THE GATHERING OF HEROES
The day real war preparations began, the Tower at Pavonis Spaceport was monitoring the upper atmosphere on meteor watch. Objects coming in from the Asteroid Belt are commonplace on Mars and, though not the hazard they create in the Galilean, sometimes pose a danger to shipping.
Object over Iapygia Quadrangle,” said one voice.
“Any danger?” came the query.
“Looks like it’s already breaking up. There are two pieces. They’re heading for Hellas Basin.”
“Isn’t there a scientific study going on there?”
“Those people are at the South Pole now. No settlements in its path. We’ll report it and see if anybody wants to investigate the impact area later in case there’s something valuable in the meteorite.”
“Okay.”
The incident was filed away.
***
Fancy Dancer and the Belter ship Aegis came down in the depths of Hellas, the deepest hole on Mars, almost exactly on the other side of the planet from the spaceport. The circular impact basin, some 2000 kilometres wide and seven kilometres deep, was created in the Noachis Epoch four billion years ago, when the planet was new. Later on, it filled with water and became a land-locked sea in the southern hemisphere, and then it dried up like the rest of Mars and became a vast dune-field sometime before the rise of the dinosaurs. The two ships huddled in the lee of the western rim, called the Hellespontus Ridge, and communicated on a tight beam.
“Are you certain we won’t be found here?” Eric asked.
“Certain?” Aaron said. “No. But it’s unlikely. There was an attempt to do some mining here once, about twenty years ago, hoping to find asteroidal metal, but this is so far away from the spaceport and anything of value is buried so deep that the plan was dropped. The Argyre Crater, to the west of here, very close to the Mariner Valley, was a much better mining prospect. The Argyre Strike had thrown metals up into the surrounding ridges, close to the surface, and a mine there, mostly worked by prisoners, has been profitable for decades. Also, the dust-storms are particularly terrible here. The one attempt to set up a mining town nearby was a disaster and the High Companies never tried it again.”
“I have been listening to the chatter from Pavonis,” Fancy Dancer said. “There will be no investigation regarding our arrival. Not for a while.”
“Okay then,” Wog said. “Next stop, Margaritifer.” Fancy Dancer rose into the air and Aegis rose beneath her, to take advantage of the Martian camouflage on the upper hull of the larger ship. They sped northward, flying low over rugged terrain, toward the Margaritifer Sinus, and in short order landed outside the commune. The twenty-odd souls on board, Martian and Belter and Free Trader, were welcomed into the main dome, where barracks had been set up.
There was a meeting, featuring decrypted reports from Atalanta, Fancy Dancer, and Maggie Moto. Karil and Loris and Jay were expected soon. The attack would begin the instant the Bow of Hercules arrived and engaged the Poseidon Earthshaker. Aaron, with Li as second-in-command, would be in charge of the surface assault, putting the Quasi-Police sand-rovers out of combat and seizing the elevator to the spaceport. Wog and Gay would lead an assault on High Mars, with Genia as guide. She was nearly finished with detailed plans of the colony, remembered from her childhood, when she had watched her father build a model in his study. Eric and the Belters would take on Grim-Visaged Ares and its fighters, along with more Belter support which was on its way. Karil and Loris would lead an Ancilius Group assault team into the Pavonis Tower and extract Terry. Jay would be in command, co-ordinating from Command Headquarters in the Tharsis Commune. Just how much of this battle-plan would survive the first shot Aaron had no idea, but that first shot—from the Bow of Hercules—would be literally a bolt out of the blue down Poseidon’s throat.
On their way to bed—a young couple had kindly given up their room in the commune—Aaron and Li were shown what someone hoped would be Aaron’s command-car. It sat in the hangar and the young man who had built it showed it off with pride. It was basically a sand-rover, but he called it the Sand-Prowler. It had enhanced suspension and a powerful engine, and on top was a revolving gun-dome turret with rocket-launchers and lasers. Chi-Chi Li’s face lit up at the sight of it. She swung in through the lock, climbed up the ladder, and spun the turret around. Then she gave Aaron and the young engineer two thumbs up.
