[ WP ] The Mars One project has advanced and our modern pioneers are now living on Mars .

24 hours... 
 
 24 hours was all that was left! The long months, days, hours of waiting would soon be over. 
 
 In 24 hours the ship would arrive. Another hour or so after that and the landers would touch down. Clyde had n't been this anxious or excited about anything in his entire life, at least as far back as he could remember. It was all he could think about. 
 
 He thought about it during his breakfast; oatmeal with a sprinkle of precious smuggled cinnamon and a piece of processed `` toast'' ( bread just does n't bake properly here! ) 
 
 He thought about it during his shift at the dome 3 hydroponic gardens, which he is the lead engineer of and *that's a pretty big accomplishment for a man his age if he does say so himself*. 
 
 He thought about it during dinner. He thought about it when trying, and failing, to fall asleep. Hell, he'd probably have *dreamed* about if he could have. 
 
 He must have finally dozed off at some point, because the next thing Clyde thought about was shutting off his alarm clock. 
 
 As the fuzziness of the recently awoken began to fade, he remembered. Today was the day! 
 
 Clyde had been on Mars for 21 months. 21 fucking months on this rock. Lonely. Desolate. It was about as much as a man could take! 
 
 To be fair, he was n't exactly miserable. Hell, he had signed up for this. Even if it was n't *just* as he had imagined it, it was still the adventure of a lifetime! Like everything in life, it had it's ups and it's downs. 
 
 He was n't alone. 62 people had departed on the initial colony ship. Of those, 59 were still alive. Acceptable losses some would say, but it still hurt Clyde to think back on those tragedies. Especially Dustin... Dustin was a good kid. 
 
 Still, even with the other colonists around, Clyde was lonely. He was n't alone in that either. 
 
 When the idea for the Mars One project had initially been conceived, the plan had called for sending married couples only on the journey. However, in testing, things had not gone so smoothly in that regard. 
 
 It had not been considered that when you screen applicants for intelligence and physical fitness as two of your top criteria, you end up with a group of fairly attractive people. 
 
 During more than 50 % of the close quarters isolation tests infidelity had proved a serious issue. It had formed rifts in the group dynamic in every event, and twice had caused physical violence. In one of those cases, one man suffered four lost teeth and a broken jaw before facility security could get in and break up the fight. 
 
 As a result it was determined that not only would sending couples be a bad idea, but that mixing the sexes at all in such a confined space for so long was an unacceptable risk. 
 
 So, they sent the men. 
 
 They needed a workforce to get things up and running. It was decided that a group of all males would be the best option as the first group of colonists. Is that sexist? Maybe, but that's of no concern to him. That's the decision that was made. 
 
 And so they went. 
 
 They came to this planet, this orange ball of a world. They collected the scattered construction machinery that had been sent prior to their arrival. They assembled the vehicles and got them running. They towed the pre-fab structures into place and fused them together. They moved from their temporary survival tents into their permanent homes. 
 
 They worked, and worked, and worked. They did what they must to get their home ready. They may have finished a month and a half later than expected, but hey, this was the first time anyone had attempted anything of this magnitude. Getting it done at all was a huge accomplishment. 
 
 In the here and now, most of the large jobs had been wrapped up 8 months ago. A few of the largest tasks carried over a month or so longer. After that, all that had been left was maintenance, upkeep, and long months of waiting for the next shipment of colonists and equipment to arrive so they could get to expanding their fledgling city. 
 
 Today that wait was over! 
 
 As Clyde put on his pressure suit and began to make his way to the landing area he noticed a few others heading in the same general direction, but other than that the passages were barren. Everyone was already at the airlock it seemed. 
 
 As he arrived in dome 1 Clyde could already hear the noise of the gathered crowd. The airlock bay had been cleared to make room for the landing craft. There would be four in total, each disengaging from the main body of the ship and each just the right size to fit through the large industrial airlock that until now had ever only been used to transfer surface vehicles inside when in need of repair. 
 
 Clyde could see that a handful of people had opted to stay inside and watch through the viewports, but the majority of the population was outside awaiting the first lander. He pulled his hood over his head and slid down the face mask. No way was he missing this. 
 
