Second generation, p.15
Second Generation, page 15
“Surely it should be Leo,” said Demetria, “He’s landing team leader.”
Leo put his head on one side, “Well, as far as we know, it’s safe out there. Would you like to go first?”
Demetria was taken aback. She realised she was being offered an historic honour. The first Martian born to step on Earth. She also realised Leo may have had his fill of being first. And he was right, there was nothing to suggest she’d be in danger. They knew considerably more than when the first Earthman stood on the Moon. Or Mars. “Yes,” she answered, and turned to face the door.
She blinked and recoiled as daylight poured into the gap between door and frame, flooding the airlock. She had to rub her eyes, adjusting to a brightness she had never known on Mars, where the sun was almost twice as far away. The air tasted strange, but good. She inhaled deeply. It smelled salty, perhaps from the sea water? But it lacked a familiar tang. The iron oxide in the Martian air? Clouds covered the sky and yet diffuse light still dazzled, reflecting off the damp mud in front of her.
Each of them had a headcam recording what they saw, relaying it back to Stef on the Armstrong. Not only would Stef see what Demetria saw from the open door, but there would be several views of her from behind as she stepped out. Those views would be watched by five hundred Martians in about half an hour, and they would all be watching very carefully. Watching as her boot touched the grey-brown mudflat. It sank a little. When she tried to put the other foot forward, the mud sucked at her boot and she wobbled, nearly falling over. The exoskeleton bionics whined and helped her up. Another tentative step, then another. She was learning to keep moving to avoid the sucking mud from pulling her in. She found herself moving between two miracles of nature. To her left was open water. More water than she had ever imagined. To her right were trees. Thousands of them, which no one except Leo had thought possible.
Surely, she should say something profound. She’d seen the vid of the man whom their ship was named after when he stepped onto the moon, well over a century before. He had been the very first human to step onto another planetoid outside Earth. She was merely a descendant returning to it. She looked around her. All she could think to say was, “Earth is alive.”
“Yes, it is,” said Leo, stepping up behind her.
“Just as you said it would,” said Georgia, beside him.
“Just as I hoped it would,” he added.
“Just as well,” said Katya, “It’ll take a long time to dig the shuttle undercarriage out of this mud and I don’t yet know how we’ll haul it into a position to attempt a take off.”
Leo looked at her, “You mean we could be stranded here?”
“We’ll figure it out,” said Feng, putting a hand on Leo’s shoulder.
“I expect we can set up a lever to push the wings up off the mud,” added Chen.
Demetria looked between Feng and Chen, wondering how much they believed they could do and how much they were simply trying to reassure everyone. Then she caught Ursula’s eye. Ursula had a look about her that said mischief was imminent. She pointed to Demetria’s boots, then at the water’s edge. Demetria grinned and undid the Velcro straps.
“Hey, what are you doing?” asked Leo.
Demetria and Ursula didn’t answer, they just threw their boots aside and started running towards the water, giggling like school children.
“What are they… what are you doing?” Leo was saying. Demetria looked over her shoulder and saw Georgia and Samaira flinging their boots off to follow. Chen and Feng were doing the same. Soon only Phoebe, Katya and Leo were standing open mouthed as the others danced into the inland sea.
Demetria felt the cool water lapping over her feet. She laughed and scooped up a handful to sniff.
“Careful!” called Leo, “We haven’t tested…”
Ursula skimmed her hands through a wave and sprayed it over Demetria. Demetria screeched with delight and splashed her back. Then Chen splashed them both. Georgia and Feng took hold of Leo and pulled him into the water with them, boots and all. For a moment he looked horrified. Then he shrugged and sat down. A small wave lapped against his chest and splashed his face.
“Fascinating,” he said, licking his finger. “Still salty, even though it’s now an inland sea.” Then he peered into the water, “Oh! Look.”
Demetria saw a flurry of movement just beneath the surface. The reflections off a dozen tiny reflective bodies. “Fish!”
“Mackerel,” said Georgia, beaming. “There’s life in the sea.”
Leo sat quietly in the water and smiled.
