Scott said, “I’ll be there as quickly as I can. I can’t use the ‘Big I’ though, because that’ll let the General know that I’m in town. I’ll split off the road in Gallup and head to Rio Rancho on the back roads. Once I’m at the north end of town, I’ll jump on I-25 and meet you in Santa Fe.”
Scott hung up the phone and drove as stealthily as possible. He arrived at the New Mexico border thirty minutes later.
General Rich was flying over Colorado when Scott crossed into New Mexico. The scene below him was the beginning of the Rio Grande valley. The San Juan mountain range was to his right, and the Sangre de Cristo’s were to his left. The valley was dotted with small towns, the largest of which was Alamosa. He was only twenty minutes from the Albuquerque International Sunport.
Scott arrived in Gallup, New Mexico as General Rich flew over the northern New Mexico border. He turned onto US highway 491, formerly called US highway 666. This used to be the most dangerous highway in the state, and was once called “The Devil’s Highway.” He drove until he found a road that would intersect with US highway 550, which lead right into Rio Rancho. He would be in Santa Fe soon after that.
As General Rich flew over Santa Fe, the vehicle carrying the colony’s supplies was directly below the plane. Fortunately for the colonists, the General wasn’t paying attention at the time. If he had been, he would have seen the truck and been able to chase them.
Scott arrived at the intersection of US 550 and I-25 just as the crew arrived at a storage facility in Santa Fe. As Scott merged onto I-25, his phone rang.
Scott answered the phone, “Where are you guys?”
The crew leader replied, “The storage place is on Saint Frances Drive near Cerillos Road.”
Scott said, “I’m about a half hour away.”
As Scout was conversing with his crew leader, General Rich’s plane was landing at the Sunport. The General disembarked and walked to the rental car kiosk with Colonel Black.
General Rich said, “I’m General Rich. You should have a BMW for me.”
The clerk said, “We’re still waiting on it to be detailed. It should be ready in about fifteen minutes.”
Rich said, “I was assured that it would be ready by the time I arrived here. This is ridiculous.”
The clerk said, “I’m sorry about the inconvenience. We made every effort to make sure that the car was ready as promised, but sometimes things happen that are beyond our control.”
Black said, “How is this beyond your control?”
The clerk said, “You got here too fast. That’s not our fault.”
Rich said, “But I gave you a time well in advance of my actual arrival time.”
The clerk said, “Again, I apologize for the inconvenience. I can offer you a discount for your time.”
Rich said, “My time is more valuable than you could ever fathom.”
The clerk said, “That may be, but right now I’m the one in control of your time.”
Black asked, “Are you trying to change the balance of power?”
The clerk said, “Not at all, but I think it’s ironic that the person in control of the situation is me and not the military brass.”
Rich said, “This is pointless. Just get the car, and we’ll clean it ourselves.”
The clerk said, “Very well,” and called for the car to be delivered to his customers as soon as possible.
The other employee of the car rental company finished installing the tracking microchip in the tire. She had been asked to install the microchip by Jordan Green. Jordan would use the tracking system to warn Scott of a close encounter with the General and his minions if they got too close to the supplies or the storage unit. He would also use the tracking system to keep tabs on the General. The employee then drove the car to the kiosk, where their customers took the cars. General Rich and Colonel Black drove the car away from the kiosk and onto Sunport Boulevard. They headed east until they reached I-25, then they went north to Central. Once on Central, they drove east for what seemed like an eternity. The row of stoplights seemed to go on forever, and they hit almost every one of them as it turned red.
While General Rich was running the red light gauntlet, Scott arrived in Santa Fe. He exited I-25 at St. Francis Drive and headed north until he reached Cerillos. He could see the storage facility and the crew’s truck as he crossed the railroad tracks that intersected the intersection. A moment later, he was helping the crew unload the truck into the storage locker.
General Rich reached the first storage facility on his list. It was located at the intersection of Eubank and Central. There were 125 units in the facility, and they didn’t want to search every one of them illegally. They went to the office and interrogated the manager.
Rich asked, “Have you seen any of these people looking to rent a storage locker?”
The clerk said, “No, sorry. Those pictures don’t look familiar.”
Black said, “Are you sure that you haven’t seen any of them? Take a close look.”
The clerk said, “I’m positive. I’d remember hippies like them.”
Rich said, “So even you recognize tree huggers.”
The clerk said, “I hate dirty tree hugging hippies.”
Black said, “So do we. Thank you for your time.”
Over the course of the next week, Rich and Black questioned every storage facility manager in Albuquerque about the colonists. No one recognized any of the people in the photographs. Their morale started to dwindle. They needed to expand their search area. They would search the whole metro area. If they still needed to expand the search area, they would search all of New Mexico.
Black said, “We only have a short time to find the supplies before their ship returns. Then we’ll have to go to the second part of the plan.”
Rich said, “I have my best operative snooping here. He gave me the intelligence that they were in the southeast corner of the city. It looks like his intelligence was wrong.”
