Eoj was hired by the Mars Tourist Bureau to train travelers who would spend a few weeks in a space capsule, their bodies confined to not much more than a water closet there-and-back on their Moon-to-Mars holiday.

Eoj, half-Greek, half-Egyptian, had survived wars and skirmishes his whole childhood and jumped at the chance to serve aboard the ISS Dionysius, the flagship vessel that traveled from the Moon to Mars, packed full of tourists and their supplies needed to feed and care for them during their whole time traveling through space, in acclimation facilities orbiting Mars and on the Red Planet itself.

During the offseason, when Earth and Mars alignment made the trip prohibitively expensive, Eoj took martial arts and dance lessons which he in turn was able to share with tourists during their spaceflight, using a small corridor between their living quarters to exercise tourists in small groups of two or three.

Before his Mars Tourist Bureau job, Eoj had met Guin at an Earth dance studio when Guin was first brought in for physical therapy.  They had become dance partners because they shared the love of dance over many of their other hobbies and interests.

As Guin was finishing her PhD in rocket propulsion, she accepted the assignment to become an integral part of the ISSA Net, allowing her body to be monitored in realtime, accelerating her physical conditioning, with a bonus network interface that gave her the ability to simply think her thoughts to members of the ISSA Net without talking or using archaic input devices like phones or computers.

Eoj had opted not to accept full ISSA Net interfacing, believing that a “real” man kept himself in reserve.

Eoj and Guin excelled in their dance training and soon become part-time instructors at the studio, each taking on a small number of students, sometimes passing one student to the other when their regular work schedules conflicted with the students’ availability for lessons.

From this perspective, Eoj was able to observe more about Guin.

Eoj saw that he was not the only one who wanted to dance with her.

He had taken on Lee and Lee’s wife, Karen, as dance students early in Eoj’s dance instructor days so the three of them were guinea pigs for the dance studio owner, Disdry, a veteran of the World Peasant War, a set of military skirmishes that spread around Earth, wiping out whole sections of the peasant population desperate for food and a meaning for their miserable existence, including jobs or positive views of them in the mainstream press.

Thus, Disdry, although a smooth dancer, was a stern taskmaster with his instructors, a little rough around the edges.

Vulnerable during their first few months on the job, Eoj trying to get back on his feet after a tough job loss and Guin during the mental recovery associated with her physical therapy, Eoj and Guin gave Disdry more leeway to control them than had they been stronger socioeconomically.

Eoj worked with Lee and Karen under Disdry’s watchful eye.  Sometimes, after a particular tough time getting Lee or Karen to learn what should have been a simple dance move, Eoj would sigh and plop down in Disdry’s office.  Disdry would frequently offer constructive criticism but sometimes he would lash out, using cold, cruel humour to knock Eoj’s ego to the ground, which didn’t help Eoj at all for the next lesson with Lee and Karen, conditioned to expect verbal abuse from Disdry if Eoj was unable to show progress with a couple who sometimes just didn’t get it, regardless of Eoj’s instructing ability.

One day, Eoj was out of town and asked Guin to teach Lee and Karen.

Although Lee and Guin already knew each other, they walked into the dance lesson as newbies.

Guin had her own problems with Disdry’s treatment of her but had not yet received beratement in relation to training Lee and Karen so she was able to look at them without fear or trepidation.

Guin spent most of the lesson showing Lee the leader part of the waltz and foxtrot moves he had learned the week before, the two of them moving more easily as one than Lee had been dancing with his wife.  Karen spent most of the lesson watching and feeling ignored, not wanting another lesson with Guin because she felt that all Guin had done was teach Lee had to dance with her rather than with his wife.

The next week, Eoj noticed a change in Karen, sensing that she was more interested in him as an instructor and devoted his time to teaching them, getting more progress in that lesson than in the previous two months, even showing them a few fun moves that were not part of their official curriculum.  Although they had fun, Eoj was scolded by Disdry for going outside of the syllabus, dampening any enthusiasm Eoj had for seeing Lee and Karen the next week.

Because of this up-and-down treatment at the studio, Eoj built up expectations for the weekly social dance on Fridays when the students had the opportunity to try out their newly-learned moves in an actual social setting, the instructors available for advice and social dancing.  Eoj anticipated dancing with Guin and she with him, so they could practice moves they wanted to perfect for other venues.

As much as Eoj liked dancing with Guin, and noticed she did, too, he also observed that he was not the only one.

There seemed to be a virtual line of guys waiting to dance with Guin, including single and married men willing to leave their women alone in order to get a dance with Guin.

Added to that, Disdry informed Eoj that one of the students, a single women in her early 40s named Eternia, desired to dance with Eoj but Eoj always seemed to dance with Guin just when Eternia got up the nerve to ask Eoj to dance with her, or just felt outright ignored by him altogether, complaining that Eoj and Guin spent the whole Friday night dancing with each other rather than with their students.

Eoj accepted his “punishment” and reduced his dancing time with Guin, asking students, both his and those taught by Guin or Disdry, for individual dances.

