by M E Wise
The guards turned their attention to the obvious issue at hand. The emergency lights came on and barely lit the floor. Travelers, vendors and local workers all rumbled their troubles out loud. People were tripping over things and one vendor cussed a man wandering away without paying for something. “Please remain calm. This is not a site B problem but a Diggtown issue. We’re getting some Home² personnel on the problem.” Came an announcement. “Until further notice we are locked down. No power, no door controls.”
The unhappy crowd stirred and moaned. I turned to see the rails of the upper section lined with Sweet³ entertainers and their support staff. Numi was plain clothed now and quickly stormed inside upon seeing I had seen her there. “Without the cyclers the air in the breathers is gonna get real sticky.” Frank pointed out a real concern. Tomlin and Sonny made their way toward us in the broken lit path. “Gentleman.” Sonny looked stressed. Tomlin folded his arms and just stood there.
Hours passed and people were using their tablets and cell phones to see by. Cell phones had no real purpose on Mars of yet but to access stored data and downloads. Local tablet linked devices could access the News and three short wave stations. One contractor had an audience around his larger portfolio tablet. The News from Earth was being blocked. “What’s going on?” He asked out loud. “This shit’s serious!” Another man panicked. A woman with him was fanning herself hard as the air was getting heavy and the moisture began to collect. Soon the cold of outside would be something we couldn’t avoid.
“I feel stupid and that makes me angry.” I was still fixated on the events earlier.
“Why? What sense does it make?” Frank tried to embolden my position. “It’s the nature of the beast Gorgy.”
“I looked into the beast’s eyes though and thought I saw something else.” I wasn’t comfortable feeling this way. My grandfather had said the eyes were the key to trickery. I should have known that Numi had something to hide deep down. Her eyes shifted colors like a mood ring. I could hear my mother casting out demons and chanting versus about rebuking evil omens. “She was right.” Frank looked at me oddly. “My Mother said you don’t know someone’s heart unless it is tested by fire. Damnation was man’s burden. We are tested in flame.”
“Man you don’t seem right.” Frank was concerned. “We’re stuck here for now and I for one need my buddy to relax and focus on our butts right now. Not the butts we don’t own.”
I made some space in our group watching the brightly lit but small screen all around us. The contractor found a better signal on the shipping lane network. “Reports have it that Diggtown and some parts of Artemis II are now in a blackout. Presumably related to the Red Planet Industries blockade of aid and supplies to the Home² protestors among the colonies developing there. Home², their sister company in off-world entertainment Sweet³ have joined Core Too in a civil suit against Red Planet Industries and Mineral, Chemical and Drill Limited, in what they claim are inhumane practices and unfulfilled agreements both financial and ethical. Further coverage is ahead.” The report ended with a break leading into a Core Too recruiting advert.
“We’re fucked!” The contractor cried out. “They are going to let us suffocate and die!”
“You need to calm down!” Frank yelled at him. “Shits going to get real in here!” He paced out of the group and toward the exit ahead. Myself, Tomlin and Sonny followed. “We gotta find a way back to the dorms where there ain’t so much shared air.” Frank was right, staying here in such a large group was a death sentence if the crowd got unruly and sucked all the clean air out of the room. A local oxygen bar was making bank already. Soon though the crowd would feel deserving of that air and stop paying for it.
“If we can get to the VIP exit of the club, we can find environment suits and get the hell out of here.” Frank worked back through the crowd and we made for the stairs as a group. We pushed our way up the ramp. I felt the urge to go and see Numi one more time but I didn’t feel my comrades would understand and resisted. Eddy moved out of my way as we entered the doors that had been forced open for air. The VIP exit was just passed the bar and Steve had long abandoned his post. “Damn it’s coded!” Frank was visibly upset.
“Give me a minute.” I said as he knew what I was going to do.
I dodged dancers in different states of wear; men and women less attractive without all of their environmental assistance. And I slowed my pace as my heart pounded hard in my chest at Numi’s door. I knocked quietly. There was no answer initially so I knocked with more vigor. “No credits, no service.” She yelled through the sliding peephole. “It’s me.” I barked. “We need you for a second.” She didn’t answer. “I need you for a second.” The change in tone was met with the sliding peephole opening again. “I don’t have time for your bullshit!” She said tartly.
“I will force the door Numi! You know I can.” My threat was genuine enough.
The door opened a small amount and I pushed it hard and Numi fell with the motion. “What the hell?” She was irritated but not angry. “I need your wrist.” She looked completely unenthused. I didn’t explain further and reached down and hurled her over a shoulder. She beat my back as we rounded the hall and the corner of the bar. Frank was trying to keep a low profile but I had blown this idea. Steve then emerged from nowhere with an old shotgun. “Put Numi down.” I complied but Numi stayed close to me. Frank pushed the gun toward the bottles behind Steve and I hit him one good time and he went crashing into the glasses behind the bar.
“Numi please open the door.” I asked calmly but I felt my intensity boiling over.
