Goodbye Mars

“As you can see, I speak Martian and Anglish fluently. I went to an Anglish school in Stella - my parents are both Martian, but they wanted me to have an Anglish background because they thought it would be useful.”

“Yes. The languages – that’s good. Always good to have someone who can communicate with the proles. Excellent. It says here you studied Martian Literature at the University of Mars, Stella – why didn’t you go off-world for that?”

“I thought about it, but in the end I just wanted to stay closer to home. I didn’t take a gap year, I just went straight into it – now, I want to move on and see new things.”

“Yes, yes. Do you have any experience with animals?”

“No.”

“Space-age travellers?”

“What?”

“Gypsies. Trash.”

“Oh. No.”

“Children?”

“Other than my sister – no.”

“But you’ve done a lot of writing – you’re keen and you want to see the universe. That right?”

“Yes. Definitely.”

“Can you sing?”

“Yeah.”

“Can you pull a pint?”

“Probably.”

“Light a fire?”

“Yes. Without a lighter even.”

“Good enough. You’ll do.”

Captain Keynes sat up and leaned over the crate of unspecified cargo, hand extended.

“Oh – thank you.”

Fald sat up eagerly and shook it.

“We leave tomorrow. You can bring up to a hundred pounds of kit, but no more. Be back here at eight in the morning.” Keynes stood up and walked off, leaving Fald sitting in the cargo bay wringing his hands. It was finally happening, he thought – he was leaving Mars.

He stood up and wandered out of the cargo bay – fork-lift autos and crew were loading her up with crates. The space around him rang with the sound of shouting, grinding metal and the groaning of the ship.

Outside, the sun was setting and the hills beyond the spaceport were glowing red. There was a light breeze running inbetween the ravines that divided the shipping berths. The place was alive with activity and the noise of foreigners, port-hands and heavy-duty cranes.

He looked back at the belly of the Prancing Pony’s cargo hold, it looked like a overblown frog, with its crooked limbs and swollen body. Apparently this was just the landing pod. The Pony itself was thirty square miles and housed nearly as many families in an authentic Earth recreation. Timber framed houses, green grass and lumbering, smelly animals.

Dimly he wondered why they wanted an admin assistant, but the thought didn’t last long. He waved down a cab and hopped into the back.

“Stella – District five, near the old Atmo.” He muttered into the speaker. The driver grunted and swung the car up into the traffic away from the space-port. Fald sank back in his seat and relaxed. For the first time in a long time he felt like things were looking up. A steady job, a chance to see the System and maybe even a decent reference at the end. Goodbye debt, he mused happily, goodbye boredom and goodbye Mars.