Welcome Aboard Air Marineris

I rose early the next day, the morning of Bee’s last full day. I woke him from his door. The next day he was to leave. I knew he had a lot of things to do that day. I needed to get a word in.

I left Dini in bed, after yet another late night. I tried not to waken her. I kept my drill short and sweet, like me. One welcome thing about shorn scalps was that I never have to brush my hair. I have to shave it, though. I grow a lot of hair up there. But shavers are portable.

I stood in the hall in front of the door to Bee’s unit, running the shaver over my scalp, waiting for him to get some clothes on and answer my knocks. I didn’t use the annunciator. When he opened up, I didn’t turn towards the pegpole to lead him down. I wasn’t smiling in embarrassment for waking him up like that.

“I want to have a talk with you. Here.”

I wanted to make an impression. I walked right at him. He was compelled to back up against the door. I was barely able to brush by. He was startled by it but said nothing. He knew I had something serious on my mind. He knew me by then. I am impatient with people sometimes, especially people I love most. They matter. I went over to the couch, and sat down on one end, patting the thin cushion beside me. I tried to keep a neutral expression on my face.

“Close the door and sit, brother.”

“Yesterday, Klara said she was speaking for both of us, but I have been thinking about this all night. I don’t agree with her about Starward staying inoffensive. I have spent too much time at mining camps on the edge of civilization to ignore the fact that people do bad things when they think no one is watching. I have seen activists and organizers disappear too many times to assume that corporate entities would hesitate to act to save their property.

“I agree with Klara that Starward is unlikely to concern themselves when you visit a few people on the Moon. Even when you go to Einstein to see Zainab. That could be explained by an understandable desire to see a friend and get a few extra commissions for our factories. But when you go to LEO, they will likely smell a rat. They are not stupid people, and it’s the time for them to be suspicious. History is littered with accounts of nations that have lost their colonial possessions. They know what happens when colonies grow up. It’s obvious we are becoming nations up here, even if small ones.”

I thought Bee would be worrying about that too, although not for the same reason as me. He would be worried about his family, not about himself. He had signed himself on to this kind of thing before. So, he asked me to explain. I wanted to tell him I was still afraid for him:

“Klara may be wrong. Bee, they’ve tried to kill you already for reasons much less compelling. We, and you particularly, could be setting the scene for the loss of all their off-world property. You couldn’t have missed the point they made on the Rockship to us. You didn’t do anything else to rile them other than expose their plans. Your killing of Rudy wouldn’t even have interested them. He had already done his job. You remained alive when they wanted you dead and forgotten, with nothing to remind people about the incident on the Moon. You remained a celebrity, so they sent people to eliminate you. They must really have felt the UN could use the killings on the Moon to revoke their license to operate the colonies.

“No need to imagine whether they would do it again for a far better reason when you chanced to be within their easy reach on LEO. They would drive the point of playing with danger home to Klara and me. They could make it seem sufficiently credible. They would only need to provide an indicator to motive. What better than the despondency of an old man who has lost part of the family he came Earthward to visit? We know what they are capable of, Bee. And I am afraid for your family. So easy to arrange an accident. Who is to say what caused a chemical or gas explosion, or a leak that let the poison in? They live in a dangerous world.”

He might have suspected it, but he didn’t really want to believe it.

“But Mo, we are helping them. I’m going to the Moon and LEO to buy stuff from companies they own. How could they possibly object? They own us all.”

“Yes, and they want to keep it that way. I have seen such things happen. There is a dark side to the benefits capitalism offers. If they even suspect, what I have seen happen to others could happen to you and yours. We must anticipate such events and prevent them by making them impossible. I am not saying that it will happen. Yet, we can’t be complacent. I know such people. I have worked for them all my life. A mining engineer has no alternative. I haven’t remained sightless though, as many do, staying blind to what they would rather not see. We need to develop a plan to prevent any harm to them and save them. That is part of what I have been thinking about.”

“But Monica…” He didn’t get any farther before I interrupted. I knew I wasn’t getting through to him.

