The great biodome, once the primary architectural feature of the old Colony One, was now lost in the skyline of the new city. Swallowed up by the widening perimeter of new domes. Like honeycomb in the hive, once the mechanical insects of Jezero had finished creating one sector, it was straight on to the next. Looking down from orbit it must seem like a great mound of blisters blooming out across the skin of the crater.
Of course, none of this higgledy-piggledy ad-hoc construction made any sense to Mia. It seemed to her that new sectors were simply added as they were needed, rather than with any regard to a master plan. In many ways this made it more interesting as you never knew what lay just around the proverbial corner, and since new ships arrived every six months, disgorging another hundred souls into the city, there was always a sense of excitement in the air.
The corridor she now found herself in connected several agri-domes together. It was wide and busy, mainly with robotic traffic moving produce and materials between other sectors. At the far end were two large grain silos, one on either side. She continued down the length of the corridor until it came to a dead end, terminating at an airlock. She peered in through the small window in the door. It was a rover dock. A utility where transports could connect directly to the city infrastructure, thereby negating the need to EVA. Both airlock doors could then be opened and goods brought in and out in a full pressure environment. This was critical for perishable goods, as any exposure to the harsh Martian environment could ruin all but the very hardiest of raw produce.
Mia could see a rover had been docked, and she could also see all the way down its interior into the cockpit. Werren was sitting in the pilot seat, talking into his headset. He finally noticed her looking in and raised a finger to let her know he’d be with her in a moment. Mia stood back from the door and waited. What the hell am I getting myself into here? she thought. Looks like I’m going on a trip. But before she had time to get cold feet and walk away, the door swung open.
“Miss Sorelli, you came. True to your word.” Werren stepped back and waved an arm to usher her into the machine. It was the first time Mia had been in a rover since landing on the planet. Then, they had simply been ferried from the ship over to the immigration and processing facilities out at the edge of the spaceport apron. Her memories of that journey consisted of trying to cope with the sudden effect of gravity on her body. She then spent a few sols acclimatizing in processing, before being piled onto a rover and ferried to Jezero City to start her new life. It was a journey she remembered vividly. Mia and several other colonists had their faces stuck to the windows of the rover, like a school of sucker fish in a tank, watching as the great domes of Jezero City rose up from the horizon.
She strapped herself into one of the passenger seats beside Werren as he disengaged the rover from the airlock and moved out from Ag-sector. Ahead of her, Mia could see the wide expanse of the crater stretching off into the distance. To her left she could see along the northern edge of the city. Here and there giant 3D printers were busy laying down new structures. Further out she spotted several other rovers of varying types, moving along the northern road across the crater. This led to the site of the original Colony Two, now called the Industrial Sector, and further up to the mines at Nili Fossae.
She turned back to Werren. “So, where are we going?”
The rover veered east, and Werren nodded at a direction vaguely forward. “Over there, Old Town.”
“Old Town?”
“Eh… you call it Central.” he replied.
“Never heard it called Old Town, kinda cute.”
Mia immediately regretted saying that, as she could tell he wasn’t impressed with it being described as kinda cute.
“In a deep and meaningful way, of course,” she tried to claw her way back.
He stayed silent, a sullen look painted on his face.
“I hate to be the one to break this to you, Werren, but we could have walked there. Not that I don’t appreciate you taking me out for a drive and all that.”
He gave her a look as if to say, do me a favor and shut up.
“But of course, lots of people would have seen us strolling along together, not to mention all those cameras everywhere,” she added.
Werren remained silent.
“But this way, it’s all on the QT. Someone is going to a lot of trouble to hide any evidence of this meeting.”
“It’s just quicker this way, that’s all,” he answered finally.
