Blue Hearts of Mars

by Grotepas, Nicole

  “Mr. Tanaka,” said the butler, bowing at the tall archway that led into the room. I stood up, rubbing my palms across my thighs to wipe the perspiration away.

  Mei’s father came striding into the room wearing a black suit jacket and tapered suit pants, with a solid-blue button down underneath the jacket. His polished black dress shoes clicked as he crossed the tile floor. He glared at me with a stormy complexion and I swallowed hard, wondering how I was going to handle this. I groaned inwardly when he got to me and shook my hand with a slight bow, saying, “I trust you have some bad news for me, young lady?”

  I cleared my throat. “Um, yes. But I hope it’s nothing too serious.”

  “My dinner has been interrupted. It better be serious,” he said, inclining his head and staring at me with unforgiving brown eyes.

  I laughed uncomfortably. “I guess that depends on your definition.” When he didn’t laugh, I sat back down and crossed my legs and folded my arms across my stomach. “Let me explain, sir.” He frowned at me and put his hands in his pockets, but he never sat down, standing at the far corner of the coffee table watching me with that hawk-like expression. I sighed and began.

  After informing Mr. Tanaka of what happened, his car took us across town to Synlife. The city winked and glinted at me as the sun began its downward descent towards night. Summer days like this lasted almost sixteen hours. The dome-scrapers stood harsh and cold against the faint blue sky. Through some of the windows near me, people were visible, bending over desks, swiping their fingers across Gates, conducting meetings. Along the way Mr. Tanaka quizzed me on more of the details. I surrendered as much information as I could—which amounted to cautious lies about the two of us just being on an innocent tour of the building and getting lost. When we got caught in a place we weren’t supposed to be, I ran and Mei was detained.

  So I lied! It was hard not to, when he plied me with questions that sounded more like commands and worked me over with his sharp and dark-eyed gaze.

  At Synlife, he marched in, demanded that his daughter be set free, and marched right back out across the elegant plaza with its triumphant sculpture of a man and woman lifting up what I guess was supposed to be an android. It was the first time I’d really noticed the thing and I found it ironic—they should put chains on the android. That would be more fitting.

  Mr. Tanaka’s black suit jacket billowed around him slightly like the dark wings of a vicious bird as he passed beneath the towering sculpture, his head barely coming to the knee of the sculpture. Mei tripped along at his side gaily, as though nothing had happened. I caught myself sighing in relief—she looked unharmed.

  Mei slipped into the seat next to me and leaned toward me and gave me a breathless hug. “Retta! Thank Phobos. The heart? Is Marta OK?”

  “I don’t know yet,” I admitted. The car sped away from Synlife, weaving into the traffic of scooters and other small cars. The vehicle we were in was an anomaly—the seats faced each other, it was driven by a chauffeur, and it took up as much space as three of the tiny kind that everyone else had. I felt awkward just being in it.

  “She better be.” Mei pulled her flowing dark hair up and draped it over the headrest, sat back, and closed her eyes. “All that work we did for her.”

  “I’m sorry I had to leave you behind,” I said.

  “Don’t give me that,” she said, turning fully on the seat to look at me. “I’m the one who shoved you out with the heart. I told you to go. I fell on my sword for you, cowgirl.”

  “Well anyway,” I said, unable to get worked up over it. I was too drained. “Thanks. I owe you one. And Marta will too, if—if everything works out.” Mei’s father regarded us soberly from the facing seat. I smiled hesitantly at him. By now I was sure he suspected I’d been lying.

  “Who’s going to explain to me what’s going on here. Mei? Retta’s already covered for you. Now I want the truth.” With that official-looking suit, commanding voice, and serious expression, I suddenly felt like we were in deep trouble. Was he going to arrest us? It was a stupid thought, considering he was in Parliament, and not in law enforcement of any type. Still, he was so professional and scary. I hardly knew the man. Mei and I only ever went out together, the two of us. I’d been to her house a total of three times—counting today’s visit—in all the years we’d known each other.

