Lisbet’s first impression of Vantz had been good. Actually, he had blown her mind apart. He reminded her of guys she knew in university who were too busy working on their papers and projects to be interested in romance. Except, he was better. If he had chubby cheeks, he hid it. If he weighed as much as an obese walrus, he hid it. Whatever was wrong with him physically, he made sure no one saw it. 

Maybe there was nothing wrong. Maybe he was just trying to evade assassination. 

He talked to her more, heightening the intrigue about who he was and what he was doing, but he also gave Lisbet papers he had written about Mars and how it had to be transformed. 

Lisbet was very impressed. Everything he wrote roped her in when she read it. She told herself she wasn’t in love with him. She told herself she had never been in love with anyone, but the tingling sensation she got when he spoke to her grew.

She wasn’t in love. She was interested—piqued.

Later, when she was out of her meeting with Vantz, she tried to choose an avatar with Charcoal and it turned out to be a frustrating experience.

“I don’t like any of these body types. None of them feel like me,” Lisbet exclaimed in frustration over the choices Charcoal brought up on the screen. 

“So none of the digital renderings of women have as beautiful a body as you. How tough,” Charcoal remarked sardonically.

Lisbet felt like clocking her. She didn’t match the ready-made body parts because Lisbet felt she was too far from the ideal. She didn’t want to do what Vantz was doing, having a ghost avatar on VR that did not resemble his body. She wanted something that represented what she was really like so he could see her.

However, Lisbet didn’t want to explain all that to Charcoal. She was really starting to get the feeling that Charcoal didn’t like her, which was terrible because Lisbet only knew three people in person on the whole planet. Sadly, she was fairly certain that knowing the photographer who took her wedding photos didn’t count for much. That left Charcoal and Beck.

Not only that, but the photographer had been a professional who knew his work well. When he showed Lisbet the photos, he had made her look like someone who was already in a history book with the pinkish light of Mars illuminating only half her face. At least, his work was such that Lisbet didn’t feel crushed that Vantz, and the rest of Mars, would see her ugly side.

“How do I get a rendering of my own body then?” Lisbet asked. “There’s got to be a way.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Charcoal answered, “There’s a way. You’ll need to get Beck to help you. I can’t do work that sophisticated and I really don’t have time to spare for something as pointless as what you look like in VR. It’s not like Vantz cares what you look like,” she huffed, turning off the screen they were working on and moving to grab her sweater and her bag. “If you don’t need me for anything important, I have other work to do.”

Lisbet rubbed her temples. Whatever was bothering Charcoal was out of Lisbet’s control. She had done nothing to antagonize the woman. The only thing that made sense to Lisbet was that Charcoal was jealous of her position. Perhaps she had even tried to convince Vantz to use her instead, but she had been overlooked in favor of Lisbet who could provide an excuse for the armada leaving Earth. It made sense if Charcoal was cranky about it since the reasoning had been so impersonal. Meaning, it wasn’t as though Vantz liked Lisbet more than Charcoal. It had been a business decision.

Lisbet scanned the woman and found the Sleeping Beauty Inc. brand bracelet around her wrist. 

“How long ago did Vantz buy you?” Lisbet asked with a drawl, hoping to get a deeper clue to the woman’s hostility.

“Vantz didn’t buy me,” she said coldly as she snapped her sweater around her body and fastened it with magnetic closures. “Please send me a message if you need anything in the future.”

She left the dressing room crossly.

Lisbet watched her go and thought that whatever pea was in her pudding, it was enormously unfair. If she left, she was basically putting Lisbet in solitary confinement. Lisbet’s meeting with the photographer had been a one-time thing. Beck was working on the floor above and Lisbet had yet to visit him. Vantz had told her that after their honeymoon, he wouldn’t have the time to spend to bring her up to speed all the time and that Beck would be her new professional contact. Basically, he would be her boss, while Vantz was her boss’s boss. 

Lisbet sat around and read the info packets Vantz had given her. He sent her information about the magnetic towers, but he also sent her information about the pleasure palaces. Lisbet read personal accounts of what had happened to survivors (always servants who escaped), but most of the time, the information was redacted. The big black rectangles over the text caused a chill up her back and made her afraid as she sat by herself in the skyscraper-like castle. She didn’t feel safe because Mars as a whole didn’t feel safe. Under the sand, people were trapped, tortured, and hopeless. When she reached her limits from reading the scientific papers and then from reading the court documents, she went through the automatic doors of her bedroom and took an escalator up to Beck’s workshop.

Any excuse would do. 

The avatar was the best excuse she had.

When she strolled up to the door, the doors opened automatically. The workshop was mostly screens displaying maps of Mars, maps of canals, maps of caverns, maps of cities, maps of mines, and more maps. Beck was in a cage in the corner with a VR helmet on his head. 

When Lisbet came in, he pulled the plug on what he was working on, disconnected his gloves, pulled off his helmet, and came forward. “Hello Miss Lisbet, is there anything I can do for you?”

“Uh… How are you? Am I interrupting?” she asked hesitantly.

Beck was wearing a white collared shirt with black trousers. He was thin in that way young men are thin, with the angles of his bones sticking out from under his shirt, especially at his shoulders and his elbows. His Adam's apple in his throat was enormous, like he hadn’t quite grown into his neck yet. Looking at the dark twists of his hair against his throat made her think he was beautiful like India and Italy had the most exquisite child together. 

