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 Halley - The Next Time  (16 ratings)by Stuart Atkinson Page 2 of 2 Back in 1986, your teacher insists, (ignoring her class's hoots and howls of
disbelief), Mars had only been explored by robots and unmanned probes, but
tonight, as you stare at the Red Planet shining in the sky above your town
like a garnet, you know there are probably dozens of pairs of eyes staring
back at you from across the gulf of space; the settlers are busy preparing
to celebrate the 43rd anniversary of the first manned expedition of 2019.
The settlement on the edge of Mangala Valles has grown from a few
pressurised modules and huts, huddled together against the martian cold, to
the size of a small town, with its own crops, nuclear power supply and
laboratories. A creche and school keep the dozen kids busy while their
parents explore and study the planet of their birth, making it a safe place
for the young native martians to inherit. You have watched as the settlers
scaled Olympus Mons, clambered down the sheer sides of the Mariner Valley
and trekked across the snowy polar wastes. Mars is a genuine New World.
But in recent years manned expeditions have set off from Mars, pushing further into space, scattering flags, experiments and footprints half way across the Solar System, and as you shiver in the petrifying cold of the Halley-lit night you feel proud to be alive at a time of such excitement and energy. Although others take it for granted, you feel a tingle run up and down your spine every time you look out into the depths of space and realise that Man has journeyed as far as Jupiter, and has seen the behemoth planet's swirling storms and sulphourous clouds with his naked eye. You watched with wide-eyed amazement as the Commander of the first expedition to Europa planted her boots on its icy, frosted surface, leaving a footprint deeper - but much less permanent - than Armstrong's, back on the Moon. When she and her jubilant crew departed the whole world celebrated, and commentators gushed about how the New Frontier's boundary was marked by by the metallic United Nations flag planted in the frozen moon's fractured, brittle crust - and speculated enthusiastically about the nature of the organisms detected swimming about in the tepid waters beneath the icy Europan crust... Then you Remember. Fumbling around in your pocket your fingers eventually close around a familiar, smooth object, and you smile as you feel the rock's comforting weight. Holding the meteorite up to your eyes you catch a glimpse of starlight reflecting off its black, polished surface, and for a moment, just for a moment, it seems to have stars actually trapped within it, like tiny diamonds. Beautiful, so beautiful... You hold the meteorite up to the sky, obscuring the Red Planet from your view with it. You can almost convince yourself you feel a tingle as the two objects align, almost as if the martian meteorite is shivering with delight and longing as it feels the pull of its parent planet tugging on it, calling it home... Checking your watch you feel a lump rising in your throat, and placing the meteorite back in your pocket you turn your attention back to The Comet, shining so delicately in the sky, its tail glowing like a spray of faerie dust, and closing your fingers around the meteorite in your pocket for comfort you whisper to the team of astronauts preparing to land on the comet's nucleus at that very moment, clad in their protective, Samouri-like armour: "Bring back a piece of that for me too, Dad..."
Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2001 Stuart Atkinson, sffworld.com. All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the author. The author has submitted the work in accordance with and in agreement with the following Submission Guidelines. |
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