Parting Gifts

by gerald hall

  “Yes. We brought back a full technical database from the US Library of Congress on all patented concepts. The idea was that we were to keep it for safekeeping in case of an emergency. With the destruction of Washington, we now hold the only copy to all of this technical data. We also were the repository for a variety of other Western tech company database backups as well.

  Of course, with all of the polymaths here like myself, if the design didn’t already exist for something that we needed, they would frequently create it within a matter of weeks, if not days.”

  “We would something have to do some design work on the fly ourselves, especially when we had to make our own weapons to deal with the Islamists who were attacking us. But obviously, we never had to deal with anything on the scale or importance of what you have been doing here on Mars.” Lissette explained.

  “I think that both of you will find yourselves feeling right at home here working with you. We already have some small idea of just how capable you all are.”

  “Thank you. We definitely want to help with anything that your people are doing here.” Benjamin said.

  “Well, you are all part of our people now. If Deborah didn’t think that you would be able to fit in here, you would have never made it to Mars, not that she had to ask.”

  An older man in his late thirties, also wearing the same sort of coveralls as the others, finally walked up and joined the group. For Hebes Chasma, the median age was close to ten years younger than that with all of the polymaths and their children making up much of the colony’s population.

  “I see that Arthur has finally caught up with us. We are going to be going down to the surface onboard his personal gravity drive shuttle Manassas, you know.” Deborah interjected.

  “Well, I did have a few dozen things that I needed to do to prepare Manassas to transport all of you and your belongings down to the main landing pad.” Arthur replied.

  “It is really glad to see you again, Arthur. I think that we last saw you at Deborah’s wedding.” Lissette noted.

  “It wasn’t too long after that before I left Earth to come here. So that would be about right. I am still very glad to see all of you again. Let’s go ahead and walk over to Manassas. It should be ready to launch now.”

  The group half-walked, half-floated through the weightless environment of the transport’s corridors on the way to where Arthur’s personal gravity-drive shuttle was docked.

  “Is it really true that everyone on Hebes Chasma brought their own personal firearms with them from home?” Marilyn asked Arthur as they proceeded towards Manassas. She had left behind her sniper rifle and other firearms at the evacuation center in southeast Ohio.

  “Not exactly. A lot of people certainly did bring their own personal weapons with them. But most of the time, they keep their weapons stored except when they want to do a little target practice. We have a special underground firing range for that purpose. But the firearms from home aren’t the only weapons here at Hebes Chasma. There are people here who have built all kinds of other weapons. Some of them were designed specifically for use in this environment. Others were just personal projects that the individual just wanted to try. I have seen guns that injected methane and air mixtures into the firing to fire a projectile instead of using a traditional propellant cartridge. I have also seen quite a variety of precharged pneumatic guns around here as well.

  Of course, some of our people on Mars do like to try out even more exotic ideas. One of the polymaths even built an electrically driven repeating semi-automatic crossbow. She says that she wants to try hunting with it once we introduce Terran game animals into a terraformed Martian environment. I’ve seen her shooting it at the range. She is quite impressive with her crossbow, I have to admit.” Arthur explained.

  “But there haven’t been any problems with violence using these weapons here at the colony, have there?” Lissette asked.

  “No, not at all. I guess that we all believe in what the science fiction author Robert Heinlein wrote more than a hundred years ago about how ‘an armed society is a polite society’. All of our people certainly are very polite around here.”

  “I would still like to make a new pistol for myself. You have been talking about some really interesting ideas, especially the PCP and liquid propellant guns.”

  “I’m sure that you can easily find someone who will help you.” Arthur noted.

  “Why would you need a weapon here, Mom? The jihad is now millions of miles away. Folks around here work together rather than fight now.” Benjamin asked.

  “I know. But you never know when things might change. Besides, I have always found that spending time on the range was a great stress reliever. Someone around here still needs to know how to teach others to shoot properly.” Marilyn replied with a smile.

  The group soon reach the gravity shuttle, entered inside and secured themselves in acceleration couches for the trip down to Hebes Chasma. The trip took less than twenty minutes.

  As Manassas decelerated for the final approach to Hebes Chasma, the new arrivals could see the growing image of the now sprawling colony complex. More than one hundred cylindrical modules connected by pressurized tubes could be seen on the surface. But these were now dwarfed by nearly a score of transparent domes of various sizes. These structures contained much of the colony’s agriculture production. The faint wisps of clouds full of water vapor were floating in the Martian air for the first time in over a million years.

  “I thought that travelling into space was fulfilling a dream. But seeing all of this now is absolutely amazing.” Marilyn said, tears of joy streaming down her face.

  “It only gets better, I assure you.” Deborah said as she sat next to her old friend.

  Manassas finally landed with a gentle thump within an excavated pit. Less than a minute later, an expandable, pressurized causeway was extended to the gravity drive shuttle. Finally, the door was opened. Then, people began to walk from Manassas through the causeway and into one of the series of underground chambers that the colonists had excavated for additional pressurized living, working and storage spaces.

