Miranda's Demons

by Ian Miller

  "But the Brownshirts still outnumber us," Akiro started.

  "I'm sorry you're leaving," Misako said, and put her arm on Akiro's. "Akiro, we'll manage somehow."

  "We'll deal with the Brownshirts," McDonald said with some assurance. "Especially once we know how to use those tanks and the other equipment we've captured." He paused, then looked around as he said, "I guess you lot can all look forward to a bit of military training."

  "That's the idea," Gaius grinned. "Drills. Lots of them. Basically you people are going to have to learn how to fight. And in this fight, your first objective is easy: buy time."

  "Why can't you just wipe out the Brownshirts?" Akiro asked.

  "Two reasons," Gaius replied. "First, if you start killing like that, even if you win, life following the victory won't be worth living. The second is that if you wish to survive, you need the domes left intact. You wipe out their allies by destroying their domes and the M'starn might well return the compliment. "

  "So what do you think we should do?" Misako asked.

  "As we've discussed, for those who want to fight, abandon the settlements," Gaius said. "Take all you need to the caverns, but make sure you leave enough for those left behind, and try to leave most of the farmers, and anyone else working on the production of essentials. Make the Brownshirts flee to Syrtis Major . . ."

  "Why?" Haruhiko asked in a puzzled tone. "They'll just fight against us again, and . . ."

  "And you have no facility to hold prisoners," Gaius pointed out, "and you're going to be short of food, so again, you don't want prisoners."

  "I suppose not," Haruhiko nodded.

  "So your choices are to leave them in the settlements, which means giving the settlements back, killing them, which, if you don't see that as simply murder, think that it may trigger an equivalent response from the M'starn, or you can boot them out to their own camp."

  He smiled as he watched Haruhiko squirm a little.

  "You must keep food production going here and at Chryse, staffed by volunteers, and bring as much food as possible back from Hellas to the Valles Marineris," Gaius continued. "Form groups of men for training, and train the most suitable for driving those tanks. Retain all transport vehicles you can lay your hands on, and scout out and pick up as many of the M'starn food and fuel dumps as possible and relocate them. Once the movements are finished, my ship will leave, and you'll be on your own. But while you're on your own, make sure you always have a number of mobile ground sorties out there. If the Brownshirts are going to attack, they'll have a very long supply line. Harass them, wear them down, and most importantly, don't be surprised close to home. And don't assume they'll just come from the east! They're almost on the other side of the planet, so any direction is about as easy for them as any other."

  "You have to leave Mars?" Misako asked sadly.

  "Yes. If you think of this as a war, there are three major objectives to be taken. There is Earth, with its great manufacturing base, there is control of space, which essentially means the fate of the M'starn fleet, and there is the major M'starn base. The M'starn have two of these objectives; I must prevent them achieving the third, and try to wrest the others from them."

  "And can you?"

  "I don't know," Gaius replied. "I'm going to have to get help, help I can count on."

  "You can always count on us," Misako assured him.

  "I know I can," Gaius smiled at her, "and I am. You do have one important part to play."

  "What?"

  "Mars seems to be the major source of supply for the enemy. I'm counting on you to be an irritant, to always make the enemy think that his supply could be in danger. In the meantime, I've got to look to Earth. That's the only place where there's sufficient manufacturing capacity to give us any overall chance."

  "You need space ships." This was a statement, the realization that Mars could not assist.

  "And weapons. The enemy now have a big advantage in fleet size, and an overwhelming advantage in weapons power. However, control of Earth will not be easy for them, because there're too few M'starn, and they have a problem with fuel, food and basic supplies. In effect, they are a couple of squadrons of heavily damaged space vehicles, hopelessly out of supply. Furthermore, they have their strategic problems. The space advantage is impossible to maintain without their base, so they have to protect that as well. They simply don't have the numbers to battle it out on Miranda for any length of time, so they have to control space. Furthermore, they cannot win any war of attrition, because eventually they have to run out of ships. So although it seems we have two objectives to take, if they lose one, they lose the other as well, and they don't know which one we'll go after. But if we don't have the means to go after either, the end is foregone."

  "So Mars is just a side issue?" Misako said in a deflated voice.

  "It's not enough to decide the issue," Gaius said, "but it's very important for you, and there's no question of my just abandoning you. You have to hold out as best you can, and irritate the enemy."

  "And if we can?" Akiro asked.

  "The M'starn can do one of three things. They can abandon Mars, which means you will win. They can send limited help, and if they do that, with any luck we can destroy more of their ships, but you will have to fight better-armed Brownshirts. Finally, they could commit everything they have to Mars, and that would give you a great problem, but if they did that, and you could hold out, we would destroy their base, and they would lose."

  "And we may not survive," Akiro noted.

  "True," Gaius replied. "If they commit everything they have at you, it would not be easy, but remember this. Their fleet would be of little use against those in the caves. So if you have any good means of building more caves, do so. A space attack is only useful against concentrated forces in the open. If fighting in the valley, keep against walls. Also, of course, even in the open, scattered troops can be camouflaged. In fact, that's an idea. Get all the old scrap iron you can find, and scatter it throughout the valley, and around the nearby plains."

