MEEK Read online

  “Fascinating. It sounds a bit Zen,” said Kana.

  “Yes, there are some aspects of it. The major difference is they are able and willing to initiate change both physically and socially if they feel it is in the interest of moving closer to the ultimate evolved state.” Mark felt he had said enough. He had a reluctance to share knowledge about the Tuathans, born of a desire to protect them.

  “Tuath sounds like a fascinating place to study, Mark. I read Jade’s speech at the UN their society sounded like it has a lot to offer us. ”

  “I doubt if we will ever be given the chance,” Mark replied sadly.

  “Thank you Mark for your candour, I can assure you the role of the Consortium is not to interfere with your arrangements with Tuath. Naturally, we expect as a gesture of friendship your willingness to share what you can with us and that sharing is to be reciprocated. We are not a democracy, we are a business. For us, anything that’s bad for business is not acceptable. Although Tuath, the Consortium and the Australian government appear to have on the face of it different agendas, we see some strong commonalities. A distrust of religion, a desire to be allowed to pursue our objectives without interference and self-preservation. Our objective is to make Mars our centre of operation and dominate the aerospace industry. Our headquarters will eventually be moved there. We hope to maintain this base and form trade and defence alliances here. Our relationship has been tried and tested, we have no desire to form other alliances with others especially as we are worried they will continue to repeat old mistakes. I trust you will convey all this to the Prime Minister,” said Richard.

  “I will,” said Mark.

  The new crew members arrived from Canberra and the launch went off without any problems. Mark decided he had all the information Paul could possibly want and said his farewells to Kana and Richard. The drive back was enjoyable, Mark even found a place to do a bit of fishing thereby delaying his arrival for an extra day. He had completed his initial drawings for his new house and had sent them ahead to Canberra to get the engineering specifications done and some building quotes. He was looking forward to getting to see his new home site.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  JULY 2033

  Plans and expectations may drive us all a little crazy at times but it is required.” President Lough.

  The debriefing was routine. Paul expressed his desire to have Mark continue monitoring Kana and Richard’s attitude to the Tuathans if they did in fact settle. Paul had been giving some thought to where to place the Tuathan settlement. They had expressed an interest in having a coastal block with ocean frontage. Paul pulled out a map and showed Mark his six best options. A decision was made to offer them a coastal section of the Great Australian Bight. The major advantage being it would have a natural barrier, the sea, and remote enough to be made secure. It was to have electrified perimeter fencing and no road access. The army would build a small airstrip and helicopter pad, also a short jetty, apart from that it was to be left natural.

  Paul told Mark that food shortages were now becoming a reality. The Islamic threat to the north was ended as starvation and disease spread through the caliphates. Europe and America would not accept refugees and sent them back into Islamic countries. China, Russia and Australia shot refugees as they crossed their borders. In the UN appeals from some African nations to eradicate Islam within their borders in return for aid were largely ignored. Taqiya, the Islamic practice of lying for temporary advantage, had left its mark in the consciousness of the West. Global population levels would sink over the next three or four years to nineteenth-century levels. Then would come the expansion, but only for those nations who had secured their position. The others would supply cheap labour and would be consumer economies, steeped in poverty.

  “It has been decided then that the world will repeat its mistakes. The underclasses will eventually rise again to confront the rich and powerful,” said Mark. Paul looked thoughtful.

  “I can envision other scenarios, such as the eventual integration of some nations into new trade blocs. For now no one is in a position to do other than let the natural course of events to occur. To be brutally frank it is the best solution and a fitting end to the past conflicts,” said Paul.

  “Just retribution, you mean?” asked Mark. Paul was wearing that frozen look on his face that cartoonists liked to capture.

  “If you wish to call it that you are free to do so. The days of political correctness have been nuked in this nation along with the weak who throve on it.”

  Mark left Canberra, which seemed to be growing quieter every day as people went to Sydney and Melbourne seeking employment. He drove towards the Victorian border and Barry’s estate. Barry was keen to show Mark the work on Mark’s own small holding. They were basically neighbours. Barry had contracted workers to build a perimeter fence and a post-and-rail fence to the road frontage. A 500-metre driveway had been constructed to the house site. The concrete slab had been poured and a mixture of brick and sandstone blocks had been delivered. Mark stayed at Barry’s place for the next three weeks while awaiting the arrival of an army engineers unit en route to the Tuathan base near Esperance in Western Australia. Working on the new house site was highly therapeutic for him. It made him feel a little closer to Jade as he saw it as working for their future life together.

  “I don’t want to be a spoiler of parties here mate, but please remember you are going to both be public property to a certain extent. Be prepared to be a bit in demand once Jade gets here. She will also have responsibilities to her own people as well,” said Barry. They were planting fruit trees at what would be the back of the house.

