{"id":916,"date":"2021-08-21T11:48:16","date_gmt":"2021-08-21T11:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=916"},"modified":"2021-08-21T11:48:22","modified_gmt":"2021-08-21T11:48:22","slug":"a-martian-revenge-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/a-martian-revenge-tragedy\/916\/","title":{"rendered":"A Martian Revenge Tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Martha relaxed into the pilot\u2019s chair, her term on the punishment planet complete. A message flashed on her HUD, \u201cThank you for your service.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She hit the eject button.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten years earlier, a signal from Rob, \u201cThank you for your service\u201d meant \u201cGet out of there\u201d. His warning never came. The bots got her, and her wonder turned to blame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why contact her now? It had to be him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She looked back at the ship, then she got her answer as it exploded into fragments. The shock wave hit: her pod shook but survived, coming to rest two-thirds of the way up Pavonis Mons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSuit,\u201d she commanded, \u201cstatus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cNominal,\u201d the suit responded, \u201cfull integrity, forty hours of air and water.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly two days, she thought, the land-truck would take about thirty hours. She connected comms to the Penal Colony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHello Mars PC, this is Martha,\u201d she broadcast. \u201cI\u2019m in a pod on Pavonis Mons. Haul me in, will ya?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe noticed you escaped the fireworks,\u201d Governor Brad Coris\u2019s familiar voice replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen does the recovery truck get here?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAh yes. We\u2019re not sure we have the resources for a recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh c\u2019mon, Brad. You have a dozen trucks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all detailed to the explosion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell un-detail them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSorry Martha. Priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLoose ends. WorldGov thinks you\u2019re still a threat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The line went dead, but then she heard a voice she never thought she\u2019d hear again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMartha,\u201d said Rob, \u201cwhat\u2019s your sit-rep?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cROB? It WAS you who warned me. Where are you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMars orbiter. They got me before they took you. I knew you were there, but they don\u2019t allow comms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo how\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve taken the station. We\u2019re into the network. Locked them out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow did you know they were going to blow my ride?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re into the colony\u2019s network. Can\u2019t do much. We need a jockey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo you know one?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know the best. Can you jack-in?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reaching for the comms panel contacts, she felt for the two ports at the back of her neck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRouting you to the admin block.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking around at icons of terminals and servers in her mind\u2019s eye, she saw what she needed: the emergency systems. Locking all the doors to the admin block, she turned her attention to Brad\u2019s workstation and switched it on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHello Brad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMartha! How did you get in here?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFriends in high places,\u201d she said, pointing at the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis won\u2019t help,\u201d Brad said, trying the locked door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re in lockdown, so that won\u2019t help you either.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can send a truck out to get you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah, and I lose control of the network and get a bullet for my trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat then?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust one thing,\u201d she replied. She looked him squarely in the eyes, \u201cI\u2019d like to thank you for your service.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that, she flushed the air from the block and watched as Brad fell to the floor, his eyes bulging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s done, Rob,\u201d she said. \u201cCome and get me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But all she heard was static.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Martha relaxed into the pilot\u2019s chair, her term on the punishment planet complete. A message flashed on her HUD, \u201cThank you for your service.\u201d She hit the eject button. Ten years earlier, a signal from Rob, \u201cThank you for your service\u201d meant \u201cGet out of there\u201d. His warning never came. The bots got her, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"New #SciFi #Flasfiction from #SwanseaWriters -\nA Martian Revenge Tragedy","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[379,520],"tags":[521,522,523],"class_list":["post-916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-379","category-august-2021-revenge","tag-martian","tag-revenge","tag-tragedy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-eM","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":918,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions\/918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}