Here's a sample from my retro future/ Marx Space Guys project. It spells out some ideas I've mentioned here for Mars colonization in an alternate-history context. I'm going to include a link for a chapter this references back to.
https://trendytroodon.blogspot.com/2022/11/fiction-space-guys-adventure-part-7.html

There was a stretch when Jason talked with Anastasia, with Alek listening in. That brought Anastasia to offer peace. “Look, we may be divided between the Union and Federation, but we have more in common with each other than anybody back on Earth,” she said. She had looked to Alek then. “You aren’t too bad. You’re crazy, but you’re friendly. And you aren’t nosey.”

As they spoke, Moxon wandered in, as he often did. “Don’t mind me,” he said. “A few people said you three were together I told them I’d check on you. I’ll clear out if it’s private.”
“Is not private,” Alek said. She held out one of the microprint sheets to Anastasia. “Can you read this?”
Ana made no move to take it. Instead, she looked at Jason. “You showed her your trick, didn’t you?”
“Only because Jax told her about it,” he said defensively.
“`Your trick’,” Alek repeated. “So can you all do it, or only him?”

By then, Moxon was sorting the disc boxes. Jason was past being surprised when he chimed in. “They can all do something,” he said.
“Yeah, we’ve got time to practice,” Jason said.
“What you show me is not practice,” Alek countered. “I looked into it. No human can read microprint without magnification. There is something more, so why don’t you not tell me?”

Moxon sat down then. “That’s the thing,” he said with a barking laugh. “Your Martian farm boy isn’t exactly human. None of them are. Are you?”

Jason met Alek’s gaze, very uncomfortably. “It’s not like that,” he said. “Humans just aren’t built for Mars. For all of us who were born there, it doesn’t just affect our bodies, it affects how we grow. We have to receive injections, hormones and things, starting before we’re even born. It mostly stimulates the growth of muscle tissue and bone calcium. You could call it enhancement. We’d be like superheroes out of the comic books if you put us in an Earth-like environment, assuming something else didn’t go wrong like it probably would. But with what Mars does to us, it really just evens things out. It’s like trying to fight a fire that’s burning your house down by building more house.”
“You too?” Alek looked to Anastasia.
The other woman met her gaze. “If anything, the Federation’s treatments are stronger,” she said. “He’s right about the rest. We call it the Tin Man problem, after Nick Chopper. It’s one of our only stories that’s not from the Greek myths.

“It is from a Greek story, the ship of Theseus,” Moxon said.. “But it works.”
Alek looked at Anastasia. “Show me,” she said. She added boldly, “Hit me.”
Jason moved to intervene. Moxon just leaned forward. “You first,” Anastasia said. Alek swung with an open hand. She had barely raised her hand before the Martian caught her by the wrist. “It works on our reflexes, too,” Ana said. Then she countered with a back-handed blow that knocked Alek back in her seat. Jason rose to help her then, but Alek pushed him back. He held his ground, lifting her up.

“Now you know our secret,” Jason said. “Except… it’s not really a secret. We don’t talk about it, and the Administration makes sure it stays out of the press. But it’s all there if you know where to look. We all know you’re all about reading papers, no matter how far they are outside your specialties. So why would all this be a surprise to you?”

Alek relaxed. “I knew a little,” she said in her neutral tone. “It was back when we were just writing. Some of the stories were bad. I chose not to read anymore. I did not want to know no more, unless you told me.”

Jason untensed and drew her into an embrace. “There is one thing I do not understand,” she said. “Moxon could do the trick, too. So what happened to him?” They looked up. Moxon was gone.

David N. Brown
Mesa, Arizona