Credit: NASA

Bleak, isn't it."

Rachel glanced at Jason. "These colonists don't seem to think so."

"All colonists are crazy."

A blanket statement she had heard from the man before. "We aren't exactly bringing our creature comforts with us, Jason."

"But we aren't giving them up for the rest of our naturals."

Rachel stretched. "True. But I don't think this is a bleak planet. Stark is the word I'd choose."

"Same difference."

She elected not to try and explain. Instead, she stepped three steps from the landing craft, knelt and picked up a handful of the dry, sandy soil. It was a dry world, more water than Mars, but that was about all one could say for it. The sun was whiter than Sol and beat down mercilessly. As she stood up, three of the colonists approached, dressed in white robes like Arabs. Rachel had covered her own head. It was not ideology, it was a very simple, and practical, way of avoiding heat exhaustion in this climate.

"Welcome ... please, come inside." Two of the colonists were men, the third a woman, but only their faces told this, their robes shapeless. It was one of the men who spoke.

"Tatooine," Jason murmured.

"What?"

"Old movie reference. I didn't expect you to get it."

She shook her head. Jason was obsessed with movies from the 20th century, she supposed it referred to one of those.

Inside, the building was simply furnished and decorated. It was not a home but a sort of communal gathering area. "So," the man said as they sat down. "We want us to leave."

Rachel counted one, two, three. "The McRae Treaty specifies that if a solar system is occupied by an intelligent species, the resources of that system belong to that species."

"These Darters aren't even on this planet, they don't want or need it ... if they're even intelligent."

"How would you feel if the Ky'iin had casually colonised Mars?" He flinched. She'd read him right, then. This planet had a gravity almost identical to Mars. She suspected most of the colonists were Martians, denied access to more terrestrial worlds by their low gravity adaptation.