Free Trapped - Mars Born Book One by Arwen Gwyneth Hubbard

Chapter One

    O range dust coated my faceplate as I brought the last crate into the cargo bay. The hatch thudded closed, blocking out the fading sun’s light. I shivered in the sudden darkness. My suit had been operating at full force to compensate for the sweat worked up while loading our soil samples. Now the world seemed too still. Too cold.
      I clicked my suit’s light on. It wasn’t like I really needed it; my eyes would adjust to the dim surroundings after a few moments, but I was impatient. The past two days had been hard work, and Rumer, the oh-so-eager-to-prove-herself Rumer, had pushed us tirelessly. So, I wanted to secure the samples. If I was lucky, I would not have to think about them again until I came back in the spring to mine the stuff. Hopefully with someone less bossy than my sister.
      The final connector snapped beneath my gloves. At last I was free to do the one thing I had really wanted to the whole trip, the real reason why I had even agreed to participate in the first place.
      I hoped there would still be enough light.
      At the rear of the cargo bay, the airlock’s narrow door slid open for me. I stepped through, let it close, and waited for the burst of air. The first burst was almost enough to knock a person over. The second was not so bad, but it was always followed by the vacuum, which was a notoriously uncomfortable sensation. And only once you had been sucked cleaned from the Martian fines would the tiny chamber re-pressurize itself and let you through. The process wasn’t perfect, but it made hand vacuuming the suits later a whole lot easier.
      Back in Cradle, the crater village we were raised in, I actually enjoyed the de-duster most of the time, despite the vacuum part. Well, maybe because of it. It felt purifying. But, that day I wanted to climb up to the Habitat Rover’s second level and look out at the landscape. Yep. Just look. Ideally I would want to explore it of course, to appreciate its every small detail. No human being had ever been here before. We were the first! Mars was still a mostly unexplored planet. In the 13 orbits (about 24 and a half earth years) humans had lived here for, barely a tenth of it had been explored. Coincidentally, Rumer and I had been alive for only 10 of those orbits. Rumer was lead on our “mission” and both days she had started work before dawn and only ended right at dusk. So my chances to see the land were limited.
      Swinging my arms, I waited for the door, opposite from where I had come in, to slide open and let me into our controlled environment.
      I entered and checked the gauges on the Hab’s wall. Pressure, Temperature and Air all displayed SAFE, so I unfastened and yanked the helmet off. In front of me the curtains were open to the cab. There were two seats, one driver with the control stick and one passenger, but usually we took turns driving while the other would stay upstairs in the living area, instead of sitting together. I turned left towards the stairs to remove my suit and stow it in the compartment under them. As I did Rumer appeared.
      Her smile stretched the full width of her caramel face, “I just reported. Last communication for the night. Bryn is pleased!” Her hands moved in front of her, signing the words as she spoke them, “I told her our data looks like it confirms the satellite’s.”
      “That’s great…” I tried smiling at her enthusiasm. But really, it was not like anyone honestly doubted we would find the clays. They just sent us out to double check before bringing more equipment for harvesting, and to give us some practice on our own, now that we were “adults”.
      “Oh, and they said not to worry about my suit. About the radio in it. They are old and  need to be replaced soon anyway. But that we shouldn’t go for any EVAs just in case,” my sister continued.
      I groaned. Just because it was the “safe” thing to do didn’t mean I had to like it. Without radios if one of us got