Beyond Mars: The Love Between Lisa and Roseanne

Lisa surveyed the scene before her. She was in a bar, a seedy one at that. It was always a strange experience, to see how people from her time zone acted, especially in a place like this. It was even stranger to observe this behavior in a small town that was about as far away from the city as it could be on Mars.

She took another sip of her drink and looked around again. The room was dimly lit and smelled of smoke, sweat, and cheap cologne. It seemed more like a storage room than a bar. The patrons were all slouched forward over the bar or seated on red vinyl chairs at tables with their faces bent toward one another in harsh whispers. Lisa knew they were all eyeing each other suspiciously and sizing each other up for fights that might break out later that night or even later that morning.

This place had been recommended by her friend Maria back at police station #3 in Port Tharsis. Maria had been on duty when Lisa had called off sick for the third day in a row. Maria had been her partner for nearly a year now and Lisa trusted her implicitly to cover for her while she took care of some personal matters. Lisa didn't know what she would do without Maria's support these days, but she knew she needed to deal with this situation without causing anyone else too much trouble if she could help it. Maria had said something about an old guy named 'Jae' who ran the place down at the end of town near the mines. Jae wasn't exactly legal himself, but he liked to keep his ear to the ground and could usually point out new arrivals and unusual activity in the area if you knew who to ask him right.

It seemed like everyone here was new or unusual, though most of them were illegals themselves so they probably wouldn't have any useful information anyway. Still, she wasn't leaving until she talked to Jaehyun and found out if he knew anything about a young woman who arrived recently with a baby in tow. As she leaned back against the wall and sipped her drink, she realized that this job was way too stressful for someone who didn't have to worry about being fired for looking pregnant herself.

Lisa's eyes drifted from face to face as she tried not to appear too obvious about it and noticed two men standing nearby talking quietly amongst themselves as they gazed at everyone else in the room intently. They were both tall men dressed similarly in long black coats and matching fedoras pulled low over their eyes despite the heat of the room around them. They both wore gloves that covered their hands and went past their sleeves which made it difficult to tell what kind of weapons they might be carrying underneath their outfits but also made it clear they weren't here for coffee or booze either.

Lisa's instincts told her she should try to get out of here as soon as possible, but it wasn't like there was anywhere else in town where she could find Jaehyun or anyone else who might know what was going on here tonight anyway. She couldn't leave until morning anyway so maybe these guys weren't connected to whatever mess she'd gotten herself into tonight anyway and maybe she should just finish her drink like nothing is wrong before heading home for bed before Jaehyun started wondering why no one came by tonight looking for him when he wasn't sleeping off his own hangover somewhere like usual anyway...

"Got a light?" asked Lisa as she sat down next to Jaehyun after taking care of things last night when he got home drunk again after making sure Roseanne was okay at home with her kids before getting herself home safely enough after deciding not to stick around there much longer anyway since it just wasn't safe with Jaehyun around anymore than it was safe lately helping Roseanne take care of those three kids all by herself with no husband around anymore...