The Sublime Seven by Nicki Huntsman Smith

Author:Nicki Huntsman Smith [Smith, Nicki Huntsman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-05-19T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5 – Responsibility and Accountability with a Moral Restraint Rider

Mars Southern Pole Colony (United Nations jurisdiction) – 2157 CE

Jaeda sipped the last dregs of her coffee. It had been cold an hour ago, and now it was practically java slush. Even with the base’s advanced climate control system, nothing stayed warm for long here, including human bodies. She shivered as she sat in the small combination work office and sleeping quarters, peering at the IT screen on her desk. It was archaic, one of the reasons she loved it. Everyone else had long ago switched to AVR implants, or at least headsets, which connected them effortlessly to the HIVE and to each other. The problem with the AVRs, however, was twofold: first, the privacy setting was easily hacked, and second, there was too damn much thought-noise. All those colonists, both enlisted and civilian, and all their brain activity while on the HIVE created a kind of ambient background hum that was annoying as hell.

They said she was imagining that hum, but she knew better.

Mars should be quiet, but it wasn’t. Jaeda knew exactly how loud an overpopulated planet could be. She had been born on Earth with its eleven billion souls, all of whom lived on the thirteen percent of the planet’s remaining habitable land surface. From a young age, she knew what her future would look like. She had been genetically engineered for it. Jaeda could tolerate increased radiation and low gravity better than the Norms on Earth. She had spent much of her childhood in a pressurized dome in Colorado to prepare for an off-world career – and also because of the frequent air-quality alerts.

Before arriving at the MSPC, she expected to be more at ease in its artificial atmosphere than she had ever felt in any forest or on any mountain or seashore. Some might consider that a sad thing, but not Jaeda. What was disappointing was the noise. Through all the years of training, she had looked forward to the peacefulness of Mars. But after landing on the red planet, she realized she would have to venture outside the biosphere without a suit to find the anticipated silence.

But if she did that, she would be dead within three minutes.

Her fingers tapped mid-air at the v-board, which was connected to the IT screen, which was connected to the HIVE, otherwise known as the High-Functioning Integrated Virtual Ethernet. Besides her, the only people who used the virtual keyboards were the old guys in Command. And the Colonel, of course. It didn’t get more old-school than him.

The thought made her smile. Then she turned her attention back to the newest requisition order from the colonists in Omega pod. Those Meggies were a tush-twinge.

A sharp rapping at her office door made the v-board disappear under her fingertips. That happened when her concentration wavered.

“JD, the big guy wants you. In his quarters, not COM,” a young male voice said through the speaker.

“What? Why?” she said, pressing a fingerprint against a button on the side of her desk.

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