An extract from a novel idea that I am currently busy exploring. Still a lot to figure out, and many burrs to file down - but I have found that writing the idea down, even in its raw and unplanned state, helps to grow it too. Like a hand that instinctively finds patterns which the mind cannot yet discern, the story takes shape and gains its own colour and life as you write it.
Chapter I - Revision
It was his fifth year on Mars, and Doctor Caldwell had not ever, in even his most paranoid musings, considered the day that he would be facing APU forces on the wrong end of a gun barrel.
“I have told you before, and I will say it again,” the scientist patiently repeated, hands held out. “There are no terrorist or colonial forces here, only research staff.”
“You are lying to me, doctor. We have tracked the terrorists and their signals to this facility, and you will deliver them now.” The APU officer was still fully suited, even in the pressurised halls of Beta Wing, and the pistol in his bulky glove was aimed unerringly at Caldwell’s midriff. Behind the officer, more APU soldiers in their blue-black combat suits trotted up and down the station halls, herding the remainder of the facility staff towards the airlocks. The emergency lights were red and angry overhead, casting everything into a strobing hellscape of crimson and black. Caldwell, absent-mindedly counting the soldiers as they flitted past behind the officer, lost track around twenty-something. The APU was not taking chances this time.
“I’m sorry, but I cannot give you what I do not have. These signals that you followed…” Caldwell was cut off when the pistol rose and stabbed against his forehead.
“No more lies! Tell me where they are!” The officer’s roar was amplified by his suit’s neckline speakers, which crackled and spat even as Caldwell cowered back. Someone shrieked further down the corridor, and there was an upwell in the general noise as the research staff began to panic.
“They’re in the hydroponics lab!” Caldwell blurted out as the muzzle dug into his skin, and he felt the sweat popping out across his face. This close, the officer’s gauntlet was a crinkled mass of myo-armour and actuators, and the ribbing on the bottom of the pistol barrel looked as wide across as a Pylar landing field. “The beta lab, upper floor.”
Long moments passed, the officer’s face unseen behind his dark mask, and Caldwell thought his heart was on the verge of stopping before the pistol finally lowered. Muffled noises from inside the helmet hinted at some type of off-speaker radio call, and some of the waiting APU troops behind the officer peeled off at a sprint towards the hydroponics lab. Caldwell began counting the minutes as well.
“Your cooperation is appreciated, doctor. We do not understand why you would wish to hide these terrorists.” The pistol returned to its previous waist-high position, muzzle still aiming at Caldwell’s midriff. “We are conducting preventative counter-terrorism patrols in this area, now that it falls under the protection of the Asian Prosperity Union, and we do not wish to disrupt your operations beyond that which is necessary. However, your cooperation is needed for this - not your resistance.”
“You broke into our facility with guns and soldiers, sir - what type of response did you expect?” Caldwell, heart still hammering, tried to muster his previous bravado. “We did not ask for your presence here.”
“We are pursuing known criminal elements, Doctor. They have been attacking our colonists in this region, and their crimes against our citizens cannot be allowed to…”
Caldwell cut off the lines which he knew to be well-rehearsed and patently false.
“With all due respects, sir, we both know that is a lie. You have no right to be here in the Liberty zones. Your jurisdiction ends at the Union border, and that border is a long way east of here.”
The officer cocked his head, a curious gesture for one still wearing a suit helmet, and regarded Caldwell for what felt like an uncomfortably long time. Troops continued to pass back and forth behind him, with the last of the scientists in tow.
“Doctor, I think you are failing to understand my point.” The officer’s voice was low when he finally spoke again, and he holstered his pistol as he spoke. “There are Union colonists in this area. That makes this Union territory. That gives me jurisdiction here. That means your facility is now under my protection and responsibility.”
“That’s ridiculous, and we both know it. Your so-called colonists are nothing but agitators who come here and disrupt existing operations with the intention of provoking a reaction - and then when our people react, your colonists cry victim and call for help!” Caldwell felt his muscles quaking at the frustration that boiled inside him. “This is a blatant land-grab which you are trying to justify with thin lies, and it won’t work this time!”
The officer’s visor depolarised, finally revealing his face. Like most of the APU officers, he was one of the new generation of Golden Ones - engineered, tweaked, and artificially implanted in some unwilling womb years ago - and his features were sharp and brutal. Black eyes, pulled into slits, peered out at Caldwell past epicanthic folds that had been inked the same shade of black. He took one step forward, pushing Caldwell back, and kept advancing until the scientist was pressed up against one of the hallway bulkheads. The officer’s suit, all sharp edges and hard lines from the armoured apron he wore, pressed painfully into Caldwell’s unpadded singlesuit as the man loomed over him.
“Doctor.” The voice that hissed out was barely audible over the noise of the station behind them. “I would encourage you to check your facts. This is Union territory now. It has always been Union territory. By the end of this year, every record and log in this facility will show that it has been a Union facility since day one.”
The eye contact felt like it was boring into Caldwell’s mind.
“Be mindful of your next words, Doctor, else the facility records might show that you had never worked here.” The officer’s eyes were unblinking and fully black, and when he leaned down to press his mask against the scientist’s face, those black eyes were all that Caldwell could see. “Or that you had never even lived in this territory.”
Caldwell closed his eyes and suppressed a shudder - a shudder which he knew the APU officer felt. Once the Union censors and techs got their fingers into the facility, nothing would be the same again.
Both men knew exactly what would happen once that process started.
After what felt like an eternity, Caldwell felt the officer step back. When he looked up, the officer’s visor was dark again, and more of the muffled radio chatter was leaking out of it. The officer turned back to the corridor, and detailed two of the waiting guards to grab Caldwell.
“Put this one with the others. The terrorists have been cornered in the hydroponics lab.” The officer gave a look back at Caldwell, and his voice carried the smile that was unseen behind his polarised visor. “We cannot afford to tolerate terrorists in Union facilities. I will deal with them myself.”
Part 2 here .
There will be more of this world, sometime in the future, but when and how - that remains to be seen. If you liked it and want to see more of my work, remember the SLS routine! (subscribe / like / share)