San Damien and the Red Daggers

by Brian Yapko

Table of Contents

Chapter 2: San Damien File: The Disaster

IN THE MATTER OF SAN DAMIEN

(A.D.M. — PERSONAL & CONFIDENTIAL — CONTENT CODED)

A. AIRPOST LETTER: Anne Marlow to Adrian Marlow (March 9, 2990)

Dear Adrian,

A brief note before I meet some of San Damien’s leaders for lunch. I miss you! Our first time apart in over a year! To be in this strange place is terribly lonely. I know how busy you are with the Helen’s Butte trial. Have you even noticed I’m gone?

The two-hour train ride to San Damien was uneventful and discouraging. You could see pinon trees, Korean grass, wild Witney bamboo. But half the trees were dead. Oh, Adrian, the tefo slow-down has damaged Mars so. If we lose air to space, how are the plants to live? And what of the Numen? A dead array, an unchecked solar wind and Mars will take it all back. Trad indifference to this issue is intolerable.

I’m very glad, at least, to be participating in the San Damien experiment. Imagine! Mars’ first blended dome! I know you resent the Numen, but the people I’ve met here — both races — have been generous to a fault. They brought me a bushel of potatoes grown in San Damien’s UV shadow. I’ll have to buy a satchel to get them back to Aberdeen Nova!

Everyone is grateful for my role in engineering so many plants to thrive in a blended dome. Too much oxygen for some, too little CO2 for others. I wonder how they’ll evolve over time. Salt grass and Arean bamboo are a blessing.

Adrian, I could never manage here more than a few days. It’s too cold. That the Numen can live unprotected in the Beyond still astounds me.

Speaking of protection, San Damien’s outer dome has been left unfinished. The cranes are abandoned, the workers gone. I’m not worried about safety: the inner dome is complete. But the absence of an outer dome’s photolens will hurt the botany over time. Mer Fitz said the construction was delayed for bureaucratic reasons, something about budget shortfalls. Now they have to borrow money from Aberdeen Nova. It should have been completed by March 1st. Now they say June. That’s Mars for you.

By the way, President Jana was already here when I arrived. Henry and I talked briefly. He wants this to be the start of a new era in Numen-Trad relations. But he actually seems more worried about Xanthe’s international relations with Zantium. An emissary was supposed to arrive as a goodwill gesture but cancelled at the last minute.

Poor Henry. He wanted to use this event as a springboard to restart diplomatic relations. He thinks Zantium’s anti-democratic policies are starting to poison the rest of Mars. As if we don’t have enough problems! He and I will be heading back to A.N. on the same train tomorrow after the ceremony.

If you have time, you should watch us on Panvision. Hah! You’ll see me sniffling and sneezing! The dome is so cold and the air is so thin. I’m determined not to use a breather. It would look terrible since the whole point of San Damien is physical coexistence! I’ll soldier on.

One sour note was a demonstration by Numen activists outside the dome entrance. They claim that San Damien is a threat to Numen rights. Don’t they understand it’s exactly the opposite? Blended domes will be the best thing on Mars for the Numen. How can they not

TRANSMISSION SIGNAL TERMINATED AT SOURCE. TRY AGAIN LATER.

* * *

B. XANTHE PANVISION NEWSCRY

Byline: March 9, 2990, 13:12 by Alistair McAlistair.

Breaking News: In the worst terror attack on Mars in over 400 years, Xanthean government sources report that the domed village of San Damien has been destroyed. The ceremony to officially dedicate the dome was to take place tomorrow.

A spokesman for the Xanthean Peace Force estimates the death toll to be over seven-hundred. President Henry Jana is confirmed among the dead as are numerous architectural and botanical professionals from Aberdeen Nova and Mareotis.

San Damien has been widely touted as a prototype blended dome, intended to serve as a mingled habitat for Trads and Numen. Although the Numen terrorist organization MANA is suspected, the XPF has not yet announced whether any group has claimed responsibility for the disaster. At 15:00, Henry Jana’s widow, Co-President, Elinor Jana, will issue a live statement regarding the tragedy. At 17:00, she will be confirmed as Xanthe’s sole leader.

With the notable exception of Zantium, which continues to maintain its isolationism, Elinor Jana has received condolence niques from every nation-state on Mars.

Stay tuned for ongoing reports updating this story. And remember to buy Olympus Bread made from good Tharsian wheat. If it doesn’t say “Olympus” it isn’t real bread.

* * *

C. MANA’S STATEMENT ON THE DESTRUCTION OF SAN DAMIEN Februari 40, 754 NC (March 10, 2990 OE)

To the people of Xanthe:

The Martian Armed Native Alliance condemns Trad government discrimination against the Numen people; condemns the Trad nation-states’ shortsighted abandonment of confederation tefo projects; and condemns Trad encroachment on Numen territory in the Martian Beyond.

Nonetheless, MANA reaffirms its commitment to peaceful negotiation with the governments of Xanthe, Solisland and Albion. We deplore yesterday’s act of violence that destroyed the San Damien dome and took the lives of over 700 people.

