An unexpected little bonus Three weeks afterwards, all ten of them found themselves at a meeting, with a few official looking people up at the front. In various combinations, they had all been to quite a few meetings in the last weeks, although for most of them it had been only a few meetings. Unlike Sarsaparilla and Adalace. But this one was a bit unusual. "Why have we all been summoned this time?" asked Maggie. Sarsaparilla shrugged her shoulders. "Beats me, I certainly haven't had any say in this particular one." The bloke up front cleared his throat. "I apologise for taking up your time when you are so busy with all of the other matters, but this won't take long." He nodded to his companion. She opened her brief case and took out a sheet of paper. "To cut a long story short, this is Teylon's final will. He made it a few days before you all went off and, err, visited Futures City. Basically he has given each of you an equal portion of his estate. Since Devina and Juniper didn't survive, their share also goes to you. And he left a simple comment, which I shall now read:" She put on a suitably sombre expression, and said: "I never expected to live past this event, whatever it might turn out to be, so you lot might has well have my fortune. I couldn't work out how to divide it up, so I just made it equal portions. I hope it all turns out well. Love, Teylon." She, and her companion, discreetly looked away and waited until everyone in the audience regained their composures. Adalace: Oracle of the Artifact The next night found Adalace sitting in her computer room at their house. Originally, the house had been used as temporary accommodation for shift workers. The committee sometimes had the need for extra workers, people who had agreed to keep their employment a secret in exchange for a very generous wage. But, even so, the committee didn't want them to know where Futures City was located, so they were transported in after being shunted along randomly selected maglev tracks half way across the planet. Which, of course, took time. So to make this worthwhile the workers would work for a week or two on site. Thus the temporary accommodation. Therefore, this was how Adalace and the other three ended up in a house with six bedrooms and two toilet blocks and a largish kitchen area, situated on the floor of the Futures City cavity, a few hundred metres from the main administration building. Naturally, Adalace had claimed one of the spare bedrooms as her computer/office. Although there was not any actual computer present, instead she had a terminal giving access to the main, state of the art, computers in the administration building. Adalace heard the front door open and close, followed soon after by Sarsaparilla bursting into the room. "How's it going?" said Sarsaparilla, after sharing a few hugs. "I just love playing around with my new computer! It is much bigger and faster than the one at the watch office." Sarsaparilla's eyes roamed over the bank of eight main monitors, plus several ancillary monitors. And every last square centimetre of them were fully utilised. Code editors, database listings, a live cam feed of the Artifact, an eclectic range of controls and bar graphs and multi coloured graphs; each and every one of them proud and unabashed in their riotous display. "Does all of that actually mean anything?" Giggles from Adalace. "Of course! See, this lot here - " She pointed to one of the screen. "This is the display from the Artifact that Terrence, and the rest of the committee, used all of these thirty or so years. See the paucity of the user interface, only a couple of bar graphs and an edit box?" "Y-yes" "And this is what I have managed to coax out of the Artifact so far. A much more comprehensive set of controls!" She pointed to another screen, which was indeed filled with a greater level of complexity. "And that means?" "Ah, that's a very good question." Adalace became more serious. "This has to be all tested, with due caution, on real live mothers and their unborn babies. But, as far as I can tell, it gives a whole lot more information about what each implantation may involve, and more control over the process. It also means that, instead of blindly typing in numbers and seeing what happens, we can in future predict what new abilities may be available and select ones that look as if they might be of use to us." "OK, even I can see why that would be useful. It's still a bummer that it has to be tested on people, but." said Sarsaparilla. "Sorry, I can't do anything about that. In fact, I am so glad that all of this is being monitored, and that the delegates have appointed a working party to examine everything I produce and make a group decision on what to use." "And that I can also easily understand. You certainly wouldn't want to be fully responsible for every death that occurs. Stupid committee, taking all of that burden on themselves." "Still, who knows what might have happened if they had tried to make it public back then. It could have gone in a number of directions, most of them bad." "I suppose so," said Sarsaparilla, "And, also, how come Terrence and the others didn't work out all of these new control options themselves?" "Because I am becoming totally convinced that the makers of the Artifact were out to screw with our minds. Why the hell I don't know, but anyway. It takes a genius programmer like me to follow the incredibly subtle hints and piece together the clues to work out how to access the new menus and controls. It's wasn't easy, you know!" "My, ain't you so clever!" said Sarsaparilla. Big smirk from Adalace. "You bet! And