Chapter 24: Fort Laura

Worcester Springs Complex A

Eden, Mars

Monday, April 16, 2153

“Now that you are an official Martian resident, you can get a job and get drunk and stoned and laid like the rest of us,” Harlan told his brother.

Reggie looked around and saw their mother was out of earshot. “The really frightening thought is that also applies to our mother. Wait until she starts bringing men home.”

“It’s even worse than that. This is Mars. When you say she can bring men home, she might just end up bringing men home, plural.”

Reggie’s eyes popped open. “No, you don’t mean...”

“Reggie, like I said, this is Mars. You’ve seen the ‘Life on Mars’ vids but you just didn’t believe. A lot of Martian culture derives from what you consider ghetto life, where the rules don’t apply, and people screw whoever they want to screw. If you want to have a Crisco party where everybody is blindfolded and no orifices are off limits, knock yourself out. It’s not illegal or immoral. The only things that are immoral are things that hurt people. Ninety percent of Martians are heterosexual, so most couples and marriages are between a man and a woman. Of the rest, ninety percent are homosexual, so you have rump rangers and clitlickers.”

Harlan’s brother shook his head. Homosexuality was illegal in WestHem and could get you fired from your job and jailed. “And the rest?”

Harlan simply raised his hands, palms up. “Whatever. While group marriages aren’t illegal, the greater the number of partners the greater the unlikelihood. Most of the rest are threesomes, two men and one woman or vice versa, two women and one man. Beyond that, very, very few. I’ve only met one or two triples, and never anything bigger.”

“They allow polygamy on Mars? That is so weird.”

“It’s not that it’s allowed, it’s that it’s not disallowed. The ruling principles on Mars are common sense and minding your own business. Fuck with either at your peril. Think about it. Does it bother you that somebody is gay? Or married to somebody of the same sex? Or something stranger? Are they doing something to you? Are they asking you to join them? Or are they asking you to fuck off and leave them alone?”

“We are so not in Kansas anymore, Toto.”

“No shit.”

Reggie asked, “So, today?”

“I know somebody in hiring at MarsTrans. You used to work for AgriCorp doing supply and logistics. Railroads are nothing if not supply and logistics! I’ll take you over there and let you talk to them, and then I have to go back to work. I have to run up to Fort Laura for a day or two and then come back here,” said Harlan.

“Fort Laura, that’s a place on Mars?”

“It’s on the New Pittsburgh - Eden line. We went past it when we came down from New Pittsburgh. If you want to, you can come with me. I can show you what I get involved in.”

“Mom?”

“Mom’s a big girl. She can last a day without us.” Harlan smiled. “She knows where the booze and bonghits are. She can get lit up and go prowling for guys.”

Reggie shook his head. “I do not want to even think about that!”

“Go tell her and let her know what’s up. I’ll pack my bag.”

“So where are we going for the job interview? This Fort Laura place? And who was Laura, anyway? Is that Laura Whiting?” asked Reggie as they rode down the elevator.

“We are going to the local MarsTrans offices, which are about twenty minutes from here. It’s three blocks and two tram stations. MarsTrans is a pretty big corporation on Mars. They are responsible for most intercity shipping on Mars, as well as constructing and maintaining the maglev railroads. The cities have their own tram systems, but MarsTrans goes between the cities,” replied Harlan.

The two men began walking towards the tram station. As always, it was 22 degrees, bright, and comfortable.

“We were told that during Martian Justice, the Greenies destroyed the railroads so that when the Marines landed and took over Eden, they wouldn’t be able to advance out of Eden. It was part of why we had to go back to Earth.”

“And you believed that? Even if that was true, why destroy all the railroads and not just the ones around Eden?”

Reggie shrugged. “I am just telling you what they were spouting on InfoGroup. They had a bunch of retired generals lined up telling us what was happening.”

“Well, what happened was they turned the AA-71s loose. They hit every single rail track on the planet, shut everything down. It took us two years to rebuild. They also lost almost all the AA-71s to Martian fighters and anti-aircraft lasers.”

“You say we and they. Do you think of yourself as a Martian now?”

Harlan answered, “I don’t know, Reggie. What are my choices? Live here and learn to be a Martian? Or find a way to go back to Earth and live in a ghetto, assuming the Marines and the FLEB don’t grab me up and execute me for treason? Let me tell you, what they are doing to the families back home is freaking some guys out big time. I’ve met some people in Martian Planetary Intelligence and they are being a whole lot more honest with us than the Marines and WestHem have ever been! They even have vids of families being captured, beaten, raped, and killed. Even if the Marine on Mars does what they want and causes trouble, they aren’t letting the people on Earth go. They don’t want anybody talking about it back there. Ever since Martian Hammer, they have been telling everybody in WestHem that all the people they left behind have been tortured and killed. Now they are going to let their families go and have them tell somebody that we’re not all dead? This is some seriously fucked up shit!”

“How are they finding you guys?”

“According to the MPI, they are analyzing all the vids they see on the MarsGroup feeds and running them through facial recognition. It all started when this reporter found some guys working for MarsTrans out at Fort Laura. They were all former Marines, and he did an interview. A few days later their families were arrested and killed. Then they started tracking guys down. Like I said, seriously fucked up. Nobody, and I mean nobody, is doing any sort of interviews or vids these days.”