Numi stalled but eventually made for the VIP door ahead. She waved her wrist over the door controls and the battery lit control opened. Another sign of luxury unshared across classes. The out processing room was very nicely decorated. Frank and my crew moved into the area and forced the doors shut behind us to prevent a flood of panicked patrons escaping and causing more problems. A dozen or so astronaut class environment suits hung neatly in individual rows of lockers. “We are out in style.” Frank slapped me on the butt.
I prayed all night for some sign of hope. Our dorm was dripping with perspiration. We had greater control of our circumstances though compared to the B-Zone. “We can’t put up with this shit!” Sonny was railing on the current state of affairs like we had some ability to change them. Several weeks had passed since the blackout and the corporate drama was turning into real threatening behavior. “What do we do? Frank argued. “There’s no way home right now and not one single government on Earth can claim jurisdiction out here. Can’t enforce shit.” His frustration was worn by a divided population in Diggtown.
Rumors flew over the handhelds and in worker circles that Home² and Sweet³ personnel were being segregated and punished in odd ways. Their credits would disappear or become frozen. They called it the Red Watch. Everyone tried to hide their swelling distrust for whatever people who could call themselves human beings and treat each other this way. Red Watchers were retaliating with looting and tagging private sectors like site C with vandalism and simple things like spoiled meals. Our group was put under strict curfew that none in the mining families could tolerate but adhered to for the deep constraints on our livelihoods. “Suit up.” Frank moaned. “Until they lift curfew we have deadlines to meet.”
We rode the massive Earth-mover drill to a new location today. We were never too far away from Diggtown. We weren’t monitored closely, or at least we thought not. But random probes would hover over head for different things at times. We thought they gauged safety and were silent witnesses confirming that we actually showed up for work. Our clumsy suits were always a problem. Today we were being closely watched.
“What’s up with the drones today?” Tomlin asked Frank. Frank shook his head inside the boxy helmet. “Head down and ass up!” Frank joked. We all laughed over the COMs.
Sonny and Tomlin were our core technicians. They would take a deep walk down the barr
el of the massive hollow drill bit and release the shaft that would become a path into a future chamber for deep mining. Coring was my job from high up on the Earth mover. I monitored the heat of the bit and the distance we were coring too. Today was like so many others. Frank kept us on pace and ran the earth mover.
“We are at depth.” I yawned with boredom. Sonny guided me as I retracted the drill arm leaving the core shaft in the hole drilled. Tomlin left the cabin where Frank operated the massive machine. “Fire anchors.” Frank barked the command to fire bolts built into the core out at intervals to keep the shaft from shifting. Sonny and Tomlin worked their primer lanes and fired their anchors. “These breathers are shit.” Sonny choked and coughed. Tomlin gave him a thumbs up in agreement.
“Come up for air if you need to guys.” Frank called out over the COM. They motioned on our monitors. Sonny made his way up the shaft first. Drones circled ominously.
Sonny rummaged in a compartment outside the Earth mover. I could see him from above. “Not a damned one!” Sonny shouted. His breathing was erratic. “What do you mean?” Frank sounded confused. “I requested a full re-supply!” I could hear him sort stuff in his cabin. “There isn’t any filters for the breathers. No air man!” Sonny was in full panic. “That’s not possible.” Tomlin came up to double check.
“Son of a bitch! They denied my request.” Frank was pissed. I heard him dialing up base. “Where’s our damned breathers!” He yelled. He paused as we couldn’t hear the transmission. “What? You can’t deny breathers based on quotas!” His concern was alarming and it sunk in as we all were hung on the news.
“They can’t do that! They can’t just hold out on the stuff like that! We can die out here.” Sonny was nearly hyperventilating.
“Hey!” Tomlin waved at a near drone. “We can’t breathe. We can’t work. No quota!” The machine whirled over and hung in front of him.
Frank was wrestling about in his cabin below me. “Yes, Supervisor!” He blurted over the COM. “That’s right I want to speak to my Union Supervisor now!” Sonny was still huffing into the COM and Tomlin was monitoring him. “You have to calm down Sonny!” He tried to corral him.
“This isn’t worth it!” Sonny gasped. “Nobody should have to live like this.”
“His face is really purple guys!” Tomlin sounded completely afraid. I looked down below as Sonny circled and collapsed. “Frank! Frank! It’s Sonny!”
Frank bailed on the holding communication. His cabin door swung open below me. I sat unmoving and watched. Nothing stirred in me to do anything. What could anyone do? Sonny was going to die out there; out here in space, on Mars away from his natural surroundings like a fish foolishly out of water. Sonny flailed on the ground as the drone hovered above them. The scene somehow didn’t disturb me near as much as the thought that someone sat on the other side of that device and watched. They weren’t attached to any of this. As Sonny took his last breaths I could hear him struggle over the COM.
Frank looked up to me in the drill operators nest and looked like he was staring at a monster. I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything anymore. I finished retracting the drill arm and went about signing off my monitors. A second drone flew up to my window and whirled outside. I didn’t pay it any attention. I worked like a good drone, autonomously punching buttons and pulling levers.
