Birth Of Fire

by Jerry Pournelle

  SEVENTEEN

  We got our gear packed up and ready so we could run. After that there was nothing to do but wait. Erica and I stayed in the blockhouse. We had decided we wouldn't leave until the bomb went off. Later, Dr. Drury came in to have supper with us, while Doug sat in Erica's room with the detonator.

  "It will be a magnificent thing," Drury said. "Magnificent. Making over a whole world. We can all be proud to have been part of it."

  "It will take a long time," Erica said.

  Drury nodded. "But we can speed it up. Melt off the polar caps -"

  "They melt every summer anyway," I said.

  "Not all of them. One melts, the other forms. But there are ways to keep them melted. And there are layers of both poles that never melt at all. We've studied this extensively. The Project can be speeded up enormously - and will be, when the Federation gets out of the way." “I’m glad we've got you people on our side,” Erica said. She waved at the blockhouse. "This would be a building to be proud of back home. Here it's just a temporary thing at a research camp. You've got enormous capabilities at the university."

  "Thank you," Drury said. He raised his glass. "To the Project!"

  We all drank to that.

  "Of course," Drury said, "not everybody at New Chicago U is a Project enthusiast-"

  "I'd have thought they would be," I said.

  "Well, some think we don't understand Mars yet. They want to study it the way it is. They have a point; there's a lot to learn, a lot we can learn about Earth by studying Mars. We'll lose most of that information when the atmosphere begins to build up."

  "How long do they want to wait?" Erica asked.

  Drury shrugged. "They don't say. But have you ever heard of a research project being finished?"

  We laughed at that. I had two glasses of wine, then switched to coffee. "I still won't feel right until that damn thing's set off and we see the gusher," I said.

  The party broke up about eleven. Drury went to his quarters and I got a nap. I relieved Doug about 2:00 A. M.

  "One day and night after this," I said. "Get some sleep. I'll catch Plemmons for the next watch."

  "Right."

  I made sure the inner door of the air-lock was open. I was wearing my suit, and had my helmet beside me. With that air-lock door open nobody could get in without blowing out the blockhouse, and we could still trigger the bomb. It would go of early and spoil the Skipper's big speech, but it would still show Earth we knew how to make nukes - and show Mars that we were serious about the Project, too.

  The Project was the big thing with the labor clients. All our agents told us that. With the Project under way there was hope for anybody. A lot of workers would probably choose to stay with the big companies. We were telling Mars' industries that if they didn't help the Federation against us, we'd let them keep everything they had except labor contracts; if they could hire workers, and they probably could, they could go on mining, refining, selling to Earth, and making big profits.

  Actually we were going to need the companies. If they closed down there'd be no employment for most of our people.

  I'd been sitting in the main room, thinking about what I'd do with my valley and wondering if I could get coffee beans to grow. After about an hour the air-lock speaker was activated.

  "Garrett?"

  Eileen. I didn't want to see her. I felt ashamed of myself for ever getting involved with her.

  "I couldn't sleep," she said. "Let me in."

  Oh hell, I thought. I couldn't argue with her while she stood out in the cold, and I did owe her something - I could hardly tell a girl I'd been sleeping with to get lost. I closed the inner air-lock door and waited for the lock to cycle.

  "Cold out there," she said. "Hi."

  "Hi yourself."

  She sat down on the other side of the room. "It's a long night."

  "Yeah. Tomorrow will be longer."

  "This one's long enough." She bounced up. "I'm restless. Got any coffee?"

  "Sure."

  "Here, I'll get yours too." She took my cup and filled it and one for herself. "Everybody asleep?"

  "Yeah. If you're going to drink that, you'd better take your helmet off. It dribbles inside if you try to drink through the faceplate. Or it does for me."

  "In a minute. I almost froze out there." She sipped at the cup. As I'd warned, she spilled some inside her helmet. "That's good. Aren't you having any?"

  "In a minute. I'm about coffeed out."

  "I guess I will take off this helmet. Give me a hand?"

  "Sure." I went over to help with the thing. As I got to her, she raised a little cylinder, about the size of a lipstick, and a small cloud of spray came out into my face.

