Sarawatch: The only normal one present tries to do a sanity check.

It was now evening, and everyone was waiting at Teylon's for the catered evening meal to be delivered. Sarsaparilla and Adalace had just finished recounting what had happened when they visited Celeste, and when Leroy had gone to apologise. There was a reflective silence for a while, until Francesca walked up to Leroy.

"Well, that was certainly noble of you, Leroy, to take Candide's punishment like that. In fact, it's almost heroic."

"It was heroic!" said Kaydence, "I could see it on his face, Leroy was feeling those lashes! I bet you he's got some bruises now!"

"Hey yeah, let's see them!" said Francesca.

Yeah, trust Francesca to ask that.

Sarawatch backed off a little bit, she felt a teensy bit self conscious about where this was going. However, Francesca boldly reached forward as to raise his shirt herself, but Leroy skittled backwards nervously.

"Ah, I do that myself..."

So he did. Although he did look embarrassed at all of the attention.

Big grin on her face, Francesca took a close look. "Yep, you can actually see some bruises. Not much, but I'm sure they will count towards your redemption."

Most of the group could not restrain their curiosity, and had a look, generally from a respectful distance.

My, Candide must have been out of her mind, I suppose learning about the death of one's first best friend forever will do that.

Sarawatch had been observing everyone's reactions to Leroy's bruises, and not just watching Leroy. Consequently, she saw something that most of the others hadn't noticed yet.

"Ah, Francesca, I think you should be careful here..."

"What? - Oh crap. That's right."

Francesca looked around, at Devina. Who was clutching her hands in front of herself and looking down, she was also trembling. So Francesca walked up and gently hugged her.

"Sorry, Devina, I wasn't thinking. Ah, perhaps you can let Juniper and Teylon take you to your bedroom and, ah, have enough time to regain your composure?"

The bedroom door closed with a soft thunk. By now, Leroy had put his shirt back down, but he didn't look too out of sorts, since Kaydence was standing right next to him, her arm around him. And Francesca was now the one looking at the floor.

"That's only the second time in eight years I have hugged someone. I really need to get out more often. Or something." she said.

They all waited around listlessly until the catered meal arrived. Sarawatch went and called Devina and the other two, and they had tea.

After the detritus of the meal had been removed, they all reconvened, sitting in a rough circle of sofas and chairs. Teylon opened the proceedings.

"We still don't know exactly where the people of interest to us are, but Adalace is continuing in her effort to decrypt that USB stick. What we need to talk about now is what to do once we meet them. I haven't exactly done any thinking about this at all, mainly because up to now I haven't had the slightest idea about what I was doing any way. However, now that we seem to actually have a chance of meeting them, we need to have some idea of how we obtain the ultimate goal of removing the evil from the heart of our society. So - any comments?"

Nervous glances criss-crossed all over the room, but there were no volunteers for making the first comment.

Guess I'll say something, then.

"At least, I take it that we are all in agreement about what the evil is?" said Sarawatch.

"Why was Juniper treated the way she was?" said Devina. Naturally, she was sitting next to Juniper, with Teylon on the other side.

Murmur of ascent.

"And Kaydence." said Sarsaparilla.

"Not to mention Chantell." said Maggie.

"And Mirabella," added Sarawatch, "In fact, I would also include Shane."

Maggie started to complain, then she stopped, thought about it, and then said: "Yeah, I guess he was also thoroughly fucked over by those faceless bastards. Not to mention by Ajaeren."

"Remember, I was told I had to recruit him to join us when we pay those bastards a social call." said Sarsaparilla.

A number of unpleasant looks from the crowd, but no one was motivated enough to publicly say anything against that.

"And also Sarsaparilla was targeted, and Maggie, and then there was the interference with the lives of the Girls in Pink, Oh, and also the terrorist bomb incident. And then, that creep Ajaeren - how exactly he fits in we don't know yet." said Teylon.

"So, in other words, there is plenty of evil to answer for." said Sarawatch, "Hmm, but, remember, these anonymous leaders also manage to keep our society thriving, which isn't an easy task on an airless planet like we have."

"Well, there must be other people who do the good things, like make sure we can all keep breathing, while we want the ones who do the bad things!" said Leroy.

"Actually, Leroy, people are quite capable of doing both good and evil at the same time. Ah, perhaps I am a minor example?" said Teylon.

Francesca cleared her throat. "And, I guess, the Girls in Pink are also a not quite so minor example?"

"Oh" said Leroy.

"Does anyone have any idea of how long these people have been ruling?" said Maggie.

