Project Gutenberg's The Man Who Hated Mars, by Gordon Randall Garrett

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Title: The Man Who Hated Mars

Author: Gordon Randall Garrett

Release Date: May 30, 2008 [EBook #25644]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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_To escape from Mars, all Clayton had to do was the
impossible. Break out of a crack-proof exile camp--get
onto a ship that couldn't be boarded--smash through an
impenetrable wall of steel. Perhaps he could do all
these things, but he discovered that Mars did evil
things to men; that he wasn't even Clayton any more.
He was only--_

THE MAN WHO
HATED MARS

By RANDALL GARRETT

[Illustration: The frightful carnage would go down in the bloody history
of space.]

"I want you to put me in prison!" the big, hairy man said in a trembling
voice.

He was addressing his request to a thin woman sitting behind a desk that
seemed much too big for her. The plaque on the desk said:

LT. PHOEBE HARRIS
TERRAN REHABILITATION SERVICE

Lieutenant Harris glanced at the man before her for only a moment before
she returned her eyes to the dossier on the desk; but long enough to
verify the impression his voice had given. Ron Clayton was a big, ugly,
cowardly, dangerous man.

He said: "Well? Dammit, say something!"

The lieutenant raised her eyes again. "Just be patient until I've read
this." Her voice and eyes were expressionless, but her hand moved
beneath the desk.

Clayton froze. _She's yellow!_ he thought. She's turned on the trackers!
He could see the pale greenish glow of their little eyes watching him
all around the room. If he made any fast move, they would cut him down
with a stun beam before he could get two feet.

She had thought he was going to jump her. _Little rat!_ he thought,
_somebody ought to slap her down!_

He watched her check t