The Operative had almost been correct, but he was in the wrong city. The storage locker that the colonists had been renting was in southeast Rio Rancho. The operative was unaware that he had crossed into Rio Rancho from Albuquerque. The street names in the southeast section of Rio Rancho had been changed recently to reflect the fact that it was now nearly a twin to Albuquerque, so the street names were almost identical to the southeast Albuquerque.
No one from the military had seen Scott and the crew move the supplies into the storage locker in Santa Fe. The supplies would be safe until they were ready to be moved onto the ship. Then they would be safe again only once the ship was past the moon.
General Rich and Colonel Black continued their wild goose chase right up until the day that the colonists’ ship returned. They would be unaware that it had arrived until the Operative informed them of its arrival.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Wedding Plans
Kathy went to Scout’s quarters to plan the wedding. She wanted to marry him as soon as possible, but she also wanted a celebration of the nuptials. She was wary that the colony’s limited food supplies would be insufficient to have a proper wedding celebration.
Kathy knocked on his door and asked, “Can I come in, Scout?”
Scout responded, “Of course. You don’t need permission to come in here, you know that. Why do you ask?”
Kathy said, “I have some serious things to discuss with you, and I wanted you to know that I want to talk with you formally.”
Scout said, “What’s up, babe?”
Kathy said, “I said formal. I know that you’re not a formal person, but I think this deserves a formal discussion.”
Scout said, “Alright, what do you need to discuss with me?”
Kathy breathed heavily as if gathering her breath to begin a very long speech. She wanted to be as clear with Scout as she could without sounding like a recitation of a textbook or a technical manual.
Kathy said, “I love you very much, and I want to marry you more than anything in t
he universe.”
Scout said, “I sense a ‘but’ coming.”
Kathy said, “But I don’t think that the colony’s food is going to be enough for a party, and I don’t want to celebrate our wedding with a fish and chips banquet.”
Scout asked, “Are you asking me if I’m willing to delay our wedding?”
Kathy said, “If you wouldn’t mind terribly. I think that we should put the needs of the colony above our own.”
Scout said, “That’s very noble. I’m disappointed with your decision, but I understand. I think I was being selfish and just wanted to marry you so soon so that I could have you sooner. We can wait until the supply ship arrives and brings more food. Or did you want to wait for the other colonists to arrive?”
Kathy said, “I think that waiting until the other colonists arrive is tempting, but that would put even more stress on our limited resources. We should get married after the first supply ship arrives. That way, we can have a celebration with our friends and still not use all the food.”
Scout said, “That’s a good plan. Does that mean that we won’t do all the things we’ve been avoiding until then?”
Kathy said, “I don’t think we need to be that drastic. We were avoiding those things because the wedding was going to be more special, but now it’s far away.”
Scout said, “Well over a year from now.”
Kathy said, “We can just limit it for a while, but not be completely celibate.”
Scout said, “ We’ll still live together on Mars, or do you want to wait on that too?”
Kathy said, “We’ll still live right next to each other. The robots built me a house just in case this didn’t work out.”
Scout said, “That was a failsafe! I never thought that you and I wouldn’t work out.”
Kathy said, “I didn’t say you did. I’m just pointing out that there’s already a backup plan in place.”
Scout said, “Oh, that’s okay then. I don’t want you to think I was plotting to make our relationship fail.”
Kathy said, “It hadn’t even crossed my mind until just now that you said it. Now I’m going to think that you have an ulterior motive for marrying me.”
Scout said, “No, I don’t. I took a pragmatic approach to the colony. The Blacks have two separate plots of land that are fused together right now, but they can easily be broken up in case their marriage fails.”
Kathy said, “It sounds like you’re rooting for relationships to fall apart.”
Scout said, “I’m just guarding against the fact that over half of all marriages fail. I don’t want anyone’s marriage to fall apart, but I can’t have anyone without their guarantee of land in this fledgling society.”
Kathy asked, “So you’re just thinking of every possible contingency?”
Scout said, “That’s one of the signs of a good leader. They’re always thinking about every possible backup plan. Then they have a backup for the backup, and so on.”
Kathy said, “Then we must have a very good leader. You seem to have planned for every possible failure.”
Scout said, “No one can know what every possible failure is, but I try to plan for as many of them as I can anticipate.”
Kathy said, “I love you,” and kissed her fiancée on the lips. Scout tried to elevate the physical touching, but Kathy pulled away and waved her index finger at him. She wanted to make him want her while not actually giving in to his charms. Then she walked out of Scout’s quarters and back to her own room. She felt very proud of herself for resisting her fiancée’s advances.
Kathy said out loud to herself, “That went better than I expected. He took that rather well.”
