VirileMail/12

Resistance
It was mid-afternoon before Kresly and I said goodbye to Nykieta and walked back to the nearest trolley stop. I asked her, "Do we have time to visit the Varna software project?"

There was no waiting trolley car at the stop, so Kresly activated the call button that would summon one. "We could, but it would be best to make an appointment."

No doubt she was correct, but each passing day made me feel feel more disconnected from Earth. I had been excited to visit Mars, but I was now feeling disappointed. There seemed to be no shortage of Martians who were ready and willing to help the aliens perfect their mind control technology. Apparently there were only a few "rebels" who tried to resist the aliens. I wondered how to find the rebels without getting Janek excited.

Soon an empty trolley car arrived. When Kresly and I got into the car she handed me a piece of paper with a written message, "Do not speak. Visit rebel?" I looked at her and nodded.

She took back the paper and then used her comscree to contact the Varna project and arrange for a visit. "They are expecting you tomorrow. Would you like to do some sight seeing? We can make our way over to Buzhan district and my favorite cafe."

I said, "That sounds nice, as long as you are not getting tired of being my tour guide."

"Not at all! I'm very pleased to have a chance to get to know you and to visit all these key research projects. I think you realize that this entire underground city was built for the purpose of working towards the goal of improving communication between the nanobots and humans. Sometimes I'm stunned when I think how long these efforts have been going on....and now, here we are, and it is in our life time that everything is finally being achieved. Just think Joe, some day you will be in all the history books because of your roll in making Janek."

I was puzzled by Kresly. Here she was, sounding like an enthusiastic supporter of Janek while secretly taking me to visit a rebel. I wondered how she planned to evade Janek who even then must be listening to us. "I would be happier if I had never gotten involved. Sometimes I'm stunned when I think how simple and pure my life was before I got involved in all this."

We reached the Buzhan district and got off the trolley in a residential area. I followed Kresly up a walk way towards a house. She said, "This is my place. We're a bit too early for dinner and the cafe." She took me inside and showed me her office. "I generally work here. I'm the chief sociological Observer for the Asian geounit."

She led me through the suite where she worked and out a back door to a pool and a spa. "Let's relax in the spa, then we'll go to dinner." She turned up to bull blast the noisy jets of the spa and wrapped her consree in her shirt then set the bundle near the spa. I started to undress, but she stopped me and just took my comscree and wrapped it in her skirt as a second bundle dropped by the spa before she took my hand and led me back inside to her bedroom.

She pulled on a robe and then took me down the hall to a smaller bedroom. She indicated that I should enter, but after I did, she closed the door and stayed out in the hallway. I was baffled by Kresly's behavior. What now? After about thirty seconds I heard a quiet voice, "Now we talk, quiet. Janek no hear us." The voice seemed like that of a cheap computerized speech synthesizer.

It seemed that the voice came from a small box on a table beside the bed. I asked, "Who am I speaking to?"

"A 'rebel'. Like you....free of nanobots."

I decided that this 'rebel' was not a native English speaker. I said, "It seems strange that Kresly has a friend who is a rebel. Is she also free of nanobots?"

The 'rebel' laughed, "No, Observer always be under control of nanobots. Kresly is sympath to rebels. I think, you, too."

"I cannot bring myself to trust the aliens. I want to know what their plans are and how to release people from the nanobots. Do you know how to do that?"

"Get bots out of human brains? Here, we ask. It must be done...by alien...alien law. On Earth...." There was a pause.

I tried to complete the thought, "On Earth nobody knows about the nanobots. I learned the secret and was sent here."

"Yes."

I asked, "You have no plan to help Earth?"

There was a long silence. "I plan."

This rebel did not sound very enthusiastic, but maybe there was not really anything more to be done, talking in this way. "Well, I would help, if I knew how. It seems like almost everyone on Mars is a puppet of the aliens."

The 'rebel' finally seemed to react to my pessimism. "We resist. Kresly controls nanobots....some."

Yes, that must be true. Kresly had been able to hand me a note and she maintained a rudimentary contact with the rebels. If the Martians had lived with nanobots constantly for thousands of years, surely they had learned some tricks for blocking out the aliens and allowing some freedom of action. I asked, "But is it enough?" I waited another five minutes, but I heard nothing more from the nameless 'rebel'.

I tried to imagine what might be done to counter the aliens and their plans, but it seemed hopeless. Janek seemed to be in control of the situation. Did it matter if there were a few 'rebels' sneaking around trying to resist? My dream of helping Chloe free herself from alien mind control seemed like nothing but a nightmare of frustrations.