  Mei looked at her dad, unimpressed. “No big deal, Dad. Retta’s sister is in the hospital, dying. She needs a heart. They don’t have one. So we stole an android heart from Synlife. Not like they need it. They had about a hundred of them. Probably more. I didn’t get a good look of the entire area.”

  Her father ran a tired hand over his face, as though he was used to exasperating explanations like this from his only child. “You stole from them. Mei, you cannot take things that don’t belong to you. We collaborate with Synlife. We owe them money and now you’ve put me in a very compromising position as a member of Parliament.”

  “Then make more compromises with them, Dad. Crap, you know? That’s what you do. You’re a politician.”

  “I don’t believe this,” he said, shaking his head, his mouth a stern line of suppressed frustration. He looked out the window at his elbow, bowed his head, and ran his fingers through his hair again.

  “You didn’t have to come get me,” Mei ventured petulantly. “Could have just left me there, to rot, in their little security prison. They were feeding me. I would have been fine. I was ready to sleep there. They had a bed. It was lumpy, but—” she shrugged, “I would have been fine.”

  “It’s not that, Mei. It’s that you act without thinking. This puts me in unflattering positions as a member of Parliament. I am a leader. I need to behave morally.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, dad, I didn’t realize it was morally wrong to come get me.”

  “Wait, Mr. Tanaka,” I interjected. I had to do what I was about to do. It was my duty, though it scared me to draw his attention to me. “Mei did this for me. And my sister, Marta. So, it’s my fault she was there and you had to go get her.” He was trying to guilt Mei into something, but it didn’t seem to be working. It never did, in my experience. Parents just didn’t get how to communicate with their kids.

  “The point is not why you did it,” he said, looking from Mei to me and back to Mei. “It is that you did it. The why doesn’t excuse this fact.”

  “Oh no, Dad? Did you hear how I said her sister is dying? The heart was for her. Synlife has hearts. We needed one. They wouldn’t give one to us, so we took it.” Mei stopped and looked at me. “You did try to ask them for one, right?”

  I shook my head cautiously. “Uh, not exactly. Hemingway’s mother used to work for them. She said they’d never give us one.”

  Mei’s father closed his eyes as though exasperated.

  “Oh, well. Who cares? They probably wouldn’t have given you one,” Mei said, flipping her hair over her shoulder and looking out the window. Pedestrians lined the street on either side of us—men and women dressed to the nines in their business attire.

  “Now what?” Mr. Tanaka asked, his dark eyes drilling holes into my skull. “Synlife owns your sister because she has an android heart.” He shook his head and looked out the window at the city drifting by.

  I had no idea where we were going at that point. A sickness swelled in my stomach and kept growing. I felt like I was speeding toward a precipice overlooking a huge black chasm. What lay at the bottom was anyone’s guess, but I was sure it would destroy me. Somehow I knew all things were about to end and I was going to be in the middle of it. Consumed by grief and pain and fear and loss. Hemingway was gone. Marta’s surgery was going to fail, I could just feel it. Without Marta and Hemingway, what would I be? A husk. They always said you were just a husk without the people you loved.

  I looked away from the window. We’d reached the capitol. A crowd of protesters had gathered outside Parliament. I didn’t care what Mr. Tanaka said about Marta having an android heart. He had one daughter. And if he thought an android
heart could save her, I was sure he’d do the same.

  Where were they taking Hemingway, I wondered vaguely, switching gears because my conversation with Mei’s father was going nowhere and I was completely lost over what to do next. The crowd beyond the window waved flashing LED signs that demanded answers from Parliament about equal rights for androids.

  Parliament knew? Why did they think Parliament knew?

  A thought occurred to me. “What do you know about the new colonies, Mr. Tanaka?”

  His eyes widened only a moment before they narrowed again. Clearing his throat, he feigned innocence. “New colonies? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He tilted his head to one side and tapped his temple with a finger, acting casual.

  Mei let out a little coughing gasp. “You know about that?”

  “No, I don’t, Mei. She’s talking nonsense.”

