Xenophobia

Marco's life is just about perfect. He has his dream job, a member of the mission control team for the first manned Martian mission. He has a girlfriend, the mysterious Babe, something a big, awkward nerd like himself never expected to happen. The astronauts discover microbial life in the aquifer deep underground beneath their base and the media goes nuts. Then it all turns to crap. In just a week's time all of the astronauts die, infected with an unidentified...
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Marco's life is just about perfect.
He has his dream job, a member of the mission control team for the first manned Martian mission. He has a girlfriend, the mysterious Babe, something a big, awkward nerd like himself never expected to happen. The astronauts discover microbial life in the aquifer deep underground beneath their base and the media goes nuts.
Then it all turns to crap.
In just a week's time all of the astronauts die, infected with an unidentified disease. The sponsoring corporation goes bankrupt. New corporate sponsors move in and direct the mission control team to load the astronaut's bodies aboard the ship and bring them home. The secret holds for only three days. Demonstrations erupt worldwide. Finally the government steps in. Marco and the mission control team are arrested and charged with terrorism.

Marco is released to act as a stalking horse to snare the corporate investors. Marco finds himself on the run, hidden and protected by his girlfriend Babe and her decidedly unusual family. It seems that Marco holds the key to controlling the returning plague ship.