what's more, I'm getting the hint that there is more! Oh, wait a bit." Adalace twitched typed a few codes, then spoke to thin air, "I'm packing it in for tonight, if you can disconnect the computer and surveillance link?" A disembodied voice replied. "OK, signing off now. Good ni" The last bit was cut off as the link died, and all of the monitors dimmed out to blackness. A moment's silence. "Well, after all, we can't really complain if they want to track our every movement, can we? Well, not quite our every movement, they do generously leave our personal lives to ourselves. Mostly." said Sarsaparilla. The 'Mostly' part was referring to the fact they were still wearing wristbands. And thus were, just like everyone else on Mars, still covered by the normal surveillance system. "No, we can't. And if we did complain, no one will take any notice, anyway." "And?" "Ah, that hint! I think there might be a possibility that the Artifact has a means of reproducing itself! But don't tell anyone yet, I haven't made up my own mind if that is really true or not." "Now that would be a bombshell. That is, apart from all the other bombshells we have dropped in the last few weeks." "Yeah, I need to do some more investigation." Sarsaparilla appeared to be thinking through some implications. "Say - if the Artifact is able to reproduce - and you're the only one that understands it - does that mean you will be the mother?" "Err, what?" "In fact, does that mean -" By now, Sarsaparilla was giggling like crazy. "The Artifact will have to woo you, and court you, and eventually take you to bed -" "Sarsaparilla! That's an utterly disgusting image! I didn't know you had such a lewd imagination! "Well, I didn't know myself. After all, I've never had a girlfriend before." said Sarsaparilla. "What ever happened to that innocent little virgin I used to know?" "What happened to me? Well, I met you, of course!" "Humph" said Adalace. "I mean, just think of a cute little baby Artifact calling you mummy!" By now, Sarsaparilla was almost falling over from laughter. So Adalace had no choice than to also join in. After the giggles had died down and they regained their composures, they sat in silence for a while. Eventually- "Well, I suppose we had better go and check up on Kaydence. And make sure that Leroy is behaving himself." said Sarsaparilla. They went out and found that, yes, Leroy was behaving himself. In fact, he was in the process of making them all dinner, with help from Kaydence. Adalace sat down on the sofa to wait, with Sarsaparilla to her side. Life is turning out to be pretty good, after all. Pity about all the extra responsibility. The Rapist: Earning his redemption, one drop of sweat at a time. Five weeks after the Great Disruption, the rapist and his wife sat on their sofa, and watched a daily news discussion channel. He was holding their baby, who was sleeping, while she was looking distinctly uneasy since she was suffering from a trying bout of morning sickness. Then tonight's topic was mentioned, and they both ignored everything else as they started to pay their full attention to the discussion. "Well, it looks like we are going to have to have a lot more of these discussions in the forthcoming weeks than usual, aren't we?" said the compeer. "You bet we are." said the bloke to his right. "And tonight's topic is all about Adalace and Sarsaparilla." said the lady to the left, "In particular, how dangerous they are to our society, and if the worst came to the worst, how would we be able to protect ourselves from them." "Of course, this is all hypothetical," said the compeer, "But, nonetheless, disaster planning is something our society has to do, considering our overall circumstances." The compeer turned to the man. "Firstly, how much of a danger do they impose?" "Well, of course, there is Sarsaparilla's alarming ability of making people drop dead by saying Judgement. Which, apparently, is not an esp ability, although what the hell it is is unknown." The lady spoke next. "Well, that is alarming to be sure, but there are a lot of espers out there who can do that. For example, Maggie and Francesca can, and there are plenty of others whose powers could also be abused to murder someone." "Actually, I think what is truly alarming is the little fact that she can somehow obtain information about how evil, or not, a person is. Moreover, she seems to only kill those who, dare I say, deserve it in some way. And then, even more alarming, totally damning information about that person becomes somehow easily available." said the compeer. "Personally I think that that is what is truly worrying those who have some power in our society - that a diminutive teenage girl can see through their lies and defences and facades, and point them out. And then prove it. All without seeming effort. And sometimes she Judges them and they drop dead." said the man. "Yeah, those who think they are above the laws certainly won't like that!" said the lady, with a definite tone of glee to her voice. "Well, how can we defend ourselves against that sort of power?" said the compeer. "Humph. Do we need to?" said the lady, "I, personally, don't mind the most evil members of our society being outed." "But, what if she oversteps the mark and starts targeting those who don't deserve it?" asked the man. The lady shrugged her shoulders. "Then, in that case, we treat her like we treat any other esper who goes on a killing spree. I mean, such a scenario is very unpleasant, but we have managed to deal with such cases before." "Ah, but what about those with power and who have guilty consciences, who might decide