Miranda's Demons

by Ian Miller

  "But he was just late," Misako pleaded, as the two young men went outside.

  "I'm afraid Enrico was nowhere near the cornfield," Gaius said, as he took Misako's hand to comfort her. "If he were, I would have seen him."

  "But . . ."

  "I'm afraid Enrico turned you in to the Brownshirts for money, and there's no doubt he'll do the same tonight."

  "What can we do?"

  "I think you should get what sleep you can. Tomorrow could be rather busy."

  Misako reluctantly agreed, and later Akiro and Haruhiko returned, to announce that they had failed. Enrico had not gone to his house, and he had not headed towards the town. Several people had commenced a search, and they were still searching. They apologized profusely for their failure.

  "Don't be sorry," Gaius replied. "You'd better get some sleep too. You are going to be rather busy tomorrow."

  "Busy?" came the excited replies.

  "You will find out tomorrow," came the enigmatic reply.

  * * *

  The next morning, Gaius arose early, and was sitting in front of the computer, calling up information, when Misako came out to the main room.

  "Good morning," she said softly, then added, "I'm scared."

  "There's no need to be," Gaius smiled. "The danger period is over. You need not fear the draft because you won't be on it, although you had better have a good breakfast because there's a lot to do today. Now, look at this! Isn't it magnificent?"

  "What is it?"

  "The Coliseum," Gaius explained. "After what Enrico said last night, I just had to find out. What's this?" he said, as he rolled up a new frame. "Building started by the Emperor Vespasian! Now, who would have thought he would have made the purple!"

  "But that's ancient history! What do you mean . . ?"

  "Misako, you mentioned my so-called funny name, and I know you were puzzled when I didn't know anything about my home town. Misako, I was in Britain. I fought the Celts. The man you know as Titus Flavius Vespasianus was a great commander in Britain. I knew the man! I fought alongside him."

  "But that's impossible!"

  "Almost. What happened was . . ."

  "Trouble!" Akiro ran into the room. "The house's surrounded. Brownshirts! They're going to kill us. We should've . . ."

  "They're not going to kill you," Gaius smiled. "Calm down."

  "What happened?" Misako asked, clutching at Gaius' arm.

  "Enrico made it to town," Gaius said quietly. "Don't be too hard on Akiro and Haruhiko. There was no real way to stop him, once he got out that door. Perhaps I should have stopped him from doing that, but don't worry. The mistake hasn't cost."

  There was a thumping at the door. "Everybody please go out the back," Gaius said quietly. He took the Krezell wand from his belt, and sat back in his chair.

  "Oh no," Misako said, as she saw the wand. "You're really M'starn!"

  "No, I am most definitely not," Gaius said. "We'll talk later. For the time being, please get out the back."

  As Misako fled, the door was flung open, and three Brownshirts, carrying beam weapons, stormed into the room. They looked around, noticed Gaius, and attempted to swing the weapons around towards him. Gaius raised the Krezell wand, and the weapons stubbornly refused to move.

  "Leave here, and tell your friends to change their occupation. When I announce it, an induction field will raise the temperature of your weapons to four hundred degrees. Now!" There was a series of yelps, and the Brownshirts dropped the weapons, and looked at their blistered hands. They looked up at Gaius, then turned and ran. But as they left the doorway, there was another series of screams, "No! No!" followed by cries of pain as they fell to the ground, cut down by their own troops.

  Gaius picked up the weapons, and called for Misako, Akiro and their father. He moved to the windows and drew the blinds closed. When they came, he explained how the beam weapons worked, how to aim through the sights, and how to maintain a steady fire from a comfortable crouching position. He then told them they were to remain there until told to stop, or if forced by the enemy to retreat.

  "I don't know I can shoot someone," Misako warned.

  "You can, and you won't have to take any risk. I want you to lie comfortably on the floor, out of sight of the Brownshirts, and keep watch through the open door. When I open it, you will you see that aluminium sheet you polished yesterday. When you see the image of a Brownshirt, I want you to fire at the image. Do you understand?"