“The Big Dirty has eaten you from the inside out!” Frank yelled at me. I could hear him but I had no mode of responding. I hummed a hymn my Mother would sing when I was a child. My bible felt right in my hands for the first time in a while. “That’s it! Bury your head. It could’ve been you or me.” He stormed off into another part of the dorm.
“No temptation,” I yelled, “that has overtaken you, is not common to man!” I rocked and yelled some more. “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability!” Frank returned with a disgruntled face. “But with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape…” I locked eyes with him, “that you may be able to endure it.”
“Listen man. Gorgy you are all I’ve got here.” Frank was sincere. “Don’t come apart.”
I continued to hum the hymn. Frank had barely made it to base before Tomlin began suffocating too. Tomlin was now in critical care for an infection in his strained lungs from the old and poorly recycled breather. I rocked aware of what I was doing but I felt like I couldn’t control it. I couldn’t control any of these things. I saw it happening but let it wash on over me like a river of unstoppable fluid staining everything in its path. A rap on the door sent Frank to open the second airlock.
The voice I knew too well followed Frank into the room. “Son?” Vadim, my father leaned in clean and dressed well for a miner still smelling of booze. “How long has he been like this?” He asked Frank urgently. “Two days maybe.” Frank answered frustrated with it. “Two days?” Vadim seemed concerned or embarrassed. He began whispering to Frank and they moved into another room. Whatever they were discussing it was not the first time they had spoken of it. “It’s time then.” Frank said coldly. Vadim nodded in concurrence.
“Son, things are going to get worse. We thought we could fight them in the courts and avoid all this, but it can’t be done.” Vadim grew tired of my humming. “Listen to me moy mal’chik!” His deep voice matched his bear sized frame. He slapped me once hard and my vision blurred. Frank reacted with the impact like he had been hit too. Vadim slapped me again harder and once more before I had felt enough. I screamed loudly. Whatever held me, held me no more.
“The Red Dust gets in everything.” Father said cryptically. “Everything! Do you hear me now?” Frank came to join him. “We must be the Red Dust!”
We organized well; the Red Dust squads found ways of moving around Diggtown and avoiding detection. We had our methods of communicating in code, staying ahead of the security Red Planet Industries had hired. They were mercenaries looking to execute on sight. My Father had long made connections with Home² personnel who were fighting back in their own ways. Entertainers were using Sweet³ to blackmail high ranking officials to keep some trade and supplies coming in to keep us alive on Mars. Vadim was the enforcer now and we aimed to eject our oppressors if Earth wouldn’t help its forgotten children. The last few months have been a blur of red mist and war paint. Tonight we searched for one of our own.
“I see two. One drone by the west gate.” I called over the COM quietly. I was high on a plateau overlooking site C. The military style environment suit was far more durable than the ones supplied to us for mining. They weren’t as sleek as the sets we stole from the club but we weren’t looking to make that kind of impression. I sighted in on one target. I waited for Frank to confirm his. “In three. Two.” Our shots took down the two men from two different directions. The drone shifted back and forth over the two dead mercs.
I moved forward and fired into the drone as it spun out of control and down. The cover of night was on our side. Frank came in from another point and we made entry. These moments were the most dangerous. Clearing our gear without decompressing the entire facility was difficult. We had to coordinate with loyal staff and somehow maintain secrecy to make sure the airlocks would not be monitored. Vadim wasn’t the first in command by any means but the thick curtain of secrecy made it unclear who was actually in charge.
“You head up to Vadim.” Frank urged me to part with him for a moment. I listened. Frank was a former military man. I am not sure what branch he had served in but his abilities were invaluable. I listened and learned quickly so that I could see my 18th birthday. Frank disappeared down a long dark hallway experiencing malfunctioning systems, a clever orchestration by the working class who our corporate handlers were screwing over. I took an elevator up to my Father’s level. The elevator was clear and on the outside of the building. I could see the entire valley ahead and many drones, unmanned and manned buzzed over the campus.
“Father.” I whispered at the door half open. He was never so ca
reless. I lead with my muzzle as I was taught. “Father!” I stressed again. I cleared the living area and then the first room off of that. The master bedroom had a light on. I moved forward slowly and an incredible sense of dread washed over me. I pushed the door open slowly with my rifle. A red hand print smeared on the wall. My father was nowhere inside. Frank came in behind me and we took aim on each other. “Stand down.” He said and I did. “Vadim?” He questioned. I shook my head to answer him.
We made our way back to the elevator. The main floor was still clear but our way in would not be our way out. We did this often enough, avoiding repetition; the rear airlock was our goal. “Vadim’s disappearance is odd don’t you think?” Frank asked me as we walked forward. Ground level was mostly empty, many of the corporate representatives had made arrangements to leave Mars while the Mineral War was ongoing. “He wouldn’t have left without saying anything?” Frank followed the question with another.