“If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for me. Humor me. Maybe it is over the top. Maybe I am inflating the danger. But it’s taken me this long to acquire a family of just two people. It will help me to know that you are taking all the precautions you can. I didn’t want to send you, but I know it’s best for us all. You have those connections and we should use them. I know your history; I’ve read your report about those shenanigans on the Moon. I know about your regrets. I know you are like other men. You like to throw the cards. It’s a man thing, isn’t it? Restrain yourself, for me. Be wary, for once. It’s your own fault. If you weren’t so adorable, I wouldn’t love you so much. I will not lose you.”

That triggered him. He admitted his fears.

“I had nightmares last night, Monica. The usual anxiety kind. I can’t help myself when I dream. When I wake up it seems preposterous to me. Certainly, I mean them no harm. But Klara must have doubts too. She is trying to make me feel better about what is inevitable for me anyway. Maybe she thinks better of them than we do, and maybe she doesn’t like to send friends to their deaths. She’s not squeamish, though; she sent me to face Alex. Perhaps it’s because she doesn’t have the individual people to lose. I don’t know what it is, but I suspect she’s wrong, too. I can’t avoid the job, though. Nor do I want to. What can we do more than what we have done? It makes me sick that I am going to put my family at risk.”

“Don’t think your good intentions are shared, Boris. Follow your gut. One of the first things a woman learns is to anticipate other’s thoughts. It comes with the feminine territory. We have come a long way. Look at Klara and me. But don’t be fooled. Who was the chairman of Starward and who was assisting him, probably doing all the work? Fems do work harder. And we are exposed to more grimy stuff. Don’t assume the good intentions are enough. ”

“I feel like rushing down there and picking them up, Mo. Maybe if I do it fast, they won’t know.”

“Don’t you dare do anything until we have discussed it. I consider them my family too. Let’s think it out. Start at the beginning. I understand Klara better than you do. Klara is smart, ambitious, and more than a bit ruthless, just like I am. Maybe a bit more ruthless, brother. From her point of view, it would be a win whatever happened to you. If you are killed, she has a martyr. That’s always a plus to an independence movement, especially if you can document it like we can with the monitor we are putting on you. And if you succeed without misadventure, that’s good too. Whatever happens to you, it will help her achieve her ends. She’s not a bad person, but when you play for big stakes, you expect costs. She is thinking of the future of thousands of people and of the survival of the human race. Don’t expect her to be too concerned with the fate of people like us. That’s why I think she tends to underestimate the danger to you and your family. I’ve been making some plans. It needs to be done right. No offense, but you just can’t rush in there.

“We must move them out of danger carefully. But how do we do that? We can’t let Starward figure it out before the move is made. That would guarantee trouble for us as well as you. Your family may not like the idea of moving because they stayed when you left. It might be different now, though. There are two more LEO cylinders planned in addition to Elysium and Equatoria. I understand from the publicity that they are going to recreate the south of France and the California Coast - as they then were, of course. They will be announcing more paradises sometime next year. That will be a great attraction, because people are getting very tired of all the privation and isolation. They have seen what could be in all the idyllic abstraction of the outdoors. They have been watching that pap in their videopac and gaming all their lives. That’s what draws them up to the cylinders. They know they’re not outside, but they can imagine they are. And now, with the UN programs, they can go.

“And lucky for us that the marketers are there to cajole people up into orbit. Bless their greedy little hearts. It will work for us. The emigration is at a low ebb now before the next push in the new year. They have made it easy to emigrate. You only need to reserve space on a shuttle with no notice. They encourage impulse. They are begging people to do that now. I checked, there’s lots of empty space. Not many want to take the chance right now. Your family only needs to text the Authority. The UN regulation takes charge of the rest. You pay for the flight with whatever you have in tangible property. They don’t take your cash money. We will need to take precautions, of course, but it can be done. When they are in LEO, or better still, here on Mars, we can take measures to protect them. Kids on Mars, imagine!

“You can’t talk to them directly about this before it’s done. Starward will listen to everything you say, and that will trigger them. And you can’t do it from here. It’s too easy to spot. It must be a local call on Earth, one of billions from anonymous people. You’re always telling me that Esther was the glue in your social relationships. Find one of her friends. It should be easy. Some of them should still be alive. After all, you old wreck, you’re still doddering around.