  But I knew I wasn’t. Why hadn’t I thought of it sooner? “You work in Parliament. You’re on the committee that liaisons with the Unified Martian Government, aren’t you? It’s just a small part of your job, though. I’d forgotten.” My voice filled with wonder. “I’ve only just remembered. Guess I should have paid better attention in school.” I was onto something, I could feel it. My heart sped in response to being on the brink of an epiphany.

  “Where are they taking the blue hearts, Mr. Tanaka?” I asked, holding my breath. Mei grabbed my hand and squeezed it tightly. I glanced at her and she smiled energetically, reassuringly.

  “Her boyfriend is a blue heart, Dad. Tell her. She deserves to know,” Mei put in.

  “They took him, actually. Two IRS guys came and forced him to leave today.” I was shaking. Mr. Tanaka was blinking rapidly, his eyes flicking back and forth between me and Mei.

  “You’re romantically involved with a blue heart?” There was an unfair amount of disgust in his voice.

  “He’s actually my husband.”

  “You cannot marry an android! It’s illegal,” he said, tipping his head back as though affronted.

  “You got married?” Mei asked, surprised, almost squealing. Her hands shot to her mouth in shock. “I can’t believe you got married and didn’t tell me!”

  “It was just a little ceremony,” I said, distracted. “A personal thing, really. Something androids do together when they want to marry.”

  “You should have told me. Invited me, I don’t care, something!” Mei yelled, grabbing my hand to see if there was a ring on my finger. When there wasn’t she threw my hand down. “No ring? Why not?”

  “We haven’t had time to get them,” I explained, feeling a pang of irritation go through me. I looked back at Mr. Tanaka. “So, where did they take him?” I pressed again. I couldn’t believe I was being so aggressive to an adult. Not just an adult, a powerful man with loads of political connections and pull in Parliament.

  But right then I hated Parliament.

  “Really, young Retta, don’t be ridiculous. There’s nothing you can do about it now,” he said, the veneer of innocence fading from his face. He confronted me without guile now. “They have made their plans. And the androids were getting too violent, some of them, and we must beat Earth to the next habitable planet. We know of a nearby planet that’s perfect. We’re sending the blue hearts as an advance party.”

  “So it’s true!” Mei shouted, partially rising from her seat and pointing an angry finger directly in her father’s face. He swatted it away and hissed in disgust.

  “Stop that, Mei. Sit down!”

  “You have no right to do this, Dad! It’s wrong,” she protested, but fell back into the seat next to me, huffing indignantly.

  “They belong to Synlife. And the government. We will do with them what we deem necessary.” He scowled at me, perhaps blaming me for his daughter’s disdain.

  I shook my head softly. “Where are they? Please. I love him. I just need to see him one last time before they send him away.” I used my most pleading tone. I filled my eyes with all the sorrow in the universe. He met my gaze and cut his eyes away quickly, irritated.

  “What are you planning?” he asked, visibly irritated.

  I was quiet for a moment. “Mr. Tanaka, I have no argument with you,” I said, at last. He wasn’t going to fall for my sweetness. I had to try another tactic. “I’m sure you’ve just been doing your job. I’m sure you think this is right, sending them away against their will. I’m sure you and Synlife all believe that androids belong to an entity. But how is that any different from claiming that you own Mei? Yes, you gave her life. But now she’s her own person, with rights, desires, feelings, and everything else. Would you let the government take her from you and send her away?”

  He shifted uncomfortably, adjusting the thin lapel of his suit, and blinked a few times. This line of reasoning was getting to him. “Hardly. But Mei is a human. Androids aren’t human.”

  Would this type of thinking never end? “They have souls. You know they do. Isn’t it the soul that determines what is alive and what is not?”

  “No. We can’t see the soul. The soul is a figment of man’s fancy.” He frowned at me, his dark eyes glittering in challenge.

  Mei sighed. “Let’s go, Retta. Let’s just find them ourselves. This is stupid, my father has no heart. He hasn’t ever had a heart,” she said, giving him a guilt-inducing stare.

  “Now just a minute,” he began, “where do you think you’ll go? Get into more trouble, hoping to stumble on something?”

