by Pete Molina
Chapter 29
The train started to move out, and Sam was feeling a little jumpy. He felt like someone was watching them, following them. And he was amazed that they hadn’t been caught yet by someone on Ariel Stoneman’s payroll. They weren’t being that stealthy, three people leaving the Gates dome and getting on a train for Base One…how suspicious was that, no matter what they looked like. It only left him to conclude that Ariel Stoneman was completely incompetent, but that didn’t mesh with what Terra had told him. Maybe their camouflage suits were really that good. Maybe.
As the train went along, they exited the dome into a long lit but enclosed tunnel. They were at least ten meters under the surface because it took a lot of soil to hold down a tunnel that was pressurized to human requirements. This ensured that even if the trains broke down, or if the power were out people could walk between the domes without needing to go outside, a precaution the first settlers had taken when technology had not been nearly so advanced. The tunnels were shaped like long arches composed of thousands of bricks.
When he had studied his history of the first colonists to Mars, he had always been amazed that they employed such simple building materials as brick, but the method worked and bricks were easy to build with, provided you covered them with a lot of dirt to hold in the pressure…bricks could only support a load in compression; tension would blow them apart. Mars was still fairly primitive technologically at least here in the first domes that were constructed. They were constructed before large amounts of metals could be mined or extracted from large surface deposits, and long before nanotechnology reared its head in force. There were no lift columns or transit tubes that employed utility fog. Most transport across the planet took place in rocket powered hoppers, not zip tubes.
After a few minutes they passed into another dome and made a stop. Several people got on and a few got off, but Terra motioned for them to stay seated. Sam was still in awe of her. She was one of the most wealthy people in the solar system, far behind Damon Harding but still a force to be reckoned with. And here he was caught up in a web of Martian political intrigue with her all because his other version had done something and she had helped him. Amazing.
Sam still wasn’t sure what to make of Jeff, though. He still seemed like his old crèche mate, but there were years between them now at an age when thirty years could really make a large difference. If such a separation had occurred when they were two hundred, it would have been a different story. The past would have had such a large leverage that three decades would be trivial. But three decades was longer than he had in cumulative years. It was a gulf. They still had some camaraderie, but Sam could tell that Jeff had changed. He’d grown up and taken on responsibility, something neither had been ready for at Sam’s age.
Jeff also seemed older than his years. He wasn’t just a idealistic fiftyish Newbie. Jeff was quiet and seemed to be carrying the weight of the solar system on his shoulders. It didn’t surprise Sam that he did; Jeff had always taken responsibility for things he had no control over.
Sam could remember times when they were younger when one of their crèche would lead them all to do something that got them in trouble. Steal a snack, sneak out of the crèche bunk room at night to catch the vids. It was always something, but Jeff took it more seariously when they got caught and he was always the one that said that they shouldn’t go, that they’d get caught. He punished himself too much for things he didn’t even do. Sam could see that this was his other version’s fault, which kind of made it his fault. He was still Sam Storm. He was still the seed that had grown to the man who had betrayed a friendship with Jeff.
Sam was still torn over this. It wasn’t his fault except that it was. He knew he could get Jeff to do stuff, or at least the Jeff that was once his age. He knew the buttons to push, he always had. And his other self had done just that, pushed those buttons. That made Sam feel guilty…but he wasn’t Sam Storm any more. He was Greg Hillman. He wanted to find his other self and smack him one, not for attacking the restoration system, not for the non-voluntary dissolutions…murders…that had been committed. But for betraying Jeff, his brother, and for putting the burden of his actions on his brother, because he knew himself well enough to know that that was a line that should never be crossed. There were always alternatives.
Jeff just wasn’t that type of guy. When they swore, only such a short time ago for Sam, he wanted it to make them closer than they were because they were already starting to grow apart and take their own paths and interests. Sam was afraid to lose the closeness that they shared growing up, more so than any of the others in their crèche.
Sam realized his attention had been drifting when the train stopped and Jeff had to tap him on the shoulder to get his attention.
