Part 30 (1/2)

'Prime Minister, this is - '

Greyhaven swept past him, slotting a computer disc into a terminal and tapping a few keys.

Xznaal grabbed him and threw him against the back wall.

Greyhaven struggled to concentrate. They had got here first, but he had managed to reach the terminal. Was his program running? Staines was staring at the bank of monitors. 'The Orbiter is still holding its position.'

105.

Greyhaven stood. The Martian towered over him. 'I know of your planss. Xztaynz told me.' Xznaal raised his huge right claw and fired the gun on his wrist. The computer terminal pulsed and shattered.

'Staines isn't bright enough.'

'Oh but I am,' the Home Secretary said, stepping forwards. 'You were planning to send a signal to the Mars...o...b..ter. You opened the airlocks before by remote control. You were planning to drop a bomb or something.'

Greyhaven looked over at him, and when he spoke there was a tone of respect in his voice. 'The Mars 97 is powered by two atomic reactors. If the computers receive the right signal they can be set to misphase, and send each other critical. From this room, by sending a simple command sequence, it is possible to pilot the Orbiter to any point on the Martian surface and then detonate it. The explosion would be the equivalent of a one hundred megaton bomb. You can probably guess which part of Mars I targeted.'

'The Argyre,' Xznaal grunted. The territory of his own clan. He checked the instruments once again. 'The Orbiter has not moved. You have failed.'

The Martian pointed at Greyhaven's legs and fired his sonic disruptor. Every bone below the knee joints shattered.

The Prime Minister buckled, unable to do anything but scream for the first couple of seconds.

Staines was smiling. 'You thought I was stupid, didn't you Teddy? You underestimated me, you see.'

Xznaal ignored him. 'Why?' he asked.

'Because you killed Eve,' Staines explained, trying to get back into the conversation. 'That blonde slip of a thing.

Really, Teddy, I told you that she'd be trouble.'

'Staines, you real y are an idiot,' Greyhaven said through clenched teeth. 'The fact that my so-called ally tried to murder an entire village full of innocent people, including a woman I was fond of didn't help, but I've always known that this... thing would try to betray me. He thinks that we're animals. What were you going to use those prisoners at Gatwick for? Medical experiments? Target practice? Food?'

The Home Secretary bent over him, smiling. 'The Martians need a workforce. You said so yourself.' Greyhaven could feel himself blacking out, but forced himself to remain conscious. 'Their population has seen rapid decline over recent centuries. Those criminals would have been put to useful work on Mars.'

Greyhaven's body was screaming at him, telling him that his only hope for survival was to lapse into unconsciousness. Greyhaven knew better than that: he wasn't going to survive. He only needed a minute more.

'Do you remember the words to ”Rule Brittania”?'

Staines laughed. 'Of course. I even prefer it to ”Martian Albion”.'

'”Britons never shall be slaves.”'

'Xznaal and myself are partners, Teddy. We knew that you'd try to double-cross us. The Martians are helping to solve prison overcrowding - those men are the lifers, the habitual criminals, the least desirable of the undesirable.'

'The sc.u.m of the Earth,' Xznaal hissed in agreement.

Staines was smiling his idiot grin. 'The Martians are our natural rulers, Teddy. They are superior beings. Do you know how long Martians live? There are some alive now that were born when Shakespeare was writing.'

Xznaal stepped forward.

'And you think that the Martians will let you have any power?' Greyhaven rasped. 'They see our state-of-the-art science - our computers, lasers and nuclear reactors - and they sneer at them. To Xznaal, the pinnacles of human art are finger paintings. Our greatest philosophers speak plat.i.tudes not fit for the playground.'

The Martian raised his arm.

'It's going to kill the human race like a farmer sprays his crops, and with the same compa.s.sion for the insects. I knew that al along. I also knew that the Martians were weak - most of them are impotent, those that aren't are diseased or disordered. Look at that thing. Ask him why he needs constant blood transfusions. Ask him whether that ma.s.sive brain of his can function without stimulants.'

'Marss iss dying, itss people are dying.' Xznaal admitted. 'But we have thiss world, we will adapt it to our needss.

Vrgnur has prepared plans for the first colonies. Within a century, this planet wil be Aress-formed - its temperature lowered, its atmosphere thinned. We wil ssurvive. You think that your puny human intel ect iss a match for mine?'

Greyhaven laughed.

'Iss he deliriouss?'

'No, I'm not,' Greyhaven snapped. He tried to stand up, but couldn't. He settled for straightening his tie. 'King Genius, you have overlooked one small detail.'

'Indeed?' Xznaal hissed scornfully.

'Yes,' Greyhaven said, only needing to block out the pain just long enough to finish one more sentence. 'The fact it takes five minutes to send a radio message from Earth to Mars.'

Staines and Xznaal spun to face the monitors.

Greyhaven winced as he tried to grin. 'My signal should be arriving... now.' The room was becoming dark, it was closing in on him.

The Orbiter's telemetry began to alter, the alt.i.tude was dropping. The retros were firing. The nuclear reactors began redlining.

The computer interpreted the data, plotting the course of the Orbiter as it skipped down through the thin Martian atmosphere. It was past the equator, streaking over the Vallis Marineris and the Noctis Labyrinth, crossing the Mare Erythraeum several times faster than the speed of sound.

If the Martians lived underground, Greyhaven reflected, they probably couldn't hear the Orbiter slicing its way down. The atmosphere there was so thin that sound wouldn't carry too well. But the perpetual Martian twilight would be gone. The Martians were scared of fire, and now their sky was ablaze.

The Orbiter detonated, right above the Argyre. The signal ended abruptly.

106.

Greyhaven was still laughing when Xznaal broke his neck.

From the memoirs of Professor Bernice Summerfield A little over ten minutes after I had sent my message, a Martian Lord appeared in the hologlobe. Unlike Xznaal, he wore his armour streamlined, complete with cloak. Moving in his own gravity, and breathing Martian air, he was graceful as a dancer.

'Bernicesummerfield,' it said, 'I am Balgrar of the clan Thaumasia. Your news is grave. We Martians value honour above all. Xznaal has shamed our race, and let me a.s.sure you that he does not represent our people. He is the leader of but one clan, the Argyre, and their attack on your world was not sanctioned by the Grand Marshall. Know then that all on Mars stand with you against the Argyre and that a punitive expedition of war-barges is even now on its way to - '

The picture disappeared, vanis.h.i.+ng in an explosion of static that almost made me jump from my seat.

'What the f- '