Dust in the Martian Wind

This tale is told by one Jovian Pallis, a man approaching middle age and who is a member of an early Martian colony. He tells of being in love with a woman named Marissa, who was 16 years his junior, but he never actually got around to letting her know of his feelings for her. She died out on the Martian surface as a seal that was part of her suit's air supply apparently had a crack in it. Pallis isn't distraught, though. It meant the end of his anger at not having her in his life the way he wanted.

We learn that Pallis, along with a woman named Isabel, are the ones responsible for the daily check of all the space suits and their air supplies. Hmmm... 

And then a man named Uther dies. He died out in the Ponds, which are the Martian equivalent of those lakes of toxic sludge in China that unscrupulous smartphone manufacturers just dump all of their waste into after those iPhones are shipped off.

And then the Doctor arrives and quickly enters Hercule Poirot mode. He deduces that Pallis killed both Marissa and Uther. Marissa because he couldn't stand the thought of having to live in the same environment as the woman who was the object of his theoretically unrequited love. And so he poisoned the air in her suit. Uther was an accident. Isabel was harboring suspicions about Pallis so he poisoned the air in a suit he thought she'd take but Uther carelessly grabbed it instead.

In order for the colony to continue for another 2 years until the next transport ship arrives, there must be no more killing. So the Doctor takes Pallis and drops him off on a planet by himself where he can live out the rest of his days.

This recent spate of short trips have largely featured a protagonist who wasn't the Doctor or a companion. But none until now had one that was a killer. We learn that there were murders at the colony in the first paragraph when Pallis tries to recall when he felt it was "over". He places that moment "about the time of the first murder". Still, I didn't recall this until much later in the tale when I should have thought about it on the next page.

Pallis comes off as unstable and rather pathetic. He describes himself as being physically clumsy but we learn that he is also socially clumsy as he never even reveals his feelings to Marissa.

"My thoughts are often disconnected, as well," he admits. "I leave behind me a chain of random associations, incomplete tasks: half-empty mugs, dropped clothes, abandoned poems."

I really liked this peek into the mind of a madman and murderer. From Pallis' descriptions, it seems that his state of mind really mirrors that of the colony. There's the Ponds and the fact that funding for the colony is slowly dwindling. It is simply in a pitiful state. And I don't recall there being any explanation for the Doctor's appearance, which I thought was neat. He just comes in with his crime-solving skills blazing.

It is a nice change of pace to have a villain that is a bit banal. Pallis is not some megalomaniac bent on ruling the universe, but rather an average Joe who has watched the Martian dust creep into everything, despoiling the colony, and has lost touch with reality, perhaps, amidst the isolation. The colony was a failure, if he is to be believed, and they're all stuck there.

Still no Jamie.