THE HYPERLOOP GATE warbled as Jas swiped her card and passed through. In some ways, returning to Mars was like stepping back into the past. Credchip technology hadn’t reached the colony. For Jas, this was fortunate as she no longer carried a credchip beneath the skin on the inside of her right wrist. A scar was all that remained from where an underworlder had forcibly removed it, but Phelan had supplied her with ample funds to preload onto a credcard.
The single-carriage hyperloop module arrived within a few minutes. Jas went aboard. She had her choice of the ten seats in the small, empty carriage. She sat down uneasily, wondering why there were no other passengers. Martian society shared many similarities with Earth’s. Weekday evenings were commuter time, and Jas had expected at least so
