Of course, just like a woman, Caitlin ignored him.
He found Helena in the grip of the Madness, fully vamped out. The room was flooded with red light from her eyes.
“No. Fucking. Way.”
Ezekiel ignored Caitlin’s outburst as he worked to calm his friend. “Hel, I’m here,” he murmured as he went for the cupboard with her medicine. Afraid she was too far gone, he turned his back as he tipped the medicine into a bowl and sliced his finger, adding a few drops of his blood to the mixture as he stirred it.
Caitlin and Kain looked on in horror. Ezekiel had neither the time nor the inclination to take care of their feelings right now.
Helena snapped at him, her fangs coming dangerously close to his wrist. “Hold still, old woman,” he soothed. Ezekiel evaded her bite, forcing the spoon with the medicine into her mouth. Another, and another.
His guests exchanged frightened glances. Ezekiel didn’t need to read minds to know they were thinking of their Mad-vamp friend.
Outside, the German Shepherd barked frantically, adding to the unreality of the situation. Just yesterday, Ezekiel had believed his world was set in stone. Helena would recover given time, and they would continue to live here in peace until Sarah Jennifer and Esme reversed the Madness.
He cursed his childishness.
Caitlin and Kain stood by, doing the uncomfortable shuffle of strangers who had walked in on a family fight. Ezekiel continued to make soothing noises, clamping down on his magic as the medicine took effect. Finally, Helena fell into an exhausted sleep.
The moment she slipped from consciousness, the dog ceased barking.
Ezekiel’s shoulders dropped. She, and they, were safe for the moment. He turned to look as Kain let the dog into the house, offering them a rueful, exhausted smile. “I suppose you’re wondering what’s going on here?”
Kain shook his head. “Not really. We see a lot of young men with Mad vampires strapped to benches in their houses. It seems to be the latest form of entertainment for kids. Like PlayStations or Xboxes, only this is some form of vampire torture instead.”
Ezekiel flushed red. How did Kain know about pre-WWDE technology?
Caitlin’s expression was full of compassion as she stared at Helena. “Who is she?”
“One of the world’s most gifted women. A genius, unappreciated in her time. Someone who has been battling the Madness for more years than I care to count and who, even now, is still battling the very disease she wishes to cure.” Ezekiel couldn’t look at the sleeping face of the vampire. He had failed his only friend in this harsh world.
He should have taken her to Salem. He was a dumbass, stubborn, prideful—
It’s not too late.
Lilith’s calm mental voice startled Ezekiel into knocking the bowl off the table, spilling the precious medicine.
Caitlin’s eyes widened as the liquid hit the floor, and she gasped. “No! It can’t be…”
Ezekiel slammed the barriers of his mind down, cutting Lilith off.
“What?” Kain was kneeling with his arm around the dog. “Who is she?”
“Can’t you see it?” Caitlin’s face was flushed with excitement. “The mixture Zeke just gave her is the same mixture we’ve been giving Mary-Anne. The same drink the governor took when he was fighting the Madness?”
Ezekiel was barely there. His eyes burned, his skin felt like it was made of inside-out cacti. Every fiber of his being was focused on not destroying the house with an uncontrollable pulse of magic driven by grief and anger at himself.
Caitlin stood over Helena, scrutinizing her face. “Zeke? Is this vampire Helena Millican?”
Hearing Helena’s name from this stranger brought Ezekiel back to himself. His eyebrows drew together as a thought occurred to him. “It’s Ezekiel, and yes. Yes, she is. How do you know her? Are you family?”
Caitlin uttered a choking laugh. “No, definitely not family. Although, without even knowing, she has certainly shaped a lot of my life.”
Kain waved his hands. “Wait, Helena Millican? The broad who wrote in the books you’ve been reading? That Helena?”
Caitlin nodded.
“The Helena who created Felicia and left a shit-ton of notes on her journey trying to cure the Madness?”
Caitlin nodded again.
