San Damien and the Red Daggers
by Brian Yapko
Chapter 10: The Red Ocean of Mars
conclusion
Willing herself to move, Miranda checked the kron. It was 06:40 on October 26, 2990. She had read and dozed through most of the night, losing track of time. She swallowed a stimulant and downed it with cold coffee. She then carefully placed the file of bamboo papers titled In Re: San Damien back into its envelope.
She wiped at tears that unexpectedly appeared on her cheeks. She had never stopped missing her mother. But now, with a terror attack on Habitation Justice and the near-death of her father just one week after Absalom Pound’s death, she was desperately worried for his continued safety. What enemy wanted him dead?
She was now one of only three who knew about Pound’s betrayal of Xanthe. Could it have been some unknown Zantine conspirator seeking revenge? Someone still angry about the Red Daggers? Someone in the upper reaches of Xanthean government?
She thought of her father struggling for his life as some unknown enemy cursed the fact that he still lived. She thought of the Numen boy, Devon Quindes, locked behind bars for the rest of his adult life for a massively consequential error in judgment. She pondered the terrible things humans do to each other and the sometimes unexpected fine ways they manage to prove their brotherhood.
Carrying the San Damien file in its bamboo envelope, she placed a breather over her nose and mouth, wrapped a moon-scarf around her neck and head and — avoiding the nods of fellow graduate students — slipped out of the dormitory building.
She walked purposefully to the fjord bank of Mareotis where the Baurean Ocean had an arm that reached far south into Xanthean territory. She walked down to the edge of the cliff with the envelope containing the San Damien file held against her breast. Marlow had intended it for no one’s eyes but hers anyway.
When she got to the cliff’s edge, she stared down at the sea ten meters below. The waters swirled crimson with the mud of Mars. Miranda hesitated. Then she remembered that blood meant life as well as death. She quietly dropped the San Damien file into an infant ocean which would one day be home to everything from krill to whales. The Baurean Ocean’s combination of salt and biocharge would dissolve the bamboo documents in a matter of minutes.
She hesitated before returning to the dorm building. She looked out at the waves lapping at the ancient Martian cliffs in the distance. She would send a hawk signal to her father in a few minutes. And she would visit him at the Xanthe Military Hospital tomorrow. She would call Habitation Justice’s security center to ensure he was properly guarded. Adrian Marlow would not die. And there would be no more secrets between them.
Phobos appeared on the horizon. She frowned. To hell with fear, she thought and turned her attention back to the Baurean Ocean’s red waters. Miranda finally realized how proud she was of her father. Under the breather, she smiled to herself at what a miracle it was: how planets and people can change.
Copyright © 2023 by Brian Yapko
