Martian Rainbow

by Robert L. Forward

  "Kill me!" Alexander exclaimed, perturbed. "I want those people punished."

  "They were punished," Rob assured Alexander. "I dumped a few sail-loads of crowbars on the whole city. The few survivors will think twice before they try anything like that again."

  "But surely not everyone at Novosibirsk was involved," Tanya protested. "To destroy a whole city of scientists because of the actions of a few—"

  "I don't trust any scientist," Rob said. "They aren't real people. No emotions you can play on. Too honest. That's what gave me the clue something was up. They turned into Unies too fast."

  "Kill me?" Alexander said, ignoring their conversation and shaking his head. "The Infinite Lord? I cannot be killed. I cannot die. I must not die!"

  "If I hadn't caught that plot in time, you would have been dead, all right," Rob said, pleased with himself. "Infinite Lord or not."

  "No! The Infinite Lord must live forever!" Alexander yelled. "Get me Jerry!" He fumbled with his wrist communicator. Rob raised his and tapped in the codes. After a pause he looked at the reply on the screen.

  "Jerry was down in the basement control center working on the program for the security system for the castle. He'll be right up. I'm sure he will reassure you that every precaution is being taken for your safety."

  "Good," Alexander said, still perturbed. He paced nervously away, muttering to himself. "The Infinite Lord cannot die ..."

  "As I was saying," Rob continued, talking softly so that only Tanya could hear. "I don't trust scientists. And that includes you!"

  "I have done nothing," Tanya said calmly.

  "I know," Rob said, turning pointedly to look at the still rising sails. "And don't even think of trying anything, or you'll be as dead as Novosibirsk. This setup is too good to lose."

  THE ELEVATOR door opened to an audible whoosh-whoosh and Jerry stepped out. He was wearing a white sweat shirt, running shoes, and trim swim trunks over tight muscular buttocks now nearly devoid of flab. Life on Cyprus as head of Alexander's Department of Applied Magic had been good for him. He flipped back the viewer on his white and purple Cap of Contact and trotted over to Alexander.

  "Jerry!" Alexander said, brightening up. "You look in tiptop shape today."

  "I owe it all to you, my Infinite Lord!" Jerry said, bowing slightly. "What can I do for you?"

  "Someone tried to kill me today."

  "Oh! No!" Jerry said, appalled at the thought. "The death of the Infinite Lord is unthinkable!"

  "It must be made unthinkable," Alexander said firmly. "I want you to make a bomb—a doomsday bomb. It must be big enough to blow up the whole world! It is to be arranged so that if I am killed, everybody else in the whole world is killed."

  "That would truly make your death unthinkable," Jerry said, pleased with the idea. "Let me see ... We have plenty of nuclear warheads left in the missile silos in the American states and the EEC states—but I'm not sure they are enough to really do a good job on the whole world. What we need is something bigger—like the huge asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, only bigger, so that nothing survives."

  "Just a minute!" Rob interrupted, beginning to get alarmed. "I don't mind spending any reasonable amount on security to make sure nobody gets to Alex, but this is ridiculous. Suppose he popped off because of a heart attack? Bingo! The world is gone. No way! I refuse to allow it!"

  Alexander stiffened and raised himself up to glare over at Rob. "Who are you to tell the Infinite Lord what he can do and what he cannot do?"

  Rob decided he'd had enough. "I'm the guy that made you—that's who! I made you—and I can break you! If I hear any more of this Infinite Lord doomsday bomb stuff, I'll have Eric cut off your comm links and deflate you so fast you'll be a nobody in three months."

  Tanya had come up beside Alexander and was now stroking one of his cheeks, trying to calm him down. "You have the whole world, Alex, and me, too. Why don't you just enjoy it and let Rob and Jerry take care of the petty details like security."

  Alexander ignored Tanya's presence, and in the twilight his steel-gray eyes flashed black, as the deadly arrowlike furrows sprang up around them.

  "You dare threaten the Infinite Lord?" he roared. "I warned you once before that I don't get mad at people, Rob. I get rid of them. You don't get a second chance." He turned and hollered, "Guards!"

