Ain't Doin' That
Hard Times On Old Dusty.
I’m driving down the street in Curie, Corpo northern distribution hub. Corpo insists on calling this planet “Mars.” We call it Old Dusty just to fuck with them.
Curie’s the smallest town. Why here? In the dustiest little crater in southern Chryse Planitia? Could have put it anywhere. Guess they needed something in the north. An outpost. Can’t leave all these folks unsupervised, right?
Streets are full today. Shops all busy. There’s people. No one waves, not even the ones who know me.
That’s probably because I’m a cop.
Well, really just a Corpo deputy, but muscle for Corpo is hated around here. Maybe that’s the way it is everywhere, but especially here in the north. Hey, I’m just trying to get by, like everyone else. I don’t steal. I don’t take bribes, well at least not big ones. We all gotta eat, right?
I pull up in front of the SecHab and swing around the building to the side entrance and through to the detention cells. I check on Terri. She’s a pile of sweaty clothes on the bunk. Still sleeping it off. I tap on the door.
“Hey,” I say. “You okay?”
“Um…”
“Picked you up at the pub last night. You were completely out of it. Good thing it was me.”
“Um…”
“I look after you, little sister. We’ll have you out in a few. Gotta go talk to Cap.”
“Oh, Jimmy! You didn’t tell Sylvia? I’ll never hear the end. Wow! Haven’t done that since Talia was born. I don’t know how that even…” She shakes her head. “Hey, let me out. I really gotta get home. I’m supposed to take Syl to school. Um… What day is it?”
“Today, dummy!”
I should talk to Cap first, but I pull my keys and let her out the side door. Terri’s the youngest. Gotta look out for her. Think of it as a perk of the job. Have a few of those. No guilty conscience. Siblings on the Dusty is why I take shit from the Corpo dictatorship. Terri’s got a wife and kids. Sherman’s got too many wives and a bushel of kids. Not me. Thank God.
I can’t let family get jammed up. Not here. Corpo would bleed them dry.
In the captain’s office, I hang up my coat. The heater is blowing hard, but all it’s moving is the dust and I want to pull it on again. The air is cold against the parts of my skin that aren’t covered by my uniform. I reach for the coat and Cap shouts. I grit my teeth and keep from shouting back.
“Got a job.” He called it a job. Not a task or errand. A job. I already know I’m not going to like it.
“Yeah?” I try to keep my face neutral. I need this job. To keep my siblings safe, at least.
“Eviction,” he says. Fuck. I hate evictions.
“Details?”
“Tommy,” he says. Tommy? He’s a friend from school. My face gets hot, but I try to control my reaction.
“Tommy? Tommy Lannigan?” I say to be sure. I try to keep my voice steady, but I sound shaky to myself. “Not…? I mean, Tommy?”
“It’s your job, Deputy.” He’s not even looking at me.
“Eviction?” I shake my head involuntarily. “Corpo wants me to evict Tommy? Sure we should be doing that?” Tommy lives in an old habitat up in Acidalia Planitia, way out on the edge of Kunowsky crater. “Why?”
“We don’t ask why.”
“I’m asking. Tommy isn’t bothering anyone. There’s nothing out there. Corpo wants him out? I gotta ask why.”
“He’s got a girl out there.”
“Kidnap?”
“Worse.” Cap says. “Married.”
“More reason to leave him alone.”
“Corpo figures he’s going to start a commune, or something. Want to nip it in the bud. Can’t have citizens staking any more claims.”
“His claim is valid, last I looked. But what the hell’s out there to claim? Dust? Rocks? A drop or two of water?”
“Bingo.”
“Water? Terraform’s almost done. Corpo’s already got most of the water locked down. What does Corpo need with Tommy’s few drops? Doesn’t make sense.”
“Corpo wants it all, not some, all.”
“And you’re okay with that?” Cap gives me a hard look.
“Not okay. Got no choice.”
“Yes. You do. Tell them no.”
