wife. Was it wrong that he felt no regret that if the end came, they wouldn’t be together? No, he’d been the one to start this and he would be here for the end. All I ever wanted was to explore.
___________________________
“Lieutenant Shermer, ma’am, we have a slight problem in the main habitat,” the voice of the senior petty officer crackled across the radio.
“What kind of problem, PO?” Alanna asked as she stood with her back to the compound, enjoying the stark beauty of the Martian landscape, where a dust devil briefly swirled before collapsing again.
“Well, it’s a bit political, ma’am,” came the reply.
Out of my pay grade , Alanna mentally translated.
“Alright, PO, I’m on my way,” she replied.
Political complications were exactly why junior officers were sent on these kinds of jobs. Nodding to the shuttle pilot who was busy prepping for take off, she set out across the compound.
The walk wasn’t far, but in the unfamiliar Martian gravity only one third of Earth’s, Alanna was breathing heavily by the time she reached the main personnel airlock. The settlement, sited in the shadow of Olympus Mons, was the administrative and maintenance centre for terraforming activity in this quarter of the planet. She probably could have, probably should have insisted they just drop everything and get into the damn shuttle. But they wanted to make sure anything that could potentially go wrong in the next few weeks was either dealt with or shut down. Various flyers, flimsy things that would never be able to fly in Earth gravity, flitted about, moving materials into the central compound.
Mostly the evacuation had gone quietly. The researchers and technicians accepted that on a planet with no orbital defences, it was the only choice. If the terraforming worked as claimed, then someday Mars might be a garden world on which a person could stroll about in nothing but their skin – if the notion took them. But that was decades away and in the here and now, Alanna waited patiently as the habitat’s airlock cycled.
“Alright,” she said to the two men waiting just inside the lock as she pulled off her helmet. “What’s the problem?”
“This gentleman,” the petty officer said before the civilian could open his mouth, “wants to remain here. He even has a couple of others persuaded. He also has a piece of paper.”
The PO’s tone suggested this last point was the most heinous crime of all.
“Lieutenant,” the civilian said with a polite smile, “I am Professor Scalzi, the head administrator of this outpost. Could I prevail upon you to be allowed to speak privately?”
He was an elderly man, with sparse white hair and a friendly smile.
“Alright, Professor. But it will have to be quick.”
“Of course.”
Scalzi led her to what was clearly his office and waved her towards a chair before pushing his own from behind the desk next to her.
“Lieutenant, what your man told you was fundamentally correct. I and two of my colleagues would like to remain behind.”
“I’m sorry, Prof…” Alanna began.
“Please, hear me out at least.”
Alanna settled back into her seat as he continued.
“I’m aware that the orders from your superiors and mine are for the complete evacuation of Mars, but I would ask you to in part set those orders aside. Lieutenant, I don’t know whether you have had the opportunity to follow our work, but I would like you to understand that the terraforming of the planet is at a delicate phase. We are approaching the tipping point at which the process starts to become self-sustaining. We only have to get the atmosphere a little thicker and a little warmer, for bacteria to be able to work. But at this moment the process still needs monitoring and adjustments. If we all up sticks and leave, what we have achieved so far will start to degrade. We could lose ten years of work in months.”
“It’s not likely to be as long as months. If we drive…” Alanna