by Mark Zubro
They’d never dared try one of these on Mike. They didn’t know what it would do with his different physiology. So far, there’d been no cause to need it. Mike didn’t know what he’d do if something really did go wrong with him. Earth’s doctors were a lot of light years away and were not on their way.
Mike turned to Sry. “What happened?”
Sry stood up. Mike and Joe followed him a few steps toward where Ake and his machine had been digging. Already the air was clearer.
Sry pointed above them. “Part of a newly dug ceiling fell on the kid.”
Mike said, “I thought the geologist had all this mapped out.”
Sry said, “And I double-checked the programming and the seam before they started.”
Joe said, “Where’s the computer guidance system on the machine?
Sry pointed it out. He and Joe went over it. Mike looked between them and the work on Ake. Gek was moving his blue glow inch by inch over the boy.
Sry said, “We don’t get cave-ins. We don’t.” He sounded frantic.
Joe ran his fingers over the face of the digger’s computer. Mike had seen Joe do magic things with computers on Earth. In Mike’s view, while Joe was on Earth, his husband was the most adept computer expert on the planet. Here he still seemed to be far more knowledgeable than many others.
Joe slammed his hand on the side of the digger then pointed at the computer screen. “You didn’t get a cave-in. Someone tampered with this.” Mike and Sry leaned closer.
Joe said, “Here’s your signature from when you last checked.” Joe moved several rows of dots and squiggles. “Here’s what overrode your program. Ake was just following what the computer said. He was ten feet into a faulty seam.” Joe looked up and examined the ceiling that remained. “I think if he’d been an expert at this, he might have realized the trouble after the first few feet.”
Sry said, “I’m the only one with extensive training. They’re all new. We trained on simulators. It’s not the same when you’re actually digging.”
Joe continued to tap on the computer. “This was set to malfunction.”
Sry said, “I’ll double-check all the others.”
Mike said, “Maybe we got all brand new ones because they’re defective.”
Joe said, “Or programmed wrong. I’ll help go over them.”
They turned back to Gek and Ake. Gek said, “He should recover, but this thing doesn’t do much more than the superficial. I fixed his broken leg and repaired an internal organ. It will keep him from any pain. It’s a good thing it didn’t need to do more and be used much longer.”
Mike thanked him. Ake awoke. Several men helped him shuffle off.
Later than night Joe crawled into their bed. Mike awakened. Joe said, “Sry and I went over all of the diggers. They were all sabotaged to go wrong at various intervals.”
“They didn’t think we’d figure it out after the first one?”
“Maybe they think we’re as stupid and impervious to reality as they are.”
“But it’s fixed?”
“Yes. Sry and I reprogrammed the first few and set the computers to replicate the new programming. It will actually take only a few hours for the machines to talk to each other.”
“What if there’s more hidden internally inside their instructions? Or inside other stuff we got?”
Joe said, “I’ve already assigned a man from each team to go over each piece of equipment for sabotage. Then if necessary I’ll do a final check on the electronics. Brux will help.”
“More man-hours taken from what needs to be done.”
Joe sighed, “It all needs to be done.”
Mike nodded. “I know.”
Joe adjusted the flimsy sheet that covered them. They put their arms around each other. “We did our best with this situation,” Joe said. “We will do our best with each situation that comes up.”
“And if our best isn’t enough?”
“Our best is all we’ve got.”
They held each other in fear and desperation until they both fell asleep.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
After a week the first supply ship arrived. It landed on the hangar mesa. Nek was the captain. He greeted Mike like a hardened professional. Compared to being an openly homophobic pig, Mike would take this.
The men of the colony stopped all other work to download what had just arrived.
After the huge pile had been off-loaded, Nek met with Mike in the shade of the hangar.
Nek said, “Some of this stuff makes no sense.”
“Like what?”
“You got several tons of blizzard survival kits. Kitchen utensils when mostly you’ve got energy balls to eat.”
“We could do with a variety.”
“Can’t give you what I ain’t got. I’ve got seeds for several million varieties of crops although none of which will grow under water which is what you need.”
“Who sends this shit?”
“Ain’t me. I think you got friends or at least allies trying to get you the right stuff, and enemies trying to sabotage you with useless crap. Although if you save everything, good and bad, I can maybe trade you for different stuff on some of my other missions. Nothing is useless to a smart trader. Probably you should have someone not yourself set up a black market operation.”
“Okay.”
“And I have some new colonists for you.”
Mike looked around at the men who had been helping the colonists download goods from the ship. “I thought that was your crew.”
“A few are, but they threw in a few extra of you guys. I’m supposed to leave them.”
“I thought we were supposed to get thousands starting in months.”
Nek shrugged. “Well, today you got twenty-two.” He motioned one of the men over. “Get the guys who are staying.”
The supply ship lifted off a few minutes later.
Mike sent for Brux who had been preparing for an influx of colonists.
