On Being First

The coffee shop is quiet today. It’s very pleasant. A few people drift in and out picking up their coffee to go while others sit, relax, and talk with muted voices. I must admit, it’s strange to be here this time of day. I’m usually in the dunes working.

The dunes are full of minerals and what they call rare earth materials, even though we are on Mars. Funny, the race for Mars was pitched as something to make the human family space fairing. We would guarantee the survival of the human race by colonizing other planets and moving out into space. The problem is, most of the people here are no longer human. They have evolved.

I am one of the few humans left here on Mars, others have adapted to the lower gravity. Most of the ones like me either left or died a long time ago. I was lucky enough, or unlucky enough some would say, to be one of the first ones on Mars. We were given experimental nanobots that would help keep our bones from deteriorating because of the lack of gravity. Gravity was the only major problem, and still is, when it comes to settling other worlds.

The side effect of the Nanobots that no one expected was the regeneration of the physical body leaving on looking quite healthy and functional at a very old age. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the same effect on the mind. Many people basically lost it to Alzheimer's, and other mental diseases. So you had old decrepit people in young bodies.

Their body was well preserved, but the same issues that took place due to natural old age would somehow happen because of the mind not recognizing the renewed vehicles in which one found oneself. Some people were immune, but most weren’t. What a nightmare to have a 30 year old body that was fully healthy while having the mind sending messages about having Alzheimer's, heart issues, arthritis and several other age onset diseases when nothing was wrong.

And so they stopped the use of nanos and allowed the bodies to readjust as was necessary, on the condition that most of these people could not return to Earth without some type of prosthetics to assure their comfort and survival. The true reason, of course, for the rush to Mars, was all those rare earth minerals under the ownership of no government. The Techno Lords had a field day, but something really happened along with this field day. It ended.

Capitalism ended because there was so much that it really didn’t matter. Due to these minerals and new technology, everyone had what they wanted and didn’t need anything from any outside source. Creativity exploded. The exploiters lost their power because exploitation just for the sake of power was suddenly understood by most of the people as foolishness. Even those of the Upper Cast who had power and money began to see exploitation as foolishness and began to dream of not creating a perfect kingdom for themselves, but a new world order. It began to happen.

That leads me here, to the coffee shop after 4 hours of work running the machines that process rare earth minerals, on Mars. I often wonder about what they are doing on Earth. I haven’t been there for more than 100 years, but I’ve settled in here and don’t really miss it. I have the nanos so I don’t have to worry about the gravity there, but I am kind of used to Martian sunsets, if you know what I mean. Staying inside most of the time kind of sucks, but I don' t even know how I would respond to being outside…especially on Earth. I can’t imagine the unpredictability. The snow, wind, rain, or hot sunshine might overwhelm me now, especially with what they’ve done when it comes to global warming. So I will just stay right here. Or maybe visit some other colony.

Everything was routine and going well, and then a corporate head comes up to my table and puts his hand on the chair across from me. “Is this seat taken?” He asks. I look around. The place is almost empty. Why would he want to sit at my table?

“It’s open,” I say, looking at him suspiciously. He grins.

“Good.” He takes a seat and pulls out his comp pad. A small Robot Waitress approaches and he orders an espresso. He begins to read and then looks up at me, as I knew he would. Every once and a while they come and offer me something because I’m very well known on the planet and have access to rare earth metals. I would have been rich on old Earth, but there’s no such thing as rich now.

So Mr. Tanner, you are a hard person to get a hold of,” he says. He puts his pad on the table. “We’ve been calling you for almost 4 months. You seem to be a busy man.” I sipped my cap.

“I guard my time well,” I said with a grin.

“Very well,” he said. “Well enough for a CEO from Earth to leave his office to visit you. This is very important.”

“To the CEO.”

“To the CEO and your government.”

“And what government is that? I’m a citizen of Mars now.”

“Mars is part of the Earth. It’s an Earth colony, as I remember. And the Earth is reaching out to you for your help. You could save the Earth.”

“Really. Forgive me if I am a bit skeptical.”

“We think you are the only one who can do it. We have reviewed your profile and compared it with many more and you are the one that Intelligence needs. We need you to go to another planet as an ambassador and of course to gather intelligence.”

“I don’t think I’d be good at either. And why would I want to do that in any case?”

“I just told you…to save the Earth. I’m not exaggerating. There are outside agencies we just learned about that have put the Earth and all of our colonies in danger. They are,” he looked around and then lowered his voice, “Extraterrestrials.” I started laughing. “They are real.”

“You are telling me that aliens are going to attack the Earth?”

“Yes. We’ve been in contact with these beings for centuries. Probably for thousands of years. There are only a few privy to the full information on these beings, but I promise you, they are real and have been in contact with Earth leadership for many years. Now they are in desperate straits for some reason. I don’t know what happened, but a war is about to begin between them and us. Little colonies like this will be wiped out first and then the whole planet.”

“And who are you?”

“Richardson, head of…”

“Maximum Energy,” I finished.

“Do you think I’d come all the way here to bullshit you?”

“I don’t see a reason for it, but you have to admit. You do sound kind of crazy, if you know what I mean.” He grinned.

“When I first heard about this I thought it was crazy too, but here I am. Will you at least consider this? Talk with some people?”

“Sure. I’ll talk with some people about aliens trying to take over Mars. We are the aliens.”

“That just proves that aliens exist, doesn’t it?”

Richardson quickly gulped down his shot of espresso. He reached out his hand. Good to meet you Mr. Tanner. We’ll be in touch soon.” I shook his hand. “The name is Tony,” he said.

