A panicked voice breaks his vision, LeSouris’s shouting through the communication station, ‘Attention! I locate the doctor! Look at your holomap, zoom out, there is small energy signature outside of Mars’s orbit… Huge build-up of energy. My word’!
‘What Sour’? Method A reacts, commanding the Jerseyans from another up-armoured cargo ship.
LeSouris replies, even more stressed, ‘Get to the shield! A trap. Doctor sacrifices fleet to trick everyone’.
A glance at his BV73 clone confirms his vision. Knowing who the target is, VanWest hesitates to reply and intervene - maybe all the doctors dying today is fated.
Having instructed to go higher to stay away from the green energy shield, Dr VonHelmann’s SCC-40 ship is exposed from above, he shouts at his pilot Lt. Colonel Wang to ‘power up thy shields’!
Zoom! A long line of intense red plasma thumps down from space and smashes into the SCC-40. The beguiler Dr King has played them all, using his Space Army as bait, he targets the self-appointed leader of the EaRA.
As if addressing VanWest, Dr VonHelmann’s last word crackle through, ‘For-give-ee’. Kaboom! VanWest watches his ship blow up, feeling nothing as he watches him perish. His death in the end like those he massacred in Cydonia.
‘Papa’! Iris screams.
‘Make peace’, a shocked Pretoria replies next.
‘May he ascend to Utopia’, LeSouris gives a short prayer.
‘Divert all power to shields’! VanWest reacts to ensure others in the EaRA do not meet the same fate. The Space Army’s retreat halts; the spaceships are coming back to engage.
For many of the EaRA’s ships it is as perilous to retreat to the green energy shield as it is to advance, they will be struck if they turn and run.
Iris takes central command of the EaRA, conferring with LeSouris, she instructs, ‘My father’s death will not be in vain. Method A holds off the Space Army’s remaining spaceships on Mars’. Instructing the rest of the fleet to fly up to space; 340 ships belonging to the ‘Free Enforcers and NEA-Utopians go get that evil roach, Doctor King’!
‘Aye’! Method A acknowledges, not sad to see the doctor dead.
Captain Kun-lee adds, ‘We will kill him in Doctor VonHelmann’s honour’.
Before the intense red-light can envelop them next, Pretoria and Captain Kun-lee divert some power back to their thrusters to make an audacious fight back. A deadly 1000-mile climb to reach Dr King and his long-range bombers, the MLS-Arts. Many of them won’t make it but staying here isn’t an option.
Zoom! Wreckage litters the sky as ship after ship is struck. The Free Enforcers patrolships and NEA battleships do their best to outmanoeuvre, but many have been badly weakened from earlier melees. Despite the losses, the pilots bravely persist, as the old adage says fortune favours the brave, with Dr King’s death the end of the Universal Council. This ‘New Beginning’ sought by all in the EaR.
Under the unrelenting bombardment, VanWest barely makes it through Mars’s orbit. Only his MLS-10 and 99 other ships have made it thus far. Across them, Dr King’s SCC-400 is flanked by 50 spaceships: 30 hyper-fast SC Max fighters and 20 long-range MLS-Arts. In real terms, they now outnumber the EaRA’s much-dwindled fleet two to one, the Universal Council’s remaining ships much more advanced. But one thing VanWest has learnt is to never put too much faith in odds, as with the Universal Games, he has proved it wrong time and time again. Captain Kun-lee, Pretoria and ace pilot Houston have also made it. Their ships poised to engage, with their offensive weapons armed.
- MLS-10 - BV73 - clone and VanWest
- 45 Battleships - Houston and Pretoria
- 54 Free Enforcer patrolships - Captain Kun-lee
LeSouris and the BV73 clone have meanwhile upgraded the holomap to show the red dots, with Iris calculating the optimal engagement strategy, ‘Captain takes on the SCC-Max fighters, Houston the MLS-Arts. VanWest the’.
VanWest finishes, ‘Doctor’.
Kun-lee agrees, ‘Affirmative’!
Houston answers, ‘I’ll do my best’!
‘We make quick’, Pretoria adds.
There is no time to discuss. Iris places those with the best shields against the MLS-Arts and the nimblest against the SCC-Max fighters. Iris and LeSouris next contact VanWest alone, she has a plan on how to defeat Dr King, reminding them all of her infiltration into Ward B on the moon base, ‘Remember the holoscreen when I arrived as Nurse Rose’?
