That was the root of my scholarship to the Academy. The Academy had pretty much been founded as a place for government officials and GalaX execs here on Mars to send their kids to, since they’d sooner cut their own right arms off than see their precious snowflakes in a public school. But the Academy did recruit a few kids from the local middle schools every annum. They sought out students who not only had good grades, but who were gifted at something. Kids they knew, if they were given the opportunity, would grow up to be useful.

My usefulness was in my knack for language. I guess I could see why that stood out to them—all of Mars is kind of a mishmash of different Earth cultures, what with the simultaneous colonization process, but Aeolis province is an especially diverse area. The International Climate Treaty of the late 2040s had provided generous financial incentives for any Earth nation that reduced its carbon output, and most of the industrial hubs of the world had done that by moving their manufacturing plants to Mars. GalaX had started the terraformation process a decade before with their MarsEpoch project, but the planet was still basically a frozen popsicle at that point. Even with the McKay-Zubrin space mirrors melting most of the permafrost, Mars didn’t have much of an atmosphere to speak of. It needed more carbon dioxide. And that was something Earth had in abundance.

With the jobs moving to Mars, and the government subsidizing most of the costs, people from all over Earth started flocking to Mars to find a “better life” in the new world. In less than a decade, Mars went from having just a few pockets of scientific outposts to major colonies all over the entire planet. That’s when GSAF was established, to oversee the colonization process.

My hometown, Tierra Nueva, had been one of the first manufacturing towns in Aeolis. When it was first founded, it was mostly made up of immigrants from Mexico. You can see their fingerprints all over the south part of town, where most of the landmarks and street names are still in Spanish. But Tierra Nueva has gotten a lot bigger over the years. More corporations have shifted their manufacturing plants to the valley, and that’s drawn large communities of immigrants from India, Russia, and most recently Greece, still reeling from its civil war back on Earth.

But the biggest change in Tierra Nueva came with the founding of AresTec almost ten annums ago. It was the first corporation ever to be based on Mars instead of on Earth. Their corporate offices are here in Tierra Nueva, and everything they do—from design to business to manufacturing their electronics—is done here.