  Waiting there for Manassas’ passengers was a sort of welcoming committee. Aaron Marcum and his wife Miriam stood there beaming. Miriam was also holding an infant of her own now. Peter Sorenson was there along with Deborah’s twins. Suzanne Marcum was also there, having only arrived at Hebes Chasma on another ship only a few weeks earlier. There was also nearly a dozen of the other polymaths who had joined the members of Deborah’s family that had already been living on Mars.

  “I had no idea that you were going to be a father, Aaron. When were you going to tell the rest of the family?” A surprised Nathan asked his younger brother.

  “Well, for a long time, we didn’t really know how to get in touch with you. By the time that I found out where you were, you, Nancy and Suzanne were all already onboard a ship and sound asleep. So we simply decided to wait until you arrived.”

  “Is your baby a boy or a girl?” Nancy asked.

  “It’s a girl, of course.” Miriam replied.

  “What is her name?” Nancy then asked.

  “Well, since we heard about what happened to Mom and Dad, we immediately knew that we had to name her Cynthia after Mom. It seemed to be exactly the right name for her.” Aaron explained, holding back a few tears while doing so.

  “I can’t agree more, Aaron. Thank you for remembering Mom in such a wonderful way.” Nancy answered.

  The polymaths from the colony who had come to welcome Deborah’s friends and family quietly watched the reunion. But their presences wasn’t unnoticed by any means.

  “You look very familiar to me for some reason. I just can’t quite place you though.” Nathan noted after seeing a tall, beautiful, athletic-looking young woman with long, strawberry blonde hair among the group of polymaths.

  “You’re that actress who made a movie while flying to Mars, aren’t you?” Nathan asked after staring at Melody Atherton for a few moments in recognit
ion.

  “Yes, I have had a roles in a few movies including the one that you are referring to.” Melody Atherton admitted in a very understated manner.

  “What do you do here on Mars now?”

  “I have been doing a lot of different things, including a bit of engineering work, when I am not taking care of my husband and three children, not that my husband needs all that much maintenance. He is also an engineer with quite a few other talents in his repertory. I have done a little acting here, but the audiences are a lot smaller here on Mars, of course.” Melody said with a smile.

  “I didn’t even know that you were married. I guess that happened while you were here on Mars.” Benjamin Barnes noted.

  “That’s true. I married a fellow polymath a few years after I arrived here at Hebes Chasma. Fortunately, the paparazzi weren’t able to hire a ship to come all the way out to Mars to annoy me and pry into my personal life like they would sometimes do on Earth. The lack of tabloid newspapers here on Mars has also been a very welcome element of life. ” Melody replied, causing many of the people there to chuckle.

  “Well, I am happy that you have been able to live as normal of a life as possible, even while millions of miles away from Hollywood and living in such tight quarters.” Marilyn interjected.

  “It has been helped to be surrounded by so many people who I have felt a special kinship with. There has been so much love shared among all of the people living here at Hebes Chasma. The work that we have all been involved with has also been immensely satisfying at the same time.”

  “What sort of work in particular have been involved in here, Melody?” Marilyn asked.

  “Well, like everyone here, I have been working on the maintenance and expansion of the facilities here at Hebes Chasma. The new micro-manufacturing center here has been where I have been spending most of my time. The facility is allowed us to replace the supply of equipment that Earth used to provide to us. If we have the raw materials, sufficient energy and the specific design files for an item, we can build it now. If it is particularly large, we may have to build it in segments and assemble it elsewhere, but we can build it.”

  The mention of the center immediately got Benjamin and Lissette’s attention since it was very similar in concept to the manufacturing facility that they built in Ashley and operated until they and their mother were evacuated.

  Melody continued, “I have also been involved with the design of the aquaponics gardens that are an integral part of the colony’s life support system and a vital source of foodstuffs. You saw part of it with many of the domed gardens that we have constructed on the surface. They will be the environmental ‘bridge’, so to speak, that will sustain us until our terraforming efforts make it possible for us to grow crops on the surface.

  The colony here at Hebes Chasma is vital to the future of humanity for a variety of reasons. We are free to live our lives here without the fear of attack by religious fanatics. We are also ensuring that humanity will survive because our species no longer has ‘all of its eggs in one basket’ by residing on only one world.

  But I am very excited about our future here. We, on Mars, are going to be the stepping stone for humanity to spread itself among the stars. Hopefully, when we go out there, we will be representing the best of humanity and all of its finest attributes.”

  “That is incredible, Melody. It is a shame that had so few people on Earth with that sort of vision for our future.” Marilyn replied.

  “I know. I lost a lot of friends from my old homes in both California and the Eastern Alliance too after the Caliphate overran them. It is a shame when so many people are willing to drag humanity back to the 6th Century for something as regressive as being able to control who their daughters marry and what kinds of clothing that they can wear. We have to be better than that. Our morality and values have to come from within our hearts as a result of our personal relationship with God, not because of an angry man with a gun or a sword.”

