Classical: MARS: Book 3 of MARS

by Matthew Ellis

  Notah said, “Alright, listen up. I’ve been ordered to strip search everyone here. In the case of the females, Lin will search you.”

  Lin said, “All females follow me.”

  Lin took the females to the back of the ship where she put a divider to keep the males and females separated. She ordered them to strip and put their clothes in a basket. They stripped and Lin went through their clothing.

  Lin said, “Any weapons will be returned to you once your mission actually begins.”

  Ortiz said, “You’ve never strip searched me before.”

  Lin replied, “You’ve never had a military force with you before. We can’t be too careful.”

  Ortiz said, “As long as you don’t keep me here too long.”

  Lin said, “We’ll have you on your way in a reasonable time.”

  Lin ordered everyone to bend over and cough. She manually inspected their anal and vaginal cavities. Then she waved the scanner over the women. The scanner would detect trace explosives and electronics that the visual search would miss. She didn’t find anything.

  At the same time, Notah performed a similar inspection of the men. Neither inspection found anything, and the DeNoPE dignitaries were upset at having such a thorough search performed. Once the inspections were complete, everyone was allowed to replace their clothes.

  Notah said, “You’re all free to go to the receiving bay. Your possessions will be inspected there.”

  Lin said, “In the meantime, we’re going to inspect this ship.”

  Ortiz protested, “I’ve been here a dozen times, and you’ve never inspected my ship.”

  Notah said, “It’s not that we don’t trust you. It’s that we don’t trust your passengers.”

  Ortiz said, “But if you sanction this ship, it’ll sanction me for one of your years. That’s almost two years back home. I can’t go without work that long. I depend on this run.”

  Lin said, “If we find anything, and you can prove you didn’t put it on the ship, we’ll only sanction your passengers.”

  Ortiz said, “Okay, inspect away.”

  Lin said, “We intend to.”

  The teams from Earth left the ship, except the ship’s regular crew. Once the crew and the inspectors were on the ship alone, Lin and Notah removed every panel from the ship. They were looking for anything that could be used against the dignitaries from Earth. After they inspected the panels, the ship’s crew was responsible for replacing them.

  Ortiz asked, “Why don’t you put the ship back together? You’re the one who took it apart.”

  Lin replied, “We’re the ones in charge here. We make the rules, and you will follow them.”

  Ortiz said, “That sounds like some totalitarian bullshit.”

  Lin said, “We don’t really like the people you brought here. We want them to know that. “

  Ortiz asked, “What’s that got to do with us?”

  Lin answered, “We want you to not only have a horror story, we want you to share it with everyone on Earth. That way, others will be discouraged from coming here for bullshit reasons.”

  Ortiz said, “Yeah, I get that. Their whole premise is a load of malarkey.”

  Lin said, “That’s why we’re giving you a hard time. It has nothing to do with you, but we need to nip this in the bud.”

  Ortiz resignedly said, “Fine.”

  Ortiz ordered her crew to stay out of the customs agents’ way. She also ordered them to put the ship back in order as quickly as possible.

  In the spaceport building, the dignitaries brought their possessions to the inspection room. The agents opened every bag and case. They unfolded every piece of clothing and searched every pocket. They used their magnifying glasses to check for any foreign organism that might contaminate Mars. When they were done inspecting the bags, the dignitaries had to put their possessions back where they were.

  Jacques asked, “Why are you being ridiculous?”

  The agent replied, “We’re following protocols. Your group was assigned level five security. We’re just following orders.”

  Jacques asked, “How many levels are there?”

  The agent said, “Five.”

  Jacques said, “So we’re the highest-level security threat. That sounds like petty revenge.”

  The agent said, “I just do what I’m told. Now, if you don’t comply I’ll have you arrested and you won’t be allowed to complete your mission.”

  Jacques snapped, “Fine.”

  The agents continued searching the dignitaries’ possessions. They x-rayed them, put them in a scanner and analyzed them. Their search found nothing.

  Then they inspected the weapons. They took them to the ballistics chamber of the customs office.

  Jacques asked, “Why are you taking our weapons to ballistics?”

  The agent answered, “To have a comparison on file in case any bullshit goes down.”

  Jacques asked, “How much ammunition are you going to spend?”

  The agent replied, “As much as it takes.”

  The agent took the weapons to the chamber and fired three rounds from each weapon. She fired one round into the sand trap, one round into the water and one round into the metal target.

  Once the ballistics testing was complete, the weapons were returned to the dignitaries. They were upset because they lost so much ammunition, but they got no sympathy from the Martian customs agents.

  After the inspections were complete, the dignitaries left the spaceport and went to the Capitol building. The Bulldog’s crew stayed with their ship because the agreement was for a round-trip.

  ***

  Scout, Jordan, and Clive were waiting at the Capitol. Notah followed the dignitaries to make sure they didn’t try anything sneaky. Once at the Capitol, Notah joined the other military leaders.

  Jacques and Iskin joined the Martian leaders in the conference room. Their subordinates watched the live stream from an adjacent room. They were heavily guarded, and no one Earth was allowed to take a weapon into the Martian Capitol.