"May I point out that that underground maglev line was constructed about twenty years ago? It was one of the first uses of esp powers in a major way. By a small number of esp individuals who had the requisite powers to dig through solid rock. And who were about eight years old - you should read up on the history of constructing that line, the parts where they describe dealing with kids at such a young age is quite amusing. Like, they had to make allowances for down time due to temper tantrums. And one time they were delayed two days because one of the kids lost their teddy bear.

So, where was I, that's right, they must have been active at least twenty years ago." said Francesca.

"Actually, I think the only sensible hypothesis is that they were the ones who worked out how to implant esp powers in the first place. So that makes it thirty years, give or take." said Sarawatch.

After some thinking, Adalace spoke up. "The abuses we know of only go back five or ten years or so. As far as we know, that is. So, perhaps, they only started to get evil in that time?"

"You're implying that they were gradually corrupted by their power?" said Teylon.

"I guess so." said Adalace.

"Remember, the esp implantation process has some unpleasant consequences on occasion. It's not highlighted too much, but it is there in the fine print of the application process that a prospective mother has to go through." said Teylon.

"That's right. So, if they had to make potentially life threatening choices right from the start... I guess that could have primed them for a gradual descent into evil.” said Adalace.

"And everything was kept a big fat secret." said Leroy.

"And they still don't really know exactly what they are doing, either," said Sarsaparilla, "After all, look at my esp power, a total blank. And examples of strange powers, or people with esp powers of widely varying strengths, tend to bear that out."

"Going by what I have managed to get from my web crawling, the general consensus is that it is as if they had an esp implantation device, but no manual to run it. So they just try things at random, and see what happens." said Teylon.

"That's as good an explanation as any I've heard." said Sarawatch.

"But they don't seek for any input from the public about these experiments, even mothers don't get any choice in the matter." said Tamara. Her voice was bitter.

"They're probably all men." she added.

"Now, now, some women are also evil, you know," said Francesca, "Err, apart from me. I mean, we have dealt with at least one woman in our work."

"Yeah, but only one!" said Tamara.

Teylon hurriedly got in a few words.

"I feel confident that the evil overlords are mainly men, after all, acting without consulting others is a speciality of us males. Especially when they have total secrecy within which to work. So, perhaps we can say that we need to remove the secrecy?"

Smooth one, Mr Teflon Rat.

Sarawatch then got in her say. "That's right, drag the anonymous bastards, men or women, into the limelight. You know, sunlight is the best disinfectant, and all of that."

"That's what I promised Candide. Remove the secrecy, release all of the information they have, and let the public see what is happening." said Leroy.

Sarsaparilla nervously raised her hand.

"Can I say something at this point?"

"Sure." said Teylon.

"Ah, when we do meet these people, well, considering who we have here, I don't actually want any violence... I mean, I'm not saying anything against anyone here... But, perhaps we leave all of the, err, Judgemental decisions, shall we say, to Teylon?"

Francesca, Tamara, and Devina exchanged a series of glances.

Oh my, there's a lot going on in those glances. Tamara and Devina in particular don't look too pleased. Say, how much do Kaydence and Juniper know about the Girls in Pink, anyway?

Sarawatch looked at Francesca, and was glad when she replied.

"Hmm, I guess that I can say that the Girls in Pink are reasonably happy to do that... Right girls?"

Two tepid nodes from the other two girls.

"Thanks for that. From our meeting with Sister Celeste we, that is Adalace and Sarsaparilla, got another reinforcement of our need to do no evil. I know it's our own problem, but, well, I think we would all be better off if we don't add any more than necessary to any - err - suffering we may cause to those people."

Nods for everyone present, even if Tamara's and Devina's were just a tad reluctant.

"OK, now that we have discussed all of that, what do we do after we have released this information? It's not as if any of us are qualified to run Mars." said Adalace.

"That's easy. We do nothing. Remember, as soon as millions of Martians learn all about this, I'm sure they will have plenty of ideas of what to do. Without the secrecy, there's not much chance that those unknown people can continue acting as they have been." said Erasyl.

"Err, going back a few steps, what if they fight back when we try to meet them? After all, they have the police, and, err, that's right, Mars doesn't have an army. Ah, secret police? Assassins? I mean, plenty of corrupt political organisations back on Earth have maintained their power even when everyone knows what they are doing." said Teylon.