  “My faith has been the basis for my morality for as long as I can remember.” Deborah interjected.

  “I think that has been true for all of us. Even polymaths like myself who were born in the aftermath of the Second Event, found strength and guidance through the Scriptures and prayer. It is through those things that our morality and values grew from and gave our lives true meaning.” Melody acknowledged before continuing to speak.

  “I also believe that they gave us hope for a future with peace, love and understanding too. We will take that with us, wherever we go from this point on.”

  “Amen to that, Sister.” Marilyn replied with a smile of pure delight.

  Then the petite redhead who had met the newcomers with Deborah spoke. Her words carried the sort of authority that few would have believed someone so diminutive in stature would have.

  “It is very important to us that we got to greet all of you when you arrived here at Hebes Chasma. We, the citizens of the Martian colony at Hebes Chasma welcome all of you from the town of Ashley, Ohio to your new home here with us. We also want to express our deepest appreciation for your part in helping raise your greatest daughter. Without Deborah Marcum, none of us would be here now. That is an absolute fact, I assure you.

  I also know that there are some of you that we wanted to share this welcome with who could not be here. We are deeply saddened about what happened to the missing among you. You can be sure that our prayers went out to all of the people of Ashley, both to the survivors and to the people who perished in its defense.” Sandy told Deborah’s family and the survivors of her hometown.

  As certainly the oldest of the newcomers, Marilyn replied for the group.

  “I want to thank all of you for your efforts in bringing us to this safe haven. I know that I speak for all of us here in saying that your hospitality has been extraordinary. I hope that we will be able to justify all that you have done for us.”

  “Living here at Hebes Chasma is not going to be a free ride, I’m afraid. This is still very much the frontier. It takes the efforts of every single one of us to keep the colony here operating, much less growing to keep up with an ever increasing population. I’m sure that each and every one of you has talents that can be put to good use here. We will need your help as much as you have needed ours, I assure you.” Deborah told her friends and family.

  “We will do our best, little sister.” Nathan Marcum said with a laugh.

  Chapter Forty:

  State Capital Building

  Richmond, Virginia

  Eastern Alliance

  February 14, 2049

  Much of Washington DC had been devastated by a series of air and missile attacks that had been launched by the Arab Brotherhood. The White House, Capital Building and Pentagon had been particularly hard hit. This forced the Eastern Alliance to relocate its capital to Richmond, Virginia. President Allison Harper now met with what was left of her cabinet to determine what they were going to do next.

  “We don’t have much defensive depth in the Alliance any longer, I’m afraid. Our surviving warships are barely able to keep the Caliphate from hitting us from the sea now because of our shortage of missiles and other munitions. The Caliphate forces are just about to force their way eastward through the Cumberland Gap in the next few days. The states of New England and much of New York have already fallen to Islamist forces pushing down from Canada also. The New York City metropolitan area is still holding out. But we just don’t know how much longer they will be able to continue to do so.” The Alliance Secretary of Defense Alfred Hornsby explained.

  “Who would have thought that the Canadians would have folded so quickly. “ President Harper grimly replied.

  “Well, Canada had a lot of Muslim immigrants who were more than happy to help support the Caliphate’s invasion force that landed in Nova Scotia. The Labor Party government had also gutted the Canadian military in the years after the nuclear autumn. With the vast numbers of Canadians that died or moved south during that global catastrophe, there were just t
oo few native Canadians left to fight the foreign and domestic enemies of their nation.” Secretary Hornsby explained.

  “The situation now is desperate, I know. We have some very hard choices to make, I’m afraid. We are ultimately going to lose this fight with the Islamists here on this world, I believe. The only questions are going to be how many of our people are going to be able to escape to Mars or the Moon and how steep of a price are we going to be able to make the Islamist invaders pay to occupy our land?” President Harper told her cabinet.

  “We are sending as many people as we can to the new lunar colony and Hebes Chasma. The Martians are still being very selective as to who they are going to allow to come there. However, they are still providing a significant amount of support with their gravity shuttles to move personnel and materiel to the lunar colony so that it can become self-sufficient.

  That support is allowing us to send far more people there than we dared imagine even a year ago. The lunar colony now has several nuclear reactors in addition to the power plants from the submarines that were transported up there earlier. They also have five tunneling machines that are burrowing underneath the lunar surface to create additional pressurized space for the refugees that we are sending up there.”

  “That’s good. But we also have the issues here of not only resisting the Caliphate and Brotherhood for as long as possible, but also preventing them from being able to attack our offworld settlements.”

  “It is our belief that the rapidly diminishing capability of the Caliphate and Arab Brotherhood to maintain the high-tech weapons in their possession will also mean that after the conflict has ended, they will not be able to reestablish a space program at all. If anything, their technological capabilities will continue to degrade within the next couple of decades to the level of the early twentieth century or even to a roughly pre-industrial age.” Secretary of State Carlotta Simpson explained.