Seeing Red

Thad had been in that cave for so long that his dreads were soggy and his brown face was covered by a wooly beard. And–---he reeked.

It wasn't like Kelly smelled much better, but at least she dipped herself in one of Rana's red rivers once in a while and took measures to shave her tan legs.

"I've built it!" Thad shouted, jumping up and down like a mad man. "I've built it! We're going to get off this", expletive, "planet!" His body sweat with joy.

Kelly looked up at the twin suns of Rana and sighed.

"Sure Thad, tell me anything." She sat up looked down at the rocket ship. God, I wish I'd landed here alone, she thought.

"Aren't you tired of this place? Nothing but red--red stones, red plants, red dirty red water, red everything! Even the air looks red sometime! God, I feel like I'm living in a pool of blood."

She nodded. "I know. Everywhere we've been even smells like blood. Doesn't it smell kind of sweet, though? Like a nosebleed?"

"You're sick." He looked back at the disc with fiendish eyes. "This little piece of firmware is going to end our month of exile." He kissed it. "To think that we nearly got stranded down here because the Company wanted to skimp on parts. We'll beat our SOS back to Earth. I'm sure of it." He waved at the air. "And I'll be rid of these little red things."

She shook her head. "Relax, Thad. All of our testing said these little red microbes are harmless, except for their addictive qualities. Since we don't know the side effects of withdrawal from them, I think we should wait until Earth gets out signal. It'll only be a couple months before the signal gets back home."

He gritted his teeth. "Why wait? Besides, it's hard to relax when everything looks like this!"

"Oh hush! Can't you just adapt and thank God we're alive? You don't hear about people who live in snow being bothered by a white landscape, do you?" She smiled. "Besides, the red is kind of peaceful."

Thad stomped. "You're crazy if you think I'm going to stay here. This disc is our ticket home!" I'm going down to the ship to see if it will work. You coming?"

Kelly shook her head. "No, Thad, you go. If it works, just start up the ship. Ok?"

"Ok!"

Thad staggered downhill, regained his stride and finally skipped to the entrance of the rocket ship. After a few glances around the ship, he put his palm on the console for admittance.

He placed the hand-made disc, formatted it, downloaded the needed software and had the ship turned back on in no time. His heart jumped as the lights came on--his eyes felt comforted by the white lights various colors of the ship–something, anything other than red.

He fired the engines. The diagnostic programs showed no leakage from their diamondium-covered engine. He checked through a list of diagnostic programs: still enough food, water and oxygen to replicated for a voyage back to Sol space. Yes! All he needed was to try a few extra flights and he was out of there.

He entered the command to close the entrance. The door shut. He typed in the command to pump out the planet's red air, replacing it with an Earth's nitrogen/oxygen ratio. And that's when it started: the coughing.

He coughed, coughed, coughed–wheezed and wheezed–hacking, drool, mucus creeping from the corners of his mouth. His body cramped up.