  The guards came running, gun-spears at the ready.

  Rob, suddenly alarmed, started to back off. "Wait, Alex! I'm sorry about—"

  But Alexander wasn't listening. Pointing to Rob he ordered, "Get rid of that man!" The four huge Amazons surrounded Rob and, grunting, lifted him into the air. One had him by the tie—choking him so he couldn't scream.

  "Alex! Don't ..." Tanya pleaded, pulling at Alexander's shoulders.

  The guards walked over to the parapet, holding Rob high. They paused for a second to look back at Alexander. He glared, then deliberately turned his back.

  Rob screamed for a few seconds as he fell down the tall tower. There was a thud, then silence.

  Alexander turned to look at Tanya. His face stern. "Don't ... what?" he asked menacingly.

  "Nothing," Tanya said weakly, brushing an invisible piece of lint off his padded golden shoulders.

  "Good. Go downstairs and get in my bed where you belong. I'll see you shortly."

  "I'm looking forward to it," Tanya said, trying hard to make her smile look enticing instead of forced. As she took the elevator down to Alexander's quarters her mind was whirling. She would have to try harder to stop this tyrant—take more chances—find something sharp and an unguarded moment to strike. But even with Rob gone, the Watchers would be observing her every move—and Alex always sent her out of his room after he had finished with her and before he went to sleep ... She would just have to try harder.

  ALEXANDER turned to Jerry.

  "Y'know," Jerry said, musing, "when those guards were tossing Rob over the balustrade—it reminded me of that old idea that Newton wrote down in his Principia on the similarity between cannonballs and satellites. If the guards had thrown hard enough, Rob would have gone into orbit."

  "Rob in orbit!" Alexander exclaimed—then burst into uncontrollable laughter at the image of the porcine Rob floating in space, arms and legs waving in the vacuum. He got himself under some control, then blurted out, "P ... p ... pigs in space!" and burst into laughter again. Jerry laughed with him.

  "Anyway," Jerry said after they had both calmed down, "it gave me an idea for a terrific doomsday bomb. I'll take some of the orbital forts we have floating around in space, add some asteroid slag for mass, and tie them all together with the new high magnetic field superconductors into a giant artificial asteroid. Only this asteroid is going to be in the strangest orbit you have ever seen—a bouncing orbit."

  "Bouncing orbit?" Alexander repeated, puzzled.

  "The asteroid—we can call it the 'Mace of God' if you like—"

  "I like it!" Alexander said.

  "The Mace of God starts way up high above the northern hemisphere of Earth—I don't know the exact distance yet, it's probably out further than the Moon—but poleward. It drops straight down at the Earth, getting bigger and bigger—and scarier and scarier. Then just before it hits the Earth, you push a button and the asteroid splits into two pieces and goes flying apart, pushed by magnetic springs.

  "The two pieces go orbiting around the Earth, meet on the other side, the magnetic fields clamp the two halves together again, and the recombined asteroid shoots upward over the southern hemisphere. If I time everything right, it will take half a week to climb up and half a week to fall down, so once a week you save the whole world from instant obliteration by the mere press of a button."

  "People will really appreciate me then, won't they?" Alexander said, pleased.

  "Yeah! And once I have the button keyed so that it only responds to your thumb, then no one will dare attempt to assassinate you!"

  "You have done well for your Infinite Lord, Jerry," Alexander said, patting the young
man on the back.

  "I have not done it yet, my Infinite Lord. But I'll start work on it right away. It shouldn't take long. Most of what we need is already in orbit. One of the tricky parts will be the identification hardware and software to make sure that it is really you that pushes the button."

  "Remember, I don't like that iris identification stuff. It's not dignified for the Infinite Lord to have to stare into a peephole like ordinary people."

  "I am quite aware of that, my Infinite Lord. But tactile-plates are tricky to adjust. I hope you'll be able to give my assistant some of your time tomorrow?"

  "Sure," Alexander said agreeably.

