Defying Mars (The Saving Mars Series) - By Cidney Swanson Page 0,25

called Crusty from where he stood examining a rivet on the landing gear. “They boxed up your stuff and your brother’s stuff. You can pick it up over at suit repair.”

“Crusty?” whispered Jess. “Would there be time to get everything we’d need? Spacesuits, replacement parts for wafers, food and drink …” Her mind boggled at the thought of possible items that could be missing.

“You let me worry about that part,” said Crusty. “I’ve got folks thinking they’re setting this place up like an Ares-i-fied museum. All the parts’ll be there or they’ll have me to answer to.” He leaned in closer. “And I’m a bona fide planetary hero, by Ares.” He stretched his arms out to the side and then patted his chest vigorously. “A hero, I tell you.”

The gesture was so uncharacteristic for Crusty that Jess felt sure he’d done it to lighten her gloomy and cautious mood.

She gave him a tentative smile.

“I’ll see you around, kid,” said the mechanic. “Some of us got work to do.”

11

VULNERABLE

Jess had plenty of time to return to the Secretary’s office on foot for her meeting at 14:00. A simple walk across the plain between the hangars and MCC. Something everyday. Something normal.

“Yeah,” she muttered to herself, exiting the hangar. “Normal.” She kicked a small rock outside, sending it soaring. “Well the ship loaded with normal sailed, didn’t it?” She no longer knew what was normal. Her time was not her own. She couldn’t borrow a planet-hopper and chase sunsets around the globe. She didn’t know to whom she would apply for a craft—Lobster was gone. Her mother was moody, her father apologetic, her brother tens of millions of kilometers away. Her lips cracked no matter how diligently she drained her wet ration packets. Feeling tears pricking the back of her eyes, Jessamyn crossed her arms and sat upon a large, flattish rock halfway between the hangar and MCC’s offices.

Staring out at the tans, golds, and reds of her planet, she took in the fierce and deadly beauty that was Mars. The low rim of Prakash Crater looked especially near today. While she’d been away, the northern hemisphere had crossed from spring into summer. Dust storms, common in winter, often obscured Prakash entirely, but today she could see the shadowed creases of the rim which rose as high as a kilometer above the planitia beside which New Houston had been founded.

Pulling her gaze closer, Jess saw the familiar pebbles and small rocks that broke up the flattened landscape. Ellipses formed to one side of each small stone, reminding Jess of her granddad’s sundial. She’d never been able to tell time with it. Jess smiled to herself, realizing her pirate granddad had probably not been able to either. Most likely he’d just been good at lying about it. He could out-bluff a de-sulfurization salesman talking to first-time home buyers.

The sky had managed to herd a few wispy clouds to one side. Jess tried to remember Earth’s blue sky but couldn’t. Mars’s sky glowed yellow midday, looking exactly like a proper sky ought to. She sighed, wishing she could sit there all day. Wishing she could chase that sun around the planet.

But the Secretary was a very busy woman.

Jess murmured to her world, “You’re so very beautiful,” and rose to leave.

The Secretary kept her waiting several minutes before bursting out of her office and announcing a change in plans. “If I have to spend another minute inside this room I swear I will break something. Grab your suit, pilot. We’re going out in a hopcraft.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” said Jessamyn, a small smile upon her lips. She felt certain that whatever the Secretary had to discuss with her, it would sound a whole lot better from inside a cockpit.

Within ten minutes Jess and the CEO of Mars Colonial were heading toward Gale Crater, a lonely place if ever there was one on Mars. The sun cast shadows long and crisp along the eastern slope of Aeolis Mons. A full third of the crater lay in deep shade as well, due to the mountain-like rise of the crater’s rim. Mei Lo directed Jessamyn to bring the craft to rest along the western edge.

The two sat in silence for several minutes. Jessamyn thought of Kilimanjaro, one of Earth’s great mountains, and how it had seemed immense to her as she’d flown past it mere weeks ago. Mars’s Aeolis Mons, or Mount Sharp, was the taller by several hundred meters. She tried to imagine Gale Crater swimming with wildebeest and