CHAPTER 1
“You’re listening to WMRS, the voice of Mars! We have a special guest today, and he comes with his own cadre of bodyguards. No, seriously, I think the guy in the back with the assault rifle is quietly labeling me as a terrorist. But assuming I survive the break, we’ll be interviewing the great Phineas Wrigley in a minute! So get ready to set down your picks and adjust your helmets, miners. Because we’ll be talking to the richest guy currently on the planet… after these important public service announcements!”
Sandra Pike toggled the commercial break, muting her mic in the process. The ambient light in the little soundproofed room went from green to red.
She adjusted her curly red afro, shook out her arms to relieve the tension, and then shot a smile across the broadcast booth at her guest. “Are you ready for this?”
The middle aged entrepreneur and visionary nodded slowly. His brown hair was a bird’s nest, crowning a slightly wrinkled forehead. Perhaps that’s why he reached up to run a set of calloused fingers through his locks before replying, “Sure. You know that Bob wouldn’t hurt you, right?”
Sandra laughed. She tipped an imaginary hat in the bodyguard’s direction, and received a faint nod from the assault rifle toting man. Then she said, “Of course not. We bonded over synth-coffee in the green room. He’s dreamy.”
Phineas gave her a ghost of a smile. “Linda though. She’d hurt you.”
The other guard in the room was an older, bald woman with a wicked looking pair of shades. Her kinetic bolt thrower was slung casually over her shoulder. The weapon was an early 21st century invention, but still saw a lot of use in the field.
Linda caught the look that the radio host was giving her. She just smirked.
Sandra’s laughter faded as she regarded the other woman uncertainly. “Right. Noted.”
Phineas murmured, “I’m kidding of course. I feel safe, you should feel safe. It will be fine. The outcome was already written.”
“About that. You said this would be a ‘no holds barred’ interview? Some of the viewer questions were really quite… something.”
“It’s fine, Sandra. I trust you to know your audience, as I know mine. We need to retain the trust of the mining colonies here. It’s the only way our plans move forward.”
Sandra nodded slowly. She said, “Alrighty. Then we’re live in five. Four.”
The last three numbers she counted down with her fingers before flipping the toggle once more. The room was bathed in a calm green glow.
“Hey there kids, It’s Sandy Sands back in your ears! It was touch and go there, but we survived the break to bring you face to face with the system’s most eligible bachelor, Phineas Wrigley. How are you today, baby?”
“Doing quite well, Sandy. Thank you for asking.”
Sandra leaned back in her chair. She picked up her E-paper notebook and twiddled the plastic stylus in her fingers as she selected the first question to ask her esteemed guest. “So it says here that your entire saga started way the hell out there. A survey of Neptune? What happened, sugar?”
Phineas leaned back in his chair. The old metal frame creaked, as if threatening to buckle at any moment. But he trusted the engineering. “I was abducted.”
“Abducted by who?”
“I’d wire you a hundred million tomorrow if you had the answer to that question, my dear. I don’t know. And by all accounts… it never happened at all.”
Sandra waggled her little plastic stylus in her guest’s direction. She said, “And that’s the crux, isn’t it? Half of the questions that the people of Mars want to ask you are about this unusual abduction. ‘Was it aliens?’ ‘Did you have an episode?’ ‘Why did this supposed abduction happen in a fraction of a second?’”
Phineas grimaced. The worry lines on his forehead creased and his cheeks briefly became more gaunt as he sucked in a deep breath. “My working theory is that some kind of time travel was at play, but of course that’s very convenient, isn’t it?”
“It really is.”
“All I can do is relate my version of the events to your listeners, and allow them to draw their own conclusions. Is that fair?”
Sandra shrugged. She said, “Fair or not, that sounds like our only option here.”
The entrepreneur nodded. He leaned forward in his seat and said, “I won’t bore you with the research mission’s details. I’ll skip right to the part when the lights went out.”
Chapter 2
Phineas sat up in his chair, abruptly. He groaned. Nodding off in the middle of an orbital mechanics experiment was not a good look. Why the hell were the lights so dim anyway?
He stood up, but stumbled. There was gravity. Real, honest-to-goodness gravity which meant he was planetside, or on a ship with a rotating core that could create a ton of centripetal force.
