Stargazers

13. Taking The Scenic Route

     While Nathan and his crew were excited to be heading to the surface, what surprised them more was the amount of ships that were in the space station's hangar. There were at least twenty star-shooters, but the vessel they were taking was one that was at the end of the hanger and three times larger than the shooters. As they were walking up, Nathan ran his hand across the vessel's hull.

     "This is a personnel carrier," he said out loud to no one in particular.

     "We found this ship to be more conservative," Eric replied, as he limped closer, using a cane to walk up to the ship. "Uses less fuel and carries more people up. As fun as it is to use star shooters, if more than one person is flying up or down, these carriers are the better ones to use."

     "That makes sense," Nathan agreed, "I understand resources are not infinite so save wherever you can."

     "That's right," Eric said as he waved to the open hatch, "After you,"

     The three astronauts as well as Drummond and Saunders all boarded the carrier, which lifted off once everyone was buckled up and ready to go. Once they cleared the station, it was only a matter of minutes before the carrier was re-entering Mar's atmosphere and returning to the Red Planet. Once in the atmosphere, the carrier took its time getting to the colony, giving their new passengers a scenic route, to show off the great views of Mars while flying back to the colonies.

     "It's beautiful," Rachel said, looking out the windows.

     "The best is yet to come," Nathan replied.

     "He's right," Eric confirmed.

     Moments later, the carrier passed through what looked like a canyon but was in fact a crater, a very big one.

     "Whoa," Nathan said as he looked down. "What could cause such a massive crater? An asteroid?"

     "No," Eric replied, "I'm afraid this information is classified for the time being."

     "Sorry," Nathan said, "I don't mean to pry."

     "It's alright," Eric said, smiling back at him. "You're curious and that's always a good thing, especially if you're an explorer."

     When the carrier finally approached the colonies, the view was even more amazing than what the astronauts had seen from space.

     "Over the last decade," Eric explained, "We used the new metals we found here on Mars to expand the dome, making it even bigger. What started as a small colony of over thirty thousand people is now a city with a population that will reach fifty thousand within the next few years."

     "That is amazing," Gregory replied, "And you did this all on your own. I mean without help from Earth."

     "We knew from the beginning Earth's help was never guaranteed," Drummond explained, "We had no idea whether or not you survived the asteroid."

     "We barely survived," Nathan told him, "it's all on the media file. How we managed to break it up and avoid the major impact, but how devastating the smaller impacts were. Governments thought small impacts and the loss of some life was a far better than just letting an extinction level event occur."

     "Define some life?" Eric asked.

     "Over two hundred and fifty million just on the first day," Samantha answered, "We think another two billion and a half died from the post impact winters and crop failures happening all over the world."

     "I'm sorry to hear that," Eric said, thinking of the devastation even small impacts would have made when slamming into Earth.

     "It didn't matter where they hit," Gregory continued for Sam, "if it hit land, whole areas were devastated for hundreds of miles, but the ones that hit water caused tsunamis that killed even more people in the coastal cities. We were screwed no matter where they landed. Then the impacts also caused earthquakes and volcanic activity that also made life difficult after all the devastation. Needless to say, it wasn't a cake walk."