The Belt by Dale E Lehman

Author:Dale E Lehman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: One Voice Press, LLC
Published: 2023-07-20T14:31:35+00:00

Chapter 13

Flying sand engulfed their rover, dyeing the air the color of rust. Its tenuous fingernails scraped over the metal hull, hissing like a wraith probing for a way in. While the storm posed no danger to the vehicle, the Martian atmospheric pressure being so low, for hours sand whispered across the hull while inside Petrina and Martin Ulenga waited in anxious silence. Darkness fell, and still sand buffeted them. It blew through the night and into the diffuse glow of sunrise with no break in the storm.

They were six days out from Lowell, and nobody knew where they were.

“We shouldn’t have come,” Martin said. He huddled in the back of the rover, eyes closed, mind focused on his breathing. Images blew over him like the sand through the air, images of fire, destruction, bloodshed. He listened to his breath rise and fall while the violence slipped by and faded into the recesses of his brain.

In the front, Petrina fiddled absently with the panel. The storm blinded the craft’s vids and veiled their solar panels. Comm dropped out every few seconds, rendering updates impossible. No weather data, no GPS data, no nothing. “Must be a big storm,” she said.

The size of the storm didn’t matter. “We weren’t ready.”

She glanced back, irritated. “We planned the route, stocked supplies, everything. Besides, we’ve been out with Dr. Hernandez enough.”

“He forgot to teach us a few things. Like weather analysis.”

“It’ll let up soon.”

Maybe, maybe not. Most storms remained localized, but some swallowed whole regions or, on rare occasions, all of Mars. Rather than argue, Martin dug out food for them, popped open the self-heating packets, and took one to Petrina. “Imitation omelets,” he said. “Bon appétit.”

They ate to the hiss of sand.

After tossing her container into the disposer, Petrina tapped absently on the unresponsive panel. “You think I’m overbearing.”

Martin wasn’t sure he should admit that.

“Come on, be honest.”

“I guess. Sometimes.”

“You guess.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t—“

“We should. We never talk, Martin. Not about important things. Let’s be honest for once.”

He laughed. “You’re definitely doing it now.”

She picked at her fingernails.

“Yeah, you can be a pain in the ass, but I’m used to it. I spent my whole life following your lead.”

Petrina smiled a little. She tried the panel again, got the same results. No surprise, there. “I had to protect you. It was my job. I’m the oldest.”

“Not by much.”

“It counts.”

Martin grinned and shook his head.

“When you took up with that girl a few years ago—what was her name?”

“Val,” he said.

“Val, yeah. I realized someday it wouldn’t be my job anymore. Someday, you’d have a wife to take care of you.”

“You make me sound helpless.”

She play-punched his shoulder. “You are.”

“Yeah? What about you? Who keeps you out of trouble once I’m consumed with married life?”

Petrina stared at the sand blowing across the vid panel. It was nothing but a blur of rust.

“You never met anyone even moderately interesting?” he asked.

“Nope.”

Maybe she didn’t want to. Martin thought that sad.

She tried the panel one more time. “We may be stuck with each other.

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