Fast Cars and Intergalactic Speed Dating

34: The Martian Outpost

The Beyma landed on a large, disc-shaped platform attached to the waystation by means of a long, covered tunnel. As soon as they had landed and powered down their ship, enormous transparent shields opened over the ship, closing them in like the lid of an eye.

Once the shield had locked into place, there was a lot of noise. Richard looked worriedly from the screens displaying the world outside of the ship, catching Kavita's uncertain look.

"They are tempering the atmosphere," said Aialo-El. "Do not worry. This is normal. It will be safe for us momentarily."

The trio of Chorodonians was hovering at a short distance. Wessona rested a hand on Shashi's shoulder. "We cannot go, child," she said.

"Why not?" Shashi wilted. "We've been on this ship for so long, tesk-adai. I'm bored."

"It isn't safe," said Vaivala. "You know that. If we're seen, we will be in danger."

"Wow," said Garth. He stood far too close to the screens, although he had stopped short of pressing his nose to the glass like a child. He seemed oblivious to the fact that Shashi was having a crisis of disappointment. "This is awesome."

For several minutes, they waited, unable to see what was happening outside of the ship. Then, Ol-Maran gestured to the navigation pod. "It is now safe for us to disembark," they said. "I have entered the request for eylar gas. I shall exit the ship to connect the fuel lines to our intake."

"So we can get off?" Richard asked.

"If you wish to disembark, you may," said Aialo-El. "There is commerce in the central hub of the station. Although all of our needs are supplied, the experience may be of interest to you."

Bizarrely, it was the first time Richard had thought about money in weeks. Oh, he'd thought about money in the abstract, such as how much of it Kavita must have been spending on materials for the solar cells and how little of it he had to go back to, but he hadn't thought about the day-in, day-out of it. At first, he couldn't remember the last time he'd exchanged money for something. After some serious thought, he realized it had been the fifty quid he'd handed over to purchase his entry into the drag race.

Time warped and twisted around him.

"Don't suppose they take American dollars," he joked. He still carried his wallet out of habit; unlike his cell phone, it could still theoretically serve its purpose of identifying him and offering him the means to buy a place in the world. He probably had forty dollars in there, along with his expired insurance cards, a credit card he had been trying very hard not to use on Earth, and decades-old receipts.

"It is unlikely that they will accept American dollars," replied Aialo-El, insensitive, as usual, to the joke. They turned to the Chorodonians. "If you are in need of anything, please advise us and we will endeavor to supply it."

Vaivala clicked. "There is nothing we need that you have not given us, tesk-adai."

"Well, I'm going!" Garth cried, starting toward the navigation pod.

"I just want a look around," said Kavita. She grinned at Richard over her shoulder as she followed Garth onto the pod. Richard trailed them as casually as he could, trying his very hardest not to look like he was about to lose his mind at the prospect of actually walking in space.

The waystation was set up like a giant wheel with a central hub and numerous spokes leading out to platforms like the one the Beyma had taken. There were perhaps ten of these platforms, which boggled Richard's mind, since it presumably meant that there could at some point, perhaps even regularly, be ten alien vessels fueling up at a time.

Here. In the Milky Way Galaxy.

"I can't believe this hasn't made the papers," he muttered as he followed the others down the jetbridge and onto the platform.

"Believe me: a lot of work goes into making sure it doesn't," said Kavita.

Ol-Maran led the way, their tentacles neatly raveled in a coil at the base of their neck. At the bottom of the tunnel jetbridge, Ol-Maran broke from their party, headed to the left around the ship to see to the fuel lines. Richard and the other humans, for their part, stopped to look around right where they were.

Through the transparent eyelid that had closed over their ship, they could see the stars, and it was almost indescribable. The inky night was wrapped around them like the embrace of eternity itself, and the stars shone in their thousands, more stars than Richard had ever imagined could exist. They could see the edge of the planet Mars from their vantage point, looming, enormous, three times the size of the moon.

A short distance away was a large pair of metal doors that locked together like teeth. When Richard approached them, they hissed and pulled open.There was a bridge connecting their platform to the hub, a spoke in the wheel. It was covered with another transparent shield; as he and the others strolled along, they stared up in wonder like tourists at a cathedral, not quite able to comprehend what they were seeing.

There was another pair of interlocked doors at the end of the tunnel. The sign next to the door was longer than Richard was tall, displaying a message in dozens of languages and in nearly as many alphabets. He recognized Russian, and he recognized the shapes of characters that might have been Mandarin, but most of the messages were printed in languages he had never seen before.

Somewhere near the middle, in English, the sign said: CAUTION. SELECT APPROPRIATE ENVIRONMENT. SECTOR A PRESENTS OXYGEN-RICH ENVIRONMENT APPROPRIATE FOR BEINGS FROM CATEGORY 2 PLANETS. SECTOR B PRESENTS A NITROGEN-RICH ENVIRONMENT APPROPRIATE FOR BEINGS FROM CATEGORY 4 PLANETS. BEINGS FROM CATEGORY 1, 3, 5, AND 6 PLANETS SHOULD WEAR APPROPRIATE LIFE SUPPORT EQUIPMENT.

"Okay, don't freak out, Richard. We're on Mars!" Garth cried. "We have to go see the alien gas station."

"Do you know what category we are?" Richard asked, irritated that Garth had preempted his concern. "I didn't even know planets had categories. I'm not interested in suffocating in space, Garth."

"We're obviously Category two. Oxygen-rich. Right?" Garth looked at Kavita hopefully, his eyes wide behind his smudged glasses.

"Um," said Kavita. "I think so. It's either two or three..."

"I might just head back to the ship," said Richard. "Thought I'd nip out, have a look around. Done that, haven't I?"

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," said Garth. "Richard!"

"You were the one who got all weird about being launched into space," said Richard, feeling somewhat defensive. "Where'd all that go?"

"I was mad that it was an unscheduled space trip. But it's a space trip!" Garth ran his hand down the sign, frowning at the text again before referring to the door. There was a large lever on the door affixed to a circular panel painted half green, half blue. The green half was printed with the letter A in English and, Richard presumed, its equivalent in all of the dozens of other languages of the placard. The blue side was for B.

Garth pointed. "See? It's on A. That's green. So now we prolly just push this—" and he slammed his open palm down on a large, illuminated button— "and it'll—"

He was cut off as an enormous whirr reverberated through the tunnel.

I have to admit that I would be hanging out with the Chorodonians back on the ship. I would be too scared to wander out onto a space station! Would you stay on the ship, or would you check out the alien gas station?