un: mori

[setpoint]

This morning, I received a message on my communicator from the username m.muller. When I tried to message them back, all I received was an error. I don't recognize her, but maybe someone else will.

[So Mako attaches a video file. There's a woman with frizzy red hair and freckles on screen, looking slightly panicked. "My name is Martina Muller," she says, and her voice is calm and slightly accented. There's a sudden crash behind her, and she cuts herself off with a gasp. "You have to warn the others! There is a traitor on board. Wherever you are, there is a traitor on board, you have to–"

And then the message cuts off.]

It seems like not everyone received it, so it wasn't a network wide broadcast. As far as I can tell, it came from the station, but I don't know where.

I also tried to unlock one of the doors. I've figured out which wires control the locking mechanism, but nothing I did to override or overload them seemed to work. Has anyone else had any luck?

Comments

[donkeyballs]

Let's just say relations between Earth and Mars ain't all that friendly, back home. I know a lot of Martians would would be all too happy to hear about something invading Earth, but I ain't one of them.

But I don't think you and I can be from anywhere near the same timeline, partner. I'm starting to find that's true for a lot of the folks here.

[setpoint]

It was 2025 back home. Humans haven't gone any farther than the moon.

[donkeyballs]

[Damn. Okay. Why did he people finding people hundreds of years out from him?]

Well, there sure as hell weren't any 25 storey robots on Earth at that time, at least as far as history tells me. But I'm over three hundred years later than you, all things considered.

One day I'll be able to wrap my head around that, but it sure as hell ain't now.

[setpoint]

Three hundred years?

[Okay, she can't help it. She's going to get off topic.]

What's Mars like?

[donkeyballs]

About the same as you know her. The population all live in domes - have done for three generations. Not that much different to living anywhere else in the system, save on Earth.

She'll be terraformed, one day. But like I said, relations aren't great - all the resources that would have gone into turning her green went into the fleet, instead. By the time water flows on Mars, I'll be long dead. But that don't mean it ain't worth fighting for.

[setpoint]

That's terrible. I'm sorry.

[Not living in domes, necessarily—that the terraforming plug was pulled so blatantly.]

How does anyone survive?

[donkeyballs]

Same way humans survive anywhere. They find what they need, and use it and reuse it as many times as possible. It ain't like Earth. Earth makes waste and then just - leaves it, from what I hear. Giant mountains of the stuff. Poluting the water. There ain't room for that on Mars, or in the Belt. Oxygen is breathed, then carbon dioxide is recycled. Every drop of water you drink has been through nearly every other person in your habitat, at one time or another. Purified and reused. What losses we take we make up for by mining for Ice in the belt, or around Saturn.

It ain't easy, but it ain't a death sentence.

[setpoint]

What made them change their minds about terraforming? What made them want to build a fleet instead?

[donkeyballs]

Mars declared independence, and Earth didn't like that. Until that point we'd been a colony, and all our resources, everythin' we mine and made and gained was destined for Earth. So, they didn't exactly take kindly to us pulling out of that. For a long time, there was a very real threat that we'd all wake up to nothing but nuclear bombs and ash.

Terraforming didn't matter as much, when we didn't have the power to protect it. Now we do, but that means the blue sky and the green grass has to wait another fifty or a hundred years.

[setpoint]

[That... sounds like most stories about colonies, actually. Mako isn't terribly surprised, but she's a little disappointed that things apparently stay the same, even centuries out.]

I'm sorry. Have you ever been to Earth?

[donkeyballs]

Me? Nah. I'm no diplomat, and we ain't exactly welcome most of the time. Plus, from what I've heard, it mostly just makes you feel sick and dizzy. To much sky, too far a horizon. Now we're in open war, so I doubt I'll ever get my boots on Earth soil. Honestly? Don't mind too much. Always preferred the stars, anyhow. At this rate I don't even know if I'll be on Mars again.

[There was a longer pause.]

Hell, now that we're here, who knows if I'll ever even see the system again.

[setpoint]

I hope you get to see it someday. It isn't dizzying. Sometimes it can be overwhelming, but it's beautiful.

I think we can all get home, but we need to work together to do it. Everything seems impossible at first.

[donkeyballs]

[Oh no. That was charming. He caught himself smiling and smothered it down.]

You're right, of course. No idea in hell how to do it, yet, but we're all in this together.

[setpoint]

If we can't get through the doors, maybe we should focus on unlocking the terminals. If the station brought us here somehow, it can send us back.

[donkeyballs]

Not a bad place to start. If we can find one that looks like it's hooked up to a main line of some sort, might be we can get into the command systems.

I ain't an engineer, but it's worth a try. [Maybe he should see if he could wrangle Amos into helping.]

You know anyone with a decent head for control systems?

[setpoint]

Not here. I've worked with them, but my job has always been engineering and mechanics.

[donkeyballs]

Hell, nothin' for it but to give it a shot, right?

Why don't we get together and see what we can manage?

[setpoint]

Okay. What deck are you on?

[donkeyballs]

I'm up on six, but I can meet you on the Observation Deck.

[setpoint]

I'll meet you there.

>> action

[donkeyballs]

[It didn't take him too long - he was starting to get used to the layout of the station, now, and the Observation Deck was one of the few places he actively enjoyed being at. Sometimes. (Sometimes, the planet below just made him depressed.)

Now, though, he had a good feeling. Trying to do something useful was always a way to lift the spirits.

He probably should have asked his texting partner who they were or what they looked like, though, because he had no idea what he was looking for. But hey, at least the Observation Deck was quiet.]

[setpoint]

[Mako didn't think to ask, either, but she's probably a little obvious. She's planted herself by one of the windows, and though she's seen it multiple times now, her expression is still caught somewhere between in awe and overwhelmed. It's hard to think she's in space. Sometimes she still can't believe it. When she hears someone else enter the room, she turns, realizing that she hadn't even asked for a name.]

Are you... the pilot I was speaking to on the network?

[donkeyballs]

[He was still looking around, trying to decide who to approach, when someone approached him first. He blinked, looking down at her.]

You're Mori? [He'd at least remembered the username. He got over his surprise fairly quickly though, even though she honestly looked like a kid. How old was she? She couldn't have been more than 21, 22?

Not that it really mattered, but still. Wasn't what he'd been expecting.

He put a hand out.]

Alex Kamal, pilot of the Rocinante.

[setpoint]

[She hesitates for a split second, then shakes his hand.]

My name is Mako. I'm a J-Tech officer and Ranger with the PPDC.

[Not that that matters anymore, but it might be useful for him to know.]

It's nice to meet you.

[donkeyballs]

[He smiles at her warmly, then gives a firm shake, before letting good.]

Mako it is. Good to meet you.

[J-tech....] J-tech refers to those robots you were tellin' me about, right? Jaegers, I think you called them? [He pronounces the word with a hard Jay at the beginning, as if he's mangling the word 'jaguar'. He doesn't know what PPDC means, either, but he assumes it's an acronym for some kind of Earth military unit. Just like he could tell her that he used to fly for the MCRN. It wouldn't mean a hell of a lot, but it put some things in context.

But he didn't fly for Mars, anymore. He flew the Roci, and he flew it for his crew, and anyone they could save. There just wasn't a particular flag they flew under, anymore. (If there ever had been one.)]