http://www.asstr.org/files/Authors/srb/www/
Don't read if under 18 or illegal in your little corner of the world, like you'll listen. This 
should appear only on my site http://www.asstr.org/files/Authors/srb/www/ F3, Futanari 
Palace, Pal's archive site, through Pal's yahoo group, on Pal's Forum... well, it basically 
should be wherever Pal's stuff is. Also at the Grey Archive, and some other places they 
might end up, they know who they are. 

This is copyright me, so don't call it yours. Feedback can be left here. I created all the 
characters, they are all fictional, and any relevance to anyone living or dead, is incidental

A big thanks out for both Theromen and davidka1, who have beta tested this chapter. 
Their help has been integral to getting it out so quickly. 

BTW there is plenty of different portions which have been reused by numerous science 
fiction shows movies and books, including nanotechnology, rapid pregnancy, and various 
scientific mumbo jumbo, which I will try to keep to a minimum. (Bounce a graviton 
particle beam off the main deflector dish…)

THIS CHAPTER contains futa/mast

Chapter 21
Mars, the Bringer of War


"What are you going to do when you get there?" Julio asked as he rubbed his neck. No 
matter how much time he spent in space, he never got used to sleeping. He was just 
happy to be piloting this smaller vessel to land on Mars. Not only was he close to home, 
he had grown used to piloting the smaller, more cramped vessels, he felt more at ease 
flying this mere fly than he would be flying a blimp like the ship he had been on. The 
landing craft offered him more of a chance to actually pilot the ship, on the mother ship 
the computer did all of the work, and he had absolutely no autonomy. Mars would be 
where it would be when they arrived, it was simply point in the right direction, accelerate, 
and then just make sure that the ship did not deviate from its given course. In this ship he 
had much more independence to fly where he wanted to, and he looked forward towards 
flying too close to the rings.

"You mean besides take a two hour shower?" Katherine turned her head as she checked 
the last computer command for the moment.

"Well yeah besides that," Julio said, leaning back against the padded backing of his seat.

"And the T-bone steak?" Kate grinned, her mouth watering at the thought of a real meal.

"Well, of course, I mean, everyone's gonna take a shower and get some real food in 
them," Julio said. "It isn't even worth mentioning really."

"Well, besides that, I'm just gonna see my folks, been a while since I've seen them, and 
word is it'll be a while until we see them again," Kate said.

"Is that a fact?" Julio asked.

"Yep, word gets around that this is just our first trip there and back, pick up the cargo and 
some information, make sure we know everything we need to," Kate said, shrugging her 
shoulders, "Before we come in gun-a-blazing. But keep that under your hat," she 
motioned putting an imaginary pad under an imaginary hat.

"Wow, you really think it's gonna happen?" Julio asked. His clearance was much lower 
than hers, he wasn't privy to nearly the kind of information she was, just the speculation 
that ran rampant among soldiers.

"What, war? We've had world wars before, why not a planet war? Heh, you know what, I 
should copyright that," Kate said with a forced chuckle.

"Yeah right I'm sure someone else thought it up," Julio said. "I mean I never really 
thought a full scale war would happen. Course I didn't think that we'd bomb Earth either. 
Still, it's fucked up," Julio reasoned. He had joined the army because he had screwed up 
just about everything else he had tried, and they paid well. He was good at flying, and 
kept his mouth shut about things, such as the two prisoners being held in the back of the 
ship, or the half dozen armed guards to keep them in check. While he wasn't paid to think 
he sometimes came up with a gem. "I just can't see it working. I mean it took generations 
of ferrying people back and forth over and over again just to get the people there."

"Well, what else are they gonna do? If this plague thing doesn't work, we're all gonna 
have to go somewhere, or die," Kate said. "Maybe not us, but our kids, or their kids, and 
that'd be about the end of it all."

"I don't know, but how the hell could we conquer a planet?" Julio asked.

"Well their major infrastructure is weak, and we would have the element of surprise, if 
we get a foothold we can force our way into a continent." Kate said, thinking things out 
tactically. "If we gain aerial superiority, we already have spatial superiority, we might 
have a chance, especially if we can ferry a few trips worth of soldiers there and back. 
Once we're there can they really wipe us out?"

"We bombed them," Julio said. "They probably want revenge. Hell, I would." He said 
honestly. He wasn't the politically minded type, but he was in the majority of people who 
thought the attack on Earth was a needless, pitiful loss of life, even if it happened when 
he was in grade school.

The two of them sat in silence for a moment. Seeing the rings around their planet was 
such a strange thing, especially as the two had spent time in space training before they 
existed. They were beautiful to look at, even as close as they were now, to see the 
multitude of rocks and debris of all different shapes and sizes moving in synch around. 
But their beauty hid a terrible meaning, for to the people on the planet it was a beacon of 
death.

"Pretty noose, huh?" Julio asked solemnly. 

Kate didn't bother replying, it was too depressing to her. She had her family moved to an 
outlying province on the southern hemisphere, a smaller town that would get much less 
exposure, and better protect them. It was all she could do for them. They could hold out 
for some time and would be safer than those near equatorial cities. She checked the 
computer system; they were approaching Mars on the easiest approach vector. "So what 
about you?"

"Me?" Julio was too busy staring at the rings to be paying attention.

"Yeah, what are you going to do when we get there?" Kate asked.

"Oh, well, I was gonna do the shower and food thing, then my plan was to just try to get 
some," Julio said with a grin. "I hear now that everyone's sick they're partying their asses 
off, blowing all their money on doing drugs and drinking top shelf booze."

"One track mind," Kate said disapprovingly. "Make sure it doesn't lead you to 
somewhere bad."

*

Tom winched in pain as he felt his ears pop. His head ached terribly. During reentry he 
had bumped it hard on the headrest. It had been padded, but not padded well enough. He 
was a little dazed, but he knew he would survive. Kyle had seen it happen, but strapped 
into her chair as she was, she could offer him no help, other than checking his status. The 
two of them were alone in a back, Capistrano had headed out front with their pilots on 
this smaller craft.

"Well, here we are," Kyle lamented. 

"I guess so," Tom said, lifting his arms. "At least there's some gravity."

"There's less gravity, right?" Kyle asked. She felt the pull of the weight, but knew that it 
wasn't nearly right. 

"Yes, it is," Tom said. "The air is slightly thinner too, but it isn't much worse than Earth 
at high altitude." He sighed. Talking about the planet was the least of his concerns, but he 
had difficulty trying to express exactly what was on his mind. The constant dull 
throbbing wasn't helping in the least bit. "What are we going to do?"

"Get information," Kyle said. "Find out where we are, who we're dealing with, and 
determine the best means for escape."

"It's not going to be that easy," Tom cautioned.

"Nothing ever is," was Kyle's stoic reply. "We might not know what's going to happen, 
we might not be able to see each other for some time, or again. We may not even get the 
chance to escape together." 

"You have to get out of here, it's more important," Tom said resolutely.

"I know, the nanos," Kyle nodded. Her mind was thinking just as her training had 
prepared her.

"No not just for the nanos, for your child," Tom said. "The nanos are important, but more 
than that is Terra, she needs her mother."

"Tom, I," Kyle said, taken slightly aback. She knew that Tom had cared for her child, but 
she had no intentions of going home alone. "We go together or not at all."

"If you can escape, leave me behind. Get out of here, try to find a way to get home," Tom 
said logically. "It will be easier for one to disappear than two, especially since they 
targeted me. You just happened to come along, I have something to do here."

"But, but I can't leave you behind," Kyle said. Her military training had kicked in. "I 
won't leave you behind."

"If you must, you must Kyle," Tom said decisively. "Besides your child, the nanos are 
incredibly important. I can fudge inoperable nanos for decades if I last that long, they 
could get yours in moments. Mine aren't even as complicated as yours are."

"Tom, do you have any idea what they could do to you?" Kyle asked. 

"Yes," he said. He didn't want to focus on the unpleasant prospective.

"Don't be a hero Tom. I'm not going to," Kyle said, stopping as she heard the door to 
their compartment begin to open. 

"This is it, welcome to Mars," Julio said, opening the door. "Sorry about the seatbelts, it's 
for your safety, bit of a bumpy ride, even in the best of conditions."

"Better than the way we got there in the first place," Kyle observed crossly.

"I would think so," Julio said apprehensively, suddenly wishing that he had brought some 
of the guards in with him instead of trying to seem like a big shot and doing it himself. 
"Not that I had a part of any of that."

"Don't wash your hands clean of it," Tom said. He had a firm belief in personal 
responsibility, and wasn't going to let this little kid clean his conscious so easily. "Can 
we go?"

"Sure thing, guess you're the boss," Julio said sarcastically. Kyle undid the straps holding 
her to her chair, and stretched out a moment. She watched Julio as he went over to help 
Tom, creeping behind him ready to crack his neck.

"Come on Julio, stop taking so much damned time!" a voice shouted from outside the 
door. A moment later Kate came in, with two armed goons behind her, dashing Kyle's 
plans, for now. "Don't listen to what this Latin lothario says, we're already behind 
schedule, and I don't need to get a reprimand."

"Of course," Tom said, stretching his legs out. Even in the lighter gravity they seemed 
unaccustomed to bearing the burden of his full weight after spending so much time in 
space. 

"Let's go," Kate said, leading the two of them out the door. Kyle went before Tom, 
taking stock of the guards. She could see two of them in front of Kate, with two others 
ready to follow behind them. 'A classic prisoner transport formation' she thought to 
herself. She assumed there were more soldiers elsewhere on the ship, probably at the 
critical systems, the engine and the helm, as well as weapon systems if there were any, to 
assure that a possible takeover or kamikaze attempt would fail. The guards themselves 
were armed with semi automatic rifles, the new Martian variant, with the extra long clip, 
three round burst, she guessed a round nose bullet, if they wanted them alive. Hollow 
point tended to get too messy.

The ship itself was a small one, really the size of a standard bus, wider perhaps. It made 
more sense to have smaller sized ships for transport, the power needed and the potential 
for disaster created by attempting to rise and land large-scale ships was enormous. If one 
of those ships had a problem during reentry, explosive decompression for example, the 
ship's nuclear powered core could create a cloud of radiation that could endanger the 
lives of many millions. It also made commandeering a ship to make it to Earth much 
more difficult, as they would have to steal one ship, then attempt a takeover of a second 
one.

Kyle followed the soldiers in front of her as they approached the exit. The exit had a 
special locking mechanism, not designed for easy access to naturally protect atmospheric 
pressure and to prevent access to outside the ship be it for docking or exiting, accidental 
or intentional. She turned her head and saw Capistrano coming of his own volition. 'So 
they trained their dog well,' Kyle thought.

It took Kate and Julio nearly two minutes just to disengage the lock, the entire time their 
bodies moving at military precision, a task that they obviously had been trained well to 
do. Their bodies obstructed the locks, an intentional ploy to keep Tom and Kyle, as well 
as the other guards, unaware of the precise operation of the mechanism. The door opened 
with a loud metallic whirr, the sound of heavy machinery opening created a deafening 
noise. Two guards jumped out first, making sure the coast was clear, purely for show. 
After checking out the lay of the land, they activated the lift, allowing the remaining 
party to exit the ship without the sudden meter drop.

Kyle looked out, she saw at least a hundred soldiers, waiting outside at attention in what 
looked like their formal dress. They were all armed, and Kyle took note of as much as she 
could about them. The group had to be a special one, they were all perfect specimens, as 
close to gods and goddesses that were humanly possible, each body adonic in its stature. 
She stepped forward, following the two soldier's direction. They had shouldered their 
weapons, each one carrying what looked like an automatic machine gun, as well as a 
sidearm pistol. She knew that it was all for show, but it was one that was put on well.

"This certainly isn't going to be the last time they go to Mars," Tom said, pointing to his 
side. While Kyle had focused her attention on the soldiers, Tom noticed the backdrop. 
They were standing on top of this landing pad that was littered with dozens upon dozens 
of similar crafts. They went for as long as he could see in two straight lines, evenly 
spaced out. It was a sight he might have expected when interplanetary commerce was 
bustling, but now that it was at an all time low the number of ships was a cause for 
concern. "They have a fleet."

"That isn't just a fleet Tom, it's an armada," Kyle said. "Look," she pointed at someone 
coming in the path between the soldiers at attention. She noticed that the guards as well 
as Julio and Katherine all rose to attention. 

"This will go best if you keep quiet for now," Capistrano said. "The less we have to 
interact, the easier it will go."

"You're late," grumbled the old man as he approached. Kyle inspected him from head to 
toe, he looked like he had passed sixty some years ago, his gray thinning hair was the 
most evident indicator. His skin was white, pale, wrinkly, and seemed to be flaking off 
slightly. He walked with a limp; it seemed to be his right leg that was so afflicted. He was 
in formal dress as was everyone else, but his uniform was adorned with much more 
regalia than the surrounding men, and Kyle recognized the insignia of a general. He had a 
service revolver, homage to a time long passed. "What are you looking at girly?" he 
asked, noticing Kyle's attention.

"Me?" Kyle asked, trying to sound innocent. 

"Yes you, can the act girly, I'm not in the mood," he grumbled.
 
"General Blake, unfortunately the mission parameters did not allow for the instance of 
small delays, sir," Julio said.

"Julio Ramirez, I don't give a god damn what you have to say about that, when you get 
an order to be somewhere at some time you had best be there when ordered!" he shouted. 
"At least you managed to bring everyone you were supposed to get."

"Sir, our delay was unintentional, and only slight, and we were able to successfully 
complete all of our mission objectives," Katherine said.

"And that is what's most important, isn't it?" asked a black man from behind. Large, 
lean, and full of muscle packed into a tight uniform, Kyle could understand how this 
person could wield respect and command, despite his youthful appearance. She 
immediately noticed that his uniform was more ornately raiment than the General Blake, 
and quickly deduced his higher rank and service record. He seemed to carry an air of 
authority about him.

"I suppose so, but they still should have been on time," Blake grumbled as he turned to 
walk away.

"Forgive him, there must always be someone to crack the whip on the troops," the black 
man said. "You must be Dr. Thomas Pope I've heard so much about." He said, extending 
his hand.

"Yes I am, Mr.…?" Tom asked, taking his hand and shaking it. His hand was as large as 
a bear's, and gripped him powerfully. Tom knew the overbearing grasp was on purpose 
and willed his face to stay straight, to not show any kind of weakness even if it was a 
matter of vanity. 

"Marshal Jamal Green, Secretary of the Martian Planetary Armed Services," he said. 
"And you must be Kyle Byrne. I understand you've spent some time serving in your 
armed forces?"

"Lieutenant Kyle Byrne, Planetary Parliament Marine Corps, serial number KB-
13378008Z," Kyle responded.

