Free People of Mars by Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli

a
clean sweep of the past? And she’d succeeded in that purpose as
well. The life she had lived on Earth was so remote, it was just
like an old story she’d read somewhere. The memory of herself like
she’d been then had almost faded, like she had never really lived
before coming to Mars. Even Jan felt like part of a beautiful,
distant dream. There were days when she didn’t even think about him
at all, but when she did, the pain didn’t grip her as it did in the
past.
    Yet she wasn’t
satisfied with her new life. She had thought the feeling was due to
the dread that no new launch would take place, but now the finding
of an ice sac by Michelle would suffice to confirm it. No, there
was more.
    The cohabitation
inside that prison surrounded by an immense desert was becoming
more and more unbearable. The entire world out there was in fact
prohibited to them. And in there, in Station Alpha, all was too
narrow, monotonous, repetitive and it did nothing but amplify her
deep loneliness, pushing her to perform silly and dangerous actions
just to feel, for a few moments, the sensation she was still
alive.
    A noise coming from
outside made her turn to the window. The hatch of a rover was
closing. Two persons were walking towards the entry to the station,
carrying a big container.
    The sun had just set,
but it was already dark. Only she had stayed up, waiting for them.
She hadn’t seen Robert since that afternoon. She wanted to talk to
him, but perhaps it was better to let him cool down, for today. And
Hassan, who knew what he was plotting?
    A deep clangour
announced the opening of the heavy airlock door, not too far from
the kitchen, followed by a cheerful shouting and the sound of
steps; Michelle’s laughter, getting closer and closer.
    Anna swallowed another
sip and yawed. By now, they were accustomed to wake up before dawn
and go to bed not long after dusk to reduce the energy consumption
to minimum in the absence of light. It would’ve been nice to spend
all that time sleeping, dreaming of being elsewhere, of being a
different person.
    “Hey,” Michelle
started off, as she entered the room. “Is it only you? We were
expecting a welcoming committee.” She had a happy expression, she
seemed not to notice Anna’s dejection. Or maybe she didn’t care.
Once they had been friends, but things had changed in an
imperceptible way, day by day.
    “You look grim!”
Dennis walked around his wife and moved close to the table. He was
holding a jar with some soil at the bottom.
    Anna gave a hint of a
smile. The commander was the only one who had always stayed the
same. Pity that he often kept to himself. The few times she had
talked to him alone, he had always succeeded in injecting new
enthusiasm into her.
    “You’ll like this.” He
opened the jar and, triumphant, he showed some tiny condensation
drops on the inside of the lid.
    At first, Anna didn’t
understand what he was referring to.
    “We extracted this
sample from the layers just over the ice sac, and we took the
internal pressure to one atmosphere to avoid letting the crystals
sublimate.” He goggled, faking amazement. “And at room temperature,
it finally appeared.” The regolith contained in the jar was dark,
damp. “Behold the water of Mars!”
    Michelle laughed,
while her husband let some drops drip on his palm and then he
rubbed it on his face, wetting it.
    “Not just the few
drops we extract with difficulty around here, but plenty of water.
Over there the terrain fifty metres down is more and more soaked,
of course, it’s in its solid state, but if you go deeper, the
regolith is almost completely replaced by ice. It’s a very small
area, but it might be very deep.”
    “It’s wonderful news.”
It was indeed, and Anna was doing her best to appreciate it.
    “I do believe that in
a while we’ll have to squeeze together, to make room for the
additional crew.” Dennis kissed his wife. “Well, I’m going to do a
last report to Houston, but I’m