“Listen to me, idiot! If we don’t evict him, it’s our necks. I got a family. So do you.”
“So does Tommy, now.”
“Go out there and bring him in. That’s an order.”
“So, I go up there and kick Tommy and… and his girl out. Where are they supposed to go? To jail? You know what Tommy is like. Corpo jail? He wouldn’t last a week.”
“Neither would I. You have your orders.” Cap turns his back like that will shut me up. “Get to it!” I don’t move.
“Who gave the order?”
“Not your business. Now go, before I send someone else. You’re a good man, Jimmy. I’d hate to have to fire you.” He gets in my face and glares. I’m rooted to the spot. I’m hot. I don’t feel the cold anymore. I have a fantasy of pulling my sidearm and shooting Cap in the face.
“Who gave the order?” Stupid! I can’t keep my mouth shut. “Ain’t goin’ out there not knowing.” Cap jabs his finger in my chest. I look down at him, trying to keep my expression neutral, professional.
“You get your ass out there and kick that fucker out, or find another job.” I give him my stare that says, touch me again and I’ll break your arm. He laughs and turns away. “I’m not some drunk at the pub, tough guy. Go do your job.”
“Who gave the order?” I fold my arms so tight my bowie knife in its scabbard digs into my forearm. “Who!” I raise my voice just a hair and put a little gravel into it. Cap turns around. He shakes his head.
“If it will get you moving.” I nod. “Beemis,” he says.
“Beemis? Fucking Beemis. Of course.” I slap my thigh like a frustrated child.
“Hey, moron! He signs our checks.”
I hate people like Beemis. Squirmy little penny pinchers, jumped up into managers. Don’t know a damned thing about people who get their hands dirty, who work for a living. They don’t know us and they don’t care. Fuck Beemis.
“Really?”
“Jim.” Cap’s tries a different tack. Good cop. “Think, man! He’ll pull your cards. You’ll starve! Then he’ll go after your family. You know Corpo. Be reasonable. Or if you can’t be reasonable, be protective of you and yours.” Go after my siblings? After their families? Corpo would do that.
“But evict Tommy?”
“Just… talk to him.” Cap reaches for my shoulder. I flinch away and his hand drops to his side. “You’re friends, right? He might see reason.”
“Right. Talk. But tomorrow.” I say firmly. “It’s already late and I ain’t camping out in the rover again.”
“Okay.” Cap looks down and then back up at me. “Sorry…” he says. I slam the door behind me before he can say anything else.
I know Tommy. Knew Tommy. Haven’t seen him in a couple of Martian years. But I don’t remember Tommy Lannigan as a reasonable man. When he’s hot, Tommy Lannigan goes off like a volcano on the old world. All boom and hot lava. It’s why he lives out by Kunowsky. He doesn’t like people. Or maybe he just doesn’t like Corpo.
How did he managed to get himself a wife?
The drive is a bitch. The road network in the northern hemisphere was never completed. I have to drive out towards Lyot and then catch the unnamed road that runs east west from Utopia to Chryse. Then over dirt to Tommy’s place. It’s a long day.
After Mars was terraformed, it turned out that no one wanted to move there. The trillionaires who financed it were too old or dead, and their kids thought it was too boring. Earth is fucked up beyond repairing, but at least there are slaves of every variety to boss around. Fuckers kept all the bots to themselves. Too heavy to transport. Techs too valuable spare. The workers who had already been transported here, including my sibs, Terri and Sherm, were stranded.
No trade with the old planet. Too far and too expensive. We don’t have anything that they need or want. Had a few tens of thousands of colonists take the Corpo bonus. Mostly shades of brown. Those that didn’t like it found they’d made a one way trip. Had to work and die. Many ended up as fertilizer in the farm biomes, natural causes or otherwise. Early days were tough. Still are.
Now we get a ship or two of adventurer knuckleheads or cultists every once and a while. They tend to smarten up fast. The ones that don’t, well, always need fertilizer. No other traffic but rich tourists and the occasional scientific researcher.