“I have a feeling I’ll be driving,” Aaron said. He climbed in and sat at the controls. They were close enough to the tried-and-true sand-rover controls that he could already understand them, but there were screens galore, so he could interact with a dozen other vehicles. There were also weapons in the bow.
“It’s based on a Quasi-Police vehicle,” the young man said, when they finally came out, “but of course it’s much better. Do you want to name it? I could put a name on it tonight.”
“Battle of Qadesh,” Aaron said.
“What’s that?”
“One of the best documented battles in history. Egyptians versus Hittites, 1274 BC. They say there were 6000 chariots.” He went to a nearby screen and typed it out. “Qadesh with a Q. Alternate spelling, but it’s the cool one. The place is actually in Israel.”
They retired to bed. Chi-Chi Li was extraordinarily aggressive. Aaron was gentle and kissed her scarred, burned body lovingly.
***
The next day, Wog and Gay gave Aaron and Li a lift to the Tharsis, so they could get a look at the proposed battlefield. Fancy Dancer took off from the Margaritifer and headed west above the high, dusty plains south of the Mariner Valley. Dust-devils whirled, merging and separating below, sometimes torn apart by the ship’s passing. It was clear that the storm season was revving up in the Sinai and Syria Plains.
The high shield volcano of Arsia Mons thrust up in their path. They rose up the southern slope and sped across the broad plain of the caldera, carefully avoiding the structures along its edge, until Wog and Gay settled Fancy Dancer on the northern rim. On the distant horizon, they could see Pavonis against the sky. Aaron and Li climbed down into the astrogator’s well and studied the magnified image of the mountain on the big screen. An aerial troop-carrier emerged from the port and sped off toward the Labyrinth of Night.
“Do you really think Loris and Karil could pirate one of those things?” Li asked.
“If anybody can, they can,” Wog said.
“I’m certain,” Fancy crooned, “that Atalanta can send a call for backup that will be believed, and when the ship lands, they can seize it. They have done something similar before. Atalanta can copy any voice and produce a perfectly accurate Quasi-Police message. A freetrader AI cannot be used in warships, as it cannot be relied on to obey orders to kill. But trussing up a shipload of soldiers and locking them in a room is perfectly acceptable to any of us, if we trust our human crew not to harm them.”
“Fancy,” Aaron said, “can you pan down to the bottom of the elevator?”
“Of course, Aaron.” There were a number of buildings, surrounded by high fences and clustered around the freight-elevator doors. Dozens of sand-crawlers were parked in the lot. The elevated magnetic accelerator was once again under construction—the proposed mag-lev train from the mountain, down through the Mariner Valley to the Margaritifer and beyond. When completed, it promised to reduce weeks of travel to less than a day, the trains zipping across the landscape at 242 kph, the Martian speed of sound. It would, of course, make the Quasi-Police that much more efficient at maintaining order. Right now, construction was being slowed down by the Badlands of the Noctis Labyrinthus. Aaron could see a number of giant earthmovers trundling about.
“Fancy, can you pan east and zoom in on one of those machines?”
“Of course, Aaron.”
It reminded Aaron of nothing so much as a giant ant. There were six jointed legs supporting it, a trifurcate body, and a driver’s cab in the front with round viewport lenses like an insect’s compound eye. The digging tool in the front looked like the mandibles of an army ant soldier. It walked moving three legs at a time, so it always stood on a tripod, like an insect. It even had antennae. It was so huge a man could walk upright beneath it.
“That’s exactly what the Myrmidons should have,” Aaron laughed. “I’ve got to get my hands on two or three of those. It could tear down those fences without even trying and toss sand-crawlers aside like toys. My guess is that it’s impervious to small-arms fire. You’d need an airship to take it down, if the quartz in those eyes is as thick as it looks.”
“Well, then,” Wog said. “I guess you’ve got to put in an order with Karil and Loris.”