That night Mike was in the communication room. Brux said, “The new guys are pretty well set. I’ve got them assigned to duties and to sectors. They’ll fit in. I hope.”
“How are they doing?”
“Couple seem more depressed than anybody in our bunch.”
A light flickered on one of the monitors. “What’s that?” Mike asked.
“A god damn flickering light,” Brux snapped. He ran his hands over the controls then stopped and glanced at the monitor. The little orange light still flickered. Brux snarled, “This needs a high tech solution.” He banged his fists down on the top of the console. The light continued to flick on and off.
Mike tested the controls. “It’s someone out in the fields.”
“Is Krim out there mooning at the moons again?”
“You know about that?”
“He told me.”
“It could be, but I thought he got it out of his system that night. I’ll check it out.”
Mike got a fix on the position. The light was almost two miles out on the plain. Mike walked out. He wished they’d send them ground transportation.
In the fields he crossed he didn’t see the cause of the light until he was nearly ten feet away. It was one of the people who’d arrived today. He was sitting on the ground.
Mike called out, “Hello,” in hopes of not startling the new person.
The man turned. Mike walked up to him with an outstretched hand and introduced himself.
The man said, “I’m Req.”
Mike sat down next to him and looked up to the vast panoply of stars and the first moon newly rising in the east.
Mike said, “It’s beautiful.”
“It’s a prison.”
Mike asked, “Where’re you from?”
“Zardoz 22.”
“Where is that?” Mike asked.
Req pointed a few inches to the right of the yellow moon. He said, “A lot of light years in that direction.”
“What were you before you were collected?”
“Is this another interrogation? Why don’t you just read my implants? I’m told you can do that.”
“I don’t do it.”
As punishment Joe’s police implants had been removed along with most of his others. Some of the collectors on the most right wing Religionists’ planets had demanded that all the LGBT people they rounded up be deprived of implants. Their allies in the Senate had managed to get that modified. The basic learning implants had been allowed for all the colonists. On the less strict or crazed worlds, they’d been allowed to keep the implants giving them their job expertise. Joe had been given the agricultural implants as part of him being in charge of that section. Some of those who were working in some sections had implants for their work. Some didn’t. Another random mess that caused more delays in what they were trying to build.
Mike said, “I don’t read other people minds in any way. We don’t do that on Earth. I won’t do it here.”
Req gave him a puzzled look. “You have a way of controlling us, and you don’t use it?”
“Correct.”
“So I could just walk out onto that desert and keep walking until I died?”
“I’d try to talk you out of it.”
“I’ve thought of little besides committing suicide since this all started.”
“Many have.”
“Have you?”
“I’ve been more depressed than I’ve ever been in my life. This is a horror. But I’m not going to freak out about it or get hysterical and run around as if my hair was on fire.”
“Why not?”
“What would it accomplish?”
“You might feel better.”
“I confess at times, it seems like the only response to a mad universe. But we all live in the same mad universe. It’s how we handle it that makes a difference.”
“You really believe that?”
“I don’t have much choice. I think the alternative is for all of us to walk off into the desert with you. I’m not ready for that now. I hope never to be.”
“You’d just let me go?”
“I’m not going to tackle you.”
“I heard you have an all-powerful implant that can control whatever you want.”
Mike waved his hand at the vast expanse of the universe above and the wide plain in front of them. “I’m here and not somewhere else. My powers are not infinite. Nobody’s are. I’m just a guy trying to do a job. I hope you’ll help us here. We need everyone who shows up.”
Req mused for a few minutes then said. “There are no guards?”
“Nope.”
“If I don’t walk away tonight, I could walk away tomorrow.”
“Or the next day. But why don’t you stay tonight and see how things go with us here in the morning?”
Req stood. Mike did as well.
Req said, “It’s like I don’t have to, so I will.”
Mike said, “Good.”
Mike saw Joe coming across the plain toward them. “You guys okay?” he asked when he neared them.
“Great,” Mike said. He introduced Req who said, “I’ll go join the others.”
Mike and Joe watched him leave.
Joe said, “New guy getting used to the place?”
“Pretty much.”
They leaned into each other and watched the stars and moon for a little while. The second moon began to rise, and they began the trudge to their cubicle.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“We’re going to vote.”
“Do what?” Cak demanded.
Mike had set up a meeting after the first six days they’d been on the planet. They’d been here a month. This was their fourth meeting. On the ship, Mike had started the process of turning the colony into a democracy. He knew to always have his allies primed to support him at key moments.
Karsh and Cak, who was turning out to be Karsh’s biggest ally, had demanded to know why they were having meetings and votes. Mike had said, “To let you know what’s going on, and so you have a say in what happens to you.”
When Mike had first explained how he was going to conduct the meetings and how they were going to make decisions, Karsh had said, “We’ve never voted before.” Cak repeated the same thing now.
Mike kept the tiredness and irritation out of his voice as he said for what seemed like the thousandth time, “Don’t you want a voice in what happens to you?”
