Ares' Anger (ePub)

A short story of the world's first Mars colony. The central characters are a product of the ghetto, Dexter Arnold and a Japanese woman from a well-to-do family, Tamiko (Tandy) Yoshiro. They don't really like each other but endure the training regimen as team. In which they sabotage each others' efforts until advised to learn to cooperate or be dismissed from the program. So a team they become, especially after an in orbit disaster results in them being the only survivors. Then they end up with the first colony on Mars. Bio-habitat exterior venture policies notwithstanding, Dexter ends up doing duties alone. Which would have been fine if he hadn't had the mishap of wrecking his rover buggy and having to walk back home. Which really wasn't so bad in itself. Except an out of season giant Martian dervish took dead aim at him. And all his colleagues could do is just watch the monitors as the drama unfolded. Except for Tandy who had an absurd pigheaded, orders defying idea for saving her out time partner. Not that the giant either cared or stopped its persistent mission to squash everything in its path. Dexter was just unfortunately at ground zero. So you have a mindless unstoppable monster, a trapped African-American and an insane and outmatched Japanese woman going head to head. There could be only one outcome as the roar of the dervish intensified as it towered over them, bullied them, ready to deliver a final blow. You just don't quarrel with a Martian giant. Even when you're a team that has each others back. Sometimes the best thing to do is run if you can. And if you can't well. . . .