Then the panic set in. The decking that he touched was textured. His Neptune research vessel was simple; no-frills. It had flat metallic plate decking.
The arm of the chair that he was using to haul himself upright was heated. And he was gripping some kind of faux-leather, not a simple fabric-over-foam arrangement as was standard on his craft.
“What the he-”
The lights came up abruptly, cutting off Phineas’ confused exclamation. He immediately knew that this room wasn’t part of his little research craft. It looked more like someone tried to make it seem like the typical Earthling’s den, but it came off as far too sterile. The flat grey walls were covered with plexiglass encased shelves, each displaying pristine models of ships that he’d never seen before. There was a laughably out of place treadmill directly in the center of the room. A locked terminal sat in the corner, sleek and dark, with some kind of holographic display showing a series of atomic structures in incredible detail.
There was a single door leading out of the strange room. Phineas struggled against the increased gravity, bolting for the exit as fast as he could. But as he reached out to slap the switch next to the doorframe, it slid open of its own accord.
Phineas staggered back. His eyes widened as he beheld the face of his abductor.
Chapter 3
Sandra couldn’t keep the scepticism out of her voice. “They were just… human?”
Phineas did his best to ignore the undertone of the question, keeping his reply calm and factual, “Very much so. Their garb wasn’t anything that I had ever seen before, but yes. Five fingers, one nose. Normal range of skin colors. But what they showed me, Sandy. What they showed me changed everything.”
“You claim that they showed you the future.”
“In great detail. They explained which technologies needed to be mastered in order to perfect space travel, orbital solar farming, asteroid mining, and of course Martian ore smelting facilities.”
Sandra didn’t hide her slight smile as she replied, “Of course. Pandering to the home crowd, I like it.”
Phineas chuckled softly, “Just stating the facts.”
“Why did they embark on this time travel journey in the first place? Aren’t they afraid of the consequences of messing with space-time?”
“Actually, someone else did that first. Or so I assumed. According to them, they were just correcting a ‘mistake made by another traveller’ by supplying me with this information. Again, they never specifically mentioned time travel, even if it was implied.”
“Right. You’re a smart guy. How much of what they told you was just plain logic, and how much of it was a surprise?”
Phineas paused. He seemed to consider the question, eyes going a bit distant. His bodyguards shifted uncomfortably in the silence.
Finally the man said, “There were a couple of things that they told me that I never would have guessed in a million years…”
Chapter 4
“So everything I invest in needs to be ternary capable?”
His three hosts exchanged glances. The grand conference room was still bathed in the pale pink light of their vivid holographic display, which laid out the complete business plan that Phineas needed to follow in order to secure the future. It reflected off their white uniforms and the ebony conference table as a brief silence fell over proceedings.
The tallest man finally responded, “Yes. We’ve run the calculations, and in order to restore the proper path, you’ll need to work in the most efficient way possible. That means three bit systems, not two. So ternary quantum computing, ternary holographic storage, ternary communications, and ternary operating systems.”
“Nobody is doing that right now. Everything is binary.”
The woman on the left chimed in, her voice smooth as silk, “Not everything. A select number of firms have working ternary computers. Even quantum ternary computers. You’ll need to roll the profits from your investments into these select firms. You’ll need to shepherd them. Only then can you achieve greatness.”
Phineas sighed and rubbed his forehead. He asked the question that had been gnawing at the back of his mind since the three started their pitch, “But why me?”
The smaller man jumped on the question, as if predicting it, “Three factors were at play. Intelligence, which you clearly have. We needed someone who could understand and expand on the base concepts that we presented here today. Second is means. Your frequent high risk, deep space exploration missions have left you with a lot of hazard duty pay to invest. Finally, opportunity. We needed to have this meeting without being detected, of course. If we were stopped before we reached you…”
The woman shuddered at the thought. The tall man shook his head slightly, as if banishing the scenario from his head.
“It would have been a disaster. You met all of our criteria.”
Phineas took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. It all made sense. Everything they had told him simply made sense.
He said, “Alright. What’s next?”
Chapter 5
Sandra let her guest finish his thoughts on his friendly ‘abduction’ before turning her attention back to the microphone, “Well, you heard the man, Mars! That’s his story and he’s sticking to it. Questions? Fire away! We’re opening up the phone lines and the CB radio to our loyal listeners. Do you have a question for the great Phineas Wrigley? Call the WMRS switchboard now.”
