Happy Landings

Excitement greater than Colby Smith had ever experienced before welled up inside her. She felt her hands trembling as she buckled up the airtight seal on her helmet collar. Then she slipped on the flexible gloves and buckled each to their wrist-seal in turn. A tap on the data tablet on her wrist confirmed the seal was tight. Her heart raced as she toggled the door controls. The loud hiss of the atmosphere of the little airlock being purged was loud at first but soon it was nothing but a quiet hiss. It stopped and the light flashed green.

“This is Smith, airlock open, I’m heading out.”

The door opened slowly with a squeak and as it lifted, she could see the sight she had so often imagined but had barely dared believe before this moment. The horizon of Mars, red craggy mountains stood out sharply below a lifeless black sky. She stepped slowly out of the Hermes’ ramp, and felt her feet crunch in the Martian sand. The wind whistled around her blowing sand and dust around her feet. The carbon dioxide atmosphere was unbreathable and thin. So thin in fact, that the wind, gusting up to 80kph in that moment, felt like a light breeze on her suit.

“How is it,” crackled Sam Hayden’s voice in her ear.

“It’s… Sam it’s incredible,” she responded. She felt like incredible was so insufficient to describe the sensations she was experiencing. She jumped and was shocked by how high she went. The low gravity she’d been used to on the Hermes, but to be able to see the ground, to leap meters up was liberating. Euphoric. She tried to tell Hayden but all he heard was her giggles.

“Get out here Sam, you… you have to see it.”

“Will do, just getting dressed now.”

As Smith waited for Sam to join her, she explored the surroundings of the Hermes. The landing site had been picked out for its flat appearance, but standing on it, it was anything but flat. The sand dunes were taller than her, and rough boulders stuck out from them. It didn’t matter. She was on Mars, and the details would be for later.

She climbed a sand dune that appeared taller than the others to look around. The sight was breathtaking. Beyond their red desert in three directions were hills, and beyond them, towering mountains. The open desert plain was broken by innumerable craters, some small, some huge and ancient. It was like no environment she’d ever seen on Earth, and once again couldn’t come up with words to describe it.

“Ho… holy shit,” Hayden stammered over the radio earpiece. She looked over to see him walking out of the Hermes airlock, looking around and surveying their new world. She headed down the sand dune in a couple easy hops and was soon with Hayden. His eyes looked like they were bugging out of his head.

“It’s incredible, isn’t it?”

“I can’t… I don’t even know what to say,” he stuttered. Smith strode over to her boyfriend and held his gloved hand in hers.

“We made it. We’re… we’re on Mars hun.”

“We’re on fuckin Mars babe,” he exclaimed, and gave her a big bear hug, lifting her easily up off her feet.

Smith was staggered by the beauty around her. The Earth was nothing more than a large blue dot in the sky above them. The starts were like nothing she’d ever seen, beyond counting and bright, yet dead. They didn’t twinkle like in the thicker atmosphere of Earth. On the other horizon the Sun was bright, yet distant and cold. The shadows cast from the mountains and dunes were long.

“Where’s the hab,” Smith asked softly, remembering they needed a place to live.

“Oh it’s over thataway,” said Hayden gesturing in the direction the Hermes. Smith giggled.

“I hadn’t even noticed it Jesus,” she said making a self depreciating expression by tapping on her helmet. The hab entrance was a few hundred meters away. The briefing had said they were landing farther away than they will for future trips because of the dust. They needed to get a landing pad built. For now, they had to hike and didn’t mind at all. They bounded in meters long leaps.

“The hills are alllliiiiive,” Hayden exclaimed in a singsong voice, and did a pirouette in an impression from the Sound of Music. When they got close to the habitation complex, a near perfect copy of the one on Greenland, they saw drones working around the ancillary buildings. They’d built this entire facility and would do most of the labour for the colonists. They varied in size from the size of a medium dog to large drones that resembled 18-wheeler trucks. Some of the smaller variety of drones were already unloading their belongings and the stores the Hermes had brought down from orbit.

Smith stopped at the entrance of the hab and stared upwards towards the small blue dot far above them. Home. Or at least, her previous home. The idea she actually lived on Mars seemed absurd, yet here she was, standing in front of her new Martian home. The idea seemed almost comical but here she was.