  "The M'starn would see this on their metal detectors?" Akiro asked curiously. His eyes had lit up slightly.

  "That's it," Gaius smiled. "If they're looking for things to blast, make sure they have plenty of signals."

  "I think I could do that," Akiro said with a touch of confidence. "Can I organize that?"

  "You're in charge," Gaius smiled.

  "Is he reliable?" McDonald asked in a whisper. "He seems awfully nervous."

  "He's been a bit afraid," Gaius whispered back. "And I don't blame him. He's also felt a bit buffeted by events, but this will probably be the making of him. He's got something to do that is more or less his own idea. I noticed this out in the cornfields of Hellas. He was quite scatty until he knew what he had to do, but then he turned into a very good organizer. He'll be an asset to you."

  "I hope you're right," McDonald replied.

  "I'm sure I am," Gaius assured him. "I also think you should cultivate those other two young Japanese."

  "I'll go along with whatever you suggest," McDonald assured him.

  "Misako," Gaius turned towards her, "You will be in overall command of the Hellas move. Captain McDonald will provide you with a military advisor."

  "Overall command?" replied a startled Misako. "Wouldn't a military person, or someone experienced with transporters be better? I don't know much about –"

  "The problem is not how to defeat the enemy, or how to move thirty transporters," Gaius interjected. "Someone has to get the people to the caves without destroying their spirit, and hold them together when something quite unexpected occurs. And believe me, things will go wrong. I need someone who won't panic, someone who won't give up, and most important of all, someone who can keep their head and raise morale, and that has to be a civilian. There may be better people, but I know you can do it, and I don't know about the others."

  "I'm supporting that commission," McDonald nodded.

  "You won't regret that," Gaius said, as he sa
w Haruhiko turn to give Misako support.

  "I hope not," McDonald said. "The fact is, I'm beginning to think I haven't much choice. There're two other settlements to clear, and the logistics of this move are going to be frightful. I really don't have enough men."

  "The fact is, you don't have any men trained in tank fighting, infantry or logistics," Gaius said sadly, "and unfortunately, we have only a week or so before the first big move." He raised his voice and addressed the whole meeting. "We've made a plan," he announced. "You must set out for Hellas as quickly as possible."

  "How much time have we got?" McDonald asked.

  "The less we use the better," Gaius replied. "Set out as soon as you dare, even if it means learning and training on the way. I'll get Misako to Hellas first, and she can have everything ready for the move back."

  "What's to stop the Brownshirts staging a counter-revolt?" someone asked.

  "Your vigilance," Gaius replied simply. "That is in your hands."

  "And I suppose we won't have any trouble separating out the M'starn sympathizers and collaborators?" someone asked.

  "That can be done easily," Misako assured the room. "When the settlements are so small, everyone knows what everyone else does."

  "But let's not have any witch-hunts," Gaius intervened. "If in doubt, let them stay at Hellas as neutrals. But you might mention that there'll be property searches of all who stay in Hellas, and if any M'starn sympathizers are found, they'll be abandoned out in the open. The people'll sort themselves out."

  "Then let's stop talking and get started now," McDonald said.

  Chapter 5

  Gaius landed his shuttle at the designated spot, put on his pressure-suit, and disembarked. As agreed, a suited figure greeted him, and seemed to be trying to say something, but there seemed to be no common frequency. Gaius waved towards the air lock, and suggested in sign language they proceed with their meeting. The other suited figure agreed, and they entered the airlock to the smallest and oldest 'dome' in Theppot. It was, indeed, the very first plant dome ever set up by civilian settlers on Mars. After dedusting, a technique Gaius had never carried out previously, the helmets were removed and the two men looked at each other.

  "You are Darian Rintoul?" Gaius asked. He was a descendent of two of the earlier settlers, and also of Nathan Gill, one of the Terrans who had made first contact.

  "Yes," the man said, in a clearly tense voice. Gaius could understand this tenseness. With no weapons, and no clear means of attack, he had negotiated a means by which his settlement remained neutral. He was also, as he thought, one of the only two humans who were in some form of contact with aliens, which would have made him think he was in an important position. Then along had come an almost total improbability, a human who commanded an alien fleet, a human who presumably wielded immense power, and a human from a time so long ago that he could not possibly understand modern humanity.

  "Why don't we sit down," Gaius pointed at the table and chairs, "then I'd appreciate it if you could tell me what happened here."

  "That's easy in one sense," Rintoul said slowly, "and yet . . ."

  "Just tell me," Gaius said softly. "I'm not here to criticize. I merely want to try to come to grips with what happened."

  "It was really weird . . ."

  * * *

  A small group had huddled about a screen with the poorest reception any had seen for a long time. On it was an indistinct black figure that announced it represented the High Command of the M'starn battle fleet currently in the Sol system. The settlements would now surrender, or the domes would be destroyed. The settlements would, in turn, be visited by a M'starn General, and he would accept surrender and put in place a military government. Mars would be tithed for labour, metals and manufactured items. Provided the tithes were met humans would govern Mars, but if the tithes were not met, Mars would be rendered uninhabitable. The Tarsis colony was hereby destroyed to illustrate the M'starn power. A sequence of images of smashed domes and dying people were shown.