"Speaking from experience, the police on Mars are definitely not corrupt in those ways," said Sarawatch, "Most police officers, and most of the police system, is truly dedicated to policing our society to making it safer for ordinary people. It's only, you know, on occasions, they have direct orders to ignore certain incidents. And, well, once in a while, well, I guess, even a honest police officer finds it difficult to resist doing something that is undoubtedly dodgy, but is ordered by higher ups, and, well, the system appears to mostly work. Mostly, that is, until it fails to work right in front of one’s eyes..."

She collected her thoughts, and continued. "Anyhow, unlike Earth, I think it is unlikely that any small group of people could retain their power if the public at large didn't want them to. And, I really don't think there is much room for them to have a secret army or whatever in our totally artificial environment. Remember, every material resource is under control and accounted for."

Some of the others nodded their heads in agreement with this.

The comments slowed right down, so Teylon decided to try to sum things up.

"The current group of evil ones are probably the ones who started of the whole esp process. They started small and probably not too evil, but have gotten worse over time. They probably don't have a secret supporting army to back them up. So just revealing everything will possibly achieve our goals. And the only violence we want is whatever Esmeralda authorises. And once we have told everybody about them, we won't have anything more that needs doing because it will totally be out of our hands."

"Oh, remember my story of how, as an eight year old girl, I was taken somewhere to try to destroy something? Maybe that was something to do with the esp implantation system? If so, it means that they must have had a certain amount of internal strife over what they were doing." said Francesca.

"Like, there were competing power groups trying to out power each other?" said Maggie.

"Whatever." said Francesca.

"Well, I think that that just underscores the need to open this whole thing to a society wide discussion. In other words, remove the secrecy." said Leroy.

"OK, then, let's have a vote." said Teylon.

Everyone agreed, no one disagreed, to the broad goal of removing the secrecy.

There was some quibbling when it came to the fine details, however.

It's all very well to say you are going to remove the secrecy, but -

"I hate to rain on your parade, but exactly how are we going to remove this secrecy?" said Sarawatch.

Am I the only one here to realise how audacious these goals are?

"I guess that the current rulers will not willingly allow us to do that..." said Maggie.

"So, perhaps we lock them up in one of Shane's shields?" said Sarsaparilla.

"And, since all of those secrets will undoubtedly be on computer, we let Adalace have a go?" said Francesca.

"Err, sure. I'll need some passwords to start the process." said Adalace, while giving Sarsaparilla a look.

Big smile from Sarsaparilla. "Let's hope that Esmeralda comes to the rescue, after all she's already given me passwords in the past."

"And then what?" said Maggie, "You have access to a whole lot of petabytes of their top secret databases in their top secret computer systems, what do you do then?"

"Well," said Adalace, "I suppose I copy the data out to - ah, lots of public computers - hmm, I suppose I would need to sort out the files before hand, so that related files remain together - and - let's see, I would need to copy to multiple destinations, since any one computer wouldn't be able to contain all of information - ah - and of course we want to make sure that the data is distributed as widely as possible - and, and - we would need to produce some sort of cover letter or something, just so that everyone knows just what the hell is happening - or, I guess I could extract from their computers a complete record of Teylon and everything that he has done, and send that as an initial explanation - at the very least that should get everybody's attention - hmm - you do realise that all of our private lives will be exposed in a rather unseemly fashion?"

"Yeah, there is that to consider. Plus the private life of everyone else whose data might also reside on their systems." said Sarawatch.

They might finally be getting the idea that all of this has some very real consequences...

"No, no, please no. I don't want my suffering to be exposed to all of those men out there."

This was from Devina. She was back to clutching the front of her shirt while staring at the floor.

"I can't face the chance of that. No, I can't."

"Oh. OK, what say I promise to run a special scan first, find the parts that pertain to your suffering, and just wipe them?" said Adalace, "I sure that our goals will not be compromised by the lack of that detail."

"Ah, I suppose so."

"And what about everybody else? Like, for example, Juniper?" said Sarawatch.

Juniper, currently hugging Devina and not looking all that happy, thought this over.

"That white haired man - I want to make him be responsible for his actions! I want everyone to know what sort of horrible things he did to me! I want everyone to hate his actions! So, I guess, presumably that won't happen unless everybody gets to see the full details - this is really difficult - but I suppose I'm OK with publishing everything about my history. Maybe it can help to bring to justice the other men who did things to other girls who were in my position."

Devina and Juniper, both sniffling, clung to each other for mutual comfort.

"Ah, OK. So, what about anybody else?" said Sarawatch, "Perhaps we can go through each person's opinion?"

There was a general shuffling around in embarrassment, before someone volunteered to be first.

