As the small entourage strolled almost casually along the roughly carved out corridors within the tiny moon, they passed by various individuals who bore the same youthful appearance as Marcus and his guards, all working on various components and systems and conducting maintenance work which Maddox had only seen performed by technicians far older than these individuals. The intrigue must have been clearly evident in his face and bearing as they walked along.
‘No adults amongst your contingent then?’ Maddox asked almost as a reflex action and then almost as quickly scolded himself for not checking his words before they left his mouth.
‘We are more than capable of making our own decisions and trying to rectify the erroneous decisions of those you consider to be adult who handed everything on a platter to the Martians,’ Marcus replied aggressively.
Maddox’s words had obviously touched on a nerve and he decided to pull back from the brink of confrontation rather than correct the boy on how the Earth was not simply handed over, rather over-run in a bloody set of retreating battles which were hard fought and cost many lives of both armed and innocent people.
‘Yes, I’m sorry,’ he replied quickly as his attention was drawn by a very young girl wandered past working intently on a handheld diagnostic pad which seemed ridiculously large in her small hands. She seemed no more than nine or ten in age and Maddox paused slightly as he watched her move on by, completely absorbed in her work.
‘Just how young are your members working here?’ He enquired gently. ‘I’m just a little overawed at your achievements for such a youthful group.’
‘For a bunch of children you mean,’ Marcus retorted, then checked himself and shook his head slightly. ‘My apologies, Captain, that was uncalled for. I simply forget that to you we must seem like a group of children playing with grown up toys. I assure you that your opinion will change the more you learn. Jemima there is nine years old, but her intelligence and abilities far outstrip many adults more than twice her age I assure you. Please, come this way and I shall elaborate further,’ he said calmly as he gestured along the left fork in the tunnel, which seemed to raise upwards slightly as opposed to the right fork, which seemed to descend before it turned sharply as far as Maddox could see as they approached.
Allowing his youthful escort to dictate their direction, Maddox proceeded and listened intently as Marcus explained as succinctly as he could the origins of their group. Every piece of information being absorbed in the hope it would give him valuable insight and maybe even a way out of this situation he had landed in the midst of.
‘After the fall of Earth, the Aries Corporation of Mars worked furiously to try and repair their image in the eyes of the other colonies in the Solar System by divesting immense amounts of capital and effort into the rebuilding of key areas throughout the continents of the Earth, establishing protectorate zones and herding groups of survivors inside to help them rebuild their lives away from the devastation and ruins that lay outside the protectorate zones. However, this effort was not without any return on their investment as the company was mining Earth’s resources for their own use off-planet and development of their terraforming efforts back on Mars.’
Maddox interrupted to point out that he knew that part of the story as he had the misfortune to live through it at the bitter sharp end. With an acknowledgement of this, but a request for patience, Marcus continued to reveal how he and the others about him came to be so far out from the established colonies.
‘There had been widespread recognition within the echelons of the Martian Corporation that there were individuals resident within the protectorate zones who exhibited greater cognitive abilities than their peers. Those who excelled and exhibited a higher than normal aptitude were then rounded up to form the new basis for a think-tank under the highest level of protection and security. One issue which presented itself quite early on was the resentment present in the older members in the community at the whole occupation by the Martian forces and subsequent resistance to do anything to aid them in any way, not to mention allowing them to simply walk away with the younger members of their various groups without a good deal of angry protest. Their own protective actions let the Martians to decree that they would nurture and develop the abilities of the children they had identified as those who would one day lead the newly rejuvenated Earth, but to do so without the malice and spite of their seniors they would have to remove them from any form of disruptive influences who may colour their opinions.’
‘Yes,’ Maddox interjected. ‘One of their most controversial acts after Earth surrendered. I recall that accusations were flung about in regard to Mars not only stripping the Earth of its natural resources, but also its future generation of thinkers and leaders, scientists and strategists. Basically pooling this valuable resource into the Martian colony just as they would with any other.’
Maddox had been on Earth at the time and knew all too well of the scandal this decision from their new Martian Overlords and the unrest it caused. The resistance movements were all in discord at the time, being fledgling assemblages of war veterans and desperate volunteers who wanted to help, with hardly any military equipment or positive cohesion to try and intercede. As such, sporadic attempts were made to prevent these children from being taken away, a few succeeding, but on the whole proving rather ineffective and in some cases rather detrimental and causing injuries to the parties they were trying to save.
Marcus had guided Maddox along the corridors as he recounted the tale, but paused occasionally to open secure doors and then ensure they were closed behind them. The last door through which they passed brought them into a much larger oval cavern, around which were scattered various workstations and display monitors attended by youthful operators who glanced up as they made their entrance and a few remained intrigued and continued to observe the small party as Marcus led them over to one of the two other doors set into the far wall of the cavern. He opened it with ease in comparison to the secure doors they had passed through previously and it led to a much smaller ante-chamber off the main operations cavern containing a few seats set about an oval table made of a dark coloured wood, which was distinctly out-of-place when compared to the metal and rock surroundings Maddox had been witness to so far.
