Editorial, “The Colonist,” Official NewsFloater of the Mars Colony Project

by Jeremy Pasternak, Editor-in-Chief

     With the dissolution of the Mars Colony Project Security Command and the summary suspension of all those involved with academic investigation of all things Martian, one has to wonder what the Nations-of-Earth has in mind. Its liaison, Denton Walsh, who now calls himself Director, and who has offered most of those dismissed a paycheck asylum in the newly created and quite suspicious Prestige Society, is strangely reticent, which seems antithesis to a liaison.

     Equally enigmatic is this Prestige Society’s Mission Statement. This publication ponders the “New Mars Tradition of Excellence” and finds worrisome the implementation of “the best Earth has to offer.” Also worrisome, even ominous, are rhetoric such as “appropriate and comprehensive programming” and “successful reintegration.” Into what?

     This publication ponders the loss of due process at the colony management level. This Publication ponders Denton Walsh and his motives, which bask a good three to eighteen months away from any Earth-rescuing physical intervention.

     The heads of the different sections of the former Security Command should also ponder. They should ponder, while awaiting disembarking from Lagrange 1 to Earth, their own response. Or have they made their response, already silenced? At the very least, they should expect an explanation from the Nations-of-Earth directly, since its liaison is not forthcoming.

     And this publication—the Fourth Estate, the only remnant of checks and balances—demands this before our disenfranchised representatives leave Lagrange 1.

From Jeremy Pasternak, Editor-in-Chief, The Martian Colonist

     Everybody saw it.

     The afternoon of the publishing of the editorial, an official response came from Denton Walsh and the Prestige Society:

     Ponder this: this reply to your editorial is not for publication, as also applies to your entire publication, in perpetuity. Effective immediately. Report to Lagrange 1 at your earliest convenience.

--D. Walsh, Prestige Society.

     “Not for publication! Cease and desist?” the Editor-in-Chief shouted. He slammed his desk drawer shut and jammed a thumb into a clip. “Open new galley, titled, ‘Editorial Response to Editorial Response.’ And do publish Walsh’s response as a prelude. Begin content:

     “Mr. Walsh has single-handedly—”

     “Please stop, Mr. Pasternak,” the interactive floater instructed him. “Floater input is now closed.”

     “On whose authority?” he demanded, astonished.

     “It is authorized by the Prestige Society, under the provision of Martian Law.”

     “Martian Law? That’s a joke, right, on Martial Law? A bad pun at the very least.”

     “Nevertheless,” the floater read aloud to him.

     “Nevertheless? What have I told you about antomata using conjunctive adverbs?”

     “Nevertheless,” the floater continued, reading aloud to him and his small staff of half a dozen shocked copywriters and assistant editors, “it has the force of law.”

     “Anybody?” Pasternak asked his staff with urgency, searching the stunned silence for any help. “Anybody know if we can hardcopy print and distribute instead?”

     “How?” asked a woman layout editor.

     “By hand! By courier! By ferropods if we have to!”

     “Sorry, Mr. Pasternak, but printers are off –grid.”

     “Then by fucking crayons!”

     “That’s pretty funny, Mr. Pasternak,” said the automaton, it's Personality Accrual Circuits well versed in all things Pasternak.

     “You’re fired!” he screamed.

     “So are you, it seems, Mr. Pasternak,” the automaton replied calmly.

     “And I’m taking my personality back. Hand it over. De-accrue.”

     “Gladly,” the automaton said.

     “You could do a lot worse!” Pasternak fired back.

     The Colonist didn’t have to print a response. The sudden cessation of publication after the editorial was response enough. This response-by-omission, however, paled when compared with the declaration of “Martian Law” that filled the floater of anyone who tried to retrieve any Colonist content:

     With the financial rout suffered by all colonists due to the ṺberCollider failure, it is necessary to completely revise Earth’s goals for even being here; and in the interest of preventing a purpose-shock that would only amass further financial collapse, it is necessary to funnel all related interactions through the kindly prism of Martian Law, so decreed, effective immediately.

–the Prestige Society.

     Anyone disagreeing is free to present an opposing view for consideration. Only those views that are signed and which include the names of those with whom you have discussed your opposing view will be considered.

—Director Walsh. All for Mars and Mars for All!

Excerpt from ♂: The NOVEL