  "Wha-" I tried to shout, but I couldn't. My face was paralyzed. My vision began to go, not so much dark as that nothing made sense. I vaguely saw that she'd slammed down her faceplate and was sealed up.

  I couldn't do anything. I gradually felt my knees giving away and knew I was falling, but I couldn't do anything about that, either. I tried to get a deep breath but nothing happened, and now things began to get darker and darker, and she was going back into the blockhouse toward Erica's room and there was nothing I could do about it, nothing at all.

  I thought I was back in Baltimore Undertown, because I heard sirens and gunshots, and I tried to fight the Hackers who'd jumped me but I couldn't move. Then I passed out.

  "Garrett! Garrett, O God let him be all right! Garrett!"

  Someone was shouting in my ear. Part of my mind knew it was Erica and wanted to answer, but I couldn't answer because I couldn't control my lungs. I felt my chest expand and contract. It was a curious feeling, because I hadn't told it to do that.

  I opened my eyes. They wouldn't focus on anything. There was a big white blur above me. The blur had blue eyes and red hair. It moved away and there was another blur that looked like Doug, only his face was clearer, and after a moment things swam into shape.

  Doug was bending over me holding an oxygen mask over my mouth and nose. He was manipulating an oxygen bottle to force air into my lungs, then he'd turn it off and shove hard on my chest. He kept doing that.

  Don Plemmons held guard on the air-lock with an automatic rifle. The inner door was open. On the other side of the room Eileen stood flattened against the wall, as Erica alternately slapped her and shook her.

  "What have you done to him?" Slap. "Tell us!" Shake. "If he dies, I'll - " It went on like that.

  She said some horrible things. I don't remember most of them. I don't want to remember them. I didn't know Erica knew that much physiology.

  Eileen was white with fear. She tried to talk, but Erica kept slapping her. Finally Erica let her alone. "I don't know what it was," Eileen sobbed. "It was some kind of gas, they told me it wouldn't kill anyone, just paralyze him. I don't know!"

  "Nerve gas," Doug said. "Don, there's stuff for that in the med kit. Get 'em and a hypo."

  Don vanished. I couldn't turn my head to see where he went, but after a while he was back again.

  I felt a stabbing pain in my thigh. Then another in my neck. "Maybe that'll do it," Doug said. "It's supposed to be a remedy. All we got, anyway." He kept on working with the mask. "Can you hear us, Garrett?" he asked.

  "Awugll." I was surprised that I could say anything at all.

  "Maybe he'll make it," Doug said. "Erica, if she don't know, she don't know. You can stop shaking her. "

  "Yes." She came back over to me and knelt beside me. "Please be all right, Garrett. Please."

  "Urk." Something was happening. I tried to help the breathing process. After about three tries I was able to inhale. Then exhale.

  "What the hell do we do now?" Plemmons said.

  "Watch that damn box," Doug said. "Stay close to it and trigger the bomb if it looks like we've had it. But wait as long as we can."

  "Maybe we ought to set it off now," Don Plemmons said.

  "Think we should wait," Doug said. "Erica? It's your baby."

&
nbsp; "We wait. How is he?"

  "Tryin' to breathe," Doug said. "I think he isgoing to make it. Maybe we ought to shoot that bitch now and get it over with?"

  "No," I managed to say.

  "So you can talk," Erica said.

  I got in a deep breath. "Need to find out why," I said. "How many in on this."

  "Good thinking," Plemmons said. "Lady, unless you like breathin' Mars air without a helmet, you better tell us what this is all about."

  Eileen was crying.

  "I can't believe Dr. Drury knew," Erica said. "He's all for the Project."

  "No Marsman," Plemmons said. "He don't give shit about Free Mars."

  "No, but he is for the Project," Erica insisted.

  "Drillers," I managed to say. "Drillers are patriots. Get help."

  "He's right," Plemmons said.

  "Sure, and how many of this chick's friends are out there waitin' for her to get through killin' us all in our beds?" Doug asked. "Go out that air-lock, and maybe you face a couple dozen Feddie cops."

  "We've got to do something," Erica said.

