Saving Mars

by Cidney Swanson

  “Let go,” she said. “You’re hurting my arm.”

  “Not good enough,” he said. “I saw you blow something up. Your brother—you’re inciters! You don’t deserve to live after what you’ve done.”

  Pavel punctuated his words by twisting her arm higher behind her back.

  “We’re not terrorists. It’s all a mistake. You have to help me save my family!” She winced as he gripped her arm more tightly. “You have to believe me, Pavel!”

  “You want me to believe you over Budapest’s Red Squadron Forces?” Pavel swore. “I saw what you did, Jessamyn. Or whatever your real name is. And I saw you were double-chipped, back when you needed a bike. Who does that unless they have something to hide?”

  “Jess is my real name. And if you saw everything, then you know my brother and my friend are in terrible danger. They didn’t do anything wrong. Please believe me.”

  “So what are you doing on the wrong side of a barrier you shouldn’t be able to cross? And what was your brother attempting in a strategic deep-space communications facility?”

  Jess’s heartbeat increased. “My brother wouldn’t harm a leaf of … kale.” She’d been about to say “algae” as Marsians did, but doubted Pavel would have understood.

  “What?”

  Apparently her substitute word was no better.

  “Your security force picked up the wrong people!” Jess cried. “Ethan is gentle. He’d never hurt anyone. And Harpreet … she’s as generous as a dog.”

  “Are you taking narcotics?” asked Pavel.

  Just then, from inside her earpiece, Jess heard the phrase she’d been praying for—a location: New Kelen Hospital.

  Pavel spoke again, slowly and clearly. “Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to release one of your arms so I can summon emergency services. If you attempt to escape or fight me in any way, I’ll break your arm. Understand?”

  “No!” cried Jess. “You can’t call them! They’ll re-body me. You have no idea what’s at stake here. I’ve got people depending on me. Thousands!”

  “So you are an inciter?”

  “Of course not!” Jessamyn remembered words her father often spoke to her mother: The truth is the most eloquent persuader of all. But she couldn’t risk the truth.

  Pavel grip tightened.

  “Ow! That hurts. Release me,” Jess pleaded. “Please, you’ve got to release me.”

  “You’re not very strong, for someone mixed up in this kind of mess,” muttered Pavel. He eased his grip, but he didn’t let go. “So start talking.”

  Jess took a deep breath. Now the earpiece was emitting the sounds of several voices and machinery. It would only distract her. She could risk a few minutes not hearing Ethan’s surroundings now that she knew where he was. She shook her head sharply to one side, to disable the device.

  Unfortunately, Pavel took her action as a hostile move.

  Jess heard a sickening crack of bone breaking. She knew it had to be hers, although for a moment after the sound, she didn’t feel anything. And then she did. She moaned, long and low, as the pain enveloped every other sense.

  She heard Pavel swear and then felt him release her, gently. Her throat continued to produce a moaning she knew wasn’t helping anything, but she couldn’t make the sound stop. Then she noticed, as if she were outside of her body and observing it, that Pavel had jammed something sharp into her upper arm. The pain from the broken limb dissipated instantly, but a soft fog drifted over her, intensifying the sensation that she’d left her body.

  “Does that help the pain?” asked Pavel. He sounded very far away.

  Oh, it’s Pavel, thought Jessamyn. “Mmm-hmm,” she murmured. Her tongue felt thick. She watched through half-closed eyes as Pavel placed something on her dead-feeling arm over the section she knew (in a vague sort of way) had been broken. The something began to wind a white, gauzy membrane around and around her lower arm. It was like watching a video of a caterpillar making a cocoon. Why was Pavel putting her inside a cocoon, she wondered?

  “Why?” she murmured. Speech came with great difficulty.

  “It’s just a bone-set,” said Pavel. “Listen, I’m sorry I broke your arm. At least, I think I am. Maybe I shouldn’t be. I’m going to give you a stimulant, and then I want you to tell me everything, Jessamyn. One side effect of what I’m giving you is that you will have a harder time telling lies. Don’t try. Your pulse and oxygenation levels are terrible, so don’t go wasting your energy on lying to me.”