“Jordan, come on, we’ll be late for our appointment,” Jeff reminded, staying in character.
“Right, sorry, Carl. I must have been daydreaming,” Sam replied, getting up and following Terra and Jeff out of the train.
“This way,” Terra directed.
Sam could tell that she was having a harder and harder time maintaining the ruse that their camouflage provided. She was anxious and driven, not nearly so calm and disciplined as she had been earlier…perhaps it was just post restoration childishness. Terra led them up the stairs until they came out at the surface level of the dome. They took another set of stairs up one more level to where the transparent dome began and there was finally some natural light. They took some turns through a few corridors and came out into the large open space that comprised most of the dome’s center. The remainder was built kind of like a stadium, with a large deep open space in the center which then gradually rose up to meet the side of the dome and then followed the curve of the dome back downward. A full third of the area in the dome was dedicated to the UMG seat of government, the remainder was use for living and office space. There was a large walkway on their level that followed around the entire inner circle of the dome.
Terra began to rapidly move towards the UMG government section. It was clear that they were no longer actively pretending to be who they personified but were instead just hoping that their disguises would keep them from harm. The meeting would be starting very shortly, and Terra was probably even more anxious to be there now. As they moved along at a very rapid walk, bouncing slightly in the one third g, Sam thought he heard something behind them, a shuffle or something. When he turned to look, however, he saw nothing.
It took them five minutes to go around half of the dome’s circumference, and they stopped in front of a section that was clearly distinguished from its neighboring sections as it was composed of some very white rock. The UMG flag flew above it, waving in the slight breeze that must have been provided by a massive air circulation system that he couldn’t see.
“Come on, time for sightseeing later,” Terra said, leading them to a building that stood next to the capital section.
“Aren’t we going in there?” Sam asked, and regretted it the moment it came out of his mouth.
“Not now,” Terra said.
Sam shut up and let her lead. He didn’t want to get them caught.
The building they entered was some kind of large library. They entered on the atrium level that looked up to four or five higher stories, and he could see the shelves containing books or records of some sort. It was amazing to behold considering that each of those books would have had to have been shipped to Mars at very high expense over the course of the last few centuries. Some of them were no doubt locally authored, but it was still amazing.
“They aren’t all books,” Terra said, seeing his awe-filled eyes. She then led them to some stairs and began to bound up them. “That would cost a fortune. Most are just covers for electronic records that date back to the beginning. Some of it is backup for the local datasphere. But all Martians keep their real books here so that everyone can enjoy them. Electronic versions can be accessed through any terminal or implants
anywhere on the surface. This is more of a shrine to an older time actually. It is the only large library with printed material anywhere on Mars.”
Sam didn’t even reply, just hustled to keep up with the seemingly large woman who took stairs five at a time. Jeff was also struggling to keep up the pace.
The stairs ended when they reached the very top level, and Sam and Jeff both gave a small sigh, but Terra continued single minded around the perimeter of the opening of the atrium to a section of book shelves that lined the walls. She placed her hand on a particular spot on the shelf and pushed some kind of button that was very well concealed. The book shelf slid backwards and then turned to reveal a small dark corridor.
“The secrets of Mars?” Jeff asked.
“Just a contingency entrance I happen to know about,” Terra confided, walking inside. The bookshelf slid shut behind them as they all entered.
“It’s a little cliché, don’t you think,” Jeff observed, amused.
“Of course it is. That’s why it’s perfect,” Terra returned. “Okay, now we need to switch the personas of our camouflage to anyone else. My custodians are fairly well known, so it won’t do us any good to be wearing their faces. Just pick someone and do it quickly,” she urged, and then concentrated while she accessed her own camouflage. Her image flickered to that of some man whom Sam didn’t recognize.
Ralphie, pick another persona at random that kind of fits my physical parameters and change to it, Sam commanded. Ralphie could do it a lot faster than him accessing the camouflage directly through his implants.
Done, Ralphie informed him once his camouflage changed. He couldn’t see the results, though.
