It's been twenty-six years since the first starships left Earth for Mars. The Martian colonists now number close to a hundred thousand, with tens of thousands more on the way at each planetary conjunction.Life can be very pleasant in the tunnels and domes of Mars, and aboard the Starships that ferry the colonists there. But at times things go awry on the planet and in space, not only with technology, but also with the people.This, then, is a story about how the spacers meet-and sometimes beat-the challenges of interplanetary life.