  Pavel stuck a patch with many hair-fine needles onto her upper arm. She felt the moment the stimulant hit her bloodstream. Alertness returned, and with it, a panicked sense that she should be somewhere.

  “New Kelen,” she mumbled.

  “What?” asked Pavel. “Do you want me to take you to the hospital? Are you ready to confess?”

  “No. Yes.” Jess shook her head in frustration. “No, I don’t want to go to the hospital. Unless you’ll let me go alone.”

  “Not a chance, Jessamyn.”

  She felt a moment’s irritation. Or wrongness. She had to correct him. “Call me Jess. Jessamyn’s too formal for our friendship.”

  Where did that come from? She shook her head and took a slow breath in.

  “What are you doing here?” Pavel demanded once more.

  “I’m not Terran,” she heard herself saying. “I’m Marsian. From Mars Colonial. We are trying to grow algae. We have exactly one dog.” Jess clapped her good hand over her mouth in shock. It was as though she had no control over her speech: things came trickling out—things that she knew she couldn’t reveal.

  “Nice try,” said Pavel. “But you shouldn’t struggle against telling the truth. Trust me, your body is in bad shape right now.” He seemed to be consulting read-outs from a device he’d attached to her forefinger.

  “We came here from Mars to get some items we need.” Jess cursed herself for letting slip information she knew she shouldn’t share. “What was in that patch?”

  “It’s Equidima. It’ll be a lot easier if you stop fighting it and simply tell me the truth,” said Pavel.

  “I am telling the truth,” said Jess. “Look in my pack. See if you recognize the manufacturer of any of the items in there.”

  Pavel regarded her suspiciously. “You want me to look through your stuff?” He took the sling-pack. “Maybe this is some passive way of telling me the truth, huh? I’ve heard of patients responding to Equidima like that. You got explosives in here? Manifestos?”

  Jess shook her head in frustration.

  Pavel lowered his voice. “I’d really like to help you, Jess, but you picked a bad morning to get mixed up in all this.”

  “You should go,” she said. “I don’t want you missing your exam because of me.”

  “I’m not going anywhere until we get this straightened out,” said Pavel.

  He’d pulled out Ethan’s wafer and it greeted him with a slide show of pictures from home—Jess’s heart contracted.

  “That’s where we live,” she said softly. “I’m not lying about Mars.”

  Pavel looked up, shaking his head. “I’ll admit you’ve got some weird stuff in here. And not weird like I was expecting. A first aid folder? Ration bars? And whatever this metal thing is.” He pointed to a flat bar of tellurium.

  “It’s meant to help me in the event I’m separated from my crew,” said Jess. Tears formed and spilled onto her cheeks. “Does this Equi-stuff make you … cry?” She’d been about to say “waste water.”

  Pavel’s mouth twisted in a frustrated grimace. “Don’t cry.”

  “My readings,” said Jess, blinking back the shameful tears. “You said my body’s in bad shape.”

  “Your bone density’s terrible, your oh-two levels are off, you’re severely malnourished. Jess, whatever crowd you’ve been running with, have you considered that they don’t have your best interests at heart?”

  “Those readings,” said Jess, speaking quickly now, “Would they be consistent with
someone who lived her entire life on Mars?”

  Pavel’s shoulders raised in a small kind of shrug. “Sure, Jessamyn. But we both know that’s not what’s happening here. Just tell me the truth.”

  “Run any kind of test you like. Prove I’m lying.”

  Pavel looked at her, eyes narrowing. “You really believe you’re from Mars, huh? Someone’s brainwashed you good.”

  “Test me.”

  Pavel turned, muttering to himself, something about proving to her she’d never been to Mars, whatever memories she had to the contrary.

  As he attached items from his med kit to parts of her body, she tilted her head to reactivate the transmitter. Pavel, preoccupied with his investigation, didn’t respond this time.

  He spoke, as if to himself. “These readings are … wrong. This can’t be right.” He stared in confusion at his instruments. “Can I … do you mind if I take a sample of your blood?”

  Jess held her hand out. It felt heavy, even by Earth standards, and it drooped.

  Pavel, noticing the sluggish motion, apologized. “There was a muscle retardant in the first shot I gave you. Your arm must feel weak.”