Kain laced his hands behind his head and snorted. “You’ve got to be the luckiest sonofabitch I know. What are the odds that the one woman we’ve been on the track to find happens to be the woman we stumble across in the middle of the woods directly after our friggin’ airship crashes?” He looked at Caitlin in awe. “There’s something about you, girly. Someone out there is looking out for you.”
“The world is filled with strange forces.” Ezekiel almost told them everything there and then. Only long-ingrained habit prevented him. He felt the magic tingling in his hands and flexed them to stop it from escaping. “Some call it luck, some call it destiny, others call it magic. Me? I’m still trying to work out if calling this technology magic is safer than telling the truth.”
They stood in silence, each digesting the information they’d just received. Caitlin said nothing for a long moment. Her gaze was still held by Helena’s sleeping form, as though the vampire would vanish if she looked away.
Helena murmured as her conscious mind bubbled to the surface. Her eyes moved rapidly under their lids, then opened slowly.
Helena caught sight of Caitlin staring at her and mumbled in confusion, “Ezekiel?”
Ezekiel pushed Caitlin aside and took Helena’s hand in both of his. “Helena, I’m sorry. I was gone for longer than I promised. I didn’t mean to leave you unattended for that long.”
He untied her, then helped her to sit up. “How are you feeling?”
Helena lifted her chin, her gaze settling on Caitlin and Kain. “If I’d have known we were going to have visitors, I’d have put something nicer on. Still, at least I’m wearing something.” She lifted an eyebrow, and Kain remembered he was nude.
He dropped his hands to cover the goods.
Helena laughed, the sensuous sound out of place in the candlelit room. “Come on, Ezekiel, where are your manners? Get the Were some clothes.”
Chapter Six
Mars Orbit
The Enora much resembled a mother duck surrounded by her ducklings as she approached the planet surrounded by the Pods carrying the teams from Earth. At the rear, four hundred shipping containers packed with building materials and the majority of the construction equipment belonging to the Defense Force completed the formation.
Sarah Jennifer monitored the endeavor from the cockpit, her comm open while almost everyone else had their audio muted unless speaking to her.
The exception was Ace, the elder brother having the thankless task of making sure every Pod and shipping container landed exactly where it was supposed to within the hundred-square-kilometer boundary marked out on the western side of the Reynolds Plain.
The bots not dedicated to the agricultural sector had been busy leveling the plain and marking out the main lines for the city’s water, sewage, and power since the plans had been finalized.
Sarah Jennifer had the viewscreen show the construction site as the Enora passed over the western plain on the final approach to Habitat One. Right now, the land looked scarred and ugly, brutalized by the bots’ efforts.
The next few months would change all that.
Planning the founding of the first city on Mars had taken five long years, with Sarah Jennifer heading a committee whose job it was to approve or deny infrastructure requests from those slated to move here and then figure the approved requests into the city plans.
Sarah Jennifer’s first instinct had been to wrap the rest of the city around the military installations. The planning committee had squashed the idea right off the bat, and Sarah Jennifer had happily bowed to the greater wisdom of the collected engineers, architects, and various heads of infrastructure she had gathered for the purpose of dispelling her ignorance.
The objective was to provide not only the military infrastructure needed to protect Earth but an effective place to live for the Defense Force’s families and the civilians who had chosen to relocate with them. They needed roads and housing; that was a given. Hospitals, emergency services, law provision, libraries and schools, parks and playgrounds, commercial centers the civilians could run their businesses from, sporting venues, theaters, public transportation… The list went on.
Water and power were the first orders of business. The freshwater lake system had been extended and connected by bots and would act as the city’s reservoirs. The water treatment plant would sit a short distance from the largest lake.
Power was no problem. The production of electricity was as simple as connecting every building to the city-wide grid, which would run on miniaturized Etheric energy supplies. All Hail Ted, indeed. His revolutionary technology meant the main building of the city’s power plant would be an underground bunker no larger than Sarah Jennifer’s former bedroom at Salem’s town hall.
Of course, the outgoing mechanisms would take up more space, but that was to be expected.
