Free The Martian Viking by Tim Sullivan

to pilot an Interplan ship, Felicia?"
    "I know how to fly a plane. It can't be much different than that, can it?"
    "Of course it can," Alderdice argued. "It can be a lot different. This is a huge cargo ship designed to go hundreds of millions of miles in space. It will be refueled on Mars, so there's the finite amount of fuel to consider."
    "If we turn it around in the next four months, we'll have enough fuel to make it home," Felicia said. "We should start planning now."
    "But Felicia," Johnsmith asked, "even if we got back to Earth, where would we land?"
    "Trust me. There are places that are friendly to revolutionists, even today."
    They discussed the matter for some time. Johnsmith didn't think there was any merit to the plan, but he enjoyed seeing Felicia enthused and animated. He wondered why she had become so bitter, what her life had been before she became, as she always put it, a "revolutionist."
    Alderdice, however, fell into a funk.
    "Is there something wrong, Al?" Johnsmith asked.
    "No, not really. It's just my conditioning. You know, my programmed cortical implant gets me really disturbed if I'm thinking about doing anything illegal."
    "Oh yeah . . .but didn't that stop you from using onees before? I mean, you're using them now, aren't you?"
    "Yes, but I know they aren't illegal in space. So it's not the programming that's changed, but my perception of the legality of onees."
    "Oh."
    "They've made you into a slave," Felicia said, shaking her dark hair from side to side. "I guess I shouldn't hold it against you, should I? I mean, you really can't help it, can you?"
    "I suppose not," Alderdice said, without a trace of sarcasm.
    "Well, maybe Johnsmith and I could manage to hijack the ship alone," Felicia said.
    "I'm afraid I'd have to try to stop you," Alderdice said. "Unfortunately."
    Felicia's eyes flashed angrily at him.
    "The implant, you know," Alderdice said.
    "Right." Felicia turned away and would say nothing more.
     
    Time passed with agonizing slowness.
     
    Seven months later, Mars was looming like a rusty disc on the monitor. They had made no attempt at hijacking the ship, and, since they would be landing in a matter of days, Johnsmith suspected that they never would. Johnsmith and Alderdice had continued their daily routine of sleeping, using onees, talking, and eating.
    The ship's captain, Hi Malker, would occasionally come back to see how they were doing. He was a good-natured guy from North Tel Aviv with an interest in sports.
    "Got a message that the Phillies lost to Osaka in the World Series," he would say. Or, "America has won the Americas Cup," or, "The championship fight is coming up in less than forty-eight hours." Of course, what he meant was that they would get the signal from Earth in less than forty-eight hours. By the time they saw it, the fight would have been over for quite some time already.
    "Captain Hi," Johnsmith said as they drifted over the main cargo hatch one day, "how did you ever get into a profession like this?"
    "There is no profession like this," Hi said earnestly. "It's a one-of-a-kind job, right, Prudy?" he called to his co-pilot, who nodded brusquely. "Piloting the really big ones out to Mars and the Belt. There's adventure, and the pay is good."
    It seemed more like boredom than adventure to Johnsmith, but he didn't want to disabuse Hi of his romantic fantasies. Hi was right about the pay, though, especially considering that it mounted up on the year and a half round trip from Mars to quite a sizable sum. Almost all of Johnsmith's money would go toward feeding and housing him, and to Ronindella back on Earth. At least he would be taking care of Smitty. All this was highly depressing to think about, though.
    "Will we be landing near the north or south pole?" Johnsmith asked, by way of changing the subject.
    "Oh, neither one," Hi said. "We're going to land on the Elysium plain."
    "Elysium?" Johnsmith wasn't even sure what part of the planet that was. "I didn't know there