“We are approaching Mars so return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts,” the stewardess announced as Maria sat up looking out the window.
She saw that they were gliding among the wispy clouds that made up Mars’ thickened atmosphere. The clouds were an off white, possessing a slight yellowish hue. The reddish rock was covered in a thin layer of vegetation, a green film that adhered to the contorts of the land.
The shuttle landed then came to a stop as everyone got up. Maria followed them off the craft, through a sealed tunnel that led to a terminal inside of a large bio dome. Everyone gathered their things then lined up, heading down a tunnel of shifting light. She hurried after them as she lowered her head peering under her hood.
She looked out the clear barrier that formed the walls of the bio dome at the red pebbles that were topped with a layer of moss. The rocky plain stretched as off as she could see, bending over the convex surface of the planet. The sun sat next to a distance moon, which appeared just slightly larger than a star. It was a small disk of light, a faded afterimage of the sun.
“You are going to need a translator to understand the locals and you will receive your currency over there,” a security guard explained as he gave one of the travelers a handheld device then pointed to a desk behind him.
He was dressed in a uniform and she was sure that he was armed. She could not allow herself to be spotted. She had to sneak pass him but the tunnel only allowed one person through at a time. She needed to divert his attention.
She bowed her head then set off the alarms, confusing the guard as she pushed her way through along with many others as they looked around for a potential threat. The security guard tried to calm them as she snuck by him stealing a translator and a sack of what she hoped was filled with the local currency. She hurried out into the main area of the bio dome, where the city laid, before anyone could stop her.
She paused, for she was taken aback by the greenery for she imagined the city as being sterile like space center. The houses of TerraConstruct sat amongst large trees, nested within climbing vines. Fertile gardens filled every yard and lush shrubs dotted the alien landscape. Stepping stones peeked from the freshly trimmed grass, leading to the center of the city.
She treaded lightly across the stones, passing people of every race united within their tight community by dependency, forging strong bonds of familiarity. Some had come to escape the effects of war and others has saved up their money to start a new life among the stars, desperate to leave the constant troubles involved with living in an underdeveloped country. Others simply came to fulfill a life-long dream but despite their differences they seemed to share a new culture, independent of earth. They all held a deep respect for life, for without it they would die in a matter of days. Girls wore flower dresses with wilted pelts forming the skirt and many walked about with bare feet. They spoke in an alien tongue, inspired by the combination of their languages.
She passed large orchards where various fruit trees, massive gardens of vegetables and other fruitful plants flourished. There was a barn where cows were kept, to provide meat and milk to the citizens. They were fed a mixture of algae, which does not take much time to grow and is highly nutritious. The lake was located at the heart of the city within a large crater. Large silos collected rainwater that were the result from Mar’s new climatic change, then the water was purified in large filters, the excess empting into the lake.
Flowers decorated the lip of the crater that was created by an ancient meteorite long ago, their petals drifted on the lake’s peaceful surface. The dense bundles of flowers formed an elaborate design that flowed up the gradual slope, clearly visible around the seller’s booths at the city’s center. Ferns lined the trail, their large leaves smacking her shins as she headed to the closest booth hoping to find something to eat.
Bens of fruit laid on the counter as the seller smiled, speaking in a mysterious tongue as she pointed to an orange as he held out his hand for payment. She took out the translating device then pointed at him as he spoke. She stared at the device puzzled wondering if it was malfunctioning for it said that he wanted a hand full of apple seeds. She shrugged as she showed him the device hoping he could fix it but he merely nodded. Her confusion deepened as she untied the odd sack, that she had stolen from the currency office, then reached inside. The contents slipped from her fingers like sand as she pulled out her hand to find a handful of black seeds. She stared at it as the man extended his hand. She handed the seeds to him then took the orange. She began peeling it with her fingernails, leaving a trail of citric shavings curled on the ground behind her. It was an odd currency but she guessed that farmers wouldn’t value anything more than the gift of life, for every seed held a potential to bear fruit. Each seed was an investment, ensuring their survival. Nothing could be worth more on this barren planet than the promise of new life and she assumed that more exotic seeds must be prized even more highly in such an isolated place.
A child just a few years older than Maria, walked over to her. He greeted her in their unknown language as Maria nodded unsure what to do. She searched for the translating device with her left hand as she held the orange with the other with Snickers hanging from the crock in her arm. He reached for her toy as she backed away.
“That is mine!” she yelled giving up the search as the boy titled his head then smiled, muttering a string of odd sounding words.
“Um, I am going to leave,” she announced as he grabbed her hood then cast it off staring at her face.
“Leave me alone,” she yelled losing her patience as she pulled her hood back over her head then ran off. She couldn’t take much more of this world. There had to be another city where she could live.
She stopped when she saw two men talking with a local. They were dressed in what she would classify as being normal clothing, without hand sewn pictures of trees or ferns on the front of their shirts. They were carrying out a strained conversation with the translating devices using gestures when their patience failed them.
“Yes, we want a crate of apples,” one of the men explained pointing to it as the local nodded then stuck out his hand. The man handed him a small sack of seeds which the local opened, extracting a single seed. The local nodded then turned away pleased as the two men glanced at each other briefly. One grunted leaning against the crate as if their conversation had exhausted him.
“If only they would speak English then this wouldn’t be so hard.” one complained as the other nodded.
“Yeah their language is kind of difficult since it combines all of the grammatical features of all the languages.” the other agreed as the first turned on his friend.
“Kind of difficult, I have lived here for years now I still have no clue what they are trying saying to me.” he reminded him as the other laughed.
“Yeah alright it pretty difficult now could help me with this crate?” the second asked as he began to pick up the large crate as his friend helped.
“The guys at the outpost better appreciate how hard we have to work.” the first grumbled.
“If it weren’t for us those scientists would starve because we both know they would not leave their labs to save their lives,” argued the second as the first laughed as they loaded the crate into their rover.
“Yeah let’s get the last crate and head back. This place makes me sort of miss Crater Canyon.” said the second as she watched them head back to the fruit stands.
When they were gone she looked back toward the rover. She climbed in beside the crate knowing she could not spend another minute in that city much less the rest of her life. There was a slat in the ceiling through which she could see the glass dome of the roof.
She grew still when the men returned with the last crate. She hide behind the other crates, holding her breathe when they loaded the back then closed the door, sealing her inside. She looked up through the slat as they both entered the rover then drove off, exiting the bio dome. An open sky filled her view as th
e rover bounced slightly over the beaten trail. She leaned against the crate as she ate a slice of her orange grinning to herself.
The men opened the back door lifting a crate outside as she waited for silence to fall before sneaking out. She held Snickers close as she ran across the large storage room, locating the door. She slipped outside as she looked around eagerly.
The houses were encircled in trimmed bushes with large trees on either side. The grass was kept short and there was a paved path that cut through the greenery. Huge lab buildings were situated in neat rows with their large windows open to allow the inward flow of oxygenated air within the spacious facility. Test tubes were meticulously organized, their clear fluids tinted with pastel hues. A pair of lungs sat within an enclosed container as they expanded and contracted eerily. The labs were simply marked with numbers that declined in value as she approached the outpost’s center.
The bio dome was not clouded with the condensation of a large population of people or the transpiration caused by a high density of plants. The haze was gone along with the unbearable humidity. Robots were at work planting hardy shrubs outside the bio dome as scientists rode around on rovers to report on the plant’s overall health.