Chapter 26 : Surprises

Location : Columbia Mountains, Unclaimed Territories, Earth
Era : Monday 3rd March 2166CE

The sky was blue. This confused Mark for a moment.

<You died twice. Twice in one day. You need to be more careful. Luckily there wasn’t much information loss from brain damage, so you didn’t lose many memories. As to personality change, are we ever the same person day to day?> The message intruded into the numb blankness he was feeling. His sluggish brain struggled to make sense of it.

<Var?> he asked.

<Who else?>

Like a long lost friend his Varija sense was back. She was standing to his right. <We’re on Earth?> Mark activated his 360 vision. They were in their little ski camp in the Wasting, except it wasn’t so little anymore. There were tents everywhere and at least twenty Areos bio-mechs visible; most were in the official Areos government red and gold colors.

He was lying on a table out in the open, surrounded by five bio-mechs.

<If you are finished stating the obvious, I’d like to introduce you to a few people, > sent Varija.

Mark flipped himself off the table, landed heavily and slightly off balance. Despite the less than perfect landing his body was operating smoothly and easily. It felt good being in a body that worked properly, instead of one he had to nurse along, afraid any extra strain would break his already damaged frame. At the same time Earth gravity made him feel heavy and awkward. He rarely noticed the extra mass of his bio-mech frame in the lighter gravity of Mars, but here on Earth his feet sank deep into the snow and he seemed to fall too fast. He wondered why he was in a Martian bio-mech body. If they were giving him a new body why didn’t they put him back in his original organic Earth body?

Varija was sending him something, introducing her Martian friends, but it was too much. He needed some alone time with her or least some peace and quiet. To anyone else Varija’s poker face would have been impenetrable, but Mark could tell she was upset. He flexed his limbs and twirled in a little impromptu dance to get used to his new body.

He examined the changed camp site. The pristine ski camp on the shoulder of an isolated mountain had been Varija’s and his private sanctuary. The Martians presence felt like a violation, an unwelcome invasion of red androgynous humanoids stomping all over the mountain and churning the snow into slurry. From a distance they looked almost Earther style human, except for their skin color and the spiky quills instead of hair. Most had small individual logos on their shoulders. Varija had a golden silhouette of a harpy wielding a whip on hers. However he soon found he could distinguish between them without the logos, from the shape of their faces, the length and arrangement of their quills, and their animated expressions.

When Varija’s parents had been here, it hadn’t felt like this. Their warmth and genuine affection for him quickly overcame the awkwardness of meeting people who knew him far better than he knew them. They made him feel like an insider and Varija the outsider, three parents against one wayward child. This time there would no trick of time travel to make things easier, he would have to find, or create his place among Varija’s friend’s the hard way. He should get Varija to teach him how to play slash, as most Martians seemed obsessed with that overly complicated card game.

<Kiro, are you done acting the fool?> asked Varija, reminding him of his current cover identity.

<Just getting used to the new body, > replied Mark. <Why do you always act like this, all formal, prickly, and distant whenever I have scared the crap out of you?>

<’Kiro’ wouldn’t use that expression, > she warned privately.

<But they already –> started Mark. He was annoyed that he had to conceal his identity from people who were supposed to Varija’s most trusted friends and associates.

<Eventually, our enemies will obtain time travel. Don’t make it easy for them to trace you back and find your friends and family, > explained Varija.

<Could you stop doing that?>

<Doing what?>

<Avoiding discussing your feelings by going into lecture mode, > sent Mark stepping closer to Varija.

For a few seconds a crack appeared in her mask. <I was frightened for you. Are you satisfied?>

<No.> Mark put his arms around her and she leaned into him.

<When you disappeared down that hole, when you didn’t respond, I thought I’d lost you. I thought I’d have to restore you from backup, > sent Varija, squeezing him hard.

<Well I do prefer being there in your arms myself, rather than some cheap knock off.>

<Just don’t scare me like that again, > sent Varija. After a pause she asked <Were you listening, or do I have to introduce you again?>

Still holding her tight in his arms, Mark replayed the introduction in his mind.

The Areos with the golden eagle on her shoulder was Lieutenant Ellen Sarkozi, Varija’s chief bodyguard. Several people he’d met on Mars had mentioned her, usually in connection with her slash playing skills.

<Lieutenant, shouldn’t it be Padwar or something?> he asked as he shook her hand.

<It’s only first-wavers that go in for ridiculous Barsoomian titles, > Ellen replied.

<Try, at least, to pretend to be Martian, Kiro> sent Varija, reminding him of the need to maintain his cover identity.

The Areos with the golden wolf logo was Havel Wolter, Varija’s chief of staff.

<Good to meet you, Mr Wolter, > he sent, shaking his hand.

The Areos with the magnifying glass logo was Jessica Avninder, Varija’s senior legislative assistant.