  “Heavy,” said Jess. “Everything’s too heavy on your planet. Why would anyone live here?” She knew she was rambling, but the words just kept plunking out, like drops of water melting off an ice sculpture.

  “Shizer,” said Pavel. “Shizer!” He looked at her with suspicion. “These results can’t be real,” he muttered. “This is impossible.”

  It was the right moment for Jess to press her advantage. But from inside her earpiece, she could hear two people discussing the “young-body”—her brother’s body. They might have a match for him. They want to prep him immediately.

  “No!” cried Jess. The sound wrenched from deep inside her, trailing off into an extended wail.

  Pavel grabbed her arms again, his instruments clattering onto the pavement. He shouted at her to calm down, but all Jessamyn could hear were the voices dooming her brother.

  She turned her face, grief-stricken, to look at Pavel. “They’re going to give away my brother’s body. What kind of planet is this? How can people do such a thing?”

  Pavel’s grip upon her arm relaxed. “You’re really Martian?”

  “Marsian, yes. Now, let me go!” Jessamyn’s voice rose in pitch, frantic. “They’re making a horrible mistake. My brother’s innocent!”

  Pavel snatched up the array of items surrounding them, stuffing some into Jess’s pack, some into his med kit. “I’m giving you a different stimulant,” he said. “Some of your pain might come back, but you’ll be able to walk. I’m taking you to New Kelen, and I’ll call my aunt, see if she can get some kind of … interplanetary … immunity … or something for your brother.” He jabbed another sharp into her arm. “This better be real, Jess.”

  Jessamyn’s attention was horribly divided. She heard Pavel’s words, and at his mention of “interplanetary,” part of her panicked—Marsians couldn’t be found in breach of the No Contact Accords. But her audio implant was relaying medical language, and she realized some sort of operation had begun. Her next words come out so softly Pavel barely hear them.

  “No. Oh, please, please, no.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  LIFE ON MARS

  Jess rose, desperate to get to the New Kelen hospital. Hurriedly, she explained about the device in her ear. “They’re doing the procedure! It will kill him, being in someone else’s body,” she moaned, grabbing Pavel with her good arm to rush him along.

  “What are they saying?” asked Pavel. “There’s no way they’ve started the transfer this soon, Jess.” He pulled on Jessamyn’s hand, his greater strength forcing her to stop. “I know how this works. Trust me.” His eyes bored into hers. “I need you to tell me the exact words you’re hearing.”

  Jess listened for a moment. “Something about stasis and a big number …”

  “They’re prepping him for stasis while they locate a recipient. Stasis means there’s still time. Is he young?”

  “Two years older than me.”

  “Hmm. That’s sixteen extra years as a threebody.” Pavel frowned. “That’s the big number under discussion. They’re probably going to enter the extra years in a lottery, which means we’ve got several hours to straighten things out, okay?”

  “Okay,” she murmured in response.

  Jess’s mind felt clearer as the drug wore off, and she began to realize the gravity of the step she’d taken in telling Pavel about Mars. “I never should have told you where I’m from,” she whispered.

  “We thought everyone on Mars died a century ago.” The look in Pavel’s eyes shifted. No longer grave, they appeared now wild with elation. “This is huge. Even Lucca will see that. Although, it doesn’t look good, your brother coming here, of all places. Unless … did you need directions to get home? How many of you are there? Why did you come?”

  Jess shook her head slowly, trying to decide which questions were the important ones to answer. Which answers would encourage Pavel to help her and keep her visit to Earth secret.

  “When I saw those readings from your blood—the peroxide, the accumulation of sulfur derivatives, the absence of normal toxins—Jess! This is incredible! Mars!” He threw both hands up in the air, staring at the sky in disbelief. “You’ll be subjected to additional testing before they’ll believe it, of course. But, what I can see here … it would be impossible to fake even these readings without replacing every bone in your body … every blood cell …”

  “Pavel,” Jess placed a hand on his arm. “Pavel, no one else on Earth can know about me. About my crew. My planet is starving. If I can’t get home—now—while Earth and Mars are close, they will die. All of them.”