“You’ll be needing this, then,” Fancy added. The specs of a sand-mover appeared on the screen, along with the maintenance and driving instructions.
“That’s amazing,” Aaron said. “Where did that come from?”
Martian Mining and Manufacturing archives,” the ship replied. “And this is from the company that builds ships for the Quasi-Police.” The plans of the atmospheric-flight troop-carrier popped up on the screen, including a detailed look at the pilot’s station.
Wog peered at the image. “It looks like any decent shuttle pilot could fly this,” he said. “I could do it; Gay could do it; Loris could do it in her sleep.”
***
A meeting was held in Governor Almak’s office. Once again, Admiral Darius, Major Alexander, and Captain Solla appeared before him. Clearly, the Governor was unhappy.
“Solla,” he began, “This is getting tiresome.”
“Sir…”
“I’m talking, Solla. I was pleased when your operatives managed to spirit away Loris and Karil from under the noses of Galilean Security, but you assured me they would be secure, separated from each other and their ship. Now, all three of them are free and no doubt together, a thorn in our side again. Plus, one of the most powerful CEOs of the High Companies, our boss I must point out, is dead and the repercussions will be unpleasant, to say the least.
“Not only that, but Admiral Darius succeeded in capturing the heads of both the MLF and the Ancilius Group and they were held securely, we thought, at High Venus, which I must point out is also under your jurisdiction. That place is supposed to be unescapable, but not only did they both escape, they took a small army of prisoners with them and stole our weapons to arm them. Now, they could be anywhere.”
“I believe they are here, Governor.”
“Here?”
“On Mars.”
“Do you have any evidence of this?”
“Not exactly, Sir, but I’m sure of it.”
The Governor sat for a moment. “In other words, Solla, you have a feeling about it.”
“Yes, Sir. It’s what they would do. It’s what I would do in their place. Terry was taken at the same time as they were, in the same operation. Their fondest wish would be to see her freed from our custody. Ben David and Li, Loris and Karil, stopped to gather weapons at great risk to themselves. They have ships and weapons and soldiers. They are here, on this planet. I would…”
He was about to say he would stake his reputation on it but decided not to. The Governor turned to Alexander. “Tell me Terry is secure, at least.”
“She is surrounded by my own hand-picked men. She is under constant surveillance. I check up on her every day. The tower is impregnable.”
“Humph! I heard the same about High Venus and Solla’s little camp in the Mississippi rainforest. I too have my hand-picked men, Alexander, and I am told you presented Terry with an anti-surveillance device.”
“I’m glad your spies think so, Sir, because that means she probably thinks so too. She is talking to me again. If she is to be anything more than a hostage to us, we must keep her engaged and talking. There is no other entertainment or diversion available to her but my conversation.”
“You’re trying to seduce her, aren’t you?”
“I don’t think that’s possible, Sir, even if I desired it. But I am trying to be as disarming as I can.”
“I don’t believe in coddling prisoners, Alexander,” said the Governor. “I assume the enhanced rations for the Martian prisoners is part of your plan, but I don’t like it.”
“If she lets slip some valuable information, Sir, it will be worth the expense. If we treat her harshly, it will only harden her resolve.”
“Very well. Continue your present course. But if her followers launch an attack of some sort, as Solla fears, she will be treated harshly indeed, as that will prove her useless as a hostage.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
“As for you, Solla, you probably expect to be sent back to Venus.”
“It did cross my mind, Sir.”
“Well, there are other plans for Venus. The High Companies are thinking of the private sector.”
“Sir?”
“Other prisons have been turned over to civilian corporations and it has proven profitable to us. We are talking with Feronia Industries about it. Anyway, you are certainly not going to be in charge of Venus anymore. I think Martians are not an object of hatred to you, but of interest. You are too intellectual, Solla, and regard them as something to study, as you did Progeny. You will be reduced to the rank of Lieutenant and put in command of the defence of the Tharsis Base. If you find Martians shooting at you, perhaps you will come to look upon them as dangerous instead of fascinating.
