Bringer of Light, Chapter 44: The Red Temple
From the Chronicles of the Red Temple, generally attributed to Clarissa Kragen (though it is thought edited for clarity by unknown spiritual descendants):
We do hereby establish our learning center, called by some a Temple, in this, the second year of the United Mars Colonies. Many are called, all are welcome.
The first rule of our new covenant is to accept. Accept the enormous responsibility that comes with newfound abilities and understandings of the way things are. Accept the being one is and the being one is becoming…
Riss stared into the dusty distance. Somewhere beyond the far horizon the ship would likely land. It would take several hours to reach it via rover.
If she wanted to go. The others had expressed a desire for confrontation. They were certain that he had done something. She wasn’t sure.
One confrontation had been enough.
Her helmet com crackled. “Riss, confirmed. It’s him.”
Damn. Now she would have to make a decision.
She turned to one of the colony rovers stationed outside the airlock where she was standing. She climbed into it and began a systems check.
“Riss?”
“Just a minute, Enoch.”
Good. From the looks of things, at least they hadn’t sabotaged the equipment not taken with them.
Not taken. Stolen was more like it. Though likely Martin would justify the theft by saying everything belonged to the UN, and technically he was still their representative. Even though the Earth had abandoned them all.
Mars belongs to us all, she thought. Even those who had left the colonies in the middle of the night.
“Where are the separatists now?”
“They didn’t even bother to hide their tracks. Headed for the South Pole. About a half day ahead of us, if we give chase.”
“If.”
“Riss, you know where the ship is headed. We can’t just…”
Riss sighed. She wasn’t sure how, but it seemed that the two people in her life that she at first thought were polar opposites now had come to some sort of common understanding.
Although she still see why. What benefits would either party gain?
“How many settlers left?”
“Around a tenth of the colony. Mostly newly-arrived religious-types, although the ones with children apparently stayed put.”
Riss nodded. Too much of a risk to go so far with so little.
“How many rovers did they take?”
“Not many. I imagine they arranged for other transport somehow. I’ll check the docking logs. The robot on duty was shut down remotely.”
“Hydroponics?”
“About a fifth got taken down. They must have been planning this for a while now. But we still have enough to survive.”
“Still, we’ll probably have to make a couple more.”
A third voice broke into the conversation.
“Riss, Cooper here.”
“Go ahead.”
“Doctors Park and Huynh have stayed behind. Looks like they changed their minds for some reason about leaving.”
“Hm. What do they have to say about Martin?”
“Martin put Sam in charge.”
Riss was silent.
“Riss, they’re both gone.”
She knew that. Had known that.
It was to have been her final mission. Her dream to find ditrium and make Sergey proud. To be with Sam and start a new life.
She found ditrium, alright. And a new life. But Sam…
At least she could see Sergey again. If what Ceres had told them were true.
“Coop, stay with the good doctors. Let’s get a double-check of all supplies.”
“Roger.”
“And tell Sanvi to step up progress on the Temple. We’ll need to make sure a training regime is established. I think she has some ideas for a rank hierarchy of some sort with curricular goals as well.”
“Riss, I don’t need to tell you that I feel a little uncomfortable about all this.”
The first voice cut back in suddenly.
“Geist, you always feel uncomfortable about everything.”
“Shove it, Enoch.”
Riss laughed. “OK, boys. Play time is for later. Ryan, tell Hamels to round up three or four security people and join me at Airlock 2. I’ll prep a couple of rovers.”
“Aye aye, Captain.”
“And just call me Riss from now, OK? The AI is the captain right now.”
“Gotcha. And are you really going to go ahead and drop another rock?”
Riss paused.
“First we’d better make sure that the settlers are safe. And that includes the separatists, too.”
She cut the connection and checked her suit readings. Minus 80. No dust storms predicted for the next three days. Fair weather.
For now.
Driving a rover on Mars is a tedious task to begin with. Hours on end of monotonous red sand, punctuated by the occasional fear of falling off a dune or getting stuck in a ravine. Riss was not exactly eager to reach their destination, but she was also not exactly unhappy to allow someone else to drive.
She wished she could contact Sanvi. Or Coop. Or even Ryan. Or anyone she left back at what they referred to as “Colony Base.” But the wireless comm system Weng had helped create didn’t function long distance. Chinese ping encryptions only worked long distance in space, and they had obviously proved not a hundred percent protected against a determined hacker.
