Mars, November 1st, 1000 Solar Era.

Many faces from multiple locations across the Wolf’s Coil appeared holographically in each other’s meeting chambers.

“Order please,” the holographic image of Chancellor Boateng banged a gavel, quieting down the many holographic figures soliciting within Zheng and Khan’s physical chamber. “As the head of the Martian high command, I will be the chairperson for our deliberations here today.”

“The Grand Martian Assembly is rarely called, and every single one, historically, has been initiated during critical points in Martian development.”

Indeed, literally every semi-important personnel on Mars have the right to attend the Grand Martian Assembly. Most do not have the opportunity to speak-- it would be chaos to have so many voices participating. Only key figures are allowed to voice their thoughts, but these key figures could request the words and expertise of a ‘lesser’ ally.

“As for the critical issue this day? The very future of Mars,” Chancellor Boateng continued. “Will we stand with the Kasvallians? Or the Terrans? State your reasons.” Whichever side could sway those on the fence would determine the future of Mars.

“Neither!” The one who immediately replied was Minister Williams. Heads aggressively swiveled towards the woman, mostly in surprise and curiosity.

General Martian opinion on women had always been… complicated. The issue stemmed from the initial and continued colonization of Mars. Even from the beginning, the majority of the humans willing to risk their lives to colonize Mars were men.

Of the women who came along? Many initially had the respect of the men. However, another issue soon appeared. Many of these women, when given the chance to return to Earth for a stable life, more often than not, would take said chance, at a significantly higher rate than the men. And they certainly received such offers more often as well. Luckily, the advent of artificial womb technologies allowed the Martian colonizers to maintain their population.

The result of this was that Martian society developed a lower degree of trust in women. They saw women as untrustworthy. Much more likely to leave for Earth and abandon their cause, if given the chance.

Unfortunately, history reflected this phenomenon as well. Before the Solar Era, women of less developed nations would marry into developed nations, often having increased attraction to men of these developed nations. As for the opposite? Martian scholars would laugh while recalling Earth’s history. They would roll their eyes in mockery if someone claimed the opposite to be true.

A Martian scholar had long developed a theory to describe this phenomenon. Well it can hardly be called a theory. Its creator, Caitlin Owens, named it the ‘Risk and Creation’ phenomenon. Future female Martian scholars, if they desired to amount to much in the Martian academic space, had to support this theory and become a member of Caitlin’s Angels.

All knew that Caitlin’s Angels believed themselves to have been let down by the women who had ‘escaped’ from Mars into the safety net of Earth.

Its contents are quite simple. Only those willing to take risks will innovate and create. Those that overly lean in search of safety and security, avoiding the necessary risks one needed to take in order to innovate and create, would never climb to the top of society. This theory is quite well circulated in Martian society.

With regards to space exploration in numbers? If there are a hundred men willing to explore some future planet, but only ten women willing to take such a risk… Assuming there to be a ninety percent death rate, and assuming men and women to be just as capable as one another on said planet… ninety of the hundred men would die, and nine of the ten women would perish.

Once that new planet is ‘solved’, there would then be eleven remaining humans-- ten men and one woman. As such, the birth and ‘creation’ of this new society on a new planet would, of course, be dominated by these ten men, solely due to the lack of women willing to take said risk.

Martian scholars applied this to Terran history as well, regarding the issue of the many leading positions on Earth and her orbital colonies still dominated by men. At any point in time, there will be many new high-risk industries. Most of these new industry sectors would amount to nothing in the long run, its workers’ pockets empty despite their life’s efforts.

However, occasionally, one of these high-risk industries would make a breakthrough, and become a new trillion dollar industry. Problem is, the ones willing to take the risk of dedicating their whole lives to such high-risk industries before said breakthrough? Men! As such, these new trillion dollars from said breaththrough industry? Owned by men!

If this phenomenon repeated again and again for every single breakthrough industry sector across decades and centuries…

Some Martian women had been riled up by Caitlin Owens, feeling betrayed by a ‘fellow’ woman, while claiming that they already had the necessary intelligence to stand tall. Caitlin Owens’ reply was simple. No matter the height of one’s intelligence or academic excellence, if they rest in safety and security, it would amount to little-to-nothing in a world built on innovation.

