Losing Mars (Saving Mars Series-3)

by Swanson, Cidney

  Jessamyn tried to smile, but her mouth stopped at half a smile—the best she could manage.

  “Don’t forget I put in a good word for you, too,” said Pavel. “And I’m a very important person. Nephew to Earth’s Chancellor and all.”

  Jess snorted with laughter. “Thanks,” she said. “I feel confident that will make all the difference.”

  The minutes ticked down. When all twenty-four had passed, the crew from Mars and their friends from Earth began counting minutes elapsed and placing bets as to the length of the reply transmission.

  Pavel, who’d guessed a seven-minute-long wait, won an extra twenty milliliters of water from the others’ allotments.

  Jess sat straighter as she heard the familiar voice of the Secretary General.

  “Greetings, Mars Raiders. Perhaps in contradiction to your expectations, I still retain the title of CEO and Secretary General of Mars Colonial Command. As Secretary, I commend your efforts to remain hidden and to seek the rescue of your fellows and to carry out, to the best of your ability, the mission with which you have been entrusted. As for you, Former First Officer Jessamyn Jaarda, it is my duty to place you under arrest in absentia.”

  The Secretary paused. She looked up at the ceiling again as if hoping for inspiration. She shook her head.

  “No. By Hades, I’m not sticking to a script, elections or no.” She took a deep breath and walked several feet closer to the camera. “Jaarda, do you have any idea what you’ve done? What you’ve cost Mars Colonial? Crusty’s incarcerated. Cavanaugh was acquitted. Do not ask me how that happened. He’s now campaigning for public office in New Tokyo, where he made some very interesting accusations against you, young lady.”

  Mei Lo paused to close her eyes and pinch the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger.

  “Most of which I have chosen to disregard. Which might mean I am a fool, but that’s hardly news to anyone, least of all myself. You ought to know as well, Mars Raiders, that the good citizens of Mars Colonial will be voting in two months as to whether or not I ought to remain at the helm. Which means that if you are serious about getting me the, ah, birthday present I want, you’d better get it delivered before the election. Won’t do me much good after.”

  Mei Lo’s eyes drifted down and to one side this time. She took a deep breath. “Raider Mombasu, as ranking officer of record of the Galleon, I must ask you to assume responsibility for the detainment of Ms. Jaarda. That is all I have to say. MCC will be happy to entertain further communications should you have anything of note to communicate. Secretary Mei Lo out.”

  The room felt suddenly small, stuffy, and hot to Jessamyn.

  “Well, daughter, it would seem you are to consider yourself as being under my jurisdiction,” said Harpreet, smiling at Jessamyn. “I would ask you to carry on as you have been doing. Will that be satisfactory?”

  Jessamyn nodded, her face flushed with embarrassment. She hadn’t expected to be cuffed or placed behind bars, but Harpreet’s calm smile could not entirely do away with Jessamyn’s remembrance of Mei Lo’s tight-lipped accusations.

  “Don’t dwell on it,” Pavel murmured. “Do what you came here to do.”

  Ethan cleared his throat. “It would appear there is an additional message encrypted within the one we viewed.”

  “From whom?” asked Jessamyn.

  “It purports to be a communication from Mei Lo,” replied Ethan. “It is addressed to Jessamyn. I shall attempt to decrypt the message.”

  Moments later, Ethan invited his sister to sit before his wafer screen.

  My dear Jessamyn,

  I regret to inform you that Mars stands in great peril. My own reelection I do not consider likely. I’ve been forced to issue a directive to construct a new interplanetary vessel which is diverting considerable resources away from terraforming activities.

  Jessamyn frowned and read on.

  I am sorry I had to place you under arrest. Please consider yourself at liberty to reveal to whomever you see fit the secret which I shared with you in Gale Crater.

  Jess’s mouth formed a tiny “O.” She’d been itching to tell Harpreet and her brother what Mei Lo had revealed to her: that a century earlier, the Marsian government had traded silence on Terran mismanagement of the Rebody Program for guarantees of Marsian safety.

