Colony Mars Ultimate Edition

by Gerald M. Kilby

  Bret sat back, a little deflated. "So, you're saying that we do nothing. Just leave it be, walk away?"

  "No, I'm not saying that." Her voice was calm and measured. "All I'm saying is you need to be realistic about what we can achieve. We’ll be a long way from home, and any authority that our badge affords us in Jezero City will be all but useless to us in Syrtis."

  Bret was quiet for a moment as Mia's words began to sink in. "It doesn't seem fair, does it?"

  "Fair? What's fair in this place?" Mia waved a hand at the dense fog outside. "It’s just survival, Bret. That's all there is left for us here."

  He glanced out the window for a moment, contemplating the thick brown dust. "Do you ever regret coming here?"

  Mia shrugged. "There probably isn't a human living on Mars now that doesn't."

  "That's not true." He looked genuinely offended by this statement.

  "It's true for a lot of people." She considered him for a moment. "I'll tell you something, Bret. If I manage to survive this goddamn dust storm, you know what I'm going to do?"

  He shook his head.

  "Take the first ship off this godforsaken rock and get my ass back to Earth. I never should have left."

  6

  Syrtis

  It seemed to take forever for the caravan to dock in Syrtis. They had been waiting at the terminal for over an hour while engineers worked to secure the umbilicals, allowing the passengers to disembark. But they had problems with the seals; dust and sand had accumulated around the mechanisms, making it difficult to maintain an airtight connection. At one point, a decompression alert flashed momentarily, sending everybody scrambling for their EVA suit helmets. Eventually, two of the forward airlocks were made operational, and slowly the occupants of the caravan filed out onto the busy terminal platform.

  The concourse was wide and spacious, but had a decidedly dilapidated feel to it. Illumination was poor, making it hard to get a sense of its actual size. It was busy with people milling around, some waiting to meet those who had just arrived, while some were laborers waiting for all the passengers to disembark so they could start unloading goods out of the caravan. There were also several brightly lit stalls selling food and drinks to weary travelers, as well as several kids going person to person, selling trinkets and baubles. Intermingled with this teeming mass of humanity were well-armed security guards, constantly moving, ever alert.

  They were to be met by an agent from the MLOD here in Syrtis. But as Mia and Bret scanned the concourse, there was no sign of anyone. Mia checked her wrist screen for any message from the agency. Nothing.

  "Anything?" said Bret, a little fatigued from the long journey.

  "Nope. Maybe they've forgotten about us. We might need to make our own way there." Mia turned around to Gizmo, who was attracting the attention of some small kids. Presumably they had never seen a droid this ancient before.

  "Gizmo, can you plot a route to MLOD HQ?"

  "Certainly. It is approximately seventeen minutes’ journey from here, at the average human walking speed."

  "Okay, if no one shows up in the next few minutes, then we should just make our own way there."

  Somewhere in the dark recesses of the concourse, shouts broke out and people began to scatter as a ragged individual burst through the crowd. He was running—or rather limping, as his right leg seemed to be injured. As he struggled forward, he glanced over his shoulder at two guards who were chasing him down. One raised a plasma weapon and fired. A bolt of incandescent electrical fury hit the man square in the back and sent him flying. He landed facedown along the concourse floor and lay still, a thin filament of smoke corkscrewing up from where he had been hit. A vague tang of burning flesh permeated the air.

  He was dead, no doubt about it. They had used lethal force when they could have simply stunned him. Mia studied the security guards and realized that they were not MLOD officers but corporate security with a Montecristo Industries insignia emblazoned on their uniforms.

  "I think they just killed him." Bret nudged Mia, shock evident in his voice.

  She didn't reply; she was still taking in the scene. People had already begun to go about their business, not paying any heed to the guy who had just been gunned down. She began to suspect that this might be a common occurrence in Syrtis.

  Mia had been so taken up by the unfolding drama that she had not noticed a petite MLOD officer coming out of the crowd and walking toward them.

  "Major Sorelli?"