  "What is interesting," Darian interrupted his tale, "is that I have reason to believe this part at least was a lie."

  "I know," Gaius nodded. "Please continue."

  A general meeting for Theppotians was called in one of the main domes. Before going to it, Darian retreated to that special secure cave that he had inherited access to through his grandmother, and which contained the only communicator to Chiron. On it was a message: We cannot offer more than minor assistance right now, but if you wish to resist, the gardeners will be useful. The gardeners and your crossbows are your only effective weapons against the M'starn, and the gardeners will behave to support you. He stared at the message, at first almost in despair. What could gardeners do, even if they were androids?

  Darian Rintoul had made one impression on the Theppotian population: at such meetings he said nothing. This meeting was slightly different. It began, as expected, with a stage of disbelief, then a stage of panic, then a stage of rebellion. Unlike the domed settlements, Theppot was mainly underground, and direct attack from a space ship was likely to be less effective. Then someone pointed out that the crops were outside, and they could be destroyed at will. They could live in their caves for so long, but then they would starve. They had no choice.

  To everyone's surprise, Darian Rintoul requested speaking time. Even more strangely, he wanted to speak from the front of the meeting, rather than the usual procedure of simply standing up.

  "It is my view that surrender is premature," he said. "To start with, nobody has asked us to surrender."

  "Aw c'mon!" someone yelled. "You don't think that's goin' to save us?"

  "Of course not," Rintoul replied, "but look at it this way. The aliens want certain things that are provided by settlers. It was not beyond the realms of possibility they could get what they want from the other settlements, and since Theppot was underground, maybe they didn't really know much about it."

  Everybody stared at Rintoul, and eventually realized he had a point. They agreed to meet again if and when a message was directed towards them. In the meantime they would stay away from Hellas, and cease communications.

  Staying hidden worked for nearly two weeks, then a message was received from the aliens. In the intervening time, Rintoul had done some planning. The necessary meeting was called, and by now a sense of doom had come to Theppot. Theppot was an unusual settlement in that it had always resisted a central Mars government, it had always acted almost as an independent city-state, but this time the settlers were convinced there was no alternative.

  Again Rintoul requested speaking time, and again he went to the front of the meeting. "I have something of a plan," he said at last. "It may or may not work, but I intend to suggest that Theppot remain independent, and if the aliens want goods, they have to buy them."

  "And why are they going to do that when they can take them for free?" someone asked.

  "Can they take them for free?" Darian countered. "They can't be sure they can, and we can threaten to –"

  "C'mon! Threaten? What've we got to threaten with?"

  "The androids," Darian replied. "They live in a vacuum, and they're not without strength."

  "They're utterly harmless! They wouldn't hurt a fly."

  "The aliens don't know that," Rintoul countered. "Look, at least let me try. I mean, what's the choice? You can't see any option to surrender, right? Well, if I fail, what do we do? We surrender, and we're no worse off. But if it works . . ."

  The meeting saw the sense of this, and appointed Darian Rintoul as spokesman for Theppot, with the freedom to negotiate anything he could that was better than surrender. He had progressed from a quiet nobody to effective Leader in half an hour.

  The meeting with the aliens progressed in a totally unexpected way. A transporter from Hellas rolled up, but just before it arrived, a shuttle landed, and a black suited figure emerged and approached Darian. At his side he had a strange sword-like weapon, and on seeing Darian, his hand went to his side. Darian had been sta
nding beside a transporter, and from a rock hidden from the M'starn officer's view, he lifted the fully cocked and loaded crossbow that he had lifted from the Theppot museum. Careful to hold it at the ready, but not directly menacing, he faced the M'starn officer.

  He then nodded to one of his assistants, who lifted up a sign saying "No weapons". The M'starn officer nodded assent, and placed his weapon on a rock. Darien placed the crossbow on a rock in full view and gestured to the small dome to his right, and invited the M'starn officer into the dome. The transporter came to a halt, and a number of collaborators from Hellas wanted to follow, but the M'starn simply pointed to the leader, and indicated the rest should go back to their transporter. He also pointed to the "No weapons" sign, and then to the leader. The party entered the dome, and took off their helmets. One of the gardening androids was tending plants in the background. Darian had thought this would be difficult to arrange, but when he had gone to get one, one turned up, and followed him without question.

  To Darian's surprise, it was the collaborator who spoke. "We are taking over," the sandy haired man, who Darian had never seen before, said, "and we shall run Theppot. You will provide the following goods, and eighty people to serve the M'starn."

  "I'm sorry," Darian replied, "but I've never seen you before. Who are you?"

  "That's unimportant," the sandy haired man said flatly.

  "If you're afraid to give your name," Darian said with a taunt that took most of his courage to make, "it means you don't believe you will prevail. I shall await your demise."

  "You little shit! I'll teach you –" the sandy haired man started.

  "I tend to agree," the M'starn officer interrupted. "If you haven't the courage to identify yourself, I don't see that you're much use to me."

  "My name is Tony Munro," the man said, his voice showing a mixture of fear and of anger at having been put into the position of having to back down, "and you'll pay for –"