alley, shops, cafe’s and restaurants. The whole architecture was in a Venetian style with the pastel colours, and iron railed balconies.
The recreational level, was regarded by many as the station’s main high street. It connected the first sphere with the rest of the space station. As the Magellan's walked along it, Mars passed a mixture of technicians looking for their next purchase. He too looked at the many multicoloured shop windows and craved to wear something other than his uniform. They passed by the cinema and bowling alley and turned constellations corner, which displayed enormous advertisements similar to Time Square. Mars watched as the latest advert from Galactic Travel played, it made space travel look so exciting. Soon they approach themed restaurants along a cosmopolitan high street. He stopped for a few minutes envious of the tourists who toured around the universe in luxury. When he tried to catch up with the rest of his family he had an uneasy feeling that he was being followed, so he quickened his pace only to hear louder footsteps behind him. Suddenly a man grabbed his shoulder. ‘I think you have dropped this?’ the man towered above the boy.
Mars panicked and struggled against the man’s grip, but before he could shout out to Wolfe the man placed a small disk no bigger than a coin in his hand. ‘No need to be startled, I am your friend.’ The man’s eyes glowed a strange colour as he half lifted his goggles.
‘What is it?’ Mars asked.
‘Something that will help you in the future, it contains information for the space ship.’ He winked, and before Mars could react the man had disappeared into the crowds.
Mars looked at his reflection, and the flags hung outside restaurants and shops shown on the disk. The rustic coloured fronts were a nostalgic throw back to the 21st century. The boy placed the disk in his side pocket, suddenly his console vibrated, and when he pulled it out the disk had disappeared. Mars breathed in the smell of fresh bread and wafts of mouth watering flavours could be tasted in the air, a mixture of Asian and continental food being prepared for the prospective customers of the day.
A few moments later Wolfe broke off from the rest of the family as they entered the rouge coloured doorway of Cafe Expresso to greet Giuseppe. ‘Bonjorno.’ The two men waved an acknowledgement to each other before Giuseppe summoned an assistant to bring their order; a handled carton box soon appeared. ‘Maria, could I also take out a cappuccino, a latte and two bottles of water with the order,’ Wolfe asked?
She nodded and worked her magic on the authentic coffee machine, soon two cardboard cups materialised along side their order on the counter.
Halley swiped her arm past the shops till, for her IGE Community card to be debited and then pinched a mint from near the cash register for herself.
‘Gratzi, Ciao,’ she said before moving onto her next customer.
The Magellan’s quickly exited the shop and stepped back outside, carrying all that they needed for their picnic. Mars felt the artificial sun warming his face as his shadow appeared on the cobbled street; the moment was filled with happiness that the family had not shared for a long time. They rushed on negotiated their way through the public area of the Eco Zone and cautiously disappeared from view into the woods to the Laboratory’s restricted zone. His mother swiped here community card to access the security gate before they walked down a steep banking to fields that hugged a lake, all of it used for scientific research.
Halley laid the picnic out as Mars ran towards Wolfe who was walking down to shoreline carrying everything needed for the dive. Before him was the expanse of water they were soon to explore, behind he could hear his mum and Capella playing ball games. Sweeney was chattering away with other birds of his species. Robo had already disappeared into the undergrowth to retrieve a stick to play with.
‘Wait for me dad.’ Mars quickly covered the ground between them negotiating obstacles in his way down to the sandy shore at the waters edge.
‘For a boy of eleven you should be able to do this on your own,’ Wolfe teased. It was only the third time he had brought Mars to dive with him at the secluded lake; Wolfe recalled how the boy, a strong swimmer had struggled at first to use the equipment. But Wolfe had realised the importance of acclimatising his son to harsh environments where there was no oxygen. The time would soon come when Mars would be thrust into completing his first space walk outside the station, at which point his dad would want him to be as confident as possible in dangerous unforgiving, places. In effect like Cappella before him, the diving lessons were part of his initial space training.