“Your family would accept them, even though it’s a big ask. There’s no way you can call those friends directly. One of your connections on the Moon could, though, after you see them. Gloria is probably the best one. What’s more natural than her trying to reach one of your old friends after you have talked about her? You’re not the best communicator, are you? When did you last call one of Esther’s friends? They lost her too. They must have loved her too. Enough said.

“On the Moon they’re practically part of the Earth’s net. It would be tougher to track. They can’t follow everything, even with AI. She could explain it, preferably by vid, or even better, face to face in a public area, and get them to call your kids. Streams are still harder to follow than texts. Better to use two people, one for each kid. Then, when they spontaneously come up and see you, it won’t seem suspicious. They may even be pleased to get new immigrants when they want them. They already know you miss your family, and that you are a sentimental fool. I think they’ll let it pass. You will do that before you speak to any officials on LEO. Remember that. No suggestion to them while they can still spring a trap. They will suspect something, perhaps, but I hope it won’t alarm them enough to do something extreme like snatching them.

“All of this might seem to be unlikely, the product of my fevered imagination. It may be so. I hope it is. You can make fun of me when it’s all over. I won’t mind. But hear me brother. Too much caution might slow you down, but it won’t hurt like too little might.”

“You took all that time to think about us. And you’ve got lots more to think about. Thanks, Mo. ”

“What’s more important than family? You would do the same for me if Ondine were in trouble. Enough said.”

I couldn’t help but frown when he mentioned thanks. At first, he didn’t understand. Then he must have realized I had a reason. I was just relearning about family. I was afraid he was questioning my status as sister. You do thank a sister for helping, but it is always perfunctory. It wasn’t for doing what a sister would do. With no surviving blood family, and long disaffection from them while I had them, I was more sensitive than he to clan nuance. He had spent his life in one’s bosom and had come to take its connections for granted.

“You’re right, Mo, Sorry.” And then he touched me on the shoulder. I didn’t flinch. I had come to accept the expression of affection. The desert was blooming. Dini was good for me. Silently, I thanked her.

“One last thing, Bee. Do everything at the last minute. Don’t give them any warning. They won’t realize a thing until it’s too late. And LEO, with the great number of immigrants, is the only place they have left where one could conceivably do anything unnoticed. After what happened to you, people out here were outraged with the effrontery of it. They won’t countenance that again. The naked fist was too much for them. Starward is finished for that kind of stuff. So, anything they do will be on the sly.”

Bee thought for a minute, and then said:

“To contact my children, Mo, you said we should have two people. Get Ondine to check on a couple of these to make sure that they are available. I have been off Earth almost eight years. Things change. She can say she was adding to my medical history in the unlikely event anyone asks. For my daughter Rebecca, her husband Bertrand is the one to contact, and for my son Josh, go through his wife Cynthia. That will push it out one more degree of separation.

“I can easily select the people among Esther’s friends to contact. She had a lot of friends, but only a few of them had the kind of special relationship with my kids that would validate a connection with them. For Rebecca, it should be my niece Stephanie, who grew up with her. I believe they are still very close and still talk with one another regularly. I think they both still live in Buffalo Central. Stephanie is a doctor as well. Gloria could easily link up with her. Rebecca would believe anything Stephanie told her. For Josh, the person would be Esther’s friend Kay Williamson. She was always close to Josh when he was younger. He, too, would believe Kay without question. If either of them said they had instructions from me to leave for their safety, they would leave. I’ll think a bit more and give you some alternatives, but both these people were healthy when I left the Moon. I haven’t heard of any changes yet, and for people as close as that, I would have.”

I nodded to indicate understanding and replied:

“Don’t message me with the names, Bee. The less recorded the better. Just find something to write on and hand it over. I’ll give those to Ondine. Strange that, at bottom, the old ways are better than the new for some tasks. Strange too, that, bound to a single planet with resources a fraction of ours that our ancestors routinely overlooked a freedom we will never experience. They could go anywhere they wanted and live their lives in total anonymity. They were not tracked and watched. They never imagined a time when people who lacked that simple liberty would risk death to obtain even a pale reflection of it. Isn’t that a good bit of the motivation that drove us here to the edge of civilization? What will they do when there are significant numbers of people living in space?”

“They will forget the promises they made if we let them. We will work to make people free in the way they were. Let our descendants worry what to do with it. That’s the rule, isn’t it?”

There was no more to say. The plan was in motion. The next day Bee was to leave and live it. He would start out at ten in the evening. He had a full day scheduled and would be tired by then. He could sleep through the acceleration.

But Bee wasn’t finished with me even though I might have been finished my big sister routine. There was big brother advice in return.

“I was thinking back to what happened to me on the Moon. You remember the situation. I have probably told you about it too many times. One thing I didn’t often mention though, was my overreliance on publicity to protect me and my friends. I thought that my minor celebrity as the crusading sheriff would protect my friends from harm. It didn’t, but it did make some difference. It did provide some protection to me personally. They didn’t try to kill me until the Rockship was out of the EarthSpace web cache. If they had killed me when it was inside, it would have been publicized immediately, and they might have had to answer some questions about that. So, celebrity isn’t of pivotal importance, but it is in the mix.

“You are going to be managing the construction of Air Marineris, a candidate for celebrity, and you should be. But you are a fem, and being great as a fem is a problem. When I was on the Moon, you know I was very interested in the building of Rubin. I was far from the only one, however. Rubin fascinated millions of people because it was something new. To people living a humdrum life underground, any novelty is hypnotic. That, and the building of the cylinders, have created a continuous sensation. I visited a Fanpage on the nets one afternoon and I found that people take a very personal interest in the minutiae of construction. On the enclosure of the Eye of the Moon, they have two kinds of construction robots they call spiders and ants. The spiders do the cable work and the ants do the fabrication of the cap. The fans had written a skin program so that they could name, clothe, and follow, individual robots. They all had identities and millions of people cheered their favorites. These were identical robots, and the only ways to tell them apart was that they had different scratches on them!

“Rubin’s enclosure is close to finished now. People are going to be looking for something else. We could take over a ready-made audience. I suggest we follow every detail of the construction program and put it on the nets. It’s not going to matter that it’s not up to the second. This is an epic project. It would be good for Mars, and Starward, to put this front and centre. And a benefit to us would be that you would be strongly associated with the project. It will be a lot more difficult for them to replace you if you are a bit of a star, Mo. You will play well. You are a very attractive fem and you are well spoken. Not to mention that you are the only real expert in this work. You aren’t above a little distinction, are you? I have been thinking that we should start out with something spectacular, something that would go viral on the nets. Do you think you could come up with some genius idea for that? “

“By this time, I’ve lived it so that I can turn it on, open my mouth, and go to sleep. As for the viral image, I have an idea for that. I hadn’t been thinking of it in the same terms, but I think it would fit the bill. People are just used to dead scenes on Mars. Our planet offers spectacular views, but it is a little short on human interest. Nobody goes outdoors, so that is close to inevitable. But I have been thinking of how to start up fast to convince Starward we are as ready to go as we have been telling them we are.

“We have two extra airships up North on Tharsis. We need to keep the rocket propelled one for emergencies. Yet there’s no reason we can’t use the other spare to start our line. We need to transport it here to use it for that. It’s already designed to be pulled by a drag line. The obvious way to get it here would be to use the train to drag it. What do you think a train dragging a lofted airship would look like? I could do the voice over to that.”

Bee took a minute to absorb that, and he laughed.

“That would make an amazing picture. There haven’t been any images of airships in over a hundred years. Not many took notice of our little mine spur line. Zeppelins were very popular at one time. It would drive the construction wonks crazy! That will fill the bill for sure!

“I think so too. Of course, after that, we’ll need to take it down a peg, but we will still have all kinds of interesting stuff to show. We’ll need to build an open Quonset for our first station, and we’ll need to fit up the Airship to use for moveable provisioning of the line. There will be hoists to lift the prospectors off and on to move them. We have at least fifty pylons, maybe more, left over from the previous construction along with a few tonnes of chemset concrete. We can start the line immediately. You were working with Lou on the last line. He can start it off when you go to become ambassador to the stars. When you get back, you can help with the new trainees, and we can really get going. That’s a plan.”

We smiled at each other like a couple of kids over their first chocolate milkshake.