The Lawyers of Mars: Three Novellas

by Pam Uphoff

  Xaero stared carefully at a spot to the side. "Huh, never seen one with stripes before. Herfit." She added, pointing. It got nervous under the focused attention, and slunk out of sight.

  "You know, all the scary stories about herfits, I wasn't expecting the first one I saw to run away," complained an older pseudomale. Xaero frowned, as she suddenly recognized him from vids. Geology and mining expert Trebore M'hel was well traveled, experienced and an outspoken proponent of the South Ice Cap Canal. He'd been interviewed regularly, and if she recalled correctly, had once volunteered to strangle Blozolli and save the Imperium the price of his trial.

  "There are rather a lot of us," the big engineer, Jemi S'jen said. "I'd be scared too."

  "Well Miss L'svages," T'yedh was smirking a bit. "I'm impressed with your ability to spot wildlife, but could you get home from here?"

  She blinked at him and turned to point. "My first guess would be that Sun Town is a thousand strides that way, more or less."

  The smirk turned into a glower. "I see I'll have to work harder to lose you. Tomorrow." He promised, as he turned and led them back to town.

  ***

  Even a hot soak wasn't enough to take away the aches and pains. Especially the one deep in her abdomen. "Oh, talk about bad timing." She moaned, counting in her head. Fortunately they'd been very very busy the last four days. No problem then.

  The potential crew were concentrated on the sixth floor, in what had once been the REM's guards quarters. Of course, in a building designed to be a luxury hotel, that wasn't a hardship, but with the influx of everyone's families from Imperial City, they'd doubled up. She'd let Aura have first dibs on the tub, so she could linger, but enough was enough. She dragged herself out of the tub, and sprayed on lots of scent inhibitors.

  "Is it really worth hiding?" Aura asked.

  "I've got one of those mega old fashioned patriarchal overprotective families." Xaero told her. "I wouldn't get any of the tough cases assigned to me, nor would I be allowed to do something as wild as actually talk alone to a trumale client if they knew I'd matured."

  "Ugg." Aura said. "I don't let anyone control me like that."

  Xaero shrugged, "This is the easiest way to keep the peace with my family, and minimize their even thinking about controlling me. It's handy professionally, as well. I never know when I'm going to run into a client that really does think trufems are brain dead. So, when do they feed us around here?"

  "About now, but I'll warn you, they intend to shave off every pebble of weight they can, without weakening us."

  "No feast."

  "Depends on your definition of feast."

  There was plenty of food, but it was notably lacking carb laden sauces or side dishes, and certainly no sweet after. They tucked in without complaint, and sought bed early.

  She spoke to Trev briefly, outside her door.

  "Hmm, you smell great." He said, then blinked in surprise as she held him at arms length.

  "Yeah, and I have a bad case of egg cramps, too."

  "Oh." He thought it over. "This is not the time to start a family."

  "Nor do I want to feel guilty about tossing a fertilized egg, so we're going to behave for a tenth."

  "The whole tenth?"

  "Well, I've only done this twice before, and never had a male hanging around, so I have no idea how grouchy I'll get afterwards." She grinned at his exaggerated expression of horror. "Just for that, I'll be extra nasty and you can guess whether it's real or pretend."

  He took her hand off his chest and nipped it. "See you in the morning."

  ***

  "So, Captain L'on, I believe it's your turn to approach the new and unknown." Xaero stepped back from the perfectly harmless, but very impressive vance, and waited innocently as Saji stepped hesitantly forward and the little mouth in the undergrowth snapped closed on his boot.

  "Hey!" He reached down and yanked it loose, then started swearing as the acid sap started burning his hand.

  Xaero grabbed his hand, "No, don't wipe it on your clothes, think about suit integrity." She pulled out a bottle of water, poured it on the red spots, and then handed him a bar of soap. "Scrub it, rinse again. Now, what was rule one?"

  "Look and for sand's sake see what you're sandy well looking at." He held his hand out for more water then accepted a paper towel from her. "You came prepared."