“But we will be strengthening our defences, in case you are correct. You will notify us if you come across any evidence of an attack. Alexander, you will strengthen the defences of the Spaceport, in case they intend to use one of their ships, and if they attack, you will destroy them and Terry as well. Admiral, you will keep the Poseidon in orbit with an eye to defending High Mars and destroying any Martian incursions on the surface. Dismissed.”
Solla descended the elevator to the base of Pavonis, put on a pressure suit and stepped out through the lock onto the surface. He studied the security fences and the armed and armoured sand-crawlers and sand-rovers, and the empty desert outside. He decided not to strengthen the defences. If Aaron Ben David or Karil and Loris intended to attack, he did not want to discourage them. His career depended on killing or capturing them. The surface of Mars was too large an area to search, and they would have the support of all the populace—too many to torture or interrogate for information. Judging by history, they would come out of the Labyrinth of Night in a sandstorm and try to seize control of the bottleneck that this ridiculous freight elevator represented. They would not put their faith in technology, but in Mars.
***
The meteorite-watch desk at Pavonis recorded another meteorite trajectory into the southern hemisphere. A dust storm had buried most of the Noachis wastes and the strike was swallowed up harmlessly in the largely uninhabited quadrant.
Atalanta sat on the surface as the winds whistled over her and the view through the port was obscured by the roiling dust. Arachne powered up her magnetics another notch to make her place secure above. Jay and Brandy were strapped into the bridge-passenger couches flanking Loris at the helm, and Baby Snakes occupied a jump-seat next to Karil in the astrogator’s well. She peered out through the port.
“You know, when you said Mars was a desert planet,” she told him, “I thought it must be like Kansas. But this is…special.”
Karil glanced at Jay and Brandy in the mirror. “Are you feeling at home, up there?”
“Actually, yes,” Jay laughed. “But I’m just as glad not to be in a sand-crawler out there.”
“Have no fear,” Atty said. “I have a perfect topographical map of the entire planet. I know every ridge and crater between here and Margartifer.”
“Okay, then,” Loris said. “Take us there.”
“Northeast it is,” The ship crooned. She rose just a few meters above the surface, and the ground-effect radar-map appeared on the big screen in front of Karil. They watched the terrain slide beneath them as she carefully avoided every obstacle dotting the southern plains. The human beings were left entirely out of the process. In fact, they unstrapped and climbed out of the bridge to gather in the galley. They sat there chatting among themselves as the winds howled and shrieked outside.
“I don’t know what we’d do without you Free Traders,” Brandy said. “This whole assault depends on co-ordinating among the three ships.”
“That’s exactly right,” said Jay. “The surface-attacks have to take place just as the Bow of Hercules engages the Poseidon. Too soon and the Quasi will be alerted, too late and they won’t be sufficiently distracted. The Poseidon must be engaged before the assault on High Mars begins, or our own ships will be blown out of the skies. Every Quasi defence must be completely engaged before the rescue operation begins.”
“Like this,” Atty said. On the screen over the table appeared a timeclock indicating every troop-movement. Despite feeling her way through the storm like a blind man with a cane, Atty was fully engaged in their conversation. And making coffee. The High Companies, Karil thought, could have the benefit of the same artificial intelligence. All they had to do was stop murdering people. But of course, that was how they gained power in the first place.
“Ladies and Gentlemen,” Atty said at last, “We are approaching the Margaritifer Commune.”
The party adjourned to the bridge. Through the port, they could barely see the illuminated domes and the hatch-towers looming out of the gale. Fancy Dancer and Aegis were barely visible moored next to them. The ship mated with the lock with a muffled clang, and the hatches irised open to them.
The welcoming committee included Aaron and Li, Wog and Gay, plus the Margaritifer elders. Soon, they were all seated, laughing and talking, in the big dining hall, surrounded by children and noise and delicious fragrances. Even below ground, they could hear the wind howling, but it had lost its eerie power. Karil leaned close to Loris.
