Seventeen Crimes

Three

"Its been two weeks of this constant popping back and forth," Brent said, at dinner. "Can't these pilots be a little more considerate of the people who do live on this planet. You'd think they have the math down by now."

"Did you hear that the percussion blats of the one that 'realigned' in Sacramento busted out a bunch of glass windows," Deshawn asked, before breaking up his faux sausage to scoop up with some onions and green peppers."

"That flight, I heard, was almost a wreck," Peter said. "Brie, honey, you have been frowning all night. Aren't you having a good time? You're breaking my heart."

"Oh, I -."

"She's been under a lot of stress, lately," Dylan said, laying their hand on Brie's.

"I'd appreciate it if you would let me talk for myself," Brie said, glancing at her partner. "It's just I have been covering the committee meetings they have been having at Congress about these jumps and whether they should be taking as an invasion warning."

"Mars and what army?"

The table erupted with laughter.

"But, realistically, they don't need an army," Peter said.

"Why would they come back?" Rowan asked, sliding to sit in Deshawn's lap. "No, seriously – why would they come back. Its been what – GAWD, what, thirty years since the first mission took off for Mars, and the only flights that came back were the tail four launched by Mars Expeditions, not Mars Trading Company."

"I heard they have it good on Mars, too. Average low range income is something like a hundred k a year."

"They have a consumption based tax system of 25 percent, based on the idea of the FAIRTAX system that's made its way through Congress a couple times," Brie said.

The table stared at her.

"What, I have been reading," Brie said.

"Well, I want to know when they will be opening the door to tourists," Deshawn said. He stared gyrating in his chair. "Book me for the first two way ticket and point me to the nearest gay bar."

"They don't have one," Rowan said. "Oh, guys, guys, hear me out and a really listen. Okay, so my cousin Petal has a cousin has a cousin on the side of the family that I'm not related to and she has a friend that went in the second wave – I don't remember if it was Mars Expeditions or Mars Trading Company that she went through. Anyway," Rowan plucked a hair from her mouth. "She went and passed through all the requirements and anything and her and her boyfriend went.

"The whole fricken colony, like, within ten years had all converted, for the most part, to Christianity. Everybody, for the most part, is in church for a good part of Saturday."

"But church is Sunday," Brent said. He leaned over, nudging Deshawn. "I remember getting my hind end drug there every week by my grandma thinking she could convert me straight."

"Listen," Rowan said, tapping the table. "Even her cousin, a devout Wiccan, converted. They don't have a gay culture. They don't have gender fluidity. This -." Rowan drew circles in the air. "If this exists at all on Mars, it is extremely underground."

Deshawn leaned over. "What, do they resort to stoning you if you are a man and look at another man that way. Or do they just take your space helmet off and let the rest happen?"

She shrugged.

"The murder rate on Mars is extremely low," Brie said.

And again, all eyes turned towards her.

Brie shrugged. "Its a hot topic of conversation at work, what, covering the press pools and everything. I have been doing my research."

"I will confirm, she has been doing a lot of research about this," Dylan said. "So much so, that I have had to be a neanderthal and drag her to bed with me."

Dylan smiled at Brie, and leaned over for a customary kiss.

"And its not Christianity, at least not the way that its portrayed on television and what we've been exposed to," Brie said.

She started picking at the food on her plate, which she hadn't touched much.

"What is it, then, since you are becoming our own little scholar?" Brent asked.

"They call themselves Disciples," Brie said.

(716)