“Ready then. We’re going to head straight for the meeting room. They’re supposed to start in two minutes, so we should be there in plenty of time. I can’t wait to see the look on Ariel Stoneman’s face,” Terra said mischievously as she fiddled with another control on the wall to the left of the entrance.
Another door backed in and slid sideways along the tracks in the floor and they could see a small room. It was ornately furnished with wooden furniture and a desk that looked like it must have almost cost its weight in gold to ship. Wood was almost unheard of here on Mars; it took too long to grow and had to be imported at great expense from Earth. Synthetic wood, however was manufactured locally and was comparably dirt cheap but it didn’t look quite like real wood.
There was a large screen against one of the walls and several upholstered chairs in front of the desk. Behind the desk was a window that looked out from the dome upon the landscape of further city domes and red soil. They all stepped into the room and the door, which was another book case that looked like it was built into the wall, closed behind them, leaving no trace that it could move or had moved. Across from them hung the portrait of a man, whom Sam didn’t recognize.
“This is the UMG President’s office. The secret passage is keyed to my family’s DNA, but as far as I know, I and now you two are the only living people who know about it. After this it probably won’t be much of a secret anymore, but it’s necessary. That’s Ariel’s father, John Stoneman. He was an ass, but he had money and used it to come here. Let’s go.” Terra motioned them onward. She headed for the door that was behind the two chairs. The office seemed small, but Sam decided that for a Martian space was at a premium, or at least had been at a premium when this dome was constructed. Terra opened the door slowly, peeked out, then closed the door again.
“It’s clear, so follow me. The meeting room for the Board is just down the hall,” she said, opening the door again and moving out. Jeff gave Sam a look that spoke volumes about his misgivings as to this approach. Sam gave him a little nod to say he agreed but followed her anyway. The hallway was empty, as she had said. Terra, or rather her persona image, moved off down the hallway. There were images along the walls that showed pictures of the first habitation modules sitting on the lonely surface and the first astronauts to venture this far saluting various nation’s flags.
Sam took only a moment to glance at each of the pictures as they passed. He decided that Martians had a very proud history. After all, it was the first place people settled in the solar system and had paved the way for other colonies in the asteroid belts, which had in turn provided the material to build the orbital colonies around Earth. He looked around the empty hallway. It wasn’t too ornate; it was practical. There were many doors on their way that each bore a plaque that mentioned some important UMG government official. That these hallways were empty either meant that it was a weekend or holiday or that everyone was at the meeting room…or something else. It didn’t feel quite right. Stoneman must be totally incompetent to not be on the lookout for strangers in this place, especially three of them.
Terra turned to a large double door that presented itself when they came around one corner. She opened it just a crack to look inside, then opened it more and slipped through. Inside Sam could hear someone speaking.
“And that is why this measure must be passed. Too long have the great families wielded their control over the people, and I say that our citizens deserve a larger voice that can not be drowned out by the will of one single individual. We have in the last decade seen that great power wielded by one can cut down important matters as if they were trivial. No explanation was offered…no counter proposal…they were simply stuck down as if a matter of course. So I call for the vote of the shareholders of the UMG to ratify this amendment to our bylaws.”
As Sam entered the room, he realized that it was actually quite large, like a stadium in fact but smaller. It could probably hold several hundred people without a problem. In the center of the circle of stadium like seats was a floor perhaps ten meters long and wide in which a woman stood. They were at the rim of the stadium looking down, and the seats were full of people. No one noticed them step in as they were all fixed on the speaker who could be none other than Ariel Stoneman. She was tall, taller than Terra, and had red hair that was back in a very long ponytail which went to her waist. She was dressed in a black suit with a white blouse, and she looked every bit as involved in her own speech as the others were.
Sam’s heart froze for a second as Stoneman glanced up at them and then passed them by without recognition.
“All in favor of adding this amendment to our by-laws, vote now either in person or via your data links,” Ariel instructed the crowd. “Voting will commence in one minute and proceed for five minutes.”
