Part One Short Story
The Prometheus Colony, comprised of the cream of the scientific community of top Earth scientists in the fields of agriculture and computer science, hadn’t been heard from for over six months. They had been in place for over four years transmitting raw data on a regular basis regarding progress and success achieved in the arena of agricultural and hybridization of foods, atmospheric conditions and on any and all life forms on the Red Planet, our nearest neighbor in the Solar System.
Agricultural and edgy experimental farming experiments in giant atmosphere controlled multi level greenhouses had within six months made the colony successfully self sufficient in matters of food. They were also becoming quite adept as skilled craftsmen and women fabricating from new and recycled materials in the architectural field of building structures for the colony as needed.
Unmanned drone supply ships arrived every 6 months with requested items primarily for use and research in the development of superior robotics and computers, all in the name of research. No weapons were ever requested and reports of Martian life forms were limited to information of one celled bacteria, hardly a threat to the human men and women of the Prometheus Colony.
Six months had passed since the last transmission from Prometheus headquarters on the surface of Mars in a region astronomers have named Tharsis near Olympus Mons rising high above the surrounding volcanic plains, and is the highest known mountain on any planet in the solar system and is in a vast region which containing several large and highly active and awake volcanoes whose rich red molten lava held fast its secrets from deep within the planet’s surface which could also yield the key to the planet’s past and perhaps the key to the formation of the universe be it big bang or God banging a gong and getting it on.
The lack of communication and reportage, although numerous attempts at eliciting a response had failed, prompted the combined multinational Space Agency to send a heavily armed military mission, now on it’s five month journey with a human cargo of the best warriors the international community could assemble. Men and women locked and loaded for the safari of all safaris if speculations regarding the colonists disappearance proved to be true. What would they face? H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds?” Was there life on the planet that decided not to play the role of friendly Martian Native American to Earth’s Pilgrims? Disease? Famine? Meteor showers? Angry Volcanoes spewing lava and deadly gas and ash?
The armed mission arrived after a five month journey considerably less time than spent during the 21st century primitive probe missions. The most efficient route to take from Earth’s orbit to that of Mars is called the ‘Hohmann Transfer Orbit’ It’s the Brooklyn Bridge of space travel.
The Ranger Orbiter was firmly in the grasp of the Martian gravitational pull. The landing vehicle was launched from the metal belly of the Orbiter to begin it’s manned flight to the lunar surface of Mars and the headquarters of the Colony. What they would confront was anybody’s guess. They were ready for action...they all had seen the training films, “Alien” and “Aliens II” Where’s Sigourney Weaver when you need her!
The Prometheus Factor
Part Two - Martian Luther King & the Cyborgs
What confronted the military mission on the surface was a group of smiling scientists and a city of science and human advancement. Gregor Michno, was the lead investigator for the ‘company’ as all space projects were under the auspices of the combined nations of Earth, Gregor, a Russian from the Euro-Asian sector assuming this lofty position for the present year, 2525.
Professor Tony Broder, Chief Scientist and CEO of the Martian colony, known as Prometheus, was there to greet the armed landing party with an open mind, although the colonists as a whole were perplexed and angered by this intrusion of an ‘invasionary force’
“Professor Broder, I’m Gregor Michno, sorry to drop in on you like this, but there were concerns at the ‘Company’ as they hadn’t heard word one from you for almost 6 months. That’s a long time Professor, and these ‘rescue missions’ are costly and resource consuming. I know you understand.”
Professor Broder assumed the best diplomatic stance and facade he could muster. “Understood Mr. Michno but really no cause for alarm. Perhaps we can talk and I’ll explain and your men can relax in our Tranquility Module...our cyborg secretary will escort them. Food, something to drink, relaxation, holographic games, they deserve a rest.”
As the ‘rescue’ mission was led from the room, Professor Broder began to asseverate the situation clearly and precisely to Gregor’s satisfaction. “When we first landed here to begin our mission of habitation we found the local population of Martians were not mutants with two heads, nor were they as advanced as the old Hollywood would have us believe, but they do have a green skin tint, so we refer to them as ‘colored people’. From a techno standpoint they are rather backwards in advanced technology. They made for useful workers however, drones in a growing society and were willing to obey orders which we found interesting. We took what space we needed here in the valley and placed them on reservations of their own for their own safety. We did keep a few here at the compound to do the heavy work for us, plus cleaning and other chores. We found they made perfect slaves and soon we began selling them to visitors who would happen by from other planets from quadrants we never knew existed. It was a good business, profitable so we could afford those items we were lacking.”
“You were slave traders to the stars?”
“Precisely. They would be confined to the reservation and bred under our guidance.’
Gregor was highly alarmed at the disclosure. The ‘Company’ was a scientific research entity, not in the business of selling little green men and women throughout the galaxy!
