3
"There must be something in my contract about family funerals."
"Let me know when you find it. In the meantime, get to Houston."
"There aren't any real airports in northern Michigan. The closest one is a couple hours south." In the small room, scattered folding chairs faced a wall screen that showed short clips of his brother's abbreviated life. On the screen he and his brother built a snow fort behind their home in Oak Park when they were kids.
"Then get moving," Piper said. "The lander's going to hit soon. If we're lucky we'll get live vid of the crash but it looks like it's far enough off course that we'll have to search. We need you ready when we see bodies."
"Last I heard Gainsbro had Houston."
"Rindell fired her and a couple other casters middle of the week. I suggested you and he agreed."
"Commission?"
"Ray, be realistic. This is a house show. Straight time basis. Hang on a second, Rindell's buzzing my assistant."
Barker dropped into one of the folding chairs. "MASSnews-Now," he said, and the wall screen changed to a live view from Mars, shot by a TractorPix, a bot the size of a golf cart with a camera mounted on top of a flexible wand. On the screen five glowing GreatWall MotorWorks luxury sedans in vee formation sped across Moskey Basin, the landing site for the first-ever colonial mission to Mars. Coki Peps, wearing a red vinyl mini dress with a hundred holes punched in it, stood like a ship's figurehead on the hood of the lead car. Her bandmates, pawing at their instruments, rode the hoods of the trailing cars. Coki's golden hair fluttered against the rusty hills west of the basin as she broke into "AutoErotica," her latest hit. For the occasion the refrain was changed from "Ain't nothin' like gettin' down in GreatWall cars," to "America's stars are goin' down on Mars."
The formation skidded through a turn and slid to a halt in front of three conjoined plastic and metal tubes that formed the Gemini Cricket Family Restaurants Mars Station. A