“Are you boys and girls enjoying yourself at the seaside?” asked Stef over the open channel.
“Sorry Captain,” said Leo.
“Don’t be sorry, I’m envious,” she said. “And don’t call me Captain.”
It took a while to get over the novelty and fascination of the sea. In retrospect it was hardly surprising for people who had grown up on a planet where the only seas they saw were full of red dust. Georgia and Phoebe managed to focus long enough to take samples for analysis. Leo went to look for a dry pair of boots. Just as he stepped back out of the shuttle again, a shaft of sunlight pierced through the cloud and illuminated the tops of the trees, making them glow a rich gold and green.
“We have a duty to perform,” he said sadly to the others. “Time to bury the space station crew.”
Demetria and the others nodded and filed back into the shuttle to fetch spades. They found a stretch of beach further in land that was dryer. The ground was soft and easy to dig, but it was still hard work. She was glad of her exoskeleton, whirring as she pulled each shovelful of soil out. By the time they had four deep long holes dug she had a headache. No doubt the excess carbon dioxide in the air.
They carried out the makeshift coffins and lowered them into the graves, one at a time. Then Leo invited them to stand in silence, heads lowered in respect.
“It isn’t fair,” he said, some minutes later. “That we stand here and these people now lie in the ground. It isn’t fair that we were granted the gift of life while theirs were taken. So, we should make the most of life… on their behalf.”
Demetria looked up at her father, surprised. Georgia was raising her eyebrows too.
“Time to explore,” Leo said, pointing to the forest. “I think it would be a good idea if Feng, Chen and Katya stayed with the shuttle for now. Perhaps you could start to think of ways to get it on its wheels?”
“Sure,” said Feng.
Chen looked disappointed not to be coming with them but nodded his agreement.
Katya seemed relieved.
“We planned to take it in turns,” added Leo. “Always a few to stay by the shuttle, ready to bring help if needed.”
Demetria fell into step beside Georgia as they walked across the mudflats. “Leo seems to be taking his role seriously.”
“So he should,” said Georgia. “Our lives may depend on it.”
Demetria frowned. The landing had been frighteningly dangerous. They had flown over many thousands of miles and seen the destruction of civilisation. Yet here they were, walking towards a sunlit forest after a dip in the sea.
It did not seem real.
Nearing the tree line, Georgia paused and looked up, squinting through her raised hand at the shafts of late sun that filtered through the canopy from the far side. “Pine trees,” she said, “Must have started growing only ten years after the impacts. They’re almost twenty metres high already.”
She walked forward so she stood under the nearest tree and knelt on a fine layer of green needles. Georgia put a white medical glove on and pushed her fingers into the soil, scooping it up to examine. It was jet black. “Ash mixed in with decayed needles,” she said and pointed out a blackened stump beside the young tree. “Looks like there were trees here which burned in the fires that ran around the arctic circle.” Then she pulled a half-buried pinecone out of the soil, turning it over in her hands, examining the exquisite pattern of tightly wrapped petals overlapping in perfect spirals. “Never thought I’d touch one of these,” she whispered. She looked around at others lying on the ground. “The petals haven’t opened on any of them. Bradyspory. That might be how these trees survived.”
“What do you mean?” asked Demetria.
“Most pinecones opened before they dropped, to release their seeds. But some dropped and only opened when the environment gave them clues that it was okay to propagate. Perhaps these cones waited. After the fires and tsunamis. After the worst of the acid rain and cloud cover: a little sunlight, a little warmth and… well, just look.” She raised her hand to the pine that soared above her, shaking her head in wonder.
Demetria reached out and ran her hand across the bark. Rugged dry layers with splits. She pulled gently at the edge of one and it came away easily in her hand. She felt guilty, as if she were vandalising Earth already. But underneath she saw movement and leaned in to take a closer look.
“Mum, look! Worms!”
“Not worms, larvae. I read that some moths and butterflies fed on pines and even bred in them. Perhaps some larvae were buried in the ash and woke with the first pines. Heavens above, if we have insects in these trees then I wonder what else might have survived.” Georgia started filling collection boxes with larvae, pinecones, chips of bark and needles. Demetria was delighted to help.
