The Martian Inheritance

Chapter 2

Chapter 2The next morning I was extremely hung over and not feeling well. It might have been all the free alcohol that ‘Wilson’ had been pouring into me. Dar didn’t look good either, but was playing the big-tough-Marine card and wouldn’t admit to it. We got off the elevator together and walked down the hall to the main kitchen. My family had grown less formal since the revolution. Instead of big and overly formal dressy events, we now had nice quiet meals together in the breakfast nook off the kitchen. As I opened the door, the bright light shining through the windows practically blinded me and a sharp pain entered my head. “Ooh, sun…”

My father and sister were already sitting at the table. Standing off to one side were their permanent bodyguards. When we opened the door, both of those had become very alert, seeing it was us, they stood down a bit.

“Little sister, you need to learn how to hold your alcohol better. Look at Dar. The sun isn’t bothering her at all.” Minerva pointed at my girlfriend who was trying not to shield her eyes.

Dar pushed past me and sat next to my sister lightly punching her on the shoulder. A stray ray of light hit Dar in the face as she sat down causing her to wince. Like me she was hurting.

‘Good morning Min.” I kissed her cheek. “Good morning, father.” I kissed his cheek to. This had become a sort of morning ritual for the four of us.

As I sat at the table Sara, one of the cooks, brought me a nice cup of tea. “Ma’am, would you like a light breakfast this morning?” She had a slight gleam in her eye.

“Thank you Sara, but no thanks. I’ll just have a piece of fruit this morning.” I reached into the bowl on the table and took a Langerine. When this planet was first colonized, a collection of fruit trees were part of the crops available. None of them would produce any fruit. Several attempts by local gardeners to try cross pollination or grafting all failed. Samples of the types of fruit trees were sent off to one of the other already established colonies to try using gene splicing to fix them. The freighter captain that took the assignment got drunk one night during transit and accidentally mixed up all the samples. In later years he would swear that the Gods made him do it. When the newly altered plants came back the fruits that grew from them were very different. The company that did the alterations even stated in court that showed their records showed that they did the process correctly. The plants thrived after alteration and now the planet boasted langerine’s, organgefruits, and Limons. The langerine’s were my favorite, I enjoyed the sharp tangy lemon tasting fruit.

I peeled my fruit and watched the interplay between Min and Dar. For all their differences the two women had become pretty good friends.

“Did you have a good time last night?”

“We did, thank you Min. We had the best seats in the house.”

“I meant to ask you about that. Just how did you get tickets to that new club anyway?”

I laughed and in a roundabout way told min how. “I know the owner, he supplied the tickets, the limo, food, and alcohol.”

“You’ve met this guy? He’s the most mysterious man on the planet! One of the guys at the building commission said that he thought that he was some big shot from New Texas.”

“Why would he say that he was from New Texas?”

“What he told me was that this guy did all his business on the vid and that it was a big man wearing a cowboy hat with a ‘western accent’ that made the call.” I had to chuckle at her. Dar was snickering too.

“OK you two, what did I say that was so funny?”

“Min, why were you checking up on Mr Theai?”

“I wanted to thank him for hiring so many veterans and to ask if we can use his club for a Militia fundraiser next month.”

Laughing I pointed at the Vid screen in the kitchen. “Min, ask his yourself. He’s right there.”

The image of a tall, thin man in blue jeans and a yellow western shirt wearing what looked like a leather vest, neckerchief, and a cowboy hat appeared on the screen. His face was long and he had deep brown eyes. “Howdy? I heard you were looking to speak with me Miss Lee.”

Min glanced at me and silently mouthed. “How?” to me. She turned back to the screen and responded. “Yes, Mr Theai, I wanted to thank you for hiring all the Militia veterans who work at your club. I also wanted to know if we can host a charity event from there sometime next month?”

“Well Miss Lee, I think we could do that. Give my business manager Andy White a call to set it up. I’ll let him know it’s OK from my end and the club will be all yours. Anything else I can do for you?” The cowboy had a beaming face now.

“Will you join us for the fundraiser? I am sure that a man of your stature will solicit lots of donations.”

“Well, darling, I would love to do that, but I’m shipping out next week for an unknown period of time.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Do you have business elsewhere to take care of?”

The cowboy began to laugh. “No, no business. I’m on my way to Mars. In fact I’m leaving at the same time as Athena.”

Minerva looked at me with a strange look on her face. “Athena, is this man one of your shipmates from the James Cook?”

When she said that Dar, almost fell off her chair she was laughing so hard. I looked over at my father who had been watching us this whole time. He had a smile on his face like he knew.

“You need to explain this to me right now! Why is what I said so funny?” She looked back at the screen and the cowboy was gone. In his place was one of the RAM units except this one had a smiley face drawn on it. “Sorry for the deception Minerva but it was too funny not to play it up.”

“Minerva meet Wilson.” I pointed at the screen. The robot was now dancing and jumping around.

“You’re Wilson? The AI, that Wilson?” she looked over at father.

He looked back at her and said, “You’re not thinking daughter. I suspected it the first time I heard the name. Write it out if you have to. Wilson Theai. Wilson the AI. Made sense to me. It reminded me of the word games your mother used to play.”

He did not look too sad for once when he said that. Usually any mention of our mother shut him down completely.

Min looked at me. “How did your AI come to own the hottest dance club on the planet?”

“Ask him. He might even tell you.” I looked over at my father. “Dad, are you OK?”

I rarely called him anything other than father. He looked over at me and smiled. “You haven’t called me that since you were tiny. I mentioned your mom because of where you’re going next week. As you might remember, your mother was a Martian.”

I could vaguely remember the stories that both Min and Han had told me as a child about our mother. She had been a city girl that father had met on a trip to Mars. They had met and fallen in love. She had gone against her family and come home with him to Hong Kong. Min had played it up as like a ‘Romeo and Juliet’ style play. Our mother’s family against that of Dad’s. I’d always dismissed that aspect of the story as an exaggeration for the sake of good storytelling. But was there more that I did not know about?