The Sunborn
Chapter One
FIRM, FRIENDLY, POSITIVE
JULIA TURNED HER BEST SIDE toward the camera, a three-quarters shot,
and spread her arms. Okay, maybe a bit theatrical, but she had the
backdrop for it.
"Welcome to Earth on Mars!" She always opened firm, friendly,
positive. She swept an arm around, taking in the stubby trees with
their odd purple-green leaves, the raked mounds barely sprouting
brownish green patches, and above it all, the shiny curve of the
dome, a hundred meters high. Beyond the dome's ultraviolet screening
hung the dark bowl of space. The somber cap was always there,
reminding them of how little atmosphere shielded them.
"We showed you the inflation of the big dome a month ago, the
planting of trees right after-now we have grass."
Not any breed of grass you've ever seen before, though; it's a
genetically modified plant more like a dwarf bamboo, and technically
bamboo is a grass, just a really stiff one, so ...
"It'll be a while before we can play football on it, true. We're
pretty sure nothing like grass ever grew on the surface of ancient
Mars, ... read full excerpt from: The Sunborn ebook