Corpo managed to cobble together the tech and materials for self sufficiency. We’re mining enough to make what we need. Plenty of water at the poles. Shouldn’t give Corpo the credit. It was mostly the work of smart individuals and ad hoc teams, not management. The bosses are idiots. Like Beemis.
Corpo is what’s left after the remnants of a dozen companies all merged. They gave themselves some long fancy name, but nobody remembers what it was. We just say Corpo. Corpo tries to be the government, but acts more like a cartel. They’ve got me and Cap and a few hundred security guards. They throw their weight around down south. Not so much here up in the north. But this is me, driving over the changing plains of Mars to do Corpo’s dirty work.
It’s desert up here. Hell, it’s still desert most everywhere. But when the wind isn’t blowing, Old Dusty’s got his own kind of beauty. We managed to engineer a slew of plants to grab and seed the regolith. Plugs of green dot the ground to the horizon. The sky is not quite blue, but close. The colors down here on the plains are pretty bland, brownish gray, and the patchy, beloved green. The sun is so small here, but at dawn and dusk it still sends down rays that glint off the crests of the hills.
No fauna, unless you count us, and the pigs, of course. Pigs are like us. Tough buggers. Grow tall and thin like us in Old Dusty’s gravity, too. Chickens never took. Some colonists tried to smuggle their dogs or cats. Didn’t go well. Did I mention the fertilizer? Even the rats that somehow made it out here all died. Maybe that’s for the best.
Never got an ocean either. Not even lakes. All the water is still underground. A million asteroids of frozen water were just enough for life. Just a hair short of a complete failure. Then the would-be emperors of Mars lost interest, ran out of money, or died.
At the turn-off to Tommy’s. It’s already noon. I hope this will go quick. I don’t want to be driving back in the dark. Night on Mars is illuminated only by the stars. Too dark to drive. In the shadows of the hills and in the valleys, it’s Stygian.
I was kicking up quite a cloud on the road. My wheels are sending up a huge plume to merge into the reddish sky. See it for kilometers. Sky’s still red after all the changes, even after all the massaging and mashing that we did to make it livable.
Tommy will know someone’s coming.
There’s a track. Tommy plowed it years ago. Took him more than a Martian year. Sprayed it with something he thought would make the regolith stable. Most of it’s been blown away. I’m bumping and bouncing over the ground, almost as if he’d never done it. Why did he bother?
Out here he was alone. Some people just want to be let alone. Away from other people’s rules. Away from the cards, the para-cards that store your worldly goods, salary, and savings. It’s the Corpo system to keep track of their “assets,” meaning us. All to make sure they get their cut. Yeah. I see why Tommy Lannigan set up way out here. And even in the Martian wilderness, hundreds of kilometers from the nearest town, I have to come and try to take him out of the life he’s chosen.
I pull up and the homestead is bigger than I remember. Tommy’s expanded the farm biome. There’s a decent windmill and a ton of solar panels. He built a house around that old hab. It’s been years, but, wow! The boy’s been busy.
I get out of the rover and weave between outbuildings and an improbable garden planted right in the ground. What the fuck is he growing? Tall and spindly with yellow flowers. Tough looking. Stubborn life. Weeds. Didn’t think that was possible. Tommy must be on to something. The path up to the hab house is lined with stone. The style of the house is archaic. When we first got here, people were all about Earth architecture. Not so much anymore. Funny that Tommy built it that way. The way he used the prefabs to mimic the old fashion is ingenious.
I see Tommy on the porch. Next to him is a whip-thin, hard-looking blonde woman. At least they’re not armed. The woman has her hair up in a bandanna. Tommy’s black hair is all out like a halo around his head. He waves and smiles. He calls out a hello to me. He pulls his wife close and says something to her. She smiles too, and her hard face brightens into beauty.