Over the next twenty-eight cycles, which corresponded closely with Earth’s days, the construction equipment brought from Earth would be added to the inventory sent by the Federation, and construction would begin in earnest. However, the immediate objective was to get the Pods unloaded, then remove to Habitat One to spend the next seven cycles acclimating to the lower gravity and temperature on Mars. While both were much closer to what everyone was used to on Earth than they had been before Sarah Jennifer had initiated Phase One of terraforming, there was still a marked difference.
Sarah Jennifer exited the airship carrying the case containing half of the precious miniaturized Etheric power supplies sent across the galaxies. Jim was right behind her with an identical case.
“How is Lucy handling her new role as head of engineering?” Sarah Jennifer asked as they entered the airlock.
“Like she was born for the job,” Jim replied with amusement. “I feel good, knowing she’s gonna keep the Earth division of the corps in line while I run the Mars side of things.”
He chuckled. “I was always happier tinkering, you know that.”
Sarah Jennifer laughed. “It’s been a long time since I first came out to your workshop by the lake, but I’ll never forget how far you got just ‘tinkering,’ as you put it.”
Jim sighed. “I’m gonna miss old Bluebird.”
“You and the whole pack,” Sarah Jennifer agreed. “You have the public bus fleet to build. Should keep you elbows-deep in grease and auto parts for the next few months.”
“You’d think, right?” Jim explained that most of the work was going to be automated. “I’m going to be relegated to maintaining the assembly line.”
Sarah Jennifer laughed, seeing that he was hiding a grin. “Let me guess: that will give you plenty of spare time to play around in your workshop.”
“You got me all figured out, Major.” Jim’s expression was wistful. “There’s going to be a thousand and one things we couldn’t anticipate, and every one of them's going to need an engineering solution.”
They stored the cases in the central container of the hub, then made their way to the lab/office, where they met up with the heads of division for each component of the city’s planned infrastructure.
Sarah Jennifer was used to the largest area in the habitat being empty except for her, Jim, Carver, and Geordie. Today, every seat around the fifteen tables was occupied by Weres, witches, and the unenhanced scientists, engineers, and civilian specialists who had competed to be here.
The people on this committee had earned their places by becoming the eminent authorities on their specialization. Everyone who came to Mars had to bring something to the table, whether it was a physical skill or the expertise to advance their goal of creating a self-sustaining colony.
There were some familiar faces and a lot of fresh-faced idealists. The majority were still wearing their pressure suits.
Sarah Jennifer greeted everyone as she made her way to the head of the table, noting that some of the people had removed their pressure suits. “Protocol on base calls for pressure suits at all times,” she told the gathered committee. “We’ll wait while everyone who isn’t wearing one gets theirs back on.”
No one argued outright. However, some of the magic users commented that they didn’t need the suits since they had the ability to manipulate their surroundings.
Esme saved Sarah Jennifer the trouble of explaining why it was a good idea to follow protocol. “If you’d like to test your theory against the very real possibility there’s a breach of the habitat, feel free. Otherwise, get your damn suits on.”
No one dared argue with Esme.
Sarah Jennifer used the time to set up the safety briefing. She hadn’t planned on scaring the pants off the committee, wanting to trust that common sense would rule over their excitement to be here and the relative familiarity of the habitat’s setup. They’d proven her wrong already. That was concerning, but she wasn’t unprepared for the possibility. This environment was harsh and unforgiving. Until the terraforming process was complete, even the most innocuous activity could prove deadly, thus depriving them of the most valuable resource of all—each other.
They returned a few minutes later, suitably protected.
Sarah Jennifer gave them a moment to return to their seats. “Now that we’re all settled, welcome to Mars. I know everyone is eager to get going, so we’ll keep this short and sweet. The next six months are going to be grueling. For many of us, it’s the second time around. Those who weren’t involved in the rebuilding of the Protectorate, you’re going to wonder what in damnation you signed up for before we’re ready to start shipping people out here.”