“Jesus!”

Harlan nodded. “We should be safe. You and Mom are my only family, and you aren’t married, and Mom never remarried. They were even going after kids, grandparents, ex-wives, stepchildren, you name it.”

Reggie asked, “And there’s nothing the Greenies can do about it?”

“Hey, watch the Greenies shit. The Greenies can say that. Earthlings can’t. Anyway, what can they do? Everybody here is a communist terrorist, remember. They don’t have any agents on Earth to bring people back. They don’t have any secret way to get people out. A Martian shows up in WestHem, they get popped five minutes later. The best thing anybody has figured out is to offer to have EastHem send messages to people, but what happens if they do. Suppose it had been you captured after Martian Hammer. Five years later Mom and I get a vid from somebody purporting to be a family member that the Marines have told us died. Do we believe you and head for Mars, or do we take the vid down to the local FLEB office and ask what’s going on? What’s your life expectancy after that?”

“You’re fucked if you do and fucked if you don’t.”

Harlan agreed, saying, “The only reason I took a chance was because you and I talked before I deployed, and you told me some things that you would never have told somebody who wasn’t your brother.”

“Yeah.”

They rode the tram to the MarsTrans station. Along the way, Reggie asked, “So, Fort Laura? I am guessing that is Laura Whiting?”

“Here’s another word of warning to you. Don’t say anything nasty about Laura Whiting. It’s the Martian equivalent of saying ‘fuck you’ to George Washington. She’s the one who came up with the Martian economic system and the one who organized and led the Revolution, and while WestHem teaches that she is a communist treasonous terrorist traitor, she freed eighty million Martians from WestHem corporate slavery. You bad mouth her, you’ll be doing it from the wrong side of the airlock!”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks.”

MarsTrans Eden occupied a large chunk of an office building near the Eden rail station. Harlan stated his name and laid derm on the pad inside and was allowed entry with his brother to the hiring area. Once inside, he managed to get an interview with a woman that he knew. “I’m Adrienne Willow. Harlan, I’ll call you when we’re finished here.”

“I’ll be nearby.” He took off.

Alone, without Harlan, Adrienne said, “Reggie, one quick question. Do you want to work for MarsTrans or is this just your brother’s idea?”

Reggie smiled and shrugged. “A little of both, I suppose. I need a job and Harlan likes MarsTrans and thinks it would be a good fit.”

“Fair enough. I know you’re from WestHem and you used to be a Marine. What did you do on Earth after you made it back home and left the Marines?” With that, Adrienne began the interview. They talked for half an hour and then she turned the computer towards him. “Well, everything I am hearing says that you might just do very well at MarsTrans. We are growing, both in terms of kilometers of track and tonnage being shipped. I’d like you to fill out the application. Some parts might seem odd, and I’ll help if I can. We’ll check out your history with the Marines and with AgriCorp. We can probably have an answer for you next week.”

“You can check out my history on Earth? How?” Reggie asked.

Adrienne smiled, but she simply said, “The Martian Employment Service, which this links to, checks with Planetary Intelligence on all Earth-born applicants. We’ve learned to be careful. Don’t take it personally. We check everybody.”

Reggie shrugged. “Okay. And you can figure it out in a week?”

“Almost always. I think your brother is right. If you like working in shipping, we have positions available. Harlan likes the engineering end, and he’s doing well with that. He’s number two on the Fort Laura project. He’ll be in charge of his next project. We are a growing operation.”

“And it doesn’t bother you that I fought against you guys?”

“So did a lot of guys, including your brother. It’s not like you can go home. Welcome to Mars.”

New Pittsburgh - Eden Railroad Line

Fort Laura, Mars

Monday, April 16, 2153

“So, what is Fort Laura and why does MarsTrans care so much about it?” asked Reggie. They were about fifteen minutes from Fort Laura and had left the equatorial plains and were now snaking through the mountainous northern terrain.

“Well, I told you how the WestHem Navy trashed the railroads during Martian Justice. New Pittsburgh is the capital, and Eden is the largest and second most important city on the planet. One in four Martians live in either New Pittsburgh or Eden. The admiral running MJ decided that Eden was going to be the target - and I’ve heard stories about that, too - and the AA-71s trashed all the railroads surrounding Eden. Practically the entire railroad between New Pittsburgh and Eden was bombed out, including a major bridge over a ravine called Chasm 268. That was bad enough, but the bombers got there at the same time as a passenger train was going over the bridge. They not only blew the bridge, but they also shot the shit out of the train, killed over eight hundred passengers.”

“Oh, crap.”

Harlan nodded. “Oh, crap, indeed. Not only did this piss off the Martians - it was the biggest civilian loss since the Jupiter War - it completely shut down one of the most important rail lines on the planet. MarsTrans brought in a bridge building team and heavy equipment. To protect them in the future, the MPG brought in a security company along with some anti-air weapons, about half a battalion. They called their little base Fort Laura, after you know who. Meanwhile, Mars Metals and a few other companies decided to do some prospecting in the area. You might not know this, but a lot of the mountainous areas of Mars have mineral and ore deposits, and not just the iron ore which is everywhere.”