Mars lay down on the sandy bank and looked out across the open water. The view was breathtaking but also an optical illusion. What appeared to be the horizon, was an artificial vanishing point painted onto the inner wall of the sphere to add dimension. Like elsewhere in this open space what the eye saw was not always reality, artistic license had artificially eliminated any visual boundaries. To the eye the land before them carried on over the horizon, above him there appeared to be clouds scattered in the heavens, an artificial sun warmed his body as light filtered down onto the experimental zone around them.
In amazement, he watched as alien wildlife revealed itself to the visitors, in the water unusual fish and turtles swam in the currents. Back in the woods Robo chased a fire coloured phoenix from the undergrowth, which startled a herd of six legged goats from drinking along the lakes shore. The Magellan family sat quietly observing brightly coloured butterflies sitting on exotic flowers. Large winged dragonflies sat on orange water lilies and a strawberry coloured crab scurryied along the shoreline.
Halley’s jaw dropped. ‘I cannot believe it. How many nights have we sat out here in the observation hut and never seen a single trace of these species?’
Wolfe interrupted, ‘Yet today they have all come out to greet us.’ He smiled.
Mars looked down to his pocket inside his uniform the metal console flashed a spectrum of different colours, as high-pitched signals were sent out into their surroundings.
The Magellan’s relaxed and accustomed themselves to the spectacle of alien behaviour contained in this wonderland, before Wolfe concentrated on the task in hand quickly testing the oxygen bottles and gauges so they were ready to put on their backs. They slipping on their goggles and adjusted them. ‘Remember to stay close to me as we descend to the bottom,’ Wolfe spoke with a tone of caution. With the alarm on his watch set for 40 minutes, they eventually gave a thumbs up signal and dove into the crystal clear azure waters.
The initial shock of the cold-water temperature sharpened his senses. The wet suit was not made of the resilient material, which his uniform was made of and so his body had to adjust its own metabolism to keep warm blood flowing to his limbs. After a few minutes, the water trapped in his suit warmed to body temperature and the boy felt more comfortable. Initially he had been concentrating on his breathing to make sure he could inhale oxygen without panicking. This time he seemed to have mastered the artificial flow of air so the dive could continue.
Wolfe had set an objective on this dive, to retrieve coloured diving tubes. The set of five brightly coloured tubes had a weight attached to their base, which made them sink to the lakebed some 60 meters below them. They both swam close together heading down into the depths, occasionally Wolfe would gesture with a thumb and Mars would respond with a perfect sign. Wolfe had said, ‘It was essential to communicate constantly at these depths to prevent accidents from occurring.’ On the descent Wolfe constantly reminded him of procedures. The light after 40 meters started to dim, Mars marvelled at the different alien species of fish swimming in shoals around and below them. At this depth, the fish were silver compared with the coloured fish, which swam nearer the shoreline.
As their lonely figures became silhouettes Wolfe adjusted a light strapped around his forehead, the beam of light illuminated a path to follow. Around them the water turned a darker shade of blue as they began to see the plant life, Mars would certainly have his work cut out finding the diving tubes amongst these reeds. He turned his light on breathed
deeply on oxygen before looking upwards to see bubbles rising, the air pockets reflected different colours as they trickled away to the surface. The boy’s attention now concentrated on the swaying reeds around him, he began to walk on the lakebed like an Astro-technician on a planet’s surface Wolfe quickly retrieved the first bright orange diving tube; then motioned four fingers to him and then pointed his arm to an area of reef and reeds where the other tubes would be located. From his belt, he provided a net bag to place the tubes within.
The two figures swam and hovered over the reeds looking down to see what was hidden there. Mars shone his light over to his left and Wolfe to the right the two beams overlapped as they scoured the area in front of them. Suddenly Mars was attracted towards a splash of colour, he broke away and ventured to where the reeds were thinner and saw a light green tube. He retrieved it and then continued finding the other tubes until he accomplished his task.
Once all the tubes were in his bag, Mars ventured away from the reads. He was attracted by a giant golden lobster, which reflected his torchlight. He followed the creature to a ledge where the seabed dropped another 20 meters; the lobster had quickly