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.“And now, my dear, you must excuse me as I have an engagement with the Secretary General.” Harpreet smiled as she rose.“It does not do to keep such a busy person waiting.”Jess found herself seated alone, staring at the barren landscape, with no idea how she was ever going to get herself above its surface again.She knew she ought to go to classes.But if they were grounding her, and if Harpreet refused to help her get un-grounded, well, what was the point of returning to MCAB? Expulsion, which had sounded so terrifying this morning, no longer seemed so awful.The really dreadful thing had already happened: she couldn’t fly.And so, after sitting by herself for an hour in a lonely corner, Jessamyn heard the news that the Secretary General was giving an address in the Pavilion about the Rations Storage fire.A Fountain employee found Jess in her corner.“We’re closing,” he said, apologetically.“Everyone wants to hear Mei Lo’s announcement.”Nodding, Jess followed the crowds exiting through the tunnel that linked the Fountain with the Crystal Pavilion.The news awaiting them was not good.In fact, it was the worst news Mars Colonial had heard in a century.Chapter FiveI’LL DO MY BESTInside the pavilion, citizens had gathered; many had remained in town after the Festival of Singing Ice, and these were joined by reporters from as far away as New Tokyo.Jessamyn hugged the back wall of windows, settling between two families with small children, one of whom asked in the over-loud whisper of the very young, “Is that the hero, Mama? Her?”Jess felt her face flaming with color and pushed forward into the crowd.She was no hero.For all she knew, her presence at the fire had made things worse and not better.The Secretary mounted the dais which had been hastily reconstructed from yesterday.She took a moment to survey the crowd before her.Then, gripping either side of the podium, she spoke.“My friends, I come before you today in my capacity as Chief Executive Officer of Mars Colonial.I am here to inform you of what we know and what we don’t know.It is with deep regret that I confirm the destruction by fire of over ninety percent of our dry ration reserves.”Whispers rushed through the building like tiny breezes.It wasn’t possible.Someone must have gotten a detail wrong.Surely ninety percent was the amount of food which survived, not the amount which had been destroyed.The Secretary allowed time for the implication to sink in: Mars could not wait the scheduled number of orbits before sending raiders to Earth to trade for rations on the black market.Jessamyn felt as though parts of her body had liquefied and were now sinking down, down, settling low in her abdomen, growing heavier with the passing seconds before the Secretary spoke again.“For a century and more, we have dared violating the No Contact Accords in twenty annum intervals,” continued the Secretary.“The fact that it comes earlier than expected is unfortunate but does not mean our defeat as a people.Every generation has had to face the risk before us now.”Jess, only seventeen, had never experienced the anxious launch, threading a route past the armed Terran satellites in high Mars orbit, never known the weeks of radio silence while Marsians waited to see if this was the raid where they were discovered—the raid which ended in all-out war between Mars and Earth.The emotional climate of the pavilion felt to Jess as many-layered as a Terran cake.Underpinning all rested a base-mood of anxiety.A thin paste of frantic hovered over this, followed by alternating layers of disbelief and wonder that such a thing could come to pass.Atop everything however, was spread, like a smooth ganache, the sentiment of sobriety.The Secretary spoke again.“The fire began last night at approximately 7:50 New Houston time.It has been determined that the cause was the small vacuum mechs deployed to keep the facility free of external contaminants.Yesterday, during the Festival, some four thousand persons toured the facility housing our rations.The mech’s designer recommended last annum that we install a cooling system in the devices which would prevent conflagration should the mechs become overtaxed by excessive cleaning.“Because we did not heed that advice, we now stand at the brink of the collapse of Marsian civilization.” The Secretary took a slow breath and began to outline a plan to prevent widespread starvation.“Mars Colonial Command informs me that a window for travel to Earth will open in less than six weeks.I am confident that the brave men and women who have been preparing for the opportunity to serve as Mars Raiders will be more than able to meet the challenges brought on by an accelerated timetable.“Raider Mombasu—forgive me—Harpreet has conferred with me and agreed to reassume the role of negotiations specialist aboard the Red Galleon when it launches for Earth.”The crowd stomped and clapped their approval upon the mention of Harpreet’s participation.The plan would surely succeed if Harpreet supported it.But Jessamyn’s heart was already sinking with a terrible realization: her life-long dream of flying as a raider had just been obliterated.With the recent suspension on her record, MCAB would never recommend her for this raid.And in twenty orbits, her fair skin would look too reddened and wrinkled—she would have a characteristically Marsian appearance.Only those with skin healthy enough to pass for Terran were chosen for the journey to Earth.The risk of someone discovering that Mars was in violation of the No Contact Accord was too great—no one who looked Marsian could go to Earth.Harpreet, old though she was, had been blessed with melanin, which offered her body natural protection from Mars’s high dosage of ultraviolet light.Harpreet’s warm chocolate visage was neither reddened nor wrinkled.She was the ideal raider, regardless of her age.But even if Jess’s record was spotless for the following twenty annums, Jess would never be selected for the next raid.She missed the close of the Secretary’s speech.Dragging herself back through the tunnel, Jess waited for the Fountain to reopen, retrieved her walk-out suit, and went home with her heart cut in pieces like a handful of Mars-rock reduced to gravel
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