“This is what we’re fighting for,” he said.
“I know. Almost makes you want to settle down, doesn’t it?”
“Almost,” he said.
The Margies had opened their hearts and their bedrooms to their intrepid guests, as resident couples and kids bunked together in big piles. Young men and women took advantage to share their quarters. Some camped out in the garden dome. Not even the maelstrom outside could dampen their fun. That night, Wog and Gay coupled wildly with free trader abandon and inventiveness. Aaron and Li were tender and loving, knowing they would soon be fighting for their lives. Jay and Brandy snuggled warmly, thinking of Terry. Karil and Loris shared their hungry little savage with fierce joy. They could hear Atalanta crooning in the background.
***
Sometime during the night, the storm ended, and Mars paused to build up its strength for the next tempest. At her request, Karil and Loris brought Chi-Chi Li to her home commune in the Chryse lowlands near the Kasei Vallis. They settled to Earth outside the beautiful domed structure and a shuttle was sent out for them. Karil and Loris waited in the garden dome amid the splashing waterfalls and flowering trees and lily ponds—Loris was soon lost in meditation and Karil watched her with affection—while Chi-Chi Li went in to speak with Grandfather.
Grandfather was in fact more likely her great-great-grandfather, as no-one knew how old he was anymore. He sat in his powered chair while the machine breathed for him, and Li bowed over his hand. He placed his wizened palm on her head and felt her scarred face. His artificial voice came through the chair’s speakers. Their conversation was in Chinese.
“You have chosen a hard life for yourself, Little One.”
“I have fought ignorance and lies and cruelty, Grandfather, and it has fought back.”
“The family came to Mars to be free,” he said, “But we found only more slavery. It is you who fight for that freedom. I see that now.”
She caught her breath and tears filled her dark eyes. “Will you forgive me for leaving home in anger, Grandfather?”
“Willingly, My Daughter. I am proud of you. Your anger is righteous and pure. Perhaps you will win freedom for all of us.”
“It’s my goal.”
He kissed her forehead, and she was enveloped in the wheezing of his artificial lungs.
“Please see that you do not die for that freedom, Little One. Return in triumph to us. Perhaps you will wish to be clan-mother someday. I think no-one can be a fiercer defender of the family. My blessing.”
“Thank you, Father.”
When Karil saw her return to the garden, he opened his arms and hugged her. Loris came and embraced her as well.
“I assume it was okay,” he laughed.
She joined in the merriment. “He ordered me not to die.”
“Always good advice.”
She chuckled through her tears. “You know what Aaron said to me last night? He said: Your people and my people have something in common. Too much history.”
They hugged her again.
“So,” she said, “Let’s go and give those motherfuckers hell.”
***
Arriving back at Margaritifer, they noticed that the Aegis was no longer moored next to Fancy Dancer. When they cycled through the lock, they were met by Jay and Aaron. Li threw herself into Aaron’s arms and he grinned.
“We’ve been—well—reviewing the troops,” Jay said. “Come and look.” He led them into the underground hangar. The Aegis had been hauled inside, as it was small enough to fit through the sand-crawler lock. Karil and Loris were glad to have the opportunity to see the Aegis close up. The little ship was impressive, and Karil admired the steel-work shield on the bow with Medusa’s coiling serpents and hypnotic eyes.
“This is your work?” Loris asked Sarissa.
“Yes, About the only one left.”
“Beautiful. Very impressive.”
With Arachne happily doing the heavy lifting, the team was mounting attack lasers on the tiny ship.
“Most Belter ships are quite well-armed,” Eric said, “because of the claim-jumpers. It’s kind of a Wild West Show out there. But we made sure we had no weapons because of our involvement with the Rebellion. Not that we were spared by the High Companies, who put us out of business. I’m hoping to see the Earthshaker put down like a rabid dog, actually.”
