Jezero City: Colony Four Mars (Colony Mars Book 4) Read online

  “And what field would that be?”

  Dr. Malbec swiped her finger across the slate again and tapped on something. “You worked as a homicide investigator for six years before that… unfortunate incident ended your career.”

  Unfortunate incident. Mia’s gut churned at the memory. It was something she had tried very hard to bury deep within herself for the last five years. She had left it behind when she strapped herself into the colony ship and departed Earth. Now this bitch was dragging it back up again. Who the hell did she think she was?

  “Look, lady. I know you’re something of a big cheese here, but you can’t go trawling through the dirty laundry of a colonist. It’s supposed to be like the French foreign legion on Mars, you leave all the dirt behind on Earth, and no one gets to use it. Christ, I thought there was a law against that sort of thing here?” Mia was shocked at her own outburst. She didn’t handle it very well and now she had ruined any advantage she might have gained from her meeting with one of the most powerful people on the planet.

  Dr. Malbec quietly placed the slate back down on the table and regarded Mia. “You’re right. While poking into people’s dirty laundry is not exactly against the law here, it is very much discouraged, unless there is a clear need to do so. And I have a need that you happen to be uniquely equipped to undertake.”

  Mia had regained some of her composure. She took a few more sips of tea just to distract herself a bit and help her get a grip. “I’m sorry, Dr. Malbec. But it’s a bit of a touchy subject for me.”

  “Why don’t you tell me about it?”

  Mia pointed at the slate resting on the table between them. “Do I really need to? You already know all about it. You probably know more about me than I do myself.”

  “Look, Mia. We all have our shit. Stuff we want to forget, things we wish never happened. But it’s not about the crap, it’s about how we deal with it that matters.”

  “Easy for you to say, you’re a goddamn legend.”

  “Trust me, that has its disadvantages.”

  They both got quiet for a moment before Jann spoke again. “Why don’t you just tell me about it yourself, about what happened to you.”

  Mia sighed. It was not something she really wanted to get into, not now, not ever. But there was something about Dr. Malbec. Perhaps it was because she had been through more crap than anyone could ever hope to survive. And yet, here she was, in the flesh, drinking tea, just like an everyday gal. Mia never had anything but respect for her and what she had accomplished. But maybe it was because her own personal traumas paled in comparison to Dr. Malbec’s dark past, that she finally let it all out. The first time she had done so in over five years.

  “I killed an innocent kid. Shot her with my service pistol. It was my finger that pulled the trigger.” There, she said it.

  She looked up at Malbec and shrugged. “It was an accident, just one of those things. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Mia sighed, sat back in the chair and proceeded to tell her story.

  “I was following up on a lead, checking out a lowlife who was a known associate of a guy we were looking for. He was holed up in a dump on the outskirts. It was a big old block, falling apart, full of poor families living on the edge. Anyway, I headed over there on my own. That was my first mistake. Someone somewhere tipped him off I was coming. You know the way these places work. They see a cop coming in through the lobby and all of a sudden the pipes start rattling. By the time I’d reached the third floor, he was ready and waiting. He jumped me in the stairwell, and punched me in the face. I went flying, and he took off like a fat torpedo. Once I got my head together I took off after him.

  “He was a big bastard, so he was slow. I had him in my sights by the time I got to the ground floor, so I pulled out my weapon and shouted a warning at him. There were a bunch of other people around who all hit the floor at this point. He didn’t stop, so I ran after him and then… well, I tripped over some guy on the ground taking cover. I never found out if he did it deliberately, you know—so the other guy could get away. Anyway, I fell to the floor, and the gun went off.

  “For a moment or two there was complete silence. Then the screaming started. I pulled myself up and went over to see what had happened. A young mother was cradling a kid in her arms, blood seeping from a wound in the girl’s abdomen. She was still alive then. I remember her eyes staring up at me, as if to say why did you kill me… and her mother screaming, screaming, screaming.” Mia put her head in her hands and let a few moments go by before she wiped her face and continued.

  “Then they shot me. Never found out who it was. I took a bullet in the chest and one in my left shoulder. I don’t remember anything after that until I woke up to a shitstorm. The kid was an immigrant, so I was a racist bitch and all the goddamn politics of the moment got dumped down on my head. They destroyed me. Screwed me over and hung me out to swing.”

  Mia shook her head. “Then for two years I looked for escape in the bottom of a bottle and a drawer full of pills—I didn’t find any. “Sometimes I thought it would have been better if they had convicted me for something and locked me up. Anyway, bit by bit I pulled myself back together. Once I had climbed out from the bottom of the pit some friends lent a hand and straightened me out. That’s when I started getting interested in the colony.”

  She looked at Jann. “It’s hard to ignore the colony back on Earth, it’s everywhere. So, I said what the heck, couldn’t be worse that this place. I applied, and the department, to their credit, decided to sponsor me. I think they felt bad about all the crap that had been dished out to me. Anyway, I got picked in the lottery and… well, here I am—that’s my story.”

  Jann sat back and sighed deeply. “That’s a lot of bad luck.”

