Garrity's Annuities

Garrity is a space engineer with a plan. He has calculated that the optimal life involves marrying multiple women across different planets, each with her own customs and costs, so he can maximize emotional fulfillment while minimizing expenses. It's efficient. It's logical. It's also completely blind to what actually matters. The joke is on him, though, because every port of call brings him back to the same woman, Katha, wearing different names and faces, while his cynical friend watches the whole train wreck unfold. Mason weaves sharp satirical humor into this mid-century space opera, using Garrity's ridiculous scheme as a lens to examine love, perception, and the lies we tell ourselves about what we want. The dramatic irony cuts deep: the reader sees what Garrity cannot, and the friend's weary narration makes us complicit in the absurdity. It's a compact, clever story about how we mistake logistics for intimacy, and how the universe has a sense of humor about our plans.