Mars One as opposed to Titan?” asked Christopher to Jason.

  “It’s like leaving our backdoor wide open,” Alma commented.

  “But no one really has the extra UCs to pay for the extra fuel to smuggle things in from Mars One, do they? You’d have to stop again after Titan and whoever you were meeting would have to do the same as there is nothing that leaves Mars. Not only is it a lot of wasted time and UCs, it’d look suspicious,” explained Eito.

  “Only if anyone was paying attention,” Alma said and wondered, How many people cover their tracks like this? “Afia,” she said but Afia interrupted her.

  “I’m already checking, Captain.”

  The bridge was quiet as Eito docked. The whole station looked as if it was under construction.

  “Captain, this’ll take longer than five minutes. There aren’t many records between Titan and Mars, but the ones that are here, don’t match. It seems a lot of people have been changing their destinations and IDs from one station to another. Eito, do you mind looking over these with me?”

  Eito guided the ship into position and then nodded to Jason to take over the final checks before going to sit next to Afia at the science station, “Why not? I love to see some good friends here. First,” he pointed to a ship’s name, “The Daisy always changes its name to the Rose when it reaches Mars.”

  “Why would they do that unless they are carrying illegal goods?”

  Eito shrugged, “For fun to see if anyone notices and it looks like no one noticed until now. You can imagine how boring it is to carry legal cargo all the time from Titan to Mars, from Earth to Mars.”

  “What about the Dante, the Yomi and the Explorer?” Alma asked.

  “Checking,” Afia replied.

  “We need to stop handing out so many IDs,” Christopher said. “What’s going on at Titan Station?”

  Alma gave him a look, “Well, you met the Station Master, what do you think is going on?”

  Everyone on the bridge smiled at Alma’s ironic question. Station Master Harlow was definitely a man who overlooked a lot of things in exchange for goods and UCs.

  After five minutes, the Indy was fully docked and the crew could now leave the ship. They had to offload their shipment of supplies. Christopher was already leaving the bridge to oversee the transfer. However, before he stepped out, Afia said, “Wait Commander, Captain, come and look at this.”

  Alma and Christopher went to stand behind Afia and Eito as they looked at some screens. Afia pointed to a ship’s name, “The Yomi shows up here and at Titan Station.”

  “Titan Station in May?”

  Afia nodded, “Yes.”

  “Are they here now?” Christopher asked.

  “Not exactly, but there’s a ship with almost the same specs. I’ve uploaded all the data I could recover from the Dante’s deleted memory core and that included specs from the Yomi. Now, if you can believe it, there is a similar ship right now at mooring 24 and she is called the ‘Alba’.”

  “Transfer the goods and then take some guards and go and casually check them out,” Alma told Christopher.

  “I’d like to go too,” requested Eito. “I may recognize some of the crew and find out if they know anything about the Dante and what the mysterious cargo might have been.” Even though it had been only Alma, who had been punished for not following orders and destroying the Dante, most of her crew respected her for that decision. None of them had wanted unnecessary blood on their hands. And they had been gradually warming to her, since she had been true to her word, and already the Indy had risen in the JC starship rankings. Moreover, she had used her own UCs and goods to upgrade the ship on top of what they had salvaged from the Dante. So her crew, if skeptical before, were becoming more respectful now with each passing day.

  Alma nodded to Eito, “Be diplomatic,” and then said to Afia, “Good work, Afia.” And then addressed them all, “Let’s meet back here in three hours. I’m going to see the Station Master Xavier.”

  Three hours later, all the senior officers were seated around the Indy’s conference table. Christopher began, “Somethings not right with the Alba.”

  Eito cut in, “They were super shady for being so overly normal, it’s like they were proud not to be pirates, but had the most expensive pirate starship I’ve ever seen.”

  “What do you mean?” Afia asked annoyed.

  “First, the Alba is the nicest ship in here. She has been built up with a lot of UCs and Trappist technology. We tried to charm the crew that we spoke to, to let us have a look around onboard, but they wouldn’t budge. However, just looking at her hull, I wonder if she even has jump drive,” said Christopher.

  “And when you asked why they were on Mars One?”

  “They said they had stopped to pick up a shipment.”

  “That’s odd,” commented Alma. Most shipmen
ts were being dropped off as Mars One was currently upgrading itself and the colonies on Mars produced nothing for export, “What about the crew specifically?”

  “The crew we saw weren’t your regular spacefaring types. I didn’t recognize any of them and I know most people personally or by reputation,” answered Eito.

  “All young then?” Galen asked, wondering if a few rich kids imagined an adventurous life as a cargo ship in the solar system. It was uncommon, but he’d seen it before.

  “No, that’s what was strange too. At least four of them were old enough to be grandfathers. You don’t begin a career in space when you’re that age. And okay, there might be one or two grandfathers flying around the solar system, I don’t know, but more than two as newbies and on the same ship, no way. And they were all cocky, as if no one could touch them. Even the most notorious pirates who have every Station Master and JC Captain on their payroll don’t act like that,” Eito frowned.

  “It’s sounds like the same men that were guarding the Dante’s mysterious cargo. What did the crew from the Alba have to say?” Alma asked.

  “The few we spoke to acted like they were old hands. We didn’t hint that we thought otherwise. Their cargo, they said, was simply fine art from a resident of Mars One who wanted to sell it on Earth. They even said they were carrying some paintings of your father’s onboard, Captain,” replied Christopher.

  “Really?” Alma said ironically. She rarely kept track of where her father’s lesser paintings went, but she thought it was very unlikely anyone on Mars One would have a collection of fine art or that they would want to sell now when the Station had UCs pouring into it from investors, “They knew that I’m your captain though or?”

  “As the Indy just arrived 20 minutes before it was pretty obvious,” Eito said.

  “And,” began Jason, “everyone knows you are the captain of the Indy.”

  “True,” Galen said, “but it strikes me as a bit odd.”

  “Maybe, I should ask to go onboard and check some of my father’s work since they seem so friendly?” Alma suggested.