Maggie: "I guess this is all a big pain, but if we are going to release all of that information, we can't be hypocrites and hide our own. That is, apart from the specific details of Devina's suffering, that is. So, yeah, I suppose I will have to put up with it. Besides which, if we keep all the data to ourselves, and tried to replace those anonymous bastards and act as rulers in their place, well I can see that would end up as one big mess. Probably even worse than the current situation. After all, when you think of who we have here..."

Nobody disagreed with that.

Leroy: "I made a promise to remove the secrecy, so it's fine by me. It doesn't matter what my own feelings are."

Kaydence: "Then I'll also not object. I want to make sure no teenage girl is ever again treated like me or Juniper were."

Sarsaparilla: "I guess I more or less have a mandate from an Angel of Death to do this, so, fine."

Adalace: "As if I can go against what Sarsaparilla chooses."

Sarsaparilla looked pleased at this, and they exchanged hugs.

Teylon: "Really, I am very conscious that I have basically been pushed around like a puppet on a string. I somehow acted at the catalyst for all of this, without all that much awareness on my part. Whatever you decide is fine by me. Ah, and I would like to remind you that once this is all over, err, I'll be saying goodbye."

A depressed silence for a while.

Erasyl: "OK by me. But I will never look at any of the early videos of myself interacting with others - far to embarrassing."

Maggie thumped him on the back, and held his arm. "Don't worry! You have improved tremendously from your original obnoxious jerk condition!"

"That's what I didn't want to be reminded of." he said.

Tamara: "It's a real bother, but I suppose it has to be. Maybe someone will find out how horrible my father has been, and do something about it!"

Francesca: "Personally, I'm just going to do my usual and bulldoze through all of the strife. If anybody objects to my actions, then tough for them!"

All eyes turned to Sarawatch, the last to give her opinion.

She sighed.

"You do realise, don't you, that normally a bunch of people like you wouldn't be making such momentous decisions for millions of others?"

"But we're not normal people, are we," said Maggie, "Hmm, apart from you, perhaps?"

"Well now, I have been gifted with the vision of Mirabella in some sort of afterlife... So I guess I'm not quite normal, either?"

"Besides which, Mars is already ruled by a small group of people... So there's not much of a change, is there?" said Sarsaparilla.

"OK, OK, I won't object. God help us. Or the angel of your choice."

The Girls in Pink: Is it too much to expect that they exercise at least some caution?

Nobody had anything more to say to the group as a whole. So they relaxed, broke up into smaller groups, and socialised for a while. In one corner, the Girls in Pink had a quiet exchange.

"Do the teenagers realise just how dangerous this could be?" said Tamara.

"I doubt it." said Francesca.

"Considering the circumstances, one or more dead people is almost guaranteed." said Devina.

"Well, let's hope that their Angel of Death can stop things from spiralling completely out of control." said Francesca.

"How did we end up with an Angel of Death on our side, again?" said Tamara.

Francesca spread her hands in an exaggerated shrug. "Who knows?"

Eventually everyone called it quits for the night.

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 Deep Underground

"So," said Lenny, "Just like that, they intend to dump all of our data into the public arena, and let them sort it all out? What insane, inane, imbecile idea is that?"

"Yeah, I thought that Teylon, or Esmeralda, or someone, wanted to grab the reins and rule themselves? Or, at least, co-rule with us." said Arnold.

"But, face it, that mob can barely rule themselves on a holiday, let alone the whole planet!" said Terrence.

"It seems all so bizarre." said Prakash.

"But, it is just the sort of thing that bunch of socially inept misfits would think of doing." said Teresa.

"So, are we going to let them casually waltz in, and hand over everything we have laboured at for thirty years, to the unwashed masses?" said Arnold.

"No, of course not. The idea is utterly ludicrous." said Lenny.

"In which case, why don't we take out Adalace?" said Arnold, "Without her computer skills, it all becomes moot."

An uneasy silence.

"You volunteering?" said Teresa.

"Ah, no. But, don't forget, we still have one or two of our special assets remaining." said Arnold.

"You mean, one or two barely under control psychopathic thugs." said Teresa.

"Whatever. What say I track Adalace, and at the appropriate time get one of those assets to deal with her?"

"Do we really have to? Those asset are pretty vicious." said Teresa.

"Well, do you want them all paying us a visit?" said Prakash.

Everyone looked at Lenny.

"Is this going to end up like the other times we have tried this sort of thing?" said Lenny.

"Have we got any better choice?" said Arnold.

"Well, I oppose it! I mean, hasn't Adalace suffered enough?" said Teresa.