to pre-emptively retaliate against her?" said the compeer. A small gap in the conversation, then the man spoke up. "Strictly speaking, that is not a danger to society, but only a danger to Sarsaparilla." "And, I think, she's probably not totally defenceless - like for example, she has her friends Francesca and Maggie. Who are very strong in their own rights." said the lady. "And don't forget there's Adalace." said the man. "Ah, yes, the other person for tonight's topic. Adalace. Who is immensely useful because of her programming skills. In addition she, by now, probably, has total control of every computer on the planet. This means that she has, if she wants, total access to every last piece of data in those computers." said the compeer. "Personally I think she is a lot more dangerous to us than Sarsaparilla." said the man. "Well, I'm not too sure about that, but let's come back to that later." said the lady. "I mean, ours is a computerised civilisation. If she wanted to, she could, basically, kill us all within a very short period of time." said the man. "I think a few would survive, but for the sake of the argument..." said the compeer. "But, I don't think she would really want to do that - she might have a chip on her shoulder to do with being raped back then, and the police just ignoring it, but she's got to live also, and it's kind of difficult to live on an airless planet without a whole lot of people working to maintain our living conditions." said the lady. "But, but, what if she goes crazy or something? How do we prevent her in such a worst case scenario?" said the man. "I suppose that is a bit of a worry. But, remember, part of the agreements being thrashed out now is that Adalace, and all of the others, just have to put up with a lot of oversight. It's not as if they can really complain, considering that they deliberately let loose that deluge of data. There is an awful lot of personal details in it." said the lady, "So, hopefully we can catch her before she goes completely off the rails." "There is also the point that Adalace appears to be making some initial progress in accessing the Artifact’s full functionality." said the compeer. "Ah, yes, now that's a whole other topic. But, yes, with her super programming abilities, if she can coax some more cooperation out of the Artifact, then she becomes even more incredibly important to us. In fact, to humanity as a whole." said the man. "Which is one more reason why anyone in power will be extremely reluctant to upset her in anyway. She is simply too important." said the lady. The compeer looked at the camera. "Well, the general consensus appears to be that they are not excessively dangerous, especially considering we live with a lot of powerful espers anyway. And-" He turned to look at the lady. "You have some comments about who is the most dangerous one?" "I sure do. Actually, it's more like, we shouldn't be talking about them as two separate people, but as a single couple. I think their powers complement each other's very nicely indeed. Adalace can trawl the planetary internet and find suspicious people, and Sarsaparilla can use her Judgemental powers to decide if they are really bad or not. And, if they are, well, then, everyone she has currently 'Judged' to death appears to fully deserve it. Or if Sarsaparilla is the one to find an evil, Adalace can research it." "In other words, they can use their own powers to protect the other." said the man. "That brings up a very important point - they really love each other. So an attack on one will automatically be an attack on the other." said the lady. "Yeah, I wouldn't want to be the target of both of them!" said the compeer. The man laughed outright. "Well, then, you had better keep on not doing evil!" "For me, I'm not worried at all. I mean, I've never raped anyone." said the lady. "OK, there you have it. Naturally there are much more serious versions of this discussion happening behind closed doors between people who actually have some power, unlike us mere nobodies, and I'm sure they are perfectly capable of dealing with this issue." said the compeer. The lady giggled. "But, you people of power, remember! Sarsaparilla and Adalace are watching! So you had better be on your best behaviour!" The wife reached for the remote control, and the screen went black. The rapist realised that he was sweating. He could feel the drops of sweat tricking down his back, under his shirt. She gave him a long, cool, stare. "So, the girl you raped is now considered to be one of the most powerful and dangerous people on the planet." "Huh, I guess so." "And, if that wasn't bad enough, she appears to have become the oracle of the Artifact. Which gives her an enormous amount of freedom in what she wants. Unlike, say, us..." The man loosened his collar. It was getting damp. "And, even worse, the person she loves the most in the world appears to be able to read how evil a person his. Hmm, I suppose you could say she can read one's soul. If she doesn't like what is sees there, she can, ah, act with extreme prejudice. And, no one will lift a finger to stop her." The man was really sweating now. "You realise that, somewhere in that great mass of data they dumped on us, is the name of her rapist?" "I guess so..." "She has been very generous in not mentioning it so far, hasn't she?" "Ah, yes, very kind..." "But, when our daughter gets to be a teenager, there will be nothing stopping her from doing her own search of the archive, and possibly finding out that it was you who raped Adalace." Gulp. His throat was getting dry, but his shirt was damp with sweat. "So, sometime