Tom stared absently at the vacant desk with its glass of guava juice. The desk stood there in the expansive office mingling with other ceramic desks of its type, all molded to look the same, all mingling as if at a social gathering. Tom sat alone at his wooden desk in his office. He looked around his immaculate office, nothing was out of place. He looked around his immaculate office, nothing was out of place. He looked again at his large oak desk. This desk wasn't like those out in the large main room. It was older, distinct and alone.
"Your a long way from home." Tom said patting it on a nicked corner. "They're all from New Phoenix's soil and your from the mother world. Face it. You'll never fit in, not here."
Men and women filtered in and out of the main room. More came in than left and soon it was filled with people working. They looked just like Tom. They wore the same styles, the same brands and similar colors. But, they wad all been born on the frontier.
Mandy popped into his office. "Ready to go over last month's power consumption stats?" She asked.
Tom nodded.
"What? No smile?"
"Mmm, remember about a month ago I put in for a transfer to Earth?"
"Sure do. So what's the verdict?"
"I'm supposed to find out this work period sometime. It's been a long time since I left. I want to go home."
"Make this home."
"I've tried. You know what I miss most?"
She shook her head.
"My grandmother's farm. I remember at night my little sister and I would sneak outside in our pajamas and run barefoot through the grass trying to catch fireflies."
"Did you ever catch them?"
"Nope. Our grandmother would always hear us laughing and call us back in to bed."
"Well maybe these stats will get your mind off that."
Two and a half hours later they were almost finished when the artificial gravity failed. It left a momentary empty feeling in Tom's stomach, until his body grew use to New Phoenix's normal gravity. It was about one and a half times that of Earth's moon. Tom placed his pen on the desk next to his electronic notebook and audibly snarled. Tom looked up in time to see Chad duck out the office area's door.
"He had better run," Tom mumbled to himself, but Mandy heard and frowned. The frown looked sickly on her normally perky complexion. tom pushed the chair out from under the desk, and stood up. He wasn't very tall, maybe 164 cm, max. His freshly dry cleaned suit rustled as he left the room.
"Go easy on the guy. Chad just became a father; lots of stress."
"Humph! Chad doesn't have to fill out the 'Official Explanatory Reports to the Council'," Tom threw back.
Grav-outs weren't unheard of, just uncommon, since Tom became Assistant Manager here at the power facility. Tom wouldn't stand for them. They gave him paper headaches.
Tom was comfortable enough with grav-outs by now. He hadn't been raised here on New Phoenix, but he felt they added a little zest to life. Too bad about all the paperwork. This grav-out was probably just caused by another dip in power intake. It rarely occurred, but when it did it was normally during these long nights that New Phoenix rotation caused.
Tom had forgotten it was night. Even with his job as Assistant Manager in the power facility, he had forgotten. Evidently Chad, who was responsible for upping the power supply from the nickel-fusion plant, had forgotten the solar batteries would be going off line. Eventually this would all be handled by computers, but not yet.
"Reports, ...." Tom shuddered with ire. When he tracked down Chad, .... For now, Tom had to make certain that power got back to the grav system.
The power facility's manager called Tom into his office later. His office was cluttered. A sign on the wall read, "A clean office is the sign of a sick mind."
"Why'd the grav off?"
As if to tease him the artificial gravity flickered on and then back off.
"It's being taken care of." Tom said.
"I just received a fax concerning you. I thought you'd like to see it."
Tom took it with a suddenly sweaty palm. It read:
"Upper management has considered Tomas Richard Homington's request for a transfer and decided that they need him far worse as a facility manager on Mars. Further information is pending."
"Sorry Tom. At least it's closer to Earth, ... a raise too. Maybe someday ...."
Tom sighed. "Yeah ...."
Tom left the office quickly to conceal a tear. It wasn't professional -- not manly. He wiped the solitary tear onto his index finger. It twinkled like a firefly, all alone in the night sky.
"What a stupid thing to think," he said.
What could he do, quit? He didn't have nearly enough money to move to Earth, and this was a high paying job. In a life time he would never be able to save enough money to move to Earth if he quit.
Heading home, Tom sat down next to Mandy on the transport. She smiled at him as if to say, seeing you makes the day a little more bearable. Tom glanced at her long black hair. He wished he could run his fingers through it. He said hello with little emotion. Trying to get the grav on-line had drained him, but the fax had ruined his day.
She always got to the transport first It was her nature. She made a point of being first in everything she did. Tom admired her for that.
The transport quickly put itself in between domes. The power facility was far behind them. Transparent side walls of the transport displayed the rugged landscape of New Phoenix that had been smoothed out by man. The only breaks in the surface of this man made planet were made by rover tracks and construction sites in the distance. It inspired him. This planet was a miracle of modern science. No government before A.S.A. had attempted to create new land, except maybe Holland, but that didn't count. Everyone has a print to leave on the universe, like Johnny Appleseed, we make everything we can influence more like we feel it should be.
"Let's get off at Galileo Park," Tom whispered to Mandy. She gave him a "I'm tired" look, but chimed "Sure."
Mandy and Tom walked down a path lined with blue spruce. Tom was allergic to their needles but that did not deter him from touching every branch that was within reach of the designated path. If only he and Mandy could lie there in the fresh cut grass and talk. But they didn't have the required permits, or enough money to afford the fine. When your on salary, there's no time-and-a-half. It all came back to money.
The night cycle began. The over head lights dimmed and switched off leaving only the knee high terrain lamps to guide them. Soon the lightning bugs were out. They blinked about the path. Tom tried to follow them with his eyes between blinks, but he could not. The fireflies would always dart a different direction after blinking.
One blinked in front of Tom's face, startling him. Mandy smiled, silently. The blinking bug flew off.
"I wish that I could move back to Earth. It just cost's so much and immigration laws are so stiff," Tom thought out loud.
"You're not the only one," she said. "I've never even seen an open sky. Your not alone up here. But anyway, they need people with your background on Earth. You wouldn't have any trouble getting through immigration, and you could make a lot of money on Earth."
"Yeah, but I can't just catch a transport. I would have to pay for a seat on a shuttle and pay for the six month's quarantine."
"You could apply with an Earth based company if this one doesn't take you there, then that company would pay for it."
"That's a thought." Continuing, Tom added, "I wish I could see the fireflies on Earth. It's good that we have them here. Did you know that we're the only colony with fireflies?"
"No."
"Yup. Someone had them smuggled in. Earth isn't willing to give away it's wild life these days. There's too much to made off of Intellectual Patents."
"But they have so much."
"It's all patented and controlled."
"Earth types are snobs."
"Yup."
Soon they sauntered back to the transport, remembering each other fondly as they walked together.
***
The next year Tom took his magnetic lawn permit to Valentine Gardens on Mars. (Being Facility Manager has its advantages.) After Tom had put a hundred meters between himself and the path, Tom made sure he was out of sight. He knelt down behind some sumac and released the fireflies he had smuggled from New Phoenix.
"That should be enough to populate the area," Tom said to the sumac. A honey bee flew past. Tom knelt there taking deep breaths. His shirt was half untucked and now his pants were touched with grass stains.
The beetles slowly came out of artificial sleep and Tom made his way back to the designated path. Smiling, he tucked in his shirt and brushed off his pants. At least he wouldn't have to wait until he received a transfer to Earth to see those flickering bugs playing in the grass at night. After a couple of years working here, he might even have enough saved to buy passage back to Earth.