  "Shoot at an aluminium sheet? No, I don't understand."

  "They're beam weapons," Gaius pointed out, "and the beams reflect off aluminium. For such reflection, the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection, so the question is, can you shoot at images?" Gaius asked with a touch of command in his voice.

  "Well, yes, but . . ."

  "They won't be able to see you," Gaius assured them, "because the illumination is too weak in here, and their eyes will be set for outside. But there's no time to waste. I'm going to open the door now." He did so, then grabbed some rope that he had placed on the table and rushed to the stairs.

  "Where're you going?" Misako asked.

  "I'm getting above them," Gaius replied. "Now, watch the door."

  The three Japanese peered down their sights, but nothing happened. Gaius reached the upper room, and cautiously watched out the window. The Brownshirts were in some sort of huddle, wondering what to do. Finally, another three began to advance. They crept through the gate and were half way to the front door when beams struck them from the aluminium, and they fell down. The beams stopped, as the remaining Brownshirts looked at the fallen in dismay. Six were down, and like most bullies, the first setback had removed their swagger. Their problem was clear: they did not wish to advance, but equally they were too afraid to go back and report failure. One began talking into a communicator.

  Nothing happened for some length of time, and Gaius was worried that the Japanese might decide that they had won, but fortunately they did not. Gaius moved to the back of the room, climbed out the window, and with the aid of a hoe he had found in the garden shed, hooked it onto the non-functional guttering of the roof and he hauled himself up. He peered over the top at the Brownshirts, and saw which way they were watching. He took a small run, and leaped across to the roof of the next house.

  The Brownshirts heard something, and rushed into the front area to get a better view, only to have two of them cut down by the beam weapons. They ran for their lives back to the street. Meanwhile Gaius had reached the roof of the next house.

  Soon he saw what he expected: reinforcements, in the form of a tank. He watched it carefully, then when the moment was right, he leaped out to drift down in the weaker Martian gravity to land on the tank's top. He pulled up the lid and sent a powerful shockwave into the tank with his Krezell wand. The tank swerved, struck a fence, and stopped.

  There was a crew of three: two Brownshirts and one M'starn. Gaius disarmed the M'starn officer and then tied his arms to a hatch cover on the rear of the tank, he tied the Brownshirt gunner to the back of the tank, then he revived the driver. It took very little time to persuade the driver to drive.

  Accordingly, as the tank drew up to the Brownshirts outside the Shibatu house, the Brownshirts saw the tank weapons pointed in their direction, and the man they had come to arrest in charge of the tank. When Gaius ordered them to drop their arms, they did, without hesitation, and fell to the ground, grovelling.

  "Don't shoot!" Gaius ordered. "We have some prisoners." With that, the Brownshirts were marched, hands above their head, to the front of the Shibatu house.

  "We've won! We've won!" Akiro shouted, and was almost jumping up and down with excitement.

  "I think all we've done is started a big fire," Misako commented with more reserve. "Who's it going to burn?"

  "Akiro is a bit premature," Gaius said calmly, as he jumped down from the tank, "but you've made a good start. Misako! Can you find about twenty young people, whom you could trust to fight?"

  "Of c
ourse." Misako said calmly. "Now?"

  "As quickly as possible," Gaius nodded. "Now, the rest of you, I want all the Brownshirt uniforms. Strip them, pile the dead over there out of the way, and take the wounded inside and get some help for them. Gather up all the weapons, and recharge those that are low, and try to find some volunteers to form a small squad to guard the prisoners Never mind about the blood or small tears on the uniforms, as long as they're not too obvious."

  * * *

  Two hours later a tank and a small collection of Brownshirted troops entered the military transport centre. The Brownshirts greeted them with a small amount of derision; the thought of a platoon and a tank to arrest one dissenter seemed like overkill. Their smiles turned to total bewilderment as the beam weapons were turned on them. The centre was taken without bloodshed. Immediately two dozen more young men and women streamed into the centre, stripped the Brownshirts, and took their uniforms and weapons. Two sets of troops, under the commands of Misako and Akiro, split up and quickly marched on the communications centre and the vital life supports centre. These two both fell without blood being spilt.