in the future, we are going to have to work out what to tell her about all of this." "Y-yes, I, err, that seems to be just about right..." "Well, I'm going to bed. You may sleep next to me as usual, but, ah, somehow I don't feel like doing anything special tonight..." "Sure, sure, no worries!" Candide: Nope, still not going to happen Soon after, Candide and her boyfriend were also watching yet another discussion and summary of the current events. They watched it through to the end, and then she switched off the screen. They sat there in silence, until eventually Candide spoke. "Say, do you think that this is all my fault for forcing Leroy to promise to end all the secrecy?" The boyfriend decided to think this through carefully before eventually replying. "Not really. I mean, it might have increased Leroy's resolve, but remember there were twelve other people with him. None of them would have been influenced in the slightest by your opinion. Not to mention the fact that it appears that Leroy wasn't even one of the important ones." "I suppose that is a relief. In spite of the fact that I think this will ultimately will be all to the good." "In that case, considering how Leroy risked his life and ended up helping those others, are you going to forgive him, even if only a little?" Candide spent a brief moment thinking this over, then answered very decisively: "Nope, still not going to happen. Kaydence can give him forgiveness if she wants, but I'm certainly not." "Ah, fine. How about we watch an anime or something?" he said. Francesca: Gets a new job Three months after, Francesca waved good bye to Tamara as she exited their mutual accommodation. "Wish me luck!" she said. She was wearing a semi formal outfit, suitable for something like a job interview. Which was, in fact, what she was going to. She briskly strode out across the rock floor of the cavern, circling around some construction workers busily putting up another building, and strolled up the ramp to the Futures City maglev station. Half an hour later, she presented herself to the dingy little office of the mining company that was run by one of Erasyl's brothers. It was located somewhere underground beneath Verdant dome. Within another half an hour it was all settled. "So, I'll get my secretary to type up all of that - he only works here twice a week - and I'll see you on site in two weeks time. Pretty convenient for you I must say, since the site of concern is where you live." said the brother, as he got up and shook hands with Francesca. Francesca, looking very pleased with herself, agreed. At this point, the brother, who had been strictly professional during the interview, changed his demeanour and actually looked slightly nervous. "Say, ah, now that we have gotten the business out of the road, ah, would you like to have a meal with me at a nice restaurant I know? For this first time, I'll pay, of course!" The briefest of delays from Francesca, then her smile (well, the smile on the good side of her face) became even broader. "Why, I would love it!" Sarsaparilla: Says goodbye to someone going on a very long journey Six months after the Great Disruption: Sarsaparilla walked out of the quarters which housed the so-called clones. "Another failure. Another brain wiped teenager, who used to believe they were a clone, and now is just confused, but still amnesiac.," she said. She looked miserable. "Without Esmeralda to reverse the brain wiping, we just end up with another Juniper, only worse. That's three now. I'm not going to try anymore." The one she was walking with was Shane. "Ah, so all you do is to be in their close proximity?" "Yeah, that's all it took for Erasyl and Maggie. It reverses Ajaeren's conditioning, but obviously that's all it does." They walked along a few corridors, and ended up in Shane's office/study room. "Sorry, I need to print off the form and if you could sign it? This is what the officials requested, you know." "Yeah, no problems." said Sarsaparilla, as she scribbled her signature, "I've gotten used to the endless oversight." She looked at the large poster on one of the walls. It showed an artistic rendition of the Tau Ceti solar system as the background, and a painting of the Starship in the foreground. "So, you're really going?" "Oh, yes, definitely. The launch has been delayed from what the committee planed, but, as you know, once some more experts examined the plans, they found plenty of problems that needed fixing. And, really, I needed the extra study." Sarsaparilla shifted around on her feet, looking distinctly uncomfortable. "Hmm, you don't have to say anything if you don't want to, but according to one of the many reports I have been showered with, you, ah, had an operation..." Shane looked at the poster as he replied, in a perfectly flat voice. "That's right, the nerves to my - you know - have been cut. At my request." There was a drawn out silence, then he continued. "I killed five teenage girls. Admittedly it was partly under the influence of that Ajaeren creep, but still. And I was looking forward to having my -" He screwed up his face in disgust. "My clone harem of thirty girls." "But, of course, once I found out those clones are real live girls, well..." Another silence. "I feel I am no longer worthy of getting the comfort of some woman's embrace. No longer deserve to have some girl's kiss. And, and, those brain wiped girls that will be travelling with me, they can never be able to consent to any relationship. Their ability to consent has been removed from them. Being a murderer is almost too much to bear. I don't want to be a rapist also." He