Red Eden: Sons of Mars | Chapter 3: Mother's Scolding
Jack accompanied Ellen and Doctor Sorenson up a mountainous path towards the bunker entrance. They passed through a double layer of blast doors and stepped into an elevator at the central hall of the facility. Ellen pressed the button for level 3.
“What are you going to say to Gabriella?” Jack asked.
“I'm going to goad her into attacking,” Ellen replied.
Jack raised the body he held in his arms. “And you want me going in with you? Like this?”
“That's the plan,” Ellen whispered. The elevator opened and she walked down a corridor.
Jack followed, shaking his head. “This feels like a scummy move.”
“Gabriella needs to see the consequences of her actions. Make her mad enough to send her full force against us. Then we spring our trap.”
“I don't think she cares enough about her daughters to get mad at this. She wouldn't use them as meat shields otherwise.”
“She cares for her daughters like a little girl cares for her dolls,” Doctor Sorenson said.
“She strikes me as the kind of girl who'd mutilate her dolls for fun,” Jack said.
“Yes, but they're her dolls,” Sorenson said. “She doesn't like it when other girls play with her things. She will send her toy soldiers to rescue her little dollies.”
Jack grimaced, disgusted by Sorenson's framing of this discussion. “Know much about her psychology, do ya? You her therapist?”
“Perhaps.”
“Perhaps you ought to answer straight or I'll have Derek dissect you to see what you're made of. Animatronics is his speciality.”
“You're angry because I couldn't save your father.”
“My problem is you won't tell us the full truth about who you are.”
“I opposed Gabriella's regime and continue to oppose her to this day. Before that, I was a medical doctor. What more do you want to know? Where I went to school? How I met my first wife?”
“Where's your wife? Why's it just you? Why didn't you use your knowledge to take over the world once Gabriella was out of the picture?”
“I have no such ambition.”
“Who nuked the atmosphere, fried the world's electrical grid and caused billions to die in a post-technological apocalypse?”
“I don't know.”
“Liar.”
“Both of you be quiet,” Ellen said. “We're about to speak with Gabriella.” She stopped before a door and waved her hand over a sensor to open it.
“I'll wait out here,” Doctor Sorenson said.
Jack followed Ellen into an empty domed chamber. The walls and ceiling glowed with an ambient white light. Ellen pulled her visor out of a hidden pocket in her suit and slipped it over her eyes. She manipulated her virtual interface with her hands. The chamber walls flickered. A few seconds later, they were standing inside a garden walled in by a natural cliff. A waterfall roared in the distance. The churning of water threw up a cloud of white mist that drifted across the landscape.
“Your arms must be tired,” Ellen said. “Put her down.”
Jack gently laid down the body of the little girl on the virtual grass. “So what now? We just wait here?”
“I've sent her a message.”
“You know how to reach her?”
“If Sorenson is right, she's in a bunker somewhere in Whales. The underground cables connecting the world's communications infrastructure might still be intact, but the relay stations have all been fried. I've found a way to fill in the gaps using our satellites, assuming her bunker's satellite-dish still works.”
“Didn't you say she's called you before?”
“She was using a confiscated smart-visor. She must have discarded it when she realized we could use it to track her.”
A ghostly apparition shimmered before them. Within seconds, the apparition resolved into a clear and photo-realistic hologram of Gabriella. It was as if she were standing in the garden with them. She still wore her silver and white regalia. Her gaze shifted from Ellen, then to Jack, and finally down to the body on the floor. She gave Ellen an icy stare. “What is the meaning of this, girl?”
Ellen crossed her hands behind her back, stood tall and squared her shoulders. “I'm sorry to inform you that one of your daughters died during our rescue operation. The rest of them are safe in our custody.”
Gabriella scowled. “You killed her.”
“Her death is on you, not me.”
Gabriella balled her hands into fists and clenched her teeth. “You callous bitch. How dare you?”
Jack shifted his feet uncomfortably. Either Gabriella was an incredible actress, or she really did care about her daughters.
“You should have surrendered when I gave you the chance,” Ellen said. “You endangered your daughters by putting them in harm's way.”
“Bloodthirsty wench. You've killed hundreds of your own kind! Women. Children. Old men. Is there no line you wouldn't cross?”
“You used them as pawns. You surround yourself with innocent lives in order to shield yourself from justice. You're a coward.”
“How are you able to contact me?”
“I'm a smart girl, and I'm learning a lot about you and your secrets. Surrender before anymore of your daughters die in the crossfire.”
“Is that a threat?” Gabriella looked at Jack. “Look at what you've done. Your reckless actions have caused the death of an innocent girl. Now you threaten to harm more of my daughters. How can you justify this?”