Guin followed Eoj’s example and danced with students, including her boyfriend, Kirby, who showed up occasionally but had a problem with large crowds so he tended to avoid coming unless he had to.  Guin found herself dancing more often with Jersey, a shy man who had started social dancing lessons in order to look and feel more comfortable when he ventured out to nightclubs.

Guin was an encouraging instructor and boosted Jersey’s confidence, taking him with her to a dance competition in New Orleans.  Even though they didn’t win, it gave Jersey the impetus he needed to try other things, such as volunteering at the local youth symphony and competing in mountain bike races, eventually leaving Guin without a competitive dance partner once again.

When, with guidance from her new friend, Bai, Guin got the assignment to go to Mars, Eoj began questioning why he was stuck at the dance studio “alone” with Disdry.  Guin wanted to help Bai so she convinced him to get a job working with Kirby transporting blood products to hospitals and clinics in the area.

Eoj enjoyed his transportation job as the “Blood Man,” every now and then running into a former student or someone who knew who he had to be because of his unique rugged look as a GrecoEgyptian, shorter than average but built like a football player — broad shoulders, large chest and muscular arms — able to lift and throw a woman like Guin, several inches taller than him, with ease and grace.

A member of the board of directors for the Mars Tourist Bureau, Minten Kyun, badly injured in a helicopter crash and in critical need of blood transfusions, later heard, during excruciating recovery, that the well-thought-out, timely-but-safe driving by Eoj of blood from one hospital to the one where Minten was being pieced together, saved Minten’s life.

As soon as he could, Minten sent the word to Eoj to see him.

Eoj had never heard of the Mars Tourist Bureau so he was surprised that a complete stranger would offer him a job in such a specialised field as space travel.

“Welcome, Eoj Cappernopolus.  I’m Minten Kyun.  Please have a seat.”

Eoj plopped down into a plush red leather chair beside Minten, whose eyes flicked back-and-forth every now and then, a sign that he was communicating over the ISSA Net using the visual neurons of his brain.

“Thanks for asking me here.  So, your voicemail said you want to hire me for the Mars Tourist Bureau?  You know I don’t have any astronaut training, I assume.”

“Yes, Eoj, I do.  But not every job at the MTB requires a specialised pilot’s license.”

“Uh-huh.”

“If you knew nothing else about the job, would you take it?”

“Umm…”

“I mean, how would you describe what you think about a job like this?”

“Well, that’s the thing.  I don’t know what the job is.”

“Good point.  What have you heard about the MTB?”

“Not much, frankly.  I’m sure I’ve heard of it in the news but I haven’t been focused on it, if you know what I mean, my financial situation not geared toward exotic space travel.”

“Of course.  So you’re not a fanboy of space exploration?  You don’t fantasize about a life on the Moon or Mars?”

“Not really.  Does that mean you aren’t interested in me, then?”

“Quite the contrary!  I want someone for this job who wants a challenge but doesn’t go into it with starry eyes wearing rose-coloured glasses, or who holds high hopes for a job and makes a mistake because he was so disappointed by reality he lost focus.”

“Yes, sir.”

“That’s the other thing about you.  You follow orders from others without letting your questioning authority get in the way of the whole organisation achieving its goals.  Do you know how hard it is to get someone who thinks independently outside the box but knows there are larger issues at stake?  I believe you are the man for this job.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t you want to know when you’re going to start?”

“Haha.  Isn’t there paperwork I’m supposed to fill out, a personality profile and physical fitness test I’m supposed to take or something?”

“Yeah, yeah.  We’ll put you through the formal wringer but I’m assured you’ve already passed.”

“So, when do I start?”

“That’s what I wanted to hear!  You start right now.  Welcome aboard, Eoj!”

“Thank you, Mister?  Misses?”

“Ah, I appreciate you not assuming anything about me.  Just call me Minten.  If you don’t mind, I’m going to hand you over to my assistant, Naad, who will get you started on a career that only two other people have been offered and accepted.  Eoj, you are an exclusive club member now.  I hope you know that.”

“Thanks.  I’m sure if you say it’s as good as it sounds, it probably is, being who you are and all that, a megabillionaire they say.”

“Don’t let money fool you, Eoj.  Wealth does not make you wise.  I hope I’m richer in wisdom than the rest.  But let’s get you on the road to your own riches, shall we?  Once you’re part of the MTB, you get shares in the corporation just like me and everyone else.  Here’s Naad.  Best wishes, my friend.  I’ll see you soon, perhaps on a trip to the Moon or Mars, if not sooner!”

Months passed before Eoj saw Guin again, his training schedule filling his days, simulating the space trip several times in a row so that Eoj was fully capable of handling both calculated emergencies and unanticipated calamities as well as integrating his personality traits into the ISSA Net for processing and compatibility training for the other crew members as they were hired and put through the simulator training.

Entering the simulator phase of the MTB “boot camp,” Eoj had resisted being wholly integrated into the ISSA Net so his trainers had offered him a track of gradual sensory input connectivity enhancements, showing him how his body became more alive and alert with the aid of ISSA Net body monitoring, holding off on full mental connectivity until Eoj convinced himself it was for not just the betterment of society but also his personal gain.