Barbara Garcia was a two term representative from the Shiloh Park section of Eden. Her constituents were a mixture of working class Martians that lived in the northern part of the district and welfare class that lived in the southern. She had grown up the daughter of an agricultural worker and she was — thanks to her intelligence and frightfully high placement scores — the first in eight generations to attend college. With her degree in political theory from the University of Mars at Eden, she had gone on to law school and the Eden city council, the usual stepping-stone for a career in Martian politics. From there her popularity with her main sponsor — Agricorp — had made her a shoe-in for the Planetary Legislature.
Barbara had always played the game well during her career, knowing that it was the only game in town and that in order to succeed she would have to follow the established rules. She had taken campaign contributions from Agricorp and others ever since her first run at the city council. She had gone on the all expenses paid space cruises to Saturn and Neptune and Mercury, riding in luxury cabins and being pampered to her heart's delight. She had even taken unreported contributions when they were offered, contributions that had swollen her net worth to well over two million dollars. But despite these 'perks of the job', as they were called when they were discussed at all, she had always felt more than a little disgusted with herself. She knew that politics was not supposed to be this way, that she was part of a perversion that had gone on for centuries now. There had been a time when she had tried to tell herself that she was only staying in the game for the good of the people she represented but those naïve thoughts had long since died within her.
Except now Laura Whiting had reawakened them. What Whiting had done the night before had been incredible, outrageous, the most shocking thing imaginable and Barbara could not help but feel a strong surge of respect for the woman. She was trying to change the game! After all of these years, after all of the lies and back dealing and jerking off of the public, someone was actually trying to make a difference! Amazing.
Granted, Barbara had initially had every intention of doing exactly what her sponsors wished of her and voting for an impeachment investigation of the new governor. After all, though she respected Whiting for her stand, political survival was still the most important thing in her life. She was qualified to do nothing else in this life but serve in the legislature. As much as she found herself admiring Whiting and her views, she knew that Whiting was as good as gone and the game would then go on as it always had and as it always would. She had planned to have a drink in Whiting's honor the next time she tipped a glass but also to vote as was required and to even deride the governor in the media if reporters asked her questions.
And then the emails had started to roll in. An incredible three hundred thousand of them were sent to her staff in the first three hours following Whiting's speech. Another one hundred and eighty thousand had come in since. Nearly half of her constituents, including a good portion of the welfare class, had taken the time to compose messages to her and according to the computer scans all of the messages, every last one said the same thing: vote to open an investigation into Whiting and you're gone. Had someone told her two days before that something like this would happen, she would have thought them insane. Martians never got involved in politics, especially not the welfare class. They rarely voted, they rarely protested anything in an organized fashion, and they never tried to recall their representatives. But now they were threatening just that, and in no uncertain terms either. Barbara and her chief of staff were both of the opinion that these were not idle threats either. Whiting had really riled the people up.
'So what are you going to do?' Steve Ying, the chief of staff in question, asked her now as they sat in her office.
Barbara's office was somewhat nicer than Vic Cargill's, mostly because of the higher campaign contribution rate that she drew. She actually had something of a view from her window. She was at the edge of the developed area and could see the spaceport off to the left about twenty kilometers distant. As she considered her subordinate's question she watched an orbital craft, probably filled with agricultural products, lift into the sky, its hydrogen powered engine spewing white-hot flame as it ascended. 'I was just sworn in for my second term yesterday,' she said thoughtfully after the craft had disappeared beyond the horizon.
'Yes,' Steve said. 'That's one possible way to look at it. You have another eighteen months before you have to start worrying about re-election. No matter how much you piss off Agricorp and your other sponsors, you can't be drummed out until the end of your term, at least not unless they take an active role in getting rid of you.'
Barbara knew well what that meant. An active role was a drastic action designed to get rid of a troublesome politician in a hurry. It was in fact what they were trying to do to Whiting. It meant that the corporations pulled out all of the stops and did everything in their power to discredit and smear the person and force public outrage upon them. 'I don't think that they would go that far for little old me,' she said. 'If it was just me and me alone who voted no on the investigation, perhaps they would, but it isn't going to be just me, is it?'
He shook his head. 'From what I hear, every representative is getting about the same volume of email from their constituents. Even Vic Cargill is being overwhelmed and you know what his district is like.'
'Yes,' she said, 'Helvetia Heights. A most pleasant area of town. It's remarkable that the people in his district have embraced this cause as well. Truly remarkable.'
Steve nodded. 'My thoughts exactly,' he said. 'It goes to show just how deep this thing has become. We're truly in uncharted territory here.'
'And the water is infested with sharks,' she agreed. 'What we do now is going to have some very long lasting implications.'
'So it sounds like you're going to vote no on the investigation?' he asked her.
'I don't really see another option. I should be safe enough from any drastic repercussions. Agricorp will be mightily pissed off at me and it's possible they may be forced to withdraw their support for me in the next election, but...'
'But?'
'But if Laura Whiting succeeds in her plan, there will be no next election.'
Steve looked at her as if she were mad. 'You think there's a chance she'll gain independence for us?' he asked her.
'She has the support of the people,' Barbara said. 'And she has a gift for riling them up. As long as she is given Internet time to speak her views — and MarsGroup will undoubtedly grant her that — there's virtually no limit to what she can do.'
'The corporations and the WestHem government will never allow it,' Steve said. 'The best that Whiting can hope for is to survive the impeachment attempt. She'll probably be able to do that but she'll still be gone within the month. They'll find some way to get rid of her, legal or not. I wouldn't even put arranging an assassination past them.'
'Nor would I,' Barbara told him. 'But did you ever think for a minute that Whiting is smart enough to have taken that into consideration? She's been playing the political game perfectly for years, all the time planning to do what she did last night. Her goal is to make us independent. She has to know that those in power will do almost anything to get rid of her. And knowing that, she has to have taken precautions against it, just as she took precautions against impeachment. She's not naïve, Steve. I believe that she knows exactly what she is doing and I believe that she may even be ultimately successful.'
Steve was having a hard time with this concept although her arguments did sound logical. 'So what are you saying, Barb?' he asked.
'I'm saying that I'm going to support her.'
'Support her?' he asked, wide-eyed. 'Surely you don't mean what I think you mean.'
'I do,' she confirmed. 'Start arranging a press conference for me tonight. I'm going to go live and denounce my sponsorship and announce my support for the new governor and for Martian independence.'
Steve was appalled. 'Barbara, that's madness,' he told her. 'Even if you think that Whiting has a small chance of succeeding, you must realize that in all likelihood she will not. If you just vote no on the impeachment because of public pressure, you might be able to survive politically. Agricorp will probably be able to forgive you for that since everyone else will be forced to do it as well. But if you actually announce that you
Barbara shook her head at him sadly. 'You don't understand, do you?' she asked him.
'Understand what?'
'Laura Whiting is right for what she's doing. This has gone beyond a political issue. When you have the vermin contacting politicians and threatening recall of them in the numbers that we've seen, you have an issue that they feel rather strongly about. The people want to be free of WestHem and it is our job as their elected