Gesturing to one of the seats, Marcus moved to the opposite side of the table and pulled out the chair nearest to him before settling into it and shuffling forwards slightly to rest his elbows on the edge of the table. Maddox followed Marcus’ gesture and moved around to the indicated seat, although he remained slightly set back from the table as he settled into it and lounged slightly, regarding his new found friend as Marcus continued with his historical tale.
‘From locations all over the Earth, transports were ferrying these young charges to the Hyperion satellite and from there the children were loaded aboard a specially commissioned colony vessel in order to be transported back to Mars for further training and development, but the scheme did not work as planned as one armed group of objectors focused their efforts upon the Colony ship in an attempt to prevent it arriving at Mars and with a set goal of freeing the youngsters but only a handful of operatives made it onboard following a ferocious battle in space, to then be faced with fighting furiously through the corridors of the ship to overcome the Martian crew on board who were more interested in saving their own skins rather than those of their assigned cargo.’
As Marcus took a moment to pause, Maddox was quite aware that his recent words had been tinged with emotive angst. Resentment? Anger? Sadness? He was not entirely sure, but as Marcus continued, his tone had returned to a flat narrative, obviously having stemmed the flow of emotion in his momentary break.
‘In a bitter act of spite the Martian crew sabotaged the ship, locking out access to the drive system whilst disabling the artificial intelligence on board. Quite simply they feared that all was lost and their vessel was about to be taken, but their actions would ensure the ship would be consumed in a tremendous explosion as the drive overloade
d. Many of the Martian crew boarded life boats and launched the entire complement into space, leaving the ship with no method of escape, but as it turned out, their plans were ill-conceived as those who remained on board were able to avert the overload but only by completely destroying any hope of regaining navigational control. The ship ploughed on through the Solar System heading away from the inner worlds with no means to alter their trajectory, out through the debris clouds of the belt and much further than ever intended, eventually exiting the other side, but not without having suffered substantial damage from asteroid strikes which rendered the vessel a drifting hulk which was prone to drift wherever external forces dictated. ’
Maddox listened intently, recalling the breaking news of the ship’s apparent plight and the subsequent search efforts that had ensued but to no avail. To those of the inner worlds, the colony ship was thought to have been lost and was widely publicised as such. The plethora of Martian vessels which were in search of the Colony ship retrieved the lifeboats which were left in its wake, but then a story emerged about an impending reactor meltdown due to the rebels on board trying to manually deactivate the propulsion systems to commandeer the ship.
The result of this news was an instant outpouring of hatred and lack of popular support for resistance efforts both on Earth and within the colonies of the known Solar System, their operatives being blamed whole heartedly for the destruction of the Earth’s youngest and brightest survivors. The whole abduction issue was abated by the Martians citing they were trying to prevent harm to these future leaders for Earth, but were obviously foiled by the bitterness and spite of a few maligned groups who wished to cause harm to Martian colonial relations by creating this scandal no matter the cost and disreputable and despicable acts they had to commit to bring this about. The PR department of the Aries Corporation certainly turned the tide of ill-feeling about in favour of the company.
Maddox remembered all too well that period after the war when being part of a resistance group was a very bad thing to announce. Public opinion was very divided and you could never be sure whether those about you would support the actions of those who tried to free the captives on the colony ship, or put an energy bolt through you in loathing of the actions that caused their reported deaths.
‘So the ship? You were telling me about what happened after the Martians fled, and you were on a course out of the system?’ he asked encouragingly.
Marcus nodded and placed his palms face down on the table between them, taking a moment before replying.
‘Yes. Well, it was floating with forward momentum but no active propulsion systems and thus it was not by choice we ended up here on this rock, rather by the gravity of Jupiter itself and then the abrupt collision with the surface which decided our new home, far flung from the Earth and our families. The remaining adults present who had been forced to remain strove to try and save what they could, to allow us all a chance at life until a rescue party could be sent from the inner worlds. There were a few of the original ship’s Martian crew as well as the resistance fighters, but they came together in unity to try and survive out here. However, we know now through our contact with SOLnet that their hopes were in vain as our demise was a matter of history and no one was still looking for us.’
Maddox held his hand up for a moment to interrupt, Marcus’ bitter tone in the last few words pushing him to stem the flow of emotive output and try to rectify the young man’s rather skewed beliefs.
‘Hold on a moment, that’s not entirely correct,’ he tried to explain as best he could. ‘Searches were attempted along your course if my memory serves correctly, but those involved lacked the resources for any long term or deep space endeavours. Those who did were the Martians and they had already declared you dead, using your demise as an opportunity to turn the tide of feelings against those who kept striking against them. Those Martians you spoke of who fled tried to cover their own tails, but there were still some of us out there who could not rest easy as there was no debris, not even trace. It was as if your ship had been swallowed whole by space.’
