System 2.0 - Division of Powers

Mars 1

'Your guest is here,' the featureless white robot said as it hovered over the dining table.

Marcus looked up from his lunch and wondered how long the machine had been sitting there. After three centuries on Mars he had become quite accustomed to the remote devices that seemed to fill the planet. Most of the time he simply didn't notice them as they rolled or floated about on mysterious tasks of their own.

This one was a simple plastic sphere and it hovered silently in his room waiting for a response. It was little more than a smart balloon. In the low gravity of the small world, this was a remarkably efficient design.

'Where should I meet her?' he asked as he finished his food and put the bowl at the centre of the table where another robot would collect it after he had gone.

'Her drone is being prepared in room three twenty four,' the floating machine said. 'Would you like me to take you there?'

'I can find my own way,' Marcus replied. If he did get lost  he could easily ask for help.

He stood, picked up his note book and strolled purposely from the room while the floating robot silently watched him go.

The architecture the upper city was dominated by delicate curves. It was a web of squashed spheroids linked by long graceful tubes - long light corridors spanning the gap between rooms and larger modules. The walls were generally white or pastel, broken by large oval windows which flooded the interiors with an eerie glow.

Marcus walked over a long bridge. Through the wide windows, he could see down into the world beneath. A myriad of different plants were growing upwards from the deep red soil. Some were taller than the tallest trees back on Earth, and their upper branches were clearly visible from the corridor. Far below, a patchwork of colourful bushes and odd-shaped cacti spread out into the distance.

He glimpsed the tall and thin shape of a grazing animal as it picked its way through the trees. It was harvesting the fruit which were way above the reach of smaller herbivores. Its short but flexible trunk was perfect for shredding the longer branches in search of hidden treasure.

On so many days he would have stopped to watch. After more than three hundred years the strangely familiar but totally alien life of this world still had surprises and peculiar delights for him. He had seen only a tiny fraction of its biological wealth, but local geneticists were continuing to develop new and even more peculiar species.

On this particular day, he had work to do. A guest from Earth was a rare occurrence and Esther Certaine was no ordinary tourist.

He finished crossing the bridge and passed through a large circular room where two of his fellow citizens were playing Grach-bal on a carved wooden table. One was an upper-city-human with blond hair, while his companion was a surface-dweller with hairless blue-green skin.

The alien creature had thin delicate limbs and an almost featureless face. Its head was raised up on a tall narrow neck and its large blue eyes blinked in the harsh indoor light. The Martian was tall and skinny by human standards, but bulky clothes made it seem less ethereal.

Marcus nodded a polite greeting to the pair as he walked past. The surface-dweller was definitely winning.

He crossed another long tubular bridge and then one more before approaching his destination. A door slid open and a couple of spherical robots rolled out in silent greeting.

He stepped past them into the windowless room where his guest was waiting.

A football-sized sphere floated in the centre of the room. It was similar to the robot who had given him the message, but its surface shimmered slightly as projected images came into focus. It floated at head-height above the pale floor and turned at the sound of his arrival.