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 Message Home  (12 ratings)by Stuart Atkinson Page 2 of 6 "That's great, thank you... You join us, on Mars, just before
sunset on day 56. Look at the colour of that sky..! Beautiful,
isn't it? During the daytime the sky is various shades of
yellow or orange, it goes through a whole cycle of colours...
peach, banana, apricot, butterscotch... we're running out of
fruits and deserts to compare the colours to! And at night,
when the Sun has set, the sky is blacker than black, a huge
dome studded with thousands and thousands of stars... the Milky
Way looks like someone has airbrushed it across the sky, and
because there's less air here, and less wind, the stars don't
twinkle as much as they do on the Earth, they shine like
diamonds or chips of ice...
"But between the two, between the bright day and the dark night, there is a time, perhaps an hour long, no more, when the sky burns with a different, richer colour. Look... see how the purple is starting to come through? Within a few minutes the entire sky will be that colour, like a huge purple velvet cloak thrown over the world, and over us... and when that happens we'll give you the first of our two gifts. Okay Murray, thank you..." (camera view shifts again, and Cdr Lewis reappears on screen. She is seen to be standing to left of MarsHab, having walked a short distance aay from it while the camera was aimed at the sky. Another figure can now be seen behind her, working at a large aerial-type structure deployed on the rocky surface.) "As you can see, the spirit of Christmas is not restricted to Earth, or even to Earth orbit, with all due respect to our friends watching from the Space Station. We have everything we need to celebrate the holiday right here... a dehydrated Christmas dinner is waiting inside for us, in the galley, and the DVD of "Miracle on 34th Street" is already cued up in the player. We all packed gifts for each other before we left Earth and the good people at Mission Control have given us the whole of tomorrow off, for which we are truly grateful. We even have a christmas tree, look! (camera zooms in on figure working behind her: the green-suited astronaut is decorating an umbrella-like communications array with makeshift baubles and tinsel made from food wrappers and packaging.) "And, just in case any of our younger viewers are worried that we're too far away for a certain kind, fat gentlemen to leave gifts for, look... here... recognise him? (camera shakes slightly, as if the operator is laughing, as a third figure bounds into view: a red-suited astronaut, whose suit and helmet have been decorated with white insulation foam to make him resemble a bearded Father Christmas) "See? There's obviously nowhere Santa and Rudolph can't get to..." (camera shakes again). "Santa stopped by here on his way to Earth, before he starts leaving presents for all you good girls and boys..." (camera shakes again, more violently this time). "Thanks for coming all this way, Santa!" (camera shows Cdr Lewis shaking hands with 'Santa' before the red-suited astronaut bounces out of frame again.) "I guess having him here means that, despite what the Mission Schedulers have been saying under their breath, we *have* all been good..." (camera shakes again, for several moments, and laughter can be heard off-camera as Cdr Lewis smiles innocently) "Now, time to tell you about how we all are. (pause) Everything continues to go well, here on Mars. The Hab you can see behind me is in good shape, no leaks or faults of any note. She's looking a bit dusty now, not that beautiful blue and white colour she was when we arrived, but we like it this way, she looks more... homely, somehow. We still haven't been able to repair that busted refrigeration unit though - the one that broke the day after we landed, taking a third of our frozen supplies with it - so we're looking forward to the arrival of the re-supply pod in three months, time... and again, on behalf of the whole team, I'd like to express our sincere gratitude to the men and women who worked so hard to scramble that out to us. The beers are on us when we get back. 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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