We had some trouble in my neighbourhood last night and the police ended up going around, asking everyone a few questions about what we'd seen and heard. When the officer asked me to tell him where I was between 4 and 5, I probably should not have answered Kindergarten. Did you know the back seat of a police car smells like strong cleaning chemicals?
Chapter 63
How Much Can One Fan Take?
The memorial service was scheduled for early in the morning so those attending could take as much or as little time as they needed. The entire population of both bases had access to a live feed of the ceremony and although everyone knew it would be very emotional time, only a small group of conspirators knew the real reason why.
"I'm starting to have second thoughts about this" Ruth whispered as she entered the room.
"We've gone too far" April stated "There's no turning back now."
Olive Roux had organised a small stage to be placed at the far end of a hanger where the Mars Surface Landers (MSL) were refurbished and prepared for re-launch. The floor had been cleared of all machinery with row after row of white chairs put in their place. To the right of the stage was the MSL Sage, Luis and Abigail had ridden to the orbit station and the Kindermans had brought back on their return to Mars; it shone like it was new and had a black ribbon draped across the side hatch.
When the time had come to start, Premier Roux climbed onto the small stage followed by April, Florian and the Kindermans as well as a few of Luis's work friends. Saffron was originally meant to sit in the front row of chairs with Holly's family but April had insisted the children not be at the ceremony because she wasn't sure what to expect when she dropped her first bombshell; so they watched via the screen in Holly's home.
"Good morning" Olive Roux said from the podium "It has been over fifteen years since I arrived on Mars to take over the role of Premier on the Citizens Council and although we have had other personnel losses in that time, nothing comes close to the tragedy we have recently suffered. The crew of the Mars Transfer Vehicle were all vital members of the Mars community, as well as being our family and friends. It has fallen to me to give the eulogy for Neville Sage; a brave and dependable man."
Olive spoke for the next ten minutes about all the wonderful attributes possessed by Sage and the great contribution he had made to the Mars Colony Project. The people sitting behind Olive were not the only people in the base having to bite their tongues as they listened. Many people had questioned the inclusion of a man such as Sage in the list of colonists, because he appeared to have very little to offer when it came to the survival of humanity in the long term. At the end of her speech, Olive announced the next part of the programme.
"My good friend April Dias, who incidentally came to Mars with me on the last colonisation trip, has undoubtedly suffered the greatest loss and so has requested to give the first part of her talk via a recorded video message."
Olive then returned to the rear of the stage and sat next to April, who surprised the Premier with a casual comment.
"You're not going to like this next bit."
"What do you mean; why?" Olive asked.
April had no intention of answering the question and did not need to; because at that moment, the recorded message began to play.
"I know you were all expecting a memorial service to take place this morning, but I'm sorry to say I have been given some very disturbing information about this colony, how it formed and who is really in charge today."
"What are you doing April?" Olive gasped as the recording continued.
"Clearing the air" April replied.
The Barn Owl of Slow Realisation sprinkled a few downy feathers in front of Olive's face as she remembered April's words being spoken by Florian Klein only recently.
"What have you done Klein?" she hissed.
"She already knew Olive" he replied "I tried to warn you."
Some people noticed the arguing going on at the rear of the stage but most were glued to the screen as the image of April Dias revealed more and more information about the Deep Council, the attempted murder of Luis and Abigail and return of her long lost son. Eventually Olive realised something must be done; so she rushed to the huge screen and yanked the feed cord from the back before hurrying offstage to a small control panel, where she shut down the cameras broadcasting the event to those not present. Little did she know, that thanks to the work of Jarred Kinderman, Barry Fine and a few unknowing electrical engineers, almost the entire base still received a live signal from the Memorial Service via a thousand tiny receivers fitted to the backs of their monitor screens.
"I think we'd better end this service while I get to the bottom of all this" Olive addressed the room as she returned to the stage.
"You have got to be kidding" someone called out "I want to know more about this Deep Council; who are they and what have they been up to?"
"And more importantly, I want to know how safe are my own family" another called out "Will someone from the Deep Council have them killed if they also discover something they're not supposed to know?"
There was a general murmur of agreement with the statements and so April rose to speak. Before she reached the front of the stage though, another man stood up near the left aisle.
