One Day on Mars: Chapter Ten

12:01 PM Mars Tharsis Standard Time

    The garbage incinerator room was larger than a basketball arena and had a piercingly pungent odor. The odor was so thick it could practically be cut with a laser welder or that could even be seen hovering like a foul smelling fog. The air was heavy and damp and just plain rank.

    The city being under attack hadn't stopped the reclamation and redistribution drones from their work. Large AI controlled robot systems plowed through the mountainous refuse piles and separated them into various types of recyclable materials. Piles of multicolored plastics that ranged from translucent green soda bottles to the bright reds and yellows of children's toys made from previously recycled plastics rose like mountains from the cavernous room some of them reaching peaks of more than a hundred and fifty meters high.

    Nearest the far exterior wall of the room were plumes of smoke and steam rising from organically composting piles or scrap foodstuffs and bodily waste products that would be worked until the soil composting process was complete and then trucked to agricultural areas and beautification sites within the city. With millions of humans and animals in the Mons City complex there was plenty of organic waste of the smelly variety to be found. If the agricultural needs were met while there was a surplus of good soil, the surplus would be shipped out to other domes or agricultural projects via AI driven robotic transports. Not only were the materials recycled or destroyed there, they were also redistributed.

    Slightly south of the organic piles were the non-reclaimable materials that went into the incinerator. The reclamation robots worked the piles diligently placing load after load of combustible stuff into the cavernous inferno. Some of the heat from the inferno was pumped throughout the city while the rest was used to melt soil and ices and the exhaust gasses released into the atmosphere. There were similar incinerator systems in every dome city across the planet. Every little bit of terraforming gasses released into the atmosphere helped. And the materials reclamation had proven to be a thriving industry for the Martian economy. Luna City, Triton, and Kuiper Station were almost completely dependent on the Martian reclaimed materials for construction resources.

    "Over by the organics," Reyez Jones pointed out the large lift across the way and below their vantage point on the entry catwalk and control tower used to oversee the reclamation operation. Of course, it was all automated but the control tower was put in so that several union jobs could be established to "oversee" the AI workers. "There, see it?" Reyez leaned over the catwalk rail and fantasized for a brief second that the two hundred meter drop to the cavernous room's floor would make for a fun base jump.

    "Got it. Look, the methane levels over there will have to be horrendous. By the time we get half the way there we should close our visors and go to scrubbers as long as we can. I bet we'll have to go to O2 to go through that mess." Alexander Moore had been thinking about the city dump for several minutes and was concerned that in the closed system there would be noxious volatiles and vapors that might pose a threat. Hopefully, the Seppies would know this as well and would have steered clear.

    "Seems like a dangerous walk across that mess, Alexander." Sehera didn't like the thought of traipsing her little girl through mountains of unstable pointy objects with no telling what types of infectious bacteria, molds, and fungi growing in them.

    "Daddy, it stinks too bad in here. I'm gonna throw up." Deanna heaved dramatically over the catwalk rail and then froze in her tracks as a big multi-armed and multi-legged metallic spider-thing, sauntered up to the top of the first debris pile just beneath their position by ten meters or so on the opposite side of the catwalk that Reyez had been salivating over. Deanna's fake heave quickly turned into a frightened gasp as the spider-thing raised upward and spewed a black oozing mud from its rearward chamber with the thrust of flatulence that only a Martian garbage eating monster could. The pungent odor in the local vicinity did not improve, any.

    Perhaps I can help, sir. Abigail thought to her counterpart. I've shaken hands with this one and it has agreed to give us a lift.

    Good work, Abigail. The senator thought.

    Yes sir. Meet, Reclamation AI Bravo India Lima Seven One One Six. He has auditory comms as well as AIC wireless.

    "Don't worry baby. That is our friend. He is gonna take us for a ride is all."

    "That thing is gonna eat us, Daddy!" Deanna said with her eyes wide.

    "Deanna, listen to Mommy." Sehera knelt beside her daughter and put her hand on her shoulders to calm her. "That is just a robot that carries garbage around from one place to another. It is not going to eat anybody. And, who knows, you might like him once you get to know him." Sehera smiled at her daughter and looked her in the eye.

