The Lawyers of Mars: Three Novellas

by Pam Uphoff

  She hoped the Imperial City partners were shaken up enough to stop work and evacuate.

  After checking that her clients were all still covered and assuring everyone that she was still on vacation, she headed back to Double Moons. There she was instantly drafted and spent the day in the building that would be the temporary Palace, directing traffic as all the furniture ordered last night was delivered from the warehouses. She wondered if people would end up living in the emptied warehouses.

  By noon, the nearest half of the highspeed monorail service was working, and the Imperial family and retainers were descending on the barely prepared Icefire Metropolis.

  Empress Faltelu looked very different than she had seventy years previously. Now pushing the century mark, she leaned on the arm of Prince Fensteri and stopped to talk to the Mayor, the newsies, make a brief morale building speech, and then she collapsed gratefully onto the heated-rock lounger Xaero had arranged an hour earlier. Trev and Fereny fussed at her, and were fussed over a bit in return. "Thank Water I had two fewer family to worry about. I was glad to know you were both safe, and apparently useful as well." She glanced around the large but still spartanly furnished room and settled her glance back on Trev. "You look very good without the extra weight." She added.

  "Folanthe and Fitro?" he asked.

  "Fit's finally reported in, she's trapped in one of the Northern suburbs, they've routed around the damaged machinery and have communications back up after a fashion, but for now she'll have to stay there. Folanthe . . . we don't know yet." Her weariness and grief showed for a moment. "Light damage for such a large family. Others have not been so lucky."

  Trev nodded. "I've heard from K'ceral. DMS headquarters is badly damaged, with perhaps as much as a quarter of the force dead. We were located in a bad area." He blinked away tears. "Communications are so bad, we couldn't even get a list of names through."

  Principle Feritu patted her brother's arm affectionately. "I've got people assigned to the monorail stations here, and the roads, taking names. We need a master list, so people can find each other. We've grabbed the main computer at the University to handle it. All the towns are supposed to be listing refugees, and updating them with the University." She glanced at Xaero, the only stranger in the room. "And would this be your lawyer?"

  Trev made hasty introductions, "Xaero's been helping get this set up."

  Xaero smiled a bit nervously. "I'm afraid we've absconded with everything the Imperial Properties Division had."

  The Empress cast a look around the room, "Everyone under level two out." Several lizards departed without delay or argument, and then she continued. "We knew this would happen eventually, so we always kept a large inventory." She sighed. "M'kabon has done us a favor, even if rather inexact. From his various histories, the South rim started collapsing anytime from next year until next decade. This early collapse caught us by surprise. We had hoped, well, that sand has blown by, now we deal with what we have and what comes next."

  "Next?" Xaero asked. "Dare I ask?"

  The old woman grimaced. "The geologists have explained it to me. Mars is dying. The core of the planet has solidified; the earthquakes we get occasionally are a result of that cooling core still shrinking. The magnetic field we have is a pathetic remnant, incapable of protecting us from the solar wind, which has eroded most of our atmosphere, including most of the water vapor. Apart from the polar ice caps, all the water we have is groundwater that we pump from the depths, and permafrost we melt from above, and both processes damage the rocks, which we've also mined, blasted and excavated for thousands of years.

  She looked away and refused to meet anyone's eyes. "We've reached a critical point. The plateau edges are going to collapse back a good ways, until solid rock is reached, over the next millennium or so. All the caverns, all the tunnels will be lost. We have to move either further north, onto solid rock, or out onto the salt plains and take care as we dig new homes."

  "The rock isn't all that solid, though," Xaero said. "There are lava tubes, layers of ash and sand in between the flows that are only solid because of the ice in them, and the salt deposits."

  "Yes, you know the plateau well, don't you?" The Empress nodded approvingly. "We have a very large problem, but one that we've seen coming for seventy years. We built—and maintained, surface buildings," she smiled at Trev, "some of which have been doing double duty as REM traps, all the new power plants are on safe ground, and all new excavation has been as far from the rim as we could force it, with ridiculously high engineering standards." She shook her head, "We changed where we melted permafrost, and stopped drawing down the reservoirs under the city, we ceased enlarging the main cavern—all in an attempt to prevent this, and it happened early."