Days passed. I visited the Varna software project and met the people who had created the VirileMail software. They were now busily making use of the Lockback chips to boost the power of their own "copy" of the Janek AI. I was useless....I had made my long journey to Mars with a hope that I could learn about the aliens and find some way to free Chloe and protect all of Earth from the aliens. But I had unknowingly been part of the delivery of Lockback chips to Mars, providing the aliens with yet another milestone in their relentless program to ever more efficiently control human minds.

The Varna team welcomed me to work with them...and it made sense, their project was the Mars equivalent of the VirileMail project. But I still wanted nothing to do with anything that would help the aliens.

Weeks passed. I had learned something of Kresly's work as an observer of events on Earth. I spent most of my time reading in the vast Observer records of the history of Earth. Everything was there, the entire sweep of human history. There was something about that great task, the creation of a detailed record of Earth history that appealed to me, but when I had asked Kresly if I could become an Observer she tried to ignore me. Finally she had shouted at me, "Yes, alright! The answer is yes! You can become an Observer. The first step is you will take nanobots back into your brain. Is that what you want?"

I'd never seen her upset before. Of course, by that point I knew the rules. Observers were sometimes called upon to go to Earth and anyone with knowledge of Mars and nanobots could only be allowed on Earth if they were under the control of nanobots. Kresly tried to explain it all to me, "It is a fundamental ethical rule for the aliens. They are not allowed to interfere with the development of Earth's culture."

I protested, "That makes no sense. The aliens have done nothing but interfere for millions of years! They take control of human minds and push the development of alien-inspired technology. You keep telling me about 'rules' but the only rule I see is world domination!"

Kresly sighed. "Joe, don't try to be a lawyer. You know how laws work: there is theory and there is practice. If you like, tell yourself that the law is only this: that the aliens cannot fundamentally alter human cultures. For example, by letting Earthlings know about nanobots or the human colony on Mars."

I complained, "All you are saying is that the aliens keep everyone on Earth ignorant. Happy and ignorant puppets. How can you even use the word 'ethics' to describe it?"

Kresly tried to make me see her point. "Okay, call it 'alien ethics'. I've studied it my entire life and it makes a certain amount of sense. Call it just my intuition, but think about it for yourself! Your every instinct is to resist the aliens, to view them as a threat to humanity, but where is that threat? What is really so terrible about what the aliens have done. Maybe you mostly fear the unknown and the future, but is your fear rational?"

It was as if I had seen this all from the first moment I knew I was on my way to Mars. Human puppets trying to tell me to be happy being a puppet. "Kresly, you are my friend. I've listened to you and I understand what you tell me. Maybe if I live here long enough I will learn to fall asleep and stop fighting the aliens. But that has not happened yet, and I don't care if Janek knows it."

Most importantly, I did not want to fall into that sleep of accepting alien control over humanity and I feared that, with time, I would forget Chloe and Earth and just give up. Maybe Kresly was correct, maybe the aliens were not that bad, maybe I was a fool to fight them.

Then finally, suddenly, the indecision and doubt and waiting came to an end: I finally met the mysterious "rebel". It happened when I was on my way home from the market. A young woman got into the trolley car right after me. We said hello and I recognized her because she had been on another trolley with me just the day before. I was learning the "market language" of the Martians, a conglomerate language that had developed long ago and become the "universal" language on Mars. I said, "We meet again."

She said nothing, but handed me a note:Joe,We spoke several weeks ago and you said you would help against the aliens if you knew how. I am Lilya Vavilov, Nykieta's daughter. I have made a vaccine which can protect against the Badhesion virus. I need you to deliver the vaccine to the resistance on Earth. Follow me off the trolley. Leave your comscree behind.

That was how it started. I followed her to a park and she explained her plan. Janek needed someone to deliver the Badhesion virus to Earth. Kresly was being prepared for the mission, but Janek would use me if I volunteered. All I had to do was tell Janek that I was ready to return to Earth.

I asked, "But doesn't that mean that I must accept the return of nanobots to my brain?"

She replied, "Yes, but you will have the vaccine and it will make you even more resistant to the nanobots than before. The aliens have worked to select humans with the rudimentary naturally-occurring equivalent of Badhesins, and the vaccine works to block nanobots from making use of those, too. You must think of Earth. With this vaccine, the balance of power will shift. The rebels on Earth will reveal to the world the existence of the aliens and their nanobot-mediated mind control. The population of Earth will rise up in revolt and shatter the plans of the aliens."

Epilogue
THE END.

There are a few parallel versions of the epilogue happening in parallel universes to this story. Some of them are very short though.


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Story created and written by JWSchmidt. With some additions in chapters 6 to 8 by Davichito. The parallel endings are all his invention (until now).

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 * JOBot