    "Ok, Mommy. But I bet he stinks…bad."

    "Awww, don't worry little one I will not harm you. My name is BIL Seventy One Sixteen. What is yours?" The odd looking garbage robot asked.

    "This fucking stinks, Vince." Rod stumbled as the line of Mons City refugees crowded forward into the central open court area. The Separatist troops had rounded up any of the stragglers that hadn't made it to the shelters and were moving them into the large open court. Rod couldn't figure out why, but he didn't like it.

    "You're telling me, bud. I don't like this. I'm beginning to think we should've gone with that senator guy and Reyez." Vincent's cigarette end hung out the open face of his e-suit helmet and the white smoke twirled upward around his head whirling with each new drag he took. Occasionally, he would puff out a smoke ring.

    "Why are they gathering us up like this, wonder?" a woman to Rod's right and one step in front of them asked to nobody in particular.

    "It is quite obvious ain't it?" the fat mealy mouth man from the adventure shop said.

    "If it is so fuckin' obvious, then why don't you tell us then," the woman replied in a panic.

    "They need to keep track of us so they no where we are. This way we are all in one place and they don't have to worry about us sneaking up behind them." The fat man said knowingly.

    "What do you think, Vince? He right?" Rod turned and looked at his friend hoping that was the only reason, but at the same time was pretty certain that it wasn't.

    "Hmm. Could be, but I don't think so." Vince said and pulled the cigarette down to the filter with a deep inhale the end glowing red with the embers.

    "Then what?" the panicky woman looked back at him.

    "Am I wearing a Seppy e-suit? Can I read freakin' minds? No, I can't. I don't know what they are doing," Vince shook his head and then slowly scanned around the open court at the thousands of people that were being crowded in. "But I've got a bad feeling that somebody is wanting to make a point with us." He spit the cigarette filter onto the ground in front of him and twisted his e-suit jumpboot heel on it.

    "Hell, if they want to make a point they have tens of thousands of people in the shelters they can use." Rod disagreed.

    "And I'm sure they will, bud. I'm sure they will." Vincent felt through the breast pocket for his pack of cigarettes.

    "Shavi, Kira Shavi. Anti-aircraft Defense Unit Technician, Elysium." Kira told the guard at the underground train station entrance and held up her arms as if in a stick up. The guard only slightly raised an eyebrow at the mention of the Elysium unit a sign that he had to know how hard the Americans had hit the place. Kira kept her arms raised so the guard could hose her down. "How hot am I?" she asked the man.

    "You took a pretty good dose, Sergeant Shavi." The man obviously understood the rank markings on Kira's Separatist Military e-suit. "Were you able to take anti-rad meds in time?" The guard whistled at the readings on his radiation monitor. The woman had been very close to the explosion at some point and took a serious radiation dose. Her suit was covered with fallout and was reading off the scale.

    "Yes. We all did. Unfortunately for my brothers the meds do nothing for the shockwave or the fireball." She maintained the idle conversation with the train portal guard.

    "I didn't realize there were still any troops that far out in the city. How did you manage to survive? Turn around." He asked and then motioned her to turn so he could hose down the back of her e-suit. He whistled again at the sight of all the scratches and dings in the rear of her armor. "You took quite a beating too."

    "I was down in the silo venting launch coolant when the bomb went off. My youngest brother kicked the silo door shut and triggered the coolant flood. I was trapped inside the silo submerged in cryogel for more than twenty minutes before the outside environment cooled off enough for the silo auto drain switch to throw. I had to crawl out through the coolant drains. A few times I had to set off demo charges to blow out the drain grates or to widen an opening large enough to get through. A couple of times I used a little, uh, too much." Kira explained. "I was lucky, I guess. But my brothers were not."

    "Ahmi was served. You were very resourceful and the Free People are fortunate to have brave ones like you." The man nodded and looked at his monitor again. "You're green." He switched off the hose and the white foam stream dribbled to a stop.