They were so absorbed it took a while to notice Leo standing behind them with something in his hand. “I found this a little further in,” he said, holding out a sample box containing a dark brown pellet the size of a pea.
Georgia and Demetria peered at it.
“That’s animal faeces,” said Demetria confidently.
“I’m not sure if I should be proud of my daughter for being the team poo expert,” said Leo with a wry smile.
“I believe she could be right,” said Georgia giving it a tentative sniff. “It seems recent.”
“Well, judging by the size of it, the owner is unlikely to be threatening,” he said. Then he looked at Demetria who was staring intently into the forest. “What’s up?”
“Where are Samaira, Ursula and Phoebe?”
“Just there,” said Leo, pointing further up the edge of the treeline.
Now Demetria could see them too. Phoebe was taking measurements of the light, while Ursula and Samaira marvelled at the pines. “Have any of the others left the shuttle?” Demetria asked.
Leo used his tablet to magnify his view of the shuttle. “No, I can see all three of them, scratching their heads and pointing at the buried undercarriage.”
“Then there must be something else in the forest that makes bigger droppings than that.” Leo and Georgia followed her outstretched finger. “There.”
“Where? What do you see?”
There it was again. A shadow flickered between the pine trunks and disappeared. It was tall. Almost the same height as her. “Did you see that?”
Leo frowned. Maybe he’d seen it too.
“It could just be the branches moving,” said Georgia.
“We’re here because we received a signal,” said Leo. “There could be people.”
“Then why don’t they come and greet us?”
“They may not know who we are. We may look strange to them,” he said, raising his hand and indicating the exoskeleton that supported it. “Perhaps threatening.”
“Our average height is ten centimetres higher than people born on Earth,” said Demetria. “We have amber eyes and we’re wearing bionics.”
“And we just crash-landed on the beach in a space-craft,” added Leo. “I suggest we head back there. The light is fading, and I’m tired. We should sleep there tonight for safety. Continue exploring in the morning.”
Georgia and Demetria nodded and started packing up their specimen boxes. Demetria now realised that she was exhausted. Adrenaline and bionics had kept her going far longer than she would have otherwise managed and she was starting to feel another headache coming on. The higher CO2 levels were taking a toll. Leo went to fetch Phoebe and Ursula, while she followed her mum back. When they reached the shuttle, Leo proposed a rota to keep watch.
“Watch for what?” asked Chen.
“Butterflies, rabbits and other neighbours.”
He gave Leo an odd look but volunteered to take the first watch.
They heated some vegetable soup and sat in a circle at the back of the cabin, listening to the night through the open door. The air was still eighteen degrees outside, and no one had the heart to suggest closing it. And there was no point trying to conserve Martian air in the shuttle now. Waves gently lapped the shore. Branches brushed each other in the breeze. She had heard these sounds on old archive vids but listening to them now moved her. They were real. Overwhelmingly real.
Demetria unpacked her hammock and strung it up across the side of the cabin. Chen was silhouetted in the doorway. A faint glow coming from the sky. She tossed and turned for a while but, despite her exhaustion, could not sleep. The presence of living Earth continued to press her consciousness. Eventually, she swung her legs down and joined Chen.
“Hi D,” he said, without turning.
“How did you know it was me?”
“You smell nice.”
“I do?”
“Yeah. Shh. Look up.”
Demetria looked up and her mouth dropped open. Of course, she had seen the stars from The observatory in Tithonium. But this felt different. Special. There was no lens or bubble or visor between her and the night sky. She could smell the salt air. Feel its cool breath upon her cheek. The rings around Earth, pale in the day, now shone with an ethereal light and they clipped the edge of bright crescent. The Moon.
She stretched her bare feet out, so they touched the ground below then buried her toes into it, wriggling them in the cool mud. She had never been anywhere so alien. So beautiful. So… surreal.