She slapped the ‘Accept Calls’ button. Immediately the switchboard lit up like a Christmas tree.
“First caller incoming! Hey there baby, what’s your name?”
“Alice McViddles.”
Sandra snapped her fingers once, “Excellent name, Alice! What’s your question for Phineas?”
“Mars has been taken advantage of by the rich a hundred times since we colonized it. Your companies have dealt fairly with us so far, but how do we know you aren’t like all the others? How do we know that the other shoe isn’t going to drop right on our heads?”
Phineas was nodding throughout the woman’s question, after getting the gist of it. His response was firm, “Alice, the answer is simple. I put my money where my mouth is. Not a promissory note. Not a ‘staged purchase’. When I buy products or services on Mars, the money is in a Martian escrow account, watched after by Martian lawyers, to be earned by Martian workers and companies. I couldn’t screw you over even if I tried. But you know what, Alice?”
“What’s that?”
“I wouldn’t want to. Your good will is more important than pinching credits. I need the ore, and the miners, and the factories of this planet more than I need some imaginary numbers growing in some bank account somewhere. We’re partners in the future of the solar system. Period.”
Sandra said, “Thanks for the question Alice. Who’s next? Caller, you’re on the air with Phineas Wrigley!”
“Hey Sandy, This is Peter. Long time listener, first time caller!”
She slapped a button and a warbling foghorn echoed throughout the studio.
“Welcome to the Red Storm, Peter. What’s your question?”
“So these… time travelers, aliens or not, whatever. Did they give you stock tips that are still in the future?”
Sandra laughed, “I like how you think, Pete! What say you, mister billionaire? Got any hot stock tips for a humble talk show host?”
Somberly, Phineas replied, “Sadly I do not. My last ‘guided’ investment was years ago. Believe me, I wish that wasn’t the case. The Bonaventure still needs a few critical components. The reality is that we’re still researching how we can accomplish all of our goals. So doubling our operating budget would be quite attractive. Sadly, we’re on our own now.”
Sandra laughed a little bit, “Sorry Pete. But good luck with the stock market! Next caller.”
“You can’t fool us, you phony! Orbital solar panels? Slingshot trajectories? How is all that possible when you know that Mars is flat?!”
Sandra reached for the ‘Hang Up’ button as she said, “Ut-oh, looks like we got a special one here…”
But Phineas stopped her, “One moment, if you please. Sir, what’s your name?”
“I’m Derrick Smith! And I’m on to you.”
“Derrick, I’m in a unique position to help you to examine your beliefs. I can get you on a personal rocket. It would just be you, no crew to deceive you. You could have fellow Flat Mars members observe every stage of preparation and launch. And then you could tell them what you see. To avoid any screen tricks, you could even do a short space walk. How does that sound?”
There was a short pause on the other end of the line. Then came the explosive reply:
“This is a trick! You’re not getting me into one of your tin cans. You would hypnotize us or brainwash us or something. The Globe A-Lie-Ance would stop at nothing to silence us! We’re not going to let your tactics get in the way of the truth. Long live Flat Mars!”
The line was abruptly cut off.
Phineas murmured, “Well, I tried.”
Sandra said, “You did. I do have one more question for you. You were quoted in a prior interview as losing your connection with the events of the abduction itself. You said that the experience was becoming, and I quote, ‘fragments of fading memories’. So I have to ask… are you sure that it all happened? Is it possible that the whole thing was in your head? The evidence from your ship doesn’t back up the abduction angle.”
He nodded slowly before replying, “Anything is possible. One would assume that a civilization advanced enough to know the exact series of inventions, investments, and events that had to transpire to get me here could easily edit a ship’s log and chronometer. But whether this was a real experience or a vision, remembered or imagined… It has led to the here and now. Call it fate. Call it inspiration. Call it whatever you like. I’m just happy that my past has set me up to form a wonderful partnership with the people of Mars. That’s what really matters right now.”
“Thank you, Phineas. That was Phineas Wrigley. What a trip. News and tunes coming up, after the break!”
She toggled commercial mode, and the room faded into a red haze.
Sandra reached over and grabbed some protein jerky. She offered some to her guests, who all declined. She tore open the foil package and started to pop the dry meat into her mouth. But she hesitated.
