The Hated

In a nameless riverside bar, drunken space veteran Byron drifts through guilt, memory, and a dread he cannot quite name. A woman's nervous cough jolts him into recalling Gilvey and the other men who shared his one-way voyage to Mars, and the encounter quickly turns into a descent into the trauma he has spent years trying to drown. Byron reveals that the crew was chemically prevented from killing one another during the trip, but the restraint lasted only two years. Now back on Earth, he is haunted by the men he traveled with and by the physical and emotional damage left behind. As the woman grows fascinated by his Mars story, his unease deepens, his shaking worsens, and he takes medication that only drags him further into vivid, sensory memories of the ship. Bleak and noir-like, the story explores psychological damage, isolation, and the corrosive aftereffects of enforced restraint. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.