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Back on Mars… with Nick:

I was unloading supplies from one of the remotes on the plain when I saw a bright flash of light followed by a loud boom and looked up into the sky toward the source. As I watched, I saw an incandescent red cloud rapidly growing and expanding in all directions from that area of the sky. I jumped when the starship suddenly burst out of the cloud at phenomenal speed and looked like it was heading straight for me. The ship decelerated rapidly as it descended, with a loud humming and howling emanating from it. The nose of the ship rose to face me as the ship suddenly stopped and hovered three hundred meters above the ground at the edge of the plain. It hung there silently facing me for a short time before emitting a low-pitched hum as it turned and floated across the plain toward the hangar doors.

At that angle, I couldn’t see into the bridge windows, but I had absolutely no doubt that Drew was in there flipping me the bird. Only Drew could fly like that…or would. As the ship sailed away across the plain, I raced to the buggy and grabbed the mike off the dashboard.

“Sammy, are you there?” I waited impatiently for a reply.

After ten seconds I was about to call again when she responded,

“Yes, dear. I’m here.”

“They’re back! The crew has returned! Better break out the bubbly and the horses douvers, or whatever they’re called. I’ll grab a bottle of Drew’s rum, because I found where he’s stashed it and we don’t have any bubbly. I’ll see you in a minute!”

I hung the mike back on its mount as I jumped into the buggy, spun it around in a cloud of red dust, and headed toward the tunnel into the city. As I raced across the plain, I glanced to my left just in time to see the starship’s tail disappear behind the mountain. After I parked in the airlock and the outer door had closed, I switched off the combustion engine and switched over to the electric motors while I waited impatiently for the airlock to stabilize the air pressure. As the internal doors finally slid open, I raced forward into the city and headed for the hangar at the top speed of the electric motors. I parked outside the cafeteria with a slight screech of tires, jumped out of the buggy, and then casually walked into the room. I was shocked by the sight of the crowd I found inside that room, and my pace slowed to almost a standstill. I hadn’t seen more than five people gathered together in one place since I had left Earth all those months ago. When I saw Drew and Mel in the crowd, I accelerated to my original pace to intercept them.

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“Well I think I’ll go to bed now; it’s been a long day.”

“Yep, I’ll be there shortly. There’s a couple of piloting things I’ve got to deal with on the bridge and then I’ll be right behind you.”

She laughed as I shouldered myself upright from the cabinet and walked through to the bridge, hitting the button to close the connecting door as I passed through. I stood at the control panels in the dark for a while staring into space (literally), the starlight from the windows and the greenish glow from the monitors providing the only illumination on the bridge. I stared out at the stars and wondered what the future held for us humans out there among them. I was becoming quite fond of the space station crew and was sure that they were no threat to us. Mel was right, they were a “nice crowd.”

The ship seemed to be heading in the right direction and didn’t seem to be heading toward anything to crash into. There was nothing flashing red on any of the monitors, so I decided to call it a night. I turned and left the bridge to go to bed.

The next few weeks seemed to fly by (no pun intended…maybe). When I wasn’t on the bridge, I was chatting with Vladimir and the rest of his crew in the cafeteria. Mel and I didn’t get much more studying done, and we didn’t really care. When I took them all on a tour of the bridge, Vladimir made appropriate ooh and aah noises, but I could tell he was not overly excited. After all, he was not a pilot. Boris more than made up for his leader’s lack of enthusiasm, however. He gave the controls and each monitor very close scrutiny, and he and Dick conversed in computer geek speak as they discussed the possible purpose of each and every monitor and control.

It was on the eighteenth day since we had picked up the space station crew when I detected a change in the flight characteristics of the ship before a warning bell started sounding on the bridge. I was in the cafeteria with most of our combined crews. I stood up and looked around at them, saying, “Don’t worry, the ship is just telling me that we are on final approach to Mars. We will be landing in less than four hours.”

“Should we be strapping ourselves in?” Vladimir enquired.

