Rebirth by Philip R Benge

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  Nothing told Tirana more about where he now found himself than the red sky that stretched from one horizon to the other, and without a single cloud to be seen. Tirana was now a man of forty; he had blond hair, brown eyes, he still had a slight stoop but now he also had a beard and moustache to disguise his appearance. He had arrived on Mars just two hours ago; He was now safely ensconced within the Mars Plaza hotel, a small hotel at the edge of the dome that ensured that the environment was kept suitable and safe for the colonists. One mile away from the dome was the Mars spaceport, bustling with local and interstellar activity. Inside the dome it might have been Earth, except for the fact that the buildings all had emergency airlocks instead of doorways, just in case an emergency actually occurred, so far in its history none had, normally of course the airlocks were kept open to facilitate ease of use by the inhabitants of Mars Dome One.

  On the desk in front of him was his small personal computer, it was busy now, for Tirana was checking all of the colonies official records for the last three years. It was looking for any pictures or references regarding the Claytons, so far he had found five pictures, which he had altered to show Mariah and Johor Rigor. None of the references so far had described them, so he had left them alone. When his computer had finished checking the official records, Tirana would hack into all the records of the mining corporation that had hired the Clayton, and amend any of these that needed amending. Tirana could not foresee a time when the authorities on Earth would ever get round to checking into any of these records, but he was a perfectionist. Anyway, the authorities had somehow got on to him; therefore, there must be a chance of them suspecting that their quarry had escaped Earth, and that they might be on the colonist starship Constellation. He would be done by that evening, and tomorrow morning he was taking flight to Alpha Centauri, and from there he would take a flight to the outer reaches of the galaxy and home.