  Mia turned to find a very young and slightly disheveled officer extending a hand to her. Mia took it. "Yes, that's me. And this is my associate, Lieutenant Bret Stanton."

  "I'm Officer Nano Wells. Sorry for the delay, but we had a fire in a local accommodation module, so things have been a bit crazy."

  Mia nodded and took a quick glance back to where the two guards were now dragging the body out of the terminal. She looked back at the young officer and realized that Wells was not in the least bit perturbed by the fact that two private security guards had just gunned someone down in a public space in what passed for broad daylight in this place.

  "Is this your droid?" The young officer turned her attention to Gizmo. "Jeez, things must be pretty bad in Jezero if you have to use old G2 units."

  "I beg your pardon, but I am not an old G2 unit. In fact..."

  Mia raised a hand to the droid. "Just leave it, Gizmo." She turned back to the young officer. "Let's get going. I really need to get out of the EVA suit as soon as possible."

  Officer Nano Wells's face brightened. "Sure. This way, I have a ground car waiting."

  They moved off together, passing over the very spot where the young man's life had ended just a few moments earlier.

  The terminal opened out onto a wide, elliptical plaza bisected by a busy main thoroughfare. Everywhere was thronged with traffic and people. Mia glanced up into the overhead gloom, but could not make out the roof of the vast dome that housed this sector. It was obscured by a thick haze of fine dust. They clambered into an open-topped ground car with the MLOD insignia emblazoned on the sides. Wells tapped some commands and the car moved off autonomously, merging with the traffic.

  It had been a long time since Mia visited Syrtis, so her memories were vague. Nonetheless, it was clear to her that much had changed in that time, and most of it for the worse. As they moved through an accommodation sector, Mia could see that many of the units were closed up, some were borderline derelict, and one or two even showed signs of fire damage. Along the street, people gathered in small knots and groups, on corners and in gaps, and all seemed to have an air of dejected resignation about them. All wore face masks to mitigate the effects of the contaminated air.

  Mia also noticed a lot of security personnel strategically placed at intersections and around specific installations. But what piqued her interest further was that, as they moved from sector to sector through the city, the insignia the security guards wore would change, presumably signifying what group controlled what area.

  They finally arrived at a low, two-story municipal building with the MLOD sign illuminated over a dilapidated portico. The car drove into an inner courtyard, finally pulling up alongside several other official vehicles. Officer Wells stepped out first and turned to face Mia. "The chief says he'll see you in a half hour, so I can show you where you can stay and get out of those EVA suits, maybe freshen up."

  It was the first time Wells had spoken during the entire journey. Mia wondered if she had been told to keep her mouth shut and say nothing.

  She brought them up to two rooms on the second floor—nothing fancy, basic and utilitarian. She explained that they were generally used for temporary staff, but most of them were gone now. As Mia surveyed the room, she wondered if Dan Frazer had met his end in something similar. She would get Gizmo to analyze the room’s life support, just in case.

  Thirty minutes later, Mia and Bret entered the office of the chief of police of Syrtis, one Joshua T. Becker. Mia had left Gizmo back at the rooms so that the
droid could give them a thorough technical check over.

  The chief was a tall, heavyset man in his fifties, with the jaded demeanor of a person who has been thoroughly worn down by life. He was sitting behind a large, nondescript desk in a room filled with the bric-a-brac of a life spent on the force. Sitting at the far end of the same desk was a civilian who went by the name of Vance Baptiste. Quite what he did, or what he was doing here, Mia didn't know.

  They both stood up when Mia and Bret entered, shook hands, said their greetings, and sat back down again.

  "Terrible tragedy, just terrible. Agent Frazer was a good man, one of our best. His passing is a big loss for the department." The chief rested his elbows on the desk with his hands clasped together, an earnest look on his face.

  "The report says he died of CO2 poisoning in his own accommodation module?" said Mia.

  "Yeah, the scrubber failed. Just one of those things. Everything is breaking down, scarcity of parts. Ah...it's a daily battle to keep everything running." He shook his head and pursed his lips. "This dust storm is extracting a heavy price from all of us."