kept staring at the poster. Sarsaparilla stayed silent. "If, by chance, Tau Ceti has suitable planet, the doctors will artificially fertilise the girls, using stored sperm. So there is no need for me to be, ah, intact..." "Ah, right. Those doctors. That's another good reason why the launch was delayed, isn't it?" "Yeah, that's right. Four female doctors, all middle age, all prepared to go on a one-way trip to the stars. With the entire population of Earth available, finding suitable candidates wasn't so hard after all." said Shane. “Also, I would like to point out that I’ve also donated all of the money that came to me from Teylon’s will to provide extra care to the clones that will be staying behind. After all, it won’t be of any use to me, anyway.” he continued. “Good. That’s good. Oh, and of course, Adalace is working hard on the Artifact replication project. Within a few months they might have a success. So you can take an Artifact with you!" said Sarsaparilla. Having gotten the awkward stuff out of the way, Shane had turned to face her and was beginning to speak with some animation. "Yes, that is a wonderful bonus. Although I'm impressed at how much that project is costing." "Last I heard, it was several hundred billion dollars and counting. There's a team of two thousand experts, both here and Earthside, working on it. Whoever designed the Artifact certainly made sure that doing anything with it costs, one way or another. And, of course, I have a hard time getting Adalace to stop freaking out over being the project lead for such a huge project, not to mention all the responsibility and public exposure." Some more silence. Sarsaparilla, turning her head slightly upwards, had a good look at Shane's face for the first time. He looks worn and haggard. I've heard he is studying extremely hard, and he never socialises. Another teenager whose life the committee completely stuffed up. He's going to die light-years away from home. Hopefully he won't die alone - but who knows what they will decide to do once they get there. He'll never have a girlfriend. No one to share his life with, like I have Adalace. Sigh. What did Esmeralda say? Something about choosing to do good... Esmeralda, I hope this counts as good, even if I don't feel like it all that much. "Shane, bend your knees a bit, OK?" "Ah, sure?" He bent his knees, ending up with his face more or less the same level as hers. Sarsaparilla leant forward, lightly wrapped her arms around him, very lightly pressed her body against his, and gave him a light kiss on his cheek. "Bon Voyage." she said, as she broke contact and made for the door. Her last vision of him ever was him standing there, blank look on his face, brushing his cheek with his hand. This is pathetic all the way round. I think I need to get a proper hug and kiss from Adalace as soon as possible. Adalace: Has a giggle Eight or so months after: Adalace and Sarsaparilla were relaxing in their lounge room after a shared meal with Leroy and Kaydence. Sarsaparilla looked up from her tablet screen; she had been skimming through some news reports. “Hey, Adalace; apparently a startup company is offering for sale security software that protects people’s data from being accessed by you.” Adalace put on a medium strength cute smile: “Is that the AdaBlock software package?” “Yes – but that smile – Let me guess…” Adalace began to giggle: “Yep, I’ve already broken its security. Didn’t take me very long, either!” A medium strength stare from Sarsaparilla, “And?” Adalace decided not to bother having a staring match. “Ok, Ok, I’ll post a little message on my Public Work Blog saying I have already cracked it.” “That’s right,” said Sarsaparilla, “no need to be too evil.” That gang: Meeting Sarsaparilla and Adalace in a dark alley A year after: That gang, the one that had an unfortunate experience with Maggie, twice, was loitering in the back alleys of Verdant again. The Great Disruption in general, and seeing Sarsaparilla's power in particular, had initially made them cautious. But, after a year, they were getting used to the new status. And, thus, they were reverting back to old habits. One bloke nudged their leader with his elbow. "So, how did it go with that blond chick?" "Aw, the femoid bitch just ignored me. Those girls are so stuck up with their fine airs and talks about friendship zones, they put their noses up at the thought of being with one of us." "Yeah, they only want the rich alpha males, the bitches." said another. The fourth one hesitated, then spoke with a certain amount of diffidence, "Actually, you know, my brother just managed to get a girlfriend - I don't know, but it seems he put a lot of effort into getting to know the girl before hand - Well, I suppose it worked for him..." There was a small, awkward, gap, then the leader burst out laughing. The others followed. "As if that will work for us! The only way we'll get what is our right is if we go and take it!" The others agreed. "So, shall we go to the Jade Gardens again?", said the fourth bloke, "I hear they have a few new girls..." "Oh, forget those whores! I'm sick and tired of having to pay for what should be our due." said the leader. After some more bullshitting, they decided to cruise along some more back alleys, to see who they could pick up. Adalace and Sarsaparilla: Sarsaparilla had gone to pick up Adalace, who had been at a conference about the Artifact. Question time had run way overtime, and Adalace was exhausted from answering them. Especially since at least half of the questioners did not have clue about what they were talking. Consequently she had asked Sarsaparilla