  "You should have seen what she did to the REMs that were chasing her around out here." Trev grinned. "Which I'm probably not supposed to tell you. I'll check with S'trooth."

  "All right, Captain, you haven't finished checking out the vance yet."

  "Is that what it's called?" he muttered. This time he poked around a bit with his pole—they all had one, and avoided the two other mouths planted among the otherwise innocuous low growing border of the vance's triangle of soil. He poked the dirt around the vance as well, watching for any movement, and edged carefully up to the stride thick trunk. He poked the lowest of the thick wax coated shield shaped leaves, the next and the next. Then the trunk. After circling around, he tentatively said he thought the vance was harmless. "At least compared to the other stuff some maniac planted around here."

  "Correct, the vance is a nice attractive plant." Xaero looked over at the other officer that was in the running for command of the mission. "Captain H'url. I think that one is for you." She pointed at the next collection of plants, which looked like a random planting of green and red streaked support posts.

  He glanced askance at her and poking carefully at the ground cover advanced on the posts without being attacked. From a couple of meters away, he decided to play it safe, picked up a rock chip and tossed it at the nearest 'post'. The spikes shot out half a stride, then encountering nothing, slowly coiled back up into the bark. "Well, I'll bet nothing eats those things!"

  "Yes, like many wild plants, these are as likely to eat the animals as the other way around. They're called springers. Getting in between two of them is a really bad idea. Check for what grows near them, if there are any signs of other animals around that can tell you how far away you have to be to be safe around it," she told him. She remembered the brief vid from the blue planet, the lush vegetation. How much of it will be carnivorous? She hoped they didn't have to clear cut whole areas of the planet in order to venture safely out to explore.

  "Ha, check this." H'url nudged a ragged bit of skin with scales and spines hooked on the plant with end of his pole. "Looks like it got a pike—a small one, not like that one out there."

  "Yes. There are pike, cheepers and rockhoppers inside, all feral descendants of the domesticated varieties. Also a large variety of insects, again all the underground cave varieties, not the surface types. The thicker air and especially the humidity and warmth are enough to allow them to live. The pressure is about double exterior and half of interior standards."

  "All right, this next one is a group exercise. Stand well back, and figure out how to get to the far wall. T'yedh said I'm not allowed to seriously injure any of you, so don't do anything silly." She led them to the greenhouse of the giant pets and watched their faces as they realized what they were looking at.

  "Sand! I didn't know pets could get that big!" Zila H'stom looked around for something to throw and settled on a chunk of pumice the size of her head from a decorative border.

  The group jumped back in unison at the speed at which the rock was snapped out of the air. They followed the path of the pumice like sports stars, moaning when a plant finally tossed the stone out of bounds against a distant corner.

  "Do we have to be in one piece when we get to the far wall?"

  "Can't we just go around?" a plaintive voice asked.

  "Give that lizard a Gold Star." Xaero said. "If it is dangerous, go around it. If I understand correctly, you'll be on the ground for less than half a tenth, and your absolute priority is finding uranium in a concentrated enough form to mine, hopefully quickly enough to deploy the mining robots and bring at least samples home with you. If you succeed, we'll s
et up a permanent base, and that will be the time to really, thoroughly check out the plants and animals."

  They were all nodding, and L'on spoke up, "We figure a third of this group will go on this mission, and if we're successful, we'll all go next time, with some remaining on Big Blue, to start a permanent base."

  "We'll get a mine in full operation—and we've got a small enrichment plant ready to go—once we've got a place to go to." Trebore said. "This trip we've got a cart mounted drill and some small robotic miners. If it weren't for the heavy gravity, we wouldn't bother with the miners, but it's going to be hard work just walking around, let alone digging and hauling rock."

  Xaero nodded, "So while I'd personally really, really want to find out all about the biota, the priority will be to detect dangers and go around if possible." She glanced over her shoulder and grinned, "Speaking of which, who wants to check out this rather overgrown and neglected pond?"