"Of course we all want to know what's really happened here but as a member of the recognised Mars Citizens Council, I think it would be best if we interviewed Doctor Dias and reviewed her evidence so we can bring the facts forward for all to see without confusion."
"I said it before and I'll say it again; you have got to be kidding" a voice from the centre of the room repeated.
Captain Branson frowned at the sight that lay before him; through his binoculars he could see a number of vehicles blocking the road ahead.
"That guy who had suggested we turn back has definitely told all his friends we were coming."
"Can we go around 'em Captain?" Jack asked.
"I don't think so; they've got the verges blocked and I get the feeling they would be mightily miffed if we drove over their crops; and by that, I mean an 'Open Fire' kind of miffed."
As well as the trucks and farm machinery, there were also hay bales stacked up to provide the defenders with somewhere to hide and large pieces of scrap metal, welded into effective road barricades. On Branson's order Jack Sumner brought the old railcar to a halt almost three hundred meters from the first of the obstacles.
"HELLO THERE" Reed Branson cried out "LOVELY DAY FOR A DRIVE IN THE COUNTRY, WOULDN'T YOU AGREE?"
"I don't think they were expecting you to say that" Jack nodded when no one replied.
The two groups just stared at each other for several seconds until Jack noticed something very important.
"They haven't shot at us yet; that must be a good sign."
"True... maybe I should try the direct approach" Reed thought out loud.
"I'M GOING TO WALK OVER TO YOU SO WE CAN TALK" he informed them "I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE IT IF YOU DIDN'T SHOOT ME!"
"i'm not guaranteeing anything" the distant reply drifted on the breeze.
"Wish me luck" Branson said as he climbed down to the lower deck.
The two men on guard watched the farmers out of the broken front windows while trying to keep themselves hidden and with their rifles held low.
"Where's DeGroot?" Reed asked.
"Up the back, hiding inside a small fort he made from our supplies" one of the guards noted.
"Oh... I am so glad he is safe" Reed said sarcastically.
Lowering the ladder, Reed descended to the ground and began to walk forward. He kept his firearm holstered and his hands above his head, trying to look relatively harmless.
"That's close enough" a disembodied voice said from behind a stack of hay bales.
Reed stopped and lowered his hands as a man stepped out with a shotgun pointed straight at his head. The man frowned as he looked the Captain up and down before pulling a two-way radio from his vest pocket.
"West road to Central; any reports of Raiders in other sectors?" he asked.
"Noting so far today" the person on the other end replied "I'll just check on them all again and call you back in a minute or two."
"Shifty said you claimed not to be Raiders, but we'll see" the man grinned in a menacing way "Can't trust anyone these days but especially someone transporting an EFA leader."
"I assume Shifty is the young man who took Henry and the Professor" Branson said "And by the way; no one on my ship is part of the EFA."
"Then why was this Professors name on the list?"
"I didn't write the list so I can't tell you."
The radio crackled into life as the person on the other end verified there had been no sign of raids in any of the other sectors.
"Well that's one thing in your favour" the man revealed "Raider usually make a big show of force in one place while others sneak into other parts of the community and strip them of anything of value. If there had been a raid on, I would have blown your head off without hesitation."
"So we can pass by then?" Reed asked.
"NO YOU MAY NOT PASS BY! Have you got family on Mars stranger?" the man with the double barrel exclamation point asked.
"Not that I know of" Reed shrugged.
"Well I do... it may only be a distant cousin but you can imagine how much it upset me to hear talk of the EFA; the murderous bastards."
The man raised his gun and stared at Reed down the barrel.
"Firstly as I said before, none of us are EFA and secondly it's a fair bet that if you shoot me, one of my people will drop you before the smoke clears" Reed stated.
"Is that a threat?"
"Of course it's a threat you idiot" Branson replied "Does it sound like an invitation to a spring cotillion?"
"WATCH YOUR MOUTH; now I'll give you one last warning to walk away while you can still walk."
"Wait a minute" Branson looked at the shotgun closely "Your shotgun isn't cocked; do you even know how it works?"
"Of course I know how it works" the man protested angrily as he fumbled with the hammers.
