Gone Machine

On approach, Wells looks like Settlement Era concept art in all its earnest ambition. The millenial Mars-dream made real.

It rises from a dusty undramatic plain, about fifty klicks off the southern lip of the Valles Marineris, all pressure-sealed domes and covered walkways in the classical mode.  The vibe is antique, through and through.  No surprise there, the core build is getting on for three hundred years old – put in to service the space elevator when human footsteps on Mars were sti...