A Sol in the Life of Otto Fink

Tokyo

The year is M-445 (3031 a.d.). Mars has been colonized for nearly 1000 Earth years. The once barren red planet has now been fully terraformed and is home to nearly 100 million descendants from Earth. The air is still slightly thin, equivalent to being at an earthly elevation of 1800 meters. It’s a world more comfortable than it was 250 M-years ago, when wearing an oxygen mask was required even at the best of times. Many centuries ago, the creation of a stable atmosphere was aided by thousands of giant magnets, each 1 kilometer across, 10 kilometers deep, buried at the poles. These large, magnetized piles gave Mars a significant magnetosphere to protect the inhabitants from the sun’s radiation and to keep the solar winds from blowing away the new atmosphere they would create. The magnets also helped to give Mars more mass, thus strengthening its gravity, and taming its extreme axis wobble to resemble that of Earth. Additional sunlight and atmospheric heat is created by a large orbiting lens called a Soletta, magnifying the sun’s brightness. There are still large areas of Mars where breathing gear is required. Tharsis is one of those regions. With an average elevation of over 5 kilometers, it’s the closest one can get to the experience of prehuman Mars. Nothing grows there and people are very scarce. In most parts, Mars is flourishing. Large stretches of the northern and southern hemisphere’s untouched pine forests have matured. Herds of Terran mammals roam the high plains of Mars as they do on Earth. The Borealis Ocean to the north is alive with sea life, small and large. Metropolitan areas are now a common fixture on the face of Mars. The warmest summer temperatures peak at around 35 degrees Celsius. This is a far cry from the frozen desert that was Mars a millennia ago.

The story begins in the southern region of Mars, in the Mediterranean-styled city of Bradbury, on the shores of the great inland Hellenic Sea. It’s about a quiet, young man by the name of Otto Fink and the journey he and his two best friends take to Nilokeras, the largest city on the planet Mars. Nilokeras is an island city near the Chryse Gulf at the mouth of the great fjords, Lobo and Kesai. While there, they plan to visit Juventae Fons, the hottest nightclub on all of Mars.

Otto’s life is about to change. His view of Mars has only been briefly from the air and working in his father’s small but busy, transport repair and restore shop. He has never really left Bradbury in his entire young life. His two best friends since childhood have promised him a birthsol he’ll remember for the rest of his life. It’s a surprise. Little does Otto know, it’s a surprise he’ll have to help them make happen!

Gaviosol, Bora 21, M-445, 0600 hrs.

Otto Thaddeus Fink is a rather thin and unimposing young man. His complexion is pale, and he has soft, dark brown eyes looking out from behind large tortoise-shell glasses. He wears his curly dark brown hair clipped short on the sides off of his ears, and taller up top, flat top style. If Otto were somehow teleported back to the late 1970’s of ancient 20th century Earth, he’d probably get mistaken for musician Elvis Costello’s twin brother. Otto is a very kind and sensible person, slightly naive, and forgetful. He rarely takes chances, although he has a great admiration for those who do. His heroes have always been ancient Terran jazz musicians.

Stan Getz is his favorite.

Otto owns a tenor saxophone, a gift from his dear friend Abby Strata, and plays it very well, but has never gathered the nerve to play it in front of anyone other than his father and friends. Otto is brilliant in math and science as well as being mechanically inclined. He graduated an M-year early from high school with honors. Otto chose not to attend college. Instead, he chose to learn from the best, his father. Otto’s father, Otto Sr., is a highly respected engineer in the field of anti-gravity propulsion. Otto Sr.’s work with Trans Propulsion Systems is regarded as genius throughout the tri-world industry. A few of his innovations are in use in today’s modern anti-gravity propulsion transport vehicles. After 10 M-years, Otto’s father left Trans Prop to start his own business fixing and restoring transports called O.F. Transport Restorations. Otto has been helping his father build and fix transports since he was a small child. Otto Sr. has been grooming him to take over their family business when he retires. Otto deeply admires his father and always does what his father tells him to do. He fears he’ll never be the man his dad is, and also feels that he’ll never have the pioneer-spirit his father possesses.

Otto, it is now 0600 hours, chimes the female voice alarm of the house mainframe. Time to awaken, it continues. Otto rolled slowly to his left, not yet ready to arise from the warmth of his sleep chamber.

