Surviving Mars

I am not usually a liar, honestly my mamma taught me better. But now mamma is gone and daddy too. So when applications opened up for the Mars Habitation Program what was a single, orphaned loser with a dream (and no experience) supposed to do? I could have faked having agriculture experience much more easily but I’ve never been an outdoorsy kind of a gal. No, farming in the Martian greenhouses did not fit my version of an ideal space adventure. Instead I used my computer prowess to falsify some credentials. A few degrees here, some serious lab experience there, and BAM I go from amateur physicist with no prospects to a science genius on my way to outer space in no time!

That brings us to the present… Which presently has me hurdling through the vacuum of space on a ship packed with nearly 2,000 people bound to join an experimental colony, Apollo, started on Earth’s closest neighbor, Mars.  The ship I am on is larger than the more traditional rockets that had been sent up ahead of our party to set up the initial life sustaining operations. Water drills, oxygen production, fuel refineries, and habitation domes were set up to force the harsh landscape to provide us with all the things a planet should really come with before you decide to set down on it. But humans are nothing if not stubborn, like weeds sprouting through the cracks in the sidewalk, we were determined to survive an environment that didn’t support our existence.

My musing were interrupted by someone shouting for a doctor behind me. I moved to one side of the hallway to make way for what must be an emergency when a hand grabs me by the shoulder.

“Finally caught up to you Dr. Gibson! Didn’t you hear me calling for you down the hall?”

I blinked a few times at the man who flagged me down as I cleared my head to answer. I still wasn’t used to being referred to as a doctor, something I didn’t think of when I added two doctorates to my resume. I cleared my throat, “Hey Ray, no I didn’t. Sorry. I was just doing some journaling while getting in my mandatory exercise for the day.”

Ray nodded in respond, “Yeah, I still have to get mine in too. I was told walking back and forth in the lab doesn’t count toward the total.”

“Right. Did you need me for something specific or?” I asked, tucking my hair behind my ear in a way I hoped Ray would find adorable. So far during our 10 day journey he hadn’t returned my advances or even acknowledged them really.

“Yes, I was sent to find you. The experiment pods are ready to be launched but we wanted you to come check some of the final calculations first,” Ray said with zero indication if my hair did anything for him.

I sighed, “I’ll be right-“

My disappointment was cutoff in favor of bone chilling terror as an alarm rang out through the halls of the ship. The overhead lights were killed, leaving only the runner lights on, faintly lighting the corridor in an eerie red glow. I took a step back and bumped into Ray’s muscular grip.

“What is happening?”

“Someone has opened an airlock unscheduled. It was probably just an accident,” Ray assured me, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.

A dull thunk drew my gaze, drawing a very unladylike squeak left my lips. I pointed to the window in horror as the body of one of our crewmembers started drifting back away from where it hit the viewing station.