  I still believe I must keep silent on this topic unless your brother is able to complete his mission. I do not trust what someone like Cavanaugh would do with the information should he obtain an official position, as it seems he is trying for. I ought to have listened to Kipper. She warned me to lock up her brother before you all left for Earth. How I wish she’d been at the trial, to speak out against him. He’s a slippery fish, Jessamyn, and I do not hold it against you that he fooled you and Crusty. He’ll fool all of Mars before he’s done, I fear.

  Please, please divert all your attention to the incomplete mission. Without a way to protect ourselves, I fear we will be destroyed. I am sorry I have no happier news to deliver. No, I do have one final thing to say—I forgive you. I am only sorry I could not do so publicly. I believe you understand why that would not be politically expedient.

  Goodbye, Jessamyn, and Godspeed on your mission.

  Mei Lo

  Jessamyn wiped at several tears that clung to her lower lids. “Harpreet, Ethan? I need to speak with you privately.” A half-second passed and she added, “Pavel, you should hear this, too.”

  13

  FLY ON THE WALL

  The capable Vladim Wu had traced the Martian to a small community clinging to life in the desert. The Chancellor’s initial impulse had been to send a detachment of Red Squadron Forces to kill every last miserable wretch. Before her nephew’s watching eyes, if possible.

  But satisfying such petty urges was beneath her, she reminded herself. She had a planet’s safety to preserve.

  In any case, Vladim Wu had provided Lucca with a better strategy. Less personally satisfying, certainly, but better in terms of Lucca’s ultimate goals. If they went in with guns blazing, they might destroy not only those who could answer questions, but sensitive records as well.

  “Something I believe we can agree would prove regrettable,” Wu said.

  “Yes,” admitted Lucca. “I suppose I would regret such an approach.” Much as I would enjoy it, she added silently. “What of your efforts to gather intelligence?”

  Wu paused, stroking a beard-in-miniature of which Lucca knew him to be inordinately proud. “The community is unusually tight-knit. I can tell you a handful of names—some of the members who’ve gained notoriety outside the enclave—but we’ve been unable to gain entrance in a way that would not betray us.”

  “Hmm,” intoned Lucca, thoughtful as well. “I wonder … perhaps I know of an approach that might prove successful. Have you worked with Gaspar Bonaparte?”

  “I have the greatest respect for Bonaparte’s work,” replied Wu. “But I understood him to be … unavailable at present.”

  “I threw him in prison,” Lucca said, a scowl upon her face.

  “I don’t pretend to know if it would suit your purposes to release him,” hinted Wu, “but I will remind you that there are limits to the usefulness of information gathered through, ah, interrogation.”

  “Indeed,” agreed the Chancellor. “Whereas there are no limits to the intelligence one can gain if one becomes a fly on the wall in enemy headquarters.”

  “Precisely,” said Wu.

  The enemy could not move quickly, this much Lucca knew. There would be no ships coming from Mars for over a year due to the current distance between the two worlds. Lucca had the luxury of time: time to learn how best to strike the Mars colony and any sympathizers who might exist upon Earth.

  And she had the perfect “fly.”

  It was time to recall Gaspar Bonaparte.

  “My dear Vladim,” said the Chancellor, “would you be so good as to pay a visit to New Timbuktu?”

  14

  STUCK ON EARTH

 
Following the delivery of the secret message from Secretary Mei Lo, Jessamyn gathered Harpreet, Ethan, and Pavel where they could not be overheard. There, Jessamyn explained how, over a hundred years earlier, officials at MCC had agreed to secret away information that proved the Terran government was abusing the Rebody Program such that many ordinary citizens died while highly-placed officials were given extended lives. Pavel’s face grew darker and darker during Jessamyn’s retelling of Mei Lo’s secret, one passed from CEO to CEO upon Mars.

  Harpreet was predictably philosophical. “It matches with things I heard in New Timbuktu. And I confess I had often wondered why Earth did not simply destroy us when they had the opportunity. The enmity between the worlds was most bitter. The ceasefire, resting upon such an arrangement, makes more sense now.”

  Pavel spoke up. “There would have been severe political backlash if our Terran government had blown Mars to bits. The people here saw you as underdogs.”

  “Under dogs?” asked Ethan.

  “It means the ones you cheer for even though you know they can’t win,” explained Jessamyn.