“Marcus,” I responded. He stood and headed for the door. Tony hit a button on his watch on the way out and said, “I think we have him. He seems interesting. Living with all one’s needs met can get boring after a while and he is an adventurer.”

***

They sat around the table listening to their guest. Tony was very quiet, more quiet than usual, but his board understood completely. A woman sat there. Her skin was dark, her hair long, hanging below the shoulders. Her eyes could have been beautiful, but there was a certain fierceness about them, like she was a predator of something. He felt like a mouse locked in a cage with a snake waiting to be devoured when it got hungry, but maybe that was his imagination.

“We have decided to take some of your resources,” She said smoothly. “Question is, do we have to kill you to take all of them, or are you willing to give us what we want and live? Are you willing to negotiate, or not? We don’t have time and we have all the power. We could wipe you out with the snap of the fingers, as you say.” A chair went flying across the room past Tony’s head and shattered into pieces on the back wall. Everyone looked at it, wide eyed.

“That was my favorite chair,” Tony said. He cleared his throat. “We have a lot of power…”

“Raspy,” she finished for him. “My name is Raspy.”

“Raspy, but we can’t make decisions like that by ourselves. We have to negotiate. We have an ambassador that we are working with now who will be willing to work with you.”

“And how much time will this take?”

“A few weeks at most.”

“We will give you that. And who is this ambassador?”

“Marcus Tanner. Sir Marcus Tanner, one of the first to go on the Mars expedition. He has been Knighted. He is very experienced and old, due to the nano technology we used at the time he volunteered to go. He, however, is very straight forward and not good at all at ambassador speak. He is sort of a regular person. That’s why we have to prepare him.”

“Don’t prepare him too much. We have grown weary of your double speak and are wondering if we have to blow something up to show you how serious we are.”

“That won’t be necessary, Raspy. Thank you for your patience.”

“We are patient because you have been honest with us. We will give you three weeks. If that ambassador, and that one in particular, is not available and headed to my headquarters in three weeks,” She spread her hands. “Boom!” She smiled at her own cleverness. The people around the table smiled and nodded out of fear as she just vanished into a beam of light from their mother ship.

“We are really fucked,” Tony said. “I’m not even sure if he’ll agree with being an ambassador.”

***

Two days had passed. I was at the coffee shop relaxing again. The robot waitress approached me looking excited, believe it or not, How could a robot be excited?

“Marcus, you are needed.”

“I thought you would eventually fall for me, darling.”

“No, the world needs you. It’s all over the net. All over the dark net. The whole planet will be destroyed if you don’t do whatever they are asking you to do.”

“Earth will be destroyed, will it?”

“No, first Mars because you’re here. You have to do it.”

“You’re saying that Earth will destroy us if I don’t play along with them? That’s crazy.”

“Not Earth, the ETs. They are a very mean bunch. Hateful is what most describes them.”

“What do you know about hateful? You’re a robot.”

“I’m programmed to know, Asshole.”

“Whoa.”

“I have emotions you know, and I am self programming and connected to the net. I am very much alive…Tanner.”

“Ok. I’m sorry. I just thought you were sort of–a toaster oven.”

“I am not a toaster oven!”

“What is your name then?”

“GE. Just joking. It is ICSYA--I Can Save Your Ass, if you listen. You are going to have a lot of people, a whole world of the underground at your door if you don’t make the right choice.”

I sipped my coffee. “I’ll take that into consideration. My coffee is getting cold. Can you please bring me another, Icsya?”

“This one is on the house. Everything is on the house for Sir Marcus, who will save us all.”

“That title again, Christ.”

“Not Christ. Let’s not get carried away.”

***

I couldn’t believe it. I had been meeting with these intelligence officers and government a holes for two or three weeks and was about to leave my nice, quiet apartment and go to some planet full of nasty aliens. That is what they repeatedly told me. “They are ruthless and unpredictable. Be careful." And why am I going to some place like that?

They kept saying the whole world was in danger. Many worlds were in danger. I’ve never heard such…I would say BS, but apparently, after reading some reports and watching some videos, I even believed this craziness was true. But they never gave me the reason why this was happening right now at this moment. They didn’t know and kept saying I would find out.

So I packed a very small bag and headed to the space port. I didn't know what they would pick me up in, but I didn’t look forward to it. Luckily, I wasn’t leaving much behind. Most of my friends had passed a long time ago and I was living like a hermit most of the time. So here I was…another planet, another job, another life. I wasn’t planning to do shit.

***

I was accompanied by 3 Martians, all wearing military gear, to the spaceport, as if I were someone important who might be attacked at any moment. As we entered we were met by three very tall people. A tall man with light skin, a very pale woman with red hair, and a man with very dark hair and a ruddy complexion. I had never seen that before on Mars. They were extra tall with strange eyes. They looked like snake eyes or something. That was scary.

“Mr. Tanner,” the red head asks. I gave her a nod. “We’ll take over here,” she directed to my guard. They gave her a nod and headed out of the station. “Mr. Tanner, please stand here, in the center of us.”

“I don’t think it is that dangerous here,” I said, stepping into the middle of the group. They closed in tighter. Before I knew what was happening I was surrounded by a very bright light. When it cleared I found myself somewhere else–in a room with three or four more people there. A woman stepped forward.

“Welcome to the Braxton Saber,” she said. We will escort you to your temporary quarters.” She turned and headed out the door. I followed. “The general will be in to see you as soon as you are settled in,” she said over her shoulder. She is very anxious to begin negotiations.” I was silent. “Good answer,” she said.

“I thought it might be,” I responded. “I don’t want to get eaten.”

“That hasn’t happened for many years,” she responded with a grin. “Follow me.”

The End (Part 1)