Future Broken

  EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ®

  www.evernightpublishing.com

  Copyright© 2019 Jacey Holbrand and Elizabeth Monvey

  ISBN: 978-1-77339-998-0

  Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

  Editor: Karyn White

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  DEDICATION

  Thanks to my writing partner, Jacey, for being a wonderful and understanding friend. ~ Elizabeth

  To my friend and writing partner, Elizabeth—It’s been such a blast creating the Project Mars world and writing with you! I’m looking forward to our continuing collaboration on this series. Thanks for being an amazing friend! ~ Jacey

  FUTURE, BROKEN

  Project Mars, 1

  Jacey Holbrand and Elizabeth Monvey

  Copyright © 2019

  Chapter One

  “Sources have informed Channel Three Eleven that a band of resistance fighters have been captured in Riverside. It is believed the New Force Order Police was behind the apprehension of the fugitives…”

  Wearing a remote-control glove, Nate Stockton waved his hand to activate the hand unit, then pointed a finger at the picture-in-picture feature on the wall screen. The female anchor disappeared, leaving only a picturesque landscape—a lake reflecting a distant mountain and a forest surrounding the water—on the whole viewing wall.

  He wondered if people ever had such beautiful views from their homes or if pristine outdoor scenes still existed. But the thought disappeared as quickly as it came. It didn’t pay to dwell on “what was” or “could be” when the population currently lived in a juxtaposed, dystopian society of lowlife and high tech.

  As he swept his hand again, the screen split into quadrants. He brought his thumb and forefinger together while pointing at each square to mute all of them. Nate tuned each section to a different news program.

  Two showed a small group of men being led into a courthouse by other men dressed in New Force Order Police uniforms. The bottom of the images read, Breaking News. Riverside, Cali. He didn’t care about the resistance at the moment and glanced at the other two blocks. They showed women, babies, and Sector fertility clinics. Earth’s reproduction issues weren’t on his mind either.

  He wanted information about Project Mars, specifically the Project Mars Lottery. There had been rumors going around about lottery opportunities expanding to more cities, and he hoped to learn if the whispers were true. Otherwise, he’d have turned on a movie or changed the mountain image to a red desert and pretended he was somewhere else.

  Like Mars.

  Nate sank onto a lumpy, well-worn leather sofa he and his roommates had commandeered a few months ago from a curb outside a biodome surrounding one of the swanky master-planned communities in Las Vegas, Nevada. Another mismatched piece of furniture, a beat-up sleeper sofa covered in a patchwork quilt type cloth, sat at a right angle. The L-shaped set up made the narrow living room seem even smaller in the cramped apartment, but with four men sharing the residence, they needed some place to sit.

  Space being at a premium, they could only afford a tiny, interior domicile in the crowded city, and if it weren’t for the viewing screen display, they’d have nothing to look at except for white walls.

  Nate picked up a glass of synth-beer from beside a bowl of processed, pressed together potato flake rounds on the seen-better-days coffee table, took a swig of the tangy drink, and then munched on some chips as he monitored the different programs flashing in front of him. He swiped his hand through the air again, flipping to different news channels.

  All the news seemed to depict anymore was the horrible state of the world. Occasionally, there’d be announcements pertaining to something good—help for the poor or measures being taken to deep clean one of the mega-cities. But considering how many needy people there were and how polluted the cities had become, those messages were far and few between. Sometimes there happened to be news about Project Mars, but not a lot or often enough. It puzzled him why the news reports didn’t focus more on the work happening on the other planet—the colonization, the terraforming, the trips back and forth. In his opinion, the only time people heard about the red world was when something happened with the lottery—a game allowing a person a chance to go to Mars. Why did everything else pertaining to Project Mars seem hush-hush?

  One day he’d love to receive an answer to the question.

  As it was, the twenty-four hour, seven days a week news programs focused on Earth’s declining population, the resistance, and the destruction happening around them. The same news they’d been talking about for years. People rising up against the politicians. Infertility plaguing women stemming from the government’s attempt at controlling women’s health in the twenty-first century. Dust storms in the mid- and southwest areas, surpassing those of the 1930s, damaging the ecology and agriculture of North America. Earthquakes occurring along the previous big quake graveyard of the west coast and in areas never known to have them before. Volcanoes, both active and long dormant, blowing now and then. Huge storms and melting ice at the poles persisting in flooding coastlines around the globe.

  Starting well over a century ago, scientists had warned politicians about the decline of the Earth, but by the time the smart people overthrew the government, it was too late. The catastrophes were well underway, which led to the downfall of everything else.

  Good thing the smarties had started humanity’s expansion to Mars before the shit really hit the fan.

  In the upper right corner, a picture of a red sphere caught Nate’s eye. He brought the image forward, making the other three vanish, and unmuted the display.

  “…on the Scientific Community of Terrestrial Relief’s Project Mars Lottery when we come back from break.”