Willing to take ‘unnecessary’ risks and coming out on top, innovating and creating the future, determined one to be of the top echelons. Caitlin Owens lamented the instinctual irrepressible desire within too many women to seek out safety and security. There are examples of women who do take such risks to innovate, but Caitlin Owens lamented that it was too small a number, especially when compared to the number of men.

That was the kind of theory that echoed in Khan’s ears as she grew up on Martian soil. Some might believe the Martian scholars to be hostile towards women. Not so. Rather, Martian belief was that in order to truly integrate women into a society built upon innovation, it was necessary to stamp out the overly risk-averse nature within women.

Khan still remembered many of the tests and trials she had experienced in her upbringing. Many girls beside her had failed these tests, and received harsh punishment, solely because they displayed too much of a tendency in picking options considered overly ‘safe and secure’.

Data confirmed Caitlin Owens’ theory. The girls who displayed less risk-averse patterns of behavior, were also less likely to abandon the colonization of Mars to return to Earth. Even now, Caitlin’s Angels kept track of behavioral patterns-- their belief was that Martian society would only truly flourish when the young girls, throughout puberty, took a comparable similar level of risk as the men.

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Khan recalled all this as she shared the looks of curiosity that many others directed towards Minister Williams. Williams was another woman who had risen to her position after passing these tests.

The many eyes on her, was of course, caused by her outright rejection of both the Kasvallians and the Terrans. It was rare for them to meet a woman who chose to take such a seemingly gigantic risk-- at least, it is their belief that not picking the ‘right’ side between the Terrans and Kasvallians would likely lead to doom. Mars is weak, lodged in between the two giants!

“Explain yourself, Minister Williams,” a heavy-boned man stood, his tone slow and weighty with severity. “Surely, you do not still seek an independent Mars? Earth and Venus are on one side, while the Kasvallian Republic controls the asteroid ring.”

“Not picking a side means being crushed to death.”

Many heads nodded. They even wondered if Caitlin’s Angels’ methods across the centuries might have led to this woman seeking such a path.

The many chambers spanning the length of the Wolf’s Coil echoed with rumbles of agreement. No matter what, they had to take a side.

“And it’s much more than that,” the overweight man tilted his wide-framed glasses as he scratched a messy balbo beard. “For those that do not know of me-- my name is Wozniak. And I am the chosen representative of the technological sectors.”

“I must bring up the issue of Syned as an all-encompassing AI, likely a remnant of the digital wars centuries ago.”

“We have little-to-no defenses against such an advanced AI, who can learn at a speed unknown to man and break down security protocols like… a knife through butter in a sun’s heat.”

“The Kasvallian Republic could shut us down right now. Perhaps they may already be listening in to our deliberations!” Wozniak’s words set off alarms in all those present, and fearful murmurings began to increase in volume. “Be careful, Minister Williams.”

“Wozniak,” Chancellor Baoteng smacked his gavel to silence the chambers. “I take it that you believe we should stand on the Kasvallian’s side?”

“Yes, Chancellor. The Terrans have no such capability,” Wozniak replied with a bow of his head.

“I will have to dispute you on that,” another man said as he stood.

“Gao. You do know it is but an unproven suspicion.”

“But it has to be said, Wozniak,” Gao replied with a tilt of the head.

“Gao may be a technological head analyst for the military, but I hope you all know that currently, we need to base our decisions on certainty. Not half-baked theories.” Wozniak sat down.

“As the head of the technological analyst division of the military, I assess and pass judgment after analyzing data collected from many industries and even physical phenomena from as far as Mercury’s sphere.”

“Now, I have no desire to drown you all under volumes of data, so let me give it to you in simple terms: We have long harbored the suspicion that the Terrans always had an advanced AI guarding its sphere.”