  They'd started the day with another, but shorter run, and would have a weight lifting session in the gym before a late dinner. They all managed to deal with the carnivorous plants well enough that T'yedh didn't ream her about abusing his troops. He did raise his crest over L'on's acid burns, and a few bruises others sported. "Didn't quite feed anyone to the plants, eh?" he asked her.

  "Not quite, but I tried."

  They were scheduled to leave in half a tenth, apparently the geometry of the time and spatial relationships of the gates was such that Mars needed to be on this side of the Sun, traveling in roughly this direction to get them where they needed to go—nineteen million years ago—with a reasonable closing velocity, and then half a tenth later, be in the right place that they'd have a safe closing velocity on Mars when they returned. Then it would be six tenths before the next trip could be made.

  They had a lot to learn in twenty days. Xaero pounced on the opportunity to learn the controls of the landing craft, the engines, the life support . . . they started getting lectures every morning before their run, before more classes, or practices, and sometimes during workouts.

  Major S'trooth showed back up and not only gave permission to talk about Xaero, Trev and Vee's trip in time, but used it himself as they talked about the potential for disaster inherent in traveling in time. They were all fascinated by the multiple histories, what it took to change, and the odd coincidences, the things that kept happening.

  "There are so many utterly random occurrences that add up to a particular Martian, it is mind boggling that this Prince Fatreve is identical to the Prince Fatreve I knew." S'trooth said, "Yes, I know," he nodded at Trev's rejecting gestures. "The Prince Fatreve I knew wasn't a lot like this one, even though they have identical DNA. We really haven't managed to pinpoint the cause of the difference, what caused my Fatreve to be a lazy, arrogant, overweight ass, and this one to be a hard working policeman." He nodded at Xaero. "Or a lawyer who was only peripherally involved—I thought—to turn out to be not only a key figure both in the foiling of the assassination attempt, but apparently a Royal Consort in the original, pre-change history."

  "And while some things stayed stubbornly the same, others didn't." This time he gestured at Vee, "Sergeant Gergi H'nkle popped out of nowhere. The five time travelers remember him, but in our time line his parents didn't marry, and he was never born." The group all gawped at him.

  "The actually hit man, who was killed during the assassination attempt, likewise was never born."

  "Who were the other time travelers?" Aura asked.

  "Another policeman, Captain Renfu W'ufda, who is apparently unchanged, and the inventor and perpetrator, whom most of you know and the rest will meet tomorrow at the Space Base," he nodded at Nyx. "The other Dr. M'kabon."

  Xaero chewed on a claw, wondering if any of them had put two and two M'kabons together.

  "The point of this discussion of the oddities of time travel is to explain some of the decisions we'll be making. We've developed a rigid protocol that will prevent you from returning to Mars at anytime before your departure date plus your elapsed time. Since you will be at a time before the evolution of Martians, it is absolutely critical you come nowhere near Mars. That is also why the crew will all be unmarried, childless, lizards. If something goes horribly wrong, if you cannot not return to Mars at this time, you must either go for the far future or a far distance, enough that you won't interfere with Martian history, or stay on Big Blue." He looked around at the group. "You'll all be getting the brain trust's report on all possible contingencies. It is classified. It will not be discussed outside this project, correct?" They all nodded. S'trooth looked like he was making eye contact with everyone of them. "You'll find the reports on your comps, now. Read them. I'll answer questions tomorrow, on the way to the Space Base. Dismissed."

  The rest of the group pounced on the time travelers. S'trooth turned away to his comp, and looked like he was trying to look like he wasn't observing the group.

  "Did anything change, for you?" Aura asked Xaero.

  "My parents died in a monorail accident, two years ago—and now they're alive and well." She answered. "I've a slightly different mix of distant cousins, some different in-laws, stuff like that."

  "And your parents never married?" L'on asked Vee.

  "My mother married my uncle." Vee told him. "I have three half sib/half cousins. It's a little strange. My father is deceased in both times; so I got S'trooth to get me ID as my dad's bastard, and introduced myself to my mom and uncle as a nephew doing genealogy."