“So am I,” said Aaron. “We’ve been hearing rumours of Belters from here to Jupiter thinking along the same lines. The Earthshaker is a frequent visitor to the Belt, and it’s the biggest bully on the block.” He turned to Karil and Loris. “Come on. I want to show you something else.”
They made their way up the ramp to the residence dome and into the conference room. A complex floorplan was on the screen and half a dozen people stood before it in animated conversation.
“This is Genia,” Aaron said. “Daughter of Professor Daedalus.”
Karil looked at Jay. “Kelley’s co-designer on Nova Terra?”
“And the designer of High Mars,” Aaron said. “And High Venus, which is the reason we’re here. We never would have made our way out of there if not for him and Genia.”
Karil and Loris were impressed by the young woman, dressed like a soldier but holding an electronic pointer in her hand like a lecturer. She carried herself like an officer.
“This is High Mars,” Jay said. “Genia sketched it by memory from her studies as a child. We’ve been poring over it because none of us has ever been inside.”
“Almost no-one has,” Loris said. “Not even spies from Galilean Security, as far as I know. I kind of recognize a touch of Nova Terra, though smaller. And this is all gardens?”
“Every bit of it,” said Jay. “I’ve never seen it either. The basic idea of most space habitats is for the plant-life to preserve itself. Vegetables can be grown more efficiently in an agricultural torus than it can in the landscape cylinders, using the same kind of aeroponics as in Martian communes. Nova Terra or High Europe use three different landscapes to create the same kind of weather patterns as on Earth—dense forest, grasslands, and desert—to maintain the hydrological cycle of air-currents within the cylinder. But the six landscapes in High Mars are based on six kinds of gardens with dwellings within, ironically, I think, based on an essay by Progeny.”
“Really!” said Genia.
“You see, Progeny had a theory that a garden is based on what you don’t have enough of for happiness. An English Cottage Garden, with flowers running riot everywhere, is all about colour, because the English skies are grey most of the time. The two types of Oriental gardens—the Zen Garden and the Teahouse Garden with all the ponds and waterfalls—are all about quiet and solitude, because those things are hard to come by in Japan or Hong Kong. The Classic French or Versailles Garden is all about order, because the French aristocracy was terrified of disorder, and the Moorish or Spanish garden is all about water and shade. The American Colonial Garden, based on the English Landscape Garden of Capability Brown, is all about open lawn, with follies and water-features for accent, because Americans aspired to be English aristocrats. That’s why most Americans were less interested in flowers than a nice lawn. It looks to me like the six gardens here are based on those six ideas.”
“My father,” Genia said, “had some idea that the Martian people would be able to visit these gardens. He’s very naïve in a lot of ways. The sad thing is that High Mars, unlike Nova Terra, is not a balanced ecosystem and very wasteful of water.”
Jay pointed out the shuttle bay and the reactors and the control room and all the places a boarding party would need to find. Karil was fascinated. But Aaron pulled him and Loris away and brought them to an exercise room where his teams were training. Some were firing lasers at electronic targets or crossbows at hay-bales, and others were wrestling in hand-to-hand combat. Chi-Chi Li was in her glory at all three and Aaron watched her like a proud parent.
Loris reached up and took down a Kendo Shinai bamboo pole and whirled it about her head.
“Uh-oh,” Karil muttered and backed away.
“Who are you challenging with that thing?” one of the fighters laughed.
“All of you,” Loris said.
They stopped laughing. One by one, they took down Kendo swords and surrounded her. She stood motionless, her eyes flicking from face to face. Somehow, she seemed to be just as aware of those behind her as those in front of her. There took place a complicated dance of figures converging upon her, sticks bouncing off other sticks with a clacking sound and, one by one, figures backed off with grunts of pain.