I look at them smiling as I walk up and step on the porch. My heart is pounding. This is wrong.
“Tommy.”
“Jimmy.” Tommy nods. “This is my…” He looks at the woman. She laughs.
“You can say wife!”
“Yeah.” Tommy looks happy. I don’t see that much these days. “This is my… wife. Aphy.”
“Short for Aphrodite. Please to meet you, Jim.” She puts out her hand and I shake it.
“And you.”
“Come on in the house, Jimmy. We got a new batch of the hard stuff. Have a drink.”
Tommy grabs me around the shoulders and pulls me into the house. I resist. I don’t want to accept his hospitality and then tell him I’m here to evict him. What I had to do was rude enough. He ignores my reluctance and drags me past the dust curtains before I can say anything else.
It’s cool in the house, and spotless. Marriage transformed Tommy. The house is a testament to how much he’s changed. We go through a room that used to be a seedy hut. Now it is full of shelves of books! You don’t see many paper books on Old Dusty. Too heavy. Too expensive to transport. Most people just read off their slates.
There are comfy chairs and a couch. Doors lead off to a hallway and what I assume is a bedroom. I’m speechless.
“Tommy!” I say, and wave a question at the walls of books.
“They’re Aphy’s,” Tommy says. “She’s a scientist. Actually, she’s a genius. Has multiple PhD’s. Soil. Bioengineering. Physics. What else, babe?”
“Don’t bore Jimmy, Tom. Let’s get him that drink.”
I follow them down the short hall into a big kitchen. In the center is a table of red Martian stone. It is marbled with greens and yellows and browns, and smooth as polished concrete. I whistle and run my hand over the surface.
“You like it? I made it from an outcropping that Aphy found. Not far from here.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s beautiful.”
“She’s a genius.” Tommy says again.
“Ooh!” Aphy says. “Say it again. Say it again.” Tommy laughs and hugs her and kisses her on the lips. She pulls away and pulls a bottle of a greenish liquid out of a cupboard and puts down two glasses on the table. She points me to a chair made of wood and I’m gob-smacked again.
“Is that…”
“All the way from Earth!” Tommy says.
“Are you, like, a trillionaire baby or something?” I say and Aphy’s face goes hard. “Sorry. Just a joke. Please. Didn’t mean anything by it.” I’m a moron, but her smile returns quickly. She pulls out the chair for me and I sit down. They sit on benches.
“Her family is a sore issue. They’re old money back on the old world.”
“Forget it. They never understood me. I wanted to make things better back there. I couldn’t. Not back there. Not with my parents always… I don’t want to talk about them. Have a drink.”
She pours and I see the color better. It’s a light greenish yellow. The liquid splashes into the glasses. I take a sip.
“Whoee! That’s got some snap!”
“Still working on the recipe.” Tommy says. What d’you figure it’s made from?” He grins. I take another sip. “Wow! No idea.”
“Dandelions! Aphy fixed ‘em to grow out there, right in the ground.” He points towards the garden.
I look at Aphrodite. She really is beautiful. Tall and graceful. Not like my first impression. How the fuck did Tommy land this one?
“Just tweaked the genome a smidge.”
Tommy slaps the table and laughs.
“Told you…”
“A genius, right. Got that,” I say.
Tommy takes a drink and winces. “Aphy thinks we should bottle it and sell it. God knows we need to up our liquor game on Old Dusty. Everybody’s always thirsty. Ha!”
I don’t know what to say to that. I feel my cheeks flush and I don’t think it’s just from the liquor. I feel a cold tingling in my spine. I’m a coward. Evict them? I need to keep them talking.
“Not drinking?” I point to the bottle. Aphy puts her hand on her stomach.
“Well…” She looks at Tommy. “I shouldn’t.”
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!
“You’re the first to know, Jimmy.” Tommy says. “We haven’t even told her parents.”
