Greenies

'It's the way of the solar system, Sugi,' Ingram sighed, stretching out a little. As the senior Martian on the crew there was an unwritten rule that he was responsible for keeping the other Martians in line

'Yeah,' he said bitterly. 'Fuck the greenies over every chance you get. That's the way of the solar system all right. That's why I'm trained in fusion engineering and they got me working in the kitchen.'

'Shit, Sugi,' Ingram told him with a laugh, 'this is what, your second cruise on the great Mermaid?'

'That's right,' he said.

'You ain't seen shit as far as fuckin over greenies goes then,' he told him. 'Wait'll you get ten years on these things like I have and then you can bitch to me about greenie fucking. I was a trained computer systems operator and analyst when I went on my first cruise. And do you know what they had me doing?'

'What's that?'

'The fucking laundry,' he told him. 'I spent my first year of space duty down in the goddamn laundry room washing the shit stains out of those Earthling's shorts. My second year I was graduated to the kitchen detail. My third year they finally trusted me to start working in the torpedo room as a lifter. It took me six years and twelve cruises before they finally put me on the bridge where I belong. If I were an Earthling, I'd be at least a lieutenant commander by now. I'd be at least an XO on one of these tubs and probably in line for a command. Instead, I'm a damn spacer first, just two grades higher then you are, and if I somehow make it another ten years in this place, I'll retire as a spacer first.'

Sugiyoto shook his head angrily. 'That's depressing,' he said. 'Why do we put up with this shit? Why have you stayed here so long?'

'It beats being vermin doesn't it?' Ingram said. 'What else can I do? There ain't much call for a detection tech in the civilian market now, is there? Even if there were, the Earthlings wouldn't hire no greenie to do it.'

They laid in silence for a few minutes, each of them contemplating their second class citizen status. It was Sugiyoto that brought up the subject of Laura Whiting, asking if there had been any more news heard.

'All I hear is what the bridge crew has to say about it,' Ingram told him. 'And all they watch to get their information is big three stations. They all seem to think that she should be thrown in prison for inciting terrorism.'

'No way to get MarsGroup stations out here?'

'Not these days,' Ingram said. 'Before all of this shit hit the fan we used to be able to catch MarsGroup in the enlisted lounge. The Earthlings would make fun of us for watching it of course, but they'd at least let us keep it on for a while sometimes. Now though, I wouldn't let anyone catch you trying to watch it. I wouldn't even talk about it. Things are bad enough as is without making them more suspicious of us.'

They talked a little more about the sad state of Martian affairs in an Earthling ruled solar system. Finally, tiring of that subject, they drifted off to sleep, both trying to catch as much as possible before their next watch. As they snored in the miniscule gravity, the ship kept pushing them faster and faster towards home.

'More trouble?' Laura Whiting asked General Jackson as he entered her office early Tuesday morning. It was not really a question of course. On Mars these days there was always more trouble. The question was how bad the trouble was this time.

Jackson was dressed in his standard day uniform of red shorts and a white T-shirt. He nodded solemnly as he helped himself to a cup of coffee from the dispenser next to her desk. 'I just got word,' he told her. 'There was another mass shooting of civilians by FLEB agents. This time up on Triad. They're still sorting through the mess up there as we speak, but preliminary reports are sixteen dead, twice that many wounded.'

'Jesus,' she said, shaking her head and feeling mixed emotions. On the one hand she knew that she had set the stage for these confrontation and had put the wheels in motion. She had done that deliberately, with the hope of inciting the rebellion that was now about to boil over. But she had not counted on the price that was being paid in blood. 'What happened?'

'There was an attempt to block the transfer of the Martians that were rounded up in yesterday's sweeps,' he said. The day before, in response to the firebombing of their van and their agents, the FLEB had performed a planet wide sweep of all of the cities, rounding up and arresting more than two hundred Martian separatists.

'An organized protest?' Laura asked.

'Pretty much,' he said. 'It was the Triad chapter of the Martian Retirement Club that staged it. They tried to block the prisoners from being placed on the trains to TNB. About four to five hundred people put themselves in front of the access tunnels on the main loading platform. The agents fired on them almost immediately, which made everyone scatter of course, and then they rushed the prisoners onto the trains. They left the scene before any of the Triad authorities showed up. When the cops and the dip-hoes arrived there wasn't a single FLEB agent there.'

'Bastards,' Laura said, shocked.

'There was a news team there covering the protest when it happened. The whole thing was caught on MarsGroup cameras. It should be on the news now if you want to watch it.'

She nodded and instructed her computer to turn on MarsGroup primary. The screen flickered to life and a live shot of the main access platform to Triad Naval Base was shown. The loading platform was a wide, open area enclosed by the thick plexiglass and steel walls that made up the edge of the orbiting city. It was here where personnel were cleared through security and loaded onto one of the trains that transported them through one of four one kilometer tram tunnels that connected the city to the huge base. Except for flying in in a spacecraft of some sort, these tunnels were the only way to get to TNB. The platform was usually an orderly place, swept clean and scrubbed daily by enlisted spacers from the base and guarded by armed military police. Now it was the scene of chaos as the camera panned from place to place, showing dozens of Triad police officers and dip-hoes sorting through masses of bloody bodies lying on the ground.

'Most of the more seriously wounded have already been taken away by health and safety personnel,' a shocked MarsGroup reporter was voicing over. 'What you see here are the more lightly wounded and the dead, who are being sorted out for transport or relocation to the temporary morgue on the Triad end of the platform. As you can see from these shots, many of the protesters that were gunned down by the FLEB agents were elderly since those over age sixty make up the majority of the civilian population of Triad. Reports from the Triad police state that none of the protesters were found to be armed. Most of them, as you can see, were carrying protests signs only.' The signs in question could be seen lying next to many of the screaming or deathly silent protestors. The motto: FREE OUR PEOPLE! was the most prevalent, although there were a few others. Bullet holes could plainly be seen in a few of the signs.

'Kevin,' she said, feeling tears forming in her eyes. 'My God! What are we doing here?'

'I know how you feel,' he said, sitting down next to her and putting a comforting arm around her shoulders. 'These were old people. Grandmothers and grandfathers trying to pick up our fight for us. They were gunned down like dogs.'

'And we caused this, Kevin,' she said. 'We knew that the FLEB would crack down on people! We counted on it to further our cause!'

'We did not cause this, Laura,' he told her firmly. 'Nor could we have predicted that things would come to this.'

'People are dying because I've challenged the Earthlings and riled up the Martians! They're dying! They're being gunned down in the streets, hauled away to Earth prisons! Don't tell me we didn't cause this! My whole intent was to make things intolerable for the people so that they would support a revolt!'

'And that is what's happening,' Jackson said. 'This incident will come close to breaking the camel's back I would think. But you did not make those FLEB agents fire on citizens. You did not order the FLEB agents to crack down and haul anyone off. All that you did was force the Earthlings to behave in a way that you knew they were capable of when threatened. You provided the threat, Laura, they provided the violence, and unfortunately, this is the only way we have to get our people to follow us.'

'It's manipulative,' she said. 'I'm pushing them around like chess pieces in order to further my goals.'

'Not your goals Laura, our goals. The goals of the Martians. What we've set in motion is a necessary evil in order to achieve freedom. You had to make the Earthlings step over the line. You had to break the chain of tolerance that has kept us subservient for generations. It was the only way.'

'That doesn't make me feel any better,' she said. 'And it doesn't help me sleep at night.'

'And you wouldn't be the person you are if it didn't bother you,' he said. 'I'm sure you feel like you're as