  “I know, I know. It’s easy to say, but once the media get you in their sights you’re no longer a human being, you’re just a story, and they’ll milk it for all they can get—then spit you out, a spent husk, nothing left of you to matter to anyone.”

  “I know that feeling.”

  “Yeah, that’s probably the only reason I’m telling you all this. I know you get what it really feels like.”

  They sat for a while, saying nothing. Finally Mia reached for the tea, held it up towards Jann. “I don’t suppose you have something a bit stronger than tea?”

  Jann smiled. “Sure. I think I have something you might like.” She rose from her seat and wandered out of the room for a few minutes. Mia felt like she had just run a marathon. She was exhausted, but surprisingly elated, like a great weight had been taken off her shoulders. She had somehow opened a new door, moved on, leveled up.

  Jann came back holding two glasses, and offered one to Mia, who accepted it and took a sip. Her eyes widened. “Oh my god, it this what I think it is?”

  “Kentucky bourbon, all the way from Earth. It’s the real deal.” Jann sat down again, picked up the slate and waved it at Mia. “It says here it’s your favorite.”

  Mia raised her glass to Jann. “Here’s to Mars.”

  “To Mars.”

  After a brief period of delicate sipping and savoring her drink Mia set it down on the table, brushed the creases out of her colony issue jumpsuit and clasped her hands in her lap. “So, what is it you want me to do?”

  Jann held her gaze for a moment, like she was considering how best to spit it out. Mia dearly hoped that she wouldn’t have to sit through a potted history of the Mars colony.

  “I want you to investigate a murder.”

  “A murder? Well that’s a big ask.” Mia shook her head a few times. “I’m not sure I can be any help to you—even if I agreed to do it.”

  Jann raised a hand. “Just hear me out, Mia. Then you can decide.”

  Mia extended her hands as if to say go right ahead, and sat back. “Okay, but I can tell you right now, I’m not doing it.”

  “You probably heard about the courier that was killed on an resupply mission over at Nili Fossae?”

  “Yeah, tragic. I hear
d his rover blew up,” said Mia

  “Well, I’m not so sure it was an accident.”

  “Got any evidence to support that hypothesis?” Mia took another sip of her drink.

  “No. That’s why I need someone to investigate it.”

  Mia pursed her lips. “I feel like I’m being dragged into something that frankly I want no part of. But, since we’re buddies now, and I haven’t finished this very delicious bourbon, I’ll humor you with a few of the more obvious questions. The first being, why do you think it’s not simply an accident?”

  “Rovers don’t blow up like that. Yes, there have been fatalities in the past, due to system failures, or even just plain stupidity. But this was catastrophic.”

  “That’s not evidence, Jann. At best it’s just unusual.” Mia picked up her drink and took another sip. It might be a long long time before she ever had a drink like this, so she was going to savor it for as long as possible. “Next question, and this is the most fundamental, why would someone want this courier dead?”

  Jann sighed. “I don’t know. That’s the problem. I don’t really know what’s going on. I’ve either lost touch with the sociopolitical zeitgeist of the colony or someone is hiding something from me.”

  “Well, we have a word for that where I come from. It’s called paranoia. Maybe you just need to get out more.”

  Jann let out a laugh and began to nod her head. Eventually she stood up and walked over to the window again. “Maybe you’re right, Mia. Perhaps I’ve spent too long cooped up in this ivory tower, looking down on my realm, trying to divine some nefarious meaning in every random event.” She stood there for a while, just looking out. Finally she turned back to Mia. “Great change is happening.”

  Oh God, here it comes, thought Mia. The history lesson. She sipped her drink just to remind herself why she was prepared to listen to Dr. Malbec drone on.

  “It’s been nearly thirty years since the first colonist set foot on the planet. We’ve come a long way since then. And in less than a week we will celebrate the tenth anniversary of our independence from Earth, the decennial. Still, Earth continues to try and undermine our independence. This last decade of autonomy has been fought over every single day by the UN. ”

  Mia was tempted to say, well that’s a bummer, but she refrained. Instead she simply said, “I see.”

  “The decennial also marks the end of the exclusive mining and transit concessions given to AsterX.”

  “AsterX, who are they?” Mia felt she was being drawn in against her will.

  Jann turned away from her window gazing and sat back down. Mia realized she might be here for a while longer. Perhaps she could prompt Jann for another shot, just to ease the passage.

  “AsterX is an asteroid mining company. Our independence came at a price, and that was granting exclusive mining and transit rights to AsterX. They’ve prospered greatly from it, but we too have benefited greatly from this arrangement. All that is now coming to an end. Mars is opening up. For the past year, dozens of space corporations have been lobbying for these new concessions. We’re entering the next phase of our development and the growth will be… exponential.”

  “Well, that’s great, surely?”

  Jann shook her head. “Yes and no. You see…”

  Mia instantly regretted letting her mouth take over her brain. Now she had given Dr. Malbec an opportunity to really get going. She took another sip and resigned herself to being here for a while longer.

  “…my big fear is keeping control of this explosion of growth. With so many interested parties vying for position it’s extremely difficult to see the wood for the trees—politically and socially. There are powerful interests who would like nothing more than to see the colony here return to direct control of Earth.”