  Meanwhile, a strange procession of troops entered the Brownshirt headquarters. Haruhiko was dressed, at least on the upper body, in the black masked uniform of the M'starn, and was waving a large staff, on the ends of which flashed bright steel razor sharp knives. Had anybody cared to look, they would have noted that the M'starn was somewhat taller than usual, and the legs were dressed in black human trousers and black boots that were struggling to even look vaguely like M'starn attire, but as Gaius had suggested, by waving something quite unexpected above the head, nobody looked at the feet. Haruhiko led Gaius into the headquarters, followed by twenty Brownshirts escorting twenty prisoners. The group marched in directly, nobody daring to question a M'starn commander. Gaius and Haruhiko immediately went to the top floor; the remainder of the group split, with equal numbers of guards and prisoners going to each floor. At precisely ten minutes past the hour, each floor was taken as the guards turned their weapons on the surprised Brownshirts, and the 'prisoners' quickly took their weapons. The 'prisoners' held the captives, while the fake Brownshirts quickly took the remainder of the building.

  On the top floor, Gaius and Haruhiko alone walked into the main command room. Gaius had warned Haruhiko that the M'starn would be unlikely to surrender, but would fight to the death.

  "Bushido," Haruhiko had nodded, although this meant nothing to Gaius.

  The room seemed empty. Gaius absent-mindedly clipped the Krezell wand back on his belt and walked towards the table. There was a noise behind. Gaius turned, and saw a black figure leap from a cabinet. "Above!" he yelled.

  Haruhiko swung around, bringing his staff with him. The M'starn screamed. The point of the blade caught the M'starn in the throat, and the force of his leap impaled himself on it. It was then that Haruhiko appeared to realize what he had done. As the green slime hit his hands, he shuddered, and thrust the staff and the writhing body away from him. Gaius quickly moved over to him, patted him lightly on the shoulder, and reminded him that there were further rooms to clear.

  Within two minutes the Headquarters were secured, and humans once again controlled Hellas. But, as Gaius quickly reminded them, there was now a moral obligation to free the remaining Mars colonies. He asked for volunteers, who would be flown to the next settlement, where they would have to repeat their performance. He wanted volunteers only, and to his surprise, all volunteered, as did a large number of the gathering crowds. Gaius separated his volunteers into groups; the smaller group was to carry on and relieve the other colonies, while the larger numbers had to maintain order in Hellas, and carry out a number of tasks, including repairing as many of the main ground transporters as was feasible.

  * * *

  They all knew that relieving the Chryse settlement would be difficult. Unlike Hellas, Chryse was not constructed as one dome, but rather as a sequence of interconnected domes and tunnels. Hellas had been chosen as a site because the atmospheric pressure was the highest on Mars. Chryse was chosen solely as a research centre prior to settlement, and the site was chosen because it was central to a number of potential exploration sites. The local history books asserted that it has also been chosen because it had been well surveyed, it had a number of natural tunnels, and it was close to the equator. The truth was, nobody knew about the tunnels until the first craft landed and partly fell into one. The initial settlement was to have been abandoned, however it refused to die. Buildings, even if short on planning, were highly desirable on Mars, and it was also noted that Chryse was a useful centre. To the north were the immense deposits from the great outflow channels, while to the southwest was the Valles Marineris. Originally Chryse had been built by constructing in natural tunnels and building three separate domes on the surface for growing crops, but with the increased demand for salt processing, together with limited minerals processing, the settlement had thrived, and additional similar domes had been erected. Now there were eight separate settlements with their associated domes connected by underground tube lines.

  As a consequence of the six-hour time difference between the settlements, the party still managed to arrive in mid-morning. Four transport aircraft glided into the terminal and docked, despite protests from the flight controllers about unregistered flights. Four unarmed policemen were waiting at the airlocks, and were completely surprised when the armed party emerged. They made no resistance in the face of the heavy beam weapons, and when informed that a rebellion had taken place at Hellas, they requested to be allowed to join in. They quickly spread the news to the rest of the spaceport, and quickly returned to announce the port was taken, that is, everybody wanted to do what they could to get rid of the hated Brownshirts.