‘And yet here you are now,’ cut in Marcus. ‘Now you are sitting amongst us, your ship having tailed you out here to try and save your own life and you say you all lacked resources?’ There was resentment plainly evident in his tone.
Maddox realised how it must seem to his young companion, but before he had a chance to respond to the implied accusation the door to the right of him opened and five more youngsters entered the room, each making their way to the empty chairs set about the table at which he and Marcus sat. Waiting in polite silence as the last attendee took her seat and all faces turned to look at the conversationalists, Maddox chose his words carefully.
‘The time you are speaking of was a fraught one in our history, scant resources and restrictions imposed by the victors which prevented lengthy investments in deep space exploration. However, it has to be said that technologies are developed in a time of war and conflict which see their way into commercial applications afterwards, once the dust has settled. Hell, I was only recounting plans which were put forward to extend the colonies out this way shortly before we landed here. Those plans were rejected by the powers that be, but I wonder now if they wanted to avoid any unpleasant discoveries such as yourselves and your survival against all the odds. Yes, technology and engineering have developed significantly so that a small tramp freighter such as the Erstwhile can make it out this far, but the technology is limited by those who choose to use it.’
Marcus held Maddox’s gaze for a moment as the words spoken were contemplated.
‘That consideration aside, Captain, I am sure you are aware of the lethargy which has fallen upon the so-called resistance groups within the core worlds. The fact that our own acts have elicited such response from the Martians demonstrates their effect over any such act from the existing groups within the established colonies. Almost as if there is some unspoken and unsteady truce in place, one which we now jeopardise by our strikes. I would like you to now meet the council, the deciding minds behind the Children of Earth. They were rather insistent on meeting with the ‘man from the stars’ prior to deciding if your arrival here is as coincidental as you propose or if you have a hidden agenda we should prepare against.’
Maddox glanced to his left to acknowledge the council members who all turned their gaze towards him, their faces seemingly expectant of some wise words from the pool of experience he had to draw upon.
‘Listen to me Marcus,’ Maddox said in an attempt to claw back some ground in the level of trust being generated. ‘You have obviously established a community here and worked very hard against the odds to survive, using provisions and supplies from the colony ship you were being transported on I assume?’
Marcus nodded in confirmation.
‘Yes, Captain, there were suitable terraforming provisions for us to not only bore out these caverns, but to establish our arboretum facilities deeper within the moon, which provides us with food and oxygen which is then rationed and distributed amongst the residents here. The systems which were salvageable from the vessel were brought down here to establish our communications and sensory relay network and, as you say quite rightly, it has taken us years of hard work to develop what we have here into a thriving community, one we will protect fiercely if we must.’
‘Well, I was on a job for one of your so-called lethargic resistance groups to try and recover stolen equipment, but we were the target of a Martian sting operation. That ship you have commandeered was chasing me down shortly before you intervened and even though I was quite glad they were not firing at us, I was obliged to board her and try to determine the fate of the crew as she appeared to be in distress. You know the rest, but the fact is I am not here on any hidden agenda,’ Maddox replied. ‘Last I heard from Phoenix they were declaring all operatives stay low and find a safe harbour in the face of the current eradication efforts being undertaken by the Martians as they use your group’s actions as an excuse for purging the resi
stance groups from the core and if we find my ship I can let you have records of the transmission I received. In any case I thought you and I were making some headway in the trust department, the facts being as I described them to you regarding why and how I came to be here. Would you like me to go through it again for all of your friends?’
A young girl to Maddox’s left chipped in at this point, taking over the conversation from Marcus.
‘No need Captain, we have all been made aware of the statement that you have already made. I do think it is worth informing you that it is the feeling of the council that we should accept your version of events and listen to the experiences and knowledge you have to share with us, Marcus is simply concerned with impressing upon you the tremendous effort is has taken us to achieve everything we have, and even more so what we hope to achieve so that your contributions to our further development will be unreserved as you join our community.’
‘Praia, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. I am sure the Captain is keen to help as we pose his only method of return but we need to focus on how we should proceed here within this room,’ Marcus said directly to his young co-council member, almost talking over the end of her own statement.
Maddox could not help but suspect that Marcus was a little peeved she had revealed information without prior consultation or agreement with himself. He had to wonder what the young man thought he might gain by withholding the council’s decision for the time being.
‘It’s alright Marcus,’ he said with a submissive gesture. ‘I’m obviously quite pleased to hear that and thank you all for the faith you put in me, but as you say we should now look to our current endeavours. You did want to hear about my experiences didn’t you?’ He asked, but was then absorbed by an intriguing question, one which Praia’s words had thrown up as he mulled over them and he turned slightly to face the young girl sat next to him.
Children Of Earth (Tales from the 23rd Century Book 1) Page 11