Minimum Paige

Outside the porthole, Henry could see millions of tiny twinkling stars from all the corners of the universe. It was majestic.

Henry sat back for a moment and surveyed the ships interior. It consisted of a long aisle, with two seats on either side. The seats were spaced further enough apart so one occupant could recline his seat fully into a bed without hampering the seat directly behind him. Other than that, the cabin was mainly empty. Jupiter was still a very young colony; most of the colonists were researchers or laborers. The few people that did return to the core systems regularly were usually journalists or salesmen on special assignment.

A flight attendant came by and offered Henry lunch, a freeze dried tuna sandwich with an airtight bag of potato chips. Henry added water to the sandwich and cracked open the chips. "The food on these flights really isn’t that bad." He thought as he silently chewed the food. Finishing his lunch, Henry pulled out his laptop. Seeing it sent a surge of anger through him, and he kicked the seat in front of him vindictively.

He remembered the message he had sent to his mother, asking her to come back to Mars now that Grandma Martha was dead. His mother had refused in another letter:

"Too dreary!" Henry screamed in his head. Some of the best days of his life were spent on Mars. He remembered being a teenager, president of his class at Armstrong high school on Mars. He remembered his mother, always begging him to visit his grandmother on Earth:

"Henry, you know how much grandma loves you and misses you. I miss her too, you know. Why do you insist on staying on Mars?"

Henry always answered the same way: "Mother, it’s too dangerous down there! What if another war broke out? What if there was a hurricane in Atlanta? More than that, how are we going to afford it? Space fare to Earth is expensive, mother!"

"Uncle Danny and Grandma Martha can make arrangements, dear. And they can give us money. Really, Henry, I wish you would come."

Then Henry would play his ace in the hole: "Mother, I simply have too much work to do!"

Once, Henry gave into his mother. It was summer break between junior and senior year when he finally gave in and agreed to spend two weeks on Earth with Grandma Martha. It was horrible. Atlanta had been attacked in the Caribbean War thirty years ago, and most of the damage still had not been repaired. The outskirts of the city, which used to be residential complexes for the middle class, were now nothing but slums. The streets downtown were littered with drug dealers, gene dealers and prostitutes. Henry hated the site of the old, asphalt streets. He hated the smell of the internal combustion engines’ exhaust. He hated the sight of the old, outdated, hardly operating nuclear power plants which provided the cities electricity. They were the worst two weeks of his life.

On his laptop, Henry checked the minutes of the University of Phobos board of trustees meeting. Henry had just recently graduated from the University of Phobos, where he earned a degree in Biology.