11.18-The Gemini Vids

Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. Episode 11.18, the Gemini Vids. We left off last time in late December twenty two forty nine with the assassination of Omar Ali, an assassination which marks the beginning of the end of the agreement of 2248. As I said last time, there was objectively very little mystery surrounding the assassination. The investigation into the murder was wrapped up by 01/05/2250 and concluded that Talbotista acted alone mostly for reasons of personal bitterness. This conclusion did not stop conspiracy theories from swirling. And one thing I don't think I was clear about last week, but which further fed those conspiracy theories, was that when I said the guard officers with Ali dropped the assassin, I meant that they killed him. He was dead within seconds of getting his shot off. As a rule, the guard did not keep their neutron gun set to fatal. So the fact that in this case they clearly were, and Bautista lay dead before anybody could question him, only added conspiratorial fuel to the speculative fires. It made everyone just a little more paranoid. Ali's assassination had broad impact on the course of events, in part because it had a narrow personal impact on Mabel Dorr. She and Ali had been friends for a long time. They had come up together as young executives, joined the Society of Martians together, served on the Martian Advisory Council together. They had stood side by side during the dangerous chaos of the three days of Red, and for the last two years, they had worked together to establish an autonomous Martian society while also maintaining order, production, and prosperity. And even here now at his end, they've been aligned. Dorr and Ali shared the belief that Martians abusing Earthlings should be treated just as seriously as Earthlings abusing Martians. That concern for the Earthlings is why Bautista had been denied a spot in the Martian Guard, and it's why Omar Ali was now dead. One thing we all love to do when studying history is to draw invisible lines to divide up epochs and periods and eras. Before this line, it was like this. After this line, it was like that. We do the same in individual biographies. Now, these lines don't actually exist, and everything is an unbroken continuum of subtle changes and transformations. But there are still moments that make us say, before this it was like this. After this it was like that. And for Mabel Dorr, Ali's assassination sure looks like one of those moments where we can draw a line. As we talked about last time, challenges to Dorr had been slowly but steadily mounting. And while she had a thicker skin than most, that did not mean she was not human. She was especially sensitive to accusations of being insufficiently committed to Martians and the revolution. She had dedicated her entire life to uplifting the Martian people. For her entire life, she had given it her time, …