  They boggled at him a bit. "You're pretty cool about it." S'jen said.

  Vee shrugged. "If the family situation had gotten worse, I wouldn't be cool at all. But my mom's a happy wife and mother instead of a lonely and rather depressed widow whose only chick didn't visit often enough." He grinned. "Now General S'ank, being handed a brand new guard who thought he was fully trained and had a decade's experience . . . Now there was an unhappy lizard."

  Trev shrugged as they looked at him. "As best I can tell, I was a complete waste of cubic. I keep getting these weird looks when someone sees me actually doing work. And they keep asking me if I'm feeling all right because I've lost so much weight so quickly. All my siblings are the same, but I have an extra nephew."

  Nyx was frowning. "OK, I know this is going to sound really odd, but I'm getting quite sick wondering about it." He twitched his shoulders. "I'm not that other M'kabon, am I?"

  They hesitated way too long in answering.

  "I am?" he yelped.

  S'trooth stepped back in and fielded that one, "No more than Trev is that fat jerk that used to hold his job. The other Dr. M'kabon had a traumatic experience when the Imperial cavern collapsed, and lived through all the following disasters, and finally, forty years from now, decided to Do Something.

  "Apparently he then had to fix what he'd changed, and when that didn't work went further back in time and then that didn't work . . . " The Colonel shook his head. "He was rather single minded about always blaming it on the Emperor or Empress of the time. The foiled assassination attempt seventy years ago handed us the history books he'd brought with him, and warned us, rather inaccurately, about the quake and collapse."

  Trev put in, "We've seen some really odd coincidences in people and then there's the quake and collapse. They happen at various times over an eleven year period. With that information, we stopped enlarging the main cavern, changed water withdrawal from both above and below, moved government offices, refused building permits, expanded the parks . . . " he shrugged. "The general trend of history is apparently not going to be changed, even though we managed to lower the casualties by over an order of magnitude. Hence this interplanetary exploration."

  S'trooth looked over at Nyx, who looked like he wasn't tracking the conversation any longer. "Relax. The lizard who did all this isn't you. That fellow with the history of regicide may have brought us what we need to save ourselves."

  Nyx blinked back from whatever interior distance he traveled. "I got that grant for the genetic engineering
study to divert me from quantum physics." He stated. "Why didn't it stop all the time traveling, if I never invented it?"

  S'trooth twitched. "We really don't know. Our think tank on temporal causality and paradox is going around in more circles than M'kabon's machine. If you'd never invented the time machine, you'd have kept on doing physics and invented a time machine . . . That sort of stuff. I finally started ignoring them. This is what we've got to work with and we have a sufficient grasp of the natural disaster we're facing to be damn glad we've got this traveling technique."

  "Were you trying to stop the invention of time travel?" N'rom asked.

  "That was our first desire, before we thought it through, read all the history books and realized that we had critical advance information." S'trooth admitted.

  "What does your think tank say about changing the course of history in a major way?" Xaero asked. "What do they say about the risk in this very long trip?"

  "They go all glassy eyed and tell us to be excruciatingly careful." He said. "And to take lots of seeds and have as close to a gender balance as we can manage. Just in case. The odd coincidences, the appearance that history has a goal and direction give us a bit more confidence that we aren't actually able to derail history, but we're still going to be careful."

  The team exchanged speculative glances.

  "None-the-less, you seem to be taking an incredible risk," Xaero eyed him. "So, just how bad is the future possibly going to be? No, not M'kabon's forty years' future, the one beyond that, that you've checked out with the time travel?"

  S'trooth glared. "I have no knowledge of such an action." He shut his mouth decisively.

  Someone in the back of the room murmured "That bad, eh?"

  Glare.

  ***

  The tolerance tests at the Space Base were fascinating. A pressure chamber mimicked the atmospheric conditions on Big Blue, and a centrifuge the heavy gravity. The scientists there were apologetic about not being able to do both at once.