The Replacement

By SF Lakin

Leticia, an ex-con transported to a Mars prison colony, must expand her Martian homestead’s air and food production in order to keep it; but when she rescues a spoiled heiress, Leticia must learn to lead without bullying or manipulating to keep them both alive and to keep her hard-won underground farm.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SF Lakin
• Release date: Dec 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463792773

SF Lakin

SF Lakin is a former aerospace and software engineer whose work has varied from teaching to medical data mining to development of rocket ships and ray guns. Seriously. Ms. Lakin is excited to be publishing fiction, a lifelong dream while figuring out why rocket engine parts break, dealing with students, and troubleshooting apps. She lives in Tarzana, California.

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The Replacement

a Prison: Mars short story

SF Lakin

Distributed by Smashwords

Copyright © 2019 SF Lakin

Ebook ISBN: 9780463792773

All rights reserved.

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THE REPLACEMENT

SWEATING INSIDE MY pressure suit, I placed one last rock on the shallow grave. Then I laser-burned in the details: Julio Manuel Martinez, April 17, 2029–November 5, 2054.

He’d left my underground farm’s pressure early to walk the power line and hadn’t come back. I’d followed in the rover and found him dead five klicks west. He’d have found the valve leak if the fool had run his checklist.

And it had been the first nice day in three weeks. No dust, not a breath of wind. I’d been looking forward to finishing chores early and getting some sleep. Now I was stuck west of Valles Marineris, forty klicks past any other homestead, with just myself to work the farm and face the Martian spring dust storms. I had a quota to meet by autumn—two person-years each