  “So why isn’t your leader telling everyone on your world about this now?” demanded Pavel. “And on my world, too?”

  Jessamyn bit her lower lip. “I’m sorry, Pavel. I know it looks very unfair. But if the Secretary General makes this public knowledge on Mars, there’s a very strong possibility someone—some idiot like Cavanaugh—would attempt to use the information to bribe your government into exchanging supplies for our silence. What do you think your aunt would do if we threatened to tell?”

  Pavel glowered darkly. “She’d never bargain. No, I take that back. She would pretend to, but all along, she’d be working on a way to send every last M-class ship to Mars loaded with nukes and not with supplies. There’s no way she’d let word get out about … irregularities in the Program.”

  “It would appear,” said Harpreet, “the sooner we can transfer complete control of the satellites to MCC, the better.”

  “Exactly,” said Jess.

  “Kazuko and I are finding the establishing of communication with the satellites to be far more difficult than the establishing of communication between our worlds,” said Ethan.

  “I thought Dr. Zaifa spoke ‘old-Terran-satellite,’ or whatever,” said Jess.

  “She does, in a manner of speaking,” replied Ethan. “But getting the satellites to obey a new series of commands is proving … challenging.”

  “You’ve got to get the job done, Eth,” said Jess. “If Mei Lo can safely reveal to Mars what Earth did—or still does—then I think it will put a damper on the fever to cozy up with Earth. And even if someone does try to use the information to bribe Terran officials into sending orbital mirrors in exchange for silence or something crazy like that, at least the Terran government won’t be able to send a fleet to blast Mars out of existence.”

  “The secret must remain a secret until such time as Mars can defend itself,” agreed Harpreet.

  “I think my aunt’s still messing with rebodying,” said Pavel. “That would explain why she wanted me to head the program.”

  Harpreet sighed softly. “I was told as much in New Timbuktu prison by the two Malcolm Bonhoeffer’s—the Heads of Global Consciousness Transfer—who spoke with me.”

  Ethan cleared his throat. “I believe we are only weeks away from completing the task of re-directing the Terran satellites. Our success in transmitting vid-mail to MCC indicates that several systems are functioning nominally.”

  “Excellent,” said Harpreet. “Well, let us not delay you and the good Dr. Zaifa any further.”

  The four concluded their meeting, and Jess found herself reading and re-reading Mei Lo’s private communication.

  I ought to have listened to Kipper. She warned me to lock up her brother before you all left for Earth. How I wish she’d been at the trial, to speak out against him.

  Jess called after her brother. When the others had departed, she asked him quietly, “Are you still monitoring what’s going on with Kipper at that hospital outside the capitol?”

  “There has been no change to her condition, according to the records I have hacked. I receive updates several times daily.”

  “Okay,” said Jess. “The minute anything changes, would you let me know?”

  “Certainly,” said Ethan.

  Jess strolled out into the heat of the afternoon, surprised again at how the air seemed to suck all moisture from her lungs. She needed to think. She needed to plan.

  Mei Lo’s words about Kipper repeated in her mind: How I wish she’d been at the trial, to speak out against him.

  Jess kicked at a stone before her, watching it sail across the cracked earth. She still found wonder in the way gravity immediately pulled things back to the ground. To her Mars-born eyes, it was as if she were watching a visual that had been altered. “Get used to it,” she muttered. “You’re stuck on Earth now.”

  There was a great relief in knowing they could communicate with Mars, of course, but knowing how badly things were going back home made Jess ache inside. She kicked at a smaller rock at her feet and then began to walk. The sun beat upon her neck like a blast from a firing thruster.

  Was Mei Lo right about Kipper? If Kipper had been at Cavanaugh’s trial, could she have supplied information leading to his incarceration? Of course she could have.

  “Hades,” Jess swore as she strode forward. She was going to have to get Kipper. It was plain as day, if you thought about it. Her brother’s problems communicating with the satellites might be solved tomorrow. Or they might never be solved. But if Kip could be brought back to consciousness … if Jessamyn’s former captain could send a message to MCC, to Mars …

  “Hades and Aphrodite!” said Jess.