"Okay," Green said, chuckling. "It is all on file, but thanks for the refresher. Esteban 
Capistrano, always a pleasure," he said, nodding in his general direction. "For now, shall 
we move on?"

"Have we much choice in the matter?" Tom asked rhetorically. "Lead the way."

"Where are we?" Kyle asked, trying to sound harmless as she began a search for answers.

"This is the airfield, this one is used specifically by government craft leaving the planet's 
surface," Green said, as he led the group on. 

"Are there other craft?" Kyle asked.

"Yes there are civilian based scientific research vessels that are allowed into space, as 
well as some private sector craft that do everything from setting up satellites for 
television programs and commerce, to entertainment. Some people like to fly up and feel 
the weightlessness of space, take pictures, etcetera, really a tourist thing," Green said 
dismissively. "There are more profitable endeavors in space."

"Such as?" Kyle inquired sweetly, attempting by dulcet tones to work some easy answers 
from him. Men in his situation often felt so empowered that letting little details slip here 
and there happened on occasion. 'It's not like he's going to spill the beans like a Bond 
villain' she thought to herself.

"Look around you dear woman, look around you," he replied, stopping to pick off a bit of 
lint off of a soldier, who managed not to flinch as the supreme commander after the 
Prime Minister cleaned his dress uniform.

"Where are we going?" Tom asked, trying to make Kyle's inquiries seem less obvious. 

"General Blake here will escort you to the Martian Manor, it is the main governmental 
building. It's similar to your Planetary Parliament building. I'm going to head up to 
inspect the troops," Marshal Green said, waving towards a car in the distance. "Please 
behave yourself, manners are most important. I would hate for the Prime Minister to be 
slighted by discourtesy."

"Tom," Capistrano said, holding him by the shoulder, "My wife." He pleaded, flashing a 
glance over towards Kyle. Tom nodded slightly, wondering how long Kyle would pay 
attention to his request. 

*

"Sir, the ship has landed, Capistrano and Pope have both arrived uneventfully," Jeffery 
Brody said, reporting the news to him. It was a waste of time truly, but the Prime 
Minister was given to flights of fancy, and the day prior he had decided that he wanted to 
attend to his appointed duties.

"Ah, right, right, whatever," Smith said, as he lit up another cigarette. "Is there anything 
we can do about my smokes? Fucking things taste like ass!"

Brody was able to suppress his instinctive remark, 'You would know'. "We're trying as 
we speak, but the solution has not been forthcoming."

"Fine, fine, whatever, is there anything interesting happening?" Smith asked irritated as 
he puffed quickly through a cigarette, billows of smoke pluming out of his mouth as he 
spoke.

"You wished to meet with them, sir," Brody reminded.

"Well then where in the hell are they then?" Smith tersely interrogated.

"We thought it best for them to shower beforehand sir, space travel can be, unhygienic," 
Brody said. "Both for your sake and for theirs."

"Oh brother, just, don't bother me unless you have something important to say, I've got a 
speech to work on!" Smith said, waving him off. Eve opened the door on the off chance 
he didn't get the hint. Eve and Brody exchanged looks of annoyance at the Prime 
Ministers mood before he left the room. The two of them had shared their feelings toward 
him, but nevertheless worked for him.

Jeff sighed to himself. Frustration was a normal state for him, and one he bore well. He 
worked under Smith for years, first helping him as a senator. They had a mutual 
relationship, one that worked well for the both of them, Smith could scare up the 
populace and he could come in with reassurances if spending was increased or a small 
rule no one really knew about or understood was tweaked slightly. It had taken some 
time, but the two developed a rapport, if not trust, with each other. That had eventually 
led to him helped stage the initial coup d'état, overthrowing the senate. He and Marshal 
Green had both been instrumental, securing both the information and the military 
complexes were the first two steps in any successful governmental takeover. He had 
pleased himself that their staged putsch was almost entirely bloodless, there was little loss 
of life, other than those senators who had planned the death of Josiah's father Jeremiah 
Smith. His pride in that moment wasn't based on a value for human life, but rather his 
own efficiency. 

He had not been promised much. He was able to keep his post, and the methods from 
which he could attain information had been vastly expanded. That made his job easier, 
particularly as the backlash to any government takeover had to be monitored closely to 
ensure the safety for the new regime. His pay had increased substantially, both as a one 
time lump compensation for his initial assistance as well as his normal salary. He had 
also received other perks, although he seldom indulged in the drugs and women that were 
available to him. He would drink with the boys, occasionally partake of his share of nose 
candy, and enjoyed the women as much as any man does.

He didn't help the Prime Minister Smith for the perks, or the pay. Smith didn't have any 
kind of political ideology that he sympathized with, other than a willingness to expand 
the already broad scope of information gathering and analyzing services. They were not 
friends; in all honesty he didn't even like Smith much. 

Brody and Green were happy to help concentrate the political power of an entire planet 
onto an easily manipulated individual who was easily distracted and signed away without 
question anything brought to his desk. 

*

In all his life, Tom has so rarely appreciated the small comfort that a hot shower can 
afford. Sure, he enjoyed a shower as much as anyone does. Washing away the sweat and 
the smell, the dirt and grime of the day, to ease his tense and weary muscles, showering 
had seemed as just a normal part of daily routine. Now, as he ran a soapy washcloth and 
hot water over his body, he felt like he had known what being clean truly was, as he had 
known what being filthy truly was. It was in its own way almost a kind of Zen. 

He knew so little it felt like listing what he did know would take less time. He didn't 
know what was going to happen to him. He didn't know what happened to Kyle. He 
didn't know were either he or Kyle was. He didn't know who he was going to see. He 
didn't know if that person would care enough to listen to him for long. He didn't know 
anything really, except that the shower was nice. It was an impressive bathhouse, with 
sleek pristine white porcelain, and old style metallic handles, all polished and without a 
hint of rust.

As soon as the guard had come in, they were whisked away into a landing craft that had 
brought them to the surface. It had been a bumpy and unpleasant ride, one he didn't look 
forward to repeating. Just after they arrived, Kyle was brought to some woman's facility, 
whereas he had been brought here with Capistrano. Despite his inquiries, neither the 
guards nor Capistrano had granted him answers of any kind. They had just led him here. 

As much as he wanted to enjoy it, he knew that he needed to get answers. He turned the 
dial, extinguishing the water. There was a towel on a rack there, along with some clothes, 
just a plain shirt and trousers; he would have worn a bridal gown just to put on something 
clean. 

He stepped out of the shower. He muttered an old phrase, from the Tempest, an ancient 
yet nevertheless classic piece of literature by the Bard. Although he had known it better 
from a later work, and quoted it in its better known and ironic nature. "O brave new 
world, that hath such people in it"

*

To put it mildly, Kyle was having an unexpected time. 

She had expected an interrogation, naturally. Some blank, nondescript room, with a two-
way mirror, maybe a table she would be attached to by handcuffs. Perhaps the old good 
cop/bad cop routine, or even better, a military psychologist to come in and analyze her 
mentally, then use subtle tricks or ploys to break her incrementally until she finally 
snapped. Then again they might skip trying to get information from her and just go 
straight for hypnosis, or some kind of truth serum to get the information against her will. 
Perhaps if they were really sadistic they might abuse her body, maybe start out with 
simple beatings and lead up to weapons, either shark or blunt, heat or ice, or electricity. 
She had been more concerned about a physical attack, not just because of the pain, but 
because her abnormally healing wounds would draw attention to her nanobots. Naturally 
torture could happen either physically or mentally, so she could have any variation of 
mental torture as well, from isolation, sensory deprivation, denial of food or water, sleep 
deprivation, or other various tricks, such as the Chinese water torture, water boarding, or 
perhaps even sexual assault or rape.

What she encountered was almost a polar opposite. 

"Oh, we have so much work to do," Said an Asian woman, as she looked at Kyle enter 
the room. She was older, pushing fifty if she hadn't gotten there already. Her hair had 
begun to change its color, into a very light brown accented by the occasional grey hair. 
Behind her unadorned desk Kyle could not see that she was a good forty or so pounds 
overweight, but she carried it well, it accentuated her body by made her curves rounder, 
even on her short frame.

"Excuse me?" Kyle said, lifting an eyebrow. She turned her head, seeing that the guard 
who had led her into this place had stopped short at the door, and simply watched from 
the doorway.

"Oh, my, please, take those old clothes off," she said, her soft brown eyes staring at the 
girl as she pinched her nose. "They do stink so."

"What?" Kyle asked.

"Are you alright girl? Maybe you should sit down," she asked.

"What…is this place?" Kyle asked.

"Uh, well, this is called a bathhouse," she answered. "Please, sit down," she showed Kyle 
to a chair. "Now, the first thing we need to do is get those nasty old clothes off of you, 
then a good long bath is just in order, after that we can do up your hair and nails, then a 
little makeup, and we can get you in something a bit more feminine."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Kyle asked. 

"This is a bathhouse, it's a place where important people bathe, we also will take care of 
other things for you, such as your hair, and your nails, and makeup," she said very 
slowly, pronouncing everything very deliberately and steadily in a calm voice.

"I'm not retarded," Kyle said offended.

"I never said you were," she replied. "I don't judge people."

"Don't talk to me like I'm dumb, I just come out of the sky in a ship and get sent here, by 
guard, and no one has told me jack shit," Kyle said defensively. 'I get kidnapped, brought 
to Mars, my kid is god knows where, the only people I spent time with in months are 
dead, and I'm at a bathhouse?' she thought to herself.

"I see," she answered, Kyle's hasty explanation only furthered her questions about Kyle's 
mental state. Still, she wasn't the most eccentric patron she had seen today.

"Let's start at step one, my name is Kyle, Kyle Byrne, what's yours?" she asked, 
deciding to take charge of the situation. 'At least it looks like she's going to answer 
questions, for once.' Kyle thought. 'Best get every scrap of info I can while I can.'

"Me? Most people don't bother to ask, my name is Adrian Cheng," she nodded.

"Adrian, this is a bathhouse?" Kyle asked. 

"This is the reception area, but yes, you are correct," she said.

"Then why am I here?" Kyle asked.

"You got upset before when I explained what it is we do here, I don't want to upset you 
again," Adrian said carefully, trying not to draw her ire. She was more than accustomed 
to dealing with an irate clientele.

"I meant why was I brought here, why have I been taken here," Kyle put bluntly.

"We got a new appointment last night for you," Adrian began to say.

"I see, well I guess I'm going to cancel my appointment," Kyle said with a forced smile. 
She turned around and made a half a step outside the door before two soldiers stepped in 
the way, effectively stopped her. "Then again, maybe I have time to squeeze this in," 
Kyle said. "A bathhouse you say?"

"Well, yes. This is the bathhouse for the Prime Minister of Mars, it's where his, uh, 
female companions come to bathe and" Adrian began to say.

"Wait, what? Female companions?" Kyle asked as a disbelieving look formed on her 
face.

"Yes, where his courtesan can relax, unwind, and get ready for…well, you know," she 
said.

"No, I don't know," Kyle said. "You mean this is where his harem of whores tart 
themselves up before sex and then come back later to wash the jizz stains off?"

"Well, I didn't quite say that," Adrian rolled her eyes.

"But I'm not too far off, am I?" Kyle asked. 'Typical man, he hasn't even met me but he 
wants to fuck me.'

"Not especially, no. This is a place where women are pampered, you should at least 
appreciate the opportunity, and few have the chance to enjoy this anymore," Adrian said.

"I'm not a whore," Kyle protested. "I don't belong here."

Adrian shrugged "I didn't call you a whore honey, I didn't call you anything."

"But I'm here, where his other whores come, aren't I?" Kyle asked.

"It's not my decision to make. I'm not in charge of that. My job is just to take care of the 
girls under my charge. And I never said you had to sleep with anyone, I just said you 
need a bath and a change of clothes," Adrian said.

"Okay," Kyle said, she knew that much was true. She looked back at the guards keeping 
vigil in the doorway. "I'll play along with that, not that I have much of a choice." 

"Good, good Kyle," she said, pushing a button that made a buzzing noise. From nowhere 
it seemed, four short plain looking Asian teenage girls entered the room. They looked like 
Adrian, and Kyle surmised this was a family business. "These girls will help you bathe, it 
seems as though you could use it."

"No!" Kyle said hastily. "I mean, no thanks, I'm not that kind of person, just show me to 
a shower."

"Well, it's quite alright, it's nothing these girls haven't seen before," Adrian said, not 
knowing just how wrong she was.

"That's, that's okay, really, I'm fine, I just want a long shower," Kyle said. 

"Hmm, don't see a lot of shy girls come through here, but if that's how you want it, by all 
means," Adrian said. "Girls, clean up, and I don't want to see a single speck of dirt on the 
ground. And if someone comes in call me!"

Adrian led Kyle to a set of double doors and opened them, showing her into a lavish 
bathhouse, magnificent in its opulence. It looked like something out of a roman history 
book, with large pillars running from the floor to the ceiling, although it was an aesthetic 
choice. There were several small pools that were about the size of a hot tub, covered in 
steamy water, with one very large bath in the middle, a pool really, all were thick marble 
carved into the ground and looked immaculate. There were two topless women, wearing 
very skimpy bikinis sitting near the shallow end, bracing their backs against the wall and 
sipping on drinks as they measured up Kyle. One wall was open to a large and lush green 
garden, filling the room with glorious golden rays of the sun. She could see that there was 
a field that went on for about a hundred or so yard before a vast valley marked by a 
sudden cliff before dropping steeply. Kyle could see two armed guards near the pool. 
'Women, any guy would probably ignore a firestorm staring at women bathing' she 
thought to herself. She wondered how many guards she wasn't able to see.

"Sure you don't want a bath?" she asked, splashing the water in the large pool on the 
opposite side of the two women, "the water's fine."

"I just want a shower," Kyle said, steeling her mind against treachery. She flashed a 
smile, trying to act normal. 

"Well, back here then," she said, leading her out to a back room down a short hallway. It 
wasn't quite nearly as elegant, just a simple eggshell porcelain bathroom with a toilet 
next to a sink, a mirror and a shower. "There are towels and a robe here," she pointed at 
the towel rack, "And just come out when you're done so we can get started on everything 
else."

Kyle turned around to thank her, but she was already out the door. She checked the door; 
it had a lock on it, thankfully. She inspected the room, and it looked normal. A part of her 
wanted to see some kind of poorly hidden camera system, although she didn't see much 
of a point. There was no window, no other means of escape. She assumed that most of his 
concubines were probably taken in willingly and preferred pampering, while the others 
were probably prisoners. She was sure there was some kind of interference device that 
would tamper any attempt at outside transmission, as if any communications weren't 
going to be wholly listened to anyway. It wouldn't matter, she had no such device 
anyway, just dirty clothes. If they were going to film her she had no choice. The redhead 
had to shower, she couldn't mask her stink.