“If you can find something to strap yourself into you are more than welcome to do so, Vladimir. But it really isn’t necessary,” I said as I walked toward the door. Then I paused and asked, “Oh, can someone go find Dick and Boris and let them know?”

I looked out the windows as I entered the bridge and was a little surprised at how close Mars was to us. The ship was rapidly slowing in preparation for atmospheric entry, but it was still a little disconcerting how quickly Mars was filling the bridge windows. I grabbed my control headphones and put them on to guide the ship back to base, if for no other reason than to look useful if anyone happened to enter the bridge.

We were ten minutes out from atmospheric entry when I sensed movement behind me and glanced around to see the rest of the crew members filing onto the bridge.

“Is it OK if we watch?” Vladimir asked.

“Sure, not a problem. Take a seat if you like,” I replied. Then I turned to face the

windows once more.

“Here we go!”

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Vladimir chuckled as he walked over to the bed, grabbed a carryall, and deftly threw it to land at my feet. It landed with a thud and a metallic rattle, so I judged it to be quite heavy. He then turned to another carryall and pulled out two plastic cups. He set them on the table, pulled out a bottle, and poured some clear liquid into each, handing me one. I took a sip and coughed.

“What is this?” I asked between coughing fits.

“It is very good Russian vodka, comrade.”

“Really? Are you sure about that, comrade? I thought vodka was supposed to be tasteless.”

“The very good Russian vodka is not. Look in the bag, Drew,” he said, pointing down at the bag at my feet. I set the cup on the table, picked up the bag, and carefully set it on the table next to my drink. Then I unzipped the bag and looked inside. Perplexed, I reached inside and pulled a holster out of the bag that contained a  desert eagle pistol. I looked down into the bag and found two other holsters containing pistols. I looked up at Vladimir as he sat down on the bed.

“What the hell?”

“It is a sign of good faith and a gesture of trust. Take the bag with you and lock it away somewhere safe.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary. Or do you know something that I don’t?” I said jokingly.

“No. We are no threat to you; of that I can assure you. You have our undying gratitude for saving our lives and putting your own lives at such risk to do so. It is merely a gesture of trust. There has been too much politically and religiously motivated distrust between the peoples of Earth for too long, and look how that turned out.”

“Well said, and cheers!” I said as I raised my cup.

I took another tentative sip of the vodka and didn’t cough as violently as I had the first time. I guessed that my throat was getting used to it. I would have preferred rum, but we had left it all back on Mars, and besides, I wouldn’t have wanted to offend our guests. So I took another sip—it was more a hiccup than a cough this time.

“I only brought them with us because we were unsure of whether there might be unfriendly Martians that we would have to defend ourselves against,” Vladimir said, and I laughed.

“Tread warily, my Russian comrade. Technically, my crew and I are the Martians now.”

He burst out laughing. “Yes, I suppose you are—and soon we will be. Beep beep!” he

said as he raised his index fingers to either side of his head to look like antennae.

“There is something else I should give you a heads up about in advance. We have established no government on Mars. Crew members have the right of self-guidance, freedom of choice, and decision making, as long as their decisions don’t adversely affect or endanger their fellow crew members. If there is a possibility that something may affect others, then we hold a general meeting with the rest of the crew to consider it and a vote is held. That, however, has not occurred to date.”

“Good, that suits me just fine! There has been far too much oppressive governance on Earth for far too long, as well! Oh, by the way, I forgot something,”

Vladimir said as he reached behind his back and produced a pistol, which he held out toward me butt first.

“This is a Tokarev nine-millimeter pistol; it is my personal choice.”

I took the pistol from him, finished the last of my drink with great care, and gave him my cup. “Well, I better mosey on along and let you unpack and settle in. I might pop up to the bridge and see if the ship is still heading in the right direction and isn’t about to crash into anything large.

