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(Page 2 of 19) Martian Winter: Titan Dreams by Stuart Atkinson
 (2 ratings)
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But of course, this frozen, ice-entombed world was no place for butterflies...
"Hello? Pilot to EV1..? " Catriona prompted, "fancy taking a walk..?"
The reality hit Blare then, like a slap across his face. They were going outside - they were really going to climb down the Baxter's ladder, step off it, onto solid, alien ground and into history. History! In centuries to come their names would be spoken in the same hushed, reverential tones as Columbus, Gagarin, Armstrong, Foale and Luan Chi had been in ages past.
He felt sick.
"Come on little brother," Catriona encouraged him gently. "We've come this far... and everyone said we'd never make it... just a few more steps to go. Ok?"
"Ok," he said, taking a deep breath and gathering strength from his bolder sister. "Ok. We'll show them - "
"We'll show her," Catriona added, with a gleam in her eye, and reached for her helmet.
Then suddenly he was at the hatch, staring at the dull metal, mere moments away from becoming part of History. Immortal.
Immortal? Ares help me, I'm not ready for this, he thought, head swimming, vision fluttering in and out of focus.
His breathing was loud in his ears now, loud as thunder. His heart hammered in his chest as if desperate to get out, each beat as hard and heavy against his ribs as a blow from a sledgehammer.
I'm not ready -
"Hatch release in ten," his sister's unbelievably steady voice announced then over his radio. "Nine... eight..."
Blare closed his eyes, feeling them stinging as sweat from his hot-and-cold brow trickled into them. I'm not –
"Two... one... hatch opening."
- ready!!!
The round hatch opened slowly, as if Time itself had started to crawl, determined to drag out both the historic moment and his own terror. As it swung upwards, vanishing into a recess in the bulkhead, the atmosphere trapped inside the airlock simultaneously froze and rushed past him, billowing out of the Baxter in a melodramatic whooshing cloud of snowy particles, gushing out into the vast open space beyond like a geyser.
"Confirm egress hatch open, atmospheric pressure equalised," Cat reported, her voice still as calm as a summer pond. Then, echoing the words spoken by one of the astronauts from Earth's distant, golden past, added: "EV1, you are number one on the runway... Godspeed..."
No, no, no... I don't want to be first, a voice screamed in his head as he stood in the open hatchway, staring out into the abyssal darkness beyond. Not me, no, not me... she should go first, it insisted.
Then another voice spoke up.
His mother's.
Blare...I know you're scared, it's natural to be frightened... but this is what you have always lived for, she told him, gently but firmly, and he could almost feel her holding his hand. Ever since you were born you've always raced on ahead. You always wanted to be the first up the hill, or down into the crater. You've always rushed ahead, ahead of me, of your sister, of everyone...
He nodded. It was true, he had. Maybe that was what was wrong. Maybe it was someone else's turn.
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