Karil knew what she was doing. She kept her back to the wall, instinctively kept the door on her right, even though she was not trying to escape, and attacked the most aggressive opponent first. If an opponent’s guard was high, she attacked the solar plexus. In other cases, attacking the low line—the knee or the groin—caused an opponent to bend at the waist, leaving the back of his head vulnerable. Somehow, she maneuvered multiple adversaries into attacking one at a time or getting in each other’s way. None of them knew how she had done it. Karil looked around, and only Aaron Ben David looked at him with a smile that said he knew what was happening. He moved closer to Karil. In a few moments, the only two left standing were Loris and Chi-Chi Li, eyes on each other, breasts heaving.
“Should we stop this?” Aaron whispered.
“What makes you think think we can?” Karil asked.
Loris was at least a foot taller, slim as a dancer and muscular as a swimmer. Li was short and broad-shouldered, with arms like a rower. But somehow, they seemed well matched.
“Me too,” said a voice.
It was Baby Snakes, stripped down to a brief panty, her serpents writhing all over her body as she walked un-self-consciously onto the floor. She had to reach up to take down a Kendo sword, but she managed. It whistled as she spun it around her body. Li and Loris exchanged looks and began to strip off as well. A chorus of cheers went up, and then there was a hush as Loris stood, stripped down to her briefs. All the youngsters fell into silence as the girls vowed to improve their legs and the boys vowed to improve their abs.
Aaron whispered to Karil,” This by you is foreplay?”
“Not if they hurt each other,” he said. He sighed and began to peel off his ship-suit. There was a great clatter as everyone in the room ran for a chair and sat down to watch. Some ran to the door and dragged in others from the corridor.
Karil looked pretty good himself, stripped down to his trunks. A murmur of giggles and whispers swept the room. He took down a kendo-stick like Loris and spun it about, exactly as Loris had done. It was obvious to Aaron that she had trained him thoroughly.
“Two of us are fresh, two of us are tired,” Karil said. “Two of us are trained in exactly the same way. The other two don’t know what to expect. I think it’s Li and me against Loris and Snakes. Do you agree?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.”
“Sure.”
Aaron smiled when he realized that Loris was going to protect Baby Snakes and Karil was going to protect Li, as much as they could. He smiled, and then he heard whispering behind him and realized that credits were changing hands. He turned and his smile faded, to be replaced by furrowed brows and a piercing black gaze. The culprits stopped talking.
“Aren’t they beautiful?” Jay whispered over his shoulder.
“It makes me want to fucking cry,” Aaron said.
Then the dance began, and Aaron watched with awe. He was vaguely aware of Jay and Brandy next to him, looking a little worried, Wog and Gay behind him, laughing and whooping with excitement. He wondered if anyone else had the expertise to see what was going on amid the shuffling and the panting and the clacking sticks, until he locked eyes with Wog, and they grinned at each other. Karil and Loris almost seemed to move as one, so well-matched in training were they.
Mostly, he thought, they countered each other and prevented the others from receiving the most damaging blows. It almost brought tears to his eyes to see Loris blocking Baby Snakes’ enthusiastic blows from harming Chi-Chi Li. Aaron was quite sure she had no idea that was happening. At the same time, Karil was lovingly protective of the lithe little Snakes. Also, Karil protected Loris and Loris protected Karil from the relative clumsiness of Li and Snakes, who were powerful fighters but not trained to pull their strokes sufficiently. If Li were to break Snakes’ collarbone or a rib mere days before the battle, she would feel terrible, he knew.
He looked around the room and saw his whole little army being inspired. In the end, Aaron could see that Li was becoming exhausted and Baby Snakes, however fierce, was outclassed. Karil made a move that allowed Loris to break his stick and he threw it down to end the bout. No-one need be ashamed to have been beaten by Loris, who looked as if she could fight all night. The four embraced each other in a great slippery hug and the crowd erupted in cheers, then crowded around to embrace them all with perhaps a bit too much familiarity, even for Martians. Later, Aaron gently washed Li’s bruised and battered body. In the room next door, the shower ran for a considerable time as Karil and Loris and Baby-snakes scrubbed each other down—a considerable waste of water by Martian standards, but well worth it.