Month: January 2022

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Sneaky soccer

This was not Surface Training. They had not filed an activity plan. Nobody knew what they were up to except the four of them in that room.

Their suits had not been maintained since yesterday’s Surface Training session, but they still had plenty of breathable air in them, and the scrubbers were well below capacity. They would be fine.

Helmets on, they walked into the airlock, Cas carrying a real soccer ball under her arm. The ball was shrunken and soft. She’d let most of the air out of it, knowing that it would puff up again in the thin air outside. They closed the inner door. Cas was reaching for the panel to depressurize the lock when Sally’s voice came over their comms. “I think that’s far enough, kids.”

Busted.

Shelter: Generation Mars, Book Two

Coming in March

(image: Luis Peres)

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Poop-head

“Would you rather…” said Cas, “walk from the Forest to our hab with a bag from a loo on your head or walk from here to the ObsDome without a helmet?”

Ori smiled. Their mother had taught them this game. “That’s easy,” she said. “Here to the ObsDome without a helmet.”

“Seriously?” said Cas. “You’d never make it. At least with poop-head you’d still be alive.”

“Well,” said Ori, “Without a helmet, I’d have 15 seconds before I pass out. I’ve done that before, and it’s no big deal. Then I’d have a couple minutes before I’d die, and you or someone would carry me into the airlock in that time. That’s way better than poop-head.”

Cas had to admit that her sister’s reasoning was sound.

Shelter: Generation Mars, Book Two

Coming in March

(image: Luis Peres)

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Little sister

The little sister in that loo was very different than the little sister she’d known before the ObsDome incident several months before. That little sister had been scared of the sound of her own breath (a Martian idiom that only made sense if you’d been in a suit on the surface, where your breathing was the only sound you could hear) and unable to handle any task under pressure. The sister now using the loo had dealt with one of the worst situations that can happen on Mars: sudden depressurization of a living space. Ori had saved herself and her classmates that day. Cas had helped at the end, but the point was that Ori had faced the problems as they arose and calmly dealt with them.

Shelter: Generation Mars, Book Two

Coming in March

(image: Luis Peres)

 

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Loo

Cas smiled. “Now, press the button that says ‘Pressurize’,” she said. After a slight pause, she saw the sides of the loo go taut. “Let me know when the light turns green.”

“It’s green,” said Ori, voice high and nervous.

“Ok,” said Cas, “now you can open your suit and go to town.” She waited a bit. Then she made a loud fart sound with her tongue that left a splatter of spit on the inside of her visor.

“Cas! Stop it!” said Ori.

Shelter: Generation Mars, Book Two

Coming in March

(image: Luis Peres)

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Sisters

Cassidy Byrne-Alli was the first child born on Mars. That had been almost five years ago—Martian years, which made her almost ten in Earth years. Her sister, Oriana, had been born one Martian year later. Other children had been born since Cas as well. Those who were old enough attended the first Martian school—currently just one classroom shared by all ages. That classroom, and the rest of the colony, was deep underground in caves left behind by ancient lava flows. Kids older than four attended Surface Training three times a week.

Shelter: Generation Mars, Book Two

Coming in March

(image: Luis Peres)

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Hellas Planitia

Hellas Planitia is an impact basin in the southern hemisphere of Mars. Impact basin is the term scientists use when they mean “really big crater,” and, as craters go, Hellas is huge. Mars has two of the largest impact basins in the solar system, and Hellas is one of them. The object that struck here, four billion years ago, was big enough to leave a crater 2,300 kilometers across and 7,152 meters deep. The tallest mountains of Earth could sit in the bottom of Hellas and barely peek over the rim.

Four billion years later, the impact of that object turned out to be critical for human existence on Mars.

Shelter: Generation Mars, Book Two

Coming in March

#mars #scifi #childrensbooks

(image: Luis Peres)

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Third book cover reveal

Oye! Just uploaded files to my printer for the third book. Now some back and forth, digital and print, to iron out the kinks before release. If all goes as planned, preorders start February 14 for a March 1 release. Time to reveal the cover!

illustrated by Luis Peres