She sighed as she took off the filthy clothes, they peeled off her body, she knew that she 
had worked up a level of grime that was past funky. She had gotten accustomed to the 
smell of body odor on the ship, but it didn't mean that she hadn't noticed it. She sniffed 
her shirt, surprising herself just how malodorous it was. She peeled off her panties, 
freeing her cock. It itched, badly, the sweat and dirt had chaffed it. Her exercise had only 
exacerbated the problem. She now understood why guys had their hand down their pants 
scratching themselves all the time. 

She turned on the shower and waited for it to heat up. The shower was normal, except 
that there were two showerheads, instead of one. She had taken more than one cold 
shower in her military career, but this wasn't a time for a quick 'wake me up' shower. 
No, this was a shower she planned on enjoying. She didn't know how often she would 
have the chance to bathe, especially considering how much she needed to conceal her 
body.

'But how the fuck am I going to do that if he wants me to be his whore?' Kyle wondered. 
'I'd rather be beaten than a prostitute.' She would have attempted escape earlier, but there 
hadn't been the opportunity, not yet. At every hallway there was a pair of guards, at every 
doorway there was a pair of guards, she had been brought in by guards, there were a pair 
of guards out the door, and she hadn't even begun to wonder what kind of visual and 
audio surveillance they were under. Water ran down the dual showerheads onto her hand, 
as she gauged the temperature. But the angle wasn't right, it was off, weird, strange. As 
she came to think on it, she realized that she seemed lighter. 

She just filed the information in the back of her head, there were a number of things that 
she didn't need to worry about right now. Stepping into the shower, she groaned as she 
felt the hot water cover her body. She just stood in front of the water, feeling the two 
streams converge on her body. The tension seemed to ease up, albeit slowly, and 
certainly not completely. Closing her eyes she rested her head on the porcelain wall of the 
shower, wondering what exactly she was going to do. The water running down her hair 
felt nice, washing the grime from her hair and face down to her chin before dripping off.

She opened her eyes, shielded from the water, as she tried to wash herself off. Her eyes 
scanned over and found a bar of soap on a rope hanging near her. She grabbed it, and 
looked around for a washcloth for a moment before giving up. She examined the soap; it 
looked new and unused. 'Everyone probably just goes to the bath' she thought.

She let the water run over the soap for a couple moments, when it was soaked enough she 
began to rub it against her hand, building up an oily lather. Starting on her shoulders she 
rubbed in small circles, enjoying the lavender smell she massaged into her skin. Her 
shoulders were tense, the workouts had taken their toll on her body, and a lack of a hot 
shower after a workout had made things worse. 

She took a deep breath and let it out, feeling her body ease. Her training in the military 
had taught her how to exist in captivity, how to cope with the stress, but it was only a 
memory from an age long past. Learning how to do anything was different than actually 
doing it. She knew that it was going to take everything she had to contend with this 
captivity, even if it was a gilded cage.

She lowered the white bar as she massaged her breasts, saponaceous lather covering 
them. She had gotten accustomed to the zero gravity environment, her breasts weighted 
to her body was a sensation she had all but forgotten about. Her breasts had grown such a 
short period of time ago, she had only a short time to get used to them before winding up 
in space. She could feel her nipples harden as she washed the accumulated dried sweat 
off of her body, replacing the foul scent with a more pleasing aroma. 

Perhaps it was the hot water covering her body, perhaps it was the first time she had been 
naked in more time than she could remember, perhaps it was her imposed chastity, or 
perhaps it was simply the act of massaging her breasts, but the rest of her body was 
beginning to react. She could feel her cock begin to throb, caught halfway between hard 
and soft, in a pliable but engorged state. She could feel wetness between her legs, and she 
knew it wasn't simply the water dripping down. 

While she had exercised her body on the ship, she had to neglect various parts of it, and 
despite having masturbated once in space, she didn't get the kind of release she so 
desired. She doubted that she would have the chance now either, but she wondered how 
often she would have the opportunity to pleasure herself thusly. It they were going to 
catch her, she would be caught at some point or another, and if there was a camera it 
would see it as plain as day, whether she masturbated or not.

She looked down, the steam creating a mist that blurred her vision, yet her hands found 
her growing member easily enough. Putting one hand at the base of her cock, she let the 
other dip down and massages her balls, they felt heavy now that there was gravity. 'Or 
maybe they are just full of cum' she thought to herself with an inward smile. She looked 
forward to unloading them.

She turned her body, resting her back against the wall. She bent her knees slightly, 
allowing the two rivulets of water to meet in the middle. The crossed streams worked as a 
perfect lubricant, running from the head of her cock down the shaft before dripping 
between ball sack, and running over her hard clit before dripping over her honey pot and 
running down her legs. 

She began to pump her hand up and down slowly, enjoying it. The last time she didn't 
have a chance to take her time, she was in too big of a hurry. She reveled in each inch of 
her cock, teasing the soft, chaffed skin. She could feel her heart beat rapidly through a 
vein in the pink skin. 

She almost jumped as she heard a nose, her hands moving instinctively to cover her 
shame, although she didn't have enough hands to cover everything up. She laughed aloud 
as she realized it was simply the ventilation system starting up, probably because of all 
the steam around her. It took her a moment after the silliness to get her head back into 
action. 

She could feel the ventilation system, blowing cool, dry air onto her breasts, her already 
hard nipples dewy from the steam were constantly being teased. She let one hand return 
to it's slow pumping, allowing the other to reach down and find her pleasure spot. She let 
out a soft moan as she began to rub her clitoris, running her finger over the underbelly of 
the unusually large nub, massaging in small circles. She teased her cock head in the same 
way, feeling two different delights derived from the same action in two places. 

She dipped her hand lower, arching it slightly. She wiggled her wet middle digit in, 
moaning out loud. Her body yielded to herself like it would to none others and it didn't 
take her long to add a second finger, plunging deeply in and out of her dripping honey 
pot. Her thumb attached itself to her nub, and as she worked the two fingers in and out 
she kneaded her magic button. 

Her hand began to pick up it's pace, the beads of hot water sopping her cock, lubricating 
and massaging her tender skin, making her cock throb as it stood at full attention. She 
groaned and grunted as she worked her hands over her body warmly. Her knees began to 
grow weak as she propped her body up against the wall. She felt her hindquarters pressed 
up against the wall grind up and down as her hips bucked back and forth, meeting her 
humping hand pumping furiously. Her fingers followed suit, pushing inside of herself 
deep, all the way to the knuckle. She could feel a burning churning bubbling load of cum 
sitting just below the surface, ready to explode.

She bit her lip hard enough to draw the slight taste of blood as she felt her body cum, 
waves of orgasmic bliss pulsing through her body. Her cock let out huge initial blast, and 
her legs went out from under her. Her honey pot soon followed suit, pulsing and 
spasming in a delightful concert with her cock. From head to toe her body seemed to 
throb with a carnal delight. Her ass pressed up against the wall she slid slowly enough to 
prevent any pain, the sound of her body screeching against the porcelain made a delicious 
screech. But with the powerful orgasm ripping through her body she didn't notice either 
the sound or the pain. She kept pumping her hand hard on her cock as it shot up into the 
air, hitting into the streams of water before coming back down upon her body. Wad after 
thick wad of cum gushed like a geyser from her cock, covering her hair and her head in 
her own white sticky mess. Her finger still worked its way in her cunny, the pleasure was 
coming from both distinct areas and converging in her mind, driving it asunder with joy.

Her shoulders slumped forward as she felt her orgasm settle herself down. She could see 
her cum covered body in the mirror. Gobs of white spunk dabbed her here and there, she 
could feel the sticky stuff beginning to wash off. It was stickier than the water, and 
seemed to be stuck to her skin more so than soap. She grinned in the afterglow of 
everything, appreciating the fact she was in the shower to clean this off. She just hoped 
she didn't stop the sink up.

*

Mars was a smaller planet, truly only half the size of Earth. It did have some features that 
differentiated it from its bigger brother. The amount of water on the planet's surface, 
while adequate for the needs of the people, was much less than on Earth. Thus, there 
were no large ocean bodies, and most of the land was available to the people, unlike 
Earth, where more than seventy percent of the planet's body was covered in water. The 
day was slightly longer; however the year was almost double the time, at six hundred and 
eighty seven days long. Perhaps most importantly, its mass is much smaller, resulting in 
gravity less than four tenths that of normal earth gravity. 

Tom wanted to blame the lower gravity as an excuse for lagging behind the slightly older 
Capistrano on their way to see the Prime Minister, but if he couldn't honestly say if it was 
the gravity or not. Perhaps it was his own lack of a desire to get there, he didn't have 
anything positive to report, and his initial conversation with Smith did not instill a desire 
to speak with him any further. "Slow down Esteban, why are you in such a rush to see 
this Josiah Smith?"

"I've got more important things to do Tom," Capistrano turned his head slightly, enough 
to see Tom in the corner of his eye.
 
"Like what?" Tom asked naively.

"Seeing my wife," he said. Thankful as much as anyone to be out of space, yet it wasn't 
the inconveniences of travel that drew him home so dearly. Instead it was the tender love 
of his wife, and her nearness that he yearned for. "So let's get this over with, alright?"

"If you say so, I don't really have much of anything to say," Tom said disheartened. He 
understood Capistrano's drive, but he did not share in his passion.

"Nobody expected you to figure everything out all at once Tom," Capistrano said. "Just 
kiss his ass and he'll probably forget about you in the crowd."

"Alright, but here's a question, why isn't there a soldier or guard here to keep an eye on 
us? Not that I'm complaining, but nevertheless?" Tom queried. The two of them had 
showered, and changed, and then Capistrano had led him off towards their goal.

"Well, there's a pair of soldiers at the end of every hallway, one at every exit, there are 
sharpshooters on the roofs, camera systems everywhere. Security isn't an issue here Tom, 
and I wouldn't consider escape were I you," Esteban Capistrano said.  

Tom turned his head, looking at a soldier walking towards him in the adjacent hallway. 
He was carrying a full automatic assault rifle, and looked all business. "I take your 
point," Tom said.

"Esteban! Come here!" a voice shouted from the top of the stairs.

"Ah, Jeffery, it is good to see you again," Capistrano said. "Jeffery, this is Tom Pope, 
Tom, this is Jeffery Brody, the Secretary of Information on Mars."

"Charmed, I'm sure," Tom said, shaking his hand.

"It is a nice chance to meet you, I do wish the circumstances were better," Jeffery said. he 
had admired Thomas's work, if not his pacifistic nature and pro-individualistic stance.

"It can't be helped," Capistrano put in quickly. 

"Don't wash your hands clean of it," Tom said. Earlier he had said the same message to 
the kid who dropped them off, and his belief in personal responsibility wasn't waning, in 
fact it had only been emboldened by recent events.

"Well, let's get this over eh? I've got some better things to do," Jeff said, feeling the 
awkward tension building between the two. "And I'm sure the two of you could wolf 
down a cow apiece. He seems to be in a mood today,"

"What else is new?" Capistrano asked.

"Well, in any case, just do us all a favor and be brief and treat him like some Caesar to 
keep him happy," Jeff said. He was more than experienced in pacifying the Prime 
Minister. "Come on, just down this hallway." 

Tom might have been impressed with the elegance of the decor throughout the hallway. 
The walls were covered with large, gorgeous painted murals, many of them painted in 
ancient styles. There was one imitating an Egyptian pharaoh, complete with slaves 
building pyramids. Another had a roman Caesar, with a legion of centurions and 
legionnaires at their knees in service. There was one in a medieval motif, with a king on 
the throne with a feast lay before him and a compliment of knights donning armor. The 
last one showed a leader in front of a huge army as it walked trough the modern looking 
streets. It had taken him a moment, but Tom could have sworn it was Paris. 

He might have been impressed with them, with the sole exception of the fact that the 
pharaoh, the Caesar, the king, the leader, all were the same man, inserted into the various 
time periods; Josiah Smith.

There were four of the largest and most muscle bound men that Tom had ever seen in 
front of a stairwell, each one of them armed to the teeth with guns that Tom hadn't even 
heard of before, let alone see. Not that he was an aficionado of military weaponry.

"Mr. Brody, you're late," the guard closest to the door said. 

"It's Secretary Brody to you," he said condescendingly, "and I don't pilot the ships."

"If you did it probably would have crashed into Olympus Mons," he said with a grin. 

"Well it's a big target," Jeffery said sarcastically. He had plenty of experience with this 
guard in particular, the two had a back and forth relationship.

"I hope it's good this time, he seemed unimpressed with what you had to say earlier," the 
guard noted.

"He wanted to see these two," Brody said, waving towards Tom and Esteban, "Now 
they're here, so kindly move."

"I don't know I've got to check," the guard said.

"Give it a rest, okay?" a very pissed off Capistrano said. "I've neither the time nor the 
inclination to deal with this any longer, just open the door or I'll have you scrubbing the 
latrines."

"Alright, alright, just been a dull day, y'know? Gotta have fun some way," the guard said, 
opening the door for them. "And if you can get me into the bathhouse, I'll buy you a 
beer!" he whooped from behind. Brody led tom and Capistrano through the door, into a 
small receptionist room. He just waved at the receptionist there, who buzzed the three of 
them in.

"Eh? Brody, what is it now?" Smith asked, still irritated.

"Sir, you wished to know when their ship landed, it has landed, and they have arrived," 
Brody said, stepping aside.

"Ah, so they have," Smith looked up from his pad.

"Prime Minister, please let me introduce you in person to Dr. Thomas Pope," Capistrano 
said, attempting to sound regal in his introduction. 'Here's the guy we kidnapped to force 
to work for us' didn't have the same ring to it.

"Yes, yes, nice to meet you and all that," Smith said, looking down at his pad. "How does 
this sound, 'And with promise we look forward to the imminent solution to the illness 
afflicting our fellow Martians?'"

"I wouldn't use that," Tom said honestly, regretting so soon thereafter. His nature of 
trying to fix things had come forth too easily. He could feel Capistrano and Brody's eyes 
fixing upon him.

"Why not?" Smith halted before cocking his head.

"The 'imminent solution' kind of ties your hands, makes it sound like you're at the last 
stages of curing that affliction. Maybe try something like, 'We look forward with promise 
towards speedy medical advances being investigated around the clock to assist our 
afflicted Martian brethren' or something, I don't know," Tom offered up, thankful for his 
pain in the ass high school English teacher who had forced him into speech writing.

"Huh, you know…that's not bad, I might just steal that from you," Smith said, writing it 
down on his pad. "You a drinking man?"

