“Man…you ready?” Jeffrey asked. My heart was ricocheting around my rib cage. I never truly believed I would be here in this moment. Even when the rockets started rumbling underneath me, I had my doubts. My chest tightens with every breath. Yet I can feel the smile transcend upon my lips. I felt the goosebumps climb up my arm.
“Do I have a choice?”
“Hell no baby, you want to push the button?” he says. I have never felt so alive. This is it. This is everything we have been working for. Decades of training. Decades of trying and failing.
“I will give you that honor, but next time, I’ll do it”
He presses the button in his gloves. A small protruding bump in-between the thumb and pointer finger on the left hand. “Houston, I think we are ready to take our first steps on Mars.”
“Gentleman…” our leader, Dr. Veyol, voice rings across our helmets “… go make history”.
“Holy fuck man, we are fucking here” I tell him. “Hit that button when you’re ready.”
“On three?” he asks.
“One.” I said.
“Two.” he remarks.
“Three.”
The door moves completely silent. Melting into the wall beside it. My breath is stuck in my throat. I just watch it glide. Every part of me is so fucking tense. Every part of what I wanted to be is happening right now. Right fucking now.
Jeff takes the first step out. I followed.
Now I know many people have seen pictures of Mars. The rovers are something special. But I still did not fathom how fucking beautiful it all was. The soil was not just orange and red. It felt like there was more to it. Like the planet itself was glowing.
“Holy fuck”
“You will be saying that this whole trip, wont you?” Jeff laughed.
“Fuck yeah I will be”
Craters riddled the land. Varying in millions of different sizes. My body just wanted to observe. I wanted to just run around and look at everything. I knew the entire planet was watching us through our helmets. The entire world was watching every step. I wanted to explore for mankind. I wanted them to see everything I could. Though I am happy they made sure the audio was not public, at least not yet.
“Hey guys, we can see everything perfectly, are you ready to proceed with the mission?” Veyol says. I could hear the excitement in her voice. We did it. Mankind did it.
“Absolutely Doctor” this time I replied. “The rover should be a mile south of here, correct?”
“Yes, hopefully whatever made it lose connection was not an asteroid blowing it to pieces” she replies.
“Varuna, I pressed the button and took the first step out, so you lead the way, be the worlds eyes.”
I remember being a kid and going through every single picture of every planet I could get my hands on. I spent thousands of hours reading up on every detail I could find about the great beyond. And now I am here.
We don’t talk much for a little while. We both were absorbed, looking at our surroundings as we made our walk. Trying to remember every detail that we could. I knew I would probably go back and re-watch this film everyday until I died.
It was silent, besides my breathing. And even that was quiet. I felt the discrepancies and uneven footing of the terrain beneath me. I spent a few moments just lightly kicking and poking at the rocks around me. Watching them move and bounce against the ember-charred soil.
As we moved, we picked up samples of everything we could. Figuring out what happened to the rover was just a good starting point to go to and come back. We knew that it probably was not fixable, the main mission is to grab anything we can and bring it back to Earth. The goal is to comeback with any data possible, and try to figure out what to do with it later. The soil, rocks, air just above the ground, air at head level, nothing is safe. Knowing everyone could see us doing this gave me the most asinine happiness I had ever experienced.
“Jeff man, is this real? Am I dreaming?” I asked. I knew the answer, but I still needed the assurance.
“Oh its real baby” he pipes up. “I know it is just rocks and dust but I could collect these suckers for the rest of my life up here”.
“Maybe when we populate Mars, we can make that our hobby?” I joked.
In the distance I could see the mountains. Massive red fingers reaching for the sky. Digging into it’s skin. I stared for awhile. And I knew the rest of the world was staring with me. In-between us and the mountains were oddly shaped hills and massive rocks. They seemed random yet synchronized. Nothing will ever compare to this back home.
Veyol’s voice cracks through our headsets again “Guys, you should be coming up on the rover. It should be down in the crater in front of you.”
“Yes Ma’am” I replied into my headset.
The rover was looking into the potential chance of ice being at the bottom of some of these craters. As well as grabbing any pictures and samples it found. Since we were going to the rover the plan was to grab samples there instead of checking out the craters near the ship.
But I still was not ready for the vastness of peering over the edge. The sudden drop-off is uncanny to see. Realizing how much power these craters have to snap the ground in half as it pummels into its’ grave.
“Damn, I know we have tools to descend into this but fuck that’s insane” Jeff said. And he was right. Even prepared for this, my stomach dove into itself.
Veyol’s voice rings out again “That is steep gents, the rover should be at the bottom, and honestly you might even be able to see if from here, Varuna, make sure you’re looking at the middle of crator and we will see if its there”. They are able to zoom in on our video feed as well as change colors and hues to see things we can’t. I look down into the crater.
“…it is there guys. The rover is there and it’s not too far away from where you two will descend. And it looks to be intact. Do you think you both are ready to proceed?” she asked.
I look over at Jeff. He thumbed up.
“We are ready.”
The climb down was as easy as predicted. Even with my feet firmly at the bottom it still felt like I was on top of the surface, just with massive walls surrounding me. The crator was hundreds of miles across.
We walk up to the rover in all of her beauty. Orange and brown dust covered the rover but everything looked fine.
“Lets open this bad-boy up, I think the panel is…oh what the fuck?” Jeff says.
“Whats up?” I asked, not quite really believing I am looking at the fucking rover on Mars.
“…uhh look at this” he motions to me as he presses his mic. “Doctor, can you guys see this?” he asks as I walked over.
“…Yes, we cut the feed immediately” she says. Something is wrong. I can feel it in my skin. I peer over his shoulder. The panel was marked.
WELCOME TO MARS. DO NOT COME BACK.