‘You want me to try this on the SCC-400… Transport inside’? VanWest replies.
Iris asks LeSouris, ‘Can you do it again’?
LeSouris shakes his head, the security is too tough, ‘My word, this is too much. I have teleportation sequence but security impossible… I try before, security recognise your blood, your status. Not just an Elite, you must be authorised for such ship’.
VanWest answers, transmitting its data, ‘Colonel Cornelius’s diamond chip, it has his security codes, he piloted the SCC-400. He was its Elite guard’.
LeSouris analyses, ‘It may recognise Colonel’s chip, let you through… Only you’. The BV73 clone comes over to LeSouris to help. ‘But SCC-400 has many fail-safes. It’s risky’!
VanWest answers, conversing with the clones, ‘BV73 can help alter the security triggers, make it look like I am the Colonel for long enough. Works for you’?
LeSouris returns a nervous smile, ‘My friend, let us trust… Let us try’!
There isn’t much time, the MLS-10 flies full speed to reach Dr King, flanked by Houston and her battleships.
‘Stay sharp, shields and thrusters’, Houston advises.
The Free Enforcers patrolships split off to the engage their overmatched foes, the 30 SCC-Max light fighters. As the 20 MLS-Arts ships reposition for short-range combat, targeting the battleships and MLS-10. Iris updates Houston, the instructions to buy time for VanWest to transport onto the SCC-400 and kill Dr King.
The Jerseyans more defensive, up-armoured cargo ships may have been better suited for this mission, but the NEA-Utopian battleships are faster. At short range, the intense red-light of the MLS-Arts ships becomes wider and less focused, like a machine gun, it spreads its ammo across. Those battleships most damaged and battle-scarred are quickly neutralised, but Houston does well to lead defensive sequences and get a dozen of her fleet to the halfway point.
Not built for short-range combat, the force of the MLS-Arts’s red-light becomes less intense on the final stretch. Houston instructs her battleships to come together and combine their forcefields.
Boom! Dr King surprises by joining the fight, sending a number of powerful shots to penetrate their shields, destroying 2 on the flank. Only eight battleships remain active, in addition to the MLS-10, but by Dr King coming to fight he is now in transportation range. Dr King turns his attention on the MLS-10, but the BV73 clone is up to the task, deploying a series of skilful manoeuvres to keep them from being struck. Removing a silver plasma rifle from the emergency weapon’s panel, VanWest heads for the transporter. However, before he transports, a distressing communication comes in, Pretoria’s and Houston’s luck has run out, smoke billows from their battleship.
This is their end, Pretoria’s final words, ‘Make world good’.
Kaboom! VanWest hears Pretoria and Houston’s ship explode, mouthing back ‘I won’t let you down’.
It’s now or never, the BV73 clone activates LeSouris’s adapted hacker sequence to allow VanWest to teleport through to the SCC-400’s holomap, located on the command deck. If he fails to rematerialise, this will not only be his end, but the EaR’s too.
Iris sends a communication, ‘My love, my brave VanWest, I trust in you. We will be together in Utopia’.
LeSouris commences the countdown, ‘Ready in 3, ...2, …’
VanWest transports across space itself, passing through the SCC-400’s shields without issue. He arrives through the holomap and stumbles onto the floor of the command deck.
‘VanWest’! A much-shocked Dr King stands in front.
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Two Elite patrol androids burst forward to intercept him, careful to not to hit any critical equipment as they fire their weapons. VanWest gets to his feet and leaps behind the communication station for cover. Armed with his silver plasma rifle, he knows he must act fast before more support can arrive and decides on yet another risky solution. Switching his weapon to maximum power, he throws it in the direction of the androids, who instinctively shoot to destroy - bang! It explodes, frying them with it.
VanWest takes cue and races out, charging at Dr King, but before he can reach him a large, powerful man intercepts him and tackles him to the ground. VanWest immediately recognises him, it’s Barys! His purple eyes still dilated. He last saw his Enforcer squad member suspended in a liquid behind an opaque red panel, whilst walking down a corridor of the Universal’s moon base. What would prove to be his first face-to-face meeting with Dr King. Captain Barys looks enraged, like a bull who has seen red. His body veiny and muscular, it appears that he has been heavily drugged.