A murmur of agreement went around the room. Sarah Jennifer smiled; the newbies to committee life thought she was making a joke. “I’m not kidding. Expect to realign your definition of exhaustion. This is our first briefing. There will be many more, but none more important. It is your responsibility to ensure the people working under you survive. The next thirty minutes will give you the knowledge you need to perform your duty.”
She picked up the control panel for the lab and dimmed the lights. “Enora, run the video, please.”
The back wallscreen lit up, and the title How Not to Die on Mars came up.
By the time the video ended, even the committee veterans had lost their worldly attitudes. The idealists looked somewhat green around the gills.
Sarah Jennifer was satisfied they’d had good sense scared into them. Everyone there was now fully aware that they weren’t in Salem anymore.
She brought the lights back up and gave Jim the nod.
The chief engineer, still wearing his pressure suit, made his way to the front of the group.
“You all know Lieutenant Jim Johnson,” Sarah Jennifer told them. “If you have any questions about safety, direct them to him now.”
Jim’s eyes scanned the sea of raised hands and pointed at one of the newbies, the nature witch in charge of getting the crop cycle in order. “Go ahead, Stella.”
“We can’t plant without a breathable atmosphere,” Stella stated.
“Not exactly a safety problem, but I’ll answer. The oxygenation process is still ongoing.”
“But I saw a huge forest out there. I’m supposed to have my people work the agricultural sector,” Stella pointed out.
Sarah Jennifer cut in. “The forest is artificial. You visited the manufacturing facility outside of Boston, right?” Stella nodded. “The artificial leaves gather the CO2 emissions from the ice cap melt. The CO2 is converted to oxygen, among other things, some of which is being stored in preparation for your division’s needs. Everyone here has tailored access to the database. Your datapads have a welcome message waiting for you. If you switch them on, you’ll find that Enora connected your individual accounts while the safety video was playing. Check the entries for your di
vision’s responsibilities and make sure you’re fully cognizant of the tech we’ve put in place to assist you in achieving your goals.”
There was a rustle as the division heads pulled out the datapads they’d been issued on the way here.
Sarah Jennifer gave them time to access their messages. “For those who aren’t aware, the day/night cycle here is thirty-seven minutes longer than Earth's. The groundbreaking ceremony will be starting at 0700, so make sure you get something to eat and some rack time after you’ve passed what you learned here on to your teams. If there are no other questions, we’ll wrap this up.”
There were a few more minor inquiries about the emergency protocols, and then the committee broke up and headed out to pass the information on to their teams. Esme left with them, intending to make sure the magic users took the briefing seriously.
Sarah Jennifer held her senior officers back. Jim, Big Ace, Brutus, Katya, Linus, Ozzie, and Bruiser remained at the circular central bench while the rest of the pack moved to sit at the surrounding tables.
“Grub’s up.” Sarah Jennifer retrieved a case of self-heating MREs from the cupboard under one of the lab benches. “We have choices.”
“Ooh, choices,” Katya snarked, looking through the packaging. “Cardboard-tasting pasta, cardboard-tasting pot roast. Anything with some flavor?”
Linus snagged one of the packages. “How about spicy cardboard-tasting tacos?”
Katya shrugged. “Why not? Hand it over.”
Linus tossed the taco package across the table to her. “All yours. I’m going with the marinara meatlessballs.”
Katya wrinkled her nose. “It’s not right for a Were to eat veggie.”
“It’s all the same to me,” Linus countered.
Sarah Jennifer chose the chicken parmesan and pulled the tab to trigger the rehydration and heating functions. “You’re all spoiled. There’s nothing wrong with these. Did I ever tell you about the time TH had us eating—”
“Hundred and fifty-year-old MREs he found in a bunker?” Brutus joined in with a singsong voice. “Yeah, cuz.” He tore into the packaging to get the pizza out. Unlike earlier iterations of MRE pizza, the pie was already constructed. “They know how to do things right in the Federation.”
End of the Line Page 5