  "His name is Bill Boswick. Sixth level and as sharp and hardworking a computer hacker as you'll find anywhere."

  "Tell your owlie to make an appointment with ..." Alexander started. "Damn! Guess I'll have to get Eric to replace Rob. Can't be bothered with all these details ..."

  SATURDAY afternoons were Tanya's free days. Alexander liked boxing and spent every Saturday afternoon watching the fights put on for his benefit. The last fight was always a heavyweight fight—bare-knuckled—to the finish. Both winners and losers in the bloody contest were paid handsomely, but sometimes it was the next of kin that collected the loser's share. Tanya usually begged off and went shopping.

  In one luxury store limited to seventh level Watchers and higher, she was looking over some sexy nightgowns to see if these were perhaps the key to a heart attack or stroke. There were only a few weeks left until Jerry would have the Mace of God operational. Once the Mace was in place and keyed to Alexander's hand, then she would have to shift her tactics to keeping Alexander alive and healthy as long as possible. She should also find some way to warn those on Mars, although there was little they could do.

  The clerk serving her wore a fifth level yellow Cap of Contact and kept trying to interest her in a compact of eye makeup.

  "I'm sure madam would find this most interesting," the clerk said, holding out the compact in front of her.

  "I'm not interested."

  "The design is most unique," the clerk persisted, opening the compact. "The mirror is removable." She levered the mirror forward out of its receptacle in the top. Behind the mirror was a yellow viking coin from Mars.

  Tanya stole a furtive look at her ever-present Amazon guard. The guard was standing in the doorway to the shop, looking outside, obviously bored. Few of the clothes there would have looked good on that burly body. Of course, the shop had surveillance cameras, like every other place on Cyprus, but considering its clientele, Tanya was sure that the Watchers spent little time monitoring the activities in this store. Besides, mere possession of a Mars coin was not a crime. Many had been brought back as souvenirs.

  "Very interesting color. I'll take it." Tanya reached for it, but the clerk pulled it away.

  "That's just a sample," she said. "I'll get you a fresh one." She reached under the counter and handed Tanya a box.

  "If you don't like the color, bring it back," the clerk said. "I'll replace it with another one."

  CHAPTER 17

  Designing Eden

  ALEXANDER had barred two-way communication with Mars. His ego, however, was such that the laser link from Earth still transmitted video programs from the Church of the Unifier television network. He hoped ultimately to convert those on Mars by the force of his personality, having failed using the force of his weaponry. Almost the only one who watched the programs was Maury Pickford. As one of his many jobs as part-time assistant to Chris, governor of Mars, whenever he had some free time he would skim through the day's worth of stored programs, passing over the commercials and sermons, to pay careful attention to the live coverage of Alexander and other church officials, trying to extract some real news for publication in his videotext newspaper, the Mars Weekly.

  "THE WARNINGS we've been getting from Tanya through the Mars underground have finally come true," Gus said. He was gathered with a number of other scientists in the main lecture hall in the basement of the Sagan Mars Institute. During mealtimes, the lecture hall doubled as part of the base cafeteria. Now the chairs were all facing one way and everybody was watching the Church of the Unifier program on the large flatscreen in the end wall. It was Sunday on Earth and Alexander was preaching his usual Sunday sermon. Gus noticed that Alexander had lost some weight and no longer had an apoplectic color to his face. Tanya must now be doing all she could to keep him healthy. Today the views of Alexander preaching were interposed with views of a falling artificial asteroid. The camera angles, taken from strategically spaced spacecraft and various locations on the ground, showed clearly that the asteroid was falling rapidly straight at Earth. Directly in front of Alexander was a large model of the globe, and above it, slowly moving down, was a miniature model of the falling asteroid.

  "The world is sinful and needs to be punished," Alexander preached to the huge audience that had gathered to hear him in the gigantic Eurodome, built where the country of Monaco used to be. It was evening and the dome had been retracted to show the starry sky above. "So I have caused to be made the Mace of God. If the Mace of God strikes the Earth, it will destroy all that live upon it."

