Man, the airlock was crowded. Mining vehicles, robotic transports, and supply convoys surrounded seven teenage girls on Aero-Deluxe Hovercycles. Idle engines rumbled, all anxious. Everybody wanted out.

Su gripped her handlebars tight. Waiting was such a drag. Only minutes to freedom. The last dust storm had raged for two months straight, far too long to be trapped in the colony domes. Summer interim was almost up. School in two weeks meant less time to ride. She pushed the thought from her mind and glanced at Lucille, the gang's tall daredevil of a leader.

Electricity snapped between the V-shaped coil atop Lucille's transparent bubble helmet, a pair of charged rabbit ears adorning every Bunny's get-up. The girls' matching pink enviro-suits bore a one-eared bunny with an eye patch logo across the back. The Dust Bunnies always meant business, and they turned heads everywhere they went.

"Race?" Su asked.

Lucille winked. "Like always. Keep up, buttercup." She raised two fingers to the rest of the gang--the Dust Bunny signal, a wordless cue to get ready.

The girls lined up, ignoring the hostile stare of a mining rig driver beside them. Miners were a bunch of squares, but they were citizens of true Mars, not as bad as the terraforming New Earthers.

Betty tapped her console and cranked some rock n' roll on her speakers. She played drums in a local band and loved to blast it. All cares bounced away with the rhythm.

At last, the siren blared, and ready lights turned green. The airlock portal spiraled open. Pale yellow sky and the empty stretches of Mars appeared. Su's heart pounded, and she gunned her thrusters with a sure flick of her wrists.

The girls sped out of the airlock and veered a hard left, cutting off the grumpy miner. The mining rig's horn blurted disapproval. Too late, the Bunnies were outta there, stars shooting loose on a dune slide.

Faster. Stony ground blurred beneath. The hovercycle's fusion rockets rattled Su's bones. Hollers and laughter filled her earpiece, along with the raucous of Betty's music. Secundis disappeared in the distance. Fuel stations, supply outposts, and the cylindrical silos of the fusion plant whirled past. Such a thrill with no rules to bind her. Best of all, Su zoomed away from her father and his constant preaching. Just open land, roaring engines, and good friends to share the sol with.

Lucille swerved to a halt at the edge of Valles Marineris, the vast canyon bordering Secundis. The gang stopped alongside and planted their shiny boots to steady themselves.

Willie Mae's auburn ponytail swung as she tossed her head and laughed. "I won. You ladies better check those boosts Frase installed for us. Mine work the best."

"Give it a rest, Will," Donna chided, though her tone was playful.

A shadow fell, cast by a sizeable fleet of robotic drones gliding above. Supply crates hung from the drones' steel-jointed cargo grips. Fusion rockets hummed a glowing blue in their wake. Emblazoned on their wings was the dreaded symbol of Newmade Earth, the largest terraforming corporation on the planet.

Peggy whistled, and the robotic companion sitting on her back seat mimicked the sound. "Gee whiz, where do ya think those are going? Don't see Newmade units out this way too often."

"I bet they're building another stupid fake Earth habitat somewhere." Rozzi's blue eyes widened behind her horn-rimmed glasses. "Remember what they did to the old mining tenements north of Secundis? All gone, and those families had to cram into the box flats for months. All so Ronald Frump can turn a profit."

Lucille cocked an eyebrow and glanced at Peggy's robot. "Hey, Vex, can you pick up anything about where those drones are headed?"

VX-37B bleeped acknowledgment and extended an antenna from its streamlined head. Three compact receivers unfolded like rosebuds of titanium mesh. After several seconds, Vex retracted the antenna and pointed down the road, in the direction the drones flew. "In-range Mechanical channels currently broadcast to a large demolition fleet commissioned by Newmade Earth. The former habitat of Jastertown is to be removed within the hour."

Su gasped. "Oh, no! I was born and raised in Jastertown. " Jastertown would always be home, the last place Su had been truly happy--before Dad had dragged their family away to Secundis in search of a 'better life'. Yeah, right. Ten years later, at sixteen, she lived with her dad and his drunken tyranny. Mom had gotten smart, and scrammed out when Su was just twelve--moved away to Luna, leaving a wretch of a husband and pleading daughter for a new lover. Su's adopted family was the Dust Bunnies, and she couldn't ask for better sisters.

