Help

Adams hadn’t sent anyone to tell her. The message had come as a sharp, high-frequency pulse on the wall-mounted comms unit in her hab, followed by a scrolling text that Juyiet had to read three times.

CREDITS VOIDED. ASSET ID 77-DELTA: NEGLIGENCE. HABITATION SUBSIDY TERMINATED. POPULATION CONTINUITY MANDATE IN EFFECT. UNIT 77-DELTA-01: REPORT FOR RE-INTEGRATION AUDIT WITHIN 30 BEATS.

Juyiet didn't remember the walk to the school hub.

She got there in a haze and burst through the door.

Clara was standing near the back, showing one of the sister how to calibrate the solar-sync on one of the new slates. She looked up, alarmed at the look on Juyiet’s face.

-Juyiet? What’s happened?

Juyiet couldn't speak. She held up her personal data-tab, the screen cracked but still glowing. It shook in her hands.

Clara took the tab, her eyes moving rapidly as she scanned the text.

-They voided the credits, Juyiet finally gasped. They’re saying it was Eni’s fault. They’re saying he... he wasn't looking at the iron.

-It’s a lie, the sister muttered. Eni Clarion was the most diligent hand in the yard.

-It doesn't matter if it’s a lie, Juyiet said, turning to Clara. Clara, they’ve triggered the Mandate. They want to put me in the registry. They want to give me to a ‘state provider’ like I’m a piece of salvage.

Clara looked at the tab again, her jaw tightening.

-The Population Mandate? I thought the Qaddafi Authority had suspended that decades ago.

-I don’t know, Juyiet cried. Adams says Windhoek is ‘under-resourced.’ He says if I can’t pay for my air, I have to produce the units to replace the ones we’ve lost. Clara, they’ll take Leo. If I’m re-integrated, the MTC could do anything with him.

-I’m just a teacher, Juyiet, Clara said, her voice trembling slightly. My brother fought the MTC and lost. I’ve lost my whole family to them.

Clara looked around the hub, at the crates of books, the charging slates, and the children’s drawings pinned to the rusted walls. This was the way she could fight back. When she was young and abandoned after the MTC took her parents away, a scavenger had picked her up and arranged for her to be taken by a WMR mission.

That was the way the West Mars Republic had operated, through missions that brought young people into the care of the WMR and the schools in its territory. Clara was part of the cohort that convinced the Republic authorities to start sending representatives out to the settlements of the other chartered associations on Mars and stay there to provide structural support for the local educational arrangements.

The WMR hoped in this way to extend its influence and protect children from the caprices of the chartered associations, which were not always capable or interested in formal education, and were wont to treat them as resources.

There had been discussions about confronting the MTC down the line, but their presence at Windhoek had caught the WMR by surprise. Clara suspected the Duke may have known, but had not had time to think it through yet.

-I’ll go speak to Adams, Clara said, looking to the sister, who was watching her with silent expectation.

- Juyiet, stay here. Inside the hub. If this is a Sovereign Zone, then you stay on this side of the line until I get back.

Juyiet finally started to sob.

-Thank you, Clara. Thank you.