"Well, I've had my share of drinks in the past, sir, but," Tom began.
 
"Good, good, Brody, why don't you fetch us some drinks, I'm in the mood for some 
Jagermeister," Smith said.

"Mr. Prime Minister, sir, I would appreciate the chance to see my wife, it that is 
agreeable," Capistrano said.

"Yes, yes, fine, go," Smith said miffed. He smiled as he took a glass of alcohol on ice 
from Jeff. "To new solutions," he said, clanging his drink with Tom, who had been 
slightly hesitant about it. The noise dulled the sound of the door as Capistrano booked 
out. "So, everyone tells me you're some kind of uber-genius, and you're going to fix 
everything."

"Not quite everything," Tom said, looking at the drink. "I haven't even come close to 
solving anything yet," he said, taking a sip, the smallest amount of the alcohol he could 
drink. He wasn't a fan of this particular drink, although he appreciated having something 
to enjoy, at the very least. 

"Well, at least your honest," Smith said, bored at the answer. "Sit down already," he said, 
pointing towards a tall armchair. "See, let me explain something about people Tom."

"What's that?" Tom asked, wanting to drink more with each passing moment talking to 
Smith.

"People lie Tom, they lie." Smith said it as if it were as simple as the answer to two plus 
two. "They lie to get ahead, they lie to pick your pocket, they lie to get power, they lie to 
take power from you. They lie because they think they're smarter than you, they lie 
because they want to trick you, they lie because they're afraid of you. The problem is that 
you can't deal with liars Tom, you simply can't," Smith counted off all the reasons on his 
fingers. He gulped the entire drink down all at once, then handing it to Brody. "This was 
my problem Tom, so much of this government were liars, plain and simple. The 
senators," he snorted, "they lied about money, they lied about women, about meetings, 
about laws, about everything."

"Everything?" Tom asked, moving his hand down to take a sip, and finding his drink 
empty already. Brody's arm obstructed his vision for just a moment as he refilled the 
glass. 

"Everything Tom, do you know they killed my father? They killed him!" Smith said, 
slamming his drink on his desk. Jeff filled his drink a moment later.

"I didn't know that, I am so sorry to hear it," Tom said.

"The bastards killed him and managed to hide it for nearly ten years, but I found out 
Tom, I found out, when the people of this planet voted me in. They elected me to come in 
Tom. I know the senators thought that this was some kind of monarchy, but what they 
didn't realize was that the people were sick of it Tom, they were sick of the lies, the 
deception, the corruption," he said, sipping on his drink. "That's why they elected me, 
they wanted someone to come in, to clean house, to take charge of a corrupt and 
inefficient government and return Mars to its former glory."

"Well, I'm not familiar with the status of the government, however from what I've heard 
you have become the supreme law of the land," Tom said, trying to watch his every word 
to avoid offense.

"Quite, but not by a coup, not by the barrel of a gun, don't forget that," Smith said, 
harping on that one fact. Tom nodded his head and sipped his drink, as the two sat in an 
awkward silence. Smith looked down at his glass as he swirled around the contents 
before saying "In any case Tom, I bring this up because I don't want you to lie to me. If 
you were to lie to me, well, I'd hate for things to turn out like the Senate." His cold dead 
eyes stared straight into Tom's. "Anyways, I've still got some work to get done. Thanks 
for sharing a drink with me. Jeffery, would you be so kind as to show this gentleman 
around?"

"Sir, I, have other matters to attend to, I must see Marshal Green, we have some 
important issues that we need to attend to," Brody started saying.

"Just show him around, it shouldn't take more than a little bit, and then you can see him. 
If I didn't know any better I'd think the two of you were in cahoots," Smith said with a 
reassuring smile.

"Sir, I'm not a tour guide, and I have more than enough work I need to take care of 
without showing Dr. Pope around," Jeff said.

"Fine, fine, just find a tour guide and dump it off to some page then, I don't care," Smith 
said. "It was good having a drink with you Tom, don't know why but I feel like I can 
trust you a bit more than other people. Just remember what I said."

"Yes, Prime Minister," Tom said, almost placing the glass on his desk before rethinking 
it, and handing it to Jeffery, who returned it to the set in the fridge. He was going to 
extend a hand, but didn't know whether or not it was appropriate or not. 

Tom stood up and turned towards the door, stopping cold in his tracks. He looked over at 
a blond woman, tall, skinny, and with a determined and unyielding glare from her blue 
eyes. He hadn't noticed her, hadn't even felt her cold eyes looking at him during his 
whole conversation with Smith.

"Don't mind Eve," Josiah said dismissively. "She's just there for safety."

"Oh, of course," Tom said. "Nice to meet you." Eve didn't change her vision or her 
stance for a moment.

"Really Tom, don't mind her, besides you really should get yourself settled. Jeffery, there 
should be a page around somewhere who can show him around. And make sure he gets a 
security clearance," Smith said.

"Come along Dr. Pope, let's get going," Jeffery said, wrapping an arm around Tom's 
shoulder as he led him out the door. 

Josiah Smith waited for the sound of the outer doors to close before asking Eve, 
"Impressions?"

"He was touched by your retelling of your father," Eve started out with.

"You think so?" Smith asked, thinking fondly of his father.

"Not that sympathetic, of course, he didn't know him. It was the awkward sympathy of 
someone uncomfortable with the subject of death brought up, than that of respect or 
compassion for the life lost," Eve said. "On the same note, you probably wouldn't mourn 
the loss of his father either."

"Hmm, well, he probably never heard of him," Smith frowned. "What else?

"He was hesitant to take a drink, but once you started talking he got nervous, and began 
to empty it rather quickly," Eve said.

"He did, didn't he?" Smith wondered. 'Was he nervous? He seemed nervous, but 
everyone seems to walk on eggshells near me' he thought to himself. "Do you think he's 
hiding something?"

"Almost definitely, but everyone hides something. He might be hiding anger at being 
abducted, or he might be hiding plans to take your life," Eve rationalized. 

"Well don't cheer me up," Smith said sourly.

"I wouldn't worry about that sir, I do get a check for something. He's a man who isn't 
comfortable with death," she said, reading his body language.

"Well, most assassins aren't the squeamish type" Smith thought out loud. It was slightly 
reassuring.

"He took the threat quite seriously," Eve offered, noticing the way Tom's body had 
tightened up, the hairs on the back of his neck prickled up.

"Well, let's hope he paid attention there," Smith said. "Anything else?"

"He's intelligent, he may think he's capable of getting away with lying to you, or 
concealing something without your knowledge. He's smart enough to ask questions, to 
respond politely, to act without provocation," Eve scanned her mind for all relevant 
things she had noticed.

"He seemed agreeable, at least. Smart enough to keep his mouth shut," Smith replied.

"Historically speaking he's been a man of peace, but it is possible that he will attempt 
escape, particularly as he will be working intimately with a number of associates he's 
familiar with," Eve said.

"Just like the senate, get too many pseudo intellectuals in one room and they feel they can 
outthink god," Smith said. He had an inherent distrust of intelligentsia. He felt that people 
who considered themselves too smart, too far above him a threat, and a threat to him was 
tantamount to a threat to Mars. He had gotten rid of everyone who had stood in his way 
before. 'Just like the senate' he thought to himself, 'just like the senate.'

*

Esteban ran. He ran quickly. Down the hallway, up the stairs, through the adjoining 
hallway he ran. He didn't bother using the elevator, he knew that it would slow him down 
by a few moments, and those moments, however brief they may be, were precious to him. 
He banged down the door of his quarters, concerned at first when he saw no sign of his 
wife. He burst through the bedroom door, his heart rising in his chest as he saw his wife, 
staring out the window.

She turned, the corners of her lips raising upward as she saw him. He drank in her beauty 
for a moment, staring deep into her azure eyes, the hue of a deep ocean, accented by the 
golden curls of her hair balanced on her shoulders before hanging down low, covering 
her body. The years may have given her a gray hair or two but he was blind to her 
imperfections. Her frame wasn't curvaceous, but her small chest and hips on her tight 
frame was the only body he sought. 

He didn't say but a word, almost tripping over his own legs on route to the waiting arms 
of his love. Tears welled in both their eyes as they embraced, he could feel his very soul 
warm at the touch of his love. 

"I waited," the first words coming out her mouth, "Oh lord how I waited Esteban, every 
ship that landed I could hear, I could see. I watched and waited, hoping with all my heart 
that each time it was you."

"I, I didn't know they were sending other ships up, I thought they, they would tell you," 
Capistrano said, still hugging his wife tenderly.

"I, oh god the nights Esteban, I feared some nights you wouldn't return, that something 
terrible would happen out there and I'd never see you again," she said, tears of both 
sorrow at his absence and joy at his return flowing freely from her eyes.

"It's okay Claudette, I'm not going anywhere," Capistrano said, taking the soft white skin 
of her flesh into the rougher cocoa colored skin of his own. He held it there for a moment 
before repeating himself, "I'm not going anywhere."

"You, you did good then?" she asked. She had known first hand that the current regime 
had issues dealing with failure. "I mean, you, you succeeded?" 

"I, yes dear, I did what I had to," Capistrano said, averting her gaze despite his love for 
her.

"You, you mean…?" she asked, not wanting to hurt her husband so by finishing her 
query.

"Yes, I, I helped them abduct Thomas Pope," Capistrano said, wounding himself by his 
own admittance.

"Is, is he okay?" she asked. She knew the two of them had been close once, and that their 
falling out still wounded her husband.

"He hasn't been hurt, but," Esteban sighed, "But he didn't want to be here."

"I, honey, I wish you didn't have to bring him here," she said.

"You know why I did what I had to do," he lamented. "Smith wants an answer, a cure, a 
panacea that will fix everything, and god knows I wasn't going to fix it. Then he gets 
wind of these inoperable nanobots that Tom's working on, and he thinks that they're just 
what he's looking for."

"Are they?" Claudette asked, she had heard some hypothesizes about them but she wasn't 
nearly as technically minded as her husband.

"Maybe. Maybe, if they worked, if given a decade of time and effort, but…they won't 
work, not now, his research isn't even close enough. Hell I'm surprised that he even 
authorized use of them on a human test subject, even if they're harmless when they don't 
work," Capistrano said glumly.

"But, but why bring him then?" she asked. Her husband had left him so suddenly she 
didn't get the chance to ask every question she wanted. 

"Because Smith wanted him, that's why. Because he threatened my life and yours if the 
two of us couldn't find a way to fix it," he said, stopping himself short of saying 
'Because the emperor wanted a new toy to play with and he pulled me around like a 
puppet'

"Honey," she said, squeezing his hand slightly in support.

"I know, alright I know, it's, it's trading someone else's live for our own," he said. "I'm 
not proud of it, I know its cowardice, but I couldn't live with myself if I let you be hurt. I 
could barely live having known you were so far away."

"You've always been like that Esteban," she said softly. "You can't always look at the 
big picture. Sometimes you lose the tree when you stare at the forest."

"It wasn't just for me, he's, he's smart okay? He's smarter than me, and he has one of the 
best chances to help the whole planet of anyone I know. Stewart, Lennon, Gupta, 
Mambety, even myself, we would be lucky to have a chance to solve it, and even with 
Tom there's no guarantee," Capistrano said. With the accolades he had received years 
ago when he bested Tom, the fact that he hadn't achieved much in the way of any success 
in the intervening years hadn't blinded him to the fact that Tom's was the superior mind. 

"Just, please dear, don't forget about people," she said, tugging gently on his hand. "It's 
not always about the people, sometimes it's about the individual person." Taking his free 
hand he rubbed his eyes before sitting on the bed, his hand still tethered to his wife's. 
"I'm sorry Esteban, I didn't mean it that way." She said.

"I know, I know," he said. Though he was near to her his mind was far away, in another 
time and place. Thinking back onto the day when his ambition and desire for success 
forced his hand into a hasty decision, one that marked his career and his life.

"Honey," she said, sitting on the bed next to him. "I know you try as hard as you can, and 
that's all that matters," she said, resting her head on his shoulder. "But all those cold, 
lonely nights, I wasn't waiting to beat you up, or make you feel bad, I just wanted you to 
be here, with me."

Capistrano smiled, "God did I want to be here with you again, I" he said, interrupted as 
his wife's lips pressed against his, kissing him. He had yearned for his wife's touch, just 
the nearness of her person made his day. He smiled as he lied down next to his wife, 
feeling happy for the first time since he had left her arms. He knew that it wouldn't last 
forever, that there was so much he had to do and so little time, but for now he was going 
to steal a moment of happiness from the world, one he arrogantly felt owed him.

*

Kyle hardly knew what to do. It had been one thing just getting a hot shower, but this was 
too much. She had two girls working the knots out of her hair while one was giving her a 
manicure and the other a pedicure. She didn't go to the spa, not really, she just clipped 
her own nails and did her own hair. The only time she had gone to get her hair done up 
was for her high school prom and for her sister's wedding. She never imaged she would 
sitting here, in a chair that was perhaps the most cushioned in her life, being attended by 
girls washing her hair, scrubbing the oil off of her skin, taking care of her nails, 
pampering her better than any spa treatment she had heard of. She almost felt like the 
pampering was some kind of torture in and of itself, but she was more than content to 
have someone wash the smell of body odor on her body away, to clean the grease from 
her hair, even if she would rather do it. 'And I don't have time for this shit right now' she 
thought wistfully.

"So, we have some decisions to make," Adrian said from behind Kyle.

"What?" Kyle asked, always expecting a sinister turn around the corner, always surprised 
when there was only an innocuous comment, at least so far.

"Well, there's your hair for starters, we can wash it out fine, but how do you want it 
done? It's a lovely shade of natural red, I don't think it would do good to dye it. And 
what color for your nails? We can do a different color each nail, all the same, we can 
have the fingertips and the toes different colors, we can" Adrian said.

"Uh, I don't want painted nails," Kyle said defensively. "And just leave my hair down, I 
like it that way."

"Oh come now, surely we can give it a fresh coat of paint," Adrian urged softly. "And we 
are going to cut your hair in any case, surely we can style it for you."

"Really, I'm good," Kyle insisted.

"Oh how about this," Adrian said, showing her a light crimson container, "It's almost the 
same shade as your hair, it would look delightful on you."

"Fine," Kyle gave up. A coat of nail polish was hardly going to make any difference in 
any case. She watched as she handed both the girl giving her a manicure and the one at 
her feet giving her a pedicure a container. She almost argued, but she had decided to go 
along with everything for now, and she didn't see much of a point in arguing about 
something so harmless as nail polish. This woman had been the only one answering her 
questions so far and she didn't want to slight her. Even if she didn't want to be dolled up, 
it wasn't going to hurt right now.

