Chapter 1

Luna Orbit

January 9, 2057

Devin MacGregor shielded his eyes from the sunlight streaming through the viewport as the space station’s rotation brought the outsized spacecraft into his line of vision, and he drank in the sight. The Herbert George Wells was the culmination of years of planning and several billions of dollars, yen, euros, and other currencies in investment that had been poured into the project.

One of the more remarkable aspects of the entire Mars colonization effort was that it had been completed entirely without government assistance. The Mars Company had been started by an eclectic group of businessmen and investors just after the turn of the millennium. They had two goals in mind – to be the first group to colonize Mars, and the first company to establish a profitable business in space.

A work crew labored along the spine of the massive vessel inspecting the attachment points for the shuttles and the cargo modules. The modules carried equipment and supplies for later use by the five hundred colonists aboard the Wells. Devin keyed his datapad and reviewed the specifications of the ship again.

The ship was two hundred forty meters long from the engine exhaust nozzles to the blunt nose of the accommodations section, sixty-five meters wide at the exhaust nozzles, and thirty-six meters tall from the upper spine to the bottom hangar section. The twelve fusion drive engines generated twenty thousand tons of thrust, pushing the ship at one tenth gee. She carried sufficient fuel to make the trip to Mars in about six weeks, with a generous fuel reserve. Devin paged through the display; just over twenty-two thousand tons of cargo, seven shuttles for transporting people and materials to the surface. Wells had a loaded weight of nearly one hundred eight thousand tons.

The cargo holds and the eight cargo modules contained prefabricated sections of new homes, machinery, vehicles, and other supplies, but the bulk of the capacity was taken up by a long list of materials the colony would need for the first six months. Fabrics, metals of all types, chemicals; the list went on for pages in his display. The colonists could fabricate nearly anything they needed until the raw materials were available locally.

Once they reached Mars orbit, the ship itself would serve as a temporary orbital spaceport until a permanent facility could be established on Phobos, the nearest moon to the planet’s surface. The empty containers would each be fitted with a smaller version of the Wells’ fusion engines, converting each into an independent spacecraft. They would travel to the asteroid belt to begin mining operations. The Wells also carried a hundred multipurpose satellite buses. These would be equipped and deployed as needed for a GPS network, communications and survey missions.

The Wells had her own repair shops and enough tankage and hangar space to service the shuttles as they plied the route to and from the groundside colony. The next group of colonists would follow within a year and the spaceport and Mars City would be ready to receive them. Devin smiled at the thought. He would be in charge of the spaceport and his nerves tingled in anticipation of fulfilling the dreams he’d had since he was a boy.

The tall, lean man grasped the grab bar under the viewport and rotated his body in the station’s microgravity. The station was now over Farside, and he liked to look on the side of the moon that mankind had not been able to see up until some eighty years ago. He watched the battered landscape slide by under him as the station crossed the terminator. The moon’s surface plunged into darkness, save for a small cluster of lights on Nearside’s surface. That would be one of the ore processing centers that, along with the asteroid processing center at the Earth/Moon Lagrange Point Five, had provided the materials to build the station and the Wells.

Devin checked his datapad, noting that he should’ve been asleep two hours ago. They were due to leave for Mars in five days, and the rest period was short enough as it was. There was still much to be done. He gazed at his new command a moment longer, then turned and made his way to his quarters.

Luna Orbit January 10, 2057

Walking carefully in the spin generated gravity; Devin stepped up to the podium. The station’s main concourse was packed; Devin hadn’t seen this many people in one place since he’d left Earth. He cleared his throat and activated his headset microphone.

“Welcome, everyone.” The side conversations died as people turned their attention to Devin. “Most of us here know each other, but for the benefit of the media, I will make introductions. I’m Devin MacGregor. I am the Wells’ captain, and I will fill the role of spaceport administrator when we reach Mars.”

He turned to the small group seated behind him. “I’d like to introduce a few of the key people aboard. Keith Davies,” a short, stocky man with sandy brown hair stood, “is our chief engineer. He’ll be the one we all answer to if we break anything.” Keith grinned and sat back down.

“Next is Sijay Izadi.” A tall, willowy brunette rose with feline grace and smiled at Devin. “She’s our pilot, and she’ll fill the post of flight director. She is also my assistant.” Sijay sat down.

“Next is Lenna Davies, our chief medical officer, and,” he smiled, “my wife.” Lenna simply waved from her seat.

“Last is Shanna Reston.”

A petite redhead stood and waved at their guests. “Hello, everyone.”

“Shanna is our electronic systems specialist,” Devin added, “and she will fill the same post for the colony. Thank you all,” he said to the assembled colony leadership team.

“Since our time is short, I’ll continue the briefing. First though, I’d like to thank everyone for all their hard work. You each know how much you’ve put into this mission to make it a success. Now, if you’ll bring up the agenda on your datapads, we’ll begin.” Devin’s melodious tenor flowed over the group as he conducted the press briefing.

The first manned mission to Mars had landed in 2037, and several subsequent missions had laid the foundation for the first permanent colony on the Red Planet. An advance team had mapped the groundside colony site and would be waiting for the colonists when they arrived. The new arrivals would literally set up housekeeping and hopefully have children soon afterwards.

The colony planners had also rejected the military model for the colony’s leadership. Devin wasn’t the “mission commander” and Sijay wasn’t his “executive officer”. Instead, an administrative bureaucracy operated under the rules of a representative republic would govern the colony.

Extensive research had driven the mission planners to select only married couples with no children as the finalists for the first large-scale colony mission to Mars. Post-modern theories aside, The Mars Company’s leadership felt that strong families were the most essential ingredients for the colony’s long-term success. They had recruited couples from over twenty nations to compete for the mission assignments. The qualification process was a barrage of tests, interviews, background checks and simulations that eliminated candidates with ruthless dispatch. Of the ten thousand couples considered, only two hundred fifty couples would fly on this mission.

Their job was to begin the process of actually constructing the colony; breaking ground on the spaceport and at least two groundside facilities. They were also tasked to locate resources and begin extracting them to support the building efforts. The colony’s flight department was equipped with seven shuttles and the crews to continuously man them in support of these objectives.