Chapter 3

It had been five hundred and twenty-two days since I first set foot on Grenadier Station. A lot had changed since then, primarily the number of people. An Earth year and half ago there were nine hundred workers, mostly electricians and welders and their families that lived and worked in the cavernous decks of the three-kilometer wide, multi layered station. According to Miss Thomas, over four thousand people now called human’s largest space construction ‘Home’.

The second biggest change, to me was the gravity. My first visit to the Mars orbiting space station had the outer regions stable at just over 38% of Earth’s gravity, similar to the gravity on Mars’s surface. As more systems came online, the station’s gravity kept increasing until where it was today surpassed 0.70 g. At least in the outskirts of the diamond shaped structure it did. The inner areas remained half that. Artificial gravity generation and inertial ‘dampeners’ made all this possible. L&S’s goal, mankind’s goal, was to colonize Mars, which needed time and a boat load of terraforming before any substantial migration could be hoped for.

I stood still in the little used observation bubble which extended out from a lower tier of the station watching Mars slowly rotate under me while I thought of all the changes happening around me in silence. The tall, athletic blonde assigned to be my shadow and guide, kept me company during my three day stay on the station. Not that I needed it. She might have though. I detected boredom from her that someone without a purpose exuded after staying too long in a single area while on vacation – a particular type of restlessness.

“Dr. Volkstag? Your dinner will be ready in twenty minutes. If we leave now, you will have time for a shower,” Helen hinted.

I believed that she would do pretty much anything to get out of this, other than visual, stimulation-less glass enclosed bulb. But to me the view was breathtaking.

“Sure. What’s on the menu tonight?”

“Steak and beer.” I heard a grin and a bit of envy in her voice.

“Oh?” Cow meat on the station was unheard of, there were other meats that were much cheaper to grow or import. Beer was rare too, but not as bad as steak, or exotic fish.

“You did ask for steak and a beer.” The amusement in her voice was more obvious this time.

I did, the night of the UFO sighting. “Just me?” I headed out; steak sounded awesome. So too did real beer not flavored by algae.

“There was a lottery for the rest of the cow, Syd had it butchered and distributed in half pound portions, everyone who won received a portion. I heard that the residents are splitting their winnings with friends.”

Even here Miss Thomas made people dance to her tune.

My guide with the ludicrously meter-long blonde braid followed me into the VIP suite that had been assigned to me for during the quick turn around awaiting Miss Thomas’s shuttle preparation for the return trip to Earth.

“The miners delivered a decent sized ice ball yesterday. Fresh water showers await. Come on, Hero, I’ll wash your back.”

That was a first, she had been flirting since I had been introduced to Sydney Thomas’ aides when she picked me up from Mars’ surface, Boris, Sydney Thomas’s android bodyguard, who had been built and Created by her boss Catherine Larkin, Stacy Pinta, Miss Thomas’s mousy secretary, and Helen Jacoby, her all around gofer. I was pretty sure that both women were altered, enhanced, or outright superhumans.

I didn’t refuse the back washing, but that was all it was, aside from a bit of teasing. Dinner, as promised, was delivered just after I dressed. Helen, dressed in a thin white swimsuit, which did not hide her piercings in the slightest, even under her silver silken robe, joined me at my personal en suite table. After stealing a bite of my steak and a sip of my dark beer, we discussed the state of Grenadier Station and Project Legacy.

The steak rocked and the beer was even better. Unfortunately, aside the tease in the shower, Helen didn’t offer, nor seemed to want more.

The Hero part was becoming a fact, unfortunately for my piece of mind. “520 Days” had spread throughout the station and Earth. My name was on everyone’s tongue. Not quite what I wanted or intended when I signed up for the Mars job. My time planetside was 200 days longer than the next longest of the Mars techs, current or former, with the majority lasting less than 183 days. I remained almost a full Earth year longer than most on the Mars surface and was deemed a ‘Hero’ because of that.

Peachy.

The steel-faced Android Boris, Sydney Thomas’ personal bodyguard, attached Miss Thomas’s red and white car to a fifteen-by-thirty-meter ‘house’ and flew home with the four of us inside.

Those three women had a VERY odd inter-personal relationship in which Sydney Thomas dominated.

Very odd...

Mostly, I read on the way back to Earth and watched Vids, giving them as much space as needed. My next Earth-year would be immersed in study and preparation for Legacy IV’s launch with me in the Captain’s chair. But not until after I had a good vacation somewhere warm. Somewhere with lots of water. Warm water and maybe a bikini clad woman or three.

...

My tests came back in the expected ranges: loss of 0.5% bone mass and an increase in musculature by 8.8%. My blood related tests were very similar to when I first signed up, most even improved under the strict diet and exercise routines planetside. Compared to my time on Mars, the three months of training I underwent at L&S before leaving for Mars was a cake walk.

