“I hope that’s our ordinance,” Lieh said.
“Sounds like charges,” Eccles said.
“Most links are down,” Lieh said. “Comsats have been taken out — we don’t know how — ”
Leander and I glanced at each other, lips pursed.
“ — And so we’re pretty isolated. We can’t guarantee making any connections with the President. In short,” Lieh said, shadows deeply etched around her eyes and mouth, “they’ve done it to us again, even more dirty. Ma’am, my gut tells me we’ve suffered tremendous damage. Whoever’s in charge of the Earth focus has gone over the edge. I’ll support any effort you decide to take.”
“We assume they’ll try to kill us all,” Eccles said.
“Then it’s war,” Lieh said. “How can we retaliate?”
Leander looked away. We had other swords of Damocles; but if we used them, the loss of life on both worlds would be staggering. So far, only Phobos and Deimos had been hit by what might be remote conversion — an action that could be regarded as frightened, as defensive.
“It’s not an easy call,” Charles said, standing in the door to the annex. He stared at me with a puzzled expression, as if emerging from an unpleasant drunk.
“Where’s Tamara?” Leander asked.
“She’s on the QL, keeping it exercised.”
Eccles tapped my shoulder. The red dots on the display had tightened around the station. They knew where we were, and soon they would know what we were.
“They’ve fully harnessed the Ice Pit,” Charles said. He lifted a hand and flexed it as if it pained him. “They’ll use it on us soon.”
More thumps, and a distant, high-pitched drilling whine that set my teeth on edge.
“They’re doing it,” Lieh said, eyes intense, far more sanguine. “Genocide. We have to respond.”
I knew how she felt. We were cornered. It would only be natural to use all of our claws.
But we still had that other option, and that was why Charles was here: to gently remind me that all along, we had planned to do something completely unexpected. Vengeance would not save us.
But I had to explore all the possibilities. “Can we target the Ice Pit for conversion?”
“I’ve tried. I can’t even find the Ice Pit now.”
“Is anything else protected?”
“We can pick any target on Earth and convert it,” Charles said softly. “Billions of hectares. Entire continents… If you order it.”
Distinct popping sounds came from outside the lab chamber: projectile weapons. Eccles inquired about the action and was told that two locusts had been destroyed, one in a reservoir and the other in an arbeiter tunnel a hundred meters from the lab.
“It’s going to be hand-to-hand in an hour or less,” she said.
I could not order Charles to begin genocide on Earth. He might not even obey. My options had been reduced to just one, but even for that I did not have the authority.
I had to wait, as long as possible, for Ti Sandra.
“What do we do?” Eccles asked.
Aelita interrupted and said, “We have received an important image from a pop-up satcom.”
The display changed abruptly. We looked down from five hundred kilometers above Schiaparelli Basin . A gray impenetrable curtain swept in eel-like folds across the basin, its upper reaches filled with sparkling stars. It seemed to be moving slowly from north to south. Where it had passed, dust filled the thin atmosphere. Through the dust we could barely make out lakes of molten rock, blackened tumult, complete destruction.
“That’s Many Hills,” Dandy said.
“They’re converting Mars now,” Leander said.
“Madam Vice President — ” Lieh began, but Charles interrupted her.
“Aelita, can you magnify the western limb?”
“I see something there as well,” Aelita said, and did as she was told. The picture was at the extreme edge of the satellite’s range; Mariner Valley appeared like a grainy gash in the landscape.
“We’re here,” Leander said, standing beside Charles near the display and pointing with a finger just below, meaning beyond, the horizon. Charles traced another gray curtain barely visible in the magnified image. The curtain might have been a few hundred kilometers beyond northeast Kaibab; it was difficult to be sure.
“Madam Vice President,” Lieh said, “if this is confirmation that Many Hills has been destroyed, then you must take command now.”
Aelita reverted the picture to a wide view. She then magnified the region around Many Hills. The capital of the Republic was lost in dust.
My ribs ground together and I closed my eyes, gasping to regain my breath.
As the satellite continued its grim course from east to west, we saw more clearly the searching fingers of death moving in toward Kaibab. But that seemed expected, even trivial; what shocked was the extent of destruction elsewhere.
Charles’s hands twitched. “You’re in charge, Casseia.”
“Madam President,” Lieh said, stating the obvious.
“Ti Sandra isn’t coming back this time,” Charles continued. “She was at Many Hills. The district governors and representatives were there as well, most of them.”
I stared at the sparkling effects of conversion, pits and slashes filled with molten rock: hundreds of thousands of hectares in Copernicus, Argyre, Hellas. Two of Mars’s biggest stations had been hit.
“Cailetet’s main station is gone, and two outlying stations, as well,” Aelita said.
Achmed Crown Niger had had his final answer from Earth.
“Insanity,” Leander muttered.
But I knew better. It all made horrible sense. It was a pattern as old as time: the display of baboon’s asses. If the ritual was not perfectly observed, and one did not back down, the baboons squared off and bared their fangs. If that did not do the trick, they fought to kill.
The satellite image blanked abruptly.
“Loss of signal,” Aelita said.
Charles stood beside the white cylinder that held the planetary tweaker. Stooped, long-fingered hands hanging by his side, his eyes burned below brows drawn together in eternal concentration. Around him, the support equipment for the largest of all our tweakers sat ready.
Tamara Kwang lay quietly on a couch nearby. She had been prepped for her backup role.
Thirty of the station’s senior staff gathered in the auditorium beside the tweaker chamber, awaiting my instructions. Charles watched us with inhuman patience through the broad plastic window.
No one raised any objection when Leander referred to me as President.
My statement to the assembly was brief. “We can’t remain in the Solar System and survive. We have to do what we brought all of you here to do. The sooner the better. Charles tells me he’s ready. Stephen confirms.”
The thirty sat in stunned silence for several moments. Dr. Wachsler stood and glanced around, hands held out. “We are making a decision for all of Mars,” he said. “In effect, we represent all of Mars. Surely we…” He choked and held his hands higher, voice rising. “Surely there must be some confirmation, some…”
“We will die if we do not act,” I said. My hands shook with a perverse excitement. I wanted Wachsler to challenge me; I wanted any and all challenges now. My bones were knitting; I could feel them. Medical nano filled my bloodstream, rooting out problems, controlling my tendency to slip into shock. I felt strong as a lion, but knew I was still very weak.
“Dr. Abdi hasn’t finished his areological survey,” Wachsler said.
Abdi stood, hands in pockets, shrugged, and sat again. “I have not, indeed,” he said.
“We should vote,” called out Jackson Hergesheimer, the astronomer. “We know what happened on the last trip. What happened to Galena . If we’re going to choose suicide over murder, we should be allowed to vote.”
“No vote,” I said wearily.
“Why not?” Hergesheimer called out. “We’re citizens of the Republic — the only citizens who can respond to you!”
“There will be no vote,” I said.