THE ARGUS PROJECT
G....u....s....?
What? Who's there?
Gus.....? Listen... Gus...... It's... me... Venice...
This is it, I'm going crazy at last. It can't be her. I'm just imagining it.
Gus... you big lug, listen! You know it's me... I know things about you that only the two of us know...
Ven? Venice? How can I hear you in my mind?
Remember how we connected in Old Copenhagen? I've connected my cortex port to a new kind of transmitter... I can't hear you, but I hope you can hear me...
Ven, honey, I've missed you so bad... where are you?
Gus, we don't have much time... I'll explain later, but I'm safe. I've escaped to Mars... anything else they told you is a lie. Boulder Pi told me how to disarm the Kansler's remote-control... You must remove it yourself, there is no other way. Listen...
She explained it three times, to make sure he got it right. He was perfectly happy to sit through the repetition, just to hear her again.
That was all I could find out... Gus... no matter what you have done, or been forced to do... it doesn't matter to me. We are more important to each other than this stupid war...
Love you, Ven. I wish you could hear me, even if I can't transmit what I'm thinking. I'll do as you say. I think of you all the time. Goodb... no, I don't want to say goodbye. We'll meet in our memories, if nothing else.
We can still meet in our memories... whatever happens. Love you...
I have a plan. Tell you about it later. Love you, Ven.
***
An hour passed - and the machines reacted before the humans could...
General Zodong-Petain, located on the Phobos Station, received an automatic warning from Fleetcom - the system-spanning computer network that coordinated the Terran Fleet's robots, ship routes and surveillance stations.
He was advised to investigate a suspect neutrino transmission from Olympus Mons, and send a Class Red report back to the Kansler.
The MSF commander lacked top-level security clearance, so he had not learned about the Kansler's means of controlling Argus-A. He also lacked the intelligence to connect the warning to certain rumors within the Fleet, about something called "Direct Control".
He pondered the automatic message, alone in his capsule of screens that showed him surveillance footage of Mars' surface. He called up the hidden spy-cams that were posted in the Olympus Mons observatory: they showed it was empty, except for an obese, bearded astronomer who sat asleep at his post.
According to MSF surveillance reports, the man had been asleep for four hours, while watching an experiment in sending neutrino signals to alien civilizations. The general chuckled.
Lazy, stupid Martians, he thought with some satisfaction. Trying to rise against the Inner Planets with antique mechanical weapons. With the squeeze of a button, I could pop that observatory... like a balloon... on a pretext. But I have to wait until Islington, the Kansler's lapdog, arrives. Damn. Have to wait. Can't risk getting us into a two-front war now. The Kansler has promised us more victories later. More victories will get me away from this sinkhole station. Soon...
***
The next day, in the early morning hours, Venix met up with Arjja and her son, and the council (minus one member) and some coordinators from the local militia.
"He heard me," she told them, joy radiating from her face, and she hugged herself as if the person she talked of were inside her. "He couldn't send anything back, but I know it. He will break free. I know he can."
Dave Roman raised himself from his easy chair and looked at her with a strange gaze. Supported on his stick, he walked up to her, and for a (subjectively) long moment Venix prepared to catch him if he should fall. But he moved with greater strength, and there was an expression of awareness about him.
He clasped her arm with unexpectedly firm fingers and felt at it, like a physician checking her muscles and bones. She stood still, stunned.
"You haven't realized how important you are, girl." Roman's gaze, unflinching, bored into her mind. "You're like a kid who just learned to fly. Hasn't anyone told you? Of course they haven't. The eggheads, the military, the colonists, the mutants, they're too scared, too narrow-minded, too dumb. I dreamed of going to the stars, and look where I got. But you... and him... you're going there. You hear me? You have to tear down that wall. You're going there."
Dave Roman grinned - and when he blinked, that spark of awareness in his eyes died out, and his grip foundered. Again he became a withered ex-astronaut, barely aware of his surroundings.
But Venix felt a great affection for the man; he had opened her eyes to a greater understanding. If she could have wept for him, she would have.
"Does Dave talk of the stars a lot?" Venix asked the others. They shook their heads and shrugged; Juan seemed eager to speak, but clenched his lips.
"Now it's in his hands," she told them. Hurry up, Gus, she thought.
39: Voices In The Vacuum
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THE ARGUS PROJECT INTERNET EDITION (c)A.R.Yngve 1999, 2000, 2004. All rights reserved. May not be copied without permission.
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