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
Mia gave him a look but decided to cut him a break and sit back and enjoy the ride. It wasn’t often it happened and only a lucky few who get in to Old Town. This was what the original colony grew out of, where the very first biodome was constructed. It was still there, but greatly expanded. If the rumors were to be believed it was now a kind of retirement home for the pioneers. Although, Mia reckoned that too was probably bullshit. Nevertheless, the sector she was about to enter was the governmental and administrative heart of the entire human colony on Mars. Here was where the council met, and where many of the councilors lived, along with an army of administrators, technicians and bureaucrats that managed the sol-to-sol running of the colony. They were generally known to everybody simply as Central.
Old Town, Mia thought. It sounded like this went deeper than just Central. Old Town smacked of secrets and subterfuge, where the myth and the politics of the history of the colony’s founding were kept in glass cases, preserved and polished, lest they be forgotten by those who think it’s all kinda cute.
She could see the fabled biodome coming into view as the rover skirted the last edges of the new city. The dome was smaller than she had imagined. Perhaps its legend had made it bigger in the mind than it actually was in reality. All around its perimeter were the main administrative buildings for Central. Behind the biodome, stretching back towards the crater rim, a large three story building rose up. Along its facade Mia could see a wide ribbon of windows facing out on the city. Must be one hell of a view from up there, she thought.
Werren brought the rover up to the base of this building and reversed into a vacant dock. It came to a halt with a satisfying clunk and a hiss as the airlock engaged.
“We’re here. Come, follow me.”
They exited the rover into a plush circular atrium. The floor was covered in a thick hessian carpet, the first time Mia had seen such luxurious flooring anywhere in Jezero. There were plants and small trees scattered around the space. In the center, a small fountain trickled water over a pebbled pond. Light flooded in from a glass canopy above.
“Nice digs. How can I get me one of these?”
“Maybe when you grow up.”
Mia looked over at Werren and gave him a wide grin. “See, I knew you had a sense of humor buried in there somewhere.”
He smiled back as he held his palm against a panel on the far wall. Doors slid open to reveal a lift. They stepped inside, the door closed and the lift rose—all the way to the top, as far as Mia could figure. The doors finally opened directly into a wide open living space.
Werren gestured for her to exit the lift. “This is where I must leave you.”
Mia hesitated for a moment, then stepped out. The far wall was a single, wide window looking out over the domed city and across the central crater plateau. The silhouette of a woman with her back to Mia, stood looking out at the grand vista. She had one hand up to her ear, talking to someone. For a few moments Mia wasn’t sure what to do, and gave a startled jump when the lift doors closed behind her. This seemed to alert the woman to her presence and she turned around to greet her.
“Ah… Mia Sorelli, so glad you could come.”
Mia recognized her immediately. She guessed that she would be meeting someone important, someone from the council or high up in Central. But what she didn’t expect was to be meeting the legend that was Dr. Jann Malbec.
Mia’s mouth opened, but nothing came out. And for the first time in a great many months, Mia
was speechless.
“Please, come in, take a seat. Can I get you anything, something to drink perhaps?”
Mia tried to force some words out of her mouth, anything would do. Her brain was sending the signals, but nothing was happening.
“Please forgive all the mystery. I’m sure it seems a bit over the top.”
“Eh… yes… a drink would be great.”
Jann moved over to within arm’s reach of Mia and offered her hand. “I’m Dr. Jann Malbec, thank you for coming.”
Mia looked down and then shook her hand. Jann held it for a moment as she directed the hapless Mia to a low chair by the window. “Please, have a seat.” She released her grip. Mia sat and tried to regain some composure, and she was getting there until an odd looking G2 unit whizzed into the room and stopped beside Dr. Malbec.
“Ah… Gizmo, good of you to join us. This is Mia Sorelli, the one I was telling you about.”
The droid swiveled its head and looked at Mia as if it was doing a full body scan on her. It then raised one arm and spoke. “Greetings, Earthling.”
“Eh… greetings.” Mia managed to reply.
“Gizmo, would you be so kind as to fetch us some tea?” Jann asked the droid as she moved herself to a seat opposite Mia.
