Mars Prime (3 page)

Kim smiled, thankful that her thoughts had been directed inwards and were inaccessible to her husband. His ego was sufficiently large already.

"Is everything okay?"

Corvan's question brought her back to the situation at hand. The displays vanished as the wide shot zoomed forward to fill her inner vision. "That's a roger. Stand by while I check the bird."

Thoughts flickered, electrons responded, and the Ultima delivered its response. "Comsat NN 2068 is in geosynchronous orbit over the United States. We have full redundancy via Comsat NN 2067. Both satellites report all systems green.''

Kim didn't bother with the networks. Each and every one of them were taking the feed and waiting for the President to appear. All of them had requested permission to send their own man cams and all had been refused.

Neither Fornos nor Jopp wanted a bunch of reporter-operators running all over the place interviewing sick colonists. The funding for subsequent missions would depend on the success of this one, and the brass wanted everything to look perfect. Never mind the air leaks, the hydroponics problems, or the mysterious booming noise that no one could figure out. Those were minor problems that would be handled soon. Or so they said. No, the mission must be flawless, or at least seem that way.

And that's where Corvan came in. Due to the fact that Corvan had broken what came to be known as the Computer Coup story, and survived the resulting investigations, his credibility was legendary. If he said something viewers believed it, and the networks had no choice but to go along.

It was of course why Jopp and Fornos had hired him, why Kim was on a space ship bound for Mars, and why the two of them had this story entirely to themselves.

Kim sighed. It was too good to last. The suits thought her husband was bought and paid for. She knew better.

A female voice filled, C-deck, passed through Corvan's hearing, and flooded Kim's mind. It came from the ship's PA system.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. The President of the United States has entered the BCL and will join us momentarily."

The murmur of conversation died away. The resulting silence was nearly complete, interrupted only by the sounds of sick colonists and the syrupy music that filled the PA system.

Corvan, secure in the knowledge that the networks had already introduced him, began his report. He addressed himself to the robo cam knowing that Kim would go to an establishing shot first.

"Welcome to C-deck of the spaceship
Outward Bound.
The President of the United States will appear any moment now. I think most of you will agree that this is a truly momentous occasion.

"Other ships have gone where this ship will go. And, if those who lead this mission have their way, others will certainly follow.

"But this is the
first
colony ship to depart Earth for another planet, and these are the
first
settlers to leave with no intention of coming back."

Kim saw BCL start to iris open and said so. "Here she comes."

Corvan turned in one smooth motion, knowing that Kim would cut his eye cam, careful to maintain a medium shot. Wide enough to make out what was going on, but close enough to see the President's face.

And an attractive face it was. Attractive enough to win a beauty pageant, lock up an anchor job with one of the networks, and win a seat on the Seattle city council. The first step on a ladder that led to the mayor's office, the Senate, and the White House, the last advancement being hurried along by her predecessor's assassination. An assassination that had gone undetected until Corvan and Kim discovered the existence of the Video Matrix Generator and a plot to take over the world.

But, while physical beauty might have helped the President achieve national office, the real reason for her success lay behind the big blue eyes. The President had an I.Q. of 136, an almost magical ability to change people's minds, and an indomitable will. Though little respected prior to her predecessor's death, she had blossomed since and earned wide-ranging respect.

Fornos, Jopp, and some other shipboard notables moved forward to shake hands with the President. Words were exchanged and they moved back again.

The same voice flooded the PA system once again. "Ladies and gentleman ... the President of the United States!"

The colonists applauded, their stomachs momentarily forgotten, caught up in the importance of the moment.

The President pushed herself out of the lock, grabbed hold of the line rigged for her convenience, and did her best to stay vertical. "Vertical" being defined as the same relative position that her audience maintained. The bottom of her stomach tried to leapfrog her throat. She forced a smile.

The applause continued. Kim cut to the robo cam. Audiences all over the world saw the President and the multi-national crew all floating in zero-G. It was great stuff and would be replayed for weeks to come.

The President knew that and allowed her eyes to skim the audience. She made eye contact with a man, nodded, found a woman, nodded again, and kept on going. She knew that each one of them would feel touched, would remember the contact for the rest of their lives, would vote for her in the next election. Assuming they were American, assuming the ship made it to Mars, and assuming that they survived long enough to vote.

She waited for the applause to die down, and when it had, waited a little longer.

The silence built, focused attention on her, and added weight to the words that followed. She wore a wireless mike and it fed her words to the ship's PA system.

"Ladies and gentlemen, citizens of Earth, this is a momentous occasion. I come before you not as the president of a single nation, but as the representative of all your various countries, bringing with me their admiration for your courage, prayers for your success, and hopes for the future.

"Your presence here signals a new era of peace and cooperation on our planet. Although you come from many nations, and from many lands, you have but one goal: the peaceful colonization of Mars."

The President paused, felt her feet start to drift out from under her, and pulled upwards on the rope to force them down.

"I wish that our history was different. I wish that our ancestors had been wiser. I wish that our purpose was less urgent. How nice it would be if this mission was motivated by scientific curiosity rather than an urgent need for additional space and resources."

The President smiled wistfully. "But we
do
have a need for more space, and we
do
have a need for more resources. So like it or not this mission takes on added significance. The men and women of this ship are nothing less than pioneers. Blazing paths for the rest of us to follow . . . opening a frontier for us to settle . . . building a home for us among the stars."

It was good stuff, written by Charlie Skuba the day before and memorized by the President in transit. The applause was close to deafening.

The President had another paragraph or two, more material in much the same vein, but decided to drop it. "Know when to quit." That's what an old mentor had told her and it was good advice.

