read your contract

It looks like I'm going to become a Martian.....my contract says that if the hammership is disabled when it reaches Mars space, then I can either stay on Mars and receive my full pay for the round trip, or I can opt to be taken back to Earth, but I only get half-pay, and have to pay my way back. And the ship is disabled....and the only reason it's going to make it to Mars at all is due to the quick thinking of Our Hero Major Mary Tudor. In the chaos of the cyber attack, she took control of an ad hoc Action Team and fought back.....they were able to cut vital systems off from the confused shipbrain, and get power back on, and correct the spin angles.....they clamped down on the fusion flux fields first thing, which was smart.....on one of the Earth bound orbitals the virus took out the field system, and the whole thing just went up in a flash of hydrogen hellfire....no chance of survivors.....But the 17 hours of abnormal spin wreaked havoc with ship structure....the whole thing creaks and pops and shudders as we roll slowly along.....but we survived.....Remember Miss Wen and Bobby? Well, in the pitch darkness, with their world seemingly coming to an end, they managed to find some moments of deep meaning....the baby will be a Martian native! And as far as it goes with me and Mary....well...we're still working on that story.....