Firstborn

context that would seem extraordinary. One thing, Mr. Mayor. Don’t set the fires until I confirm we should. I’ll speak to my people, make sure… It’s a drastic thing we’re attempting here.”

He nodded slowly. “All right. Anything else?”

“No. Signals scraped in the ice. Of course that’s the way to do it.

I should have thought of it myself.”

“But you didn’t,” Rice said, grinning around his cigar. “It took him to figure it out. Which is why he is who he is. Right? Thank you,” he said into the phone. “You saved the day once again, sir.

That’s swell of you. Thank you very much, Mr. Edison.” And he hung up. “The Wizard of Menlo Park! What a guy!”

49: Areosynchronous

August 2070

The Liberator slid into synchronous orbit over Mars. Libby rolled the ship so that the port beneath Edna’s feet revealed the planet.

Edna had been in GEO before, synchronous orbit above Earth.

This experience was similar; Mars from areosynchronous orbit looked much the same size as Earth from GEO, a planet the size of a baseball suspended far beneath her feet. But the sunlight here was diminished, and Mars was darker than Earth, a shriveled ocher fruit compared to Earth’s sky-bright vibrancy. Right now Mars was almost exactly half full, and Edna could make out a splash of brilliance reflected from the domes of Port Lowell, almost exactly on the terminator line, precisely below the Liberator.

“I can’t believe we’re here,” she said.

John Metternes grunted. “I can’t believe why we’re here.”

Yet here they were. Nobody on all the worlds of mankind could have been unaware of Liberator as she cut across the solar system in a shower of exotic antimatter products, and she wasn’t shrouded now. Edna wondered how many Martian faces were turned up to the dawn sky right now, peering at a bright new star at the zenith.

It was hoped, indeed, that the Liberator’s very visible presence would simply intimidate the Martians into giving up what Earth wanted.

There was a chime, indicating an incoming signal.

John checked his instrument displays. “The firewalls are up.”

It would have been ironic, after having blazed across the solar system, to have the ship disabled by a virus uploaded in a greeting message. Edna said cautiously, “Let them in.”

A holographic head popped into existence before Edna: a young woman, smiling, personable, a little blank- eyed. She looked faintly familiar. “Liberator, Lowell. Good morning.”

“Lowell, Liberator, ” Edna said. “Yes, good morning, we can see your dawn. A pretty sight. This is navy cruiser Liberator, registration SS-1-147—”

“We know who you are. We saw you coming, after all.”

“I know your face,” John Metternes said now. “Umfraville.

Paula, that’s it. A hero’s daughter.”

“I live quietly,” the girl said, unfazed.

Edna nodded. “I think we all hope that today will be a quiet day, Paula.”

“We hope so too. But that’s rather up to you, isn’t it?”

“Is it?” Edna leaned forward, trying to look more commanding than she felt. “Paula, you, and those you speak for, know why we’re here.”

“Bisesa Dutt is not at Port Lowell.”

“She won’t be harmed. We simply intend to take her back to Earth where she can be debriefed. It is best if we work together.

Best for Bisesa too.”

“Bisesa Dutt is not at Port Lowell.”

Reluctantly, Edna said, “I’m authorized to use force. In fact I’m instructed to use it, to resolve this issue. Think what that means, Paula. It will be the first act of war between the legal authorities on Earth and a Spacer community. It’s not a good precedent to set, is it?”

John added, “And, Ms. Umfraville. Be aware that Port Lowell is not a fortress.”

“You must follow your conscience. Lowell out.”

Metternes dragged a hand through his greasy hair. “We could wait for confirmation from Earth.”

Edna shook her head. “Our orders are clear. You’re procrasti-nating, John.”

“Do you blame me? Lowell’s a sitting duck down there. I feel we’ve become the bad guys, somehow—”

An alarm sounded, and panels turned red throughout the bridge. There was a faint swimming sensation; the ship was moving.

“Shit,” Edna said. “What was that?”

They both swung into diagnostic routines.

It was Libby who spoke first. “We have gone to stealth. We are evading further fire.”

Edna snapped, “What happened?”

“We just lost an antenna complex and part of a solar cell array.

However all ships’ systems have triple level redundancy; contact with Earth has not been lost—”

“A laser beam,” John said, checking his data, wondering.

“Good God almighty. We got zapped by a laser beam.”

“What source? Are we under attack?”

“It came from the planet,” John said. “Not from another ship.”

He grinned at Edna. “It was a space elevator laser.”

“Mars doesn’t have any space elevators.”

“Not yet, but they put the lasers in already. Cheeky bastards.”

Libby said, “That was surely a warning shot. They could have disabled us. As I said we are now in shroud, and I am maintaining evasive maneuvers.”

“All right, Libby, thank you.” Edna glanced at John. “Situation clear? You agree how we should respond?” She didn’t need his approval. She was the military officer in command. But she felt she couldn’t proceed without his acceptance.

At last he nodded.

“Prepare a torpedo. Low-yield fission strike.” She pulled up a graphic of Port Lowell. She tapped a green dome. “Let’s take out the farm. We’ll do the least damage that way.”

“You mean, we’ll kill the least people?” John laughed hollowly.

“Look, Edna, it’s not just a farm dome. They’re running experimental programs in there. Hybrids of Martian and terrestrial life. If you blow it up—”

“Lock and load, John,” she said firmly, pushing down her own doubts.

The launch of the torpedo was a violent, physical event. The ship rang like a bell.

In Mount Weather the images of the Liberator’s attack were shocking, a holographic globe of Mars with a gunshot wound.

“I can’t believe this has happened on my watch,” Bella said.

Bob Paxton grunted. “Welcome to my world, Madam Chair.”

Cassie Duflot sat beside Bella. “This is why my husband died.

So we have the capability to do this, if need be.”

“But I hoped the need would never arise.” Bella suppressed a shudder. “I’m here because people thought I was a hero from the sunstorm days. Now I’m nuking my fellow human beings.”

Paxton was studying a montage of images on a softwall. “It’s all over the media. Well, you got to expect