Chapter 33

Epilogue, April 6, 2166
Scarlett City, Mars

Alan finished up his work and stepped the few yards over to the Scarlett Office where Ray was watching the closing arguments in the trial of Radmir Kovalyov. All of his surviving crew members testified against him. They found a few survivors that served under him on Venus Prime, and some from his previous commands. Even the former Secretary of the People’s Glorious Star Fleet of the Eastern Bloc testified against him. Alan was certain that Kovalyov was screwed.

“I’m done Ray,” he called to his uncle, who was engrossed in the closing arguments and his wife. First lady of Mars Nadia Volochenko-Clark, Alan’s step-aunt, had testified against Kovalyov and now she was sitting on the lap of the president of Mars. She told the jury how Radmir Kovalyov drunkenly bragged to her he was going to kill Alan Scarlett and Gunnery Sergeant Marcy Dunlap, ensuring that he would never be caught. When he stole the Polnoye Resheniye, Nadia secretly kidnapped Alan Scarlett and sent him to Mars the fastest way she knew, then she told Admiral Shira about the threat to Marcy’s life, and he sent out a 9-Line request which saved her life.

“You don’t want to watch this?” asked Ray.

“Nah, I’ll catch the update on the news, they’ll rebroadcast it for days.” There were three news channels on Mars, and one was devoutly sympathetic to Radmir Kovalyov. It wasn’t surprising, because most of the Martian population were academics and had little contact with the real world. In their ignorance, many of the Martian academics embraced the utterly failed Marxist doctrine and Channel 4 made loads of money catering to their whims. “I gotta go,” said Alan. “I have to pick up the kids and take them home.”

“Ve vill see you soon,” said Nadia. “Pandora and Eris have invited us over for dinner.”

Wonderful, Pandora made dinner plans and never told him. “Catch you then,” said Alan and he headed out. A pair of security guards followed him. He left the Presidential Palace, a large office building that housed the Martian government and the president Ray Clark.

As Alan traveled through the capital city of Perseverance on moving sidewalks, people that recognized him greeted him with a cheery, “Hello Mister Vice President.” Alan was indeed the vice president of Mars. The Kovalyov investigation revealed that the former vice president, Harrison Ellison, was employed by the Eastern Bloc and was actively protecting the Eastern Bloc’s illegal mining drones that were being dropped all over Mars. The official-looking people that harassed anyone who approached a mining drone were Vice President Ellison’s personal police. When he was sentenced to twenty Mars years in Phobos Prison, Ray offered the job to Alan.

“I do NOT want to be Vice President!” Alan nearly shouted.

“You would continue to be my eyes and ears over the Martian Self Defense Forces just like you are now, and the Western Alliance Navy would have no power to recall you to active duty.”

“Sold,” sighed Alan. “Let me talk it over with Pandora before any announcements.” Of course, when he got home, Pandora knew all about it.

Alan and his escorts stepped up to the Deimos Academy, a private school dedicated to educating high IQ children. He stepped into the lobby and as he begged the secretary, she greeted him with, “Hello Alan! The kids are ready.”

“Daddeeeeee!” cried Anna and Wally as they dashed into Alan’s arms.

“You guys ready?” asked Alan as he helped Wally put on his backpack.

“Teacher says that there were no dinosaurs on Mars,” pouted Little Wally.

“Well, there’s Grandpa Wally, he’s kind of a dinosaur.”

“DAAAADDD!” groaned Anna.

They stepped onto a moving sidewalk and took it all the way to the train station, then selected ‘Scarlett City’ as his destination. When the proper train arrived, they got in a pressurized car and sat down. “You guys coming to dinner tonight?” Alan said to his security detail.

“Wouldn’t miss it sir!” said the talkative one. All of Alan’s security details have one member that’s not terrified of chatting with the Martian VP. The train pulled out and was soon doing 200 kph.

The automated voice soon announced, “Next stop is Scarlett City. Please exit to the left for Lake Jezero Martian Self Defense Base and Scarlett Water Plant number one, exit to the right for the Martian Self Defense Museum.”

They got off on the Martian Self Defense Museum side and a pressurized walkway took them to the base of the former Polnoye Resheniye. Alongside the plexiglass tube leading to the Polnoye Resheniye Eris set up large exhibits like a broken N-52 engine that propelled Big Berserker 4 to Mars. Her pride and joy was marked “Angry Knitting Needles,” One F-231 on its landing gear close to the walkway, another up on a pole angled upwards like it was flying. On the other side of the walkway were two F-733 fighters, one was marked Vermillion’s Decision, the other was named Scarlett’s Harlot.