On a lonely, abandoned Mars, eighty-year-old Emil Barton is jolted by a phone call from his own younger voice, speaking across sixty years of silence. Trapped after Earth's war and left to endure the planet alone, the younger Barton built a web of self-recorded transcriptions, fake crowds, recorded voices, smells, and even robots to make Mars feel inhabited—an ingenious comfort that has curdled into a devastating echo of loneliness. As the calls continue, the older Barton is forced to relive his younger self's desperate hopes and mounting self-deception, only to see them transformed by time into tragedy. The conversation grows harsher, exposing the emotional damage of isolation and the cruel irony of speaking to one's own past. Panicked and enraged, Barton sets out armed to destroy the hidden phone network that has kept his memories alive. But when a real signal arrives from an Earth rocket captain, the line between delusion and salvation blurs. Suspended between distrust and desperate hope, Barton faces the story's haunting question: is rescue finally at hand, or is he still alone on Mars? This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.
