James Haselton

A Tale of Two Worlds James Haselton

The saga of the human attempt to colonize Mars continues. After the spectacular failure of the first expedition to the red planet, the company has returned, more determined than ever, to locate and exploit the secret of Martian life for its own ends. NeoFos, Andreas Kotz's massively costly space exploration project has ramped up efforts to build a small self-sustaining colony near the Martian equator; the colony's main mission being support for operation of the powerful light-based quantum-interfaced Artificial Intelligence System called Apollo near the South Pole. All is proceeding according to plan until a near-extinction event on Earth. Now the human race's survival could very well depend on that small population remaining on Mars. When the new Martians become aware of a few struggling survivors on Earth, debates arise; should they attempt to return and rescue the survivors? Survival on either planet becomes a long shot but which should really be mankind's home?