Military Standoff Ignited by Space Station Social Media

Students were asked to stay away from the student center of the University of Northern Mars today as several hundred refugees were expected to meet there to receive services from doctors, psychiatrists, religious leaders and immigration experts. By the days’ end every doctor we spoke to looked exhausted and even a little worried. Earlier this […]

Ecological Purity or Tyranny?

F’vrel, a renowned Martian Xenobiologist, has been arrested on Silkweave, home planet of the eight-legged Venomite people. Official records list his crimes as “trafficking invasive species and corrupting the ecosystems of Silkweave.” The arrest was done in traditional Venomite fashion: by completely cocooning the alleged criminal in webbing. Enraged Martian diplomats have arranged for F’vrel […]

Can You Own A Moon?

Almost every known planet with sentient lifeforms has a legal standard prohibiting the ownership of that world’s moons. Most of these customs are quite ancient, being written before the rise of faster-than-light travel when colonizing a moon was impossible anyway. However, as the cost of trans-galactic vehicles continues to plummet, more and more companies are […]

Unchained

“Martian sentiment has turned sharply against the C’rululian Empire,” the soldier stammered out to General Vikiper. Vikiper enjoyed the tremor in the soldier’s body as he spoke, but not enough to offset the seriousness of the news. “Continue.” Vikiper ordered. “Several soldiers with ties close to the Empire have been relieved from duty in the Martian […]

Newspaper in Exile

Hello, my name is F’delty. Would that you could see the tears on the transmitter as I write this… My father was one of thousands of Martians who hailed Mars begging for escape transports the day the Earthlings’ Great Barricade started to rise. For years, we have had no information of the outside galaxy, no […]

A More Perfect Internet

“C’therax! W-why h-haven’t you been t-t-transmitting?” Sarah said at the hologram. For months C’therax had been providing her information to share with the stranded Martian community on Earth. The past several weeks the signal had been silent and many of the underground Martians were getting worried. Outside she had her speaker blaring rock and roll […]

What did you know?

C’therax entered the small silver cylindrical habitation. It was nothing luxurious, but for good reason. It was expensive to transport anything across Jupiter’s gravity field. For those who loved gravity diving or wanted to be away from the busier planets though, this moon was the place to be. Through the shimmer of the gravity shield […]

Review: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

We interrupt our usual Martian reporting for an Earthling Science Fiction Review: At one point during the political sparing of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, an Indian newspaper recommends that the colonial population of the moon be killed off and “‘replace[d]…with ‘honest Hindu peasants’ who under[stand the] sacredness of life and would ship grain and more […]

A Conquered Nation

“You’ve been coming here everyday?” C’therax gave a start and looked back to see Sp’Rark approaching the crater’s edge. “You scared me,” he said. He turned back to look again at the vast Crater whose edge he was sitting at. The red soil here twinkled under the Martian sun. In the distance one could see […]

On Earthlings and Empires

Transmitting to all Star Systems from the Martian Muckraker: We repeat! The Earthlings have devised a planetary barricade. Our ships have been confiscated. We need to evacuate Earth! Soon, we will not be able to see the stars in the sky. Please, as the Immutable lives, we need help! Thirty minutes to the closing of […]