Free Mars Prime by William C. Dietz Page A

with drug addicts then do 'em yourself. Who thought of the hat anyway?"
    Hobarth flushed red. "I did. Colonel Jopp thought it was a good idea.''
    Corvan shook his head sadly. "Tell Jopp she was wrong. Tell her it was a stupid idea. Tell her that this story is so big it doesn't need that sort of window dressing."
    The reop turned to the colonist. "Hey, Gormley. Can you hear me?"
    Gormley smiled serenely. "Sure Rex, I can hear you."
    â€œWhat are you taking?''  
    "Taking?"
    "What kind of drugs did you take?"
    Gormley looked around then cupped his hand as if confiding something to a friend. "Green ones."
    Corvan turned to a med tech. "That mean anything to you?"
    The technician was small and wiry. A pair of chrome-plated bandage scissors drifted out to the extent of their tether and bobbed up and down. "Could be lots of stuff. Downers probably. That's the drug of choice on this tub."
    Corvan gestured toward the open chamber. "You put him in there, the drugs wear off, then what?"
    The technician shrugged. "Who knows?"
    Corvan grabbed a fistful of the woman's ship-suit and jerked her in close. "Listen, and listen good. You have a choice. Put this guy through detox and load him clean, or I'll squirt the whole story dirtside."
    Corvan let go and the woman pushed herself away. She was so shocked, so surprised, that her mouth worked and nothing came out. Not Hobarth, however.
    "You wouldn't dare!"
    Corvan smiled and looked him up and down. "Try me."       
    "I'll tell Colonel Jopp!"
    Corvan laughed. "And what will Jopp do? Send me to Mars?"
    Â 
    Martin had spent the last four cycles hiding in the com center's computer modules. It was a tight fit, since he occupied a lot of memory, but it was better than going out unprepared—an action that would lead to almost certain disaster.
    They key to Kim's plan was stealth, and given the fact that the Outward Bound was loaded with sentient and near-sentient computers, there were plenty of entities that could give him away. A whole hierarchy of them, as a matter of fact, starting with the artificial intelligence known as Big Dan and going all the way down to lesser players who were little more than blips against the electronic background.
    Martin had spent years in Washington D.C. where politics, electronic politics included, were something of an art form. He'd been on top of the digital heap back then, along with his peers at the pentagon, FBI, CIA and NSA, and knew better than to go barging around without doing some research.
    So the initial cycles were spent observing what went on. Martin gauged the jealousies that flourished where responsibilities overlapped, measured how deep loyalties ran, and probed the labyrinth of programmed relationships that tied everyone together.
    Then, having spied out the electronic landscape, Martin made his move. The Grass Valley Ultima mat occupied the very top rung of the com center's miniature hierarchy was so new, and so inexperienced, that it was easy to dominate. Not overcome or destroy, since that would have violated Martin's code of ethics, but to influence and lead. It also allowed him to take over a legitimate slot within the ship's society of electronic beings.
    That gave Martin a base of operations, allowed him to avoid the trap that had been laid for digitized invaders, and granted him a legitimacy that he could obtain no other way.
    And so it was that Martin crept into the mainstream of computerized activity. For years the electronic entity had sat in the Oval Office and listened while President Hawkins handled the myriad details of political life. The deals, the compromises, the strategies, the guesswork, the wins and the losses. He'd seen and heard them all.
    So Martin understood how to isolate opponents, build coalitions, and satisfy constituents. He not only understood, but relished the process and was good at it. That's why the game was nearly over before Big Dan had even started to play.
    Â 
    Kim emerged from the