"Now, about your legs," Adrian said.

"What about them?" Kyle asked defensively, looking down on them. 

"Well, they aren't exactly as furry as a cat, but they could use some attention," her eyes 
darted down. "We have hot wax, sugar, laser removal, pulsated light, electrology, or just 
old fashioned shaving cream and razor."

"Uh, no, I'm good," Kyle waved off her advances with her hand, nearly smudging it with 
the nail polish. She was never the kind to focus on beautification like this, and now that it 
was being forced upon her it was starting to make her realize just how bad most of her 
friends who had troubles with their self-image must have felt. 

"Girl, you don't want to be Nanook of the North, do you?" Adrian asked. "Listen, a good 
old fashioned safety razor won't hurt a bit, and these girls will have you smoother than a 
baby's tushie, without any razor burn or even a nick, I promise."

"No, what do I want shaved legs for?" Kyle asked, watching Adrian cock her head to the 
side and give her a funny look. "Fine," Kyle said, her body flinching a moment later as 
she felt two girls massaging shaving cream onto her legs. They worked quickly, it only 
took them a fraction of the time it usually took Kyle to shave her legs, and they didn't so 
much as cause a nick. She was glad she had relieved herself earlier. She didn't know how 
long she could take these girls attention without having an uncomfortable growth to 
explain. 

More than just a dislike of being pampered, of having her body so done up, her hair 
styled and her body washed, her nails done and her legs shaved, she felt guilty. She was 
here being spoiled with a day at the spa. She thought about her child, if Tom was right, if 
she was alive, where she was, what…

"Now, about, err, down there," Adrian said. "I'm not even going to ask, so I'll just 
assume the carpets match the drapes honey, but--"

"That's where I draw the line, I'm not getting a bikini wax, period. And don't you even 
think about a Brazilian wax, either," Kyle shook her head no, feeling her hair get tangled 
in the girls hands as they continued to work out the snarls.

"Gonna fight me every step aren't ya girl?" Adrian said. "But maybe you could have it 
trimmed down a bit?"

"No, I'm not going to have you trim my pubic hair," Kyle said, hoping that saying it out 
loud would be enough to acknowledge how ridiculous of a request it was.

"Going au natural, or just shy?" Adrian asked. "It's your decision girl, if that's what you 
want." She was somewhat pushy, but she could tell when there was a line someone 
couldn't be pushed over. 'The closer to the cooch, the less they give, it's ironic' she 
thought. 

"It's not going to matter, no one is going to end up seeing it any time soon," Kyle 
declared.

"I don't judge people," Adrian reminded with a reassuring smile. "I just do their hair and 
nails."

*

"Everyone in Martian Manor is required to wear identification when they are in sensitive 
areas, Mr. Pope," said the government page, pointing at her own identification badge, 
covering where her cleavage might be if the green and white tunic were fashioned for 
visibility instead of functionality. She had been assigned the unfortunate job of showing 
Tom around. She had really wanted to get off the clock and head home, her boyfriend had 
the night off and she wanted a night alone with him. It wasn't anything special, just a 
home cooked dinner, a bottle of wine she pilfered, and if he played his cards right 
perhaps a bout of rigorous lovemaking. But now she didn't think she would get out until 
five at the earliest, it was a large Manor she had to show him around. 

"It's actually Doctor Pope, or Professor Pope, but I prefer Tom, thanks," he said, trying to 
look at the identification card without staring at her breasts. They weren't especially large 
in any case, but he felt strange ogling a girl who could easily be his daughter.

"Alright, Tom," she said, correcting herself. Most of the VIPs she had to deal with 
preferred  given titles.

"And your name?" he asked, realizing in his exhaustion he had forgotten the given nicety 
of asking her name.

"Excuse me?" she didn't expect the question.

"Your name, what is it?" he asked

"Me? Oh, well, it's Ashley, Ashley Lee," she said. Not many people bothered to ask for 
her name, except for the ones who wanted to romance with her and even then they didn't 
really care about her name. She gestured down a corridor, "Down here are the scientific 
research laboratories, which of course will be where you will do your work. They are 
open from six in the morning until ten at night."

"Why is there a…closing time?" Tom asked. He was accustomed to working late nights 
and pulling out all niters if he were close to a discovery, and the prospect of ending it in 
the middle of labor wasn't something he looked forward to. 

"In the interests of planetary security, the Secretary of Information has determined that an 
unbiased third party advisory panel should investigate all samples and scientific 
information pertaining to any government funded endeavor in order to ensure that the 
project is not corrupted and that it poses no threat," she said, letting the air blow out her 
mouth after saying so much in one mouthful. "I'm sorry, I get that question a lot."

"Really?" Tom asked, surprised.

"We have had an influx of scientists recently," she said matter of factly.

"Oh," Tom said, wondering if she meant there was an influx of scientists being added due 
to the radiating effects of the planet's rings, or whether she meant that there were more 
scientists being abducted like him. Either way he didn't think that he would get a straight 
answer and just filed it away for now. 

"Here's Research Lab One," she said, opening the door. "Every lab is almost identical, 
the only differences are the research materials present."

"It looks more than adequate," he said, looking over the room. It had an unearthly almost 
angelic glow that permeated around the room, a vision that Tom was more than 
accustomed to, having spent much of his time in various laboratories. There was a 
complete set of computers, of lab tables, along with plenty of devices for determining 
almost anything possibly going on inside the human body. 

"Your group will have access to Research Labs One through Six, and hazardous material 
testing areas one and two," she said, checking on her pad.

"My group?" Tom wasn't aware there was another group.

"Yes, you have five additional scientists attached to your group, along with up to ten 
research lab technicians, essentially students interning to earn credits towards their 
degree. Whether or not you choose to pick them is entirely up to you, you should keep all 
information as closely guarded as possible, and it is hoped that only the minimum 
number of interns required will be used," Ashley said as she read off the prepared 
material on the report. "Let's see, is there anything else…"

"Tom? Tom Pope, come here you brilliant bastard!" said an enthusiastic gruff voice as he 
entered. Tom didn't have more than a second to turn around before he was held in a tight 
bear hug, pinning his arms to his side as his innards were squished.

"Who? Oh, I should have known," Tom said, seeing a familiar face in the corner of his 
eye as his head turned.

"Dr. Thomas Pope, meet Dr. Samuel Stewart, he's," Amy said, reading off his personnel 
file.

"I know who he is," Tom said, finally released from Sam's grip. He rubbed his eyes for a 
minute, he wasn't prepared to deal with him right now.

"This crazy guy here taught me everything I know, he's the smartest scientist I've ever 
met. We worked together on the Desyinatrinom project, trying to cure the disease. That is 
until that bastard Capistrano beat us to the punch," Sam said, shaking his head. "That 
pain in the ass, he's lucky the grave beat me to him!"

"He's alive, actually," Tom said.

"Get out!" Sam shouted, punching Tom in the shoulder as he did so. 

"He is, he's the reason I was, uh, recruited," Tom said, rubbing his shoulder and trying 
not to show the pain he was dealing with.

"Huh, I had made the misfortune of being born here on Mars, even though I studied on 
Terra, they accepted me here because of my birth. Guess I should have known that you 
would be on top of it, you always are," Sam gave Tom a knowing, respectful smile.

"Well it came to a bit of a surprise to me as well," Tom admitted.

"Well that Esteban was always a sneaky one, seems like he was never gonna tell anyone 
just what he knew, or what he was up to," Sam said contemptuously.

"If you say so," Tom answered, he didn't want to trash on Capistrano, not that he had 
much love for him now.

"I was telling everyone, just as soon as you show up, the problem will clear right up, hell, 
they might as well bring in a rainy day for you to cure Tom!" Sam said, slapping his 
knee. "I can't wait to work with you, well I guess for you, again."

"Oh, great," Tom said, willing his eyes stay in place instead of rolling. 

"Excuse me Dr. Stewart, but I'm afraid that I cannot delay Dr. Pope any longer, he still 
has much left to see," Ashley apologized.

"Oh right, right, this PM ain't the kind for waiting much, eh?" he asked. "Hey after you 
get settled in, come down to the bar, the atmosphere ain't much but the drinks are free, 
and when the head honcho throws a bash, well let's just say he doesn't hold anything 
back!"

"I'll try to remember that," Tom said, nodding his head slightly as he made his 
unceremonious exit. He made sure to clear the earshot of Sam before saying to Ashley, 
"Thank you so much."

"It's not a concern, Dr, I mean Tom," Ashley said "What is with the two of you?"

"Oh, he used to work with, well for me really, once before. He even attended a few of my 
lectures back when I was teaching, not that he needed it of course. Its idol worship, I'm 
afraid that he thinks that I am the second coming or that I'm going to solve all the worlds' 
problems," Tom said, shaking his head.

"Well, aren't you?" she asked innocently. She had heard quite a bit from his colleagues 
about how dedicated and accomplished he was. She noticed he got quiet at her 
compliment and decided to change the subject. "I didn't want to spend all day with him 
either, I have things to do with my boyfriend, and…"

"Oh, I see," Tom said.

"I didn't mean it like that, I just meant," Ashley said, lamenting her slip, bringing up her 
personal life wasn't becoming of her job.

"No, it's fine," Tom said, checking the time on her pad. "It's almost four o clock already, 
I'm surprised the entire government hasn't shut down for the day." Ashley's hand flying 
to her mouth could not stifle a chuckle. 

"What else do we have to go through?" he asked.

"Far too much," she said, checking the list.

"Look, how about we shorten this a bit, okay? Now that I know where I'm going to work, 
I just need to know where I'm going to eat and sleep." He smiled for a moment, before 
realizing that he was sounding like a come on.

"Oh, well, of course. The eatery is on the second floor of the main building, where a 
number of the food blenders are located. Additionally fresh food can be made on demand 
by the cooks," she said. "Your room is in the west wing, second floor, in the hall reserved 
for visiting dignitaries."

"Good," Tom said, nodding his head slightly. He decided to ask, so long as he had the 
time, and she was giving answers, "I came here with a friend of mine, could you help me 
find her?"
 
"Certainly, what is her name?" she asked, pulling up a search on her pad.

"Kyle Byrne, she arrived this morning along with me," he tried to sound as innocent as 
possible, attempting as best he could to get whatever information available.

"Oh, uh," she said, blushing slightly at her location as she found her name. "She, she has 
been assigned to the uh, seraglio, uh, along with the other, the other courtesans."

"What?" Tom asked. 'Kyle…a concubine? He doesn't know what he's gotten himself 
into!' he would have smiled if the situation wasn't as dire.

"Uh, I'm sorry sir, but that's what my pad says, it could be wrong, I could make an 
inquiry and check on it if you want," she said, averting her eyes. She felt uncomfortable 
about talking to a man about his friend, his courtesan. She had some kind of respect for 
his work, but had lost much of that hearing about his 'friend'.

"No, no, that's fine," Tom frowned. "Where exactly is she?" 

"The uh, seraglio is on the east wing," she did her best not to call it a harem, or a 
whorehouse. "The bathhouse is on the first floor, their domicile is on the second floor." 

"Thanks, now that's which way again?" Tom asked.

"Oh, sir, the entire East Wing is off limits except to those who have A class clearance sir, 
for reasons of planetary security," she said.

"I see, and what is my security clearance?" Tom asked.

"It is," she said, punching it up, "C-plus clearance."

"And that means?" Tom asked.

"Every area of the Martian Manor that has sensitive information or house VIPs are off 
limits for the general public. Thus each area is given a numerical designation. A C-plus 
clearance grants you access to the entire west wing buildings and the science buildings, 
although you can be granted temporary clearance when granted by the Security Council, 
or by special permission from the Prime Minister. You may also be accompanied by                                             
those granted with special security designations into sensitive areas," she said.

"What are the other security designations for?"

"Well, only those who have an A clearance can enter the east wing, it houses the Prime 
Minister. The PM's chambers are 'A' clearance as well. Various parts of the building have 
B clearance, generally those involving the military. Then there is of course S-clearance,"

"S-clearance? What is that?" Tom asked.

"The entire sub-Manor, is off limits for anyone who doesn't have the proper clearance, 
the penalties are rather severe," Ashley said. She considered it a warning more than 
anything else, but she knew that some people were enticed by it like some forbidden fruit. 
'Curiosity killed the cat' she thought to herself, knowing the second part of the adage, 
that satisfaction would bring him back, was in this case false.

"I see, and who do I talk to about getting a higher clearance?" Tom asked.

"Oh, well, I can post a petition for it, but it's unlikely that you'll get a higher clearance, at 
least not enough for you to see your friend," Ashley said.

"I see," Tom said dejectedly.

"If you'd like, you can send her communications at any time, of course. And she can visit 
you at any time before curfew, at midnight," Ashley thought for a moment before adding, 
a "Assuming she has the clearance, and isn't otherwise…busy."

"Curfew?" Tom couldn't remember the last time he was bound by a curfew, his father no 
doubt.

"Oh uh, yes, by ten all visitors are to leave the premises, by midnight all visiting 
dignitaries are to be in their room, to ensure that the Martian Manor can be secured 
before the Prime Minister retires for the night," Ashley said, remembering a friend of 
hers who had suggested that Prime Minister Smith was paranoid about going to sleep 
with the lights out. She didn't see him again.

"Thank you," Tom said. "I think I'm going to get something to eat and retire for some 
rest. It has been quite a journey."

"Of course, if you need any help feel free to ask any page, or simply comm for help," 
Ashley said, bowing as she left. She smiled, feeling the burden of her job begin to ease 
up. The weight of work wouldn't be fully off until she went to her apartment, leaving all 
her frustration here. She decided then and there, with an inward smile, her boyfriend was 
going to be lucky tonight. 'So long as he takes care of me' she thought to herself, 
'Because after a day like this I need it.'

*

Kyle's preconceived notions of what to expect had been so challenged she had begun to 
second-guess her own ideas about how everything was going to be. She didn't like being 
dolled up like this, she wasn't the kind to take long days off at the spa. She didn't even 
get her nails done, she just clipped them at home, and she didn't paint her nails unless she 
went on a date. She rarely wore makeup, other than a little foundation or lipstick yet now 
she was dolled up like a tart on Saturday night. She didn't mind getting a haircut but 
never received the kind of attention at her normal hairdresser. She was the classical low 
maintenance person. 

But she had to admit to herself that she looked good. Not just pretty good, but smoking 
hot. Even in the kimono, or maybe because of it, she looked incredible. She looked like 
she should be an actress, every small flaw on her face was removed, and every 
imperfection erased while her every other trait was enhanced further. She was led out of 
the bathhouse, which took up only a portion of the first floor of the building, and was told 
to go up to the second floor. 