  Pavel brows drew together. “Well, I’m sure that won’t be a problem. I mean, Lucca will probably want a representative to go back with you, or maybe an exchange. I don’t know. But it’s not like they’d stop you from leaving. I don’t think.”

  Jess shook her head. “Mars has broken the No Contact Accords. Repeatedly. I know you’re happy to hear there’s still life on Mars, but that doesn’t mean everyone on your planet would be glad to hear it.”

  Pavel consulted his timepiece nervously. “I don’t think you’re here to attack Earth,” he murmured.

  Jess laughed, her voice pitched high. “Attack? With what? There’s so few of us left, the idea is ludicrous.”

  “Then let me help you. My aunt has influence—”

  “You said your aunt and you disagree on important things. It’s a risk I cannot—must not—take, Pavel. I never would have told you the truth without that drug. It’s the most basic command we’re given. No contact.”

  “Jessamyn,” said Pavel, his low voice gentle, soft as her banquet gown. He placed a hand upon her face, ran his thumb across her lower lip. “No contact?” He smiled, clearly recalling the moment his mouth had touched hers. “What are you doing here, girl from Mars?”

  Jessamyn’s color rose as she remembered their kiss. “I’m here to save my planet.” Then, even quieter, “Will you help me?”

  “You want me to help you by … by doing nothing?”

  Jess nodded. “Please. Please keep my secret.”

  Pavel squinted, staring east at the sunrise. “I don’t know how Lucca would react,” he admitted. “I’d like to think she would act with compassion, but there have been times … Maybe you should go, like you said, without me calling Lucca. Hey, you had some kind of camouflage. I saw you take it off and fold it up.”

  “Yes,” said Jessamyn. “Hard to see, though not undetectable.”

  “That could be useful,” said Pavel. “Jessamyn—you’re sure you want to try rescuing your brother on your own?”

  She knew she shouldn’t. She couldn’t. Saving her planet had to come first. But she heard the words tumbling out: “I have to try.”

  “He’ll be guarded. He’s—his body is valuable. You should wait until 2:00 this afternoon. There will be a
shift change and you’ll have a better shot at … whatever you’re planning. Don’t tell me what it is. I’m hopeless under Equidima.” He shoved his med kit into Jess’s sling pack. “You might need this. There are stim-patches in there that will bring your brother out of stasis. You’ll need two. They’re marked Primatum. This is crazy, you know? What identity do you have in your right chip?”

  “Um,” Jess stared at her two wrists. “Retired fourbody.”

  “Good. Lots of fourbodies volunteer at New Kelen. Check in through the back entrance. Here—hold out your wrist. I’m going to transfer my hospital entry clearance to you. “ He extended his arm over hers. “Hopefully it doesn’t expire today.”

  “Thank you,” murmured Jess.

  “Get into volunteer scrubs and then do whatever you’re planning to do. The video cams are broken in the bay of physician-only elevators. That can be a good place for you to hide out for awhile.”

  Jess nodded and her brow wrinkled.

  “Ah, shizer, Jess. This is insane.” Pavel took her hand in his. “Let me call my aunt. Let me help.”

  She shook her head, gazing at her hand—so pale—enclosed within his.

  Then she withdrew her hand, saying, “You could give me a lift to that motor pool two blocks away. Anything else—I’m afraid it wouldn’t be helpful. I can’t gamble my planet’s safety. And you’ve got your exam.”

  Pavel’s lips pulled tight; she saw how his mind was torn.

  “You’ve done all anyone could,” she said. “Thank you for everything.”

  “Everything except the broken arm,” said Pavel, flushing.

  “I’m sure you’ll be a great physician,” said Jessamyn.

  The two climbed on Pavel’s bike, Jess as the passenger this time. She folded her cocooned arm awkwardly around his waist, catching it with her good arm. Her eyes pressed closed with the small heartbreak of holding so close that from which she must divide herself.

  “Oh, hey,” said Pavel. “You can remove the cast this evening. Any time after 8:00 p.m. Until then, your left wrist won’t scan at all.”

  Jessamyn laughed, a tiny sort of noise in the quiet flush of dawn. “You do realize that the last thing I need right now is for that chip to be readable? Double-chipping? Not good. Plus, my left chip could link me to the events here.”