"You brave Red pioneers of Mars—strongest of the human breed—sacrifice for progress, sacrifice to pave the way for the future. Your lives, your blood, are a down payment for the immortality of the human race as we move beyond Earth and Moon. You go where we could not. You suffer so that others do not. "I salute you. I love you. The helium-3 that you mine is the lifeblood of the terraforming process. Soon the red planet will have breathable air, livable soil. And soon, when Mars is habitable, when you brave pioneers have made ready the red planet for us softer Colors, we will join you and you will be held in highest esteem beneath the sky your toil created. Your sweat and blood fuels the terraforming! "Brave pioneers, always remember that obedience is the highest virtue. Above all, obedience, respect, sacrifice, hierarchy …" I find the kitchen room of the home empty, but I hear Eo in the bedroom. "Stop right where you are!" she commands through the door. "Do not, under any condition, look in this room." "Okay." I stop. She comes out a minute later, flustered and blushing. Her hair is covered in dust and webs. I rake my hands through the tangle. She's straight from the Webbery, where they harvest the bioSilk. "You didn't go in the Flush," I say, smiling. "Didn't have time. Had to skirt out of the Webbery to pick something up." "What did you pick up?" She smiles sweetly. "You didn't marry me because I tell you everything, remember. And do not go into that room."
I make a lunge for the door. She blocks me and pulls my sweatband down over my eyes. Her forehead pushes against my chest. I laugh, move the band, and grip her shoulders to push her back enough to look into her eyes. "Or what?" I ask with a raised eyebrow. She just smiles at me and cocks her head. I back away from the metal door. I dive into molten mineshafts without a blink. But there are some warnings you can buck off and others you can't. She stands on her tiptoes and pecks me good on the nose. "Good boy; I knew you'd be easy to train," she says. Then her nose wrinkles because she smells my burn. She doesn't coddle me, doesn't berate me, doesn't even speak except to say, "I love you," with just the hint of worry in her voice. She picks the melted pieces of my frysuit out of the wound, which stretches from my knuckles to my wrist, and pulls tight a webwrap with antibiotic and nervenucleic. "Where'd you get that?" I ask. "If I don't lecture you, you don't quiz me on what's what." I kiss her on the nose and play with the thin band of woven hair around her ring finger. My hair wound with bits of silk makes her wedding band. "I have a surprise for you tonight," she tells me. "And I have one for you," I say, thinking of the Laurel. I put my sweatband on her head like a crown. She wrinkles her nose at its wetness. "Oh, well, I actually have two for you, Darrow. Pity you didn't think ahead. You might have gotten me a cube of sugar or a satin sheet or … maybe even coffee to go with the first gift." "Coffee!" I laugh. "What sort of Color did you think you married?" She sighs. "No benefits to a diver, none at all. Crazy, stubborn, rash …" "Dexterous?" I say with a mischievous smile as I slide my hand up the side of her skirt. "Reckon that has its advantages." She smiles and swats my hand away like it's a spider. "Now put these gloves on unless you want jabber from the women. Your mother's already gone on ahead."