The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dope on Mars, by John Michael Sharkey

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Title: The Dope on Mars

Author: John Michael Sharkey

Illustrator: Wood

Release Date: October 8, 2008 [EBook #26843]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration]

THE DOPE
on Mars

By JACK SHARKEY

_Somebody had to get the human
angle on this trip ... but what
was humane about sending me?_

Illustrated by WOOD

My agent was the one who got me the job of going along to write up the
first trip to Mars. He was always getting me things like
that--appearances on TV shows, or mentions in writers' magazines. If he
didn't sell much of my stuff, at least he sold _me_.

"It'll be the biggest break a writer ever got," he told me, two days
before blastoff. "Oh, sure there'll be scientific reports on the trip,
but the public doesn't want them; they want the _human_ slant on
things."

"But, Louie," I said weakly, "I'll probably be locked up for the whole
trip. If there are fights or accidents, they won't tell _me_ about
them."

"Nonsense," said Louie, sipping carefully at a paper cup of scalding
coffee. "It'll be just like the public going along vicariously. They'll
_identify_ with you."

"But, Louie," I said, wiping the dampness from my palms on the knees of
my trousers as I sat there, "how'll I go about it? A story? An article?
A _you-are-there_ type of report? What?"

Louie shrugged. "So keep a diary. It'll be more intimate, like."

"But what if nothing happens?" I insisted hopelessly.

Louie smiled. "So you fake it."

I got up from the chair in his office and stepped to the door. "That's
dishonest," I pointed out.

"Creative is the word," Louie said.

So I went on the first trip to Mars. And I kept a diary. This is it. And
it is honest. Honest it is.

* * * * *

_October 1, 1960_

They picked the launching date from