“The reason is based on our observations over a long period of time-- Earth seems to always remain free of any viruses that should infect and cause issues within a typical digital infrastructure. At first, we thought the Terrans might just have incredibly competent personnel. We soon discovered that there is a mismatch between the projected results based on the resources directed into the protection of their digital world, relative to the actual data.”

“That is the source of our suspicion-- one of the possibilities is that an advanced AI always existed, and has been resolving many issues for the Terrans.”

This had never been concretely proven, but with the appearance of Syned, the possibility of Gao’s words being true was high.

“Think about it,” Gao continued. “If the Terrans did not have such a capability, the Kasvallian Republic would have already marched on Earth immediately!”

Quite a number of heads began to nod. Wozniack frowned, not expecting the final words of Gao to even sound convincing to his own heart.

“Minister WIlliams,” Chancellor Boateng had not forgotten the woman. “Regardless of the truth of Gao’s suspicions, do you have anything else to offer? It is undeniable that the whole of Martian society could be put on hold with a simple viral attack from these advanced AIs.”

The heads returned to Williams, pitying the woman for her initial recklessness. However, her reply shocked all present!

“I do.” Williams mysteriously smiled. “Allira.”

Both Zheng and Khan blinked their wide-eyes in shock. Allira is a Lieutenant under Khan, and was sent to assist Martian defense. She fought alongside the T3ST starship prior to the Kasvallian Republic’s arrival and declaration.

With the many holographic bodies in the chamber, it was only now when Allira stepped forth that they recognized her form. Khan never regained contact with this woman after her return from defending Interamnia. The Martian forces had been scattered, with many of their systems an absolute mess after the digital viral wave from Syned Vezna.

“My name is Allira. I am a lieutenant under Commander Khan, under the well-renowned Vice-admiral Zheng,” Allira said as she saluted Zheng and Khan. “Forgive me for my silence, commander.” Khan returned a small smile alongside a quick nod.

“In the final battle against the Terrans, I was sent from Interamnia by Commander Khan to reinforce the Martian defense sphere. My ship traded blows against the Terrans, until the arrival of the Kasvallian Republic.”

“When Syned Vezna’s viral wave disabled all ships and weapons of both Martian and Terran… there was an exception.”

Some attendees who were originally uninterested focused their gazes at these words.

“The T3ST starship. Their nexarms. They regained some--no-- full control!”

Minister Williams observed the chamber. Her eyes were filled with a blazing flame. Her sisters in Caitlin’s Angels would stand with her.

“Such claims cannot be so easily said, Lieutenant…” Gao frowned. His division’s capabilities had been diminished after Syned Vezna’s viral attack, and they have no footage of the events after the Kasvallian Republic’s appearance.

“I have proof,” Allira shared the same mysterious smile as Williams did earlier. “Growing up, some viewed me and my heritage to be odd, carrying traditions and items no longer relevant in this day and age.”

“But, I carried an ancient form of our modern day recordings, and it was not affected by Syned Vezna’s viral attack.”

Allira withdrew a sort of weighty metallic rectangular-shaped device with many lenses, ancient to the eyes of all present. She pressed some sort of contraption that opened up a slot, withdrawing a flat square-shaped disk.

The many holographic figures’ facial muscles twitched as Allira made movements at unseen objects-- She must be rummaging about, connecting many wires and whatnot to adapt this ancient storage disk to modern day technologies.

Finally, a flat two-dimensional image popped up-- it displayed the final battle between the EFNSF and the T3ST colony force. They all observed the scene of the T3ST colony starship and nexarms seemingly moving about in full control while the EFNSF starship fell into the Martian atmosphere. A few of the EFNSF nexarms regained some form of movement, but a number remained limp. The T3ST starship and nexarms quickly prevailed.

“This… this isn’t fake, is it?” Chancellor Boateng asked. “You would be court-martialed if so.” It was known that such two-dimensional data was much more easily faked.

“Chancellor,” Minister Williams said. “This is very much real. I have already extensively examined it with the assistance of experts.”

“The T3ST colony…” muttered Chancellor Boateng. “If I recall… Vice-admiral Zheng has rapport with them, yes?”

All eyes turned to look at the man, Vice-admiral Zheng!