“She moved up the vote again,” Terra whispered to Jeff as they walked down the steps. “I should have known she’d push to have it before the scheduled time. That’s almost illegal in its own right.”
There were cheers from the stands as people stood clapping, waiting for the one minute count down when the Mars datasphere would allow the direct democratic vote of all the people. It was then that the weight of how many people were really watching this oratory bared its full weight on Sam. Of course the stadium was mostly empty. Everyone was watching and waiting for this vote to pass. It was expected but they all had to vote…unlike the US, voter turnout here was always above ninety-nine percent of the shareholders. Unfortunately anyone with a larger than five percent voting block had to be in the meeting personally. It was a bylaw that had been added only a year ago and was why Terra had to be here in person to make a difference and why Ariel Stoneman was looking a little smug, thinking herself secure.
A large screen on the wall ticked down and then the crowd sat down and cast their votes either via their implant’s connection to the datasphere or via terminals that were attached to the arm of each seat. There was no instantaneous tally displayed or available until the five minutes were up, so it couldn’t affect how people would vote knowing how the majority of shares were voted. Terra stopped at the bottom of the steps. Jeff and Sam stopped halfway down. This wasn’t their fight.
“I cast my votes against,” Terra said loudly, causing the crowd to look up br
iefly and then gawk. She seemed like someone who didn’t belong, dressed in Earth style clothing and looking like a man. Ariel turned to look at the stranger.
“You are out of order. Only board members may speak on the floor without petition,” Ariel said coldly. “Leave now or I will have you removed.”
There was silence now from the room as everybody watched the confrontation with this stranger who couldn’t possibly have been identified in anyone’s displays.
“Of course you’re correct…President Stoneman. I would have to be a board member to be on the floor,” Terra said in her male voice.
“I’m glad you agree.” Ariel motioned for the armed men in Martian Secret Service uniforms who were positioned around the perimeter of the floor. One of them, the closest, began to approach her.
“Stand down,” Terra warned, staring at the officer. “I have all the authority I need to be here. I am a board member.”
“I don’t recognize you and I know from the reaction of our colleagues that they don’t know you either…how dare you interrupt this proceeding.” Ariel was looking flustered now, not nearly so confident in herself. She was beginning to realize that the stranger before her was not as he seemed. The Martian Secret Service man continued to approach Terra.
Terra must have been waiting for the proper second to reveal herself because her image shimmered for a moment before the man disappeared and in his place emerged a woman with short brown hair in a jet black spacesuit. The recognition was instantaneous, both in the eyes of Ariel Stoneman and with the crowd.
“Don’t you recognize me, Ariel?” Terra challenged.
“She’s an imposter. Take her away at once. We all saw her as a man just a moment ago. How can we believe that she is who she says when she couldn’t even have made it to Mars in such a short time from her restoration, I ask you?” Ariel appealed to the crowd and the remote viewers. “Is this The Terra Gates or simply someone loyal to her trying to keep her in power over us all.”
The crowd agreed. Most of the people present had no love for Terra Gates, especially after what had happened in the previous years with her other version.
“I am Terra Gates,” Terra stated loudly and the crowd, although still skeptical, shifted restlessly. “I vote with all my shares against this amendment. If you doubt who I am don’t doubt what the voting system shows when the tally reflects the power of my shares causing failure of this measure. That will prove beyond a doubt who I am…because every Martian knows that the voting system can’t be tampered with.”
Ariel was silent and gave Terra a murderous look. She knew that this really was Terra. The Martian Secret Service man had stopped his approach. The room was silent; they knew that what she said about the voting system was true. If her shares were voted against, it meant that Terra Gates must be in that room in person. There was still a minute left to go.
Ariel just stared at her, clearly infuriated but unwilling to throw a public tantrum. Terra stared back defiantly. The seconds ticked away, and finally the voting clock ended. Upon the screen where the count had taken place was a count of votes for and against the amendment to the bylaws. The measure failed by a large margin, too large for it to be caused by anything by her family’s shares.
