ANOTHER EXCERPT FROM THE SOON TO BE RELEASED NOVEL,'WE ARE MARTIAN.'

It was then that the Spaceman punched me on the arm,

“Relax Drew, I was just throwing an electro-magnetic spanner in your propulsion systems, feel free to laugh if you like.”

I didn’t. I had never met such a strange Spaceman before in my life, although to be perfectly honest I had never actually met a real Spaceman before. I’d met human Spacemen on my home planet, like Neil Armstrong a few times and ‘Buzz’ Aldrin a few more times when I was in Astronaut training. They were extremely personable, friendly and down-to Earth blokes, quite extraordinary when you consider that they had not only been the first men to fly to the moon and back, but also to walk upon it.

 Gorad was the first Spaceman I had ever met that was actually from another Planet, but I couldn’t help wondering what Planet this Spaceman was from and what percentage of the population walked around on it wearing Straight-Jackets!

We reached the buggy and I was surprised to find that Nick had not only not moved or acknowledged our presence with a smartarse comment but I thought I heard a slight snore over the com. channel. I leaned over and checked his oxygen regulator and found to my horror that the pressure was significantly lower than it should be. I was checking his tank to make sure that the oxygen feed valve was fully open when Gorad asked,

“Is there a problem?”

“His oxygen regulator is mal functioning, he’s not getting enough oxygen!”

“Oh I wouldn’t worry too much about it, they do malfunction sometimes.”

He then leaned forward, tapped the offending regulator and I watched in amazement as the digital readout started to climb back towards the green zone. After a few seconds Nick stirred then groaned, and I think farted judging by the sound I heard over the com. I raced around and jumped into the driver’s seat as Gorad climbed into the back, but instead of settling gently back into the backseat he was thrown into the backseat as I pointed the buggy towards the city and launched it at ‘full speed ahead’.

“You can slow down if you want, Drew. Your friend isn’t in any danger, except from your driving, that is. It seems rather pointless bouncing around the Martian landscape at great speed then constantly having to back track to pick up the passengers that have been flung out, don’t you think?”

I glanced back at the Spaceman in the rear view mirror as I eased off on the throttle. He was sitting calmly and completely at ease in the back seat.

“What the Hell is going on Drew?”

I glanced over at Nick,

“Your Oxygen regulator mal-functioned but Gorad fixed it.”

“Oh right. Who the Hell is Gorad?”

“He’s the Spaceman that fell out of the sky.”