After turning over the main rover to an MCSF soldier, Riss turned her attention again to the telemetry of the incoming ship. It was small. A hunter. A familiar hunter. Why was he not trying to disguise his approach? Surely…
Riss bit her lip.
Despite all that had happened, all that had come to pass, she still had emotions. Bottled up for years. Memories. Of things left unsaid. People unfound. Unheard.
Why?
She had never been able to answer that question.
Sanvi lost a brother.
Brady, a father.
Sergey, his entire country.
Why?
Riss closed her eyelids.
She opened her third eye.
The world unfurled.
The Colony Base. Sanvi, training new initiates. Ryan overseeing more 3D printing facilities and Cooper setting up new hydroponics. Others who had essentially become their assistants as the crew expanded the colony hierarchy. Even the settler faction heads—at least, the ones that hadn’t rebelled and fled with Weng and Martin.
If she shifted her realities, she knew she could reach them all. Somehow. Incorporeal. Not linguistic. Not on a verbal level. But what would be the result? In the end, they were still human. Still limited by their DNA, by their physical capabilities.
Or were they?
She thought back to the catcher on Ceres. Throwing up walls of energy to deflect the hollow point. Directing the fields to allow her to breathe, despite the lack of atmosphere.
But she still needed to breathe. And her control had limits, especially needing effort over time.
She relaxed her diaphragm, seeking the tanden point in her abdomen that Sanvi talked so much about. In. Out. Center. She briefly touched the fields around her. Felt the ground beneath the accelerating rover. The faint outline of Mars’ weak magnetic field.
A distant rumble of vehicles. Over the surface. And above.
Her eyes snapped to.
Gennaji. He was on Mars. She knew it. She knew what he bore. She knew he was not responsible. She knew she would never see him again, after this day.
She also knew Weng was about to reach a decisive point in his life. Which she now knew she would not share.
And she tried desperately not think about why. But perhaps it had been inevitable, in the end. Some things were meant to be. Some things were not. Sai-ou ga uma.
She smiled. She had learned that from someone, somehow. Probably a fellow colonist during a training session. A merging session.
Live and let live. Accept. Continue. The hardest lessons of all.
She returned to the present.
“ETA?”
“Six hours, sir.”
“That long? And just call me Riss, thanks.”
“Yes, si—Riss.”
She sighed.
Six hours was too long. Long enough for Weng and Martin to get people off-world. The colonies had always required arrivals to use the Receiving Station in permanent geosynchronous orbit. That way, it was easier to drop off supplies without having to touch down.
And naturally the Mars Overseer had been charged with the safety of those in the colonies, particularly from bacteria and viruses brought from elsewhere.
But of course had anyone wanted to, they could have brought their ship down and land it pretty much anywhere. And there would have been very little the colonies could do to stop them.
Now, there would be very little they could do to prevent ships from taking people away, back into space. But where would they go? Where would Sam and Martin bring a couple hundred colonists?
Riss shook her head. Something didn’t feel right. How could they have arranged for that many ships to…
Wait. That many ships.
Only one group had enough ships that were already out in space and not docked on Luna or on Earth. Martin must have been sending encrypted messages to his “son.”
So that could only mean…
“Contact Rover 2.”
“Yes, s-Riss.”
“Hamels here.”
“Alter your course. I’ll send the coordinates in a second.”
“Why? We can clearly follow their tracks.”
“I have a hunch that we’ll find them waiting for our new arrivals.”
“Arrivals? As in plural? Ah.”
“I see you’ve figured it out, Sergeant. I assume that you did not know Ceres would make such an agreement with Martin?”
“Captain…Riss, my instructions from Ceres did not include procuring off-world transport for any disaffected settlers.”
“Disaffected. Interesting choice of words, but accurate. Why would the Mining Consortium agree to help?”
“What? How do you know that?”
“Think about it. Who else could possibly be able to get this many people into space at the same time?”
“Hmm. The Ceres Mining Consortium is now basically run by the Seven Sisters. Not everyone is happy with the current arrangement, as you know.”
Riss paused. She tapped a panel in front of her, then swore. Damn bulky EV gloves. She tried again, and it worked this time. Something else to get used to.
“You should be receiving the telemetry report I downloaded prior to departure from the colonies. I suggest we both head straight for the projected landing site.”
“Roger. And after we arrive?”
Riss took a deep breath.
“Let’s hope nobody has a temper tantrum.”
Next: Bringer of Light, Chapter 45: Foundations of Understanding