Demetria woke in her hammock. Had Chen lifted her into it? She heard gentle background noises of voices from outside the shuttle against that lapping of the waves against the shore. She stretched and rolled out onto her feet. There was a moment of disorientation and nauseating heaviness before she realised that she was still being dragged down by Earth gravity. She struggled into her exoskeleton and stumbled outside.
She was almost blinded. The sunlight hit her with physical force, making her reel like a drunk. She grabbed the frame of the door and rubbed her eyes.
“Good morning, D.” She recognised Chen’s voice before her eyes could adjust to see him. “Put these on,” he said pressing something into her free hand.
She squinted at it, “Oh! Sunglasses.”
Martians never had need of sunglasses. Some technicians wore eye protectors when welding, but the sun was never bright enough to trouble their eyes. Leo had warned the team that the sun on Earth would seem uncomfortably bright, but few had taken it seriously because of all the cloud cover. He had designed the sunglasses with Demetria anyway and printed off one for each the landing team. Demetria put them on, immediately feeling more comfortable. She marvelled at the blue shimmer around reflections from other people’s glasses and off the cups of tea they were holding. Polarised glasses were fun.
“We are over twenty kilometres from the location of the signal,” said Leo, pointing east along the shore and into the sun. “I propose we make three groups today. I’d like Chen, Ursula and Demetria to help me search for the signal. I’d like Feng and Katya to keep working on ideas to raise the shuttle, sorry guys.” They smiled and waved his apology away. “Georgia, I know you want to continue your studies on the trees. I suggest Phoebe and Samaira go with you to continue meteorological measurements and you all stay in contact on the open channel.”
Everyone seemed satisfied with the arrangement, though there was a slight frown from Georgia, “Look after yourselves,” she said, looking at Demetria and the others in the search team. Perhaps she was thinking of the shadow Demetria saw in the forest the previous day.
Leo and Feng had already unpacked one of the mini rovers from the shuttle. As well as battery packs, it had its solar panels unfurled, soaking up the sunlight like a basking creature. There was just room for the four search team explorers and a pair of inflatable dinghies stowed at the back. Leo reminded them the signal was just offshore, so they’d need to sail out to find it. They set off, along the beach. The wide rimmed wheels threw arcs of mud up behind them as they rumbled along at a stately fifteen kilometres an hour. Faster and less tiring than walking. Slow enough to look around.
Sunshine, sunglasses, sitting in the back of the rover beside Chen, Demetria had the odd sensation of being a tourist in one of the enormous theme parks that she had seen on old vids. She smiled, looking out across the inland sea which glittered as the sun caught a thousand wavelets at just the right angle, each tiny reflection edged in blue. She looked back at Chen who was smiling too, tipping his head back to luxuriate in the warmth.
Ursula drove. She had untied her strawberry blonde hair so that it flowed behind her. With her sunglasses on she reminded Demetria of a movie star from one of the same vids. Leo turned his head from left to right, sweeping the view before him. After about an hour he called a halt and stepped out. They had come to the edge of a river which fanned out across the mudflats. Rushes lined its edges, which reminded Demetria of those that had been grown along the edge of the tiny Tithonium lake. There was an odd droning sound. Tiny specks dashed back and forth over the rushes. Insects.
She got out of the rover and walked to the water edge. A few had settled on the long sap-green fronds. She knelt to watch as a fly skittered along the length of a frond that was backlit by sunlight. Then she heard a different tone, the sound of larger wings. A huge insect with paired wings and a long abdomen hovered, watching the fly. It darted in and the fly sprung off, escaping. The predator hovered, indecisive, then settled on the back of Demetria’s outstretched hand.
“A dragonfly,” whispered Leo. “You are favoured.”
“Put out your hand,” said Demetria, quietly.
He unfurled his hand next to hers. The dragonfly turned around, eyeing the new vantage point that was slightly higher, then hopped across. Leo’s eyes went wide, his mouth round. Demetria had never seen such delight in her father’s face before. It both lifted her yet made her deeply, inexplicably sad. The moment fled. The dragonfly’s wings were a blur as it lifted off in search of food. Leo breathed out and smiled from ear to ear.