I stopped beside the desk and looked back at Vladimir with raised eyebrows as I reached for the weapons bag. He smiled and nodded his head, so I picked it up with my left hand, gave him a casual salute with my right hand, and smiled as I left. I went straight up to the bridge and checked the monitors. Every readout was a nice green color, so I carried the weapons bag through to my quarters and dumped it in the closet on top of my own weapons bag. Then I hit the button to slide the door closed and hit the red button to lock it. Now someone would need my personal code in order to open that door…or a bloody big sledgehammer swung by a bloody big bloke for a bloody long time. Only Mel and I knew the code. I jumped when I heard a voice behind me.

“What was in that bag?” Mel asked.

After my feet returned to the deck I  turned to answer:

“Why do you always sneak up behind me like that? Its a bag of pistols Vladimir gave me.”

“Why? Didn’t he think you had enough of them already?”

“He doesn’t know I have any. He gave me his crews’ pistols as well as his own as a sign of trust and faith.”

“He would; they are all a nice crowd. I don’t think they are any threat to any of us.”

I leaned back against the cabinet and crossed my arms.

“I totally agree with you. He offered them up on his own. I told him it wasn’t necessary, but he insisted that I take them and store them in a safe place, which you just surprised  me doing.”

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“I think we should take a break so you can pick out cabins for yourselves, unpack, and settle in. We’ll help you to pick the cabins and carry your luggage to them if you like.”

Mel and I followed Vladimir and Yelena to where the luggage was piled up next to the inner airlock and grabbed bags they pointed to while they picked up others and followed us down one of the corridors to the cabins. I stopped at one and pushed the panel to open it with my elbow. As the door slid open and the lights came on, I heard a gasp from behind me. I turned.

“This is our cabin? Just Yelena’s and mine?” Vladimir asked in shock.

“Yes indeed. It is very expensive but paid for in advance, my Russian comrade,” I said, and then I carried his bags in and put them on the floor next to the bed.

“You will have a lovely view of the Milky Way through your cabin windows, along with the remnants of anything we may crash into on our journey to Mars.”

“I know you are joking—at least I hope you are.”

“Are you sure about that? I haven’t been on the bridge for four hours now. We may have hit many things while I have been with you,” I said.

“I am not a pilot, as I’m sure you know, but I can recognize a good one when I see one. You are, now let me see if I can say this right, taking the piss?”

I laughed and responded,

“Yes, I am. Sorry about that; I can’t help myself sometimes.”

“Sometimes?” Mel interjected.

“We are perfectly safe. The ship is in autopilot mode and it knows the way far better than I do,” I continued, totally ignoring Mel.

“I am very glad to hear that. Where is the nearest bathroom, by the way?”

“Right next door—follow me.”

I walked past the bed to a door near the outer hull and pushed the blue panel next to it. It slid open to reveal the luxurious bathroom behind it. I then swept my hand around in a majestic flourish.

“All this is yours, my friend!”

“This is magnificent, unbelievable. Are all the cabins aboard this ship the same?”

“I don’t know; I picked this cabin at random. But the Martians certainly seemed to know how to live comfortably.”

Yelena and Mel excused themselves to check if there was any more luggage to be brought in. Vladimir and I moved to follow but were waved off. “No, it’s all right; if there’s anything we can’t manage, we’ll call you,” Yelena said as she walked out.

“You know what they just did, don’t you?” Vladimir said when he judged they were out of earshot.

“Yeah, they left.”

“Yes, so the leaders of the two crews can establish boundaries.”

“What boundaries? There are no boundaries. I be the captain of this vessel, Vlad, me lad!”

“Where is the parrot that should be sitting upon your shoulder, Captain?”

“I set it free by throwing it out of the airlock! It kept crapping down the back of my shirt.”

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Back on the starship... with me:

Mel told me later that once the crew had been transferred off the space station, she had led them to the nearest cafeteria and told them they could safely remove their helmets. As they did so she said to them,

“The captain sends his compliments and regrets that he could not be here to greet you himself at this time. He wishes to assure you that he will join us and welcome you aboard once he has safely steered the ship clear of the space station and set the ship on a course back to Mars. Meanwhile, feel free to help yourselves to any food or refreshments you wish and welcome aboard our ship.”

