Time Out On Mars

Theres a fight over a women on a Mars colony in my second book. 

You might ask yourself why I wrote about old fashioned jealousy on Mars, but after exploring a five thousand year old time line to see what things have changed and what has not, I realized that although our environment changes - seldom do we. Wine and weddings for example have been around for over two thousand years. I pondered this and many other things late at night while imagining what life would be like on a colony on Mars.

Somewhere in these hours, my stories began to take on the context of a space opera. A space opera basically takes in adventure, grit, and conflict like a good old fashioned Western. A small colony on Mars is a future which could very well resemble a formulaic Western style of life in terms of government and law enforcement. Concepts of future government on an off-world base can become deep and controversial, but in some respects it's fun to think about. 

History can be a telltale sign of the future, and the future has more to do with the people who live at the time of the story. Simply put - the future will not redefine us in terms of feelings. Jealousy has not disappeared with the internet, and love has not flown out the window with laptops. Greed and corruption has not been eradicated along with television and iPhones. In addition, the scope of the future in other books I've read involves too much extravagance and hype so I objected to most of it in the end, keeping things more basic for Mars Colony 1. After all, just breathing would be a priority there.

Take the science fiction movie Bladerunner for instance. The movie was based on a book in 1968 by Phillip Dick called "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep."The author envisioned flying cars, off-world colonies and an advanced A.I. race of beings by 1992. These alluring and dreamlike visions are stimulating, but lets face it — nowhere near our grasp. They haven't happened yet and won't for a very long time. 

Owing up to humanity, Star Wars also brings us to the same unlikely conclusion when George Lucas admits the secret success behind his stories was really about family. 

This is why I came to the same conclusion and my plots evolve around relationships, moral exploration, and the people there. I don't deny the triumph of tech, or underplay the impact of technology as a transformation in the way that they live, but such stunning advancements would really only serve their hearts in the end. And to live in such a future world as Mars, is a world in which the colonists would be set free to follow pure passion.

Concentrating on a conflict between two men over one woman seemed par for the course to me too, especially in an exotic setting such as a tavern on Mars. The more I thought about it, the more I realized it would be the perfect place to emphasize a striking balance of old and new, tech and tradition, physics and yes - extreme feelings. Love and loneliness, jealousy and hatred on an outpost would be taken very seriously in fact. Once a brawl starts, the curious details of how Mars light grav' affects everything from the upsetting of drinks, to the motion of chairs inside a popular colonist's establishment is only science - adding only to extravagant details.

I imagined good alcohol as quite expensive and taken seriously on Mars, not to mention that women will be few and far between. I don't make gender assumptions but took in research and demographics about dangerous places to live such as McMurdo Station in the Antartica. The facts simply tell us that exploration and construction of dangerous places are usually male dominated in the beginning, with a small female ratio. This is why I concluded that the populace of a floundering colony on the fourth planet would be much like them, and who carry weapons with advanced suits to protect themselves. In addition, I presented a quasi-like military presence in charge, with money and man-power to help run the base. 

Combined with the discipline of law or lack of it, its fair to assume that only a few crimes would be punishable by death there, with incarceration, fines, service or deportation as  punishment. I don't mean to beat the opera concept to low gravity ground, but I believe some things will never change, and certainly crimes would have to be overlooked there by those with a certain reputation. Setting up a government on Mars is fine and well, but you can't exactly have police task force there to arrest anyone - or build a jail cell to fill. It would be a waste of precious oxygen and supplies. The separation between good and evil, or past and the future, may as well be trapped somewhere in the blackness of space out there with breathable air considiered a main commodity. 

It's when Matthias - head of intelligence services decides to threaten Lirren's resident permit on Mars for a supposed "offense"  he begins the conflict. Although he couldn’t affect any final judgments over her standing on Mars, he could definitely start a hell of a lengthy problem.

“I’m not­ signing this — this bullshit,” Lirren heatedly replies....

You may be skeptical of this tumultuous conflict at first, but take into account that I researched everything including the the use of alcohol consumption in space. Its pretty much acceptable — even in space. Professionals tell us alcohol and smoking is considered a normal way to deal with extreme pressure and would not be removed considering a high risk and high pressure lifestyle on Mars. 

I'd rather not spoil the story any further, so I'll leave you now and take my own time out. My hope was to give you a little more food for thought concerning my second book if you read it sometime and I hope you do - From Phobos To Mars.