  “Well Baz, I do hope to do some hiding out here I must admit. To be honest I am contemplating semi-retirement next year. I figure we can live simply but comfortably here if I just do a bit of part-time lecturing or consultation work for the government.”

  “I don’t like your chances mate. The nation needs you and all that sort of bull. My advice is make this your home base and try and do everything together as much as possible. I think Paul will require your services for quite a few years yet. He regards you very highly and is counting on you to be his eyes, ears and mouth both with the Consortium and with the Tuathans. I can see you being called on to do a lot of travelling,” said Barry.

  “I can accept that, but not at the expense of my personal life with Jade. I’ll play along for another year, maybe eighteen months, then make a decision. I’m not getting any younger and want a life I can call my own,” said Mark.

  “Every time an election comes around everything can change,” replied Barry.

  At the end of the three weeks the small army unit arrived. It comprised twenty-five men, trucks, a road grader, generator and a large amount of miscellaneous equipment. It was to be a two month mission. The journey took them to Adelaide where reconstruction was well on the way. Commerce and food production were at a low level, though. Apart from military personnel the population was very sparse and they looked weary. Moral seemed low and Mark made a mental note to suggest to Barry that it might be a good move for Paul to do a visit. They stayed in Adelaide the first night and Mark got a chance to talk to the locals in a pub. “When they got within five kilometres we all headed east except for those who had guns and vehicles. I had a motorbike and a triple-two rifle with a scope we had hidden it away on the farm during the politically correct days.” The customer was around mid sixties and fit-looking. “The family headed east and ran into the army just before they got to Geelong. There was bugger all of them. Me and some of my mates had fun sniping at the Islamics west of Adelaide, we harassed them for eighty kilometres. They were bunched up following the road in to the city, really easy targets for me. I’d kill one then relocate on my dirt bike. I reckon I got ten that way. Once they got to the city they used the cover of the buildings and it got rough. We pulled back and waited for them east of the city. Eventually the army arrived and we joined them. The army said our main force would be facing them in the north an
d we were to wait and live off the land until the word was given to start pushing them back. The place was a mess once we recaptured it and it was touch and go for a while as they still had a large force. Once they started to retreat, they were fucked. We took our time and picked them off slowly, over two thousand kilometres we pushed them. They reached the outskirts of Perth where the radiation was still a threat, exhausted and hungry. By this time, the numbers were well and truly on our side. We boxed them in and the air force blew them away. We moved in on the survivors and a lot of bad shit happened. Some of our civilians had grievances, if you know what I mean. The regulars had trouble stopping them.” He stopped talking and smiled at Mark, “Thank God we kept the breweries intact.” Mark agreed, took the hint and bought him another.

  In the morning, they were back on the highway. About 300 kilometres west of Adelaide the abandoned military equipment started to appear at the side of the highway. A quarter of the way across the Nullarbor any attempt at burying their dead had ceased. The corpses were little more than skeletons now. The unit Mark was attached to, had made no attempt to bury the remains and ran over the bones without compunction. The irony of this Great Islamic Crusade ending in the desert was not lost on Mark, who was beginning to realize the historical significance of what he was witnessing. Hundreds of thousands of corpses spread both sides of a road two thousand kilometres long. It was the end of an Islamic dream so devastating that their societies would still be trying to recover from the consequences 500 years from now. Paul had predicted that with the need for oil gone and the lack of any real industrialised infrastructure, the old Islamic world would have to choose between democracy and eventual progress or fundamentalism and impoverished dependent consumer economies. Mark had argued that the latter was undesirable and that the UN should help, but actively insist that all aid came with a price. Paul had just shrugged that remark off. It was obvious they were to be ostracised and would be condemned to being cheap labour, thereby setting up problems for the future. Paul had shown no interest in rejoining the UN, he would always distrust international organisations.

  They travelled at high speed and only stopped to refuel. By nightfall, they were close to the eastern boundary of the reserve and camped for the night. The next day found them surveying the boundary to the highway and the commencement of the electrified fencing. Mark proceeded with the main task force towards the ocean. Aerial survey maps were used to locate a site within visual distance of the water. The work began in earnest with the soldiers working ten-hour days, seven days a week.

  Mark had the luxury of time and leisure which he often used to go on trips to the beach. The sea was often wild when the wind was blowing. It was beautiful in its wildness and Mark felt the Tuathans would be impressed. They would look very small in this landscape, he thought.

