David & Arianna

About the Book

By 2160, humans have lived through devastating catastrophes, and then slowly recovered from the threat of annihilation by their own hands. To relieve constant population problems, humans have colonized the Moon, Mars, Europa, and Ganymede with little relief. It has become painfully obvious that humans have outgrown their humble home.

As raw resources and the ability to produce food are quickly being depleted, human need continues to grow. Earth is once again faced with the overwhelming population pressures that catapulted mankind into devastating wars over food.

With new technological advancements, mankind can now look to the stars for new planets. The Galactic Exploration Project has sent ships to explore other star systems in search of new worlds for humans to colonize.

Banid is the first Earth-like planet humans discovered, it has all the right conditions needed for humans to survive. The Banid Colonization Project has spent ten years preparing Banid for human colonization. The Project is looking for a limited number of people to immigrate to Banid. Rather than overwhelm the planet, colonization will be done in stages. The first colonization ship will leave from Earth in January 2161 and the second ship will leave from Mars in March. Each ship will have a maximum of three thousand people willing to brave the rigors of trying to colonize a new world.

David Coleman is a geologist working for Consolidated System Mining Corporation of Mars. He is the twenty-two-year-old junior science officer on a mining survey ship. The company sends survey ships out for months at a time to scout the solar system for likely ore sites for the company to mine. Having any kind of a personal life is almost impossible. The attraction of a whole new planet and solar system to explore is just the kind of change David is looking for in what has become a stagnant life.

Arianna Walters, is a twenty-one-year-old financial advisor for Fidelity Trust of Mars. Sitting at a desk reviewing loan applications all day is tedious and boring. Arianna dreams of an active fulfilling life of adventure. The attraction of a whole new planet to explore is just the kind of change Arianna is looking for in what has become a stagnant life.

David and Arianna each look into applying for the colonization ship from Mars. The Project has set strict requirements that must be met in order for people to even be considered: applicants must be within a specified age range, they must have specific desirable professions, and they must be married . . . married?

About the Author

Born in Kansas, Lori spent ten years in Winslow, Arizona before moving to Phoenix at twelve, and has spent the last thirty years in Tempe, Arizona. Lori prefers to broil alive in the desert heat instead of shoveling snow. She has always been an avid reader, and has always loved creating stories and characters of her own. With the family grown up, she now has time to write. This is the first in a series of novels by Lori Gans.