  "Once we start getting proper shipments from Earth, things should improve all around," said Bret.

  Mia couldn't be certain, but she thought she saw glances exchanged between the two men at the mention of the word shipment. "So, you don't think he was murdered, then?"

  The chief gave a forced laugh and shook his head. "Ha... It was just an accident, could happen to any of us." And there it was again, that subtle exchange between the two men.

  Mia turned to Baptiste. "And what's your interest in all of this?"

  Baptiste gave the disarming smile of a practiced politician. "As a representative of quite a number of the citizenry of this great city, I feel it is my duty to be here to extend a welcome to representatives of the MLOD and Jezero." He opened his hands in a disarming fashion. "It's seldom that we have official visitors these sols. Things must be bad in Jezero. I hear you are resorting to using old G2 droids?"

  Mia gave her best smile. "True, things are bad in Jezero. But not quite as bad as here, I think. We don't have private security gunning down people in public."

  She noticed a distinct change in the body language of the two men.

  "We simply don't have the resources here that you maintain in Jezero." The chief's tone became more accusatory. "And we have four times the population. We have to rely on the cooperation of the private sector. Without them, it would be anarchy."

  "What's troubling me, chief, is that your officer, Nano Wells, didn't even bat an eyelid at this incident. Which leads me to believe that it's common practice here in Syrtis. So, correct me if I'm wrong, but it is against the law, isn't it?"

  Becker responded with calm, avuncular charm. "Look, these are challenging times for all concerned. We can only do what we can with what we've got. And yes"—he waved a hand in the air—"a blind eye may be turned here and there so that the resources available to the MLOD can be used where they are most needed."

  Mia considered them for a moment, then decided it was time to move on. "Very well. As you say, challenging times." She gave an accepting shrug. "If we're finished here, then we would like to see the body. And also the apartment where Agent Frazer was found."

  The chief's demeanor now relaxed a little. "Certainly, by all means. I will have Officer Wells bring you to the morgue."

  He stood up to signify that the meeting was now at an end, then hesitated for a beat and gave Mia and Bret a concerned look. "Just a word of advice regarding your safety here in Syrtis. Try not to let too many people know that you're from Jezero. There are some folks that could be...eh, a little antagonistic."

  Mia stood up. "Antagonistic?"

  "I think what the chief is trying to say"—it was Baptiste who decided to answer—"is that there are some...undesirable elements within Syrtis that have somehow gotten it into their heads that Jezero is to blame for all their troubles. I know, it's ridiculous." He waved a hand in the air. "But it's best that you're aware of it now, before you walk into something...inadvertently."

  Mia wasn't quite sure if this was a genuine gesture to forewarn them of potential friction with the locals, or if it was a direct threat, warning them to not go snooping around. But she let it be. "Okay, thanks for the heads up. Now, if you don't mind, we would like to see the body."

  Becker tapped at a screen on his desk. "I'll have Officer Wells escort you over."

  "Thanks."

  "I presume you'll be heading back with the body tomorrow?" said the chief.

  "That's the plan."

  "Very well, we'll make sure it is suitably stored for transport."

  They said their goodbyes, left the chief's office, and followed Wells as she escorted them through a labyrinth of corridors within the MLOD HQ.

  Mia's earpiece pinged; she tapped it to take the call. It was Gizmo.

  "How long must I be imprisoned in this room?"

  Mia sighed. "Not long. We'll be back soon. Have you made any progress with my...eh, request?"

  "Of course I have. As suspected, both rooms are bugged with extensive video and audio surveillance as well as comms traffic. But do not worry, I have encrypted our channel so that this conversation is secure."

  "Okay, stay put. We'll be back soon."

  "I hope this is not another adventure where I have to be hidden away and act dumb?"

  "Just...don't go wandering around for now, okay?"

  "Very well, if you insist."

  They arrived at the morgue. "Gotta go, Gizmo. Talk later." She closed the comms channel.