“We’re waiting for perigee so we can have a reasonable conversation.” Aphy says. “Only four minute lag, or so. Be half a year, but by then she’ll be born and we’ll be sure she’s healthy. Don’t want to give my father any bad news.”
“A girl?” I say.
“Did my own amnio. So, yeah we know. Healthy girl. So far.”
“Did I say that she’s a doctor, too?”
“Hush!”
“Her parents don’t know about me.” Tommy laughs. “Low class, me.” He takes another sip from his glass.
“My father’s not going to like Tom.”
My stomach drops. I can’t do what I came to do. No way. Fuck Beemis! I have to make small talk until I can get out of here gracefully.
“You…” I cast about for more small talk. “You’ve done a lot with the place since I was last here.”
“We’ve got ourselves more than self sufficient. Thanks to Aphy.” He hugs her hard and she kisses his cheek.
“Yes!” Great distraction. “Tell me about this romance. How did you two get together?”
“Aphy’s only been here a year. A Martian year. I met her in Curie. I was down for supplies and equipment. Joey invited me to a party. You know Joey Blake? He runs the Depot. Anyway…”
“Anyway…” Aphrodite says. “Joey cleared space at the depot for a dance party. Invitation only. Joey was sweet on me. I liked him. There’s a lot of good men on Mars. An embarrassment of riches.”
I wonder if I’m a good man.
“We were drinking.” She goes on. “A little too much, I think. The dance music starts up. I never heard it before. Martian Bop, Joey said. It just makes you want to move. And there, in the middle of the floor, dancing like a madman, was Tom.
“We all laughed. He was funny but there was something about the way he moved. We joined in the dance and not even the Martian cold could keep us from sweating. We danced all night. The sun was coming up when the music finally stopped, and we dropped where we were on the floor.
“Joey leaned over to kiss me but missed. I laughed and asked about the music, who the composer was. He pointed at Tom and called to him.”
“I just dabble on the synth. Hardly composing.” Tommy says.
“That’s your music, Tommy? They play it all the time in Curie. Infectious.”
Butter him up. Don’t talk about why your here. Keep chatting.
“Anyway…” Aphy continues. “Tom looked over and our eyes met.”
“She brushed damp hair out of those big brown eyes.” Tommy jumps in. “And boom! I was lost. Fell hard. Avalanche time. I wasn’t even drunk! She crawled her way across the floor to me. She said, ‘I’m Aphrodite.’” I said, ‘Of course you are.’”
“The feelings were mutual. Tommy’s a wild man.” She grabs his hair in her fist and give him a good shake. “Got my living permit and moved here two weeks later,” Aphy says.
“We moved all her research stuff and books out here. We worked like a regular construction crew and expanded the hab and the garden and the farm. Built a proper lab. She’s been a one woman research institute ever since. And she’s a slave driver.” He squeezes her hand. “Had me digging around out here, working on the cistern. And guess what? My claim… our claim…” He puts his arm around his wife. “Our claim is sitting on a lake! We’re rich! Aphy can fund her own research. We can make this whole region livable. No one has to go begging to Corpo anymore.”
“We’re going to found a new town.” Aphy says.
Fuck. I tremble like someone poured ice down my back. Corpo must have got wind of this. That’s what’s got them stirred up. A town that they don’t control. A rival power. They are going to come down on Tommy and Aphrodite like a meteor. I’m just the messenger. They sent me out to see what Tommy would do. They probably have a security team already on route from the south.
I was hoping that they would keep talking about anything but why I came, but Tommy turns to me.
“So, Jimmy. What brings you all the way out here?”
I guess the dandelion liquor is working its magic on me. I can’t lie.
“Corpo sent me to evict you,” I say. Tommy stands up. His face twists into an ugly grimace. Volcano time.
“And you came to do it! You came to evict me and my family because, why? Explain that to me, Jim. In words a poor red dirt farmer can understand.” Aphy puts her hand on his shoulder, but he shakes it off. “Well?”
“Of course, Corpo sent you to evict us.” Aphy says. “Did they say on what grounds?”