to have a brisk walk with her along the river shore, to get the blood flowing and blow a few cobwebs from her mind. And right now they were cutting through the industrial area, aiming for a restaurant. In the middle of one dark alley, two menacing blokes stepped out in front of them. And a brief glance backwards showed two more behind them. "Well, well, two little ladies out for a walk - how about going with us for a while?" Caught by surprise, the girls fell back on past behavior. They produced two brilliantly radiant smiles. The man opened his mouth again to say something more, then froze with a look of terrified horror. "Oh shit, it's them!" He turned and ran at full tilt down the alley. Closely followed by the other bloke who had also been in front of the girls. The two blokes that were behind were puzzled. "What on Mars are they doing?" And then they, too, recognized the girls. Five seconds later, the two girls were alone in that dark alley. They stopped smiling. Sarsaparilla faced Adalace, put her head in her hand, and let Adalace hug her. "What pathetic little creeps!" said Sarsaparilla. "Creeps? More like utter scum! You should have fried their brains with a Judgment call... Ah, oops." said Adalace, "Ah, right, this is where we have to make an effort of will and not do any evil, isn't it?" Big sigh from Sarsaparilla, "I guess so." "You going to ask you know who for any hints?" "I suppose so..." Sarsaparilla looked pensive for a moment, then came back to reality. She twitched out a code, then listened to her wristband. "Hello, this is oversight... Ah, you are calling about those four men who just accosted you?" Sarsaparilla looked up and along the alley. Sure enough, there were a few security cameras easily visible, and who knows how many hidden ones. "Yeah, that's right." "Well, the police are already moving; all four should be in custody within ten minutes." "Good, good. Now, can I request that those four be compelled to have counseling? They really have totally shitty ideas about how to relate to women, and who knows, they might actually learn how to do better." "OK, I'll pass that information along. Is there anything more?" "Nyah, that'll do. Thanks." After closing the call, Sarsaparilla and Adalace shared a glance. "This doing good can be a real pain, don't you agree?" said Adalace. "Sure do. But, still, from what I got from, ah, my source, those little shits have never, yet, actually raped anybody. And, just maybe, they can be 'educated' into being better humans. So, I guess, that's all to the good." "But you had to explicitly ask for that advice, didn't you?" "That's right. I had to make an act of free will and choose to do something that could help them." said Sarsaparilla. She gave a big sigh, then, hand in hand, the two most dangerous people on Mars continued their evening walk. Somewhere on Earth: The Bad Hair Day ability is actually... Two years after, somewhere on Earth. The committee had kept a tight rein on their esp users, and in fact not one esper had ever been allowed to the surface of Earth. Of course, that all changed dramatically with the new government. For the first time ever, Earth was allowed to get up close and personal with espers, or at least those who decided they would like the chance to visit the home planet. Sadly, such tourists still had to pay their way, but there were many Earth based groups who were willing to put up the tab. And, what was even more exciting, people from Earth were allowed to visit Mars and get esp implants. Assuming they were female and pregnant, of course. It took about half a year before those on Mars were confident enough to continue the implantation programme. But the initial trickle of applicants, both from Earth and from Mars, quickly grew to the maximum capacity that the esp institution could safely handle. Which meant that in the forthcoming years, there was going to be a lot of espers living on Earth. Which meant that there was going to be a whole lot of brand new, unique, business opportunities in the near future. In fact, it was shaping up to be a gold rush. From little start-ups backed by a single entrepreneur and his/her mother's savings, all the way up to multinational companies throwing massive amounts of money around, the scramble was on to find uses for these amazing new esp powers, and therefore make lots of money. Or, alternatively, find ways of leveraging esp abilities for political or military or societal gain. People were getting positively giddy at the possibilities. In one of these start-ups, a little one with ten employers, the newest hire was currently standing in front of the other nine. She was a little nervous, but she had done her homework and was confident of her findings. "Ah, hi everyone. I was tasked with investigating esp powers whose effects were cryptic. So, of course, I selected Sarsaparilla's Bad Hair Day ability." She was immediately interrupted. "Hasn't everyone and their intern already had a go at that? Not to mention the fact that her ability is probably the Judgement stuff, anyway. Although how Teylon fits in..." said one of the guys in the audience. The boss spoke up. "Let's hear what she has to say first, shall we? Obviously we need something fresh to bring to that stale old argument." Since she was paying their salaries out of her own money, everybody decided to behave and listen. "Ah, err, thanks. My insight, if you can call it that, was to wonder where the name came from in the first place. I mean, Bad Hair Day? What does that mean? So I spent a week trawling through the data dump for every time that the committee discussed