Broder confessed the ‘Colony’ wanted to replicate Earthian society but perhaps went too far.
“We missed Earth and we used our profits to construct robots to replace what we missed about our society, It got out of control and can you imagine a tin can of an R2D2 as a robotic Girl Scout selling cookies door to door? It happened! Someone even programmed some of the bots as Jehovah Witnesses banging on our doors at all hours handing out old copies of Popular Mechanics magazines as the new bible worshipping the second coming of a Maytag washing machine that rose from a junkyard three days after it was placed in a crusher on Good Friday!” Michno eyes were as open wide as the techno tale unfolded.
“It gets worse. We began transforming some of our female party into cyborgs giving them unlimited life and strength. They were all volunteers so as you can see, of the 50 original colonist twenty of us remain as humans. The cyborgs unfortunately are not a simple Erector Set and something changed in them and they in no uncertain terms had us build robots using advanced Artificial Intelligence chips we purchased from the Black Market on the dark side of the moon. The chips were more powerful than we thought and they advanced intellectually at a rapid pace. Today, they and the Cyborgs quite frankly ..uh...are in charge, and forced us to cut off all communication with the ‘Company’
Gregor, though having perfected English and Chinese was now sputtering in a Slavic regression of the tongue of the Motherland. “How are the Martians taking all this? Surely they must have some pride, sense of righteousness, indignation!?” “I assure you Comrade Michno, there is an underground and soon the Red Planet now colonized, occupied like Japan and Germany so long ago, will rise up as they are beginning to. The Roswell Act was put into place, a pitbull edict that regulated daily life on the surface of the seething angry red planet. Laws, that in time would turn it into one angry pissed off planet.”
He further explained, “Martian and Marital Laws governing Martians that we instituted will fall like shooting stars onto the barren landscape of daily life. Segregation of the species will eventually integrate itself into the social fabric. Martian Only drinking fountains and lunch counters are now separated by species. Over here, anal probers, Martians Only. Over there, Earthlings Only. One day on the crosstown rocket bus, a Martian woman was asked to move and let an Earthling have her seat. Wrong! She was arrested and all hell broke loose! Broder went on to explain that this was the igniting factor between the Earthlings and the Martian green ‘colored people’.
“There is one troublesome Martian...A messiah from Mars...Martian Luther King, Jr. who began to rise from the planetary plantation pulpits to lead the masses in a series of Freedom Marches here on Mars. Racial and differences in species aside, even I fell in love with a Martian woman. After sweating up the space blanket, we produced an afterburner afterbirth of a pleasant placenta that produced a mixed illegal child. Which was illegal by our own rules but, we didn’t care. Fortunately the law was overlooked. Physical differences we hoped would melt away like american cheese on a hamburger with interspecies copulation.”
Inspector Michno was taking this all in with his recorder. “What is the current status of the unrest? Fading? Growing? Under control? Do you need our assistance? I have a full military command here I can activate in the company’s interest!” Professor Broder looked tired and beaten.
“Unfortunately, we are no longer in charge. You see, the Cyborgs have joined with the Artificial Intelligence forces of the AI robots. We in effect are their subjects along with the Martians. We are prisoners of war so to speak and do as we are told. We handle the Civil Matters regarding the allocated reservations of the ‘colored people’ while the Mr and Mrs. Machines are the enforcers. The Cyborgs are all female and because the female human portion is intact we the males are forced to mate with them to produce more Cyborg material, the offspring are modified when they reach the age of 10. Kind of a Jewish Bar Mitzvah thing. We created the Cyborgs, and the Robots...now we are their prisoners. Much as you and your men are Mr. Michno!”
The wall monitor showing the Tranquility Room reinforced in no uncertain terms the reality of the situation. While the rescue mission relaxed, a crack team of Cyborg guards quickly and quietly disarmed the troops who were now also prisoners. Checkmated in space.
“Now what?” Michno yelled.
Broder smiled. “We’ll just have to follow the Martian Brick Road Inspector. Let history take its course and for now...just be patient but be ready to strike when the opportunity presents itself..and remember...take no prisoners!”
The Prometheus Factor
Segment Three
The Machines had us by the human short hairs and in the android cross hairs while the Colonists tried to formulate a plan of action. Professor Broder it was who came up with a schematics of a coordinated effort of human and synthetic circuit board life forms comprised of the renegade robots and their half breed cyborg kissing cousins to put the final nail in the coffin for the planned conquest of all of Mars once and for all.
Gregor Michno’s gun toting military mission was to act as the Shock Troops alongside the Cyborg minions to execute surgically precise multiple attacks on the surrounding Martian States where the element of surprise and speed would not allow for any defensive measures, but would result in a complete occupation of the weaker Martian forces.
