The Mars Imperative (Book One of The Imperative Chronicles)

Prologue

PROLOGUE

History of Space Exploration: 21st and 22nd Century—By the late 21st century, it was clear that humanity couldn’t subsist indefinitely on Earth’s rapidly dwindling natural resources. There were simply too many people. The consequences were inevitable: pollution, overcrowding, rampant psychological ills, incessant border skirmishes, and spot food shortages, to name a few. Advances in medical science and technology helped extend the human lifespan, which merely exacerbated the problem.

Earth could not be the sole home of humanity forever. The only long-term solution was to colonize the stars; however, the meager chemical rockets at mankind’s disposal were not up to the task. It would have taken centuries to reach even the nearest star systems. The stars had to wait. First, humanity had to find a way to survive on Earth until the technology improved. That meant another approach had to be tried first: mining the asteroid belt and the other bodies in the Sol system.

The advent of space elevators, in the second half of the 21st century opened the solar system to cost-effective space launches and the efficient shipment of cargo between Earth and other planetary bodies.

By 2170, Earth's population had grown to more than thirty-eight billion, resulting in severe shortages of many resources. Earth needed all the raw materials it could extract from elsewhere in the solar system, to keep civilization from collapsing under its own weight.

— Excerpt from Encyclopedia Solaris, 2176

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The door slid open with a sigh. A stocky man double-checked the passageway.

No tails—that I can see, anyway.

He slipped inside and waited a few seconds beside the door, fist cocked, in case anyone followed him in. When no one did, he tapped the control panel to close the door and went to work.

He unzipped his jumpsuit and removed the small package he’d carried close to his heart. Moving quickly, he slid between the racks of goods carefully arranged in aisles: coveralls here, spare parts there, replacement wall panels over by the far bulkhead.

The bulkhead was his destination.

Pushing aside the stack of wall panels leaning against it, he pressed the package against the bulkhead and held it there for a second while the bonding agent anchored it in place. Then he adjusted the controls and removed the key to lock the settings. Finally, he slid the panels back in place to hide the package.

Striding to the door, he opened it and exited, closing the door behind himself. There was no one else in the passageway, not at this time of night. Everything was going according to plan.

By the time they know what happened, I’ll be back on Earth and long gone.

He carefully composed his face with a vacant smile and sauntered off toward the elevator terminal, softly whistling the strains of Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra.