Titanic Invitation

Abstract

At 60, Jeremy Belton was just entering his middle years. Mars had been good to him. He enjoyed law enforcement, and he loved the wide-open desert vistas. He’d found a nice little house in the canyonlands of Kasei Valley. From his living room bay window he could see the mountains rise from the chocolate-brown valley floor, looking like undercooked biscuits dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar. Beyond, walls of salmon and tan stone stood as bastions against the glowing metallic sky. Farther out, chasms scored the plateau into freestanding buttes and mesas. Belton had been widowed once and dodged the bullet twice. He had friends. He was happy on Mars, happier than he had ever been on Earth. He considered himself lucky. He wasn’t in the mood to go anywhere, and he couldn’t imagine anything that would change his mind. Not even Abigail Marco.