The President signaled a Secret Service agent with a glance, waved to the crowd, and used the rope to push herself off. She was slightly off target, but a surreptitious nudge from Skuba put her back on track, and the lock opened before her. Fornos, Jopp, and the other dignitaries closed in behind and she was lost to sight.

Corvan held the shot on his eye cam until the BCL had closed behind them, turned toward the still hovering robo cam, and knew Kim would cut wide.

"So there you have it. The President is making her way back to the main lock, where she will board
Air Force One
and return to Washington. In the meantime the men and women of
Outward Bound
have a lot of work to do. There is last minute cargo to stow, systems to check, and a multitude of problems to solve. Small things mostly, but necessary nonetheless, and made all the more so by the fact that departure is only hours away."

Kim used the robo cam's 20:1 zoom lens to go in tight. Her husband smiled. "As the
Outward Bound's
Information Officer, it will be my responsibility to bring you regular reports on the mission's progress, up to and including completion of a domed city called 'Mars Prime.' Eight hundred men and women are already there, starting construction and preparing the way for the rest of us."

Kim readied the pre-produced three-dimensional graphic and gave certain directions. A map of the solar system appeared on billions of television sets. Earth and Mars were shown orbiting around the sun while slowly approaching each other. A delta labeled
Outward Bound
appeared near Earth and made its way outward. Corvan supplied the voice-over.

"As many of you know, Mars has a diameter roughly half that of Earth's, about forty-two hundred miles, and has an orbital period of six hundred and eighty-six days. The distance between Earth and Mars varies anywhere from forty-nine million to two hundred and thirty-five million miles depending on the time of year. That's why it's so important for
Outward Bound
to break orbit during the next few hours. By leaving now, the ship can take advantage of the shortened distance between the two planets, and trim months off the length of the journey."

Kim dissolved from the animation to a shot of Corvan. The reop looked her in the eye. "Mars is still a long ways off, though—so far away that it will take up to fifteen minutes for each one of my reports to reach you."

Corvan glanced around, saw the colonists being herded toward the locks, and started his close. "But regardless of how long it takes our reports to make the journey, we will look forward to sending them your way, and hearing back from you. This is Rex Corvan, Information Officer for the vessel
Outward Bound,
reporting live from Earth orbit.'' Corvan killed the outgoing signal and breathed a sigh of relief. Things had gone very smoothly. He sent a thought toward Kim. "That's a wrap. Coffee's on me. See you in the mess hall."

There was a pause, as if Kim's thoughts were somewhere else, followed by a grim message. "Sorry, Rex. Security has a murder on their hands. They want to see you right away."

 

 

 

 

Chapter Three

 

 

The medical section was completely sealed off by the time Corvan got there. Security types came and went. Some held hurried conversations, some carried boxes of equipment, and all looked grim. A woman with the look of a weight lifter drifted out to block his way. She wore a ship-suit, a combat harness, and a needle gun. If she recognized Corvan she gave no sign of it.

"The medical section is closed. Come back later."

"My name's Corvan. They sent for me."

Implants were expensive, and therefore rare, but like most of the
Outward Bound's
crew members the woman had one. A wire ran from the radio on her belt to the jack in the right side of her head. It was a cosmetic model. A circle of tiny blue lights flashed on and off around it. The combination of radio and implant allowed the officer to communicate with the rest of her team via thought. Her eyes never left Corvan's. She nodded.

"Colonel Jopp wants to see you."

Corvan raised an eyebrow. The colonel was personally involved. Interesting.

He pushed against the bulkhead and sailed through the entranceway. There were two security people in the waiting room. One ran some sort of scanner over the walls while the other read a magazine. The one with the magazine looked up and nodded toward the double-wide hatch. "Go on in."

Corvan did as he was told, using the podium-styled console to launch himself in the right direction before rebounding off the hatchway and entering the corridor. Four people were clustered around a fifth. He wore a white ship-suit with a red cross embroidered over his left breast pocket. Tears drifted away from his eyes and a string of mucous hung sideways from his nose. A security officer handed him a Kleenex. It was second nature for Corvan to activate his implant and record what he heard.

". . . So I called for Dr. Henry and heard no answer. That's when I came down the corridor. And there he was, just like you saw him, beaten to death."

A security woman said something Corvan couldn't hear, gestured up corridor, and helped the technician toward the waiting room.

Corvan slid past the security people and into the office. Cops were universally weird. "Shoot this, don't shoot that." They made up the rules as they went along. That was one advantage of the eye cam. There was nothing on your shoulder to give you away. Not unless you toted the robo cam around all the time, and Corvan didn't. He had parted company with the device along the way, knowing that it was perfectly capable of returning to the com center all on its own.

The body was there all right, fastened to the bulkhead with silver utility tape, looking like a high-tech mummy. Someone had gone to a great deal of trouble to immobilize the doctor before killing him.

The reop glanced around, looking for a murder weapon, or other obvious evidence. There wasn't any.

Corvan used the computer console to pull himself down, tried to see the victim's face, but saw little more than reddish pulp. There was blood too, a cloud of it which had drifted away from the body and come to rest in a corner. Some of the smaller drops had already made the transition from liquid to solid. The rest would follow.

"Messy isn't it?" The voice was hard and flat. It came from behind him.

Corvan turned and found himself face-to-face with Colonel Mary Ann Jopp. He'd met her only once before and that had been by way of a rather brief interview. The air force officer hung motionless in the doorway as if suspended there by invisible strings. She was attractive in a thin-faced sort of way, with big green eyes, and hair so short that she was almost bald. She looked very military, very practical, and very cold. It added to her somewhat intimidating presence.

"Yeah," Corvan agreed. "Murder usually is. Who was he?"

"Dr. Henry Havlik, Mission Psychiatrist."