Star Dancer

Earth Date 2197 03-27 02:38:01Star DancerPetra took Star Dancer out of orbit, dropped through what thin atmosphere there was and the flight smoothed out as they began the long glide that would culminate with a docking at Mars One.Mars One was the first, which made it the oldest colony on Mars. Many of the men that Petra had read about and told Mike about during the last several months had died right here back when Mars One had been a forced labor colony.Being the oldest colony did not make it the most visited or the most important Mars colony. That honor went to Standard City, home of the software giant of the same name: Standard had moved their entire operations to Mars. They had built a small company colony for the employees. The employees had entered into the Federal Land lottery through their respective countries and purchased large tracts of the surrounding Martian terra. Relatives relocated: Friends; friends of friends and Standard City had grown from the rough Martian rock and soil that surrounded the small company colony. The current population was somewhere north of eight million people. China, Japan, Russia and England held the highest population numbers, but it was all controlled by the Federal Global Government.Mars One had kept up a steady growth for several years, but the last ten had seen a decline. The thinking seemed to be: Why live lives of hardship at an out of the way colony when you could have the clubs, markets, shops and culture of Standard. It was a hard proposition to ignore. As a result Mars one was turning into more of an industrial center. The old residential neighborhoods had been converted into small company colonies for the arriving tech companies. It was ironic in a way. Even a few minimum security prisons had relocated to Mars One.