    "Thanks. Ahmi was served." She replied. White anti-radiation foam dissipated and drained from her suit slowly in the low Martian gravity.

    "Blower vents are around the corner just before the air locks."

    "Got it."

    "Next!" the train portal guard shouted.

    The wait and then the loading process for the train hadn't been that bad. Kira and her new found friends kept each other company to pass the time. Kira was beginning to connect with the little girl if not her parents as well. As the fifteen car subway train floated to a stop at the loading ramp it bobbled up and down with a swish and then the doors opened. There were only a handful of people getting off the train. In fact, it was mostly empty, all of the cars were. There were hundreds, maybe thousands, on the other hand waiting to get on. Some of them seemed calm, others panicky, and many at all ranges of moods and hysteria in between.

    "Come on, Kira. You can sit with me and kitty." Lelandra took Kira's hand in hers and tugged her onto the train.

    "Uh huh. That would be nice." Kira smiled shifting the weight of her e-suit backpack over onto her shoulder. Fortunately, the short wait, and the fact that they were now indoors had meant that everyone could shed their e-suits. Kira was glad to get out of hers and into normal clothes. Although, all she had with her were Separatist Army issue battle dress fatigues and skins.

    Kira Shavi sat with her backpack container resting in her lap and watched as the tunnel walls zipped by. The temperature on the train was cool but not unbearably so. The second skin she was wearing under the Seppy issue battle dress uniform that had been packed in her e-suit was more than enough to keep her comfortable. She pulled an energy bar from her pack and tore the wrapper clear. The bar heated itself almost instantly and the aroma of warm cinnamon, chocolate, and oatmeal filled her nostrils and made her mouth water. It had been a long day.

    An occasional dim tunnel light would streak by and cast a faint glare on the train windows. Lela and her robot kitty nuzzled against her left arm. Kira would have offered her some of the food bar but the little Martian was fast asleep.

    Out of the e-suit the little girl was obviously very cute and the spitting image of her mother. Her tall and slender frame with milky white skin and long black hair, typical of Martians, made her look older than she was, but Kira was used to looking at Earth and Luna children that didn't grow as quickly due to the heavier gravity fields – natural gravity on Earth and artificial on Luna. The little girl and her AI kitty snored lightly as they rested against the pack in Kira's lap. Kira had definitely made a new friend in the young Martian. The little Separatist girl's mother and father, Elise and Fayad, sat across the aisle from them speaking very little. Kira held the energy bar up in offering but they had waived it away.

    "So, where are we going?" Kira asked.

    Careful. Allison warned her. Shouldn't you know?

    I don't know, but I'll qualify it. Kira thought about how to do that for brief moment. I'll play it like an uninformed soldier.

    Good idea. That should work. More than ninety percent of these people appear to be civilians if there is such a thing when it comes to Seppies. And have you noticed that they all seem to be leaving. They are not taking shelter from an attack, rather, they are leaving to somewhere.

    I know. This all seems to have been planned whether or not we nuked one of the Reservation's cities. And, I never heard a second explosion or attack so what happened there? There were some missing pieces that Kira couldn't put her fingers on, but there was more going on here than just a reaction to an attack. This scurrying around and evacuation of Separatists seemed to be part of some larger plan. The CIA's plan might have been implemented just in the knick of time and luckily at precisely the right moment. Kira was beginning to feel lucky.

    "I mean, which route are you scheduled to take?" Kira pointed to the couple and their fast asleep little girl.

    "Ah. You never were on a relocation list were you?" Fayad said as matter of fact more than as a question. "One of the sacrificed." He said in an elitist fashion. Kira was surprised by the tone and didn't realize such castes existed in the Reservation culture. She had thought they were socialists but was beginning to rethink that.

    "Uh…" Kira hesitated slightly not sure how to respond.

    "Fayad, you are such a callous and unthinking brute!" Elise elbowed her Prime Husband. "She lost her entire unit is that not enough. Ahmi was served and she needn't sacrifice more even if I have to sponsor her. She has more than earned a spot on our transport as far as I am concerned."