  She’d never liked how everyone seemed to feel Kip was safest where she was right now. Jess was sure no one within Lucca’s easy grasp could be called “safe,” for the love of Ares.

  Jessamyn felt the searing heat cooking her lungs with each breath. She shouldn’t be wandering outside at this time of day. She felt the urge to climb inside Pavel’s dirt brown ship and fly, fly, fly until she reached Kipper’s side. Could her former captain be awakened? The doctor in Lucca’s employ didn’t seem to think so, according to the information Ethan had hacked. But wasn’t it worth trying?

  Jess squatted and chose a handful of small rocks from the sandy soil. One turned out to be a clod of earth. She crushed it between her fingers, watching the fine soil fall to the ground. The remaining three stones she hurled as far away as she could.

  “Holy Ares,” she said aloud, placing her now-empty hands on her hips. “I can’t just stand here and do nothing.”

  She turned back toward her temporary home, and over evening rations, explained her reasons for wanting to retrieve Kipper.

  The outcry against Jessamyn’s idea surprised her.

  “There’s no way of knowing if she can be revived,” said Brian.

  Pavel nodded agreement, adding, “Lucca doesn’t waste time on things that aren’t going somewhere, which means your friend is safest where she is.”

  “It would be too dangerous,” said Kazuko Zaifa.

  Jessamyn was completely outnumbered.

  “It is commendable of you to seek to help, though, daughter,” said Harpreet.

  Ethan, who had remained silent throughout, spoke last. “I have noticed something curious at the hospital in Dunakeszi.”

  The others turned their attention to Jessamyn’s brother.

  “The chief physician has repeatedly applied for additional staffing for his facility, and been continually denied. There are no records to indicate a new member has joined the hospital. However, he now regularly refers to a ‘Nurse Cassondra’ about whom I can discover absolutely nothing.”

  “Cassondra?” asked Harpreet, in tones of surprise. “But that’s Kipper’s name.”

  “Indeed,” replied Ethan.

  “What do you mean, you can’t discover anything abou
t her? As in, you can find stuff out about other employees?” asked Jessamyn.

  “Of course,” replied Ethan. “I am able to access considerable data about any of the employees at Dunakeszi, which is what makes the appearance of an undocumented laborer so puzzling.”

  “Undocumented labor’s nothing new in the larger metropolitan areas,” said Kazuko. “There exists any number of reasons for such.”

  “It does appear to be the single instance of such at this particular hospital,” said Ethan.

  “Aye, it’s bloody illegal, then, isn’t it?” said Brian Wallace.

  “Can you acquire imagery?” asked Jess. “To see if it’s her?”

  “That’s illegal, too,” said Pavel. “A hospital’s one of the last places you can guarantee a measure of privacy. Although my aunt would like to see that changed.”

  “I am unable to obtain video of any part of the hospital in question,” confirmed Ethan. “In addition, I ought to have pointed out that Cassondra Kipling’s body is still listed among the patient roster for the hospital. Her vital signs, which I can access, have undergone no change since I began monitoring her.”

  “It’s got to be a coincidence,” said Pavel, after the group sat in silence for several minutes. “Brian’s right about employees being hired off-record. It happens. And if her read-out says she’s still comatose, I don’t see any reason to believe otherwise. Sorry, Jess.”

  Jessamyn’s heart squeezed. She’d hoped Pavel might back her in this. But he trusted the readings from the hospital.

  “I am sorry as well, daughter,” said Harpreet. “But this does not appear to change anything, much as we might wish it would. I do not feel it would be wise to venture to the capitol at present. Perhaps once your brother has things settled with the satellites, we might reexamine the situation.”

  Everyone seemed to regard Harpreet’s opinion as closing the discussion, and they rose to their various duties and evening occupations.

  But Jessamyn sat still and alone, thinking about Mars and about the upcoming elections. A vote of no-confidence. That was what was happening on Mars in two months’ time. It was worse than a regular election. When a CEO on Mars died in office, an election was held. But this was a vote being held to decide whether Mei Lo or someone else should govern Mars. If there was any possible way to bring Kipper back to consciousness, to have her tell the citizens of Mars the truth about her brother …