“Corpo doesn’t need grounds.” I look down, my face hot. “Just give orders.” I say.
“And you just follow them, right?” Tommy says. “They could have sent a robot. A bot would have more feel for right and wrong than you do!”
“Got a family of my own, Tom.” I say, lamely.
“We all got families, damn you!” He throws up his hands and spins around in frustration. For a second, I think that he’s going to reach for a gun. “I am sick to death of Corpo, and I’m sick to death of their fucking lackeys! You. Are. Not. Evicting. Us.” He sticks his finger in my face.
He’s right. I’m a lackey. I look into his face, into Aphy’s face. They could be Terry and Sherman. They could be any of us.
“You!” Tommy says. “They sent you! And… I thought you were my friend.” There’s a hitch in his voice. It’s like a stab in my heart.
He’s right. Corpo’s got no more right than we do. Without lackeys like me… Lackeys.
Before he can say anything more, Aphy has her hand on his shoulder and pulls him back down to his seat beside her. She smiles at me.
“I was kind of expecting this,” she says.
“You were right, babe.” Tommy says. Her gaze is level.
“And what are you going to do, Jim?” Aphy’s expression is calm and open. Tommy is glowering and breathing hard.
“You’re not evicting us.”
“That’s what Cap sent me to do, but…”
“You are not evicting us!” Tommy is Olympus Mons reactivated. Aphrodite holds tight to his hand.
“Jim is not going to evict us.” She speaks in a calm, even voice.
“Why not?” Tommy looks at her. “What’s to stop him?”
“What is stopping you, Jim?”
I don’t know what to say.
She looks so confident. Not frightened at all. I know what she knows. I’ve tried to ignore the fact that I know it, to get along, to just get by. Corpo needs us more than we need them. Why have I been such a coward? Was I really going to kick these friends out into the dust?
“You are right. I… I ain’t doin’ that.” I stammer, then find my voice. “No.” I bang the table. “Ain’t doin’ that.” I take a long pull from my drink and wish the ground would swallow me up. “Sorry.” I say. “You’re right, Tommie.” I can’t look him in the eye. “Sorry I even thought I could or would. Not to a friend. Not to anyone.”
“I imagine…” Aphy says slowly. “I imagine that you are sick of Corpo, Jim.” I rub my face and nod. “I imagine that your friends, other deputies, and security folks are also sick of Corpo?” I nod again. “I know Joey and his merchant friends are sick of Corpo. I know all my research buddies are sick of Corpo. We are all sick of Corpo.” She reaches across to me and unfolds my hands from around my drink. She squeezes them. She she doesn’t say anything more until I look into her eyes. “I expected them to send someone. I’m glad it was you, Jim. I’m glad that it was a friend.”
A friend? A friend? A traitor more like. I think of my brother and sister and their wives. I think of all my nieces and nephews. Suddenly, the smell of fertilizer is in my nose. Did I just make us all paupers? Kill us? What am I going to do? Aphy still has that confident smile on her face. She’s the genius. What’s she got in mind?
“What are we going to do?” I ask. “What can we do?” But, of course, I know. I expect that there will be blood.
“We,” she waves at her and Tommie, “are going to call our other friends,” she says. “You…” She points at my chest. “You are going to call all your friends. I’ve already made a lot of calls. Tommy has, too”
“Folks are already on their way.” Tommy says. Now he reaches for his rifle and holds it in the crook of his arm
Aphrodite tilts her head to hold my gaze.
“We are going to take Mars away from Corpo. We are going to make Old Dusty our own.” Aphrodite says.
It wasn’t a civil war. It was really no contest. Beemis had only a few thugs that stood by him. Cap came over the first day. Half the Corpo board came over to our side the next. Even Beemis eventually saw reason.
Elections are next week. Beemis started his own party. He’s running against Tommy.
Not a drop of blood was shed in the revolution.
The election?
It’s going to be a slaughter.