  He paused, and a computer simulation showed the Mace of God falling onto Europe. First there came the searing heat and light from the shock-heated atmosphere piling up in front of the asteroid, then a gigantic explosion as it struck the surface and burrowed through the crust and into the Earth's liquid lava core. Huge tidal waves started across the Atlantic to ravage the coasts of North and South America, but long before they got there, the shock waves passed through the center of the Earth and produced gigantic earthquakes around the entire globe. Long-dormant volcanoes erupted, then molten debris from the impact started to fall from the sky.

  Gus closed his eyes, unable to stand it any longer, but unbidden from his memory came the images from his own dream where he made a pact with the Devil. He quickly opened his eyes again. Now on the screen all the raging infernos covering earth were disappearing under a pall of dust.

  "... that will hide the Earth in darkness for decades. Nothing will survive.

  "But!" Alexander continued, "if the people of the world will love and worship the Infinite Lord, their God, and be truly unified, then I will save them from the Mace."

  He raised his arms to the crowd that stretched seemingly to the horizon in the two-kilometer-diameter stadium.

  "Do you love me?" he asked.

  "We do!" came the deafening roar. Alexander beamed.

  "Will you follow me and worship me?" Alexander asked.

  "We will!" the crowd roared.

  "Will you obey me and cease being sinners?" he asked.

  "We will!" came the reply.

  "Then I will save you," Alexander said. He put his hand on the model of the Earth, interposing it between the model of the Earth and the model of the falling asteroid. As he did so, the model asteroid sprang apart into two pieces that started to circle around the model Earth, just missing it. The video then switched to cameras showing the real artificial asteroid springing apart. Inside could be seen the powerful superconducting magnets that supplied the strong repulsive forces needed to push the two halves apart with enough velocity that they would separate by more than the diameter of the Earth before they fell. The same magnets would act as a compression spring when the two halves met each other on the other side, soaking up the energy of the collision and storing it as compressed magnetic field energy for use the following Sunday when the Mace of God fell on the Southern Hemisphere of Earth.

  Having saved the world, and with everyone obediently paying attention to his every word, Alexander launched into his usual Sunday sermon. He seemed to pay no attention as one half of the asteroid streaked through the upper atmosphere right over the open stadium with a blue-green glow that warned all once again how close they had come to a fiery death.

  "That drag loss is going to build up, and someday Alexander isn't going to be able to save them," some scientist said from
the audience.

  "Our Mars underground contacts say that they make up the losses with onboard nuclear power plants that pump up the superconducting magnets after the two halves recombine," Chris answered.

  "Isn't there some way our contacts can turn that doomsday machine off?" another asked.

  "One of them was on the design team," Gus said. "He did what he could, but Jerry Meyer checked all the control codes himself. In addition, the asteroid itself is booby-trapped. If anyone unauthorized lands on it, it locks up and the next time it falls—good-bye Earth."

  "We've got to do something!" Jay Plantagenet exploded. "We can't let the whole Earth die when the egomaniac dies."

  "It would be great if we could figure some way to save Earth," Gus said. "If any of you have any good ideas, please let us know, and we'll see if they can be carried out using our Mars underground organization on Earth. But in the meantime, we had better start thinking about Mars. If the Earth goes, the few thousand people here on Mars are the last chance for survival of the human species."

  "Dr. Armstrong is correct," Boris Batusov said. "We cannot survive indefinitely on Mars without aid from Earth. We do not have the technological infrastructure. Soon our medicines will be gone, then our electronics will fail, our machines will wear out, our buildings will fail, our population will decrease, and mankind will fade from the universal stage."

  "We need to terraform Mars so we don't have to live inside pressurized buildings, vehicles, and Marsuits," Chris said. "Once we can live out in the open, we can let our population grow and become large enough to have the technological infrastructure we need."

  "Great idea, Chris," Jay said tartly. "I presume you're going to do it in six sols, so you can rest on the seventh?"

  "Well, it will take a little longer than six sols. But it might not take too long if we are willing to be satisfied with less than ideal Earth conditions."