Snooze please, Otto said, talking more into his pillow than to the house computer, and resumes sleeping. One of Otto’s best friends, Abby, sneaks into his room and mocks the computer’s voice.

Otto, it is now 0605! Get your butt out of that bed, birthsol boy, and get moving! Your friends are waiting!

Otto knew it was Abby. Abby Strata was the first friend Otto made in Bradbury kindergarden. She was a few months older than Otto; pretty, with shoulder length inky black hair, fair skin, blue eyes, petite, pushy, competitive and full of energy. She was a quintessential ‘morning person’. As children, Abby ate breakfast with the Finks and would wake Otto up for school. She wasn’t much interested in her own family. They were geologists. ‘Boring’ as Abby would put it. Otto’s dad loved for Abby to come over. She was the first person to affectionately refer to Otto’s dad as Senior. He liked the name, and it stuck. He appreciated having a woman’s presence in the home, so Senior gave Abby free access to the house. Lorah Fink, Senior’s wife was an atmospheric scientist who passed away in a tragic accident in the region of Tharsis nearly 9 M-years ago. Otto was just a small child when it happened. He has very little memory of his mother if any. Otto Sr. loved Lorah very much and vowed to never remarry after the incident.

Abby admired Otto’s father. The anti-gravity propelled vehicles he built and repaired fascinated her. To Abby, that was much more exciting than tooling around a bunch of rocks at the foot of Olympus Mons with her parents, Greer and Jacki Strata, and her pretentious twin older brothers, Nord and Zak. She craved a different kind of excitement. All of their lives, Abby was the one who pushed Otto to be more adventurous.

Go away, Abby. Let me sleep, Otto whined.

That’s no way to greet someone who’s going to take you out on your birthsol, Abby scolded. Besides, Cyd is meeting us at Charlie Tokyo for breakfast and tea. Let’s not keep him waiting! Shall we?

And with that, Abby snatched Otto’s blanket away, exposing him wearing nothing but his star-patterned boxer shorts.

Nice boxers, Otto Man!

Not funny, Abby, Otto deadpanned, not budging an inch.

C’mon Otto! Get up! And put on a sweater. It’s chilly! And where’s Senior?

He left right after we finished working this morning. It had to have been 0200 when he left. Big emergency. He had to help a stranded friend.

After Otto got dressed, the two left the house, and walked down a tree-lined road to Old Town Bradbury. Old Town was originally domed. In some parts of Old Town, one could see a few of the remaining concrete support columns for the dome that was dismantled centuries ago. A commemorative golden plaque was placed at the very first column built by the pioneer Marsonauts who set up one of Mars’ first permanent settlements at the edge of the Hellas impact basin, now the Hellenic Sea. Otto and Abby walked up the steps to the little seaside eatery. Their good friend Cyd had already spied the two walking up the beach walk to the steps.

Greetings fellow travelers! Happy birthsol, Otto, Cyd called out as he raised a hexagon-shaped, cobalt blue cup of hot tea above his head to toast their arrival. A curl of steam rose above the cup.

Hey Cyd, Otto answered.

Did you order tea for all of us? Abby nagged.

She knew the wait would be long if they didn’t get their order in soon. Charlie Tokyo was packed as usual, and they never used replicators for food and drinks. Every order was prepared and served by hand, the old traditional way. Somehow, this idea became quaint and very popular among the locals hungry for an experience of old traditions. The seaside eatery was owned by a middle-aged man of Terran/Japanese descent named Chokichi Oh. Mr. Oh possessed a very warm personality. Every day, he smiled and greeted as many costumers as he could. He gave himself the nickname Charlie to help those who had problems pronouncing his name.

Hey, of course I ordered for everyone, Cyd answered. I didn’t just come through the wormhole you know! I even ordered everyone’s usuals. C’mon up. Let’s talk plans!

Cyd Nova was quick and charismatic. He always had a funny way with words. He had a slightly heavy build, olive toned skin and wore his auburn hair closely cropped. He usually wore a trilby hat that had the ability to change in multiple designs and colors to match whatever he wore. This sol, it was herringbone, to match his pants. Cyd was always dressed sharply. He fancied himself a ladies man but women were usually more annoyed with his advances than impressed by them. Cyd was also a businessman and ran a small bookmaking business he used to earn credits. He always did things for a purpose. If it wasn’t of any benefit to himself, he avoided it.

Knowing Otto had little experience with the opposite sex, Cyd tried to give him advice on how to meet women. Otto had