Orbiters

Bexo

“The man who is not irritable is no poet.” —Edgar Allan Poe

The planet Mars contains many large and profitable mines. This is where all of us are headed. Blinking, we will emerge from space zeppelins and be herded underground, where an entire world awaits. Immense caves with two thousand-foot ceilings have been prepared containing whole towns with pleasant suburban streets, shopping centers, ballfields and stadiums. A parade and a grand festival are being planned. Speeches from celebrities and dignitaries will commemorate the first of an annual celebration, Mars Day. Hearkening back to a simpler time, Mars Day will feature picnics and brass bands, songs and beer, and at the end, illuminating our upturned faces, a magnificent display of fireworks.

Then it’s time to get to work.

Mining is the only job on Mars, and Bexo the only employer. An immense conglomerate, Bexo sets wages, determines work and safety conditions, and enforces production quotas. The fact that wages are high and working conditions good fools no one. This is slavery, pure and simple.

The Malthusians understand the conundrum. They are an advanced and peaceful society, and slavery is against the rules. A great deal of hand-wringing occurred over this. There were many arguments about the fate of their Earthling cousins. Philosophers and pastors thundered from podiums. An abolitionist movement sprang up, before there was anything to abolish. In the end the whole thing evaporated. Any honest assessment showed working on Earth is a lot like slavery, with enforced hours, lack of choices, and so on. Malthusians contented themselves with the idea nothing much would change.

Still, slavery being slavery, they were hypocrites. Somehow they are able to live with that.

It helped that most Malthusians worked for Bexo. You don’t bite the hand that feeds you, and all that. Megan’s parents worked for them. After arriving on the Moon Stu and Margaret Bremer found new jobs right away, at Bexo Realty. Margaret had been a school teacher, but welcomed the chance to switch professions, becoming a title and closing specialist. Stu worked in their accounting department. That is, after getting the Moon’s required certification. The transition was easy. He had been a CPA on Earth.

They regularly exchanged emails with Megan. Both were proud of her service in the Space Corps. But also terrified. Malthusia hadn’t fought a war in 15,000 years. Now, having only recently arrived, an inter-planetary war would begin. Just their luck.

The military was supposed to be a good start to something better. Better being a job in Bexo Engineering or Bexo Foods, where there are always openings.

Megan sat in quarters one evening reading an email from home. Closing her video disk, she sighed.

Her roommate knew the sound. “Everything okay at home?” Jennifer said.

“Oh, sure,” Megan said. “It’s just that my parents miss me.”

“So do mine. Isn’t that a good thing?”

“They want me to settle down on the Moon.”

“Isn’t that good?”

Megan sighed again. Settling down meant getting a house, she told Jennifer. Getting married and having kids. Working for Bexo. The same place her husband would work. The same place everyone worked.

“It’s good security,” Jen said.

Yes it is. But it made Megan uneasy. After the war, her life would have all the excitement of watching a grandfather clock tick away. She saw herself working at Bexo, eating a vegan diet, exercising on treadmills, each day identical to the previous day. She was guaranteed to make it to ninety-five. They all were, unless they were killed in the war with Earth.

Megan was afraid. Not that she wouldn’t make it to ninety-five, but that she would.