Apparently I entered the room very soon after that, and when I did I walked straight into a huge bear that wrapped its arms around me, hoisted me off the ground, and did a little jig before releasing me and letting me drop to the deck. It then extended its right paw, grabbed my right hand, and spoke in a booming voice from high above:

“You are called Drew, yes?”

“I am called many things and a lot of them are not very nice, but I am mostly called Drew.”

He quickly released my hand and took one pace backward, and then gave me an appraising look as he raised his hands to rest on his hips while he looked me up and down—mostly down; the bloke was a giant. A smile grew very quickly across his hairy countenance as his right paw flew towards me and playfully tapped me on the shoulder (it felt like being hit by a pile driver) then he grabbed my right hand in his viselike grip once more and wrenched it up and down again, which at least kept me upright from the playful tap to my shoulder.

“So, you are Drew!”

“Yes, I am.”

It would take at least a week for my body to recover from his greeting so far. The dark side of my mind was looking forward to introducing him to Nick, however. Once he released my hand and the blood started circulating through it again, I was introduced to the rest of the space station crew. They seemed quite normal compared to their leader, but then, who wouldn’t? Vladimir first introduced his wife, Yelena, to me. She seemed nice and was surprisingly diminutive beside her giant spouse, but then everyone looked diminutive beside Vladimir. Then Vladimir introduced me to Boris and Natasha Strezkeyen. (I kid you not—those were their names! It took all my willpower to keep a straight face.)

Although I didn’t react, they must have read my mind, because Boris said,

“Yes, like the two evil cartoon characters, but we are nowhere near as evil.”

I laughed and warmly shook his hand before Vladimir directed my attention to a Chinese couple, Yogi and May-tee Yee. Instead of shaking my hand, they bowed deeply before me as Yogi spoke.

“We are most honored to meet you, Drew. We are all very thankful to you for risking your lives to save ours.”

Not to be outdone, I bowed deeply right back at them and replied,

“It is our very great pleasure.”

Now that the social niceties had been dispensed with, we each grabbed refreshments, sat down at a table, and began getting to know each other. We chatted amiably for a while about many general topics—our training, our pasts, our roles on our very different missions, and of course the destruction of our home planet. I found all of the ISS crew to be highly intelligent, witty, and very entertaining conversationalists and I was totally enjoying the moment. In the end, it was Boris who steered the conversation back to practical matters. He glanced around the room then looked up at the ceiling, and then he looked at me.

“So, Drew, tell us: where the hell did you get this ship? Mankind sure as hell didn’t build it.”

“We found it parked with four others in the hangar of a deserted city built inside a large mountain on Mars.”

“You found a deserted underground city? Who built it?” Vladimir interjected.

“Martians,” I replied. “At least they were Martians when they built it. They obviously expected to live there a very long time or they wouldn’t have built it on as grand a scale as they did, and maybe they did live there for a very long time; there’s no way of knowing.”

“How big is this city?” Boris asked.

“Your crew and our crew could live on the same level and very rarely would we bump into each other, even if we traveled around a great deal. In total, there are eleven levels,” I replied.

“My God. And it is all functional?” Natasha enquired.

“Yes! Dick and Courtney got the power switched on and the city is fully functional. You don’t need a space suit to move around inside the city. What we’re wearing now is all that is necessary.”

“So, the six of us won’t crowd you out then,” Vladimir said with a smile.

“Six hundred of you wouldn’t crowd us out. We wouldn’t have even had to bring an extra starship.”

“That city is going to feel like a palace for us after the tin can you pulled us out of,” Vladimir responded. He then glanced up and around the room. “In fact, this ship feels like a palace after the tin can you pulled us out of.”

We chatted on for a few more hours and answered many questions about Mars, the city, and how long it would take to get there. By the end of those few hours, I had to admit that I was growing quite fond of them all. I then glanced at my watch and saw what time it was.