Barys pushes VanWest down, wrapping his hands around his neck and squeezes. VanWest tries to escape but cannot. Struggling to breathe and keep consciousness, images flash through his mind, the happy sight of Iris gently rowing towards him in a wooden boat as he stands on the deck of an aluminium plated house holding a young child. The child waving enthusiastically as she approaches, the woman calls to him, ‘VanWest, VanWest, my love, wake up’.
VanWest rouses, with his last morsel of strength, he punches Barys as hard as he can into the side of his head. So strong that it forces Barys to release him from his deathly grip. VanWest then throws him to left-hand side and jumps back to his feet, following up with a kick to Barys’s face that sends blood splattering across the floor. Barys manages to swing his fist once more, which VanWest ducks to return a second kick, this time into his chest. Barys falls backwards, knocking his head against the cold hard floor.
As VanWest climbs on top and wraps his hands around his neck, in the corner of his eye he spots Dr King watching, looking oddly gleeful. The doctor could have killed him, but instead waits for him to finish off one of the closest people VanWest has ever known, his squad member that has been by his side all the way from his Enforcer academy days to the Universal Games. Indeed, Barys has rescued him on so many occasions that there is more than honour between them, this is his ‘friend’, his best friend.
‘Do it! Kill him. Come on my boy’!
Dr King wills him on, holding an Electroclaw in his hand. Before VanWest can react, the whip latches around his neck, just like the Interrogator did in the red sands of geolocation 7-78. Here though there is no sand to throw in Dr King’s eyes.
‘Kill him! Or I will you’! Dr King orders. Still trying to control VanWest; his need to dominate hasn’t waned.
‘Go roach yourself’! VanWest resists, causing the Electroclaw to tighten further and drags him off Barys and along the floor.
‘Lest I need to say, you are a failure! Weak just like Van der Westhuizen. It’s in your DNA. Lest I say we tried, yes we tried’! Dr King admonishes him, just as Commissioner Ming and Dr Schuurman, blaming his Martian ‘naivety’. The Electroclaw causes VanWest’s neck to redden and his face to turn purple.
‘Stop! Stop’! The words shouted are not VanWest’s.
Back on his feet, a bloodied Barys charges at Dr King and knocks him to the ground, his 800-year-old head snaps back and cracks as his Electroclaw is knocked away. Barys follows with a vicious punch that smashes into his skull - crack, the sound echoing loudly. With the doctor lying paralysed, VanWest staggers over to pull Barys back.
Waaahhhh! The familiar sound of a siren fills the SCC-400. With more of his guards soon to arrive, it MUST end now. VanWest has a final farewell message, in particular for ‘Van der Westhuizen’s daughter! The genocide of the Martians. This is for them’.
He delivers a final deathly blow to Dr King’s head.
Finally, it is over, the King is dead and with it the Universal Council. An injured VanWest staggers over to the communication station and contacts the remaining spaceships as well as the EaR to share the news. The red-light outside fades, the much-diminished Space Army standing down - Earth’s Resistance victorious.
Chapter 21 The Present
Gazing into Iris’s eyes, VanWest takes her left hand and slides her emerald ring gently back onto her finger, ‘I do’. Following the traditional Martian customs, he has learnt so much about over the past several months, this ring seals their eternal bond in marriage.
A smiling LeSouris, still sporting fish-like gills, officiates their wedding. He nods at Iris and then VanWest, ‘Praise be to Utopia! You may now kiss the bride’.
A chorus of claps and cheers come from those in attendance as VanWest kisses Iris on her lips. The loudest those from VanWest’s best men, his one-time Enforcer squad members, Colonel Kun-lee and Lt. Colonel Barys, elected the leaders of the Free Enforcers. Crowding behind are VanWest’s cyborg clones, dressed in a variety of different coloured jumpsuits that differentiate each class. They are excited to witness their ‘father’ get married to their new ‘stepmother’ Iris, recently made President of Mars. The two remaining BV73 clones from the battle are among them, one supports a black mycelium jacket on top of his jumpsuit, starting to show his individuality.
Lining the walls of Utopia Planitia’s Great Hall are the digital 3D images of the EaR’s fallen comrades, placed in their honour and memory. So many Free Enforcers, Jerseyans, Martians, and NEA-Utopian rebels died so others could live and thrive in a world free of tyranny and oppressive machines. Theirs the greatest sacrifice. In the centre is Colonel Cornelius, his sacrifice a catalyst for the formation of the Free Enforcers, who switched sides in favour of the EaR. And beside him, those of Pretoria and Houston, the leader of the NEA in Queen Elizabeth and their most decorated pilot, who helped defeat Dr King.
