By the year 2060, mankind is on the verge of bringing Terra to her knees. The population has exploded, and land for cattle and crops has been sacrificed for housing and employment for the more than fifteen billion souls now living on the planet. Synthetic food is created in plants, and the remaining animals are kept in zoos and game preserves of the wealthy. In an effort to insure the survival of mankind, spaceships are sent to explore Terra’s nearest neighbors, Mars and Venus, but will it be too little too late?<br><br>The four men who took the MRM to Mars have high hopes, until on their return home they travel through a magnetic field that crashes them… somewhere. As they explore the unknown world with its dangers, Doc, Nick, Hank, and Ed will struggle to come to terms with their new reality and find their own paths to happiness.

To Love Through Space and Time

Ground control contacted us. “All right, gentlemen. If you’ll take your places, we’ll begin the countdown.”


We strapped in and waited through the countdown. The MRMlifted off, and for the first time in all the years I’d been doing this, the pressure was almost unbearable—the proverbial elephant on my chest—and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to catch my breath.


By the time we were out of the exosphere and could walk around the cabin, however, I’d dismissed it as to be expected.


The view of the moon as we passed it was breathtaking. It hung there like a huge silver Christmas ornament—I never claimed to be a poet—the craters and valleys and seas beckoning us.


But it would take a few more years before the terraformers had it in any kind of shape for human habitation. Just then it was too barren for our purpose.


Before we knew it, Ed was ordering us to, “Buckle up, everyone. I’m about to put her into hyperdrive. Red skies of Mars, here we come.”


Chapter 8