“Certainly.” It whizzed out of the main room leaving a stunned Mia watching it go.
“That’s quite a quirky G2 unit you’ve got there.”
Dr. Malbec picked up a slate, scanned the screen then looked up at Mia. “Yes, but it’s not a G2 unit. It’s actually the original that all the others are based on. That’s what the G in G2 stands for. Gizmo.”
“If it’s a ‘2,’ then there must have been a one before it?”
Dr. Malbec nodded. “Yes, there was.” She waved a dismissive hand. “But that was a long time ago now.” She watched the droid come back in with a tray and place it deftly on a low table between them.
“Thank you, Gizmo.” Jann handed a cup to Mia.
“No problem, catch you all later.” And it whizzed off again.
Mia was still watching. “It’s not like the others, is it?”
Dr. Malbec gave a slight laugh. “No, that’s for sure.” She sat back in her seat. “Anyway, as I said, thanks for agreeing to meet me. I’m sure you’re wondering what it’s all about.”
“The thought had crossed my mind.”
Malbec consulted her slate again and swiped a finger across its surface. “So, you’ve been here, what… nearly seven months now?”
“Yeah.”
Malbec looked up. “And how’s it going, I mean, how are you getting on?”
Mia gave a brief nod. “Keeping the head down, going to bed early, being a good girl… for the most part.”
Malbec shifted in her chair. Mia reckoned this wasn’t the answer she was expecting. “It can be a difficult transition for many. Some people take time to adjust to this new life,” Jann said.
“I imagine so.”
“But you haven’t had any problem, with the transition, that is?”
Mia looked at Dr. Malbec for a moment, then carefully set her cup back down on the table. She sat back in the chair and put her hands on the armrests. “Correct me if I’m wrong, Dr. Malbec…”
“Jann. Please call me Jann.”
“Jann. I’m guessing you didn’t go to all the trouble to get me here just to do a one woman survey of the local citizenry?”
Jann paused a beat before replying, “No, you’re right… I didn’t.”
“Well then, why don’t you just spit it out and tell me whatever it is you brought me here for.”
Jann sat back in her chair and looked out the window for a moment. “I need your help.”
4
Like An Everyday Gal
Dr. Jann Malbec looked out the window at the domed skyline of Jezero City. “You know the type of people that we have up here, Mia?”
Mia didn’t answer, preferring instead to let Dr. Malbec do the talking.
“Engineers and scientists—all highly skilled. It’s this way because of our selection process, only the best of the best get to become colonists.” She looked around at Mia. “But you came here on the lottery system. So that makes you one of the eight percent of colonists that are essentially picked at random.”
“So I’m not a scientist, not the best of the best. Is that what you wanted to tell me?” Mia finally found her voice again.
Dr. Malbec sat back down and picked up her slate. “No, you’re not a scientist, this is true. But you do have a unique skill set that no one else up here has. And you’re one of the best in your field.”
“And what field would that be?”
Dr. Malbec swiped her finger across the slate again and tapped on something. “You worked as a homicide investigator for six years before that… unfortunate incident ended your career.”
Unfortunate incident. Mia’s gut churned at the memory. It was something she had tried very hard to bury deep within herself for the last five years. She had left it behind when she strapped herself into the colony ship and departed Earth. Now this bitch was dragging it back up again. Who the hell did she think she was?
“Look, lady. I know you’re something of a big cheese here, but you can’t go trawling through the dirty laundry of a colonist. It’s supposed to be like the French Foreign Legion on Mars, you leave all the dirt behind on Earth, and no one gets to use it. Christ, I thought there was a law against that sort of thing here?” Mia was shocked at her own outburst. She didn’t handle it very well and now she had ruined any advantage she might have gained from her meeting with one of the most powerful people on the planet.