"You know what? I don't think it's even loaded." Reed grinned "Do you have any ammunition at all?"
"Of course we have ammunition" he continued to protest "One of my men used a bullet keeping you in line back at the old city."
Reed could tell the man was getting flustered, and the odd way he answered made the Captain think back to what had happened when Linton and Henry were kidnapped.
"Used a bullet? As in a singular bullet? Do you keep count of..." the light suddenly came on inside Branson's head.
"You don't have much ammo at all, do you?" he smiled again "It has gotten so bad, you have to keep count of every shot; and I assume you only use your weapons to worry these raiders who have got you so jumpy."
"We're still capable of defending ourselves" the man sneered.
"You only have to defend yourself if you're attacked and we're not attacking."
Reed Branson was not sure how to deal with these people. On one hand he felt it would be best to try and make them feel at ease, but on the other hand they did have his friends as hostages.
"Listen up for a minute; we tried to tell the guy who took the Professor... what did you call him again?"
"Shifty" the man replied.
"Now there is a name that inspires confidence" Reed smirked.
"It's not his real name!"
"I would hope not" Reed pondered "If it was, his parents would have a lot to answer for. Anyway we tried to tell Shifty the truth about the Professor so now I'll tell you; when I met him, he and his team of people had only just finished sending equipment and supplies to Mars for decades. So if you have a distant cousin there, very distant considering where he is, then you should be thanking Professor Adisa for helping establish the Mars colony, not locking him up."
"We didn't lock him up" the man explained "Shifty borrowed a truck and took both men to the Bunker."
"The Bunker; what's that?" Reed wondered.
But before he received any kind of response, a girl in her late teens rushed forward from the vehicle barricade to the hay bales and called the man with the useless weapon.
"Dad... hey Dad!" she called.
"I told you to stay back Haley" the man scolded.
"But we just got word from central control; the scouts keeping an eye on this guy's ship say three more vessels have entered the harbour, and they were recognised as Raiders."
"So your back up has finally arrived" the man pointed both barrels at Captain Branson, who still believed it to be empty, but was not about to test his theory by risking his life.
"I swear they have nothing to do with us" he said as he raised his arms again.
"As if I would accept the word of a Raider" the man said "Now get your friends out of that vehicle; you're coming with us."
"If Raiders are on their way and you have limited ammunition, wouldn't it be better to let us stay here and help fight them off?"
"You mean so you can join them in the attack" the man sneered
"Oh... I never thought about it from that point of view" Reed pondered "But since I don't want to surrender to you..."
And so at that point, Captain Reed Branson turned tail and ran back to the Bull Ant. The man with the gun shook with frustration as his bluff was successfully called. Meanwhile back at the harbour, things were not going to plan for a certain raiding group. Unaware they had been spotted by the scouts watching the One and All, they sailed their three ships into the San Diego harbour. It was not long before they noticed the brigantine tied up at an inner pier and all hell broke loose.
"Hey Skipper; we've got company here" the bridge lookout informed the lead ship's captain.
Picking up his own binoculars, the red bearded man frowned when he saw Branson's vessel and the people on it scurrying about.
"That is a good looking ship" he grinned "Launch the boats and tell the men to try and take it intact."
"And if the people on board resist sir?"
"Then sink it" the captain replied sternly.
A few minutes later, two six meter aluminium boats and an inflatable were speeding towards the One and All with a full complement of armed raiders on board. Their attack did not get very far before the One and All's crew began to fire upon the speeding vessels with some very close warning shots.
"That does it" the man with the clichéd red beard sneered "Hit 'em with the deck gun."
As the covers came off the 50mm weapon, Reed Branson's crew realised it was time to get serious.
"What the hell..." Captain Ginger Beard gasped as a section of the rear deck of the One and All opened up and an impressive looking, modified rotary cannon rose menacingly and turned towards him.
"...oh crap" he stated.
Sometimes I don't think you all realise just how hard it is for us old people to cope with modern life. My older sister used to keep a diary when we were kids and she wrote all her most intimate thoughts in it. Needless to say she went nuclear when she caught me reading it. These days though everyone writes their intimate thoughts on facebook, then they get upset if no one reads it.