"Jastertown is a historic site." Rozzi's brow creased. A bookworm and president of the History Club at school, Rozzi was the brains of the gang. "It might not be protected by the Admin yet, but it's a treasure from our past. Newmade Earth can't wreck it."

"They can, unfortunately," Donna said, always the realist. "Frump has the money and the clout to get his way. I watched his speech on holo-vision last night. He says he's gonna tear down the old eyesores like Jastertown."

Lucille sighed and tossed Su a sad look. "I was born in Jastertown, too. But you wouldn't have known me. My name was Lenny back then."

All the Bunnies knew Lucille had been born a boy, and they didn't care. Lucille identified as female. The all-girl gang accepted her as she was.

Donna propped a hand on one hip. "Well, if I have anything to say, we should go on down to Jastertown and put a stop to this."

"I wish," said Su. "How can we stop a fat cat like Frump? He practically owns Mars, now."

Lucille grinned wide as a chromed fender on a hot rod. "The Dust Bunnies never run from a toss. What d'ya say we glide on over to Jastertown and have a look around?"

The Bunnies cheered.

Another adventure. Su checked her power and enviro-support levels. Plenty of time, and oxygen to spare. She followed the pack, crossing her fingers that Jastertown might still stand when they arrived.

***

Ten kilometers east of Secundis, the monstrosity of a habitat known as Jastertown rose in a dark finger of hodge-podge metal and scaffolding. It was visible a long ways off. Not pretty, but it was a piece of true Mars, one of the original habitats built after the end of the Great War with the Pruessian Empire. Decades later, it stood abandoned and condemned, yet Su had good memories of it. The first six years of her life happened within those thick steel walls--playing through the corridors with their flickering sodium lights, the often overwhelming sounds and smells of thousands of people dwelling in an enclosed area about ten urban blocks wide and a kilometer high.

Some called it madness for such a dwelling to endure, but it thrived in its time. Wanderers, workers, eccentrics, criminals, and outcasts had once called it home. All gone now, left for the supposedly easier life in colonies like Secundis and the Iron Paradise.

The Dust Bunnies rode to the edge of the bladed wire fence surrounding Jastertown, and they all gaped at a flashy billboard on the perimeter. A string of bold letters scrolled at the top, over an animated image of the terraforming tycoon, Mr. Ronald Frump. 'Future site of New Earth Plaza No. Three. Cleaning up Mars for a brighter tomorrow!' Frump's audacious smile oozed shameless promises, and his animation flowed to a thumbs up pose. Light swirled, an image of Jastertown crumbled. A pristine scene of blue sky and green hills formed, while a celestial choir sang about hope.

Willie Mae grimaced. "You've gotta be kidding me."

"Is that Frump guy for real?" Rozzi's voice squeaked when she was hot and bothered. "You can't 'clean up' Mars. The entire planet's made of dust, for cryin' out loud."

"Eat this, germ-nozzle!" Drawing her Flashray pistol, Donna fired a bright red beam at the billboard. A charred hole sizzled where Frump's face had once leered.

Alarms sounded, a strobe light blinked outrage, and a swarm of tiny, spherical robots emerged from the billboard. Trouble with a capital 'T' buzzed toward the gang.

Lucille revved her hovercycle. "Uh oh, anti-vandal units. Book it!"

The Bunnies fled on a dime, no looking back. They skirted the edge of the fence and stopped only when the robots lost the trail. Undaunted, the gang rode through the rusted gate to Jastertown. The road narrowed and curved along a steep ridge, then wound further toward the enormous airlock portal of the habitat.

The girls parked at the top to survey the zone. Sure enough, a demolition fleet waited in arced formation below. The robots' primered hulls covered sturdy hydraulic appendages and reinforced track wheels. At the head of this destruction squad was a single command vehicle, topped with transmitters and rotating dishes. The aerial drones hovered above, still laden with their saggy payloads.

Betty activated the viewer attachment on her helmet. Magnifier panels flipped into place, and her jaw dropped. "Newmade Earth's scrappers, no doubt. I only see one supervisory vehicle down there. Looks like Frump's got the same agenda as the old Kaezer during the War--lots of robots to do the work, and a single human to manage them. What a cheap bastard."

