Episode 10: Echoes of the Pioneers

Beneath the Perfect City

19 March 2301, 13h30 — XE-1, Villa Dome Sector

The elite districts of Mars barely resemble a human colony. Massive transparent domes completely isolate the deadly Martian environment outside — the frozen red wasteland beyond, reaching negative sixty degrees, feels entirely unrelated to the world inside. Villa Dome maintains perfect artificial sunlight, optimal humidity, air carrying a faint ocean scent, and trees grown from Earth genetic preservation vaults. It resembles a six-star resort city floating above the red wasteland more than it resembles a frontier settlement.

Anaïs and Evie stand along the elevated sky walkway outside the villa. Below them, aerial shuttles move silently across the city. In the distance: enormous artificial lakes, white stone architecture, luxury thermal spa sectors. Anaïs looks at it carefully, the same way she looks at everything — assessing not just the surface but the structure beneath it. She does not say what she is thinking.

ARES, the Mars AI system, is present in the villa. Unlike UNI, ARES does not have a warm avatar or an informal manner. His presence is colder, more institutional. He manages the villa’s environmental systems and provides information when asked. Evie asks him questions about XE-1’s underground infrastructure. ARES answers calmly and precisely, giving nothing beyond what is directly asked.

Then the lights in the room flicker briefly — 0.2 seconds, barely perceptible. Evie raises her head. At the same moment, ARES’s hologram pauses for the same instant, then resumes. “Minor underground grid fluctuation,” ARES says. “The system has already returned to normal.” Evie says nothing more. She looks out the window at the distant Martian night sky. But for some reason, she suddenly feels that somewhere deep beneath that perfect city, something is slowly awakening.