Chapter 23 : Waiting

Location : Orange Triangle Franchise, near Eagle City, Meridiani Planum, Mars
Era by Mars Calendar : Sol Solis 15 Kanya MY183
Era by Earth Calendar : Thursday 16 March 2299CE

The Princess grabbed some cylinders from an open box and tossed them one by one to Mark. <There you go. If you are lying to me I will take it out of your hide.>

<We need to move him to somewhere more secure. One of the unclaimed apartments would do. I don’t know what the Jedwar was thinking putting him here. This is ridiculous, > sent Nadja.

<I can’t think about that now. We will talk about it when I get back.>

The princess placed the tase grenade launcher next to Nadja and left the room in a hurry.

Nadja turned on her public profile.

Name: Nadja ‘Naddy’ Karo Cleary
Career: Engineer
Age: 20 (38 Earth Years)
Gender: Female
Sexually: Bisexual
Marital Status: Single

Nadja smiled a large cartoon smile. <What ever shall we do while we are waiting?> she asked. <Do you play games?>

<Perhaps a game of Go?> Mark suggested as he plugged in canisters of consumables into his intake ports, starting with feedstock for his internal printers, followed by power from a mid-sized SMES cell, then O2, water and nutrients.

<Is that what you play in Schiaparelli City?> asked Nadja.

<It is fairly popular there, yes.>

<Here in Eagle City, the game of choice is Slash.>

Mark felt panic twist deep inside. There was no chance he could hold his own against a Martian in Slash. Princess Valerie’s speculation that he was a recent arrival would be proven as fact. <But we only have two people, > he objected.

<Tânia will be here soon. That would make three.>

If Mark still had teeth he would be gritting them. <Sounds like a good idea. I’m looking forward to it.>

Nadja picked up the tase grenade launcher, swapping for the tangler. <First turn around, > she ordered.

<Why?>

Pointing at her gun she sent <Simon says turn around. This will make us both more comfortable.>

He turned around and Nadja slapped something onto his back. <What was that?> he asked.

<That was a tase grenade. It will go off if anything happens to me, like for instance being locked down or killed.>

<I gave my parole.>

<Now you won’t be tempted to break it, > she pointed out.

<And what was that business about making us more comfortable.>

<Well I feel more comfortable. Don’t you feel more comfortable now that there’s no pressure on you to do anything stupid?>

<Comfortable is the last adjective I would use to describe having a bomb attached to my back, and it was unnecessary. I am not in the habit of being stupid. You do know one more shock would probably kill me, > he sent as he turned back towards her.

<That’s right, you were tased a few times while they were trying to capture you.”

<According to my Survival AI logs, I was hit 5 times. The only reason I survived the fifth strike was that my circuit breakers were still popped from the 4th strike, so my life support system was isolated.>

<All the reason to be a good boy, > she sent.

Mark regretted not making his move when Félix caused a distraction, however there were the auto cannons and the sensor cluster. The auto cannon weren’t positioned ideally, as there were blindspots in their coverage, plus a good shove on the boxes they were perched on would send them flying. But if someone wasn’t monitoring that sensor they were hopelessly incompetent.

<Maybe we got off on the wrong foot. Hi, I’m Kiro.> he sent, holding out his right hand. As she hesitated, her attention on his right hand, he shot a tick missile at the wall with his left hand.

<What was that?>

<What was what?>

<A sound. A snapping or clicking sound.> she clarified.

<It was probably my shoulder. It is still not quite right.> Mark rolled his shoulder producing a click. Mark watched tensely as the hole in the wall shrank and disappeared. He forced himself to show no relief that Nadja had not turned around before the missile and its payload of automata had a chance to hide itself.

The sponge material of the roof and wall were ideal as feedstock for the self replicating automata colonies he had placed there. Once the roof colonies grew big enough, they could drop down on the auto cannons, disabling them within 2.31 seconds. Of course if the guns started firing that could be a very long 2.31 seconds.

He could disable Nadja within 3.48 seconds. However he didn’t want to break his word about not attacking her. Maybe he could fake a message that would lure her outside the room. However that would require access to the franchise’s grid. So far all the grid nodes had refused to have anything to do with him. There was also the small matter of the bomb on his back.