  “Jann…” Mia had had enough. She had no interest in politics and she got the feeling that Dr. Jann Malbec had spent too long fretting over the machinations of those around her to be able to see anything of the reality. “…what’s all this got to do with the dead guy?”

  Jann sighed. “If someone or some group wanted to take back control of the colony then time to do that is running out. After the decennial celebrations, and when the AsterX concessions end, it will be too late.”

  “That’s not an answer. That’s simply a personal fear, Jann. Okay, let’s say that this guy was murdered. Who stands to gain from it?”

  “That I don’t know. But a rover does not just blow up like that.”

  “Look, if you want my professional opinion, you’re chasing ghosts. You’re falling into the trap of trying to bend facts to fit your own hypothesis. You need to ask yourself the hard question, am I just being paranoid?”

  “You’re not convinced?”

  Mia laughed. “Very thin pickings, Jann. There’s nothing you’ve said so far that leads me to think this was anything more than an unfortunate accident.”

  “Well, don’t you see? That’s why I need someone to investigate it.”

  Mia shook her head. “No. I’m sorry, but I’m not your girl.” She put her now finished glass back down on the table and leaned in a bit. Her voice was low and hesitant. “Jann, I’ll be straight with you. I can’t go back there. I left all that behind. What little skill I had died back when I killed that kid. I can’t do what you want… I’m not going to let all that in again.”

  Jann sighed, visibly deflated. Mia could see she was disappointed. Instinctively she wanted to give her something to lessen the blow.

  “Listen, I’m not saying your hunch is wrong. Maybe this guy was murdered. Let’s face it, you know infinitely more than I do about what’s going on up here, so maybe there’s something in what you say. It’s just… I can’t help you. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay, I understand.”

  “Anyway, what good would I be? I’ve only been here six months I’m still finding my way around, haven’t even been out of Jezero City. You need someone who knows the ropes. What about the guy who brought me here? He seemed pretty good at snooping around.”

  “Werren’s loyal and very capable but he would be too easily recognized by a great many of the colonists here. I need someone who wouldn’t attract attention, not seen to be affiliated to any group or faction.”

  “Politics again?”

  “Life is politics, Mia. Anywhere you get more that two people together, there’s politics. It’s the consequence of being a species that can communicate.”

  “Well, I’ve always done my level best to avoid it, and there was a heck of a lot of it back in the department.”

  “And how did that work out?”

  Mia thought about that for a moment before realizing the point Malbec was trying to make. “Not very well.”

  “You see Mia, that’s the thing about politics. Either you’re playing the game, or it’s playing you.” With this, Jann rose from her seat. Mia sensed the meeting was over. “Thanks for coming.”

  Mia stood up and shook Jann’s outstretched hand. “Sorry I couldn’t be of any help.”

  “That’s okay. You’ve actually helped me more that you think. Werren will take you back.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Listen, just one more thing before you go.”

  “Sure, what is it?

  “This meeting never happened. I trust you’ll keep our conversation to yourself.”

  Mia nodded. “You can count on it.”

  With that, the lift door opened and Werren ushered her in. As the doors closed and the lift descended, Mia got the distinct feeling that this was not the last of it, that Dr. Jann Malbec was not someone you simply walked away from. What she had said about the department politics not being good to her hit a raw nerve. Malbec was cunning, she knew exactly how to jangle Mia’s tender area. She had been played for a patsy back on Earth, she could see that more clearly with each passing sol. But she was not going to let that happen again, no goddamn way.

  5

  Terraforming

  In the early years of the colony, the gre
at biodome was constructed for the sole purpose of food production. With it came the first expansion of what was up until then nothing more that an outpost. Momentous as this small human presence was, it was tenuous at best. But since the early colonists had come here on a one-way ticket, they possessed a tenacious drive to secure and fortify their fragile colony. The construction of this biodome was a significant moment in the foundation history, a moment when those who clung to life on this far off planet could realistically call it home. So it possessed a deeper significance to the colonists than any other building that now radiated out across Jezero City.

  For a long time, the architecture of the biodome dominated the colony infrastructure, but now it was dwarfed by the massive agri-domes that had been constructed since independence. Yet to the colonists in general, and the pioneers in particular, the biodome was their core. The root from which all else grew. So it came as no surprise to everyone that this was eventually chosen as the central council chamber—the seat of power.

  The hydroponics and factory grow beds had been removed and replaced with a lush green garden. The wide central dais now housed a circular array of seating and monitors for use when the council was in session. In the dead center of all this was a large holo-table used to display maps and data, and even the odd holo-cast from Earth, and other agencies that possessed such technology.

  It was in this section of the biodome that some of the oldest living plants on Mars existed. Some were giant palms, coconut and banana, their large fronds affording shade across the council dais. On certain sols, the biodome was open to the public and the new citizens of Jezero City could wander and delight in this old established tropical garden. Especially the young, those who were born here, of which there were now around twenty-seven ranging in age from a few months, to the oldest boy, the first Martian. He was now seven Earth years old.