The most notable thing about his appearance was a line of screens attached to his left arm. They were attached like watches on straps with the screens on the inner part of his arm. They took up all the available space from his elbow to his wrist. At his wrist, there was one more bracelet. It was dark gray but also had a little hint of pink to it. It was a Sleeping Beauty Inc. brand bracelet. Was he a slave too?

He pulled something from his shirt pocket and said, “It’s time for my cigarette break anyway.”

“You smoke?”

He nodded. “Not nicotine. It’s a doctor-prescribed anti-anxiety medication. It’s supposed to help me with my nerves.” The thing in his hand was a narrow tube that looked dark and metallic like tungsten. He flicked it strangely with his fingers by snapping it briefly in half before putting it in his mouth and inhaling sharply. When he exhaled, there was a strong scent of cinnamon. Cinnamon buns?

Now Lisbet desperately wanted cinnamon buns and she had already eaten all her allotted calories for the day. She swallowed and tried to stop her tongue from sweating. “I just got out of a meeting with Charcoal. Uh… she doesn’t like me very much.”

“That’s too bad,” he said, like whether or not that friendship worked out was on the very edge of his concern. 

“There’s no chance of getting a replacement?” she asked tentatively.

“You could take over some of her duties. She doesn’t do much for you anyway. She’s just supposed to take care of your clothes and arrange your medical assessments. You’re due to have your initial one soon. Once that’s taken care of, you’re unlikely to need much more from her.”

“But she was supposed to help me get a digital rendering of myself for my meetings with Vantz and she bugged out. She told me to come to you for help,” Lisbet said, trying to sound factual and not emotional.

She had been wondering what kind of tone she ought to take with Beck. She was definitely older than him. She was twenty-seven while he looked to be more like twenty on the nose. Flirting seemed out of the question, but how else could she get him to do what she wanted? Everyone always said you catch more flies with sugar than vinegar. She just had to take care not to add too much sugar.

He inhaled his cigarette again before blowing the smoke away from her. “You’re only going to have meetings with Vantz for two weeks, less than that now. After that, you’re unlikely to see him even in VR. We’re all very busy. Why is it important?”

“He’s my husband. I want him to see me for what I am,” she answered plainly.

Beck squinted, scrutinizing her face. “I’m not sure I understand. He knows what you look like. He’s seen you. It’s part of your job to take pictures of yourself for him. That’s what your camera mirror is intended for.”

“I know. I just want him to see me when we talk,” Lisbet said, feeling like she wasn’t adding anything new. She was just emphasizing how she felt.

Beck looked at her again. “I still don’t understand. I get that you want me to do a 3D rendering of your body, but… I don’t really have time and I don’t really get why I should do it at all. Vantz wouldn’t give me time off from my other duties to take care of that for you. And why should I give you my time off? Like everyone else, I need my rest.”

“So, you’re saying that you would do it if it was during your break and if I did something for you in return?”

He raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know what you could do for me in exchange.”

Lisbet knew what he meant immediately. Most of their needs were provided for. She couldn’t cook anything for him. They all had the same resources for food. All his needs were provided for. She couldn’t give him anything. He didn’t need anything.

“Listen, I don’t want you to do anything for me,” he said breezily, still smoking like a stovepipe. “I need you to give me a reason why you want me to do it.”

Lisbet frowned. What could she say? Only the truth. Even though they were on a planet with hundreds of thousands of people, they were also completely alone. “I like Vantz and I want him to like me. How can he like me if I look like a crash test dummy? Also, looking like a crash test dummy makes me feel expendable. I don’t like that. I know I didn’t come here with any grand ambition. It was just a financial exchange. I know that, but I still don’t like looking like something that is going to be crashed into a wall intentionally.”

Beck looked around uncomfortably. “We’re all going to be crashed into a wall intentionally. Didn’t Vantz explain? We’re going to set off so many bombs on the planet that everything here will be gone. The mines will collapse, the buildings will topple, and the magnetic towers will be swallowed during the earthquakes, but they’re designed to still give off their magnetic current even when underground. Everything that is here will be destroyed for the sake of giving Mars an atmosphere. That’s what we’re trying to do. Didn’t he explain that?”

Lisbet felt foolish. Of course, that was what Vantz told her. Of course, that was what was going to happen. “We’re not going to die, are we?” she asked, suddenly feeling fresh horror wash over her.

Beck grabbed her hand with his free one and pulled her toward him to stop her from reeling. “Of course, we’re not going to die,” he said sternly, turning his voice into an anchor. “Everyone is going to be evacuated—including you. You’re going to help with the evacuation process. Relax. No one will be left here who is willing to get aboard an escape pod. Okay? Are you steady now?”

She put her hand on the worktable beside her and tried to get a grip.

“Want a drag?” he said, offering her his cigarette. “It will relax you. That’s its job.”

“No… I… Why would you offer something like that to a stranger? How do you know what diseases I have?”

He huffed and took another puff on it himself. “I’ve seen your medical records. You have nothing. I may be a stranger to you, but you’re not a stranger to me. I helped Vantz choose you.”

“Oh,” she said, a little lost for words. “Would you like to have lunch with me sometime? You could tell me more about yourself so we’re not strangers anymore.”

He looked at her like she was more of an alien than he initially suspected. “I’ll do the digital rendering for you, but don’t get your hopes up so high that you expect it to be beautiful. The rendering is going to be quick and dirty. Go to your meeting with Vantz, put on something you like, and then come up here. The more form-fitting your clothes, the better.”

She thanked him. 

He turned off his cigarette and got back in his VR cage while she went back to her bedroom.