  “Hey, guys,” he called out to his roommates. “I think there’s going to be an update about Sector’s lottery. You’ll probably want to hear this.”

  Nate’s husband, Grover Silas Ranger, entered the living room first. Nate’s breath caught in his throat. Even after being together for almost a decade, Ranger could still make his heart beat fast and his cock stand at attention within seconds. His man, who had seven years on him, had been good-looking when they’d first met at the gym Ranger once owned, but at thirty-eight Ranger had grown more handsome. The faint lines around his steely gray eyes and light touches of gray in his black, buzz-cut hair gave him a distinguished yet rugged appearance. It also didn’t hurt he kept his body in fine shape, both inside and out because of his work with the city. But looks aside, Ranger had a heart of gold and a sharp mind as well. In Nate’s opinion, his husband happened to be the full package, and he loved him.

  The tall man, who sported a lean but very muscular and toned body, didn’t sit. Instead, Ranger leaned up against the wall with a huff, and before Nate could comment on his husband’s mood, or Ranger could make a remark about Mars, their other two roommates came out from their bedroom.

  Ben came into the room and sat on the quilted sofa. Nate smiled at his cousin, whom most people mistook for Nate’s brother due to their similar brown hair, blue eyes, and swimmer’s build body structure.

  “I think they’re going announce how the Project Mars Lottery is opening up to the rest of the country,” Nate said. “At least it’s the rumor I’ve been hearing.”

  Ranger
released another heavy breath. “I don’t understand how anyone would want to risk their lives traveling and living on another planet. Especially one as inhospitable as Mars.” He crossed his meaty arms over his mid-section.

  Dain, Ben’s black-haired husband, joined Ben on the couch and regarded Ben with a pair of gorgeous brown eyes. If Nate hadn’t known better, he would have thought Dain and Ranger were relatives due to their similar coloring, muscular bodies, and height.

  Nate took another swig of beer, mostly to give himself a beat before replying to his husband. He didn’t want to sound aggressive. “It’s much more hospitable now than it used to be. Imagine how it was when my ancestors went in the twenty-thirties and twenty-forties during the creation of the first settlement. Nothing existed for them but what had been dropped by cargo vessels. They had to put together habitats and start digging underground. It became better by the twenty-eighties and twenty-nineties with the Noah Project, when other family members went there to set up the zoos and farm habitats. Oh, and let’s not forget regular people have been living in the main colony, Dome City, since twenty-one hundred. With continuing terraforming, it’ll be even more accommodating for humans.”

  Ranger regarded Nate with a stern look and ran a hand first over his hair then his stubbled chin. “I know you’re jonesing to go. You’ve told me how much you want to see the planet, to follow in your ancestors’ footsteps. I love you, Nate. I’d follow you almost anywhere, but not there. You know I want to keep my feet firmly planted here on Earth.”

  Not wanting to revisit a discussion that’d been happening on and off for ages and usually led to a fight, Nate didn’t reply. He turned and refocused on the display. He’d go back to beating that particular horse’s carcass later when he and Ranger were alone.

  “I’m with you, Ranger,” Dain stated. “My uncle died trying to get to Mars. My father never got over losing his younger brother.”

  Ben snuggled up against Dain. “I’m sorry about your family, but those propulsion problems have been fixed. Can you imagine relying on each other in a brave new world? Imagine how close couples and family could get in that kind of situation.”

  Nate had never really believed in love at first sight. Hell, it’d taken him and Ranger five years of dating before they’d decided to put rings on each other. But after seeing how hard and fast Ben and Dain fell for each other, Nate understood how insta-love could be possible.

  Ranger joined Nate on the new-to-them couch. “Shit, you could do that here. Go live on one of those condo cruise ships. You’d be stuck together in a domicile on a ship for long stretches of time, traveling to different places, but wouldn’t have to leave the planet.”

  Dain chuckled. “And run the risk of being capsized by a rogue wave or one of those intense tsunamis from a quake? I’d heard on the news the other day the MS Tradewind was hit by one. Some rich guy my boss knows almost bought an apartment on the ship. People think living on land is bad? Doesn’t seem much better on the water.”

  As the men chattered, Nate listened. He wanted to pick up clues on how he might be able to sway Dain and Ranger’s opinions about going to Mars. He’d always had a fascination with the red planet, and as Ranger had said, he wanted to travel in his ancestors’ footsteps and help with the colonization process, make a difference toward humanity’s future. Nate also silently agreed with Ben. He thought it’d be exciting to travel with his love to the new world, go through life changing events together, and grow as a couple there.

  Granted, buying an entry into the Project Mars Lottery and having one’s number drawn didn’t guarantee a person’s place on one of the six ships making the repeat journeys between Earth, the Moon, and Mars. If a person’s number was drawn, they still had to go through a few exams and some training before they stepped foot onto a space vessel. Why Ranger had to be obstinate about the matter bothered him. The chances of any of them going to Mars were slim to none. Couldn’t Ranger for once be interested in something he wanted to do even if said activity was a long shot?

