The Merchants of Venus

A bold Earth initiative aims to turn Venus into a new home for humanity, but the venture is already stumbling. With a dwindling pool of technicians and farmers, the fledgling settlement faces a shortage that threatens its very existence, and the pressure to prove the project’s viability is mounting.

Enter Rod Workham, the weary personnel director caught between relentless demands from General Carlson and the desperate pleas of those who signed up for the mission. As a wave of resignations rolls in, Rod must decide whether to force the remaining colonists to stay, negotiate a way back to Earth, or risk an even darker solution. The story follows his uneasy negotiations, the clash of bureaucratic ambition with human frailty, and the unsettling question of how far a society will go to survive on an alien world.