Tag: Entertainment

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Earth and Moon

The HUD took over the front window, showing the fading blue of the sunset behind them. There was a particularly bright star shining there as well. “See that bright one there, near the horizon?” asked their mother. The sisters nodded. “That’s Earth,” she said, “and, if we’re very lucky…” she typed on her tablet and the HUD zoomed in on the bright star, splitting it into two: one bright and one smaller and very dim. “Yes, perfect,” she said. “This is using the telescope mounted on the roof. That little one is the Earth’s moon.”

Shelter: Generation Mars, Book Two

Coming in March

(image: Luis Peres)

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Dao Vallis

They reached Dao Vallis in the early evening. The dad rolled the rover right up to the rim and stopped. The girls stared out of the window, mouths open, saying nothing. Outside that window, the world dropped away. Where their minds told them there should be something, there was nothing. And below the nothing: chaos.

Shelter: Generation Mars, Book Two

Coming in March

(image: Luis Peres)

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LD Rover

The rover they were riding in was called an LD Rover (LD for Long Distance), and it was a beast. It had four huge wheels of compressive chain mesh that could roll over almost anything and absorb most of the shock. These were powered by an internal combustion engine operating through a sophisticated series of differentials that sent power to all wheels while allowing them each to pivot independently for steering. The engine burned methane, the easiest fuel to produce on Mars. The rover could move at up to 60 kilometers per hour on a flat surface and could crawl over almost anything it might encounter. The cabin was pressurized and roomy enough for four people to live, closely but comfortably, on extended trips. There was no airlock. Instead, the entire cabin was depressurized when the occupants wanted to go outside. It carried fuel and supplies for ten days, bulbous tanks of pressurized methane and oxygen and water riding on its back.

Shelter: Generation Mars, Book Two

Coming in March

(image: Luis Peres)

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Paths

Everywhere you walk on Earth, you can expect to find a path or a road of some sort. Humans (modern and prehistoric), coyotes, deer, cats, rodents, snakes, ants, slugs: any living organism capable of self-mobility tends to find the easiest way to move across the land and use it, over and over. Life that moves leaves paths. There are no paths on Mars.

Or, at least, there weren’t until humans arrived. The five thousand humans of Dawn Colony had created quite a network of roads and paths around their little town. But, travel only a little way from the colony and you were well and truly in for an off-road adventure.

Shelter: Generation Mars, Book Two

Coming in March

(image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell, tracks of Mars Exploration Rover Spirit near “Husband Hill”)

 

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Author copies

Author copies just arrived!
 
Shelter: Generation Mars, Book Two
 
Coming in March
 
#mars #scifi #childrensbooks #middlegradebooks #writingcommunity
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Outside

“I wish I could just goof around outside,” she said, finally.

“Yeah, I get that,” said her dad. He snatched the ball away again, stood up, dribbled it a couple steps away, than passed it back to her. “All of us adults have memories of growing up on Earth, going out when we wanted, goofing around outside. That’s why we built the Forest.” It was not unknown for an adult to climb a tree or grind a skateboard there once in a while. “It’s interesting that you are feeling this way, since you don’t have those memories.”

“I see kids on shows from Earth,” said Cas. She passed the ball back without getting off the bed.

“Ah,” said her dad, “I see. Well, it’s true that you can’t go outside the way kids on Earth can. But the thing is, you probably have more freedom to explore, goof around, and be a kid here within the colony than most kids have on Earth.”

Shelter: Generation Mars, Book Two

Coming in March

(image: Luis Peres)

 

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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)