On August 14, AD 2159, the first manned expedition to Mars landed on the Martian surface. This took much longer than anticipated, as people had predicted reaching Mars "within fifty years" every year since Apollo XI landed on the moon. This expedition was Hermes V, launched by the United Nations Space Administration (UNSA). The astronauts emerged from the Martian module Aeneas amid a sea of little robots. Some were long dead, others were still moving about slowly, their solar energy cells immortal under the glare of the Martian Sun. By AD 2200, there was a terraforming crew on Mars, modifying the planet to make it "liveable" for humans. By 2250 a colony of Scientologists had set up camp on Mars. Hollywood suffered as a result. By 2261, a colony of people from overpopulated nations such as India and the Netherlands was established by the UN. In 2275, a station was established halfway between Earth and Mars for any travellers. Few did pass that way because going even to the Moon was horrifically expensive.
There had been some talk of Them. The Scientologists had seen Them and were promptly ignored. When things went wrong with the terraforming station the weather and climate were blamed. It most certainly was not sabotage by alien life forms. The very thought of life on Mars was preposterous. There was no sign of civilisation, for one thing! The scientists laughed hollow laughs. The Scientologists were wary. Nothing happened. Nothing, that is, until 2301 when Andrew Darnell (Andy Dandy) heard the voice of Jesus calling him from his comfortable home in Canada.

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