My fourth trip.  I consider myself one of the lucky ones, able to travel from Earth to Mars and back as a pilot and host for lifelong experiences.

How many science fiction novels and short stories I read before I turned six and entered Genius School!

Here I am, in my prime at 21, ferrying my fourth group of travelers, some who’ll expand the major settlement, New Hope, some who’ll choose to open new outposts, and a few dignitaries who are making the trip simply as a goodwill gesture, reaching out a hand to show unity between our two biggest planetary settlements, Earth and Mars.

Doesn’t seem that long ago when one of the Martian exploratory teams discovered a large deposit of a rare radioactive material and declared it belonged to the people of Mars, not the financiers and governments of Earth.

The debates on Earth of sending a military enforcement team to quell the “upstarts” went on for a few years before it was decided to let Mars start its own independent governing body and fall on their faces from failure, hopefully.

Little did the Earthians expect to see independently-minded wealthy families send a mass exodus of their offspring to increase the population and supplies on Mars, staking claims in remote regions as longterm investments which have paid off for many of them.

Ferrying refined ore to Martian moons was the first step in establishing a reliable transportation hub where the ore was used as input for autonomous 3D printers that evaluated the input of humans and created the most efficient landing-and-launch system ever devised.

Ferrying people and ore is pretty much the same, the only difference simply the conversion of life support system equipment space to extra storage for ore/supply transport.

I look forward to a few months of R-n-R fun, setting up observation posts for a company on Earth that’s interested in selling holiday packages to Martian workers.  The freedom to pick where I want to set up the posts will allow me to choose whomever I wish to accompany me on my forays across Martian plains, mountains and valleys.

Of course, there are the inevitable conflicts with globalised Martian corridors that are offlimits to settlement, cordoned off for uncommercialised access channels to outposts settled and claimed.  I know I’ll run into illegal settlers who’ve squatted on the most picturesque settings which would serve as perfect observation posts.

I can usually bargain with these types, though, because they inevitably need one thing or another to keep their hidden settlement going, including extra hands and 3D printer parts (sometimes a combination of the two).

Eccentricity is the rule, rather than the exception here.  Everyone is an expert and the greatest authority on the subject of some obscure facet of Mars.

Well, it’s time to get out of Martian orbit — our travelers have seen enough of the surface from up here, I surmise — and head toward a moon spaceport.

Which port shall I choose this trip?  Ahh…a mental ping from a former observation post companion, waiting for me on Phobos.

Phobos, it is.  “Fellow passengers, nothing to fear — we’re turning this boat toward Phobos.  Hang on!”