  Scout stood at the head of the conference table. He lowered a screen and motioned at his computer.

  He said, “I’m going to give you the introduction to Martian life. It’s our orientation for new immigrants.”

  Jacques said, “But we’re not migrants. We’re here to retrieve a criminal.”

  Scout replied, “But we don’t want you to disrupt the Martian way of life any more than you absolutely have to. We’re going to show you what we expect from new people, so you’ll know what to expect and what not to do.”

  Jacques said, “Let’s get on with it.”

  Scout gestured and the video presentation began. It went over the history of the Martian colony from the very beginning in Oregon. It covered the entire constitution and the Treaty of Luna. The video took about two hours to play.

  Iskin said, “Well, there’s two hours we’ll never get back.”

  Jordan said, “If you think that was bad, it gets worse for you. If you look in front of you, you’ll see a tablet. There’s a test that you need to pass with a perfect score before you’re allowed to leave.”

  Iskin said, “What the hell for?”

  Jordan said, “So we know that you understand what the hell we expect from you.”

  Iskin said, “This is bullshit.”

  Scout asked, “Are you saying you don’t want to take the test? Because if you don’t, we can send you home right now.”

  Iskin said, “No, we’ll take your damn test. Our mission is too important.”

  Jordan said, “Then take the test. You have as long as it takes.”

  The leaders took the test in the conference room, and the subordinates took the test in the adjacent room. Four hours later, they were cleared to work on Mars.

  Scout said, “I know you’re probably exhausted after our vetting process. We’re putting you up in the Freedom Hotel, so you can get some rest. We’ll go over your mission and how we’re going to help you.”

  Th
e delegates stood from their chairs and stretched. They walked in a daze from the conference room to the vestibule. They put their suits on and walked to their vehicle. When they got to the hotel, they went directly to their rooms and fell asleep. Some of them were too tired to remove their clothes.

  ***

  The next morning, the delegates and their subordinates woke disoriented. They knew they were in a hotel, but the landscape was strange and alien to them. It took them a few moments to realize they were on Mars. Some were in awe because they weren’t allowed that luxury the previous day. The others were too focused on their work to care about the awe of being on another world.

  The vehicle picked them up and took them to the Capitol building again. They had bad memories of that place, but they needed to get past that to accomplish their mission.

  Jacques said, “I hope they don’t have more ridiculous bullshit today. We don’t have time for them to fuck with us.”

  Iskin added, “No, we don’t. It’s just petty and juvenile. There’s no reason for yesterday.”

  Scout and Jordan were waiting, in their environmental suits, outside the Capitol building. They greeted the dignitaries and walked them into the conference room.

  Jacques asked, “Why are we all wearing environmental suits? I thought you all had terraformed this planet,” as he removed his suit.

  Jordan replied, “We’re not finished terraforming the planet. We’ve made a major dent, but it’s still not perfect. The air still has some nasty elements, and it’s still very cold.”

  Jacques said, “The ship’s scans showed only trace levels of toxins, and it’s not that cold.”

  Jordan said, “Yes, but one of those toxins is chlorine. It takes a miniscule amount to kill a human. It’s just better to be safe than sorry. Besides that, the windstorms are lethal.”

  Jacques said, “That makes sense. Is it a requirement?”

  Jordan said, “No, you’re free to try and breathe the Martian air unprotected if you want, but most of the people who do that eventually have problems.”

  Jacques said, “Then maybe we’ll use them.”

  Jordan motioned to Jacques and Iskin. They followed him into the conference room.

  Everyone took their previous seat when they reached the conference room or the adjacent room. Scout stood with a remote control in his hand.

  Scout said, “You’ve asked us to help you capture a fugitive wanted for murder on Earth. We’ve agreed, and we can dedicate a few resources to your manhunt.”

  He pressed a button on the remote. A tank appeared on the screen.

  Scout said, “This is the Mars 1 tank. We’re lending you one of these and its crew.”

  He pressed another button. A plane appeared.

  He said, “This is a Mars 2 bomber. We’re lending you one of these to search. We are not, however, going to give you any bombs. We’re also lending you the crew.”

  Scout pressed another button on the remote. A Star Brigade ship was displayed.

  Scout said, “This is a Star Brigade 9 ship. We can lend you two pilots to search from space. They’ll be a sort of satellite tracking system.”

  Scout pressed another button. A small sport utility vehicle appeared on the screen.

  He said, “This will be your primary vehicle to search. Unfortunately, we can’t have anyone not from Mars operating our equipment. So, we’ll provide you with a driver.”

  Jacques asked, “What about tracking equipment and communications?”

  Jordan said, “All of our vehicles have that stuff built into them. It’s one of the advantages of not having to worry about budgets. We see a need and we can just meet it.”

  Jacques said, “I still don’t think you have a better system than ours.”

  Jordan said, “That’s your right, but ours is to disagree.”

  Jordan thought, “We have to make sure we have a better system than you. That way we can stay safe from your tyranny.”

  Jacques said, “When can we get started?”