The ‘New Beginning’ is in full swing. The clones reside with Iris and VanWest in a new settlement on the banks on the great lake of Utopia Planitia. White-flowered water lilies decorate its surface; the water clear and drinkable. Their lives a far cry from the dank lab of Dr Schuurman under Alba Mons. Many having grown to the size of adults, though still mentally the age of young children they now attend school to learn more about emotional intelligence as well as how to speak.
LeSouris has won an election of his own. Becoming President of the EaR in Antarctica, he has come to Mars not only to officiate this wedding but also to sign a new Interplanetary Space Neutrality Agreement and the Three Nations EaR Bill, alongside President Iris of Mars and, the newly titled, Queen Method A of New Jersey and New York. The Queen having a limited role in the EaR only for planetary defence and order. With new trading routes having been established.
Gone are the Quadrotors and Patrol Androids, the Free Enforcers led by Colonel Kun-lee remain to help police Antarctica. They extend not the cold force of the law but work with local communities and government officials to help keep settlements safe, stopping the flow of the super-addictive drug known as Liquid Blue - reducing crime levels. Like many Free Enforcers, VanWest suffers terrible nightmares, his own that of Dr Schuurman over the sacrificial stone sermon, with the tiny hearts of his clones. He now chooses to live his life on Mars with Iris and build a new Martian society.
Some of the Elites not involved directly in any genocides or massacres, such as the Huberts and Marcus Vitali, have been allowed to repent. Participating in the building of free economies, which provides for enterprise and competition. Further, they support a green economy, with polluting spaceships banned from entering Earth’s atmosphere and mining operations significantly cut back. Their descendants have become ‘ordinary’ citizens like any other with no fewer or greater privileges.
Whilst some mining colony prisoners have been welcomed to Mars, most have chosen to return to Earth. Great care is taken to help them to mend, but with many addicted to highly concentrated Papini and Liquid Blue, this proves difficult. They are not the only ones hard to as
similate back to ‘normal’ society, more than a thousand Space Soldiers and other personnel now reside in the moon base. Some will face trial for war crimes and the massacre of civilians, if convicted, they will serve life-terms. For President LeSouris and Colonel Kun-lee have campaigned successfully for a more humane form of justice, with capital punishment forbidden.
Former Most Wanted NEA-Utopian rebel and new High Priestess, Elektra Del Rey has established Utopianism as a mainstream religion, its cathedral located in the centre of Queen Elizabeth. The religion has close to half a billion adherents already, half the humans on Earth. Much to Method A’s discomfort, many Jerseyans are among them after Dr VonHelmann’s final sermon in New York - before the EaRA left to Mars. They pledge to make Earth greener and live a more environmentally sustainable life.
Elektra Del Rey hopes that Mars’s green energy technology can be better understood and utilised on Earth next - to help regenerate it. Ensuring that not one human starves again, allowing for all to survive with decency and respect.
The clones have laid on a superb wedding feast that includes an array of once extinct crops, not grown for hundreds of years: strawberries, wheat, carrots, and lemons. So astounding that it has made headlines on Earth, which now has multiple and free broadcasting channels. Mars’s green energy, bringing back much lost and destroyed on Earth. President Iris hopes for more progress, to bring back many of mankind’s beloved animals, especially those she has read about that lived in ancient Viking settlements, lovely ginger cats, and ancient Egypt, the dotted Maus cat. But as she recited in Emily Dickinson’s poem during the battle over Mars, she most of all hopes to bring back bees. If the green energy maintains a temperature over 10 -degree celsius in Utopia Planitia, the bees will be able to help pollinate the flowers and make honey. Once only available from labs to cater to the tastes of the Elites, Iris dreams of a prairie with fields full of wondrous wildflowers, edible plants and bees.
The wedding reception promises some interesting entertainment, a dance and then a poetry recital from her graduating BZ clone class. With a feast that includes a dessert of delicious strawberry jam spread on bread. She’s most excited about the poetry recital, it will be the first time that her class has spoken in public, having only learned to speak during the months following Dr King’s death. The clones have decided to not discuss Iris’s father and his terrible deeds, but she has heard details from VanWest. The clones accept Dr VonHelmann died trying to defeat the Universal Council, to some degree atoning for his sins. They know too the Martians are not the only victims of the Council’s tyranny and greed.
The Present Page 19
