Ebook: Olympus Mons

An obscure medical researcher develops Bevvinase, the "miracle enzyme" capable of driving carbon dioxide-to oxygen conversion within the organism, a radical innovation that opens the hostile Martian environment to permanent colonization. Decades later, several hundred Burroughs Enclave denizens are teetering on the brink of becoming a "lost colony" when former intelligence officer and alpinist Jesperson, together with his work-partner Barnes, both deported felons, are among the few hundred "Marsrats" - Mars-rationalized, carbon-dioxide-breathing humans - living within the pressurized, roof-shielded crater housing Burroughs in proximity to the long shadow of the immense Olympus Mons shield volcano and its vast aqueduct system, the sole source of essential water. A minor eruption and ensuing quake causes unknown damage to the aqueduct system, and the flow of water abruptly ceases, while at the same time a brewing earthly economic crisis provides a reason for the enclave's former...