With my story Donald of Mars, I am using fiction to teach a more realistic view of what colonizing Mars is likely to be like. It has no aliens. No super technology. No world-shattering crisis. It is a man trying deal with all the real problems that will come up building a life for himself there. It is set roughly 20 year after the first-person lands on Mars where each window numerous ships bring in more people and equipment.
At the end of his contract Donald neither returns to earth, nor renews his corporate employment contract. Instead, he takes his bonus and makes a payment on home construction and begins working for himself.