She stepped out, and peered down the hallway. The guard who had previously kept 
lookout for her had left, and she decided to take advantage of the situation. She walked to 
the end of the hallway, and before she could duck a corner a guard instructed to guide her 
out met her.

"Oh, hi," she said, trying to change her tactic. 'Let's see what I can find out by 
acting…dumb' she thought to herself.

"Hello, Kyle is it?" he asked. Kyle nodded her head up and down, bobbing it like a silly 
child. "Well, let's show you upstairs, shall we?"

"Sure thing handsome," Kyle said, flashing a smile. She noticed the young guard was 
enthralled immediately. He was young, cute, and full of well-tanned muscles packed into 
a tank top a little small for him, to emphasize them.

"This way miss," he said, leading her on. 

"This is a big palace, does everyone live here?" Kyle asked, trying to act impressed by its 
grandeur.

"Well, not everyone, there's a garrison in the town, most of the soldiers don't live here, 
and a lot of the government pages and low level ministers live in the town, but some 
people do, including you," he said.

"Oh, really?" she said, trying to sound pleased at the news. "That's great, but do you 
soldiers all go away at night?"

"There's always a full compliment of troops guarding the Martian Manor," he said, part 
of it was pride and the other part trying to impress her.

"Thank goodness," Kyle said, laying it on thick, "I don't know what I'd do if someone 
tried to come in and hurt me."

"Oh don't worry, no one can get into the palace, there's over a dozen snipers on the roof 
to stop any insurgents, as well as a hundred soldiers on the outside, along with two 
hundred marines inside," he said, thumping his chest, "We'll keep you safe ma'am."

"But what about the bathhouse?" Kyle asked, playing him for the sap he was.

"Oh, well, there's about a football stadium's worth of space, then there's a hell of a drop-
off," he said, gliding his hand straight for a moment before nose-diving it down. "No one 
could climb that, and we maintain aerial and spatial superiority, there's no chance of 
anyone getting in."

'Or out' Kyle thought to herself. "Well that's good, I always feel so much safer with a 
big strong man around," she said with a smile.

"Well thank you ma'am," he said, opening the door to the elevator before stepping in. 

"But, I'll get to go shopping right? Maybe on the weekends?" Kyle asked, the sound of 
her voice conveying hope marked the first time she was honest in this conversation.

"Well I'm not in charge of that, but I imagine a shopping trip wouldn't be too hard to 
take care of. Of course then again you could just find whatever it is you wanted, and have 
it shipped," he suggested.

"Oh silly," Kyle said, lightly smacking his well built chest, "The whole point is trying 
everything on, isn't it?" 

"Wouldn't know ma'am, I'm just a one size fits all kind of guy," he said, flashing a 
smile. 

"Oh I bet you'd fit in anything," Kyle said, smiling naughtily. 

"I'm never one to argue with a woman," he smiled, leading her out as the door opened. 
Kyle looked left and right, it looked like it was the receptionist office of a small business.

"Heya Bill," Came a voice from her side. Kyle looked over and saw yet another guards, 
but this one was dressed differently.

"Hey Joe, how's the fam?" he asked.

"Oh the old lady's fat and happy, caught the girls teasing Joey Jr. yesterday, guess he's 
got a crush," Joe said, with a chuckle. "You gonna introduce me to this smokin' hot 
redhead or you gonna make me beg?"

"Oh Joe you should know better, don't even think about touching the Prime Ministers 
ladies," Bill said.

"Oh yeah, what's he gonna do to me?" Joe asked, leaning forward.

"Oh it's not him I'd be worried about," Bill said, "Your wife would cut your dick off!" 
the two of them laughed hard, and Kyle joined in despite not finding much humor in it, 
perhaps a little.

"Oh brother, your finally right about one thing," Joe said, wiping his eyes, "Besides, they 
need an Intel officer here to keep track of things."

"Oh? Takes a lot of work to read a computer these days," Bill said sarcastically.

"More than you jarheads can keep track of," Joe joked. "Lucky for me I actually 
managed to read up today, a certain Kyle Byrne has showed up here," he offered his 
hand, and she shook it. "Charmed," he said nodding slightly.

"Nice to meet ya!" Kyle said, wondering how long she'd have to continue the act. It was 
getting terribly old quickly, and antithetical to her normal persona. Her guilt over her 
child as only worsening as she flirted and acted bubbly and happy to be near everyone 
here, when she was in reality holding back from hurting them all very badly.

"You can just head on in, old Angelica will take care of you," he said, pointing towards 
the double doors as he buzzed her in.

Kyle smiled and waved before saying "Goodbye, thanks for showing me around Bill. 
Hopefully I'll see you later."

"I'd like that," he said with a grin. He didn't think that he stood a chance really, but any 
young guy likes flirting with a beautiful woman, especially if they return the interest. 

Kyle made a face, trying to physically exhume her frustration before steadying herself. 
Opening the doors Kyle found a rather peculiar site. It wasn't peculiar because of its 
extravagance, like she had expected. She thought there would be an elaborate and 
majestic setup, with dozens of girls lined up eating fruit half naked over some tacky 
archaic historical recreation, such as she had seen in the bathhouse. 

Instead it was peculiar because of its normality. She was in a large room, it looked like a 
living room. As she looked around, it reminded her of a recreation room in a college 
dorm, with doors scattered about. The fact that all of the girls she could see looked like 
they were aged eighteen to twenty one helped gave her the impression. There were two 
girls in pajamas playing some kind of fighting video game against each other, arguing 
over someone using a cheat code. Another girl wearing just underwear and a tank top was 
heating something up in an oven, while she talked to a different girl who was pouring a 
glass of wine. She could hear some music playing from the open door of one of the 
rooms, along with some girl who couldn't carry a tune belting out alongside it. There was 
a pool table and ping-pong table in the corner, both of which weren't being used. 

She turned her head as she heard a door open. Two women came out, she could tell from 
the tone of their voices that they were arguing about something. The first one was older, 
she assumed it was whom the guard had called 'Old Angelica'. She wasn't incredibly old 
but Kyle could tell that years of beautification surgeries and augments had taken their toll 
on her body, and while she looked younger than her age her face looked worn out and 
almost skeletal as taut as it was. Her hair was obviously dyed, unnatural platinum blond. 
She was malnourished, and wore clothing to show off just how deprived she kept her 
body from sustenance. The other one looked like she was sixteen years at the oldest. She 
was wearing a pink miniskirt, with a lime green racing top that barely contained her large 
breasts. What was the most distinctive thing about her was her bright blue hair that went 
down past her waist, covering up more of her body than her clothes. 

"I don't give a fuck what you say, I'm not going to room up with that nut case!" cried the 
blue headed girl.

"Listen to me we don't have enough rooms, someone has to get doubled up," the older 
woman said.

"Fuck that, I'm not gonna get stuck with some crazy bitch just because I'm the 
youngest," she shouted.

"Listen to me Jennifer Hale, you have two choices, either room with Chloe or find a 
plastic box to go live out on the street, I'm sure you'll be popular with all the bums!" 
yelled Angelica.

"Yeah right fifteen minutes out on the street and I'd have another sugar daddy!" she 
shouted, shaking her body a little bit to emphasize the goods. She knew the emptiness of 
Angelica's threat. "What about her?" she asked, pointing at Kyle.

"What about me?" Kyle asked, sizing her up. 'Spoiled little whore, probably acts just like 
her sweetie' 

"Make her room up with the crazy bitch," she said, smiling as she felt her problem 
already taken care of. 

"You mean there's a crazier bitch than you?" Kyle asked skeptically. 'When in Rome, do 
as they do' she thought. She noticed that the woman she presumed to be Angelica started 
to laugh. 

"Don't even get me started girl, you got no idea what you're starting with!" Jen started, 
putting her hands on her hips.

"Okay Blue, I'm sure you're the toughest whore around," Kyle said dismissively, waving 
her off.

"Don't talk to me like that bitch, your just new meat," she said, looking at Kyle. 

"Better than old, worn out meat," Kyle said, enjoying a rare opportunity to be honest and 
let her true feelings out.

"What the fuck did you say?" Jen asked, stepping towards Kyle aggressively.

"Go ahead Blue, make my day," Kyle said smugly, smiling right her.

"Whatever bitch, it this ain't the army, you lay a hand on me and I'll have one of those 
stupid marine fucks come in here and beat you senseless," she said, arrogant and 
cocksure. Jen got right into Kyle's face, Kyle did everything that she could to hold 
herself back. "Smith would probably watch it just to get off on it" 

"He would probably have to, with girls like you around I'm surprised he could even get a 
hard on," Kyle said, watching her flinch. "Oh, and blue hair only looks good in cartoons."

"Whatever bitch maybe you got some decent tits but you ain't got an ass like this!" she 
turned around and jiggled her ass for a little.

"All pigs look the same from behind Blue," Kyle said disapprovingly.

"What bitch?" Jen asked, stopping her gyrations. 

"I said, all pigs look the same from behind, Blue," Kyle said slowly, annunciating 
everything to further infuriate her.

"You won't last a month, then you'll be right back on your ass lucky to be sucking dick 
to keep a roof over your head!" she shouted in anger, walking out of the room, slamming 
the door behind her.  

"You make friends quickly," the older woman observed. "I'm Angelica, most people call 
me angel, or old Angelica. Or that old bitch. You must be Kyle."

"Nice, are they recruiting out of grade school or is she just naturally that charming all the 
time?" Kyle said.

"She's a handful," Angelica resigned. "Her name is Jennifer, and nine times out of ten 
you're better off just not dealing with her."

"I could have told you that myself," Kyle said.

"Well, welcome to the seraglio," Angelica said, opening her arms towards the room. Her 
voice seemed to carry an air of importance, despite the normal area she was standing in.

"The what?" Kyle questioned, unfamiliar with the term.

"Seraglio, it's a euphemism," she said with a shrug.

"For what?" Kyle cocked her head.

"It's a nice word for whorehouse," Angelica said, shrugging slightly.

"And you're the pimptress?" Kyle asked.

"Basically, yes, although I prefer matron. Of course, seeing as the Josiah Smith is a 
relatively jealous and selfish man, it's more of a personal harem for him. It's rare when 
we have to entertain anyone besides the Prime Minister," Angel said. "Except for during 
parties, where we're expected to be arm candy for various dignitaries."

"So, this is what, his stable of bitches?" Kyle posited rhetorically, using some ancient 
slang.

"It's more or less a residence hall for his courtesans," Angel said, using another 
euphemism. 

"Well then where's my room?" Kyle asked.

"Well, we were going to give you your own room, but," Angel began to say.

"Let me guess, I get to room with the 'crazy bitch'?" Kyle asked, using quotation fingers.

"I'm afraid so, really she isn't a bad girl, she's just…a little touched in the head," Angel 
said. "She's has trouble dealing with sudden noises or actions, and she's a little touchy 
feely, but she isn't going to hurt you. In fact with all the abuse that she's dealt with, she 
hasn't done so much as hurt a fly. She doesn't even eat meat, doesn't want to hurt the 
animal."

"Isn't she on some kind of medication?" Kyle asked.

"She is, but she's, well, a better lay when she's crazy," Angelica shrugged her shoulders 
as she quoted the Prime Minister. "She can follow orders, and you don't have to hurt her 
to get her to do something, just the threat will get her to pay attention." 

"What's her deal?" Kyle asked.

"She lost her son and her husband, so she's not all together. Hell if I lost all of that I 
might go nuts too," Angel sympathized with her plight, but her job was her job. "Your 
new room is right in through there, you should go in and say hi to your new roomy." 

"Okay," Kyle said, shaking her head as she walked over to the room. She knocked three 
times, loud but not banging, to attempt to get a response. When there was nothing she 
tried again, to no avail before opening the door. The entire room was dark, the light was 
off and the window shade was drawn. She was in there, Kyle could hear her. Breathing 
wasn't something you mistook for anything else. "Hi, my name is Kyle," she announced 
to the darkness. "I'm going to be your new roommate, I'm going to turn the light on, so 
don't uh," she almost said 'freak out' "so don't get worked up."

She turned the light on, her eyes darting across the room a moment later as a body flashed 
behind the bed. She took a step over, and looked down at a woman, huddled down sitting 
with her knees close to her body in a near fetal position, her auburn hair tussled up, faint 
lines of gray hair belying her youthful looks. "Are you okay?" Kyle asked.

"You!" she said, her heavily breathing stopping suddenly. She rose quickly, roaring up 
like a rocket, mere centimeters from Kyle's face. "You…ghost, you fake! I'm not going 
to believe it anymore! Your not real, you can't hurt me! It's not my fault, I'm not going 
to believe it anymore!" she screamed. She wasn't sad, at least not anymore. She was 
angry. Her auburn eyes looked almost possessed as Kyle looked at her, noticing that she 
was the only of Smith's concubines who appeared over the age of twenty. She looked in 
her late thirties, her face seemed marred by stress wrinkles showed her age.

"Listen to me, I'm real and I have absolutely no fucking clue what your talking about, 
just calm down for a second and maybe we can talk this over," Kyle's patience, already a 
thin thing to begin with, was slimming down quickly.

"Shut up!" she shouted. "I can't hear your lies anymore, don't you see? You can't hurt 
me anymore…apparition!"

"Just listen to me, I'm real okay? I'm not lying to you, I'm not trying to hurt you, I'm just 
trying to say hi," Kyle tried. 'Why does my life have to get more difficult?' she wondered 
to herself.

"I don't care what you have to say, it's over. It's over, you hear me? I'm not gonna be 
hurt anymore, I'm not gonna deal with it!" she shouted, wads of spit flying from her 
mouth, some landing on Kyle's face.

Kyle grabbed her shirt by the collar, using as much patience as she had in her being not to 
strike her. Her earlier back and forth with Jennifer had begun setting her off, and she 
wasn't in a great mood to begin with, but this girl was sincerely pissing her off. She 
pulled her close to her face, so close she could feel the rapid hot breathing on her face. 
"Am I real to you now?" Kyle asked, staring directly into her eyes, colored auburn they 
matched her hair.

"Y, you, your," Chloe started to say.

"I'm real, say it," Kyle said.

"Your real," she said, disheartened, dejectedly.

"My name is Kyle, we're going to be roommates, and that's fine, but we have to set up 
some basic ground rules, do you understand?" Kyle asked, saying everything slowly and 
meticulously. Chloe simply nodded her head in defeat. "I don't want to be here, I don't 
want to deal with everything I'm going to have to deal with right now. I can't deal with 
someone going off her fucking rocker every time I come in. When I come here I'm going 
to need to be able to rest when I have to, that means that you can't go fucking bonkers 
whenever you want, okay?" 

"Y, yes," she said, all the resolve and confidence she had shown earlier was replaced with 
timid fear.