  "First thing is we beat shit out of that chick," Plemmons said. "She'll talk.

  "No," I said. "We don't work that way." I took a deep breath. Then another. I flexed my fingers and legs and they responded. One side of my face seemed paralyzed, and it took a conscious effort to breathe, but I could see and hear clearly, and nothing seemed wrong with my mind - nothing that wasn't wrong to begin with. I tried to sit up.

  "Easy," Doug said.

  "What's it about, Eileen?" I asked. "Why did you sell us out to the Feddies? You did, didn't you?"

  She was still crying. "Because you'll ruin everything," she said. "Your horrible Project. We're learning what causes ice ages on Earth, we're learning what makes planets, and you'll ruin all that! You can't, you just can't do it."

  "Are there Feddie cops outside?" I asked.

  "Yes. University police. My father sent them."

  "And Dr. Weinbaum? Did you betray him, too?"

  "I don't know-"

  "You know Kehiayan's orders," Doug said. "They didn't get the Doc alive…"

  "Worry about us. We've got to stay alive a little over twenty-five hours and blow that thing off," Plemmons said. "Got any suggestions, Lieutenant? I guess you're in charge again." His voice was heavy with sarcasm. I had that coming.

  "I think I can get up," I said, and did it. "Okay. We've got to get help. The only help I know of is the drillers. If they haven't been arrested. And the only way we can find that out is to get out of here. How many air bottles have we got?"

  "Enough."

  "Get packs together and f i l l the water tanks in the suits. We need twenty-five hours worth of air and water. We'll skip food. Then we've got to figure a way out of here."

  "I got a way," Plemmons said. "Blow out a wall with shaped charges. Stands to reason they're watchin' the air-lock, not the back of the blockhouse. Blow it and run like hell."

  "Will a blowout hurt the detonator?" I asked Erica.

  "No. Are you really all right?"

  "I'm going to live. I-"

  "We'll talk about it later," she said.

  "Yeah. Just what happened? How did you - I mean, why didn't she get the rest of you, too?"

  Erica's eyes narrowed. "Because Don told me you'd been seeing her," she said. "And I heard her voice out here, and I watched her. And don't say I was spying on you, because I've got a right to know what my fiance is doing! I'm not giving you up to some school-educated snob! So when she sprayed you with that stuff and closed up her faceplate, I came up behind her and knocked the can out of her hand and batted her head against the wall."

  "I'm amazed you didn't kill her," I said. I said it to myself, but I must have been talking louder than I thought.

  "I would have, but I thought we ought to find out what she'd done to you."

  Lord save us, I thought. "Don, set the charges in the back wall of your room."

  Plemmons nodded and went back into the blockhouse. "What do we do with the bitch?" Doug asked.

  "Put her helmet on her, tie her up, and leave her," I said.

  "Maybe I should spray inside the helmet with some of that gunk," Doug said. "Erica?"

  Eileen's face went white. "You can't! You aren't you can't?"

  "No," Erica said. "But I'd like to. Wait a minute. What did you put in Garrett's coffee?"

  Eileen didn't answer.

  "Would it have killed him?" Erica demanded.

  "No! It's just a knockout drop-"

  "Drink it," Erica said. She brought the cup over. "Now, and every drop, or I swear I will use that spray can on you."

  "But - "

  Erica got the spray can.

  "All right!" Eileen drank the coffee. They put her helmet on her and closed the faceplate. She sat still for a minute, then her head slowly nodded over.

  "She could be faking," Erica said. "Tie her up, Doug." “Right."

  I got up and moved gingerly around the room. I could walk all right. My face still felt funny, the way it does after a jawful of novocaine, but otherwise I seemed okay. A little light-headed, maybe, but that could have been from the shots as much as anything. “I'll function," I said. "Okay, let's get ready."

  We got our packs and weapons. Erica carried her detonator. "All set?" Plemmons asked.

  "Yeah," I said. "Let her fly."

  We heard the explosions, then whistling air, and then silence. Half the wall was blown out. We leaped through, and Doug and Erica ran off toward the derrick. Plemmons and I ran to either side and wheeled around.

