Mars is a world founded and built by immigrants. At first, they were considered a colony of Earth, but by 3024 they pretty much thought of themselves as a separate world and even a separate race. Martian gravity had allowed them to become much larger and many of their human features had become distorted to adapt to the Martian low oxygen atmosphere. Their noses and chest cavities were larger. Not really noticeable to most but considered very important to Martians who no longer considered themselves human. They were Martian.

The Professor and I had come to Mars to participate in a writing competition, Fantasmical3024. The Professor had warned me not to divulge that I was an earthling, or to imply we were at all human. I was to pretend I was a Time Master like the Professor. Mars currently had a strict immigration quota, and earthlings were generally excluded and looked down on by the Martians who considered them villains. Many Martians were jealous of all the privileges that earthlings seemed to have even though in this era Martians probably had more advantages than the populations of the overcrowded Earth. Hence why so many earthlings tried to immigrate to Mars.

"So, you really aren't from Earth?" The hotel clerk asked us.

The Professor decided we should stay at the hotel where they were hosting a sort of convention for the writers participating in the competition. It would give us a chance to meet and interact with them to get more familiar with the culture of this time and place. The writers were mostly from Mars. There were a few from Earth who had special, hard to obtain passports or who claimed they were from the asteroid belt.

"We are Time Masters actually from all over time and space," The Professor explained.

"Why, what does it matter?" I asked.

The desk clerk gave me a shocked look that I could ask such a question and answered, "I could lose my job if I rented a room to an Earthling — a human." He said the word human with disgust.

"Other than The Professor and I, aren't you all human?"

Taking Umbrage the clerk replied, "Quite the contrary madam. Most of us are Martians."

"What exactly is it that you have against humans?"

"Are you blind?" the clerk began a very passionate rant. "They come here to take advantage of all the things we've built because they've destroyed their own planet with their socialist governments that encourage laziness and discourage hard work. They bring their criminal activities, drugs and violence, and expect us to take care of them the way their socialist governments did. They are parasites that intend to live off what we Martians have built."

"Aren't most of the immigrants from Earth coming here seeking better lives? They aren't all criminals or parasites. They are just looking for work so they can help build a better future. Don't most immigrants do the jobs other Martians don't want? I bet most of your housekeeping staff are human. Aren't immigrants what built Mars?"

"Yeah, they come to take our jobs! We have to keep them out. After the election, we will have a new government and we will start deporting these parasites back to Earth. You folks had better be careful what you say, you are beginning to sound a lot like those liberal humans. It is us against them. You don't want to end up on the wrong side."

There was no arguing with this guy. He saw things only the way he wanted to see them. If you ask me that made him very human. We logged-in our retinal scans that would give us access to our rooms and headed over to the elevators.

"Do you believe that guy?" I asked the Professor. "I would have thought that sort of thinking would have disappeared a thousand years ago."

"Unfortunately, it is very characteristic of humans when they become so self-centered and care only about themselves. If they would just look at their own history, they would see that civilization makes the most progress when they promote values like acceptance, diversity, and taking care of each other." The Professor sighed and continued, "When they think only of themselves and it becomes an 'us against them' mentality, it inevitability leads to war and destruction. If the election the clerk was talking about goes the way he wants, it won't be long before they have concentration camps and gas chambers for Earthlings.

I got a knot in my stomach remembering the horrors of twentieth century Earth. I would never have thought it was possible if I hadn't seen it myself. The Professor's time machine is much more powerful than any history book when it comes to teaching those lessons.

Professor, is there anything we can do? Anything to make the people listen to reason?"

"Well, you could always write a humorous parody of the situation and enter it in the writing competition. I doubt it will help, but it couldn't hurt."

"I could, I really could," I said as I came up with an idea. "But you know, there have been several times in history when something like this story has been needed. Could we go back in time to those places and try to get the story out at each of those times?"

"Sure," The Professor agreed. "Where do you want to start?"

"How about Fantasmical2024?"