Spinning Despair

by Denubis

The “Bar” shifted under Gregor’s feet. The plastic bulbs on the walls looked like nothing Gregor would serve, but he did admit that the alcohol stored in them was as good as what he used to serve.

It turned out, he mused, that getting a trip to Mars was simplicity itself. All one had to do was hold one’s breath and push off the station. In a couple of hundred years, your corpse would reach Mars: no problems. Finding a faster, more survivable trip, on the other hand: that posed real problems. There were no passenger or freight transits scheduled to Mars for the foreseeable future. Something about tariffs or blockades or politics.

Now they were in this dingy bar again drinking their problems away. Hope, figuratively and literally, had departed. Literally, she was somewhere talking to her old friends, trying to rustle up a roundabout route. Figuratively, the tantalizing chance to get off of that desolate dirt-ball had only opened the door wider to despair. Meanwhile, his stomach was spinning uncomfortably.

Comments

Average Reader Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

  1. Spinning Despair

    Denubis' Buddy Icon Denubis

    Posted 6 months ago

    Fun with dialog time. The way I see it, if their goal is to open a bar on Mars, it would be entirely too easy for them to simply get to Mars from Earth. The most probable route for them to get to Mars now is to hop a ride out to the Asteroid belt, stooge around a while, and make it on an ore shipment to Mars. Plenty of complications await. (Or, I can fork the story and we can focus on the trials and tribulations of a bar on Mars.)

  2. Spinning Despair

    Nouvelle Bardot's Buddy Icon Nouvelle Bardot

    Posted 6 months ago

    i like that getting there has to be a struggle. makes for more adventure and raises some questions on the issues that make getting there nearly imposible.
    loa

  3. Spinning Despair

    THX 0477's Buddy Icon THX 0477

    Posted 6 months ago

    Out of the boring pan and into the fire of despair? Fair enough, for our hapless heroes. Kind of a dismal turn for our hope-bound lads, but I can go with that, as it is nicely told.
    LoA

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