Sandra had to ask, “Did they ever contact you again? After that first time?”
Phineas slowly rose to his feet. His guards stirred, stretching their arms and legs in preparation for their return to the spaceport.
After a moment of contemplation, he said, “I sometimes wonder if they kept tabs. If some of the advisors in my life might have been one of them. It would be nice. But much like the gods that some people believe in, I have no evidence that their hand continues to guide me.”
Just before biting into her snack, Sandra said, “I agree. It would be nice.”
Phineas and Bob walked through the studio door. As they filtered out of the room, Linda hesitated for half a second, as if wanting to say something to Sandra in parting. Then she apparently thought better of it. She headed out in silence and closed the door behind her.
Chapter 6
“Great. And I have to babysit this one.”
After being tranqued to within an inch of his life, the unconscious and mostly naked Phineas had been thrown over Linda’s shoulder. She was younger back then but just as fit; being a junior security officer in Ternary Unlimited. But in zero gravity, she hardly needed to be a bodybuilder to haul the scientist around. Most of her effort was spent keeping him from banging his head on the walls.
Jerome, leading the way to toggle the doors, testily commented, “We have 64 of these assholes to abduct and condition. Why do we need to be their guardian angel afterwards?”
Linda reminded him, “Every one of them needs to actually survive long enough to execute the plan. Do you want to be the one to tell the others that the one guy we didn’t guard afterwards was the one that would have made us rich?”
They floated through the docking collar and into their small, dingy spacecraft. After pushing off the wall to take a left at the main junction, they arrived in what looked like a repurposed bathroom. Linda unceremoniously shoved Phineas into the cheap, padded sensory deprivation tank.
Jerome said, “The one that I get better like to party. I’m not doing the whole ‘bodyguard’ gig sober.”
She snorted and reached over to grab the VR goggles and rebreather, strapping it onto her victim. “Immersive mask with scent function is active. Just hook up the haptic feedback stuff so we can get this over with.”
As they prepped Phineas for his ‘experience’, Jerome asked, “Why so many?”
“Come again?”
“Why do we need to do this crap 64 times?”
As Jerome tested the haptic feedback connections, Linda explained, “Oh. So we start with 64, and tell half to invest in like… solar energy. And we tell the other half to invest in their competitors, like nuclear. 32 come out on top, the other 32 we bail on. Then we tell the winners to go all in on the next thing, and 16 of them win. We do this over and over again until there’s one left. The billionaire.”
Linda sealed the sensory deprivation chamber as Jerome considered the scam.
“But with every investment and every plan, we push Ternary Unlimited, right?”
Linda nodded. “Well, yeah. The ‘winner’ and even the partial winners will be so reliant on ternary systems of computing that we’ll be set for life. Nobody else in the solar system is as ready as we are to provide ternary servers, motherboards, processors, memory, and storage.”
Jerome sighed as the need to play guardian angel to their marks hit home. “As long as the mark doesn’t get hit by a truck. So they gotta be watched over.”
“Exactly.”
Linda pushed off the far wall and floated out of the room. As much as she understood the importance of looking after their victims, she did hate that part of the plan. She hoped that her ‘candidate’ washed out in the first round of investments, so that she could go back to living a normal life ASAP.
Chapter 7
“Linda. Linda?”
The bodyguard glanced up sharply. Phineas was looking at her, a hint of concern on his face.
She cleared her throat and adjusted the five point restraint on the jump pod’s passenger seat. “Yeah, boss?”
“Ready for takeoff?”
“Affirmative. Launch when ready.”
Phineas toggled the thrusters. The G-forces piled on. Two of the richest people in the solar system, one overtly so and one covertly so, rocketed out of Mars’ thin atmosphere and into orbit, where they would rendezvous with the orbital space station.
The next stop on their press and investment tour was Phobos. It was a cold place. But both of the jump pod’s occupants were used to being out in the cold.
Key Dates
- 2017 – Born
- 2053 – Jake escapes earth.
- 2054 – Jake joins the crew of the Valiant
Appendicies
The events of this story take place prior to the first season of Valiant.
AI Notice
This page uses temporary AI generated images. Our intention is to replace them with images from human sources as our resources allow. The story on the page was created by humans.
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