  The room was brightly lit and stark, and it had that same clinical smell of every morgue in the solar system. They walked down a long wall of storage pods until Wells stopped and placed her palm on the small control panel beside one of the hatches. There was a momentary click, then a hum as the hatch opened and a slab slid out automatically. On it lay the body of Agent Dan Frazer.

  He was naked except for an electronic tag attached to the big toe of his right foot. His skin complexion was pallid, as expected. And there were no outward signs of any physical trauma. Mia leaned in closer and checked the body in more detail, looking for any indication that he may have received an injury sufficient to cause his death. But there was none. She turned to Bret. "Give me a hand to turn him over."

  The lieutenant grabbed the body on one shoulder, and between them they turned him enough for Mia to examine Frazer's back. Nothing. They let him down again and stood back a little. Mia hadn't expected to find anything; she had read the coroner's report: death by asphyxiation—not an uncommon way to die on Mars.

  She turned to Wells. "Any personal effects?"

  The young officer touched a button on the side of the slab and a long, shallow drawer eased out from the base. "Here you go. This is everything he had on him."

  There were two lots packed in transparent plastic bags. The bigger of the two contained clothes, and the other one contained all the items found on him at the time of death.

  "He was fully clothed?" Mia looked up at Wells, who seemed confused by the question.

  She just shrugged. "I guess so."

  "I thought he died in his sleep," said Bret. "As in, he was in bed at the time."

  Wells again looked apologetic. "I don't know anything about the incident. It should all be in the report."

  Mia waved a hand. "It doesn't matter." She picked up the bag of personal effects, her interest drawn to the dead agent's slate. "We're taking this with us." She turned to Bret and nodded in the direction of the door. "I think we've seen enough. Let's get going."

  They walked back to their rooms, but said nothing as Wells escorted them. It was only when they entered Mia's room that they got a chance to talk, but not before Gizmo filled them in on the surveillance situation.

  "Finally, you have returned." Gizmo's voice came through on Mia's earpiece, as well as Bret's, whose hand instantly went up to his ear. "Do not say anything you do not want them to hear," Gizmo continued. "We m
ay need to go someplace else if you want to talk. Or I could jam the signal, but that might alert them to us knowing that we are being monitored."

  Mia nodded that she understood. She turned to Bret. "You hungry? I could use some food. Let's go find a place."

  Bret nodded. "Starving. Let's go."

  They left the MLOD HQ and walked out onto the main thoroughfare. It was still daytime, so there were quite a few people around, all with masks and scarves covering their mouths and noses. A thin haze hung in the air, and Mia reckoned it would be a good idea if they did likewise, as the air quality was poor—much worse than in Jezero.

  She consulted her wrist screen. "There’s a place just up here. We can talk as we walk. Gizmo, any joy hacking the grid terminal in that room? Can we use it to get into their systems?"

  "Limited. Most of what might be useful or interesting is quantum-encrypted. Unhackable. Even I cannot get past that."

  Mia tapped a few icons on her wrist screen again. "I'm sending you some video I recorded of our conversation with the chief. There was another guy there, Vance Baptiste. Can you do a search and find out who he is and who's bankrolling him?"

  They arrived at a food hall that Wells had mentioned, popular with officers and staff from the MLOD. Bret had considered that this would be like camping out in enemy territory. But Mia dismissed his concerns. "We'll find a quiet corner and stay on comms so they don't hear Gizmo. And with these masks on, they won't be able to hear or lip read too well—assuming we're not simply being paranoid. Anyway, us being here will raise less suspicion, and it's probably best that we don't go wandering off to where the locals might not be too friendly to us Jezero types."

  The food hall was spacious but dimly lit, which suited Mia's needs just fine. There was a long counter on the right as they entered, a number of customers eating along it. She also spotted a few beat-up old droids. The rest of the space was taken up by around a dozen tables, none of which seemed occupied. All eyes at the counter stopped what they were doing and looked over at them as they came in. Mia gave a friendly nod and headed for the table farthest away from the counter. They sat down and said very little as they perused a menu screen embedded in the table’s surface. It was mainly noodle dishes. They made their selection and waited for the food to arrive.