“Display voting of Terra Gates’ shares,” Terra ordered the screen. It showed that her very large percentage had been cast against the measure. “As I said, I am Terra Gates,” she reiterated with a grin. The crowd erupt into boos. There was no applause. She was out of favor. These last few years of misinformation and her public record at the end had made her unpopular, especially with the people in this room. Terra took the center and Ariel backed away to let her have it, grudgingly.
“My fellow Martians. It is true, I am Terra Gates. But know this before you judge me fully. I was restored only two weeks ago on Earth. I have been the victim of the virus attack on the restoration center. All backups before and after my 262.3 version were destroyed. I am eight years out of date. If you will recall, this precedes the time in which my other version, who had clearly lost sight of what I hold dear, voted against your measures and wielded my shares unjustly. I have always believed that my shares should only be brought into play when something needed to be set right. I don’t understand what my other version was doing going against this policy as it has been instilled in me since childhood.”
“You don’t need me watching over you like a parent, but sometimes something slips through or is portrayed in such a way that people are in favor when they don’t have all the facts or can’t see some of the implications…it is in these circumstances that I use my shares as a veto against unjust amendments or actions. I am not the Terra Gates who betrayed that trust. I precede her and am as appalled at her actions as you are. As to what could have caused this change, I can’t imagine but it must have been horrible indeed to cause such a change or there must have been some hidden purpose that meant the Gates family shares had to be used until the time was right for such measures again. I don’t know. I have only just returned to Mars, but I intend to find out…on that matter I swear. If I show that I am as unstable as my other version in the future, I invite you…no, I demand you bring this amendment again to a vote…but it need not be passed because for a few years someone apparently did what she had sworn not to do. Judge me by my actions before my backup and now after my restoration.”
“I agree that this is a convenient turn of events for me, my sudden restoration. I don’t know if there was purpose behind it or if it was a random act, but here I am. I am Terra Gates, and I am for Mars,” Terra finished her appeal to the viewers and the assembled body.
There was no applause. Sam looked around at the faces in the gallery. They weren’t scowling, they didn’t look unhappy, but they did look unsettled. It was quite a story, Sam admitted to himself. Terra took a look back at Ariel who was still glaring. Then she walked off the floor back up the steps to where Jeff and Sam were waiting, but they still looked like other people. “Well?” she asked them.
“Nice speech, Terra,” Jeff said. “But it doesn’t seem to have been well received here.”
“On the contrary, if they were really upset, they’d be screaming and yelling at me now and making motions on some point of order,” Terra responded. The people were talking, but mostly just in small conversations. “This is a better reception then I’d expected.” She smiled and ushered them back out the double door at the top of the steps. They left willingly.
“You can switch off your camouflage now if you want,” Terra told them.
“Do you think that’s a good idea. We’ll surely end up on the news, and we don’t want to tip the FBI’s hand if they don’t already know Jeff and I are here.” Sam had little confidence that they had arrived here completely unnoticed by the powers that be.
“How much time do you have left?” Terra asked.
“About an hour and ten minutes,” Sam replied after checking the power gauge in his display.
“Couldn’t they be discussing something important in there?” Jeff asked sticking his finger at the door, through which no one else had exited.
“No, anything major would have had to be on the agenda two months in advance so that any board member or majority share holder could make it to vote. I checked, and nothing interesting is coming up for at least four months beyond the mundane day to day stuff which I can influence from anywhere,” Terra said. She looked relieved now that the great burden of making it to the vote was off her shoulders.
“We’d better go then. I’m sure they won’t stay in there for long,” Sam cautioned.
“All right, let’s go then…back the way we came,” Terra agreed, leading them back to the Presidents office. When they arrived, she peeked in to make sure it was empty, then ushered them in and walked to the bookshelf, activating the mechanism that opened the door. They went back into the library. Terra put her camouflage back on adopting a third persona, then followed t
hem. No doubt there’d be many citizens out in front of the capital waiting for her, along with news crews to whom she didn’t feel like talking just now. There were more important things to do.