The Divine Sedition [Complete]

Chapter 36 Markus Bauer Smells a Rat.

A few days later at the research and mining station, Proxima Thule on the asteroid B540, Markus Bauer was getting increasingly paranoid and restless.  When he spoke to Admiral Max Wellington about what had happened, the Admiral had seemed genuinely sympathetic and had promised him a secret location where he would not be harmed while investigations of the claims occurred.  While he trusted the Admiral, Markus was sure that something was amiss. The days since Markus arrived at Proxima Thule, it seemed that most of the employees on the space station had been granted leave at the same time. It did not make sense. Proxima Thule required a certain amount of personnel to conduct research safely, but with everyone on vacation and just a minimal crew left to support the operations, the research had come to a standstill.

Markus Bauer was worried. He was a sitting duck on Proxima Thule, he had no sense of protection and was very vulnerable to attacks, and if someone wanted to hurt him, there was no way to get out of there, as no space ships were docked there at the moment. And where would he go anyway? If indeed Bjorn Muller wanted him dead, going back to Earth would be suicide. Seeking refuge at Mars seemed like an awful idea, as he was more likely getting robbed and killed by the barbaric Martians than he was securing meaningful employment.  Then, he thought of something outrageous. How about joining up with the sole survivor of the Martian Humanist Alliance party, befriending Keila and joining her on Eden? If the body of Keila indeed were a decoy, then that would mean that the rulers of Eden were collaborating with Keila to rebel against the Terran Council.

Markus Bauer held that thought and felt shame. Although his life was at risk, he was not sure he had what it took in him to betray his brethren on Earth. Although the Terran Council was a brutal plutocratic dictatorship, it brought peace to Earth and stability to the Solar System. In Markus’ world, the end justified the means and besides it wouldn’t make sense to rebel against the organisation he had worked for by his own free will for the last 20 years.

Having tentatively decided to stay loyal to the Terran Council, Markus Bauer logged in on a computer to check his work schedule.  What he saw overwhelmed him with a wave of paranoia. He was meant to perform maintenance on a set of gravitation turbines on his own at the fringe of the space station. This task was highly risky and thus always performed in groups. He thought, the only reason someone would have him do it by himself, was that there must be a “planned accident” waiting for him down there. Seeing this, Markus Bauer quickly changed his mind and decided to contact the rebels on Eden.  He contacted Metatron via a holographic encrypted message on Spacenet, hoping to obtain some help.