Is There Life on Mars? INTERPLANETARY PODCAST: Recent Episodes
Kyle O Street
Science Fiction / Memoir / Satire/ Comedy
An Earthling’s story of living on Mars, told through collected journal entries and transmissions back to Earth. Follow the tale of Klay Lane as he pursues the Martian Dream, battles the challenges of our technological society, and desperately avoids another potentially boring evening on the world of opportunity. Revel in his adventure, marvel in his mischief, and maybe learn a lesson or two to help you survive the modern wasteland.
Is There Life on Mars? By Kyle O Street is a Science Fiction themed satire of the American Dream, California, and the social struggles of a world becoming more futuristic each day. Taking place on the planet Mars, it chronicles the life of the author during his search for fame and fortune in the land of dreams, and the odyssey that ensued in their pursuit. Is There Life on Mars? is a modern epic for a generation losing itself to vanity, greed and consumerism which could benefit from a critical examination of what makes us believe we are different and what it means to be human.
"...So, two years too late, I’m folding my hand and cutting my losses. I always said I’d see the rest of Mars before I left it, but it doesn’t look like that’s even in the cards. I don’t think there’s any chance I’ll take a trip up the coast to see the more astro cities along the way to the cold north. It’s not likely that I could even scrounge up enough credits to go on a trip south, across the boarder, even if I had time to brush up on my Martian. It doesn’t even look like I’ll even get another oportunity to head into the city and see all the lights and sights of Novus Angelicas...."
"...“Heading back in to Earth. I’ve already got arrangements for my stuff to be shipped back in a container, and I just have to end up at my old unit before it arrives; in about 2 weeks. But I think I’m going to be staying on Luna for a few days of the trip. I’m not sure where yet, but I’ve never been to Le Pratus, I liked Crater when Brick and I saw it, and I can’t help but hear great things about Tycho; also I know people who will be in all of those places, and I should be able to couch surf the moon to make it cheaper,” I explained to them. Dannae seemed attentive, obviously bitten by the travel bug, and Brick spending as much time looking up as staring down at his fancy Droid...."
"...There are so many planets I’d dreamt about visiting for ages and moons I just knew I’d have to inhabit in order to gain some important life perspective. The Solar System is so grand and rich with experience. If I really had the means to travel to any world why would I ever come back to Mars? I might not ever want to. The only thing that’s going to bring my back to this crazy crimson place is a great-paying job or the availability of a career that will enable me to travel the worlds. If I come back my intentions is still to get as far away as I can. But does that have to mean I hate it?..."
"...I’ve become so accustomed to the lifestyle here; waking up late enough to see the working day has passed in the rest of Sol. Mostly due to the convenience of so many late-night eateries and bars that kept me awake long into the morning. I’ve gotten spoiled by the ability to taste anything or feel an experience I could possibly desire, often with a choice between many different flavors and varieties of each, available at any time with little to reasonable effort. I’m a bit addicted to be riding the crest of the biggest, new wave and being ahead of technology and fashion compared to my friends on other planets, and that I don’t even have to be at the Martian pinnacle to feel decades ahead of some worlds. Though I realize they’re things I really don’t think I need, I’m afraid I’m going to feel withdrawals from any that I’m not able to find a viable substitutes on Earth...."
"...It seems like it would make the entire service and hospitality industry more polite and effective if consumers played a larger role in feedback and review of the services provided, but the only ones seeming to take advantage of it are people with smartcomms to help them report about their experience. If I were a food critic or working as a secret shopper I would have to avoid flashing about fancy gadgetry (like this) to test the establishment and make sure they weren’t just playing up for the media, and actually ensure the same amount of satisfaction to all customers, not just the ones they expect to spend and tip more. I should put Nomi away, though; I’m about to order my food, and I know I’d find it rude if I was trying to help a customer too involved in using their comm...."
"...There are going to be some drawbacks to owning a pocket-bot, of course. Data and service plans are going to be expensive, but maybe I’ll be able to cut back on calls and messaging with the net at my disposal anywhere I go. I’m sure It’s going to be awkward becoming adjusted to always being connected to my social networks constantly or always having my actions and thoughts being monitored by my machine, but after a short while the strangeness of never being alone will fade—like I’m sure it has in anyone else living their lives entirely synced. Of course I worry about what would happen if my mechanical buddy became damaged or lost, and about being hacked and having my private information or the Droid itself used against me...."
"...No, I don’t think I can afford a machine so intelligent that it knows how to charge itself or contact emergency services automatically if something happened to me; nor would I need a clunky datebook with a comm attached to a modular bay. But I do need a handheld device that projects a semi-three-dimensional laser holograph screen upon the thin of air. I know, that’s so 2307, but it’s taken this long for that ability to become affordable to someone like me. This might be one the most technologically advanced time’s our race has ever seen, but only to those who have enough credits to be riding the cutting edge. I’m just catching a little wave here, it’s not like I’m going to go on a full tech-overhaul here. Only the bits I’ve needed to replace...."
"...Even people are ultimately expendable, and I don’t just mean soldiers and henchmen, though I can’t think of anyone who better fits the bill of dispensable workforce. Employers are always willing to hire on anyone whom they can effortlessly fire when they’re no longer needed. In fact, if you’re getting yourself into a job that pays really well, you’d better expect your boss does not want you to be having to do it for very long. Any job paying a wage of over $15 an hour at entry level without a degree probably won’t last you longer than a month or two. If it’s a job with slaggy pay, they’re going to incentivize you into working for them longer in order to attain raises and promotions...."
"...Especially with the champaign being smashed on Caspian’s new project; a repurposing of land to build a ‘Great Park’. It will include sports fields and parks, and hiking trails through a picturesque, artificial canyon and botanical gardens, a museum, a library and a veteran’s memorial, a giant, communal social-terrace dotted with cafes and restaurants for visitors and locals. It will also include a thousand acre farm to help produce food for the eateries and grocers there and in the surrounding areas, with a very large portion set aside to be of a wildlife area, reintroduced into an important Olympus County watershed, as well as a few pockets of housing communities to flush with the surrounding colonies. And best of all, the infrastructures already laid out because it will be located on the waste yard of the decommissioned Il Tor station..."
"...When I aimed my texti to the left of where I was headed, a large blurb showed up on the first community outside the boundaries of university grounds, which confirmed a few things. It said that after his part in the construction of UMC, the grand designer of The Caspian Company collaborated with the school’s staff to produce the Caspian Colony Master Plan. It laid out what to do with the rest of Gams’ colony, and helped to develop whatever land the company owned into the cities of Caspian, Nuport Beach, Nuport Coast and Rustin. Until 40 years ago, none of this coastline habitation really existed. The Real OC isn’t on the south coast at all..."