<Miss Avninder, you would be the source of all those information files on Orange Triangle. Thank you. They were very helpful, > he sent, clasping Jessica’s hand. < Jessy, please. And you’re very welcome, > she replied. The last Areos was the only one not in government red and gold. Instead, his bio-mech frame was blue with a drawing of white Roman style helmet decorating his shoulder. Varija had told him that he was Professor Jordán Upton who would be his second in command for the C-S particle project.

<Professor, I am looking forward to working with you, > he sent, shanking Jordán’s hand. How he was supposed to direct the Professor’s research when he was still catching up on the last 300 years of scientific breakthroughs he did not know.

<Is it really necessary to keep everything secret? Who are these enemies you keep on harping on about?> Mark asked Varija privately.

<I’ll piss someone off. I always do. It’s one of my more endearing qualities. My team has been briefed on how important keeping this breakthrough secret is to Mars’ security. They’ve been told your identity is sensitive information and they shouldn’t pry.>

<But it’s not for Mars, you are acting on your own with your own agenda, > he sent.

<I am still a Senator, or I will be in their home era. Also Mars-related tasks needed to be given higher priority simply to keep them happy. So they are working to benefit Mars.>

<Why is everyone still in Martian bio-mechs? Why didn’t you put me back in my original body?>

<I thought your poor brain had had enough trauma for one day. Besides, I was hoping we’d transition back to organic bodies together, and I am stuck ferrying people backwards and forwards to Mars.>

<What happened to Naddy and the others?> he asked publicly.

<I sent the codes to free them from lock down as soon as we exited the Sponge Lands.> explained Varija.

<Did you have anything to do with Félix Grünewald waylaying us with fourteen of his friends?>

<Not directly. I suspect Farkas sent him to capture you, to obtain leverage over me.>

<So you did blackmail him into helping you?> asked Mark.

<Yes, but he was almost completely useless. He did facilitate the Areos Guard entering the franchise undetected and he was of some help obtaining the sniffer bots which I then outfitted with tick launchers. They worked like a charm by the way. Few people even realized it was the sniffer bots that were shooting at them, but there his usefulness ended. He did not have charge of you and it turned out he did not even know where you were. We turned up at that storeroom he put you in and you weren’t there. Fortunately I started getting those messages from the sensor you hacked into. After getting your location, it was pretty easy to track you using the security cameras.

Then it turned out that a good chunk of the Concerned Young Franchisees was in between us and you, and they were heavily armed, and looking for a fight, thanks to receiving code grey and code lilac alerts in close succession. Thankfully our only casualty was a sniffer bot.>

<And me.>

<Yes, unfortunately no one realised that you were booby-trapped, > she sent.

<You said I died.>

<Fortunately we had a mechanic with us. She was able to get your life support back online before too much damage was done and your tarka repaired the damage that occurred.>

<You said I died twice!>. I > sent Mark.

<Yes. The first time was when I was captured. You came very close to being permanently dead then.>

<Are you going to continue keeping Tony in the dark about what a viper he has in his nest with Jedwar Farkas?>

<No. We kept Farkas in place for information gathering purposes. We have been monitoring his activities very closely. He is a magnet for shady dealings and people with criminal inclinations. Our surveillance producde valuable insight into the Sponge Lands criminal class. However I think he has reached the limit of his usefulness.

Tony didn’t trust Farkas, his own security chief, with guarding you. Instead he gave you to the Princess. He would never have done that if he still had any faith in Farkas. Also the grey goo outbreak is going to be very damaging to him. Deirdre Ayers was one of his underlings. The investigation into the outbreak is going to lead straight back to him. What can you tell us about the outbreak?> asked Varija.

<Ayers shot Miss Tânia Robles with a smart dart. At first the payload of the dart acted identically to standard lockdown or tranq automata, hijacking Tânia’s internal resources, and trying to hack into her nervous system. However none of payloads exploits could compromise her security. It started acting more aggressively, physically attacking her joints, muscles and nervous system. Finally when her immune system automata fought those attacks off, the payload went full grey goo. Consuming Tânia’s physical structure to fuel aggressive replication. I have her system logs detailing the incident. I also have a partial analysis of the payload, from when some of the goo splashed on my leg.> Varija had warned him how dangerous grey goo could be, but nothing had prepared him for people’s reactions when they learnt the self-replicating weapon payload was no longer under anyone’s control – and was aggressively consuming anything resembling bio-mech material. It was as if you told a bunch of Twenty Cents that the nuclear reactor they were standing next to, had gone critical.

Varija paranoia had saved him. She insisted that they both overclock their immune system response beyond what most people considered safe. She would rather risk death or injury that could result from their immune system mistakenly attacking parts of their own bodies than be compromised by foreign tarka. It had thwarted his captors, preventing them from rendering him harmless. It had saved his life by preventing the grey goo from infecting him. However it also almost killed him by stopping his captors from repairing his injuries. It would have frustrated the hostage rescue mechanic’s efforts to forestall his death, if Varija hadn’t been right there to give the authorization codes.