Stepping Outside

Ramona Wagner brushed her hair back from her face and focused in on her laptop. The video she was editing was of her, or more specifically, her crotch. A glistening dildo sliding in and out of her pussy while she moaned. Under normal circumstances, the video would have been very hot, but being a professional, she was annoyed at the camera work.

“Scheisse,” she muttered as the camera work got more shaky and less in focus. She closed the laptop with the realization that this video wasn’t going to work. She loved what she had going on with Schwartz, but she wished he was a better camera man.

“Time for work anyways,” she murmured to herself. She dressed in her usual green jumpsuit, and put on a sweater over top, wishing more than anything the station was warmer.

“Good morning darling,” she said sweetly to Raynor Schwartz when she saw him in the dining hall. They kissed warmly and she grabbed a cup of tea and sat down with him

“Are you still cold my dear,” he asked, seeing her sweater.

“I haven’t been warm since we got here,” Wagner said sullenly.

“It is the same with me,” agreed Schwartz. Wagner, however, doubted he actually understood. She was the sort of person who ran cold at the best of times. Still, he was trying to sympathize with her, and she appreciated it all the same.

“Ewww I have so much to do,” Wagner said, frustrated. She felt totally overwhelmed.

“I will help you my darling,” Schwartz responded, reaching out to hold her hand.

“I thank you but I… it’s a lot, but let’s go,” she said, trying not to hurt his feelings.

“No breakfast?”

“No darling,” Wagner said, “I’m not very hungry.”

Schwartz nodded and the two headed to the botany hall. There they found Lyndon Carson already working.

“Finally,” he snapped when they walked in.

“Lyndon, it’s early,” Schwartz retorted, “we’re early.”

“Whatever,” he responded acidly, before continuing his duties. Wagner and Schwartz headed down the long corridor to the beans, where they started to work on the crop.

“Don’t worry about him Ramona,” Schwartz said when they were out of earshot. “He is stressed. We all are.” Wagner smiled and patted him on the back without saying anything. She was annoyed and wasn’t terribly interested in how stressed-out Carson was but also didn’t want to see bitter.

The two worked wordlessly for around half an hour before Schwartz broke the silence.

“Are you OK Ramona,” he asked softly, his hand on her back.

“I’m fine.”

“You seem very distracted today my dear,” he pressed.

“I guess… I’m just, I don’t know. Tired,” Wagner responded, stopping her work and looking at him. Schwartz had concern is his eyes as she spoke.

“Tired?”

“Tired. Like there’s no vacation, no weekends, just work work and work,” Wagner said, sighing heavily. Schwarz nodded empathetically.

“Yes, this tempo is so much. It’s exhausting and there’s no break.” Outside the habitat, the whirring of a flying drone was audible.

“I feel like, trapped,” Wagner continued. “Like, ok our job is here, that’s fine, but we’re on Mars and I’ve barely even been outside. I feel like I’m still in Greenland, except I had expected to not feel warm there.”

“What if we went for a walk this afternoon,” suggested Schwartz.

“I guess? It’s… I dunno I have so much to do, that’s the other thing,” Ramona answered. Schwartz simply patted her on the back and then embraced her warmly.

“We’ll figure it out Ramona. We should go explore. I will talk to Carson,” he said, and when Wagner tried to interrupt, he held up one finger. “No listen Ramona, we should. There is always going to be work that needs to be done, but we have to see Mars, we can’t just be cooped up all the days.”

Wagner nodded and the returned to her duties while Schwartz went to talk to Carson. She was in a strange mood; not wanting to do anything but her duties but also feeling cooped up and confined.

“So you’re bored now,” Carson asked sharply. Wagner jumped, having not heard him approach.

“I’m not bored I just,” she began before Carson cut her off.

“It’s fine, whatever. Go. Be back before dark.”

Wagner burned with resentment at Carson’s dismissive tone, but she nevertheless left. His coarseness annoyed her. Most of the time, he was an OK boss, but sometimes he had this attitude that pissed her off and made her feel two feet tall.

“He’s an asshole,” Schwartz said after they left the botany hall. Wagner nodded.

“I don’t know why he can’t just… fuck off,” she said, giggling at the last part. Schwartz laughed and the two headed to the airlock. There, Li was showing Davis how to operate the mechanism.

“Hello botanists,” Li said happily when they walked up. “Liz you’ve met Ramona and the Professor before, right?”

“O’ course,” Davis answered warmly. “Goin for a stroll?”

“We are,” Schwartz answered, “care to join us?”

“No, we have some more work to do. Don’t be distracting my gal you,” Li said, giving Schwartz a playful shove.

