1 Convict-No Opening No Cl

Many of the colonies of this planet here have been founded and built by misfits, rebels, rejects from their own societies, the transported criminals, and they've made good men in those new frontiers. But not all men are good men in a bad spot.

When you open a new area, whether it's a new planet or a new continent, it takes tough men, and a strength and determination. Among the men of that type in any culture, many are rebels.

They turn up in the criminal courts. Such men make fine colonists. But not all rebels are colonists, builders. A lot of them are just plain, lazy, six-fold criminals. Mars is a cold planet. It's nearly 50 million miles further from the sun than Earth.

It gets proportionate, they're less heat. It's air is thin and low in oxygen. It's water is scarce. It's not an easy place to live. Some men will live in unpleasant places by choice because they have this pioneering spirit for a sense of adventure.

Other men have very little choice at all. When Robert Black was found guilty of the crime of armed robbery, the court gave him the usual choice. Fifteen years in prison or a permanent exile to Mars.

The judge asked him which he preferred. I'll take Mars. It was awarded. Thanks, and I'll see Robert Black now. Hey, Mr. Jenna. What is it this time, Black, in trouble with the mind forming again?

No, not this time. But if he keeps pushing, don't start that again. I'm sorry, Mr. Jenna. I look Black. I'm supposed to be the colonial administrator here. Remember, I have work to do. Now, what's on your mind?