Sarsaparilla. It's all there, but apparently no one has bothered to collect it all into one place and publish it." "Simply put, the name is from Sarsaparilla herself; whenever she was in a foul mood her hair got disarrayed. It never seemed to occur to her to wonder why, but if you pursue the security footage of her having a bad hair day, it is easy to see that it's just gusts of wind blowing her hair around. It occurred to me to wonder where did these swirls of air come from? After all, Mars is a totally enclosed artificial environment, even the biggest of domes are not big enough to have all that much weather. Even with the atmospheric circulation fans running flat out, they still don't get much turbulence. Except for one curious exception, the time Teylon's group met on that exterior balcony of the North Tower. That time really had the atmosphere technicians scratching their heads; they never did work out why the wind was so unstable. And why it was limited to an area around the North Tower only. So, of course, I'm sure by now you can work out what was causing it..." "An esp power, naturally. But why do you think it is Sarsaparilla's?" said the boss. "Well, for a start, I spent a tedious couple of days scanning though countless security footage of people on the surface, trying to find anything that looked like localised wind gusts. I found nothing. But I did find some video of Sarsaparilla's apartment, when she had her first social event." She clicked on the remote she was holding, and on the projection screen appeared the image of a desk and bed, plus a half a dozen posters, all of examples of extreme Earth weather. "Sarsaparilla really liked her weather posters. So I made up the hypothesis that her esp ability is to control the weather. Not a Mars dome sized weather system, but something a lot bigger. Say a few hundred to a few thousand kilometres bigger. This explains why she never managed to activate her skill; she was never in a chunk of air big enough. This might also explain why the wind turbulence was so bad at the North Tower social event; because for the first time in her life she was in the open and up in the air. I guess there was just enough air around her, both above and below, to trigger a slight reaction from her ability. All the other occasions, it was just a matter of her ability barely managing to give a tiny flicker of power." The boss thought over this for a few moments. "That is a good as any hypothesis, but we really need a bit more to go on..." "I've got it. I decided to look into the numbers of esp implantations of mothers who were aiming to return to Earth. More particularly, the relative counts of the Bad Hair Day ability compared to other, seemingly more useful abilities." "And?" "Basically, there are a lot. Even accounting for people thinking that it's the same as the Judgement power, it is a lot. Not too excessive compared to the absolute numbers of esp implantations, but still it's more than expected. I mean, think of all the really useful abilities - and all of these mothers picked Bad Hair Day?" "So, people have made the same deduction as you?" said the boss. "That's right. And they have thought of the implications." "Oh. Right. Controlling the weather. That's a rather awesome power - you could produce the optimal weather for growing crops for example. Or produce just the right amount of rain to get your rivers flowing and dams filled without flooding. Hmm, or maybe, stop hurricanes. Now that would be worthwhile!" said the boss. "How about starting a hurricane?" "Now why would anyone want to do that... err, yes, warfare." said the boss, "Ah, so that is why it hasn't be published so far - they are all keeping their potential weapons secret." "That's right. If some country could control all of the Bad Hair Day espers, then they could potentially give them an enormous advantage over other countries without that ability." "This might be a bit too big for us to tackle..." said the boss. "Exactly what I was thinking. How about we just broadcast this information as widely as possible, and continue looking for something a bit more in our size range?" "Whoa there. Maybe we shouldn't be too hasty. We might be able to do something with it..." "Really? We are just a tiny company, and this is far too big for us to handle." The boss blinked a few times. "Maybe, perhaps we should just leave things as they are?" "Personally I think it should be published. The more people that know this, the less chance that it could be used as a weapon of war." "I suppose so - but I don't know about taking on such a task..." "Why not? As I said, there is no way we can make any profit from keeping it quiet; there are too many big players, much bigger players, in the game already. And the sooner this is out in the open, the better. Or at least this is what I think." The boss scratched her head. Looked around at her employees. Then made up her mind. "Sure, sure, let's publish this." Fortunately, they did not get much in the way of repercussions from blowing the whistle. Perhaps those big players knew that it was going to become public one day, anyway. They just continued searching and eventually they made a comfortable living by being a resource centre and hiring agency for people with Water Lily's esp ability. But, sadly, the boss never did strike it rich. Leroy's and Kaydence’s wedding Four years after the Great Disruption: A week before the wedding, Adalace had sent a polite email to the weather engineers, asking if there was likely to be any rain scheduled for that day. She received back an email saying that, no, there definitely was not