"Alright." said Tachibana. "So, are you listening?"
"Yes." Mei and I said.
"Good. Now, according to my personal observations during my short time around Mars after the crisis..."
"Your personal observations?" Nuan interrupted.
"Yes, my personal observations, which are generally accepted to be really great ones by Ms. Admiral and Mr. President here..." Tachibana continued. "I think people's odd behavior are being driven by an external factor, rather than free will."
"What makes you think that?" I asked. "We could be confusing a public agreement with an external driver."
"Except I am not." said Tachibana, confidently. "There is no way one could plan a planet-wide engagement unnoticed, and execute it so perfectly. Because, as a politician you should know better than me; such large masses of people simply can not work as a single entity, and with computer-like precision."
"I don't see what you are getting at, exactly." I said.
"There are millions of Martian citizens." he said. "Say, if only 20% of them had started to disagree with your ways, they would have more than enough power to form a political party."
"Correct." I said.
"If about 40% of them disagreed with the current government, we would see lots of people talking politics here and there, in the public." he said. "At least."
"Correct."
"If more than, say, 75% suddenly decided to dislike the government, we would see some large scale protests before you would call a referendum." he said.
"We did see protests." I said.
"No, we didn't." said Tachibana. "The entire Talossa accounts for no more than 10% of the population, and besides, it is autonomous. And they were more like terror attacks of a handful of people, mind you... I wouldn't call that a protest."
"Whatever..."
"But, in our case, about 80% of the population suddenly goes crazy, comes together and starts disobeying orders and laws." he said. "They are not making a revolution, they are not even criticizing the government, they are not angry over anything, they don't state their intentions..."
"Now, I see..." I said.
"Incredibly odd." Nuan commented.
"And even the Solar Federation was unable to foresee the situation." I added.
"Disturbing." said Mei.
"So, what do you suggest, Rear Admiral?" I asked.
"I can't suggest anything." he said. "My only reason to meet was to share my observations in secrecy."
"You might call me crazy..." I said. "However, if Tachibana is right, such level of organization suggests..."
"Suggests what?" asked Frans.
"An effective command center." Mei completed my sentence. "This is not an event in which people agree to meet in one place and do things together, this was a well planned series of tactical moves."
"Yet, we are dealing with civilians here." I said. "This should've been impossible, especially on such a large scale."
"If someone managed to literally hypnotize and directly command millions of civilian people at the same time, and accomplished all of this with drawing no attention on himself; this is a new era for psychology and human history." Nuan said. "No amount of propaganda, fear, patriotism or religious drive has managed to be so effective in history so far. Politics will break down completely."
"Was this the sort of external factor you had in mind, Tachibana?" I asked.
"Maybe." he said. "How can I know?"
"We are very lucky that Ceres was out of this." Mei said.
"Let's not be so sure." I said. "They could be in this, but are commanded to act normal since we are here."
"Let's not think of that possibility so much." Nuan said. "We will die from paranoia."
"Nuan..." I said. "Do you think it is possible?"
"What?" she asked me.
"You know what I am talking about." I said. "Talossa. It is a bit suspicious, don't you think?"
"Professor Yamamari!" she said loudly. "Of course it is him! So... That was what he has been planning."
"Oh my god!" said Frans. "My people!"
"Professor who?" asked Tachibana.
"Professor Yamamari." I said. "The man who overthrew Mr. Jalmari's government and became the new de-facto governor of Talossa Colony. He was in Talossa University of Natural Sciences before that."
"Oh, that man..." he said. "We have no evidence maybe, but we have more than enough clues to say that he has some part in this."
"But how does he even do that?" I asked.
Suddenly, sirens started wailing. Red lights started spinning in Kirnis Base.
"Bombardment! Air raid!" someone started yelling. Ground crews left Lodos and began running to hide in shelters.
A few distant explosions were heard, with the sound waves being transmitted through airless Ceres' surface. Then, a closer one followed. A small missile had hit the hangar bays in the base.
"Everyone, take your seats!" I ordered. "Mei, fly us out of here!"
"Sir, yes, sir!" she said. "Kirnis Base, this is Lodos II, we require immediate undocking and liftoff."
Without waiting for a reply, Mei disconnected the ship from the boarding and refueling gates. The engines started working, and we slowly lifted off. As we were rising into space, a few pieces of equipment left on Lodos by the ground crews slided off to the sides of the hull and dropped back down onto the landing pad.
Tachibana went to sit by the sensors console, while I stood by Mei's side.
Just when we got clear of the nearby buildings, an alert light appeared on the consoles, with it's associated sound tone.
"Missile!" Tachibana said.
A small, relatively weak missile hit the top part of Lodos. We were shaken, but not injured.
"Damage report!" I said.
"We lost top-port-mid point defense, the hull has been breached and a methane tank is leaking." Mei said. "Our center of mass is off, and avionics need recalibration."
"Boost away!" I ordered her.
Lodos brought it's nuclear main engines to full throttle, completely disregarding the safety of Kirnis Base.
"Sensors show 3 shuttle sized ships." said Tachibana. "Sorry, now it is 4."
"Go stealth!" I said.
"Sorry, commander." Mei said. "The hull is damaged, stealth won't work."
Suddenly, a barrage of projectiles flew past us.
"Kirnis defense systems are active. Shuttles are running." Tachibana said. "Took them a bit too long to respond."
"Certainly." I said. "More importantly... How did these bastards make it past the orbital defense fleets in the first place!?"