  Feritu nodded, "Our main worry was, when it comes right down to it, how can you evacuate the largest city in the world because a Time Traveler dropped off some books that said it was going to collapse sometime in a ten year stretch? We thought we had at least another year to find 'alarming structural problems' and start shifting people in a large way."

  The Empress nodded. "We can only be glad for this minimal partial collapse. Apparently in the first time line the collapse was complete. Eight million people died." She nodded at Trev. "And Prince Fatrevi, the horribly unconventional police lieutenant was the only surviving member of the Royal family."

  "A disaster in-and-of itself," murmured Prince Fensteri. Trev threw him a grin. The oldest and youngest of the Empress's dozen children, the thirty-three years difference in their ages barely showed now that Trev's secondary spines had grown in.

  "Well, at least the survivors were spared your reign of errors." Trev murmured back.

  Feritu snorted, "Enough, we all need to rest, and keep out of the staff's hair as they try to pull themselves together and start working again."

  Xaero winced suddenly. "There's no food here yet."

  "Excellent," Feritu said, "That's a good place for the staff to start. Get their feet back under them doing routine chores and they'll all be fine."

  "All right, we'll get out of your hair. Shall we keep Fereny, or . . . " Trev broke off as she shook her head.

  "I want him for a while. When things settle down we'll see." She smiled at the boy. "Sorry, we need an extra runner until we figure everything out." Fereny perked up at the suggestion that he was useful, and Trev steered Xaero out. Feritu stuck her head out the door, "Say, umm, well . . . "

  Trev waved reassurance. "We will."

  "What was that?" Xaero asked, as the door closed behind them.

  "Flares, flashes and nips to Woofie, except she's too embarrassed to say so."

  "Gottcha. So, now that I've met your very nice family, want to have dinner with my horrible one?"

  "Oh, they aren't that bad." He grinned, "Much more polite than my sibs, whatever you think at first glance. Plus, I'm not undercover anymore, so let's find out how snobby they are or aren't."

  "Oh, my."

  ***

  Judging from the unroiled emotional temperature of the Builtdown's entrance atrium, the refugee flood hadn't arrived at her doorstep.

  Her mother, Danca and Eltona had their heads together over the much abused and crossed out list. Her mother gave a flick of irritation as Trev followed her into the apartment.

  "We've missed having your assistance." She said, rather pointedly.

  "I've been helping the DMS and Imperials." She informed them. "Trev's sting operation has been dropped and Double Moons publishing will shortly be housing a whole lot of cops and their families."

  The three women turned as one and looked Trev up and down.

  "Police." Danca said, in a perfectly flat tone.

  "Yes. Perhaps I should reintroduce myself?" Trev purred. "Lieutenant Fatreve O'noh Department of Martian Security."

  Blink, blink, blink. Choke.

  "Xaero, may I speak to you privately for a moment." Her mother sounded a bit faint, as she grabbed Xaero's arm and steered her into the kitchen. "Xaero. Y
ou cannot. You. Xaero, have I been insulting an Imperial Prince for the last few tenths?"

  "Don't worry, he thinks it's funny."

  "But, but, Prince Fatty?"

  "He doesn't think that's funny. Call him Trev. Period."

  "Trev." Her mother tried a smile, it looked horribly toothy and unconvincing. She looked at the stove in consternation. "I can't feed him pike casserole."

  "Of course you can. He likes your pike casserole." Xaero snickered. "At least this time you won't be looking like you want to throw it at him."

  "Have you met, have you . . . " Xella looked panicky.

  "Yes, they just got in. The Empress is very nice, Feritu ditto. Fensteri treats Trev just like a nuisancy little brother. C'mon, Mom, buck up." Xaero led her back out to the dining room, where Trev had sat down, elbows on the table, and was telling Danca and Eltona about the properties they'd requisitioned.