 The outer airlock door was already open, so he had to transition in one of the smaller side chambers. When he emerged on the other side he was greeted by the sight of the largest gathering of the crew since they landed here themselves so long ago. 
 
 It did n't take long before one, and then a few more, of the men at the front of the group started to wave their arms and point. There, on the horizon, was the small dot that was the first lander. As the rest of the group quickly picked up on this, the landing craft grew closer and larger. 
 
 It was here! They were here! Their wives had arrived! 
 
 The landing craft touched down and and the winch cables were attached. It was pulled into the airlock. It seemed as if it took a full hour for the large airlock to cycle, even though in reality it took all of 6 minutes. 
 
 Clyde could hardly contain himself as the craft was pulled into the bay. He did n't think he would be lucky enough to have his wife be part of the first group, but he'd be damned if he was n't going to be right there when she departed. He muscled his way to the front as best he could. 
 
 A few moments after the winches brought the craft to a halt the loading ramp at the rear of the vehicle began to lower. As the edge touched the ground, a suited figure emerged and removed his helmet. 
 
 His? 
 
 Clyde stood there a bit confused. As he began to recover from his shock, more new colonists came down the ramp and removed their headgear. More males. Clyde looked around the bay, and saw the same look of confusion on the faces of every veteran colonist. 
 
 Clyde broke from the pack and walked forward. The first man who had departed looked up with a smile and extended his hand. 
 
 `` Names Hank!'' the stranger greeted with a hint of a southern US accent. 
 
 Clyde was speechless. 
 
 `` You ok buddy?'' Hank asked. 
 
 Before Clyde could find words, someone from the crowd behind him piped up; `` Where are the women!?'' 
 
 `` Women?'' Now even Hank had that same confused look on his face. It was like a god damn confusion buffet. 
 
 `` Our wives.'' Clyde finally found his voice. `` Where are our wives? Did you fly out here with them?'' 
 
 The look on Hank's faced changed from confusion to one of understanding mixed with shock. `` You mean they did n't tell you!?'' He barked, then more to himself `` No, I guess they would n't'' 
 
 `` Tell us what?'' another of the crowd shouted. 
 
 `` Well shit, I'm sorry to be the one to tell y'all this but... Your wives are n't coming. Matter of fact, ai n't no women coming. Ever. Least not in your lifetime.'' 
 
 `` What!? What do you mean they are n't coming?'' 
 
 `` I mean just that. Man I ca n't believe they kept you guys in the dark on this, but I mean I guess it makes sense. They needed you to stay loyal, at least until we got here. Not that we're very loyal ourselves to be perfectly honest.'' Hank said with an apologetic look. `` Maybe they thought you would n't let us in or something, I do n't know.'' 
 
 `` I, I still do n't understand.'' Clyde managed. 
 
 `` Well buddy, a little over a year ago some smartass politician read some bullshit research paper that some cocksucker rich kid wrote at an ivy league school. He warned that once the women arrived, Mars could be self sufficient enough that it could break ties with the Earth and in as little as 2 or 3 generations we could see our first interplanetary war. If you ask me it all sounds like a whole bunch of bullshit, but people took it seriously. So it was decided that only men will be sent to Mars until such time that spaceflight is advanced enough to allow the earth to police us from home. No babies. We revolt, we eventually die off, they just keep sending more and more anyway. Until then, we just keep building. And we do n't got much choice. The people are gon na keep coming, and we'll run out of room if we do n't. We got ta keep the place running or we die. What can we do? We're all the way out here.'' 
 
 `` Then why, why would you even come?'' he begged of Hank. 
 
 `` Not much choice in the matter.'' Hank replied, `` Now that you science guys have the place up and running, mars is a life sentence.'' 
 
 With that he clapped Clyde on the shoulder, hefted his helmet, and said `` Well, I guess we better get to moving this stuff out of the way for the second lander. It ought to be here shortly.'' And left to do just that. 
 
 Clyde was left standing there speechless. He felt hollow. He looked down, Hank had left a folded piece of paper in Clyde's hand. He unfolded it and found a crudely drawn figure. It was Dickbutt. 
 
 THE END.
