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vague sense of inadequacy—that uncomfortable, unsure feeling—that Alex’s response to my assumptions had brought on before.
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    Alex told me that he had come to Earth for a year of graduate work, and that he had just received his master’s degree in business administration from the University of California. The Colonies, I learned, had a greater shortage of administrators than of scientists. He talked quite a bit about Mars, and it wasn’t until afterward that I recognized any pattern in the way he described it.
    â€œMy folks were among the original settlers,” he explained. “My dad works for TPC, which is why I could afford the trip to Earth; they discount fares for employees’ families on top of the student rate. I’m taking a job with them myself for the time being, though someday I want to start a business of my own.”
    I wondered what sort of business, and why he thought that Mars would be a good place for it, but I didn’t like to ask him. Alex went on, “Mom’s a medical technician at St. John’s Center.”
    â€œHave you any other relatives on Mars?”
    â€œI’ve a sister, Alicia, who’s thirteen. Then there’s my cousin Paul and his family. Paul is a minister.”
    I don’t know why that surprised me. Naturally there are churches in the Colonies just like anywhere else, but somehow you don’t think of a minister as being interested in going to Mars. I found out that Paul had been born in New Terra, the same as Alex, and that his father had been one of the chaplains for the first little group of colonists and had helped to lay out the city.
    â€œPaul’s wife Kathy teaches in the West Dome elementary school,” Alex said. “She and Paul already have three kids, and they’re planning on five.”
    â€œ Five children?”
    â€œYes, that’s one of the advantages that draws homesteaders, you know—no population tax like Earth’s. In the Colonies it’s the other way around; Mars wants more people, so couples who want large families can have them.”
    â€œWhat are some of the other advantages?” I inquired. I wasn’t just making conversation, because I really wanted to know; it didn’t seem as if there could be very many.
    From the way Alex went on, however, Mars might as well have been the Promised Land. He mentioned a whole list of things, and what it boiled down to was Opportunity: not only the homesteaders’ rights sort of opportunity, but the opportunity to build something, which maybe you don’t find too often on Earth anymore. I didn’t have any real conception then of what he was trying to say; I remember, though, how happy he looked when he spoke of it.
    Alex also told me a lot about the Susan Constant, which he’d traveled in before. “The Susie ’s not luxurious,” he admitted. “A trip in her’s not much like what I’ve heard of ocean cruises. She’s an old ship, after all; she carried the first load of colonists, which is why we Martians have a special affection for her. On the whole she’s comfortable enough. Some things will take getting used to, for you. Like water rationing.”
    I realized just in time that he must have grown up with water rationing and avoided stumbling into a remark that would make me feel foolish again. “Who was she named after?” I asked. “The Susan Constant, I mean.”
    â€œNot a ‘who’—a ship from ancient history. One of the ones that founded the first permanent Virginia colony, in 1607.”
    â€œDid you study much history?”
    â€œQuite a bit. Mostly on the side; I didn’t have much time in college with my course load in business management, but I wanted to take advantage of the university library on Earth while I had it.”
    â€œI’m going to major in history,” I told him.
    â€œThen we have an interest in