going to be any rain, and if any had been planned, it had been cancelled. Thus Adalace, standing next to Sarsaparilla, was feeling pleased with herself. The weather, as promised, was fine and dry. The sky was clear all the way up to the artificial sun lighting on the rock face of the ceiling. Around her were trees and scrubs, birds were flitting about, and in the grass below her feet little ants were scuttling along. Including over her feet. She moved, flicking her feet, to get rid of them. Fortunately this corresponded with a polite outburst of clapping, as Sister Celeste pronounced Leroy and Kaydence to be husband and wife. A few minutes later, the newly wedded couple signed the documents and received their first congratulations, from Celeste. "Are you sure you won't want to stay for the reception?" asked Kaydence, hopefully. "Sorry, I feel I have now fulfilled my duty, it is now up to you two to begin your life as a married couple." Since this is what Kaydence and Leroy had expected, they weren't too disappointed. After waving good-bye to the Sister, then turned to greet some of their other friends. Tamara happened to be the first to step forward. She gave a small hug to Kaydence and shook Leroy's hand. "You had better look after her, otherwise I will track you down and bring you to justice!" said Tamara. Leroy made a show of loosening his collar. "Ah, justice or Judgement?" Next was Sarawatch, with Napoleon at her side. "Oh, I think that nothing more than a bit of police justice will be sufficient." said Sarawatch. Followed by Francesca and Erasyl's brother. "Well, it looks like I can claim another hug, doesn't it?" said Francesca to Leroy. They were followed by various parents and relatives and a few extra friends that had been gained in the last four years. The crowd was not very big, and soon the last four people walked up, Maggie, Erasyl, Sarsaparilla and Adalace. By previous arrangement, they formed a group and leisurely strolled away from the reception area, across the grass, heading towards a patch of young trees. The grove of trees that Maggie and Erasyl had visited was now bigger, and was no longer surrounded by an empty expanse of rock floor. Instead, the landscape artists from Verdant had been very busy. The whole floor of Futures City was now covered in green. Or, in many cases, blue from water features. There were paths all over the place, plus some elevator entrances. There were not many buildings. Just like Verdant City, most of the building space was under ground. Or horizontally, into the rock sidewalls. There were balconies, windows, and verandas appearing along the sides, and there was a lot of active building going on. Being a few kilometres underground meant that there was no solar or cosmic radiation present. Which was a very nice thing if one was an expectant mother. Consequently, Futures City was fast becoming the place to stay while having a baby. Maggie led the way and stopped in front of a Jacaranda tree. It was already three metres high - Mars genetically altered all of its trees to grow fast and in reduced sunlight. It had a sign in front of it, saying 'Teylon'. Next to it was a Flame tree, for Juniper, and next to that was a Wollemia pine tree for Devina. "Well, Teylon, here we are." she said. "That bunch of teenagers who almost killed each other at our first social event are still friends. All thanks to you. You said that everything was due to Esmeralda, but, really, the one we saw was you. So, ah, thanks. We are in a much better position because of you efforts, even if we did give you a certain amount of strife." They all stood there in silence, before she continued. "Ah, we're all married now, three married couples. I suppose we would have never even have met each other without you." She stopped again, running out of things to say. She wiped a few tears off her face. Sarsaparilla looked back, and saw a catering vehicle arrive. So she had a few words. "Everyone, the food has arrived! And, because of Teylon's generous Will, he is still paying for it!" She lifted her fist into the air to give a cheer, but had to stop to get out her hanky. After they composed themselves, Adalace said a few words. "I think that, given the circumstances, I can finally give a hug to Leroy. Only one, mind you!" So Leroy and Adalace shared a hug, while the others clapped. Then they all drifted back to the reception area, three couples hand in hand, with Sarsaparilla in the lead, and got stuck into the food. Tamara: A typical school day Five years after: Tamara walked into the classroom and stood at the front. Just as the siren to mark the start of the school day sounded. Bang on time as usual. She consulted her inbuilt sense of where all of her children were. Yep, here they come. Sigh, looks like Harry is having another clingy episode with his mother. She could not see them, but her esp ability reported their close proximity to each other. She called out to her teaching assistant. "Could you go out and fetch Harry?" "Sure." He left and soon returned, holding Harry's hand and comforting him. The other students also arrived, some rushing in, others dawdling, by themselves or in groups, most of them chatting amongst themselves. Tamara waited until they were all sitting on the floor and more or less paying attention. "Good morning, everyone!" "Good morning, Miss Tamara and Mr Roger!" "Today we will start with some handwriting! Everyone please take out your crayons and get some paper..." In a quiet moment, she had a few quiet thoughts. Thanks, Teylon. You gave me my life back. I just wish Devina and Juniper could have been here, also.