  "Maybe a quarter of the Imperial City population will be coming here, so space is going to be very tight." He said. "We're hoping a significant number of refugees have relatives or friends they can stay with, the buildings we have just aren't enough."

  Xaero leaned on his shoulder. "If as many people come here as they're projecting, it's going to increase the population by over a third. It's going to get pretty cramped."

  "As soon as the immediate crisis is past, we'll have to survey the state of the farm caverns. We'll need food, and we've lost a quarter of our power plants." Trev frowned. "And then we'll have to put everyone that takes shelter in a school somewhere else, so the schools can start again, with extra students, but also, hopefully, with extra teachers as well."

  "Water, sewage, garbage, mail, communication channels. Sand! Why did it have to be the biggest city?" Xaero complained.

  "And how long is it going to be before people can start going back home." Eltona said.

  "That's the bad part," Trev said. "They can't. The cavern is leaking and partly collapsed. No amount of engineering can fix it. The refugees are here until we dig new caverns for them."

  "That will be years!" Danca was appalled.

  "Yes."

  After a stiff dinner (Xella had slipped out long enough to inform Kessi of the identity of the fat publisher, and get him home quickly) Xaero went back with Trev for more preps. All night long refugees flowed off the monorail; not in the huddled groups Xaero had expected, but rather as scouts. Someone down the line was encouraging families to send a single member ahead on the monorail to find quarters while the rest continued driving through the traffic tunnels with whatever they had loaded into and onto their carts.

  Feritu's people updated their records as quickly as possible, and when the first carts arrived, they were able to direct most of the families to a specific place. The families of the DMS officers Trev had worked with began arriving and filling up the Double Moons building. Many were missing family members, so it was a quiet and frequently tearful time for most of them.

  "Thank water we had most of our offices dispersed all over Mars," W'ufda muttered, snagging rooms for the unmarried officers who would eventually arrive. "Oh, keep your eyes open, several major prison breaks. L'azlod and Blozolli are both missing."

  Trev closed his eyes in pain. "Why does it seem like every time we catch him the Universe conspires to let him go?"

  Xaero roused from a nap to find a mismatched group at the door looking for a place to stay. Orto N'dreah, Merta R'abat, Herri H'buh, and Jevi D'remel were writers or otherwise clients of the more or less defunct publishing company. Xaero boggled at the carts parked in front of the Double Moons building.

  "Herri has a shop, you know, and these are his creations." Orto pointed proudly at the gleaming black and silver stretch limo. "I drove that one all the way, myself." She dropped her voice, "Once we were out of the City, that is. Herri did all the in-town corners."

  Major D'remel snorted. "The rest of Herri's shop, including that flamethrower, is packed inside them."

  Herri, shuffled a bit in embarrassment. "So, we figured we'd stop here and see if everyone was all right, and if you had a clue where we could go. I need space to set up, unlike these guys, who just need a place to park their comps."

  Trev looked dubious. "We're filling up fast. You can stay here tonight and look for a place tomorrow."

  "I know where you can go." Xaero said, making a quick decision. Better friends than strangers. "How about my surface place. There are three little caves underneath, and I own the whole lower entrance area, probably not a big enough area for a shop, but perhaps Red Farms corporation would be glad of a welder and ready to lease space."

  "That would be fantastic!" Merta exclaimed. "Orto, the Major and I are all retired, apart from writing."

  "Why don't I take all of you up there tomorrow?" Xaero said, "You can all look it over, talk to the lizards there and so forth."

  By noon the next day, three happy authors were settling into what they'd declared their country retreat, and Herri was welding pipe for the expanded water system Red Farms cavern needed for the refugees that were starting to show up, mostly the very extended families of the resident farmers.

  Martians In Space

  Chapter One

  On the following noon Xaero was again in the Imperial Presence.

