"Please don't leave.  But... this is among water brothers.  The government is in a stew about that nominal colony we left behind.  Every man in it joined in signing away his so-called Larkin rights - assigned them to the government - before we left Earth.  Mike's presence when we got to Mars confused things enormously.  I'm no lawyer, but I understood that, if Mike did waive his rights, whatever they might be, that would put the administration in the driver's seat when it came to parceling out things of value."