![]() They moved in unison, almost marching in lockstep, except the door wasn’t quite wide enough to let them in abreast, so there was some shuffling as they filed in. As soon as the figures noticed the exterior door beginning to cycle open they all stepped forward together. I left the video feed open and initiated the airlock cycle for the exterior door. It meant that they were courteous enough not to barge in unannounced. That … actually made me feel a little better. They could have come inside already, if they had chosen to. For safety reasons they didn’t actually lock. This airlock wasn’t meant to keep people out, it was simply a way to keep the air in. Then it hit me, I didn’t have to let them in. I would either have to let them in or not. There was no way to talk to them, no loudspeaker to demand an explanation. Their hand described a short arc back and forth, waving, suit gleaming almost in an iridescent manner in the light. I’m not sure how I knew that, since I couldn’t see their faces, but my impression was born out when the lead figure raised an arm and waved at the camera. The helmets were featureless, glassy, dark colored spheres that I could not see in to.Īfter a few seconds of watching them on the screen the figures’ attention seemed to focus on the exterior camera I was using to see them. The skin of the suits lacked the usual accoutrements there were no knobs or dials or other exterior detritus you normally expected to find. The suits of all three figures were uniform in appearance, a shiny orange gold color, though the color was likely reflected from the landscape. Theirs must have been much more advanced, or the occupants were wasted away to almost nothing, because the suits did not appear to be any more bulky than a thin layer of cloth on a normal human body. Their suits were nothing like the suits I had for the mission. Standing in the midst of my lines were three suited figures. Directly outside this habitat I had created an interlocking latticework of pathways, reminiscent of celtic knotwork. Since I had nothing but time, I had later used the machine to create more aesthetic patterns out around the landscape in addition to the compressed walkways. This colony setup had included machinery to compress the regolith in to flat ground, which I had used to create paths between the various, discrete buildings. Outside the habitat wasn’t the dusty martian landscape captured in pictures by the rovers. When the camera view flashed up on the screen, I stopped breathing altogether. Not to open the door, but to activate the camera view of the exterior. ![]() It took three tries to activate the airlock controls with my other hand. My breath was coming in a little too quickly, a little too short. I put a hand on the wall above the controls, a touchscreen, and leaned my head forward to rest on my hand. The airlock was there in front of me now. I moved clumsily from chair to table to shelf, clinging to each for support. The sound came clearly, despite the pounding rush of blood in my veins. I was listening, intent for it this time. This was not that.Īgain with the knocking. Still the occasional bit did smack the hull and cause some pings and knocks. ![]() Fortunately that same atmosphere was thin enough that it couldn’t pick up any debris of sufficient mass to endanger my habitat. The Martian landscape was definitely not a place for an unprotected human. I was always a little nervous of random sounds. I felt frozen in place as my heart rate increased noticeably. It’s been 25 years since loss of contact. Luckily your mission was to construct the colony and you have enough supplies to survive indefinitely. The earth as you knew it was lost to a nuclear war between NATO and China/Russia.
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