"Hey, Lucille, I've got an idea." Peggy's cheeks dimpled with her smile. "Vex and I can scramble the robotic channels, but we'll have to access the command vehicle."

Lucille tapped a finger against a handlebar, her cherry lips pursed in thought. "That just might work. Sure you can handle the job?

Peggy nodded. "And how. You and me got this, right Vex?"

"Affirmative." The robot blinked its platinum optical lids and lifted two fingers in the Bunny signal, a gesture Peggy had programmed--along with many other useful tools to aid the gang's mischief.

Lucille's laughter sealed the deal. "Alright. Let's slip slow and quiet. We'll hash out the plan down there."

***

The gang arranged to split up at Lucille's direction. Peggy, Vex, and Su would make the first move. When the trap was set, Betty, Lucille, and Donna would surprise one side of the fleet, and Willie Mae and Rozzi would make a scene on the other.

"When you've got the cat in the bag, shout the all-clear." Lucille studied Su. "You ready to work your mojo, blondie?"

Su giggled. "Works every time, doesn't it?"

Lucille slapped Su's shoulder. "Don't we know it? Go kill 'em with your charms."

The groups moved into position, hiding behind large rocks and piles of debris as they went. The demolition fleet and its human supervisor were focused on Jastertown, unaware of the teenage mayhem brewing around them.

Su took a deep breath. "Wish me luck."

"We've got your back," said Peggy. "Leave the rest to me n' Vex."

Su zoomed into the open, headed straight for the command vehicle. She looped around the fleet. Several robots beeped in simulated surprise.

"Woohoo!" Su yelled and waved an arm in a show, pretending to be out for a simple joyride. She glimpsed the supervisor through the windshield of his command vehicle. It was a guy, not too old, which might make this ruse easier.

His cigarette tumbled from his mouth when he saw her.

A mound of scrap metal lay at the perfect slope for a jump. Su sped over it and pulled the hovercycle up mid-air. Time for the bait. As she landed, she flung her weight sideways and toppled the hovercycle in a deliberate crash. The engine wailed, lev generators flipped up and exposed. Su sprawled upon the stony ground in her most pathetic pose and waited.

In minutes, the door of the rig hissed with pressurized air and slid open. The supervisor ran to Su and knelt beside her.

"Are you alright. Miss?" His face was barely visible behind the tinted helm shield, but his voice rang with true concern.

Su moaned and pushed herself upright, grasping one arm as if it hurt. "I...I guess so. Took that jump a little too fast." She gave him what the Bunnies called Su's Danger Smile--a certain tilt of her head, flick of her eyelashes, and parting of her lips. Well-rehearsed, yet also an innate talent, Su could reduce anyone to a pile of adoring mush with one glance. Lucille and the others always told her she was the prettiest in the gang, but Su never dwelled on it. The Danger Smile was just a ploy for situations like this.

The supervisor's breath rushed through his suit filters. "What's a cute chick like you doing way out here? This is a hazard zone. And it's private property of Newmade Earth, I might add."

"I'm so sorry. I didn't know. I've always liked to ride here." Su pouted. "Just havin' fun. This is my first time out since the dust storm, got the itch to ride fast after being cooped up so long. I can't help it, I like to show off."

He extended a hand and helped her stand, then he pushed her hovercycle upright. "Well, I have some time before I have to finish this job. Why don't you come on up and, uh, rest for a bit? I can call a medic transport if you need it."

She brushed herself off and shot the Danger Smile again. "Oh, thank you, but I'm feeling better. You're my hero, Mr., uh, what's your name?"

He shifted his weight and stuttered. "Mr., I mean, it's John. Johnny Powell. And who are you?"

"Let's go inside, and I'll tell you." Su darted an eye toward Peggy's hiding spot.

Vex extended the Bunny signal from behind the rock. All was working so far.

Su climbed the rungs to the cockpit with Johnny. Once they were both in, he pulled the hatch shut and turned the pressure-lock wheel. Su sat in the passenger seat, and Johnny settled into the driver's side. The console flashed with screens and holo-displays, coded statistics and feeds streaming from all sides. A poster of a half-dressed starlet peeled from the rear bulwark. So, Johnny liked pretty girls. Perfect.