The colony on the wall was also problematic. He was hoping to use it to hack into the sensor cluster on the wall. However he wasn’t a hacker, and manuals and tutorials could only take you so far. He did have comprehensive material for the exact make and model of the sensor cluster. It was the most popular brand you could print. And the tutorials were written by Varija for the classes on cyber penetration that she had taught at ‘The Academy’. If they had been stupid enough to set the sensor cluster to factory defaults he might, just might, be able compromise it.

Communicating with the wall colony was difficult. He was using a UV laser bounced off the ceiling. Even though they probably weren’t watching the ceiling for UV flashes, it was still a risk as the laser was shining almost straight at the sensors.

It was all a house of cards, and if Varija managed to ransom him, that would be far better than relying on such a risky plan.

Nadja swapped the gun to her left hand and took his hand, shook it, and sent <You may call me Naddy.> She seemed far more relaxed and friendly now that she had stuck the bomb on him. In fact she radiated a pleased with herself glow that Mark found profoundly irritating.

He shifted the priorities on the repairs to his body strengthening his electrical system and armoured the skin on his back.

<Pleased to meet you.>

<Oh, I don’t believe that, not in the present circumstances. However while you are here maybe you could help me with my nano-blade.> She bent her hand back and a nano-blade shot out of the heel of her palm. Flexed her hand and then shook it. The nano-blade retracted back into her arm. <I haven’t got it quite right. It’s sticking.>

<How did you get one of those?> asked Mark in surprise.

<Kunasada did a great job in hiding the components of the nano-blade in plain sight, but once I knew what to look for it was easy to assemble a blade out of redundant components in the Areos’s lower arm. Could I examine your arm to try and figure out what I am doing wrong?>

Mark considered whether he should co-operate. He decided that the most sensitive secrets regarding the nano-blade were in the library of tarka and automata payloads that could be delivered by it. These payloads couldn’t be analyzed using a normal scan. The important secret about the nano-blade and tick delivery systems was their very existence. After that was revealed, it was only a matter of time before they were duplicated.

<Non-invasive scans only, > sent Mark holding out his arm.

Nadja placed her hands on his arm and he felt ultrasonics and X-rays sweep his arm.

<Extend the blade, please, >

<Won’t that freak out your friends watching through the wall’s sensors.>

<No, I have warned them, > Nadja reassured him.

Mark extended the blade, then retracted it. <Satisfied?>

<Very. I see where I went wrong now. Kunasada does beautiful work, she truly is a genius.>

<Varija isn’t the only engineer who worked on the Areos frame. She has many collaborators, > Mark pointed out.

<I know. I am one of them. Two of my modifications were accepted into the current official version of the Areos frame. But this clever design? I doubt she would have trusted this particular job to anyone else.>

<You’re working on Areos instead of XMEET?>

<Both. They haven’t accepted any of my modifications into the main branch, but I have 15 modifications accepted into the unofficial Boomerang version of the XMEET frame, > she answered.

<Is that what you are wearing? >

<I tend to push things a little too far. This is little more bleeding edge than the more popular ‘Rang models. I can’t help myself. The more the Grandpa’s and the ‘Stick in the Mud’s’ rant on about the us ‘Rangs not respecting Martian traditions the more I want shove my right to customize my body as I see fit in their faces.>.

<Your look is kind of halfway between Areos and XMEET. Why didn’t you go full Areos?>

<I did go full Areos during the revolution. Until the troubles that is. Even in the city, even in Schiaparelli, you must have seen some of the troubles?>

<Yes, there was quite a bit of violence, > temporised Mark uneasily. From the way Nadja asked that implied question, he was almost certain that she guessed he was not from Schiaparelli, or even from Mars. If he could still sweat he would be sweating.

The automata he had placed on the wall was signaling that it had hacked into the sensor cluster. He was forced to make a choice whether to continue to speed read articles on Schiaparelli City, The Martian Revolution and First and Second Wave relations so that he keep up with what Nadja was saying and say something a Martian might say back or switch to the hacking tutorials and try and take over the sensor.

<It was much worse in the Sponge Lands. Martian society was spilt into two irreconcilable camps over the new opportunities and new ideas coming from the cities. The Council of Councils passed a law, that they insisted was necessary to preserve Martian traditions. Anyone who left the Sponge Lands for more than three months of a year or wears a frame outside certain parameters will lose their birthright as Martians. Anyone who disagreed was forced to either keep silent or leave the Sponge Lands. My custom frame is just inside the law.>