The Sunborn Read Online Free PDF Page B

They said they could study any Mars Effect on their own, thank you. The Consortium stalled only a bit. The Med Study Team went back to Earth on the next boost, and she had never been so glad to see the back of anyone in her life.
    The Mars Effect talk had surfaced repeatedly after that. True enough, the physical exams showed that she and Viktor were not losing their resilience. The aging Earthside population in the advanced nations had driven a huge industry devoted to prolonging life spans, and their diagnostics now had great predictive value. The battery of tests could warn aging managers when to retire, how to optimize their remaining years, even what genetic markers foretold about their probable death modes.
    So the “Mars Effect” had emerged as she and Viktor stood up well in the tests, capturing yet more media attention. Axelrod had seen a profit awaiting and began his orbital retirement resorts. After all, the man had built himself into a multi-billionaire from media empires and real estate. Without him the first Mars expedition would probably never have happened. After NASA’s big blowup on the Canaveral pad Axelrod had seen opportunity where others saw only disaster. He had put together the bones of the Consortium, coaxed money from dozens of lesser billionaires, and used leverage in the U.S. Senate to make NASA sell off their useless surplus—since, as everyone knew, NASA wasn’t going to Mars, anyway.
    For such a man, setting the orbital health resorts’ centrifugal gravity exactly at 0.38 g, plus advertising them with vids of Julia and Viktor bounding in joyous, long steps over the Martian plains—well, that was just marketing. It settled the Mars Effect into the collective mind. She almost regretted making those videos. Almost; it had been great fun, especially in their first mad romps without suits inside the first areodomes.
    “The Mars Sat is the most profitable sector of all Mr. Axelrod’s innovations,” Praknor recited. “Further tests would strengthen our advertising campaign even more.”
    “So how many rich folks bolshoi retreats has he now in Earth orbit?” Viktor asked mildly. He tried to be blissfully uninformed of matters commercial.
    “Seven. I am here to increase that number by nailing down the physiological studies, and…”
    She had caught Viktor’s wary look, eyelids lowering. “And to ask if you would be a…donor.”
    There was a long hush in the small conference room. “Of?” Julia asked into the silence.
    “Mr. Axelrod ordered a market survey for new Mars products. The number one item, wildly popular in trials, was…sperm donation.”
    Julia and Viktor blinked together. At last Viktor said, “From? For?”
    “We’ve had some offers from the, uh, Founder’s Movement.”
    Julia could not suppress her laugh any longer. It came rolling out in her old brassy Aussie style, a roaring bark that rattled the room and only ebbed into a cackle as her air ran out. “That’s the lot that want ‘genes from the best and brightest,’ right?”
    “Yes.” Praknor apparently did not think this was amusing, because, of course, it did involve money.
    Julia said, “And Viktor’s gotten some offers?”
    Praknor said, “Indeed. Some as high as $50 million.”
    “Does that include cost of shipping?”
    Praknor did not get it. “Yes. Frozen—”
    Viktor joined Julia in gasping, thigh-slapping glee. Praknor sat there staring at them until it wound down. “It is a serious offer.”
    Viktor made a solemn face and asked, “How is sample to be got?”
    “I’m sure you know,” Praknor said stiffly.
    “And you are sent to gather it?” Viktor asked innocently.
    Praknor’s mouth took on a stern curl. “If you’re not going to take this seriously…”
    “Should we?” Julia shot back. “This man—to whom I happen to be married, I might note in passing—has spent over twenty years in a high-radiation environment, in stressful conditions, and is well past reproductive