Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson [173]
John tried out Sax’s answer: “The sun.”
Arkady hooted. “Wrong! It’s not just the sun and some robots, it’s human time, a lot of it. And those humans have to eat and so on. And so someone is providing for them, for us, because we have not bothered to set up a life where we provide for ourselves.”
John frowned. “Well, in the beginning we had to have the help. That was billions of dollars of equipment flown up here. Lots of work time, like you say.”
“Yes, it’s true. But once we arrived we could have focused all our efforts on making ourselves self-sufficient and independent, and then paid them back and been done with them. But we didn’t, and now the loan sharks are here. Look, back in the beginning, if someone were to ask us who made more money, you or me, it would have been impossible to say, right?”
“Right.”
“A meaningless question. But now you ask, and we have to confer. Do you consult for anybody?”
“Nobody.”
“Me neither. But Phyllis consults for Amex, and Subarashii, and Armscor. And Frank consults for Honey-well-Messerschmidt, and GE, and Boeing, and Subarashii. And so on. They are richer than us. And in this system, richer is more powerful.”
We’ll just see about that, John thought. But he didn’t want to make Arkady laugh again, so he didn’t say it.
“And it is happening everywhere on Mars,” Arkady said. Around them clouds of Arkadys waved their arms, looking like a Tibetan mandala of red-haired demons. “And naturally there are people who notice what’s going on. Or I tell them. And this is what you must understand, John— there are people who will fight to keep things the way they were. There are people who loved the feel of life as a scientist primitive, so much that they will refuse to give it up without a fight.”
“So the sabotages . . .”
“Yes! Perhaps some of them are done by these people. It is counterproductive, I think, but they don’t agree. Mostly the sabotage is done by people who want to keep Mars the way it was before we arrived. I am not one of those. But I am one of those who will fight to keep Mars from becoming a free zone for transnational mining. To keep us all from becoming happy slaves for some executive class, walled in its fortress mansion.” He faced John, and out of the corner of his eye John saw around them an infinity of confrontations. “Don’t you feel the same?”
“I do, actually.” He grinned. “I do! I think if we disagree, it’s mostly on the matter of methods.”
“What methods do you propose to use?”
“Well— basically, I want to get the treaty renewed as it stands, and then adhered to. If that happens then we’ll have what we want, or we’ll have the basis for getting to full independence, at least.”
“The treaty will not be renewed,” Arkady said flatly. “It will take something much more radical to stop these people, John. Direct action— yes, don’t you look so unbelieving! Seizure of some property, or of the communication system— the institution of our own set of laws, backed by everyone here, out in the streets— yes, John, yes! It will come to that, because there are guns under the table. Mass demonstration and insurrection are the only things that will beat them, history shows this.”
A million Arkadys clustered around John, looking graver than any Arkady he could ever remember seeing— so grave that the blossoming rows of John’s own face exhibited a regressive expression of slack-jawed concern. He pulled his mouth shut. “I’d like to try my way first,” he said.
Which made all the Arkadys laugh. John gave him a playful shove on the arm and Arkady went to the floor, then pushed off and tackled him. They wrestled while they could keep contact and then flew away to opposite sides of the chamber; in the mirrors, millions of them flew away into infinity.
After that they went back to the subway, and to dinner in Semenov. As they ate they looked up at the surface of Mars, swirled like a gas giant. Suddenly it looked to John like a great orange cell, or embryo, or egg. Chromosomes whipping about under a mottled orange shell. A new creature waiting to be born, genetically engineered for sure;