"Good, good," Kyle said, letting her go. "I can help you, but only if we can live 
together," Kyle said.

"You can't help me, no one can help me," Chloe said sadly.

"Give me a chance, you might be surprised," Kyle said, looking over the room. It was a 
large room for one person, but it would do with two. There was a bathroom adjoining, 
she was relieved that she would have some privacy for showering and relieving herself. 
There was one bed but she was sure another would be added. 'There had better be one' 
she thought to herself, she didn't plan on sleeping with Chloe, and the last thing she 
needed was for a half insane girl to find out about her extra appendage and go blabbing 
all over telling everyone. 'At least no one would believe the crazy bitch.'

"Do, do you want to sleep?" she asked. Since Kyle had affirmed that she was living, her 
entire attitude had changed completely. Now she was acting dejected, subservient, she 
was willing to serve Kyle as in that small action Kyle had shown her dominance over her, 
breaking the little will, the little resolve she had thought she had built up. Kyle hadn't 
noticed the polar change in her, just the improvement in her attitude.

"No, I'm going to eat," Kyle said, still feeling the surge of adrenaline rush through her 
system, which made small talk more difficult.

"Oh, I'll make you something," Chloe offered, in an attempt to satisfy her.

"No that's fine," Kyle said, "I'm going to head out to get something at the cafeteria."

"I can get it for you and bring it back, I'm good at that kind of stuff," Chloe said 
enthusiastically.

"No, I'm going to go find someone anyway," Kyle said, looking at her for a second. 
"What is up with you?" Kyle asked.

"Well since you're in charge now so I just want to make sure I do what I have to," Chloe 
said. She had roommates before that had similar demands of her, and she didn't want to 
disappoint.

"No, listen to me, you don't have to become my servant or anything," Kyle rubbed her 
left temple. "I just want a little peace and quiet when I come here."

"Okay yeah sure fine you got it roomy, I'll make sure that I don't make so much as a 
noise whenever you want just give me the word you know I'm pretty good I can do 
whatever you want, I know now you don't want me to get you anything but I know the 
Manor real well and I can get you whatever you want if you need food or clothes or drugs 
or money I know where I can get that for you, its not too hard really if you know where 
to go and who to talk to and I can get that for you just as soon as you ask if you want, I 
can" Chloe babbled on.

"Okay, that's great, thank you," Kyle stopped her, wondering if she would ever stop of 
her own accord. "I'm just going to walk to get something to eat, I'll see you when I get 
back after eating." 'What the fuck have I got myself into?' she wondered.

*

Tom sighed as he finished his dinner. Meatballs and ziti, it was normally one of his 
favorite dishes but found right now that he couldn't enjoy it properly. He wasn't 
concerned about his diet, even with his appetite and the first opportunity to eat real food 
in some time. He had tried to comm Kyle but she didn't have a phone number set up yet, 
and she wasn't answering her any electronic communications. It said that she hadn't set it 
up yet, which didn't surprise Tom much. He could only imagine just what she was 
dealing with. No one he had talked to had been able to tell him much about the harem, 
although almost none of them had been there. His less than discrete inquiries in the 
cafeteria hadn't gotten him anywhere, so he just got his dinner and went over to his room. 
It was getting late, and he wanted desperately to get some rest. 

He looked over the computer screen. He had set up an eight o clock meeting in the 
morning with all the scientists he was in charge of. He was sick of thinking about how 
inaccurate his preconceived notions were. The laboratories were top notch, he could tell 
from the first glance that they were fully stocked and up to date, the state of the art. He 
was put in charge of a small think tank, an ideal group of individuals who were worldly, 
well versed, and had worked together in various projects before. He had worked with all 
of them except for Mambety, but he had met him once before at a conference and had 
read his work. He was legendary for both his work ethic and his ability to work well in a 
team. Tom was used to working by himself or in a smaller group, but the addition of the 
other scientists made his job somewhat more administrative, something that he wasn't 
accustomed to. He wasn't the kind to lead, as he would rather follow and be left to his 
own scientific endeavors. 'I'm sure Capistrano would love to follow my orders,' he 
thought to himself sourly.

Tom didn't know what everyone else had come up with, he knew the first few days was 
going to take everyone explaining what it was that they had found out to each other, each 
one in turn, then for them all to compare notes, and see if he could find something that 
someone else hadn't noticed, or if some minute detail that one person had overlooked had 
something to do with another person's discovery. After that, the work would turn from 
comparing notes to determining the best courses of discovery, and then Tom would be in 
charge of delegating responsibilities, checking up on everyone's progress, comparing 
everyone's notes for them, and on top of everything trying to find out what the hell he 
was going to figure out himself. 

He realized that to many people this would have been the ideal job. Being the manager on 
a project that would have access to the resources of an entire planet, along with his 
colleagues, the research students available spanning dozens of disciplines, as well as 
having the gratifying task of saving a planet. To another it would have pumped up their 
ego, to have the chance to not only be in charge of everything, but to be in charge of his 
former rival Esteban Capistrano, as well as his idolater Sam, along with all of the other 
perks offered, most people would have been inflated to narcissism. But not him.

He tossed the disposable plate towards the trash, frowning as he missed. He got up and 
walked over, sighing as he looked at the marinara sauce that dripped off the plate. He 
grabbed his paper napkin and leaned over, cleaning it up. He didn't want the sauce to 
settle in and stain it, he wasn't a neat freak but he didn't want the room to stink of 
tomatoes either, and the longer the stain sat, the more difficult the smell would be to 
expunge. He had to really scrub at it, the napkin wasn't very durable and the carpet 
absorbed it like a sponge.

Abruptly Tom's body went flying forward as a force came from behind and knocked him 
over. He looked over and saw the door had been abruptly forced open, in his haste to sit 
down he had neglected to lock it. His face planted into a chair, crunching his nose against 
a leg. He was half afraid that someone had come in to end his life, he scurried himself 
across the floor trying to find some shelter from an attack when he recognized Kyle 
visage standing above him.

"Oh god Kyle you nearly gave me a heart attack!" Tom let out. Kyle helped him to his 
feet, and hugged her out of the blue. "Oh thank god you're alright Kyle!"

"Err, Tom," Kyle started to wonder if everyone on Mars was out to lunch, "That's 
enough." 

"Oh, right, right," Tom said, pulling off of her. "Wow, you, you look great," he said 
sheepishly.

"Thanks, I went to the hairdresser, got my nails done, then went shopping, tonight we're 
all going to read each others fortunes and dish about boys," Kyle said sarcastically.

"Really?" Tom asked dumbfounded.

"No not really Tom!" Kyle said angrily. 

"Come in," he said, stepping out of the doorway.

Kyle closed the door before saying "I'm trying to act dumb here, most of the people are 
buying it real good. I got paired up with a crazy roommate, you're lucky you have your 
own room."

"We can share it if you want," Tom offered. There were two chairs, and a tub he could 
rest in, if it came down to it he had slept in worse before. He had gotten used to having 
her as a roommate in space and it didn't seem like such a bad prospect.

"No, I'm one of his courtesans in his seraglio," Kyle said, the disgust in her voice 
evident.

"Oh right," Tom said uncomfortably, "How did that happen?"

"I have no fucking clue, all that happened was I got yanked off the ship and dragged to 
the bathhouse, they think I'm just another working girl to be whored up before off to the 
harem!" Kyle shouted, letting her frustration out. She had put on an act for so long it was 
relieving for her to closet the false persona and just be herself. All of the pampering that 
would relax most women had only agitated her.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," he threw his hands up apologetically, trying to stay her anger.

"I know Tom, it's not you, I just need to vent a little bit," she said, plopping herself down 
on a chair. "Do you think I have any idea how this is going to work?" she asked irritated. 
"If he so much as gets to see me in a bikini he's gonna figure it out Tom, then what the 
hell are we gonna do?"

"I don't know," Tom said honestly. He had spent so much time going over his own 
concerns that hers had taken a backseat.

"Well what if he wants to screw me tonight, the inaugural first lay?" she asked.

"I don't know, tell him you're a lousy lay?" Tom offered weakly. "He seems like the kind 
to be distracted easily, can't you feign a headache or fatigue or some other such excuse?"

"I'm going to have to come up with something," Kyle said disheartened. There was an 
awkward silence in the room for the moment. Kyle wasn't the type to accept defeat, but 
she didn't want to admit that there wasn't a whole heck of a lot she could do.

"It's not safe to talk here. How did you find me?" Tom asked, breaking the silence as he 
sat back down on his chair.

"Your room is listed publicly, I just had to punch it up on a computer. I actually had a 
page do it for me, but still," she said.

"I should change that," Tom thought to himself, in the interest of hiding just where he 
was.

"Why bother, I'm sure they'll find you as easy as they want," Kyle reasoned, "It's not 
like you could hide in some hole in the wall."

"It's not for them, it's for someone else I don't feel like dealing with," Tom said, thinking 
about how much he wanted to keep his whereabouts hidden from Sam. He didn't hate the 
man he just wanted space.
 
"Tom," Kyle said, looking at him, "Tonight, I'm going to try to," 

"Shh," Tom hushed her. He had to assume they were being bugged.

"I'm going to try to set up my computer Tom," she said, rolling her eyes, "but yeah I'm 
going to do that too."

"Kyle, there are guards, they lock the entire palace down after midnight, you can't," Tom 
said.

"Tom," Kyle said, mouthing the word 'recon'.

"What?" he asked. She tried mouthing it again. "What?" 

She balled up her fist in frustration before walking over to Tom, whispering in his ear 
"Recon." She moved herself away from him before saying, "As soon as I can we're going 
to work on other things," Kyle said.

"Like what?" Tom asked.  

"A means of communication," she said. She didn't have to emphasize the need for a 
covert method of conveying information.

"And just how do we do that?" Tom asked. Other than movies and television he didn't 
have any experience with this kind of covert information gathering and dissemination. 

"I'll let you know, just as soon as I can work privately," Kyle said. She had experience in 
different forms of covert communication, however much of it replied on someone else 
knowing that means, be it a different kind of speech, writing in code, Morse code, or 
simply body language. If she had to explain it to him, then any kind of monitoring device 
would pick up on it, defeating the purpose of it in the first place.

"God Tom I never imagined things were going to be like this. It's like being trapped in 
luxury," Kyle said.

"I know, but a gilded cage might be made of gold, but it's a jail cell either way. I'm 
surprised at this place, I never expected things to be like this," Tom commented.

"I didn't think I'd be some kind of whore," Kyle said.

"I had my doubts but," Tom said, just to get a rise out of her, she smacked him hard on 
the shoulder.

"How dare you!" she said with a small smile. "I should get back, I want to try to get some 
rest tonight before…what the fuck are you watching?" she pointed at the TV, squinting at 
the image displayed.

"I wasn't watching this, I was sending out a memo to the…what the hell is this?" Tom 
asked, watching the seal of the planet of Mars on the screen, the red planet emblazoned 
on a bronze shield with a spear behind it, cutting away a moment later to Smith, sitting in 
his office, the fading light of the sun could be seen coming through a window in the 
background, covered partially by a flag as a backdrop.

"My fellow Martians, I would like to take this opportunity to speak to you. In the past 
months we have all faced many hardships, all of which the proud Martian people have 
endured with undeniable honor and diligence. I thank you all for your efforts, without 
which as a planet, as a people, we would not have continued to succeed. We look forward 
with promise towards speedy medical advances being investigated around the clock to 
assist our afflicted Martian brethren," Smith said stoically.

"Hey, he used my line," Tom said, smiling for a second before realizing the implication 
behind it.

"Your line?" Kyle raised an eyebrow at Tom.

"Err, I suggested it when I met him…never mind," he said disgracefully, turning his head 
back towards the screen.

"We are happy to announce that after the suicide of terrorist James Tracy, the previous 
rise in violent crimes towards all Martians has fallen back to normal levels, and all radical 
terrorist activity has fallen to their lowest levels in years. The chatter between cells has 
lessened to a whisper, and as a people, we Martians have all worked together hand in 
hand to quell this rebellion and return our land to it's peaceful glory," Smith said, pausing 
a moment to catch his breath.

"But we must continue cooperation in order to maintain that peace. We must continue 
gathering information directly from its source. We must continue to stay vigilant and 
report any information no matter how small or trivial it may seem. We must continue to 
crack down on radical terrorist cells. We must continue to deny them any respite, any 
quarter or else we will be encouraging more acts of terrorism, more acts of violence upon 
us," Smith said, emphasizing the 'we' and 'us' in each sentence.

"Together we have endured many hardships, we have dealt with many problems. We 
have seen the terrible ugliness of our past dealings with our sister planet. Together we 
have set aside the petty squabbling of a corrupt senate. Together we shall overcome the 
plague affecting the planet. I have set our entire planet's resources on it," he spoke in 
absolute terms.

"As we move on through these troubling times, I thank you for your continuing support, 
and I would like to remind you that tough times don't last, tough people do, and from 
what I've seen Martians are made of sterner stuff than our enemies would believe. Thank 
you for your time, good night, and god bless," Josiah Smith said, flashing a smile before 
the transmission was cut. A moment later the computer monitor in Tom's room returned 
to normal.

"Thanks for your time?" Tom muttered, turning the monitor off harder than he could, a 
futile venting of his frustration. "He forced himself the damned screen!"

"I'm just happy not to have to hear him anymore," Kyle said.

"For someone as arrogant and small minded, someone so ignorant and uncompassionate, 
he, he," Tom said, struggling for words to fill in the gap.

"He talks a good game," Kyle observed.

"Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Lenin, Pol Pot, Hussein, Caron, Izturis…" Tom said, 
reading off a list of classical historical villains that came to mind, "They all did."

*

Esteban had a shit-eating grin from ear to ear as he lay next to his snoring wife. They had 
both wanted to be together for so long that when they did, fireworks had gone off. For all 
the suffering of insecurities and the longing he had felt in his soul they all seemed to melt 
away just from her nearness, and being able to physically manifest the love he had in his 
soul with his wife was the highest of his rare joys.

He looked over her body, partly covered with the sheet, still snoozing away. He retreated 
from the bed slowly; he didn't want to wake her up. She had so many sleepless nights 
that were his fault, and he didn't want to extend her suffering. He just wanted to get 
something to eat he didn't need to disturb her rest. 'I'll pick her up something just in 
case' he thought. He knew he needed some real food, none of the lousy stuff that he had 
been served in space.

He opened his drawer, sneaking clothes from out his drawer was a routine thing for him. 
He was an early riser, while his wife enjoyed sleeping in. He dressed himself quickly, 
grabbing his shoes to lace up on the way out. His wife never stocked up their flat with 
much food, she preferred to go and eat out. She didn't like food to sit in a refrigerator. 
Capistrano on the other hand preferred a fast simple meal, but he knew his wife also 
sought out the social interactions in a normal eatery. He would much rather either eat 
with her, or eat alone in her absence.

