The Avenue was busy at this time. The first tasks of the morning were over and colonists were now in transit between sectors. It looked to Mia like they all decided to do exactly as she had planned and head for the Avenue. At the far end a large stage and a big screen were being erected for the upcoming decennial celebrations. It would be ten years since the colony on Mars gained its independence from Earth and there was going to be a party. Mia could already feel the excitement building in the population as the time drew closer.
“The Avenue seems very alive this sol.”
Mia turned to identify the source of the comment. Standing beside her was a tall thin man in his thirties. He smiled at her and nodded towards the giant screen that was being hauled up into position. “Won’t be long now before the celebrations start.”
Mia smiled back at him. “Yeah.”
She pegged him as one of the original colonists, a Pioneer. He had that thin stretched look that seemed to be a common trait amongst them. Mia wondered if living for so long in one third gravity made them like that. Or was it the weird genetics that they possessed? She often thought about this. The history she had heard seemed to be a confusing mix of myth and fact. Some said they were immortal, a quirk of the genetic experiments that these early colonists had been subjected to. Mia thought that this was probably bullshit. Nonetheless, there was no denying the horrors they must all have endurered to make the colony what it was now. A place where hardship was defined by lack of access to some decent lipstick.
“Are you Mia Sorelli?”
Mia looked around and considered this question for moment. “Yes. And you?”
“You can call me Werren.” He extended a thin skeletal hand. Mia shook it, surprised that its fragile appearance belied its strong grip.
“I’m here to inform you that someone… important would like to have a talk with you. I’m to escort you there now.”
Mia stepped back, gave the enigmatic colonist a long considered look and raised a hand. “Sorry pal, this is all a bit too cloak and dagger for me. You’ll need to give me a better story that that. Anyway, I hate to break it to you but I’ve got to go back to work shortly.”
He was unfazed by her reaction. “My apologies if it all seems a bit clandestine, but this is important. If you check your slate you’ll find you’re clear for the rest of the sol.”
Mia fished her slate out of her pocket and checked her list. Sure enough, she was free until tomorrow. Whoever this someone was, they had to have some clout. She stuffed it back in her pocket. “So tell me who it is then.”
“I’d rather not say,” he glanced around, “…not here. But suffice to say she is very anxious to meet you.”
“She?” Mia cocked an eyebrow.
“Yes.”
“Well that narrows it down a bit.”
“To fifty percent of the population, I would guess.”
“Less than that, Werren. If they can clear my slate for the sol, then I would say it narrows it down to around a half-dozen people.”
He gave a subtle smile along with a slight tilt of his head. “Very astute.”
“Not really. I just get the impression you’re trying to tell me enough to get me interested, that’s all.
He smiled again. “Like I said, very astute.”
Mia stood for a moment and considered this encounter. What signals was she getting? The pioneer had his hood up and kept glancing around at the crowd of colonists passing up and down the Avenue. Was he afraid of being recognized by someone? Mia couldn’t put her finger on it. He wasn’t hiding, but then again, he wasn’t advertising himself either. With his hood up he could pass for any number of other colonists. And he had even given her a few good clues as to who wanted to meet her, but stopped short of coming straight out with it. However, she didn’t get any sense of danger. But her internal warning antennae were still not fully up to speed in this new environment, so she could be missing something. What the hell was going on? In the end, there was only one way to find out.
“Okay, what the heck. Come on, let’s go find out who wants to talk to me so badly.”
Warren nodded. “Okay, do you know where the grain silos are located?”
“Yeah, over in Ag Sector Three.”
“If you follow the corridor past the silos to the very end, I’ll meet you there in say… twenty minutes?”
Mia shrugged. “Sure.”
He smiled again, then turned and walked off into the crowd.
Mia just stood watching him as he disappeared. Well that was weird.
3
Old Town
Mia had done very little exploration of Jezero City since she arrived on the planet. She also thought that it was a bit of a stretch to call it a city, since only around seven hundred people lived here, around two-thirds of the total population of Mars. In some respects it was like a small village on Earth, with the rump of the population clustered around a small commercial center, and agricultural radiating outward. But unlike Earth, Jezero City had to enclose all this in one gigantic maze of domed structures, this being the simplest and most efficient shape for the 3D printers to manufacture. But even with this basic shape there was a still a bewildering variety of styles, from the small units built for utilities to the giant structures for food production.
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.
Warren 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 rose large three story building. 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.”
Jezero City: Colony Four Mars (Colony Mars Book 4) Page 2
