Volume XIX, Issue XII
Apollonius
By Bob Kirchman
Copyright © 2020, The Kirchman Studio, all rights reserved
Chapter 9: The First Three People on Mars
In the long shaft connecting Great Northern’s gravity ring to the engine complex, hundreds of supply pods were stored, ready to be dropped to the plane’s surface. The parts for greenhouses, an initial biosphere and solar panels along with pipe and machinery could be dropped in a fairly low-tech manner, and as the ship slowed into Martian orbit the process of site selection began. “Flat site, easy path to polar ice for initial water line, visibility from Earth so semaphore signals or emergency rocket could be seen…” After a day in orbit several were identified. In conversation with Earth control, it was finally narrowed down to one prime site and Abiyah and Sarah entered returnable shuttle 001 and waited as ‘Katherine’ cast them free. Retros fired and the craft made an arced descent towards the surface. Abiyah was praying his return engine would light. Sarah was praying she wouldn’t lose her lunch. Both were filled with anticipation. The Martian surface rose to meet the descending craft. The computer called out the distance to the surface in 100’ increments now… Retro fire! Slowed descent and a cloud of dust as shuttle 001 gently rested on her landing legs on the Martian surface. “We’re on the surface,” Sarah announced through the microphone. History had been made!
Adding gloves and helmets to their pressure suits, the two astronauts wasted no time in getting to the surface. The first humans to set foot on Mars climbed down the ladder together and stood on the last rung holding hands. Abiyah counted “One, two, three…” and then they jumped… still holding hands to the Martian surface. The athletic Abiyah pulled up his feet at the last possible moment so that Sarah would touch first… by a second. Standing on the surface they said nothing for a few seconds, staring at a vast red world. They had been rendered quite speechless! Then in unison, the two astronauts began in Hebrew: “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens…”
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visits him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; though has put all things under his feet.”
Oh Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”
As much of the world’s secular media howled in protest, two astronauts mediated on the eighth Psalm and then set down to work.
Ready to release sensitive equipment pod.” Sarah chimed.
Housing Module A10001 deploy.” said Abiyah.
D9 Special Edition Deploy” said Sarah as a very customized bulldozer was ejected from the craft.
Life support/com module deploy.” said Abiyah.
Solar array for initial camp deploy.” said Sarah.
That day the astronauts used the ’special edition’ tractor to position the first house on Mars, its life-support systems, a small folding greenhouse and a construction office/communications center. They spent the night together in the little house and were sure to lay claim to another historic ‘first’ as far as that was concerned. Sarah ached to tell Abiyah her suspicions but she knew that he could afford no distractions now. Reckless intimacy in the crew house on Mars was probably too much as it was, but that was part of who they already were. As for what Sarah suspected was happening inside her, the time was not right to talk about it.
(to be continued)
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Copyright © 2020, The Kirchman Studio, all rights reserved