Jack averted her gaze.
“Look at me, Jack.”
He twisted the left side of his lips in a display of discomfort. He met her gaze and asked her, “Did you threaten to shoot down the Hiigara?”
“What? I did no such thing. Is that what Ellen told you? She's lying.”
Jack looked at Ellen. “Really?”
Ellen twisted her visage and bared her teeth. “They don't call her the Mother of Lies for nothing.”
“What proof do you have that I threatened to shoot down innocent civilians?” Gabriella asked. “Did you record the conversation?”
Ellen shook her head. “Don't listen to her, Jack.”
“Yet we have clear and incontrovertible evidence that you people are more than willing to kill civilians,” Gabriella said. “I'll have you know I am recording this entire sordid and pathetic attempt to frighten me with veiled threats against my daughters. I will broadcast this across the world and to Mars as well. I don't know much about the laws and customs of your world, but surely the murder of children is beyond the pale even for you.”
This was going downhill fast. Jack looked at Ellen. She was visibly shaking, whether from rage or fear he couldn't tell.
“Well?” Gabriella asked. “Haven't you anything to say for yourself, girl?”
Ellen said nothing. Her face was stone-cold.
“You alright?” Jack whispered.
“Jack,” Gabriella said pleadingly, “you must depose this mad tyrant. She is unwell. Unfit to lead your people. I know you are a good man, aside from that time you broke your word with me, but I can forgive you if you would kindly please step forward and show some moral backbone. Your people deserve a better lea-”
Gabriella's hologram disappeared.
Ellen choked out a sob, retreated until she hit an invisible wall, slid down and curled into a ball. She started crying into her knees.
Jack was taken aback by her abrupt breakdown. He crouched next to her and put his arm around her shoulders. “Don't let her get to you.” He gave her a reassuring squeeze. “She's just trying to get under your skin.”
“God, I was supposed to get under her skin. I really screwed this up, didn't I?”
“You can't hurt bad people by telling them they've done bad things, but you can certainly hurt good people this way. This was a losing play from the start.”
“What a fool I am.”
“Ah. Live and learn.”
Ellen hiccoughed. “My father thinks I've gone mad. The Board of Directors – they're going to name me in the Book of Debts, for war crimes. Maybe they're right. I've done wrong. I don't deserve to lead our people. Maybe I deserve to die for what I've done.”
“Wow. Gabby really got to you, didn't she? Don't talk like that. Don't even think like that. This is what she wants.”
Ellen nodded. “Thank you for your strength, Jack. I can't let anyone else see me like this. Please give me a moment alone to collect my thoughts.”
Jack made a zipping motion across his lips. “This never happened.”
Ellen pointed at the girl's body. “And take her away. I can't bear to look at her any longer.” Her words devolved into a garbled mess towards the end. She sobbed into her hands.
It pained Jack to see her like this. He stood up, picked up the dead girl and stepped outside.
In the hallway, Doctor Sorenson was leaning on the opposite wall with his arms crossed. “What happened in there?”
When the door closed behind Jack, he shook his head. “She got scolded.”
Sorenson snorted. “I feared as much.”
It got on Jack's nerves that Sorenson said that in such a way as to imply that Ellen hadn't performed to expectation. Jack put the girl's body down and lunged at the Doctor, grabbing the Doc by his collar and growling into his face. “You put her up to this. Now we look like the bad guys, displaying a dead girl's body like we're threatening to kill more!”
Sorenson flared his nostrils. “And who is making that judgement?”
“If Mars sees how many-”
“Mars will see nothing. As I understand, Ellen has complete control over the satellite constellation orbiting Earth, no?”
“Where you going with this?”
“As long as you are the victor, you get to write the history. Nobody will know what happened on this planet.”
“There are lines we don't cross.”
“You've already crossed them.” Sorenson slowly grabbed Jack's wrists and pried Jack's hands off his collar. “Do not handicap yourself with your principles because Gabriella has none and she will use your principles against you.”
Jack loathed this cagey snake more than ever now. “Get out. We don't need your counsel.”
“You do, and I'll be around to give it. Ellen can ring me up any time she likes.” Sorenson brushed past Jack and walked back to the elevator hall.
Link to table of content:
https://www.minds.com/ME2007Vigil/blog/red-eden-sons-of-mars-table-of-content-967907646284259328
Red Eden: Sons of Mars is the sequel to my first book, Red Eden: Homeworld Bound. To catch up on this series, please click the following link, which will re-direct you to the table of content:
https://www.minds.com/ME2007Vigil/blog/red-eden-homeworld-bound-table-of-content-913570321625583616
You can purchase the full novel on Amazon at this link: