Losing Mars (Saving Mars Series-3) (6 page)

12

OUGHT TO HAVE LISTENED

During the days following their return from the Republic of Chicago, Ethan worked long hours with the assistance of Kazuko Zaifa and the Yuccan, Renard, installing the powerful new transmitter. The task of composing an initial message to send to MCC was shared by Harpreet and Jessamyn.

The communication they hoped to establish with Mars would be one-directional. There was no practical way to hold two-way conversations. Depending upon how far apart the planets traveled, the signals transmitted would take anywhere from three to twenty minutes to reach from one planet to the other. Essentially, communication involved the sending back and forth of vid-mails. That had not changed since the first colonists had arrived on the red planet hundreds of years earlier. You recorded what you wanted to say and sent it. Then you waited for it to arrive. Your recipient recorded a response, perhaps throwing in a few questions for you to answer.

Jessamyn sighed, suspecting there would
indeed
be questions she would be required to answer. Uncomfortable questions.

Pavel attempted to provide encouragement regarding Jess’s fears. “I’m sure they’ve forgiven you, now that they’ve had a chance to think things over. Now they know Ethan and Harpreet are safe.”

“Uh-huh,” grunted Jess. She didn’t feel certain of anything except the anger she remembered in Mei Lo’s voice when last they’d spoken. Possibly, the Secretary General would refuse to speak with her at all. Jess didn’t find that idea comforting, either.

“So,” said Pavel, “Your brother said there will be a twelve-minute delay?”

“Twenty-four minutes, given Mars’s current distance from Earth,” replied Jess. “The signal goes to Mars in twelve minutes, but it takes just as long for an answer to come back. Plus the time it takes them to record an answer,” explained Jess.

Jessamyn thought back to the content of the vid-mail she’d helped compose two days earlier. There had been a full disclosure of the crash of the
Galleon
, of course. (Mei Lo would kill her for that.) A full disclosure of the fact that neither Crusty nor Jessamyn had noticed the ship’s hold full of tellurium. (Mei Lo would also kill her for that.) And of course a secretly-coded disclosure to the effect that even without any assistance from Jessamyn, Ethan was well on his way to gaining control of the Terran satellites. So Jess needn’t have come after all. (Mei Lo would kill her for that.)

Although Jess had only guesses as to the Secretary’s responses, Jess felt certain there would be lots of killing-of-Pilot-Jaarda involved. Maybe she should slink off to her bed and cover her head with all the pillows in the room.

“We have sent the initial transmission to MCC using the deep space satellites,” Ethan announced, breaking Jessamyn’s reverie. “We should receive their reply within half an hour.”

“Oh, boy,” said Jess.

“Hey,” said Pavel, picking up on her thoughts from the deep furrows forming between her brows. “You did what you thought was best for the sake of everyone on Mars. Chin up, pilot.”

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.