“I am innocent I swear,” he said, holding his hands up I mock surrender.

“You got away with it this time mister,” Li said in a lecturing tone. Wagner and Schwartz began suiting up and Li took the opportunity to walk Davis through the Green Mars outdoor suits.

“Now that our models are fully dressed,” Li told Davis after they had dressed and tested the seals, “you can go ahead and open up the inner door if the check light says we’re clear.” Davis did so and the door opened with a cold hiss.

“Have a nice walk guy,” Davis said, then hit to door control to close it. The door sealed behind them and Wagner toggled the purge control, and the atmosphere was sucked out of the little airlock. The outer door opened, and they stepped out into the red, dusty world.

Beyond the habitat, were endless vistas of red rock and sand. The quiet, nearly imperceptible wind whistled around them as they started to trudge through the dry sand away from the station. Both were used to the strangeness of .4G inside the station, but out and exploring, they hopped and danced around, enjoying the lightness.

The two explorers stopped on the edge of a ridge. Below them was a long ravine, the sign of an ancient river or fault line. The knowledge that no human had ever been to the place they now occupied came at Wagner in waves.

“You know,” said Schwartz over the intercom in Wagner’s helmet, “nobody in the history of the species has been here.”

“You read my mine Raynor,” she responded with a chuckle. “It’s mad.”

“The most amazing adventure any human has been on,” Schwartz said, placing his gloved hand on Wagner’s back.

“Do you… ever think about the SpaceY people,” she said softly.

“What about them,” Schwartz responded, “like, you mean Liz?”

“No,” she said, then paused. “The uh, the ones that didn’t make it.” Schwartz nodded.

“Yes I do. The fact they were so far from home and… well we have no love for SpaceY but did they deserve that?”

“No,” Ramona responded, shaking her head in her suit, “the founder sure. The ones that attacked our people, yes, but the whole crew? No it’s just… awful.”

“Their lives were lost but we benefit from this,” the ever-studious Schwartz said. “Their supplies, their spare parts, their food. They gave their lives, and now we are better for it. Is that horrible or a comfort?”

“Both,” Wagner said sadly. The two sat in silence together for a time, dust blowing silently around them. “Elizabeth seems to be OK for it though.”

“Yes, she seems resilient,” Schwartz agreed, nodding along in his helmet.

“We all have to be… out here,” observed Wagner. “Shall we uh, head back?”

“Yes let’s go,” agreed Schwartz, “my suit says 70% oxygen is left but let’s not push that till we know exactly how long it would last eh?”

“What’s to happen with the bodies,” blurted Wagner, her mind still fixed on the SpaceY disaster. “We can’t.. leave them right?”

“No definitely not,” said Schwartz passionately, “from what I heard the salvage team was planning on burying them until SpaceY can recover them. They won’t decompose out in the Martian atmosphere.”

The idea of being forever in stasis, like a mummy, on Mars horrified Wagner. Forty people, lying out there, the dust blowing over them. Could that have been them she wondered. The thought plagued here until they got to the habitat once more, and she found herself feeling as depressed as she was when they left. Hollow inside. She changed the subject, hoping her mental state would pivot with it.

“Hey so can I ask you something before we go in, Raynor?”

“Of course,” he said, stopping. Wagner wondered if the helmet intercom could be listened into, but she decided it didn’t matter.

“So um, no offence but the recent camera work… it was uh, blurry,” she began, hoping Schwartz wouldn’t be offended.

“Oh dear, yes I am not surprised unfortunately. I was… how shall we say… Distracted,” he said, chuckling.

“Understandable,” Wagner said with a chuckle, then continued. “You do good, very good and yeah multitasking is tough when pleasure is involved. How uh. How would you feel if we invited someone to film for us?”

“It might be odd at first, but I would be fine with that,” he said sincerely.

“It makes me really happy to hear you say that Raynor. It’s not like you’re not doing a good job it’s just…”

“It’s just that having an extra person will allow us new opportunities,” he said, finishing her sentence. She was relieved he was taking this so easily. She worried about jealously and she worried he would be offended but it seemed to Wagner like he’d been thinking along the same lines all along.

“Also,” began Schwartz a little tentatively, “it might be… fun to have someone watch us.”

Wagner’s body buzzed with excitement. She hadn’t told him that the other thing that had attracted her to sex work in the first place was exactly that. Someone else’s eyes on her while she had sex, to be watched. She felt her arousal just thinking about it.

“Think about who you’d like to invite,” she said, rubbing his back. “Let’s head back in.”

The two explorers opened the airlock and headed back into the habitat.