The escape pods landed at Ylthia Spaceport near the capital Ylthia. The little pods touched down one by one and were quickly loaded into rescue vehicles that took them inside the pressurized buildings of the spaceport. Spaceport staff opened the pods from the outside and the relieved passengers of the ill-fated spaceship excitedly talked about the narrow escape they had from death. All except one. Edward looked around anxiously.
“Anthony,” he shouted.
The others fell silent one by one.
“Anthony!” he shouted at the top of his voice.
There was no reply.
A spaceport official approached Edward.
“Is anyone missing?” he asked.
“Yes, my brother Anthony. He was with me before, but now…”
“That’s right,” Henry said. “There were two boys before. I can’t see the little one now, but I’m sure he left the spaceship. I saw him get in the escape pod myself.”
The spaceport official quickly consulted on a radio. He looked puzzled.
“According to our passenger list everyone is here, but you’re not on the list.” He looked sternly at Edward. “Can you explain how you and your brother were on the spaceship?”
Edward gulped. How could he explain about the dare he’d given Anthony? And would anyone believe his explanation of magic?
“Excuse me,” the same woman said who’d already come to their rescue on the spaceship.
“Shouldn’t you be looking for the missing boy and leave questions till afterwards?”
The official was about to say something but then thought the better of it. This was clearly beyond his authority. He went to talk to his superior.
When Anthony got into the escape pod he watched the little airtight door close in trepidation. The pod was released from the spaceship and for the first time he was weightless. A little piece of dirt came off his shoe and floated in the air. He blew at it and it shot off in the opposite direction where it bumped into the window in front of him. It bounced off the window and came floating back towards his face. He giggled. This game was fun! He played it a few times, but when the pod’s little rocket engines fired up to direct the pod towards the landing site the piece of dirt disappeared behind his head. Now the little window in front was filled with Mars. The pod raced downwards. Its heat shield became red hot and streaks of fire engulfed the pod. Anthony looked out of the window that was pointing up towards the blackness of space now to protect it from the fiery re-entry. The pod rumbled and shook violently. Then the heat shield was released and a parachute opened. The pod gently sailed down towards the surface, lower and lower. All he could see from the window now was the sky that gradually changed from black to a rusty red-brown. The distant sun shone on the parachute with its weak light. Mars is much farther away from the sun than the Earth is, so its light on Mars is much weaker. Suddenly a shadow fell on the parachute and moments later a rocky cliff appeared first on one side and then on the other side. And still the pod continued on its downward journey. It had fallen into a canyon! It was a deep canyon and as the pod fell down deeper the opening at the top of the canyon became smaller and smaller as it receded into the distance. An instrument measured the distance to the ground. At the last moment the parachute was released and a rocket engine landed the pod softly. Anthony looked out of the window. The top of the canyon was not visible anymore. Shrouds of mist floated around the pod which lay in almost complete darkness.
“Edward!” he cried. It was no use. There was no one to hear him. He was lost on Mars deep down in an unknown canyon hidden under a layer of mist where no one could see him and no one would ever find him!
Back at the spaceport angry passengers rallied around Edward and demanded that officials took action to find Anthony.
“This is an outrage,” Henry said. “You can’t leave a little boy alone out there. I demand that you find him.”
“But I’m telling you we have no record of anyone called Anthony on the spaceship,” a nervous official said.
“So what,” another passenger yelled. “This boy here is not on the list either and you can see him standing right in front of you.”
“Yea, that’s right. Do your duty! What are you being paid for?” a woman called. “Get out there and look for the missing escape pod.”
By the time spaceport officials finally decided that they had to launch a search and rescue mission it was nearly dark. Two drones were sent out and flew across the area where the missing pod was thought to be, but they discovered nothing.
“We’ll carry on the search tomorrow morning,” an official promised.
Henry looked concerned. “I say, how long will the pod’s oxygen supply last?”
It was a question no one seemed to have thought of before. The official quickly made some enquiries on his radio.
“A pod has an oxygen supply of 24 hours,” he announced. “First thing tomorrow the search will resume and there’ll be plenty of time to find the missing boy and bring him here,” he said optimistically.
“He could be here already if you’d started looking for him immediately instead of wasting hours arguing about what ought to be done,” a woman remarked icily. “Now that poor little boy will be all alone out there all night long. How very cruel!”
And with that parting shot she walked away.
Edward spent a restless night worrying about Anthony. He now bitterly regretted daring Anthony to capture a Martian. But as the old saying goes, it’s no use crying tears over spilled milk. All he could do was to wait for morning to come and hope for the best.
Officials at the spaceport finally understood that drastic and quick action was needed. Drones were sent out at first light to scour the area and ground teams drove out in every available vehicle. The entire population of Mars watched the rescue efforts on TV. Towards noon things were getting desperate. Edward was with Henry and his wife Jane, who had been so helpful the day before.
“How can officials here be so utterly useless and gormless!”, Henry exclaimed angrily.
“Now Henry,” Jane remonstrated with a glance at Edward. “We’re not alone.”
“But that little boy can’t have more than three hours oxygen left at the most,” He said not understanding his wife’s hint.
Edward burst into tears.
“Now look what you’ve done Henry. Think before you speak! I told you we’re not alone in case you’ve forgotten.”
“Oh, I’m sorry my lad, I’m sorry, I…”
But in truth Henry didn’t know what he could say to Edward. Jane tried to comfort Edward as best as she could, but the truth was painfully obvious to all of them. No trace of Anthony’s escape pod had been discovered despite hours of searching and time was running out very fast. Mars is an enormous place. The pod did not fly to the spaceport as it had been programmed to do. It could now be anywhere on the planet. It might take years to find it or it might simply vanish for ever until someone found it by chance many hundred years later. But Anthony only had three hours of life giving oxygen left. After that all help would come too late for him.
The minutes went by, every second seemed like an eternity to Edward who could not stop blaming himself for the dare he’d given Anthony. The drones kept widening the area they were searching in the vain hope of finding the missing pod before time ran out. One hour, two hours and still no news. The last hour had come. Several landing craft and any other machine able to fly joined in the search as a last ditch effort. They flew across the Martian surface at top speed while everyone prayed for a miracle. The third hour came and went and there was no miracle. The search was kept up until evening but by then it was clear to everyone that there was no hope left for Anthony.