  The boundary fencing was proceeding too slowly and after three weeks another twenty men were flown in. Wind turbines and solar panels were set up and bore water was pumped into header tanks for gravity-fed plumbing. A desalination plant near the ocean was constructed with a supply line stretching ten kilometres inland to the main settlement site. Concrete trucks began to arrive after seven weeks and the pouring of a single lane road from the highway to the site was constructed. This was followed by a helipad. Drip-irrigation shade houses were next. Last of all a short pier was constructed and a twelve-metre fishing boat was tied to the end of it. Everything had been set up so that the Tuathans could be self-sufficient in food rapidly. Mark spent a lot of time checking out the security aspects to the reservation. It was certainly remote. A two-day tour of the surrounding countryside indicated some small towns in the Margaret River area were still inhabited and were positively buzzing. The soil and climate were exceptional in this area and crops and livestock were thriving. Mark was a bit surplus to requirements on the reservation so he decided to spend a week in Margaret River getting to know the locals. They turned out to be very self-absorbed and showed little interest in news from the outside world. Perth to the north of them was still not safe to be resettled and they showed no real interest in doing so, even though at least half of the population originated there. Mark realised that there must be many communities like this one. They were isolated and content to provide for themselves to a large extent. The local council chambers had become the focal point of government and law and order. Keeping the country united could become a problem for an increasingly centralised government in Canberra and an increasingly de centralised population.

  When all the work was finished, a small group of military police arrived to take over security. The engineers then packed up and departed for Canberra and two weeks’ leave. Mark was dropped off at Barry’s estate on the way. Work on Mark’s house was progressing slowly, labour was hard to find. A phone message from Kana requesting him to visit the consortium’s facility as soon as possible arrived after just five days and he used a helicopter to get there.

  “I hope we didn’t interrupt you in the middle of something important Mark,” said Kana. They were in the communications room where the messages from the Martian colony were received. “I was having a break actually Kana. I am due to report to the PM in a week’s time.”

  “Richard and I decided you should be informed of a discovery made on Mars in case it had some significance we are not aware of. A topographic survey has indicated that the Tuathans had a number of very large colonies themselves at one time on Mars. They were purposefully destroyed but analysis suggests that they used the canyons as sites for colonies. Although nothing now remains except mineral and chemical indicators, we are still able to say they measured twenty kilometres in length and up to six kilometres in width. Their number and age suggests that possibly hundreds of thousands of Tuathans had lived in these colonies. We have surmised that they probably lived on the base of the canyons which were roofed and turned into biological terraformed greenhouses. As a result of this the board were quick to put two and two together. We request your permission to tell the board the truth as they have guessed most of it now.”

  “It fits in with what we know about them,” said Mark. “It also indicates that they exiled themselves from Earth and possibly lived on Mars until they developed light speed and other technologies making it possible for them to venture out of the solar system. You can tell the board the information I gave you.”

  “These technologies would be invaluable to us Mark.” said Richard. “If we could just access their colonisation technology it could save us years of research and development. Our population is growing steadily but we are heavily reliant on Earths resources.”

  “That may be so but even if they return I expect no co-operation regarding sharing of knowledge, not for a very long time if ever,” replied Mark.

  “I wish to put an official request to the Prime Minister for an interview with the Tuathans once they arrive. I believe it is reasonable for us as your closest allies to be allowed this privilege. If they do not wish to have the meeting we will respect their privacy. In any event it is only Kana and I who are requesting access. Any information we should wish to pass on to our board of directors in London can be vetoed by you,” said Richard.

  “I have been given a lot of latitude in my role as liaison representative with the Tuathans. I can assure you that the Prime Minister wishes me to keep you informed of all events. I am confident that your request will be acceptable. I would personally have to be present when they are interviewed, however.”

  “That would be satisfactory,” said Kana.

  The personal relationship between Mark and the two consortium representatives had grown into one of mutual respect and trust even though both parties were aware that their agendas were not totally compatible. Paul had been wise to let Mark handle the monitoring of this relationship; it was vital for the security of the nation and also its economic growth. That night Mark lay in bed imagining the Tuathan society on Mars. Richard had shown him computer modelling of what they had supposed the colony could have looked like. The prospec
t of an advanced race watching the first and second world wars unfold from their vantage point in space made him uneasy. The Tuathans had witnessed the depravity of man at its worst and had for thousands of years been its victims. How they must despise us, and yet they treated me with respect and kindness although there was some mistrust. After Jade’s stabbing they acted as if the fulfilment of their expectations of us were inevitable. As Mark’s thoughts led him to the conclusion that the Tuathans had given up hope long ago for a human initiated self-redemption it made him look at the proposed reservation in a different light. Perhaps to them it would not be a reservation but a staging post for reclamation of the Earth once we were no longer a threat. This sent an involuntary shiver down his spine. It would be like they are waiting for us to die. Mark had to examine his own psychology deeply. Why should he care what their full motives are? They are harmless and threaten no one. They remind us of our own inadequacies and I suppose no one likes to look too closely at themselves in the mirror. It would also explain why they are so loth to confront us with their true history because it is a chronicle of our failure to evolve. It is also the logic behind their belief in our looming demise. Anyway his job here and at the reservation was complete for the time being at least. Mark decided to leave in two days for Canberra.