She opened the door to her quarters by sliding her card in the door and waiting for the lock to beep. The light changed from red to green and she went into her room.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Mark
Mark Black, the ship’s physician, had very little to do compared with his wife. She had a never-ending stream of patients, while he barely had a trickle. He was a little older than his wife, but looked a little younger. His eyes were green and sparkled in the light. His hair was thin, but there were no bald spots in his auburn hair. His teeth had a slight overbite, but didn’t protrude out of his lips when his mouth was closed. He was tall, but didn’t tower over anyone in the crew, and his demeanor was very reassuring. His thin, lanky body made it easy for him to fit through even the tightest of spaces. The initial attack on the ship provided him with a few injuries to treat, but most of them were minor cuts, bruises, and pains. He spent a lot of time studying new medical techniques and research, but he also did a lot of wandering around the ship looking for something to do.
He found Notah Yazzie. Notah was busy in the galley, washing dishes after lunch. Mark saw that he had a device that he didn’t recognize.
Mark asked, “What is that, Notah?”
Notah replied, “It’s an old checkbook.”
Mark said, “People haven’t used checks for nearly a century.”
Notah said, “My last job on Earth was as a bank teller. I came across them every once in a while. A few people still use them.”
Mark asked, “So why do you have a book of them?”
Notah replied, “Because I wanted a souvenir from Earth to remind me how the whole planet used to be sacred, and how people messed it up.”
Mark said, “It’s still is sacred to your people, is it not?”
Notah said, “A few Navajos still consider everything sacred, but most have conformed to the new corporate system. They don’t even have a separate government anymore, so they don’t have a nation. The Navajo Nation became the State of Navajo in 2065. It was a sad day for all of us, but it was the only way to have access to things like clean water and air. The corporations basically forced our hand and stole our freedom.”
Mark said, “Yet you want to keep an archaic symbol of that corporate system. A check is a symbol of that control, so I’m a little perplexed by your keeping it.”
Notah said, “I want to remind myself that I never want to return to that system. It nearly destroyed me, and it’s destroyed many of my contemporaries.”
Mark said, “Oh, well, do you have any medical needs that I can help you with?”
Notah said, “Not at the moment. I’ve made an appointment to have a checkup with you later in the week, though.”
Mark said, “That’s the only thing keeping me in practice right now is the mandatory checkups that y’all schedule.”
Mark walked out of the galley and headed toward the common area of the ship. He wanted to tell Scout what he had just seen.
He thought, “Why would anyone bring a form of money onto the ship, knowing that it is going to be illegal once we arrive on Mars?”
Mark reached the common area and paged Scout with his private communication device. He didn’t use the public address system because he didn’t want Notah to hear the page and get suspicious. A few minutes later, Scout walked into the common area and stood in front of Mark.
Scout asked, “What do you need, Doctor Black?”
Mark answered, “I need to know if you already know about what Notah is carrying on this trip.”
Scout asked, “What’s he carrying that you need me to know about?”
Mark said, “He has a checkbook. Money is forbidden on this ship and on Mars; we all agreed on that.”
Scout said, “Yes, money is forbidden, but a checkbook isn’t money unless it’s tied to a bank account.”
Mark asked, “Do you know if it is?”
Scout answered, “I know for a fact that it’s not. I trust Notah, and he’s a welcome member of our crew.”
Mark said, “I wasn’t accusing anyone. I was just asking about a suspicious piece of contraband. You have instructed us to do so.”
Scout said, “I know that I did, but you’re incorrect in Notah’s case. We have chatted at length about his past in the financial industry. I had my doubts at first, but he’s proven his
loyalty to me many times. That checkbook is nothing more than a reminder that he never wants to return to the money system of Earth. He feels that his Navajo beliefs have been compromised too far already, and his people have forgotten the sacred nature of life. He feels like the Navajo abandoned their principles to ease their suffering.”
Mark said, “Then he’s just a regular member of the crew. I will treat him as such. While I’m here, do you have any pressing medical needs?”
Scout answered, “No, I do not. I know that you need to stay in practice, but you don’t need to continually pester everyone. I’ve arranged for everyone to schedule appointments with you for routine checkups. That should allow you to stay in practice.”
Mark said, “I know, but it’s just so boring in my office with no major traumas to treat. I wish we would get attacked again. Then I’d have a lot to keep me busy.”
Scout said, “Once we get to Mars, I’m sure that you’ll have plenty to keep you busy.”
Mark said, “I know that I will. That just seems so far away right now. Maybe I’ll see it a little more clearly once we see Mars in the view screens.”
Mark returned to his office to await his next appointment. He studied and kept current on new research and medical techniques until a patient walked into his office.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Mars in View
The planet looked strangely familiar, and at the same time, completely alien. It had a reddish atmosphere surrounding a butterscotch colored surface of the rocky planet below. The crew could see familiar terrain, but it was different on Mars. They saw volcanoes that rose farther into the sky than anywhere else in the solar system, and they were amazed to see them erupting as they neared the planet.
Scout assembled the crew on the bridge. He wanted them to see their new home. Both the day and night crews were summoned to the bridge.
Scout told the crew, “It looks like the robots recreated the planet’s magnetic field. There’s lava flowing out of volcanoes, and the ship’s instruments are detecting a strong magnetic force.”
MARS: Renaissance Page 24