Most of the men looked confused. Mike didn’t want to be snotty and condescending.
Mike resumed where he’d left off before Cak and Karsh’s interruptions. “Yes, we’re not being run by who is richest. We decide what we want. We decide what we want to do. We pick who we want as leaders.”
“We could throw you out?” Cak asked.
Mike hadn’t expected to face incipient rebellion. He said, “Sure, I guess.”
Joe said, “I nominate Mike. Anyone else want to be in charge?”
“How come you two get to be in charge?”
Mike said, “Just lucky, I guess.”
“Bullshit.”
“If you don’t like that answer,” Mike said, “ask the ones that put us here.”
“They aren’t here now.”
Mike just wanted to get the job done. He didn’t need assholes from the colony making his life bleaker than it was, although he wasn’t sure it could get much bleaker. Which reminded him of the old Earth joke—one person says cheer up, things could be worse, and the other one says so I cheered up, and sure enough, things got worse.
Karsh looked ready to bust. Cak and all the other men kept quiet.
Karsh pointed a finger at Joe. “And you! You’ve broken all the rules. You are…” Karsh seemed to run down.
Joe supplied, “Having sex with an Earthling?”
“That’s disgusting,” Karsh said.
“Have you tried it?”
“Certainly not.”
“Why do you care what I do? What effect does our having sex have on you?”
Neither Karsh nor Cak had an answer to this question. A few inarticulate sputters later from them, and then Mike moved the meeting on to the next item on the agenda.
Karsh said, “Why are there no women on this planet?”
Mike gave him a dumbfounded look. Did this guy practice stupid in his cubicle at night?
Mike said, “I’m not in charge of collecting us. Are you saying they should only collect us in politically correct proportions?”
“What I meant…”
Mike interrupted. “Great, you tell the people in charge of the most evil holocaust in this part of the galaxy they’re doing it wrong. You want to be put in charge of who goes when?”
“No.”
“Then why bring it up?”
“Something should be done.”
Brux said, “If we do it about you, I’d vote for it.”
Karsh subsided, but then Cak started up. “And why is charter revision on the agenda?” he demanded. Being an argumentative asshole came naturally to Cak and had been a valuable asset in his chosen profession.
Why did they include a lawyer anyway, Mike thought? This one isn’t good for anything. Cak argued interminably about everything in a most condescending manner.
Mike said, “It’s within our power to revise the charter.”
“That’s what we always hear from you Mr. Chairman. If we do something that angers them, those in the central government could cut off our supplies anytime they want.”
Joe said, “It’s about time we did something to show those yahoos that we can stand up for ourselves. Why do we have to do as the Religionists say? It’s a simple change to our system of making decisions.”
Mike often relied on Joe’s rational comments when Cak and his faction were at its most lunatic.
Coof, another of Cak’s troublemakers said, “All you do is dare them to cut us off. We should not challenge them in any way.”
Brux said, “That’s what we said when they rounded us all up and put us in the camps. We did next to nothing, and they
took us.”
Karsh said, “Some protested. They died.”
Krim spoke up. “We didn’t all die. I’m glad I protested.”
There was a few moments silence.
Joe said, “We’re not protesting. We’re not dying. We’re just making a decision after a full discussion.”
“The charter is law,” Cak reiterated.
Mike wondered at moments like this if who was chosen might have been a joke from Bex saddling him with contrarians. Or maybe a qualifying test was given for obduracy and stupidity. Mike kept quiet about the fact that he’d seen the same pointless contentiousness in gay groups and straight groups he’d worked with on Earth.
Another dreaded universal concept.
Cak wound up his latest oration with, “This discussion is a waste of time.”
Brux’s voice was harsh in response. “It’s not a waste of time, and it would do some good if it wasn’t for your stubborn opposition.”
Cak said, “The charter is not democratic and you know it. You want to change it.” He pointed at Mike. “Even though you have absolute power under it, don’t deny it.”
Mike didn’t bother to deny it or to get upset. He said, “We can have considerably more democracy here than is called for in the charter and considering our situation, almost a miraculous amount.”
“But you have absolute veto!” Coof shouted. Coof was in the agricultural sector. He always spoke at yell level. Maybe he was partly deaf, Mike thought. And he was always angry. If Coof was on Earth in the United States, Mike would have pegged him for a member of the Tea Party.
Mike said, “Which I have never used, and I can be overridden.”
Coof snorted. “Yes, if all the rest of us vote unanimously against you. Your toadies and those who drool over you will always support you.” He gave Brux and Joe spiteful looks.
Mike held up his hand when the man tried to continue and others began to growl at his comment.
“No,” he said firmly. He glanced around at the men in the room. Mike continued. “Free Forum discussion is last on the agenda as always. We can continue this discussion then. We need to deal with other matters first. The most important is the request from the energy people for more man-hours. Brux, explain please.”
