15

The crowd in the cargo hold were drawn from most parts of Earth, Luna, and some of the asteroid settlements. Marcel's family were all from French Polynesia before half of it disappeared under the rising waves. What was saved was a semi-floating seastead. He has the copper skin typical to Polynesians. Sungura Kikwete is a Tanzanian born in Zimbabwe, with rich umber complexion. Nothing like Virginia Rein who, like many American astronauts before her, is about as WASPy as they come: a natural blonde, tall, pale, and strong-chinned. Her Italo-Puerto Rican wife, Luciana, has sandy features and hair like driftwood.

Complex heritages are the norm with the mass migration over the last century. Evgeniy Cardoso is a pardo Brazilian from the plains of Rio Grande do Sul, his Russian grandparents' heritage only really visible in his first name and his Orthodox upbringing. Kosmo's ethnicity is impossible to determine at a glance, his birth voice lost, half his skin missing. Professor Antonella Li is Chinese-Canadian, her family having moved there generations before she was born. Rheita Petavius has the tell-tale facial symmetry and unnatural beauty of a fully custom gene birth: her amber skin has an uncanny glow and her onyx-streaked hair spreads out in buoyant curls.

You look more like…

…Marcel Temaru.

…Sungura Kikwete.

…Virginia Rein.

…Luciana Rein.

…Evgeniy Cardoso.

…Kosmo.

…Professor Li.

…Rheita Petavius.

…none of these people.

East Asians and people descended from that part of the world are common among the three major political blocs on Earth.

Just as names are more mixed and harder to untangle than in previous centuries, lines between ethnicities are more often blurred after decades of 21st-century international migration and cross-connections, and the confounding effects of gene alteration and experimentation.

Things May Become Blurrier…

Marcel approaches you later, carrying a much-emptied jug. The music is loud, a heady mix of tidalpunk and mythojazz, all syncopated wave sounds with improvised horns in septuple meter.

Marcel leans close, shrinking in his big frame. "I'm thinking of asking Sungura out," he shouts over the music. He looks over to Sungura Kikwete who leans against an opposite wall, soaking in the sounds. The pulsing colored lights gleam off of their clean-shaven head. "Wish me luck!"

He dances across the room and you see the pair speak. Sungura shakes their head and Marcel rubs the back of his awkwardly. Now the inhibition of the Asterion has ended and the colony has begun in earnest, you suspect there might be more couples soon.

I'd like to be in a romantic relationship.

I think it would be unprofessional for me to date while I'm the President.

I'm not interested in dating anyone ever.

You decide the right thing to do to avoid accusations of favoritism would be to avoid dating any of your fellow colonists while your term as President lasts.

The party is interrupted by the sounds of raised voices from the direction of the engine room.

"This is absurd!" thunders Evgeniy Cardoso. He is standing beside the asparagus patch in the engine room, his face red from drinking.

"Now, here comes the President," says Virginia Rein, who stands in the entrance to the engine room, the curtain pulled back (to save on weight, there are few doors on the Asterion). "I caught Mr. Cardoso tampering with the power hub."

"I was checking the levels! It's my job!" Evgeniy retorts, exasperated.

"Not at two in the morning with a bottle of vodka! I think we have found the source of that thrust malfunction," says Virginia.

"Why would I have wanted to kill us all? It's—"

"—well known that many in the G81 want this mission to fail."

You know this will need a proper investigation either way, but what to do with the quarrelers?

Evgeniy should be quarantined until the truth is discovered.

Virginia should know not to make wild accusations. We all need to be able to get along.

I'm presuming innocence until proven otherwise.

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