  Someone fired at us from the dark. There were the silent orange flowers I remembered from the Deucalion battle. A figure moved toward me, and I swung the submachine gun like a hose, cutting him down. I fired another burst, then ran off after Erica.

  Plemmons dropped down behind some rocks. "Move, chief," he said. His voice was loud in my headset.

  "No heroes," I ordered. "Need all of us-"

  "Be along in a minute." He fired a burst with his automatic rifle, and I ran on, wondering if I'd ever see h i m again.

  We'd let the drillers guard the wellhead because, short of drilling out the hole again, there was no way the bomb could be disturbed. They'd been taking the rig apart and stowing it for travel, so we weren't too worried that anybody would drill for the bomb.

  It was a kilometer to the well site. About halfway I felt woozy. This looked like as good a place to make a stand as any. I found a boulder and got behind it.

  A figure came running toward me out of the dark. I sighted on it. "Don?" I called into the mike.

  "Yeah, chief, don't get nervous."

  "Leapfrog," I said. "Move on."

  He slowed and looked around but couldn't see where I was.

  "Go." I ordered.

  He ran past, and I waited. My eyes were getting accustomed to starlight, and Deimos, the outer moon, was up. Deimos doesn't give much light; it's not even a disk, just a very bright star, but it was something. I thought I saw movement in front of me and fired a burst.

  More orange flowers answered me. At least a dozen. I tried to remember where they'd been, and fired at a couple I was sure of. More answering fire from out there.

  I didn't think I'd hit anybody. We stayed that way, trading silent shots for several minutes, and then I decided it was time to get the hell out of there. I crawled into a deep shadow and began to move toward the drill site.

  Something bumped against me. I grabbed it, and we rolled over in the dark, tearing at each other. My weapon was tugged out of my hands. I reached back onto my belt and got my knife and thrust it, then again. Again. I felt him go limp, and hoped I hadn't run into one of my friends. Then I felt around for my submachine gun and crawled farther into the shadow. Finally I got up and ran.

  "Garrett!" It was Erica's voice. I wished for air, so I could tell where she was.

  "Coming!" I called.

  "Hurry. We've got a tractor-"

  "They're listening," I rem
inded her.

  "I know that. Hurry."

  "Sure. Count off!"

  "Plemmons."

  "Barston."

  So Doug and Don had both made it. And Erica. I was breathing hard as I got to the well site. There wasn't anyone around that I could see.

  "To your left," Erica's voice said.

  I ran off into the darkness and almost fell over them. There were four drillers as well. "This way," a voice said. One of the drillers moved off, and we Wowed. He went around a boulder the size of a palace, and there was a tractor behind it.

  "Get on," the driller said. We climbed on top of it, and it began moving off, upward, up the side of the volcano. It made sense; the cops were down below, and we couldn't go that way, but I didn't much like the idea of climbing that hill. Suppose we were still there when it was time to set off the bomb?

  I moved toward Erica. There was something bothering me. It had for a couple of days, but I hadn't needed to know before. Now I did. I took her shoulder and moved my helmet next to hers. "Radio off," I said.

  "Off. What do you think you're doing? Let me go."

  "Damn it, save being mad for later-"

  "I will. Believe me."

  "I believe you. I have to know something. That bomb's a couple of kilometers underground. There's no radio signal can go through that kind of rock.

  There must be a wire connection, something like that."

  "Something like that," she said.

  "What? Can they get at it and disable it?"

  "It's a transponder. A receiver picks up the detonator signal and sends a sonic pulse through the ground," Erica said. "It's well hidden."

  "Does Drury know about this?" I asked.

  "Did you? He's a scientist, so he knows there has to be one - but he has no more idea where than you do."

  "All right. But you had to have help. Who does know?"

  "Tex. The Skipper said we could trust him. And he's driving the tractor."

  "Okay." Now I had time to pay attention to what was happening to us. We were driving, without lights, at maybe twenty kilometers an hour, which doesn't sound very fast until you think about it. The road was narrow and getting narrower, and we were headed up the side of the mountain. I didn't think we were likely to be coming back down.

  I pulled Erica closer to me. "Sweetheart, I'm sorry-"