The Solar Sea by David Lee Summers

Author:David Lee Summers [Summers, David Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, Adventure, Fiction
ISBN: 9781897370834
Publisher: Lachesis Pub
Published: 2009-01-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Mount Olympus

As Aristarchus approached Mars, members of the crew went up to the hub to look out at the sight through the great forward window. Lisa Henry and Neb O'Connell went up together and spent over an hour staring at the rust-colored planet as it grew slowly larger.

"I thought seeing Earth from space was the greatest thing,” said Lisa. Her voice was little more than a whisper. “But I think this is even better."

Neb inclined his head. “I've seen the planet through telescopes, but seeing it in person isn't quite like I'd imagined. Somehow, it seems more real, like I can reach out and touch it, especially from here, where you can really see the polar ice caps and clouds drifting over the surface, just like Earth."

"You know what it makes me think of?” mused Lisa. “My grandmother used to show me these old black and white photographs that were kind of reddish-yellow with age. She called it sepia. The people in the photos were all relatives—long gone. Mars kind of looks like what Earth would if it were in one of those old sepia-colored photos. It's almost like Mars is some long lost ancestor of the Earth, waiting for us to come and visit."

Neb smiled at the idea. Just then, he caught sight of a potato-shaped rock, with one deep crater that took up almost a third of the surface. “Hey, it's Phobos,” he said, “one of the two moons of Mars."

"It looks more like an asteroid than a moon."

"They think it was an asteroid, at one time. It got too close and Mars captured it.” As he spoke, Lisa leaned in close. Surrendering to fate, he kissed her by the light of the silvery moon.

* * * *

The night before the landing, Myra found it virtually impossible to sleep. She tossed and turned until about two in the morning. She woke up, frantic, afraid she'd overslept only to discover it was just a little before three. With a deep breath, she lay down and tried not to count the minutes until her six o'clock wake-up time. Somewhere before morning, she finally did drift off to sleep.

When her alarm rang, Myra was surprised how rested she felt given that she'd had so little sleep. She threw back the blankets, padded to the shower, got dressed, and went to the galley to meet the rest of the landing party.

She found Dr. Nagamine already in the kitchen, drinking coffee and making notes in a journal. She filled a cup and joined him. Soon after, the others arrived. Jefferson's veneer of professional calm barely concealed sheer joy. Neb O'Connell and Lisa Henry looked like star-struck teenagers about to embark on the greatest adventures of their lives. Vanda Berko plodded into the kitchen, looked around and said, “Where the hell is MacDonald with our chow?"

Angus MacDonald showed up a few minutes later and assembled a large breakfast of eggs, potatoes, sausage, fruit, toast, and juice.

"I don't know if I could eat all that,” said Myra, aghast at the size of the breakfast that was laid before her.

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