Lenny looked at Teresa, then at the others.

"Who's for it? Right, it looks like Teresa is out voted. So, what the hell, I suppose we just do it."

An irritated look from Teresa. "With any luck, Esmeralda will deal with him as usual."

She got a very annoyed look back from Lenny.

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 Adalace: Walks to the watch centre.

Adalace and Sarsaparilla were still living at Teylon's, along with Devina and Tamara and Kaydence and Juniper.

Next morning, Adalace woke up, and lay there thinking about last night's events.

Sarawatch is right, we are not a normal bunch of people and we are making some incredibly big decisions for literally everyone on Mars.

But, damn if I can see any other choice.

And, in the meanwhile, I have Sarsaparilla!

The girl in question was still sleeping, her head on the same pillow as Adalace's.

Esmeralda just has to be protecting us. There is no way those rulers can't know what we are doing.

And, if things get dangerous... Might Sarsaparilla get hurt?

Or, even, killed?

I don't think I can survive that.

This is such a depressing topic. Don't think about it..

I'll just watch her sleeping face for a little longer. She's so cute like this...

After an early breakfast, Adalace said "I'll go straight to the watch centre and start my computer."

Sarawatch rang up and said: "I won't be in until midday," said Sarawatch, "I need to do a few chores around my little unit."

"I'll be in about that time, too," said Teylon, "I need to visit the legal office that is handling my affairs. You know, boring legal matters, happens when one is as rich as me."

"Well, I'm sure I'll never experience such a thing," said Sarsaparilla.

She turned to Adalace. "And, how about I go and get us a couple of those delicious crepes from The Frenzy for morning tea and meet you at the Centre?"

"I'd love it!" said Adalace.

So Adalace set off, walking along tracks on the surface, since she still had to keep up her exercise regime.

----------------------------------------

 Special Asset #1

Special asset #1, who had a name but who cares what it was, also took a walk.

He had just received some special instructions over his phone.

He grinned as he walked. His nose twitched in anticipation and he felt a tingle over his entire body.

This is going to be so much fun!

It's so worth it when they give me the opportunity to do something.

And I'm safe from the bloody police!

A cute teenage girl, hey? Oh, this is going to be such fun!

He momentarily looked darker.

Although it's such a damned pain to have to obey their constraints...

Otherwise I will lose my protection. What a nuisance.

He had been given her probable route, and he was planning to ambush her just as she was passing though a densely wooded park.

So, I have to make it as quick and painless as possible.

Ok, Ok, I'll do it. It's still going to be fun, but.

He momentarily wondered why these anonymous people, who must be very powerful indeed to do the things they did, would be willing to grant him such a favour.

But he dismissed the thought.

After all, someone with any intelligence at all would not be in his position to start with.

And, as he walked along, grinning at his good fortune, he came to pass a middle aged slightly plump lady, casually leaning against a tree.

She called out to him. "Hey, you!"

Eh, what does that stupid bi-

"Judgement!"

He looked down at his body, which somehow appeared to be lying on the ground. He could not make any make any sense of this situation what so ever. He looked up at the lady. She was looking at him with an icy cold glare, then her eyes shifted and looked at something behind his shoulder. She flinched slightly, turned and walked rapidly away.

So he started turning to see what was behind him...

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

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Sarsaparilla: Buying her sugar fix

"Two crepes, with lots of fresh cream and strawberries, please!"

"Sure, just a minute." said the worker behind the counter.

Sarsaparilla looked around.

"Say, where's Grandma Frenzy?"

"Oh, she called in to say she had to take the morning off for some reason."

"OK"

I wonder what her real name is? One day I must introduce ourselves to her.

After all, this is where I met Adalace! Oh, and also Maggie and Teylon.

Not that Grandma Frenzy would remember us or anything.

----------------------------------------

Deep Underground

"Why am I not the least bit surprised by this?" said Lenny.

Everybody else ignored him. They were busy looking at the security video showing the abrupt death of special asset #1.

"Why can't we see what is to the left of him?" said Arnold.

"Dunno. In this view point there's a tree in the way. And then in this view point there's a park sign in the way. And the only other view point we have, the camera appears to have dead pixels on that side." said Terrence.

"So, who or what did he turn to look at?" said Lenny.

"Esmeralda?" said Teresa.

Lenny threw his pencil across the room. "We're not getting anywhere with trying to stop them, are we?"

"Well, I for one am have not the slightest bit of regret that that special asset #1 has now been disposed of." said Teresa.