"My name's Suzanne," Su said, cringing inwardly at her given name. She'd always hated it. "So, what's your Say, Johnny? Why'd you bring all those robots to Jastertown? Looks like quite a party with the explosives they're carrying."

"My Say? Is that some kind of Martian slang? A few kids here have asked me that, but I don't get it." Johnny laughed. He released the seal on his helm and pulled it off. A little scruffy, hair uncombed and whiskers shadowing his blunt jaw, but he seemed nice for a square.

Peggy whispered in Su's earpiece "We're right outside. The robots are gettin' suspicious. Take him out quick."

Su leaned closer to Johnny with another Danger Smile. "You aren't from Mars, are you?"

He gulped, staring as if she were a dessert to be swallowed. "No, I'm from Altair-7. Just here on-call for Newmade Earth."

He shivered as Su moved behind him and placed an arm around his shoulders. "You're a cool cat, for an outsider. I'll fill you in." She slipped a hand to the utility belt at her waist, where she kept a small destabilizer for self-defense. "Your Say is you, Johnny. It's your story, your soul, what you--and only you--are all about. What's your dream, your love, the thing that makes you cry, or makes you want to hide away?" She slid the destabilizer ring over her little finger and laid the inconspicuous stun device at his neck.

A steady flow of nano-capsules flowed from the destabilizer's micro-injectors, through Johnny's pores and into his bloodstream. Thirty seconds max, given the size of him, until the narcotic struck his brain.

Johnny licked his lips. "I'd guess my Say is...I don't know, really. I can say one thing though. You've got the most beautiful...eyes...Suzanne...I've ever..." His head drooped, eyeballs rolled back, and he collapsed over the console.

Su laid him in a decent position, then placed the destabilizer back into its belt slot. She patted the unconscious man's head. "Hate to do this, but that's my home out there. And it's a special place for Mars, too. Jastertown's part of my Say, Johnny. Maybe someday, if you stick around here long enough, you'll understand." Peeking out the windshield, she saw Peggy and Vex.

Su replaced Johnny's helmet and carefully set his airflow. Knocking him out for the sake of Jastertown was one thing, but she didn't want him to die. When he was safe for exposure, she opened the cockpit door.

Peggy scrambled up, her face flushed. "My turn, now."

With actuators whirring, Vex climbed up behind its owner, its heavy metal feet clanking against the rungs. A device slot opened on the companion robot's contoured chest, and an access appendage snaked out. Comm ports spread like tiny, wired tentacles. "All systems prepared for interface."

Su tapped her wristcom. "Su to Lucille. We're in.'

Lucille replied, "Good work. Time to confuse these tin cans."

Su's pulse thumped as the rest of her companions sped into view.

The girls approached the demolition fleet and threw rocks at the nearest units to aggravate them. Donna fired a ray beam at one of the drones, and it dropped its cargo to the ground.

Several Newmade Earth robots broke formation and pursued. The girls separated five ways and led the Mechanicals on a fool's chase. Meanwhile, Peggy and Vex ported into the command console.

Peggy's interface viewer flashed across the inside of her bubble helmet, her fingers navigating the system in mid-air. Peggy was a talented hacker, but Su hoped she'd be quick.

With a twitch and groan, Johnny began to rouse from his stupor.

Peggy relayed orders to her robot. "Vex, select sub-line 45.987, tangent L-9. Reverse meta-command. All channels broadcast new data: delete mission 1, disassemble all units in range."

Vex beeped a complex series of Hypercode, the language Mechanicals used to communicate among themselves. Before long, a new message spread across the fleet channels.

Johnny slowly lifted his head and coughed.

"He'll come to any minute," said Su.

"Done." Peggy disconnected. "Vex, abort and grab this bumblehead. We can't let him reboot the system and undo our commands."

Vex seized Johnny, then lowered the man to the ground with a retractable cable. Peggy and Su hurried out of the cockpit. They bound Johnny's hands with a belt, then lashed him to Su's back seat so he wouldn't fall off.

Vex climbed aboard Peggy's hovercycle, as usual.

Peggy hailed Lucille and the others on her wristcom. "All done. Let's scram before the Admin gets here."