“You coming in babe,” came Hayden’s voice in her earpiece.

“Yeah… I was. On the way,” she said slowly, still staring up at the sky. She walked slowly toward the hab, eyes fixed on the dark sky above. Hayden engaged the switch on the wall that opened the large airlock door and the two stepped in. The purge airlock button was right where she expected it to be. But for the red dust on her boots and the lighter gravity, she felt like she could be back in Greenland. Smith unbuckled the clips around her collar and removed her helmet, and a red puff of dry dust escaped the buckle. She coughed when she inhaled. The air was cold and dry.

“It’s… exactly what I pictured,” said Hayden slowly, as if he was expecting something different. The similarity was, indeed, uncanny. Same floors, same layout, same walls, the little signs over the doors even had the same font. They started the ungainly process of taking of their suits and hanging them up in the lockers by the airlock.

“Shit it’s cold in here,” Smith said when she stepped out of her insulated suit. “Not much of a reception.”

“I think everyone’s out right now,” Hayden commented, adding, “it can’t be more than 15C in here,” responded Hayden. He’d just stepped out of his suit and having done so, he walked over to Smith and gave her a deep kiss and then looked into her eyes. “We made it babe.” She smiled.

“We made it. I can’t believe it.”

Behind them the airlock hissed once again, and the sound of machinery echoed through the quiet halls of the hab. A drone soon emerged, a six wheeled unit that was about the size of a compact car, had arms on the front, and ample storage on the back. It placed their bags and a pile of food boxes on a pad on the floor and headed back to the airlock. They watched the progress in silence.

“We’ll have to get used to that I guess,” commented Hayden. Smith wasn’t sure if he was referring to the drone or the blast of cold air that came from the airlock when it opened, but he was right either way and she nodded along with him.

“I knew Mars was cold outside but shit babe,” she responded, hugging him tight for warmth.

“Get our stuff unpacked? I don’t think we need to explore it’s pretty much the same,” Hayden said, returning her hug. Smith nodded and the two kissed and went about unpacking their gear in their respective rooms.

Smith’s room, like everything else, was identical to that which she had in Greenland. Her room felt cavernous after her tiny room on the Hermes, and she was happy for the space. She didn’t actually have many possessions. The company was clear that they would have precious little space for such things, and she had taken the directive to heart. A small picture frame containing a picture of her parents standing together in front of the Golden Gate Bridge, her clothes, and her toiletries were soon put away in their rightful places. She had some more stuff that wasn’t delivered yet, what they called their ‘checked baggage.’ Personal effects they wouldn’t need on the Hermes. That, like the research equipment and the crew, would come later. She had just put away her socks when someone tapped on the door.

“It’s open.”

Sam Hayden walked in. Smith was about to make a comment about it being early for a booty call when she saw the expression on his face and stopped herself. He looked annoyed.

“Hey babe,” he said, irritation on his voice. “I just got a message from Tara and I gotta go back up.”

“To the Hermes? Why?” It made no sense to Smith why they sent him down if to bring him right back up again.

“Yeah, one of them moisture farms is offline. Something about a program fault. Tara wants me to check on it up there. It’s so far away it’s more efficient to go back up and get dropped off there next run.”

“Oh, well that’s shitty, you just got here,” sighed Smith and Hayden nodded. “Hermes leaves pretty soon you need to get hiking. I’ll walk you down.” The two left Smith’s room and headed down the long echoing hall to the airlock.

“So I guess it’s just you and Pam holding down this place while I’m gone?”

“Looks like,” sighed Smith. She had been hoping to get the first projects on the go early but supposed now that would have to wait. With only two people she, along with Sheldon, would be hard pressed to keep the place running. “Pam’s supposed to do a recon for mineral extractor sites, I think that’s where she is now, so it’ll probably be little ol’ me running this whole joint. Bring back some sweaters will ya!”

“I will, and while I do, our new home will be in good hands,” smiled Hayden, who gave her a passionate kiss on the lips when the reached the airlock. Smith hugged him and the two separated like they were a couple at an airport. A pang of sadness crept through her when the airlock closed. She had looked forward to getting settled into her new home with Hayden. It was something she wanted to share with him.

Some time after they split up she heard the sound of the rocket launch. The whole hab shook and vibrated.

“Alone on Mars. Colby girl, what have you got yourself into?”