The Rosewater Insurrection

by Tade Thompson

  “Just give me a minute. I’m thinking.”

  Once the insanity had been stripped away, it was actually a straightforward offer: die in prison or live on Mars. He was never getting out of this penitentiary alive: he’d been sentenced to a hundred and twenty years for shooting a man in the face, in broad daylight, in front of a crowd of witnesses. Only the fact that he could prove that the dead man was his son’s dealer saved him from going down for murder in the first, and onto death row.

  He hadn’t contested the charges. He hadn’t spoken in his own defense. He’d taken what was coming, and he was still taking it. By mutual consent, his wife and his son had disappeared after the trial and they’d both moved a very long way away. Bad people, like the associates of the man he’d killed, had long memories, and longer reaches. No one had ever contacted him subsequently, and he’d never tried to contact anyone either. No, tell a lie: he’d had one message, maybe a year into his sentence. Divorce papers, served out of a New Hampshire attorney’s office. He’d signed them without hesitation and handed them back to the notary.

  There was literally nothing for him here on Earth but to die, unremembered and unremarked on.

  But Mars?

  He’d heard the news about the plans for a permanent Mars base, back when he was a free man, but he couldn’t honestly say he’d paid much attention to it: he’d been in the middle of hell by then, trying to do the best thing for his family, and failing. And afterwards? Well, it hadn’t really mattered, had it? Someone was putting a base on Mars. Good for them.

  He hadn’t thought for the smallest fraction of a moment of a second that it might include him.

  Now, that would be a legacy worth leaving. Somewhere, his son was grown up, hopefully living his life, hopefully doing whatever he was doing well. He’d been given a second chance by Frank, who had loved him more than life itself, even if he’d had a strange way of showing it.

  Did the boy think about his father? At all? What would it be like for him to suddenly discover that his old man was an astronaut, and not a jailbird? “This is the big Mars base, right?” Frank asked. “The one they announced a few years back?”

  “Mars Base One. Yes.”

  “That’s… interesting. But why would you pick cons? Why wouldn’t you pick the brightest and the best and let them be the goddamn heroes? Or did you already throw this open to the outside world, and there weren’t enough young, fit, intelligent people with college educations and no rap sheet beating down your doors for an opportunity like this. Is that it? You’re desperate?”

  Mark stroked his top lip. “It’s because, while the company wants to minimize the risks involved, it can’t completely eliminate them. And when a young, fit, intelligent person with a college degree dies, the publicity is terrible. Which is why they’ve offered you this opportunity instead. There’s also the need to prove that this isn’t just for the very brightest. Antarctic bases need plumbers and electricians and cooks. Mars bases will too. The company wants to show the world that, with the right training, anyone can go.”

  Frank hunched forward. “But couldn’t you just hire the right people?”

  “Frank, I’m going to level with you. Arranging a big spaceship, that costs a lot of money and time to build, which will take people out there, and will also bring them home? That isn’t a priority right now. As it stands, the company get something out of this, and you get something out of this. They get their base built, quickly and yes, cheaply. You get to spend the rest of your life doing something worthwhile that’ll benefit the whole human race, rather than rotting to death in here. Quid pro quo. A fair exchange.”

  Frank nodded again. It made some sort of sense. “OK, I get that you don’t want the pretty people dying up there, but just how dangerous is this going to be?”

  “Space is a dangerous place,” said Mark. “People have died in the past. People will die in the future. Accidents happen. Space can, so I’m told, kill you in a very great number of different ways. We don’t know what your life expectancy on Mars will be. We’ve no data. It may well be attenuated by a combination of environmental factors, which you’ll learn about in your training. But you’ll be able to minimize the risks and increase your chances of survival greatly by following some fairly straightforward rules. Whereas the average life expectancy behind bars is fifty-eight. You’re currently fifty-one. You can do the math.”

  “Mars.”

  “Yes, Mars.”

  Frank poised the tip of his tongue between his teeth, and bit lightly. He could feel himself on the threshold of pain, and that was the closest he ever got these days to feeling anything. But to feel pride again? Achievement? To think that his son would be able to look up into the night sky and say, “There he is. That’s where my father is.”

  Were those good enough reasons? He wouldn’t be coming back: then again, he wasn’t really here either. It’d be a second chance for him, too.

  “Where do I sign?”

  By Tade Thompson

  THE WORMWOOD TRILOGY

  Rosewater

  The Rosewater Insurrection

  Making Wolf

  Gnaw

  The Murders of Molly Southbourne

  Praise for Rosewater

  “Mesmerising. There are echoes of Neuromancer and Arrival in here, but this astonishing debut is beholden to no one.”

  —M. R. Carey

  “Smart. Gripping. Fabulous!”

  —Ann Leckie

  “A magnificent tour de force, skillfully written and full of original and disturbing ideas.”

  —Adrian Tchaikovsky

  “A sharply satirical, ingenious thriller about an alien invasion that’s disturbingly familiar. Tade Thompson has built a fascinating world that will suck you in and keep you guessing. This book will eat you alive, and you’ll like it.”

  —Annalee Newitz

  “Deeply imagined characters and vibrant, startling imagery… An author to watch.”

  —B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog

  “Compellingly strange… A character-driven, morally gray tale of hope and potential redemption.”

  —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  “A strange and unsettling story of psychics, conspiracy, and alien invasion unlike anything I’ve read before. Masterfully constructed, brimming with ideas and slowly unfolding mystery, Rosewater hurt my brain in the best of ways.”

  —Fonda Lee

  “This thrilling, ambitious novel offers a deftly woven and incisive blend of science fiction, psychology, action, and mystery. Highly recommended.”

  —Kate Elliott

  “Inventive and creepy… revolutionary.”

  —Ozy

  “As strange, vivid and intricate as the alien biosphere at its heart, Rosewater is a fabulous book and Tade Thompson is a writer of enormous heart and talent. Just brilliant.”

  —Dave Hutchinson

  We hope you enjoyed this book.

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