Sustainable City Recycles Everything, Even Jokes

Jax never meant to be the Martian funnyman. Yet back on Earth, he’d fallen down the ladder of entertainment fame. He bombed more often than a shuttle re-entry gone wrong. Yet his agent came through once again, giving him a second chance.

He came out on stage, headliner at the Stardust Lounge in Olympus City, the crown jewel resort of the Martian colonies. Laughter echoed against the dome, amplified by the thin air. Yet something inside Jax felt as vacant as the red tundra outside.

Tonight the crowd was mostly executives — smooth-suited types with more Earth money than sense, looking for whatever luxury they could afford. Jax always did the ‘wide-eyed noob’ bit, roasting the recycled oxygen with the precise tinge of desperation. That always played well with these types, too full of hot air themselves. They ate up his tales of adjusting to one-third gravity showers and eating rotten tomatoes from bio-pods.

“You know you’ve been on Mars for too long when you find yourself missing Earth traffic! I mean, at least at home a gridlock took ten minutes, not half a year on a spaceship!”