  “Well … we might find out,” Ben stated, tossing a quick look at Dain.

  Everyone’s attention shot to Ben.

  “What did you do?” Dain asked.

  “Last year, when you and I met, when I was on vacation with Marcus—”

  Dain snorted, interrupting Ben. “That dude with an endless bank account.”

  “Yes. Marcus had some money, but that doesn’t matter. Anyway,” Ben looked over at Nate and Ranger, “we were in south Florida. Since they were one of the three places hosting the lottery, I thought what the hell. Let’s get in on the action. So, we went to one of the participating pharmacies, got our blood drawn, numbers assigned, and chips installed.” Ben rubbed the inside of his arm a couple inches from his wrist, looking back at Dain. “Marcus bought him and me a year’s supply of entries. I didn’t know I’d meet you, dump him, fall in love, and get married.”

  “But if your number gets picked and you pass the exams, you’ll go to Mars. What about me?” Dain asked.

  Ben picked up Dain’s hand and intertwined their fingers. “The odds of my number coming up are astronomical. One in several million. I don’t think we have to worry. But if my number does get called, you’d come with me because we’re family.”

  “That’s no guarantee, and you know it, Ben! We haven’t even discussed this. What if I don’t want to go? Like Ranger?”

  “Truthfully, I hadn’t given my entries much thought until just now, and I only have a few left.” Ben glanced at Nate and Ranger again, then focused back on Dain. “This planet is dying. We all know that. It makes sense to try to find a better life, right?”

  Dain broke their linked hands. “Damn it, Ben, you should’ve told me before. What other secrets are you hiding?”

  “None,” Ben said defensively. “Just forget it, all right? I didn’t know it would bother you this much.”

  “Forget it? What if your number is picked?”

  “Like I said, the odds are against me.”

  Nate mentally shook his head. Ben was right. The odds were crazy. He could have sworn he’d heard in the Floridian mega-city alone the chances of a man winning were around one in fourteen million for each drawing, and the drawings happened once a week. When the lottery became available in more places, the chances to win a trip would become even fewer. Regardless of the odds, when the lottery became available nearby, maybe he would take a page out of Ben’s book and say, “What the hell?” He’d buy an entry and hope for the best when it came to Ranger.

  Finally, after several minutes of advertisements and a lengthy reminder about water conservation, an announcer led viewers back into the news program.

  The men quieted down, directing their gazes to the viewing wall. A picture of Mars appeared behind two smiling news anchors. How those people always kept a positive appearance while doling out the negative reports amazed Nate.

  “Tonight,” the blonde female anchor started, “we’re pleased to announce the Scientific Community of Terrestrial Relief, also known as SCTR or Sector, has set up locations throughout the entire country for people to enter the Project Mars Lottery. Select pharmacies in all major cities in every state will begin sales in one week. The national drawing will be on Wednesday the following week at two hundred hours Zulu time. If you have entries from those locations already selling lottery chances, they will be integrated into the national drawing. You will not need to do anything. You will be notified from the information found in your DNA chip file via electronic post if you are in the group waiting for the national drawing.”

  “The process for purchasing entries,” the blond-haired male anchor chimed in, “will remain the same, as will the cost for each entry. Your designation for the blue or red drawing will be based off your biological classification at birth. For first time purchases, at participating pharmacies, you’ll complete an information form, give a DNA sample, then be assigned a permanent lottery number. A microchip containing all those pertinent details will be inserted
in your arm. This will be scanned each time you buy an entry into the lottery. Chips will reset and clear the entry for that week after each drawing. To take part in the next drawing, you will need to purchase another entry.”

  The rest of what the anchors blathered on about faded in Nate’s mind as his thoughts raced.

  Should I buy an entry and face Ranger’s wrath? I hate it when we fight, though. But then again, he doesn’t have to know. And, the odds are crazy. It’s not like I’m going to win. So, what’d be the harm?

  He glanced at the handsome man he’d promised to always be beside in their wedding vows yet thought about the lifelong dream he’d had of living and working on Mars.

  Yep, I’m going to do it. I’m going to buy an entry. Should I win, I’ll worry about the consequences then.

  Chapter Two

  The moment the news program went on break, Ranger thrust himself from the couch and left the living area. With only three places he could retreat to—the kitchen, the bathroom, or the bedroom—he chose the last and went to have a moment to himself.

  Inside the once large room they’d divided into two when Ben and Dain needed a place to live, Ranger looked at one wall, then another, then a third. He wanted to punch something, release his frustration. He didn’t want him and Nate to end up verbally sparring again. But the last time he’d hit something other than a person, he broke his hand. He couldn’t afford a medical visit again. For one, he couldn’t have unpaid time from work. They also didn’t have any extra Earth Currency Units available in their accounts to pay for an emergency.

  Which is all my fault.

  But the tension between us over this Mars shit? It’s not all me.