  Jordan said, “We need to fulfill a few formalities like customs first.”

  He thought, “We need to make sure the refugees have a head start and we can figure out what the hell really happened.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Alliance

  Wendy and John sat at a table. Bob, Cindy, and Lin joined them. Wendy opened a channel to the other colonists so they could monitor the negotiations.

  Wendy asked, “Can everyone in Mars Colony hear the conference?”

  Kevin answered, “We hear you loud and clear.”

  Wendy said, “Then we can get started.”

  Bob said, “We’re here to negotiate a treaty between the original Mars colony and the Republic of Mars. “

  Wendy said, “We know that. Can we dispense with the formalities and just get on with it?”

  Bob replied, “We’re recording this, so I’d like to have an official record of what we say.”

  John asked, “Isn’t this just a preliminary negotiation?”

  Bob answered, “Yes, the full government must approve the final version of the treaty.”

  Wendy asked, “So where is the rest of the government?”

  Cindy answered, “They’re dealing with two other situations. The fugitive search is about to begin, and there’s a major engineering project going on in orbit around the planet.”

  John asked, “Why is the government dealing with the engineering project?”

  Lin replied, “Because our leaders are more ‘hands on’ type leaders.”

  John said, “We know how that goes, but we’re that way out of necessity. There are very few of us.”

  Lin said, “We’ve come here in waves. There’s a few thousand of us now, but in the beginning, it was 22 terraformers.”

  Wendy asked, “So when can we expect a full negotiation with Scout and the rest of the government?”

  Bob replied, “As soon as they get back from space.”

  Cindy asked, “Can we begin?”

  Wendy said, “Please.”

  Bob opened a legal tablet and started writing. He wrote the date, everyone’s name and started two columns.

  Cindy said, “I haven’t seen anyone use paper since we ran out twenty years ago. Everything’s been electronic, and those soldiers did everything that way, too.”

  Bob said, “We only use paper for official documents. It’s a precious resource.”

  Cindy said, “I’d like to start by asking for your territorial boundaries.”

  Wendy said, “I don’t have traditional coordinates. We never needed them because we never went far from our colony.”

  Lin projected a holographic map of their colony.

  John was shocked and said, “You’ve been spying on us!”

  Lin said, “No, we spied on the soldiers. We didn’t know you were there until we went looking for the fugitives.”

  Wendy said, “They’re not fugitives. They’re refugees running from DeNoPE.”

  Lin said, “Sorry about that. Anyway, before that, we didn’t realize we weren’t alone on this planet.”

  Wendy said, “We didn’t want you to know. We liked being alone, but that is apparently changing among the rest of the colony.”

  Lin pointed to the hologram’s information bar.

  Lin said, “So it looks like your colony is at these coordinates, and extends two kilometers in every direction.”

  Kevin said, “Don’t let them forget about our food production area.”

  Wendy said, “You trusted us to be your leaders, so let us conduct these negotiations.”

  Kevin said, “Okay, but we’re all listening to you. If you hurt us, you’re going to be in trouble with the colony.”

  Wendy said, “I’m looking out for our interests.”

  Lin asked, “May we continue?’

  John answered, “Please.”

  Lin said, “Your food production area isn’t on this hologram, but the team that followed you made a note of its location. It’s located five
kilometers east of your colony. It will be included in your borders.”

  Wendy said, “We don’t want our borders to keep us in such a small area forever. We’d like space to grow.”

  John said, “In the beginning, our colony was forced to stay in the bunkers, but since you’ve done such an awesome job of terraforming, we think we’d like to expand.”

  Bob said, “We weren’t going to keep you in a tiny area. We want to see your colony grow.”

  Wendy said, “That’s a little surprising.”

  Bob said, “If you are going to be our ally, we’d like you to be a strong ally.”

  Wendy said, “So you’re just looking at us as potential soldiers in your next war.”

  Bob said, “No, we want Mars to be a great planet. Our society and yours can work together to build two great nations.”

  John said, “That was a point of contention. We may have decided to become allies, but we don’t want to be absorbed or contaminated.”

  Cindy said, “We have no intention of contaminating your colony. We just want to establish trade with you and form an alliance.”

  John said, “I don’t know what we can offer you. You’ve got two great cities, and more being built. We’re just getting by.”

  Cindy said, “You can grow food without a controlled building. We’d like to learn how you do that. You can hide from both our surveillance and DeNoPE’s. We’d like to be able to do that. You don’t realize what you have to offer.”

  Wendy said, “We can share information with you, but we’d like something in return.”

  Bob asked, “What is that?”

  Wendy said, “We want an assurance that if our food production fails, you can provide us assistance.”

  Bob said, “We plan to offer you all the benefits of our republic if you want them.”

  John said, “That would make us citizens. We already told you that we don’t want to be absorbed.”

  Cindy said, “We were thinking of it as a multiple citizenship, sort of like the old European Union.”

  Wendy said, “But that broke down, and now it’s just DeNoPE. We don’t want that to be repeated here.”

  Bob said, “We have no intention of letting that happen.”

  Wendy said, “Would that make you citizens of our colony as well?”