  Once again, the party marched to the Brownshirt headquarters, but when they entered the doorway, a guard stepped forward and demanded to know who they were. Haruhiko turned and with a swirl of the staff, placed a knife under the guard's throat. The guard backed away fearfully, and let them through, but before one of the party could stop him, he managed to press a warning button. A general alarm sounded, and men started running around everywhere.

  "Join them!" Gaius ordered the party.

  The Hellenes quickly saw the point, and began running around asking what the problem was, but also moving towards their targeted positions. Accordingly, at the prearranged time, again they turned on the Brownshirts and each floor fell with almost no bloodshed. The genuine Brownshirts were quickly stripped of their uniforms and marched to the cells below. However, they found that through a lack of local knowledge they had made a mistake, for there were no M'starn in this building. After they questioned a few of the local Brownshirts, they learned that the M'starn based at Chryse found the Brownshirts to be intolerable company, and they spent their time in a separate building. Accordingly, a party was formed to attempt to take this building, while the remaining rebels were left to secure the general facilities of Chryse, including the communications and transport centre.

  There was some apprehension as the party approached this building, which was a small purposefully built separate dome that was attached to some rather large separate building. From the settler's point of view, the element of surprise had been lost, and they were advancing on an enemy with superior weapons in a prepared defensive position. Gaius was less concerned, but also less clear on what should be done. If he could, he wished to capture some of the aliens and question them, but if this was impossible, he could use the weaponry of the Actium to destroy the enemy. In the end, the problem was avoided, for it became evident that this was not simply a building. Just as the party arrived there was an immense noise, the ground shuddered, and part of the building simply disappeared. The advancing party took cover as a shuttle lifted from the building and soared upwards and westwards. Gaius considered trying to destroy it, but then decided against it. To do so he would have to let the Actium declare its location, and it was unclear what other ships or weapons were present. T
he one thing he could not risk was to lose this ship for no real gain.

  * * *

  The last settlement, the southern equatorial settlement of Phoenicis Lacus was twelve hours behind Hellas. Gaius warned the troops that this would be the most difficult of all to liberate, because it was almost certain that the M'starn shuttle that had left Chryse had gone in that direction. After telling them that nobody would be thought the worse for wishing to stay behind, he called for volunteers. Everybody volunteered.

  Fortunately they found a plan of the Phoenicis Lacus settlement, and Gaius suggested that their craft land close in beside the transport centre. His shuttle, and the Actium would provide protection against the M'starn space vehicles. However, protection was not required, and the craft arrived without incident. Gaius joined a lead party, and they made their way to the northern end, where some sort of activity was underway. As they approached, they saw a number of men piling up bags of sand, and making emergency fortifications. There were undoubtedly extensive preparations for a battle underway. What surprised Gaius was that the men were not Brownshirts, and they were singing. Above the fortifications was a makeshift flag.

  "What's the flag?" Gaius asked Misako.

  "I do not know, commander," she said most respectfully.

  "Wait here, and hide," Gaius said, and he adjusted the colour of his chameleon suit to an olive green. "I'll go and have a word with them."

  "With respect, sir, I wish to go," Haruhiko stepped forward. "They're not Brownshirts, so perhaps there's been some sort of a rebellion. They'll be very suspicious of strangers, but less so of Japanese. No Japanese ever joined the Brownshirts," he added proudly. Haruhiko had been clutching a bag throughout his journeys, and he now took off the M'starn helmet, boots and overalls, and produced a white fighting robe with a large Japanese emblem on it. He then proceeded to walk barefooted and unarmed towards the fortifications.

  His appearance was so incongruous nobody even pointed a weapon at him. There was a heated discussion when he approached the group, with obvious looks of disbelief from the defenders. There was more discussion, and Haruhiko signalled for the group to come over. When they reached the defenders, it became apparent that Phoenicis Lacus was already essentially out of the hands of the M'starn.