He exited the flat, making sure to close the door quietly as he did. He unlaced the shoes 
before dropping them on the ground. He could hear a voice down the hall, he moved over 
to the corner to see just who it was. He peered over, and saw the redheaded woman, Kyle, 
talking to Tom in the doorway. He saw Tom hastily embrace Kyle. He pulled his head 
back, not wanting to be scoped out. His ear was practically poking out from the corner of 
the hallway as he listened on. He heard Tom say "Oh thank god your alright Kyle!"  

'He's rather enthusiastic…are they really together?' he wondered to himself. He would 
be lying if he said he hadn't noticed her, but Kyle's animosity made him repulsive to her. 
He honestly didn't concern himself about it, his attention had been more focused on 
returning to his wife. To him it would feel like betrayal to seek the attention of another 
woman. He was also working on his own attempts to solve the growing problem of the 
doom impending on the planet. But he had been made aware that the two of them had 
shared embraces, kisses, while in space. Tom had played it off earlier, blaming it on their 
cramped living quarters and the mentality of 'us versus them' that hostages naturally take 
up against their captors, assuming they do not succumb to Stockholm syndrome, which in 
their case they had not. Their embraces were infrequent, and he had just mentally forgone 
it.

"Wow, you, you look great," he heard Tom say awkwardly. He couldn't hear much of the 
conversation, Kyle was speaking in more hushed tones than Tom was. He was left to 
wonder about just what was going on. He didn't expect Tom to fall in love, but it might 
simply be an instance of trust, building into a relationship, even if it was with someone 
far younger than he was. He didn't know him well anymore, he hadn't spent time with 
Tom in years, and he knew next to nothing about Kyle other than what her brief 
personnel file had said.

"No not really Tom!" he heard Kyle shout, she seemed angry. 'What did he say?' 
Capistrano asked himself, wondering what it was Tom had said that drew her ire. He 
didn't have much time to wonder.

 "Come in," Tom said, stepping out of the doorway. Esteban peered over the corner of the 
hallway seeing a glimpse of Kyle's red hair disappearing into Tom's room. He was left 
wondering what exactly was going on, and whether his colleague, his former friend had 
fallen in love. Wondering to himself if he had forced not only Tom but also his love to 
indefinite servitude on Mars, much the same as him and his wife. He immediately felt 
dirty, and his own self-image, which had been rotten already, continued to decay into 
something more foul.

*

Kyle sighed in frustration, she hadn't learned much. She had gone over every nook and 
cranny of the room at least twice, there wasn't much to satisfy her interest and nothing 
that would give her an opportunity for escape. The two of them shared a bathroom, but it 
was thankfully separate from the rest of the group, apparently every room had it's own. It 
was nothing but a simple shower and toilet, albeit stocked with tons of tinctures and 
tonics, all manner of beautification creams and salves. Inside the room there was a 
window, but it was barred. The metal looked nice and elegant, natural to the décor of the 
room. It would easily have been explained away as a safety precaution. Being on the 
second floor would mean that any kind of fall could be fatal, or at least very damaging. 

Inside the room there were two beds, the old-fashioned foam mattresses on a light hard 
plastic frame. One had been added, and Kyle decided to take the newest one, she didn't 
know what Chloe had done in the other. There was a desk with a computer, Kyle had 
logged onto it and set up her account, it was essentially set up for her. She didn't 
anticipate using it often, but she wanted to perpetrate the bubbly yet bitchy persona she 
had begun to demonstrate in the public, and she figured that these girls were probably all 
spoiled rotten.

Kyle attention was suddenly drawn to the door as she heard the sound of banging from 
outside. "Okay, come on now," Old Angelica's voice commanded from outside the room.

"Oh, it's time," Chloe said biting her bottom lip.

"Time for what?" Kyle asked, seeing the apprehension on the other woman's face.

"Come on now!" Angelica said, knocking louder and quicker on their door.

"F, for, uh he, he comes some nights and picks out who he wants," Chloe said, checking 
her face and hair in the mirror.

"Oh, shit," Kyle said. She had hoped she would have some time. She didn't have much 
time to really consider any excuse she deemed worthy.

"That's it!" Angelica said, opening the door. She looked disapprovingly at the two of 
them, "Are you deaf?"

"No, sorry ma'am," Chloe said, averting her judgmental gaze. 

"I'd expect this out of her," she said, pointing at Kyle, "But you know better!" she 
chided. 

"What exactly is going on?" Kyle asked, just making sure things were just as she thought 
they were.

"The Prime Minister has come to grace us with his presence before choosing a consort to 
take with him, in celebration of his speech," Angelica said, "Please come out to help him 
make his selection for the night."

"Oh, a meat market?" Kyle said hastily.

"Oh come now, do you really have to be that way?" Angel asked exasperatedly. "For 
heavens sake, if you didn't want this then why did you sign up?"

"Oh, it's fine," Kyle flashed a smile as she tried to cover up for her hasty remark. She 
didn't pick up on the question posed to her, that Angelica thought she had come here of 
her own volition, just like the other girls. "I wonder if I'll get to be the lucky one."

"Dream on sugar tits," Said Jennifer as she walked by the doorway, unintentionally 
hearing the conversation. She wasn't being very shy, she was wearing a skimpy lingerie, 
about the width of a nanometer, colored azure just like her hair.

"You two. Out. Now!" Angelica said, her patience worn very thin. Chloe nearly knocked 
Kyle down as she scrambled from the room, in her haste to escape Angelica's ire. "You 
too!"

"Fine," Kyle said, wanting very much to throttle the old bitch. She walked out, noticing 
there were half a dozen girls in a group, loosely assembled near the television. Kyle 
scanned the room for Smith, but he wasn't around. She stood near the assembled women, 
wondering what was going on exactly, before getting tired. She went to the kitchenette 
area and poured herself a glass of water. Turning her heard slightly, keeping the group in 
her peripheral vision, she noticed Chloe coming over to her.

"Y, you're supposed to, to be with us," Chloe warned her, tilting her head towards the 
group.

"It's okay," Kyle said, sipping at her glass, her back still facing the group. She heard the 
door open behind her, and she didn't have to turn around to guess just who it was. She 
could hear Chloe run quickly back towards the group.

"Why hello ladies," said a vulgar voice Kyle has learned to hate. The chorus of hellos and 
come ons were thick as the girls vied for his attention. She was disgusted by their 
whorish behavior, but not surprised, very little would surprise her this day. She didn't 
even turn her back; she just refilled her glass when it was empty, steadying herself. Part 
of her wished that Smith would simply fine some floozy and take that girl to bed tonight, 
and buy her some time. Perhaps given some time and some imagination she could find 
some way to do something, even though such a vulgar act as sleeping with this man 
literally made her skin creep. It wasn't to be the case; she could feel his presence coming 
towards her.

"Give me a minute ladies, I want to introduce myself to our latest friend," Smith's voice 
could be heard, quieting down his potential companions. She could almost feel his 
presence draw near her. Kyle looked around, she wished she had started eating a steak; a 
nearby knife would make her feel better if nothing else.

"Well hello, Kyle, right?" Smith asked, laying on the charm. She could smell the deep 
scent of his cologne reeking near her, offending her olfactory sense.

"You've got a good memory," Kyle said, turning around. He did have a certain charisma 
about him, a playboy, a cock of the walk persona that no doubt melted many a young girl 
in his arms. 

"I always remember a pretty face," Smith said, meaning it as a serious come on line.

"I bet you do," Kyle replied. 'How fucking lame can you get?' she wondered to herself, 
trying to keep her face straight.

"So, what brings you here?" Smith asked, trying to put the tense and steady girl at ease.

'Another come on line?' Kyle wondered. "A small ship," Kyle said, sipping from the 
glass.

"Right," Smith said, putting his arm around Kyle. Kyle's skin revolted at the feeling, just 
as she was about to wrestle if off she noticed a blond bodyguard, her hand resting on her 
holstered gun. "Just remember, it took over a hundred armed guards and a three billion 
dollar ship just to bring you here."

"That's a lot of time and effort and money to come after little old me," Kyle said, just 
talking to him in this manner was debasing.

"Well, we made sure you had company, I guess your friend is Einstein reincarnated," 
Smith said, his voice conveying his boredom. "But I didn't come here to talk about him."

"Too bad, he's a good guy," Kyle noted, sensing the PM returning to his true interest.

"I'll take your word on that," he said, rolling his eyes, "But I came here to talk to you."

"Oh me?" Kyle asked, wondering if he was picking up on the sarcasm. "What about?"

"I thought I'd ask how your first day on our planet was?" he said, still laying the come 
ons thick.

"Oh just fine, just fine. Anywhere you can eat and bathe is an improvement," Kyle said.

"So I've heard, so I've heard," Smith said, "With all the future planned trips to and from 
Terra," Kyle's body tensed at the name, easing slightly a moment later when she realized 
he wasn't talking of her child but of her planet, "We plan on making things a bit better. 
You should try being on one of those old heavy machinery transports, they take nearly 
twice the time back and forth!"

"Well, I guess it's good old fashioned Martian efficiency," Kyle said. It was a phrase 
used on Earth, to denote a heartless and violent way of using overkill to solve a problem 
that could easily be fixed by more sensible means. She noted that Josiah Smith wasn't 
aware of the phrase, he seemed to take it as a compliment. "Reopening relations?" she 
asked, ever attempting to change the subject. 

"What's that?" he queried.

"You said all the future planned trips to and back Earth, are you reopening relations with 
Earth?" Kyle asked.

"Something like that," he said, running his tongue over his teeth. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, wouldn't mind saying hi to some friends some time is all," Kyle said. If she had a 
gun, she would use it. 'Take him out, use the element of surprise, maybe take the 
bodyguard out, if I get shot the nanos might heal me better…' she wishing.

"What do you say you come with me tonight, and we celebrate your first night on Mars?" 
he asked, as sensually as he could. "Let's start it in with a bang."

"Oh, no, we can't do that," Kyle said, sipping on her glass, her grip so tight she wondered 
if it would shatter. 

"What?" Josiah asked, irritated at the rare instance of rejection.

"Didn't anyone tell you? I would be a terribly lay," Kyle sipped her drink, looking in the 
general direction at the group of women, but focusing on the one bodyguard above the 
rest. She didn't want to give Smith anything more than the smallest bit of attention.

"Really? Shit!" he said angrily, all his playboy charms seemed to shift the moment he 
heard it.

"Oh yeah," Kyle said, not believing this was working. It sounded better than 'I have a 
headache.' "I'm just a cold fish."

"Then what fucking good are you?" he snarled, his anger obvious.

"Oh, well I make for good arm candy," Kyle said, smiling.

"Arm candy?" he nearly shouted, almost snapping. 

"Hey, I didn't ask to come here," Kyle reminded. "I can always head home if you want?"

"No," Smith said, examining her. She didn't flinch, didn't stumble, didn't stutter or shake 
or give any tell tale sign of weakness, or of falsehoods. He didn't want to get rid of her 
yet, 'She might prove useful if someone could figure out how to get her micro bots or 
whatever they are up and going' he thought to himself. Usually he had Eve come in and 
gauge people, to tell if they were lying, what their angle was, what was going on in their 
head. His usually distrust of women made one exception, in her case, and rarely for more 
than judging people and or shooting them.

"Okay, you know what, I changed my mind," Smith said, not wanting to admit rejection. 
"You should have your first night off, it's been a long trip. Next time, I expect you to be 
ready, 'cold fish' or not."

"You're the Prime Minister," Kyle said coolly, watching from her peripheral vision him 
leave. 

"Oh come on big Josie, you know you want me tonight," Kyle watched Jen hit on Smith. 
"After you screw me silly have that little slut Amber eat me out and we can go all night 
long!" she exclaimed, rubbing her body against him, the barely existent lingerie was the 
only thing between their dry hump.

"Oh alright Jenny, you always know just what to say," Smith said, grinning. "Sorry girls, 
better luck next time." Kyle heard a chorus of girls bemoaning their disappointment, she 
wondered if any of them were being as sarcastic as they seemed. 

"What did you say to him?" Chloe asked, walking up to Kyle.

"Huh? Oh, nothing really, just that I would be a lousy lay," Kyle said.

"That worked?" Chloe asked.

"Oh yeah," Kyle said. "It's the truth, to him I would be a lousy lay."

"I should try that some night," Chloe wondered.

"I'm going to go to bed now," Kyle said. 

"Oh, okay, well I'm not tired but I'll go to bed too I promise that I won't make any noise 
or keep you up I don't snore or anything I sleep just like a baby and I don't sleepwalk or 
sleep talk or anything I promise I won't bother you in the least bit Kyle really I won't" 
Chloe began rambling on once again.

"That's good, seriously, just let me rest," Kyle said, putting the glass down and walking 
into the room. 

Chloe followed behind her, her head sunken, her voice sullen "I didn't mean to make you 
made Kyle please forgive me I'll do whatever you want just don't be cross with me I,"

"I'm not mad, so there's no reason to forgive you," Kyle interrupted, getting into bed. "I 
just want to sleep. That's all."

"Oh okay goodnight," Chloe said, practically dive bombing into her bed. Kyle got up and 
turned the lights off. 

She lay in bed for some time, wondering what was going on, what was going to happen. 
She was exhausted but restless, she couldn't manage to get much sleep. She felt guilty, 
she had been made to be dolled up, but she didn't fight as much as she wanted to. Part of 
her had constantly expected to see a man nearby to beat her senseless if she misstep. She 
was trying to get as much information as she could, and thought that adopting a false 
persona would allow her to gather that information much easier. In some ways she felt 
she was right, but in other ways she felt she was wrong. She had been trained how to 
exist in enemy territory, how to assimilate into a culture if she had to, to blend into a 
crowd and not stick out. None of that affected the guilt she felt, her child, her own flesh 
and blood was somewhere, god knows where, alone, everyone she knew either kidnapped 
or gunned down. She was only weeks old, she was almost a newborn, even if mentally 
and physically she had the facilities of an adult. While she was having her legs shaved, or 
masturbating in the shower, her child, her baby, was god knows where, perhaps alone, 
perhaps crying, seeking her mother.

"I'm going to get you babe," she mouthed to herself; making a promise to herself and her 
child that they would be together, while a single tear streamed down her cheek. "I'm 
going to get you Terra, I don't know how, but I'm going to get you."


(This file was created by SomeRandomBastard (at) yahoo (dot) com, so send all flames 
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A critique, comments, flames, any responses are welcome, if they are pro, and then I'll 
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http://www.asstr.org/files/Authors/srb/www/