ref: cde05f4187aed1c77b8efb57ee5dabe8d5d5106d
dir: /troff/031.ms/
\" This master file produces text suitable for a 6"x9" paperback. .ds CH \" turn off page numbering (top) .B .nr HM 1i \" header margin .nr FM 1i \" footer margin .nr LL 4.25i \" line length .pl 9i \" page length .po .87i \" page offset (from left) .nr PS 8 \" font point size \" .kern \" pairwise kerning (groff only) .hy 14 \" automatic hyphenation \" .nr VS 24 \" double space .fp 1 R GA \" URW Garamond .fp 2 I GI .fp 3 B GM .fp 4 BI GMI .fp 5 CW H \" Helvetica .LP \& .nr % 79 \ " start with this page number .ds CF [%] \" first numbered page (bottom) .ps 10 .ce .B THOT COFFEE \& .ps 8 tags: 1996, mars2, tab2 .R .PP .ps 10 14 February, rekindling the flame. It's a date. .PP .ps 10 The Disk And Executive MONitor woke him. His respirator gradually crowned the pink sand, a replica mountain in miniature, monument to a monumental labor with no one left in charge. Somewhere beneath all this lay our protagonist, cursing the lack of signal strength in his adept's blind. TAB2 had secluded himself on the mountain for thirty years, and now his gloves had aged out of compatibility with his environment. He couldn't get back on the network. .PP .ps 10 Tiny quartz crystals twinkled up at him from the surrounding sands. He scooped a handful into his pocket, dust still falling out of his eyebrows, partially obscuring his already compromised vision. Assuming this wasn't just frost, he might be able to trade some of it for useful and sundry from whatever remnants of civilization still troubled the Martian desert in this \fIáss\fRforsaken year of 1996. Then again, depending on how bad things had gotten while he was laid up, maybe the locals would even buy frost from a stranger. .PP .ps 10 He stumbled into town before sunset, not too late for an espresso from Thot Coffee.