The shrinks on staff were decidedly off balance with me. They had expected someone or something different than what I gave them via their extensive tests. I was sane, not fraying and/or broken or completely disassociated with the rest of humanity. Something that no one else could say that returned from their stint on Mars, according to Miss Thomas.

Silver visited near the end of my three-week evaluation. Mary Beth pretended to be happy while she discussed her family and grandchildren, yet I felt an undercurrent of aloofness, unacknowledged.

“I thought you would be in Barcelona right now.” Aside from her children and grandchildren, a month-long spa and sea vacation was all she could talk about the week prior leaving Mars.

“Next week. Izzy first.” I smiled at the pride in her voice. Even if there was a shadow behind it and in her eyes, and an all too eerie calmness to her voice.

“Geoff, you don’t feel it, do you?”

“Hmm? Feel what?”

“Thought so.” Sighing, Silver took a look around at the monitors in my room before continuing. “They are all strangers now. Everyone I knew before I left is different to me and me to them. They are ... I don’t know how to explain it. My psychiatrist thinks I am exaggerating. She doesn’t understand, can’t understand.”

“Mary Beth, I think I do understand. Instead of feeling cut off, why don’t you start over and reconnect with the people you care about,” I suggested.

“Reconnect ... I’m not sure I know how anymore.”

“Yes, you do. Think of your grandsons. Just be a part of their lives and the rest will come. I heard that most returnees become teachers. Have you considered that?”

“I applied for the night supervisor’s position at the Pittsburgh Fusion plant,” she blurted out in a rush. I thought she felt a bit guilty at the admission.

The Pittsburgh plant was the seventh UF based Fusion plant and the one with the least draw on its systems.

“Aren’t you massively overqualified for that?” I laughed.

“I’ll be close to the grandkids, but not too close. It’s a two-hour drive to Nowhere, Ohio, where Ollie and Kae live.” Her daughter’s family.

“And you can’t sit around and do nothing,” I added. “I still think that being more active in their lives can only be a good thing for you and them. Join clubs, even if it’s chess one night a week. And get schooled,” I grinned. She was terrible but loved the game.

“Stop that. I’m not that bad, you are just too good.” Giving me another once-over, she brought up the real reason of her visit instead of touring vineyards in southern Europe. “They are talking about a ticker tape parade for you.”

“Fuck that.” No Way In Hell!

My older friend grinned, “I knew that would be your answer. L&S is leaking like a sieve with your numbers. Too much to not be intentional.”

Miss Thomas strikes again. “Do I want to know?”

Instead of telling me, she switched the subject again. “I received an offer for my eggs. One million dollars.”

“Your eggs?” Mary Beth was fifty-seven...

“Right, what eggs? I’ll be fifty-eight in a month. Any eggs left in my body have long since petrified.

“I’ve been offered fifty K per weekend of study. My alma matter, who has never contacted me outside of the usual donation spiels, did a hard sell last month by the university president in person. Thankfully, you came along and shattered all the records on time and production. Even came out as sane as you went in, which we all know isn’t very...” she teased.

Groan...

“A 29-year-old genius, stable as all hell, who survived the horrors of Mars. The momma queue will line up around the block. The DNA banks will be in line behind those women. You could be the highest paid sperm daddy in the world with harems of thousands spread around the globe. AND even better... Dr. Volkstag,” Mary Beth smirked, “those women would pay you for the privilege. Not you them. Think of all the money you would save on dates and shoe shopping.”

“Ha, bleeding, HA.” I groaned at the lines of pursuers and the pressure.

“Your pic will be forgotten in fifteen in this messed up society of ours, but your name forever added to the history books. Remember, you will always be important to those that want to use you. Few people or businesses even care about Mars. It’s twenty years away for serious colonization. By then they will be too old to move or care.” Peering over her imaginary granny glasses, waving a finger at me, “I can’t see you hiding, but shotguns on your lawn chair are bad, young man.”

“I don’t think you have to worry too much about that,” I replied soberly.

“Oh?”

“L&S secret. Understood?”

“I’m all ears.”

“Miss Thomas snatched me off of Mars to be her personal chauffeur.”

“Bullshit.”

“Legacy IV.”

“You’re fucking insane. Didn’t you learn anything on Mars? Was 100 not good enough for you?”

“520.” I corrected, hoping to derail my friend.

“Geoffrey!” I didn’t expect her to be pissed at me.

“Two trips, I promised. After that,” I shrugged, “who knows?”

Silver extended her visit for another two hours as we discussed the training and job offer. I didn’t notice until after she left, but Mary Beth was much more emotional and engaged than when she first arrived at my temporary New Mexican home.

Maybe Miss Thomas was on to something about me emotionally influencing others.

...

“One, I don’t care which, as long as it has a viewership of at least one million. You did agree to it when you signed your contract,” Miss Thomas reminded me.