Wattpad Block Party - Winter Edition III

JoshSaltzman Presents: NUDE PICTURES OF JOSH SALTZMAN

NUDE PICTURES OF JOSH SALTZMAN 

by JOSH SALTZMAN

Nudes to come at the end. (Maybe.)

For those of you who were fans of the WATTY AWARD WINNING STRANGE YARNS... You'll know that you (The reader) have a sick sense of humor. I was only writing those to test you, and you all failed! WHY DON'T YOU READ SOMETHING WITH SOME CLASS YOU FRIKIN WEIRDOS.

Sorry (Remember Saltzman, don't insult your readers)

The point is... If you liked Strange Yarns you'll love my next project. It's an adventure like no other – well, like some others, but I found those 'other' and buried them. So... without further nonsense.

Coming Late March

TRUE MARTIAN

Here's a sneak peek at the prologue.

Be sure to tell me what you think.

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It came from Earth!

Across the great ocean of space with its long searching metallic spider legs, its cluster of sensor eyes, its fingers of flame, pointing this way and that, conducting this man-made meteorite to slow down and touch down.

The lander neared the Red Planet's surface and its landing thrusters blew one last heavy sigh at the Martian surface. Dust and debris billowed into rusty colored clouds, erasing freshly made footprints.

If the pilot of this lander had known there were footprints, or more accurately, if they had known there was something on Mars that could make footprints, this story may have turned out very different. But as far as Commander Landsman and the 12 billion people living on the twinkly blue dot on the horizon knew, an entire empty wilderness awaited humans. A new world all their own. A new beginning. A chance to do it right.

Commander Landsman listened to the hydraulic hiss of the air lock as it slid up and open. Landsman looked out upon what had only been seen in photographs and monitors:

Mars.

Commander Landsman had waited for this moment a whole lifetime. The Commander waited to be struck in awe by the planet's untouched wildness, its poetic desolation, but right now the pilot's only thoughts were of the first words. Exactly one hundred years ago a man named Neil Armstrong landed on Earth's moon and proclaimed, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

How do you compete with that? Where do you even start? Those words have rattled in people's brains for an entire century and no one had landed anywhere new since.

And those words... they were awesome.

Inevitable.

As if they had always been written and just had been waiting for someone to land on the moon to be said.

So, while Commander Landsman wanted to be struck by the beauty of the red, copper, rooibos plains of the landing sight Ophir Planum and the seemingly endless cliffs and crags of the great valley that lay before the lander, the pilot could only hope to not mess up the most important moment in humanity so far. To pray that the words wouldn't trip off the tongue and face plant into the ground.

That's what people were calling it: The most important moment in humanity. She wouldn't allow the next moments to be part of history's blooper reel. This wasn't just a visit to the moon. This was starting all over again and 401 million kilometers away everyone had tuned it to watch. They were watching on their devices, and on their head sets, and were even gathering in public squares to watch on the big screens. Some even donned their H-Suits and ventured outside into the acid smogs to watch screens under earth's polluted purple skies; a sort of symbolic gesture, even though you could no longer see the night sky from earth's surface. Everyone was watching. Every last human and Commander Landsman knew it.

The ladder descended from the vanguard lander and plunked down into the soft red surface.

It's go time.

As Commander Landsman climbed down the ladder she thought Don't mess this up, don't mess this up, don't mess this up.

The other footprints, the Martian footprints, had been erased, but now one transcendent new footprint took one momentous step forward. Commander Landsman lifted her reflective visor and breathed in her re-respirated air from the tank on her back. She grabbed her pregnant belly that stretched her white H-suit and thought, incorrectly, For this moment, we're the only two living things on this entire planet, baby. Just you and me.

Commander Odelia Landsman finally spoke:

"We step upon this new homestead in peace. We, the unbound pioneers."

Not bad, she thought.

She felt a kick.

That must be a good omen.

From the Red Planet Commander Landsman could not hear the entire blue planet erupt in celebratory cheers. For that briefest and most rare of moments, the only gun powder ignited was that found in firecrackers. Strangers hugged, and cried, and congratulated each other - There would be a future.

Odelia turned away from the dust sheeted plains that dropped off into the great valley and looked up to cosmos. She looked home. Earth was just a little blue pin prick. It reminded her of the nights she sat on her father's lap, him pointing to the little red pin prick and saying "Someday I will take you there, Odelia."

It stung her heart that after devoting his entire life to planning a new home for humanity that he'd never get to see it. Odelia felt some comfort in knowing that her father's grandchild would be the First Martian.

The moon Phobos began to rise over the barrens as the fleet of thousands of glass pod landers fell in a shower of fireflies.

The first human settlers of Mars had come ashore. And the locals were watching. 

***********

P.S. Don't forget to enter the 130+ #WattpadBlockParty Giveaways! Clickable links are at the top of my Wattpad profile! :)

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