Mars Underneath The Sceptre of Eternity

Unknown Planet

Captain Vézian Moore was watching the landing of Mars Lander 23 on a digital screen floating in the air of his bedchamber. He looked at his right wrist, in which a small square shaped tablet-like organic computer was fixed under his artificial super-skin. He touched the transparent object softly and the vision on the screen zoomed in. Mars Lander 23 was a cargo spacecraft, which was supposed to bring annual ration for the Martian colony named Tharsis South I. He also spotted another disc-shaped spacecraft named Maina Martes coming from the Earth's direction; it was carrying some labour robots to serve the scientists living in this Martian settlement. Both the spacecraft would land within twelve Martian hours; so, he had enough time to take a rest. However, he did not like to stay on the bed anymore.

After leaving his bed, Vézian touched the organic chip under his wrist's skin, the bed transformed into a big trestle table, and a comfortable armchair appeared before him. He decided to study Martian Atlas for some time. From the book shelve; he brought out an old atlas. It was prepared by scientist Gazboo few months before his mysterious disappearance.

The book was nearly ten thousand years old, pages were yellowish and fragile enough to handle, but the preserving solution had kept it in a much better form. Scientist Gazboo, a renowned Astro-biologist from the East had studied extensively the original inhabitants of the planet and their habitat; he also discovered some healing herbs and substances, which could cure various ailments and heal fatal wounds. However, his discoveries lost in time and became a mystery. Many scientists from the Earth had tried to find out those herbs of immortality and the secret of eternal life, but all of them failed.

Vézian was not interested about eternal life; he was a cartographer who liked to prepare an atlas of the Martian topography, flora, fauna and human habitation, especially the land lying in the south of the Tharsis plateau. The first group of Mars explorers landed on the northern plain; established settlements there only, but many attempted to cross the massive volcanic plateau of the planet. However, many spacecraft, as well as astronauts, got lost forever in the smoke filled calderas of Olympus Mons and other volcanoes. When the second phase of Mars exploration commenced after many thousand years later; different landing sites were chosen to avoid conflict with Neo-Martes people living in the northern plain. Though the Neo Martes people were the descendants of the Earthmen, but they hardly adore the new explorers. Therefore, the new settlements were all situated in the south of the Tharsis.

Whenever Vézian thought about the Mars people and their hostile attitude to Earthmen, he always felt sorry for his long-lost sister Volga. He tried to think about Volga, she was hardly twenty-five years old and had a very promising career in engineering. Both brother and sister applied for a Martian project just for having some adventure. He closed his eyes and tried to remember the oval shaped face, high cheekbones, hooked nose, almond shaped blue eyes under trimmed eyebrows and the small forehead of his twin sister; the memory of her jovial smile on her beautiful face brought tears in his eyes. Volga was a brown-haired person like him; both brother and sister shared same facial features and smile. His father often remarked that both of his son and daughter were a mirror image of each other. Like physical traits, they also shared a strong bondage of friendship, but it was not sibling feelings or affection for adventure that encouraged Volga to apply for an outer-terrestrial project, but it was her love for Erik.

"I should not think about that foolish man early in the morning. The Sun is about to rise and the sky colour has turned into violet. It is my favourite time; only time when the Red planet looks peaceful."

Vézian changed his night garments and put a blue coloured skin-tight trouser and a full-sleeved shirt made up of nylon and polyesters; all the garments used here had several layers to protect the users from radiation and other alien air particles. The interesting thing was that, he never felt uncomfortable in those heavy clothes. After all, it was not the Earth, but Mars, the Red Planet. However, he could not leave his old habit of doing jogging during the sunrise. His father was always concerned about children's fitness and he used to bring them into a gym-park right in front of their bungalow. With a deep sigh, Vézian recalled almost forty-three years ago, he and his sister came to this planet, leaving their earthly home and the hapless incident happened on the third years of their stay in the planet. Again, his heart sank deeply, but he tried to overcome the thought and hurriedly combed his hairs.