  Mei shrugged. “I don’t need your help, Dad. Retta and I stole a heart. I think we can manage to track down the stupid IRS and an entire host of androids.”

  The sickness in my heart grew as I felt this opportunity fading. I was going to lose Hemingway. I was really going to lose him. And everything. My love, my sister. Was Marta out of surgery yet? I glanced out the window. We were almost back to Mei’s house. I stared at the dome on the Vantaa as we passed it, thinking how the stupid thing would be illuminated from below when night fell. Behind us the redstone of the dome-scrapers reflected sunlight, but in a few hours their LED-lined windows and edges would glow, lit up against the empty darkness of the surrounding mountains and valleys. Sometimes you just needed a light in the wilderness, a beacon of hope, a lighthouse in the storm.

  “Some of them—most of them—have been taken to Space Elevator 11. To the holding warehouse,” Mr. Tanaka said suddenly, his eyes were squeezed shut as though the words left him involuntarily. He buried his face in his hands and groaned. “I’m going to regret this,” he muttered. He looked up. “If you do anything that makes me lose my position—” he began, then finished as though realizing threats wouldn’t work on Mei, “Well, just don’t, Mei. Just don’t.”

  “Thanks, daddy,” she said jubilantly and leapt to his seat and threw her arms around his neck. She gave him a big kiss on the cheek. He smiled reluctantly and returned the hug before regaining his stern composure.

  “I mean it, Mei. If you two try anything dangerous, I don’t know that I’ll be able to save you,” he admonished her.

  “We won’t,” I promised, hoping I could keep it. “But I have one more thing to ask you. To beg of you, really.”

  Mei let go of her father and looked at me, her expression serious.

  Neither of them said anything, so I went on. “I know you have access to the emergency broadcast channel. There’s something I need you to broadcast.”

  The two of them exchanged a glance, then looked back at me expectantly. So I told them. Whether Mr. Tanaka would really do it was the question. I hoped he would. I didn’t know what else to do.

  *****

  Space Elevator 11 was forty miles west of New Helsinki. It had its own dome and a huge station where a series of railroad tracks intersected. The elevator itself was outside the dome but there were covered transport tracks that led to the platform where the elevator was loaded. Cars left the platform every four hours. The warehouse Mr. Tanaka mentioned was where cargo waited before leaving Mars or where it landed upon import. It b
othered me to think of Hemingway waiting in there like a piece of cargo.

  The huge people-movers that brought the Mars colonists never really left space. While a few of them were eventually decommissioned for having been too damaged by stray space debris, many of them waited in perpetual orbit out in space, anchored near the space elevators. So the fact that they’d been fired up for this new colonizing effort wouldn’t have made the news, as it was hardly out of the ordinary to see them upon docking at the space-side elevator platforms.

  Mei and I left New Helsinki, saying goodbye to her father as soon as we had the chance, after I gave him instructions I hoped he would follow. There was no way to tell for sure. I made my request and left it up to him. If Mr. Tanaka didn’t do it, I knew Hemingway would be truly lost to me. But whatever happened, I needed to get to him before he was sent away.

  I woke up as our train slowed into the enormous station near Space Elevator 11. Mei was already standing up. The sun, a molten orb beyond the dome, had sunk to just inches above the horizon as the evening wore on.

  “What’s the plan, Retta?” Mei asked as I followed her off the train. Most of the people on the car with us were carrying luggage, on their way to Earth or some other destination—the resorts on the moon, the cruise lines that floated out to the spinning way-stations with all their spas, casinos, and other extravagances. I felt naked without luggage. It was just me and nothing else.

  I waited for a small family to exit the train before I got off. “I’m playing it by ear,” I said, finally answering Mei as we strode uncertainly through the station.

  “Are we just going to barge in there and demand that they free him?”

  I bit my nail. “That wouldn’t work,” I said. “The agents would just wipe our minds and send us away. I want to avoid them at all costs.”

  “Wipe our minds?” Mei repeated.

  “Yeah, it’s terrible.” I inhaled sharply.