    "I just meant that she was originally slated to stay behind." The man said sheepishly. It was obvious that his Prime Wife had just scolded him and in public. Kira wasn't quite sure what the cultural protocols were for such a display but guessed that it would hold further ramifications for Fayad later when the couple were behind closed doors. Kira's training and cover personality development had drilled one thing deeply into her mind and that was that the Prime Wives ruled the Reservation.

    "I knew that is what you meant. Pay no attention to him, Kira. Many of those with slots to go will not make it. My AIC has assured me of that. And besides, many with slots that will go I would gladly swap for some of our younger and braver heroes like yourself." Elise said. The fact that she had an AIC implant surprised Kira. "You are welcome to join my family if you wish. You found Lelandra for us and have helped with the wounded all the long trek to the train station. All of that above and beyond your sacrifice at Elysium."

    "I'm honored." Kira wasn't sure what to say. Standard policy in espionage is if you aren't sure what to say, say little or nothing at all.

    She has an AIC? Kira thought.

    We knew our intel on the Separatists was missing a few things. Maybe Prime Wives carry them since they run all the business of the family I could see how it would come in handy bookkeeping wise. Maybe she was in the Seppy military. That would explain it too. Allison replied. But I haven't found a wireless signal from it or any other AICs from them. I'll have to broaden my spectrum. Pay attention to more of them for DTM facial expressions. AICs may be more prevalent in the Separatists than we originally thought.

    Probably right, Allison. Try expanding the QM spectrum around that of the AI Kitty spectrum. Maybe they like that frequency domain better for some reason. Next Internet hub we go by I'll do a quick search on AIKs.

    Good idea.

    This all seems too easy. Why would she just right off let me in her family? Kira was more than a little uneasy.

    You found their daughter and helped with wounded. Maybe that was genuine enough. Maybe she is just the trusting sort.

    I don't believe that for a minute. A naive Seppy Prime Wife? Not likely. There will be more to come I'm sure. Kira ran the scenario of her brothers death through her mind again. The implanted emotional tags made the story feel so real that she came to tears for her dead brothers. A few tears streamed slowly down her cheeks and in the pail lighting of the train Elise had noticed that she was crying. Kira dried her eyes with her fingers and her sleeves and then sniffled once while clearing her throat. She turned and looked out the window embarrassed.

    "It is alright, Kira. You have sacrificed enough." Elise said softly to her. "We have all lost family in this crazy struggle for freedom. But we will prevail." She said more sternly.

    "Sorry." Kira turned her head back around and looked at Elise. "So. Where are we going?"

    "We're leaving on the TCA Barge Tangier I from Umbra Lake to rendezvous at Oort Seven Three Nine Nine Zero One with the rest of the Exodus. From there we will QMT to New Tharsis." Elise offered very matter-of-factly.

    "I see. How many can we squeeze in the belly of the Tangier I?" Kira asked as if she knew what she were talking about.

    Exodus? QMT? New Tharsis? Oort Seven Three Nine Nine Zero One? Any ideas Allison?

    Exodus is from the Bible when Moses led the Jews from Egypt. Perhaps the Separatists are planning to leave the system. QMT, never heard of it, but perhaps it has something to do with quantum membranes as standard QM sensors do. New Tharsis, wherever we are going is named after Tharsis on Mars. Oort Seven Three Nine Nine Zero One must be a Separatist designation of some object in the Oort Cloud. I don't know any more than that. The AIC replied.

    We do know one thing, now.

    What is that?

    We are going to Tau Ceti.

    Of course! TCA Barge Tangier I. Tau Ceti Alliance Barge Tangier I. New Tharsis must be there. I hope it is a lot more inviting than the old Tharsis and we are in for a long ride. I don't see how they think the millions of the Reservation can escape the system without major resistance. Allison replied with an inquisitive tone added to her mindvoice.