We especially mourn the loss of 281 known Numen settlers, including several known descendants of the First Families...

* * *

D. AIRPOST LETTER: ABSALOM POUND TO ADRIAN MARLOW (March 12, 2990)

Marlow,

The Ministry of Habitation Justice extends sincere condolences on the loss of your wife, Anne. She was greatly admired as an experimental botanist as well as the respected spouse of our ablest litigator. I won’t dwell on the injustice of someone being murdered in an act of profound ingratitude by the very people she was endeavoring to assist.

While you no doubt wish to be alone with your grief, I want you to know without qualification that the Numen will pay for this crime against Mars and the Trads of Xanthe.

I cannot as yet give you details on the entity that perpetrated this tragedy. However, I can assure you that the XPF is presently weighing potential military responses. After Monday’s memorial, I will beg a few minutes of your time to discuss potential legal action.

I can tell you that the Numen terrorist group that blew up San Damien is an offshoot of MANA called the Red Daggers. They transmitted a nique to our government shortly before the blast. I will share its contents with you when it’s declassified in two days. Then we talk business.

Yours very sincerely,

Absalom Pound, AS.h.

Minister of Habitation Justice

XANTHE

* * *

E. LETTER FROM ADRIAN MARLOW TO ANNE MARLOW (March 16, 2990)

Dearest Anne:

Miranda and I said good-bye to you this morning. She’ll heal eventually, but to lose a mother so young tears at my heart. My God, all of Miranda’s life that you’ll never see!

I’m wearing the wedding ring you wore when they found you. I can’t part with it just yet. When the time comes, I’ll give it to Miranda. But not yet. For now, I’ll wear it next to mine.

I never expected to become a widower at 43. I thought we’d grow old together. You’d leave the university, I’d retire from Habitation Justice. We’d find a little place together somewhere remote; Tempe Terra, maybe. Watch the sunset. Bicker. Make love. I still can’t believe it. I feel like I will never love again.

I read that poem you wrote as part of the eulogy. “Forgive the rose its bloody thorn...” I broke down. I wanted to say more. How incredibly fortunate I was to be married to a woman named Anne Fierro, that sly sparkling girl from Espanola clear on the other side of Mars.

I wanted to tell them about how you left your family behind all those years ago to marry a young Xanthean advocate named Adrian Marlow. That you had laughing brown eyes and a fiery temper. That you made my heart skip a beat every time I saw you. How do I go on without you?

I’ve received orders from Absalom Pound. He’s a right bastard, Anne, but I answer to him. He wants me to serve as chief prosecutor against the San Damien terrorists. There are other advocates he could have chosen, but I think he wants me in the spotlight because of you. He wants to milk sympathy for the brave government advocate who seeks justice for the death of his wife. Even though he talks about Xanthe how easily he slides into the Machiavellian tricks he learned growing up in that hell-hole, Zantium. I hate the idea of my grief over you being used this way. But God help me, I want revenge. Desperately.

Pound says that Elinor Jana specifically asked for me. You see, Henry was also killed in the attack. Assassinated, though I’m not sure whoever did this knew Henry’s last-minute plans to attend. The Numen aren’t that smart. I would damn every one of that cursed race to hell if I could. I’m sorry, but that’s how I feel. A group called the Red Daggers took responsibility. A violent offshoot of MANA. It will probably be an open-and-shut case. We’ll get a quick trial. Then some executions.

I never knew the hatred I was capable of, Anne! The Numen are monsters inside and out. Devil eyes that look like fire, gorilla chests... Subhuman freaks who have no souls. Ah, forgive me this tirade. I recognize the ugliness of what I just said, but I’m only human. I hear your voice in my head chiding me, saying, “Well, so are they!”

This prosecution... I need to do it. My course is set. Anne, know that I will always love you.

Your grieving husband,

Adrian

* * *

F. RED DAGGER MANIFESTO (dated Febrari 39, 754 NC [March 9, 2990 OE] (Declassified March 15, 2990 OE)

To the Government of Xanthe and the Trad Nations of Mars:

We, the Red Daggers, hold you accountable!

Given the abject failure of the Trad governments and people of Mars:

1. to end illegal squatting on Numen lands in the Beyond;
2. to repair and maintain the protective satellite array; and
3. to resume long-promised terraforming efforts,

We, the seven founding members of the Red Daggers, assert our right to compel solutions through acts of extraordinary protest. We make no idle threats. To demonstrate, by the time you receive this nique, an explosion of unnatural force will have taken place in San Damien. You will see that Time is on our side.

Signed: THE RED DAGGERS

• Esau Lund, Captain
• Raju Treefort, Deputy Captain
• Chark Assails-the-Cliff
• Bram Barker
• Manxla Lev’n
• Phillip Kokua
• Devon Quindes

Proceed to Chapter 3...

Copyright © 2023 by Brian Yapko