Lucille chuckled over the wristcom. "Meet us at the gate."

"Eh...Suzanne?" Johnny woke and squirmed against his bonds. "What the hell's going on?"

"We're saving a piece of true Mars." Su looked over her shoulder at him. "Sorry it's come to this, but your boss Frump needs to learn his place."

Before Johnny could retort, Su accelerated to max velocity. As she sped past the fleet, she glimpsed the result of Peggy's sabotage. The demolition units tackled each other instead of Jastertown, scrapping themselves to loose parts. She laughed, but she knew this was a temporary victory. How would Frump react?

The gang regrouped at the gate as planned.

"You girls won't get away with this," Johnny growled. "Let me go."

Lucille ran a slender finger down his helmet, as if she could stroke him through the face shield. "Not yet, sugar. You've got a long walk ahead. Don't worry, we'll give you enough enviro-support to make it back."

Three kilometers out, they dumped Johnny on a desolate plain, with an extra oxygen cannister as back-up. Marooned, Dust Bunny style. It wasn't the first time they'd used this tactic. When Donna's ex-boyfriend had slugged her across the face, the gang beat him black and blue in return. Then they'd marooned that bastard even further out than Johnny here, with barely enough enviro-supply to walk back to civilization with.

Before they untied Johnny, Lucille took a holo-recording of him, careful not to show any of the Bunnies on camera.

"This message is for Frump." Lucille focused a live Net feed onto Johnny's bedraggled figure. "Leave Jastertown alone. It belongs to us, not you. We Martians like our dusty mess, so go clean up up somewhere else. That's our Say."

Once the video was uploaded to the most popular social hubs, the Dust Bunnies released Johnny. They rode away, into the fading sol, laughing all the way back to Secundis.

***

Night fell over the colony as if nothing was out of the ordinary, but the Net was a hotbed of corporate debate after what everyone now called 'the assault on Jastertown'.

The Dust Bunnies sat at their favorite table in Sandy Dee's Malt Shop and watched the latest broadcast over the soda bar.

Frump ranted and spat, shaking a fist at the camera. "This is a terrorist attack. We'll double our efforts to spread comfortable and secure living for the family of Earth. Rest assured, we won't back down."

Willie Mae scoffed. "The family of Earth, my ass. Now he's quoting the propaganda Mr. Silas Blane used to spew, back when Everblue ruled the worlds. Frump's got a huge ego."

Vex's optical orbs shifted from Willie Mae to the rest of the gang. "As of hour eighteen this sol, Mr. Ronald Frump announced he is a candidate in the next election for Martian Chancellor. He plans to run on a New Earth campaign, with terraforming as a central issue. He gains much support among the local populace."

Peggy sipped her strawberry shake with a loud slurp. "If he tries anything funny again, we'll give him a rout, like we did this afternoon."

Su rested her chin on one hand and picked at her plate of fried pickles. "We've only dropped a pebble in Frump's bucket of trouble. We made our point, but really think about it. We can't stop him in the end. It doesn't mean anything to someone like him."

Lucille tossed her shoulder-length black hair and folded her hands across the table. "That's not important. The real meaning is the feeling, baby doll."

"The feeling?" Su frowned.

"You got it," said Lucille. "All we can change is how we feel at this very moment. No moping about. We have to stay strong for the ruckus ahead. We'll keep doing our part for true Mars, one step at a time."

Frump's obnoxious shout drew all attention back to the holo-display. "Jastertown has to go. This is war. We'll nuke that ugly ruin, blast it to smithereens. Mars will be cleaned up, mark my word. We're making the worlds great again, folks. Because our way of life is great. So vote for a great guy like me, and I'll make sure we punish the terrorists."

The Dust Bunnies gasped in unison.

Betty jumped to her feet. "He can't use nukes. That's insane."

Rozzi placed a hand on Betty's arm. "I get what Lucille said, and I've got a plan to save Jastertown. My History Club can start a petition on the Net and around Secundis. We'll rally the good people who are still out there and raise awareness for the cause. Jastertown will be registered as a historic landmark. Not even Frump can harm it then."

"What a swell idea, Roz." Lucille raised her soda glass. "Here's to the feelin'. We can make a difference. Even little voices like ours have meaning when we roar loud together."