Dr. Malbec quietly placed the slate back down on the table and regarded Mia. “You’re right. While poking into people’s dirty laundry is not exactly against the law here, it is very much discouraged, unless there is a clear need to do so. And I have a need that you happen to be uniquely equipped to undertake.”
Mia had regained some of her composure. She took a few more sips of tea just to distract herself a bit and help her get a grip. “I’m sorry, Dr. Malbec. But it’s a bit of a touchy subject for me.”
“Why don’t you tell me about it?”
Mia pointed at the slate resting on the table between them. “Do I really need to? You already know all about it. You probably know more about me than I do myself.”
“Look, Mia. We all have our shit. Stuff we want to forget, things we wish never happened. But it’s not about the crap, it’s about how we deal with it that matters.”
“Easy for you to say, you’re a goddamn legend.”
“Trust me, that has its disadvantages.”
They both got quiet for a moment before Jann spoke again. “Why don’t you just tell me about it yourself, about what happened to you.”
Mia sighed. It was not something she really wanted to get into, not now, not ever. But there was something about Dr. Malbec. Perhaps it was because she had been through more crap than anyone could ever hope to survive. And yet, here she was, in the flesh, drinking tea, just like an everyday gal. Mia never had anything but respect for her and what she had accomplished. But maybe it was because her own personal traumas paled in comparison to Dr. Malbec’s dark past, that she finally let it all out. The first time she had done so in over five years.
“I killed an innocent kid. Shot her with my service pistol. It was my finger that pulled the trigger.” There, she said it.
She looked up at Malbec and shrugged. “It was an accident, just one of those things. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Mia sighed, sat back in the chair and proceeded to tell her story.
“I was following up on a lead, checking out a lowlife who was a known associate of a guy we were looking for. He was holed up in a dump on the outskirts. It was a big old block, falling apart, full of poor families living on the edge. Anyway, I headed over there on my own. That was my first mistake. Someone somewhere tipped him off I was coming. You know the way these places work. They see a cop comin
g in through the lobby and all of a sudden the pipes start rattling. By the time I’d reached the third floor, he was ready and waiting. He jumped me in the stairwell, and punched me in the face. I went flying, and he took off like a fat torpedo. Once I got my head together I took off after him.”
“He was a big bastard, so he was slow. I had him in my sights by the time I got to the ground floor, so I pulled out my weapon and shouted a warning at him. There were a bunch of other people around who all hit the floor at this point. He didn’t stop, so I ran after him and then… well, I tripped over some guy on the ground taking cover. I never found out if he did it deliberately, you know—so the other guy could get away. Anyway, I fell to the floor, and the gun went off.
For a moment or two there was complete silence. Then the screaming started. I pulled myself up and went over to see what had happened. A young mother was cradling a kid in her arms, blood seeping from a wound in the girl’s abdomen. She was still alive then. I remember her eyes staring up at me, as if to say why did you kill me… and her mother screaming, screaming, screaming.” Mia put her head in her hands and let a few moments go by before she wiped her face and continued.
“Then they shot me. Never found out who it was. I took a bullet in the chest and one in my left shoulder. I don’t remember anything after that until I woke up to a shitstorm. The kid was an immigrant, so I was a racist bitch and all the goddamn politics of the moment got dumped down on my head. They destroyed me. Screwed me over and hung me out to swing.”
Mia shook her head. “Then for two years I looked for escape in the bottom of a bottle and a drawer full of pills—I didn’t find any. Sometimes I thought it would have been better if they had convicted me for something and locked me up. Anyway, bit by bit I pulled myself back together. Once I had climbed out from the bottom of the pit some friends lent a hand and straightened me out. That’s when I started getting interested in the colony.”
She looked at Jann. “It’s hard to ignore the colony back on Earth, it’s everywhere. So, I said what the heck, couldn’t be worse than this place. I applied, and the department, to their credit, decided to sponsor me. I think they felt bad about all the crap that had been dished out to me. Anyway, I got picked in the lottery and… well, here I am—that’s my story.”
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