While the generic generals recharged their batteries, Gregor was busy laying out the battle plans and assembling every weapon he could confiscate in the colony as well as the orbiting marine spacecraft with its array of atomic and laser guided weapons system. Mars was about to meet death and destruction that would ultimately involve other planets in the solar system!
Professor Tony Broder now assumed the role of King Kahuna having had the Martian Congress placed under arrest, spaceports secured, known vocal opposition leaders were arrested and placed on trial in kangaroo courts where a sentence of Not Guilty was not an option. Televised vaporization by laser firing squads were the usual outcome.
Intellectuals aligned with the HG Wells Society were quietly disappearing into the dark of night while books were banned and burned. Everything from “Exodus” to “Green Eggs and Ham” to "See Spot Run After Dick and Jane' lit up the streets while followers of the New Order danced and chanted. Stores run by Martians were torched, the owners beaten up and their homes vandalized, thugs making off with jewelry and some of the finest artworks on the planet. Venus Van Gogh...Mercury Monet...Leonardo Lunar DaVinci...Rocketship Rembrandt….
Then came the deportations. As each Martian State was conquered only the Martian citizens, and not those from other planets, were herded into Beam Me Up Scotty Teleporters to barbed wire enclosed education and work centers that were constructed on the darkside of the Martian Planet. Places that became infamous in Martian history….Edgar Bergen Belsen…..Oh Shits Auschwitz…. and others.
Once the planet was locked up tighter than a goose steppers drum, Broders battalions made the decision to go after Earth which at this point was the only planet capable of blocking total victory. Bombs and drones were relentless in their reign of steel reign of terror. The entire solar system was on the edge of their elliptical orbits. Venus was manufacturing munitions and other weapons of war and shipping through the Black Market of Saturn to the stalwart Earthians. Victory after Victory for the new Mars Cyborg Fatherland were mounting. The mistake came when Broder and Michno decided to turn their attention to their giant neighbor to the East, (well, at least as East as it gets in space) and the decision was made to launch an all out offensive on Jupiter...the gateway to Saturn and the remaining planets until finally they had Pluto in their pockets and Earth would surrender.
The problem….he would now be fighting on two fronts and attacking Jupiter in winter is not a good idea Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin tried it and failed. Buck Rogers blew it and Flash Gordon was a flash in the pan when he attempted it, and ended up overshooting Jupiter to become a pain in Uranus.
The conflagration was coming to a head and Mars Attacks was about to become a Broadway musical...The Panzer and the Pansy!
The Prometheus Factor (Short Story) By Mike Marino - Part Four Martian city states were being devoured voraciously by a hungry despicable despot and legions of female cyborg showgirl shock and awe troops. One by one the city states fell like dominoes while Earth was withstanding a blitz unparalleled in history while Chancellor Broder's minions were in deep shit in deep space heading for the capital of Jupiter while nearby Saturn held it’s breath. As Poland Goes....so Goes France! Jupiter launched a counteroffensive just as space winter was winging it’s way to the barren landscape of the giant planet. The allied planets were devising a plan to land on Mars to open a second front which Broder anticipated, so marshalled what forces he could spare to Vastitas Borealis in the north of the planet thinking this was where the invasion would take place. The Allied leaders of Earth Franklin Delano Goosevelt, Winston Churchbells and Joseph P. Stalin III Esquire had a different location in mind and all agreed...the date of death was set for August 19...the birth date of Gene Roddenberry, which to the global beer Irish drinking community the date was celebrated as St. Gene Day with green beer. Tit for tat this would be the Star Wars Tet Offensive with the Slavic forces of Jupiter closing in from the East. Broders balls would be in a Cossack sling with the female Cyborgs running out of juice for their tampon powered ray guns and the robots short circuiting left and right suffering electronic vasectomies. The invasion was a success, Broders forces were pushed back on all fronts with Broder hunkered in the bunker with his Cyborg mistress...Eva Argentina former showgirl at some of the best strip clubs on Venus, mud wrestling on Mercury and pole dancing competitions on Pluto. As the Allied Galactic Forces entered the capital city they found the charred remains of what appeared to be Chancellor Broder looking BBQ’d crispier than a bucket of Neptunian chicken from a KFC. The remaining cyborgs surrendered and were sent to the Martian arctic circle gulags controlled by the comrades of Jupiter, while the robots circuit boards were removed and they were recycled into hubcaps for old Nash Ramblers, the car of choice in New Cuba....the older the better. The city was divided into sectors and vectors by the victors. The solar system was now at peace...recovery was underway...peace at last...until the Viet Minh of North Venusnam launched a rebellion against the colonial powers of Earth who controlled South Venusnam. The Earth forces were pounded and defeated in both Suc Muk Dic and Long Wang,,,, In the words of President John F. Asimov while on a goodwill mission to Phuket, Thailand…..”Here we go again...aw Phuket!!”