  "We have a number of problems, none so great as the electrical power we must have to excavate new, safe cities." Feritu was running the small meeting.

  "Geothermal is a thing of the past. We must have more uranium for the reactors, but our mines are played out. Therefore we have, in our desperation, turned to Dr. M'kabon's creation. General R'manga?"

  The scrawny lizard looked more like a scientist than a soldier, so Xaero wasn't surprised when he started his presentation with a science lecture.

  "Uranium is found in all igneous rocks, especially granite, but in very low concentrations. The highly concentrated ores form when the igneous rocks have weathered; the uranium dissolves readily in oxygenated water, and then is redeposited in concentrated zones in nearby sedimentary rocks when the chemistry of the water changes in the new rock. Mind you, this hasn't happened on Mars for thousands of years.

  "But we know where it may still be happening. Our latest planet three orbiter was altered to assist us in locating uranium ore bodies on Big Blue."

  Xaero snapped her sagging mouth shut.

  "The Blue Planet—we used to call it the Blue Star—gets its characteristic color from the extensive stretches of open, liquid, water on the surface, shown here in blue. We have mapped eighty percent of the dry planetary surface, and located granitic intrusions, shown here in red, and nearby sedimentary rocks that we believe would receive any water that deposited on the granite. The temperature regime is such that we believe a good part of any water vapor deposition would be in liquid form falling from the abundant clouds, as we briefly experienced when the icy body impacted our atmosphere, so we are sure there is plenty of weathering going on. We have chosen as our target this southern land mass both because of its high potential geologically and because, being closer to the polar regions, we believe the climate will be cool enough to be tolerable for explorers.

  "The hazards of exploring the third planet are many, starting with the gravity which is two and a half times Mars normal, the atmosphere which is nearly thick enough to swim in, with double the oxygen level we can tolerate, and so low in carbon dioxide our doctors tell us our automatic breathing triggers may not work, and the indigenous life which may be toxic or physically dangerous or both. We have devised lightweight suits that will create a breathable air mixture from the local atmosphere. The gravity will require the utmost in fitness and health from our explorers, and alien plant and animal life must be approached with extreme caution.

  "The M'kabon effect will move the exploration craft to a position above the third planet, at a reasonable reentry velocity, which will be further slowed by the engines, allowing a long slow controlled drop through the atmosphere. We will attempt to use the thick atmosphere to further slow an
d direct the landing in a way that is not possible in Martian air. We believe we will be able to glide forward as the vehicle drops, so that onboard sensors can record details of the surface, and hopefully pinpoint any radioactive sources. We hope that an area we can safely land on will be close enough to any radioactive minerals that we can acquire at least some samples.

  "Once on the ground, the crew will construct a new time-and-space gate around the vehicle, to return it to Martian orbit when the mission is complete. It is hoped they will leave behind a small automatic mining and processing setup, with another gate that will periodically drop partially enriched ore into Martian orbit. We're not sure how long the automatic process will work without lizards on hand to deal with unexpected situations, but we should get more ore than manned landings alone can bring back."

  "Due to the time travel factor, there will be no communication during the mission, although once the mining gate is working, messages can be sent here and will eventually be retrieved with the ore." He glanced around the room, and with a gesture, returned the meeting to Feritu.

  She smiled at Trev and Xaero. "Which brings us to you, Miss L'svages. We need someone to train the crew to deal with surface lifeforms."

  Xaero blinked, as her inclusion in this small meeting suddenly became logical. "I'd be glad to, although most of the training would probably be better done at Sun Town, where the plants have gotten quite ferocious."

  Feritu suppressed a smile. "I know. We regularly get requests from the lizards there to do something about them. I'll inform them that the plants are now a Space Explorer training hazard, which is not at all what they had in mind. From talking to Trev over the last few tenths, it seems that he and whichever poor Guard he'd dragged along had trouble even spotting the animals out there, when they were undercover, investigating the REM. The exploration crew needs to get some practice at that, and since they are being drilled on surface travel already, I'd like you to join them there."