    "Oh, I guess I keep forgetting that the troops in the field really haven't been fully briefed on everything have they? But why worry them with the details of moving nearly thirty million people from the planet all at the same time when they have to be focused on the diversion?" Elise nodded and squinted as the train passed a service center and the lighting brightened for a brief moment. "The Tangier I can hold about a million if you really pack them in, but for a point eight five light year trip we can only accommodate about six hundred thousand or so very friendly people. It'll be difficult and trying, but New Tharsis is well worth it and the QMT is a very easy trip. I've seen New Tharsis probably fifty times. It is indeed as beautiful as it is rumored to be."

    "Most certainly worth the sacrifice then?" Kira added.

    "Yes, the three month trip to Oort rendezvous will be…trying for most. But our estate rooms will be less so." Fayad said almost egotistically, again.

    "Do not boast, Fayad. We will share our fortunate life with those less so." Elise scolded her Prime Husband. It was clear to Kira who wore the pants in that family, but again the intel briefings back at her CIA training had shown her that the Separatists were matriarchal. She was really beginning to understand how matriarchal the culture actually was.

    "Estate room?" Kira asked and reshuffled her weight slowly trying not to wake the child lying against her. Lela grunted and moved only slightly. The lazy AI kitty raised its head and looked at Kira as if to complain about the movement and then went right back to sleep.

    "Yes. My aunt owns Tangier I. It is a nice ship as far a barges go." Elise said nonchalantly and then looked as if she would add something more but decided against it.

    Kira?

    Yes Allison?

    How could she have seen Tau Ceti fifty times? At best military speeds we are limited to about a light year per month. Tau Ceti is nearly twelve light years away. A round trip would take two years. I doubt Elise is over a hundred years old. She looks too full blooded Martian to be that old yet. Oh, and add the trips to this Oort Cloud destination makes another twenty-five or more years. That puts her to at least one hundred and twenty-five if she started traveling when she was an infant. It doesn't add up. The oldest human is only three hundred and seventeen and an Earthling. The AIC commented.

    I was doing the math in my head and reached the same conclusion. But Elise doesn't seem the type to lie or exaggerate. This is odd. Maybe we're not going to Tau Ceti?

    I don't know. Tau Ceti seems like the solution Occam's Razor would suggest.

    Then that means the Separatists are far more technologically advanced than the rest of the human race… following Occam's Razor of course.

    Yes it does. Allison was as confused as her human counterpart but logic was logic and the answers that were logical didn't make any sense. Allison realized that that little fact alone was creating a paradox in her logic process. They needed more data.

    Kira sat motionless and remembered she needed to respond to Elise verbally.

    "I've only been as far as Luna City once and to the raids in Triton. Both times in asteroid mining haulers hidden away inside ore containers. I've never even seen an interstellar barge before." Ignorance was always a good cover tactic. The sudden urge to yawn overcame her and Kira squinted and shook her head. "Forgive me. The day has been longer than I had realized." Long indeed. The radiation meds were wearing on her like the flu. Also, she had been flung at high speeds from a supercarrier in the midst of a major air battle, flown through high g-force maneuvers in a harrowing dogfight, nearly shot down on several occasions by both SAMs and Seppy aircraft – Gomers as Lieutenant Commander Boland had called them – and ejected from an Ares fighter at high velocity at about the same time a nuclear bomb was detonated only a few tens of kilometers from her. And that was just the start of her day. Her gliderchute ride, the radiation, the long bounce across the foothills until she found any survivors of the nuclear attack, and then the radiation shower all made for a long day. Kira was pretty sure that her day was just a sign of harder days to come.

    "Yes. Close your eyes for now. We have at least thirty minutes to Umbra. We will have plenty of time to talk further." Elise bowed her head slowly and then turned back to Fayad who had already dozed off. His head against the window and his mouth open as he snored and drooled down his chin. Elise shook her head in disdain at her Prime Husband but then looked back at her child in reverence once again and decided to close her eyes as well.

    Kira had uncovered way more than she had expected to so quickly. She understood some vague concepts of the Separatist culture and their plans. But she only had a few solid pieces of information. It was too early to attempt a contact back to Langley. Her mission was going as planned – actually it was far exceeding any expectations already. For now, there was little to do but to close her eyes and rest for a while. It had been a long day so far.