Mars

“If anyone can hear me, I need you.” The voice cracks through the intercoms waking me up from a light sleep. “I’m here! What’s your issue?” I respond to the voice on the other side, as I wait patiently for a response. Nothing. “This is the USSS Hercules please respond.” I urge, in hopes that I can get a response from the unknown source. A fuzz emits from my coms, “N-n-not s-s-aAaA-f-e here, h-h-help mmm.” The voice fades out, only static remains. Confused, and a little concerned for my new friend, I begin to look at the map, to see if any other ships are nearby. The green glass pulsating back at me emits a small dot in the upper right. Looking out portside I take a glimpse of the outside. The massive red orbiting planet floating nearby fills most of my window. It’s looming presence keeping me company as I work through the day. Though I have never been on Mars, it’s sort of become my friend. I draw sketches of what I imagine is underneath the sandy surface. Underground mines that have never been seen by the human eye? Some sort of water supply with all sorts of new species? More sand? The massive red planet excites me, the thought of being on a planet that I may have the opportunity to explore. That’s why I took this job in the first place. I yearn to be the first pioneer of something in this world, and with almost all of Earth being explored I want carve my own name, make my own trail, and Mars is the perfect place where I can leave my footprint. A small figure catches the corner of my eye, snapping me out of my daydream and back into reality. I notice a ship, relatively large in size, heading towards me. I grab the radio. “This is USSS Hercules, please confirm your identity.” Static rings through. “This is USSS Hercules I repeat, please confirm your identity.” Silence. By this point this ship is approaching rapidly as it’s nose is directed straight at us, with no sign of stopping. My body tenses up, the shivers crawl down my spine, leaving out into my toes. “This is USSS Hercules I DEMAND that you change your course immediately. Over.” At this point I know there is no use as the ship is about a half kilometer away from impact. I grab the local intercoms. “Attention all crew members this is not a drill. Brace for impa-” The nose of the ship cuts deep into the side of us. The force sends me flying back into the wall, the momentum of the ship now causing us to spiral out of control. “Emergency stabalizers in effect.” The ship begins to slow down to a stop as the spinning begins to slow. Dizzy, nauseous, and bruised, I rush over to the window. Debris floats all around me, remains of both ships hurling past, slicing deep into the hull of the ship. I need to get a diagnostic of the condition of the ship and how many passengers survived, but the impact knocked out the power supply. I would need to get to the deck. I make my way towards the space suits and begin to strap myself into a suit. I have always been known to be paranoid, I accept that, but I want to be prepared. I was lucky enough to be far enough away from the impact that my wing was relatively unaffected. However, I know that isn’t the case for most areas. Besides, it would give me a chance to try out the latest military tech, which I have been excited about since they were first announced. The suit was warm, yet it stuck close to my body like an extra layer of skin. I brush the American flag patch on my shoulder and put on my officers jacket over my suit as well. I make my way through the cool metal corridor, careful to not injure myself. I wonder what happened on that ship. What’s their motive? Where are my crew members? I haven’t seen anybody which has been odd to me. There’s at least a few dozen of us on this cruiser, so while yes it’s large, I should’ve seen at least somebody by now. It’s dark, and the silence is eerie. The faint light of Mars emits through the windows illuminating my path slightly as I continue my way down into the darkness.

20 minutes have passed by now and I still haven’t seen anybody. The deeper I go the more of the wreckage I see. The debris floats around me as I know I’m getting closer to the impact. I take extra precaution as I don’t want to get sucked out of the ship accidentally. I have been trying to call out on my radio to anybody that might still be alive but haven’t heard anything so far. I sure hope they’re ok. It wasn’t until I stepped on what looks to be a hand that I realize that I made it to the initial impact. The nose of the ship is buried deep into the backend of Hercules, and it didn’t look good. The nose was stuck inside of the generator of the ship and I don’t know how we’re going to get it out. My coms on my helmet chime in. “Officer Halls! Is that you?” Confused who’s reaching out to me, I touch the side of my helmet. “This is he. Who am I speaking to?” The voice comes crackling through again. “It’s Sergeant Briggs, look to your left!” I look outside the window to see the sergeant flailing her hands back and forth trying to get my attention. “I’m in a tight spot. I was out doing maintenance work on the exterior of the ship when the impact knocked me off the ship. I’m losing oxygen fast and I don’t know how long I can stay out here.” Panic was rising in her voice and I could sense it. I need to get her to safety, but I don’t know how. Briggs has been a good friend to me, she helped me rank up quickly and was the one that recommended me to the Captain of Hercules in the first place. She was a mother too, and is close to getting out of the military. It wasn’t long ago where she was telling me about all the things her and her family were going to do when she got out. I’m happy for her, but now she’s stuck out the middle of nothingness and she’s floating away quickly. If she has any chance of surviving I needed to act fast. I knew if I could get her to change her trajectory, I could manage to get her to where she would eventually hit one of the ships. I needed to get a better view. “Just hang in there!” I tell her. Crawling out of the gaping hole, I position myself on top of the ship. Looking, I see that she’s perpendicular with the unidentified ship, the perfect potential for a straightaway shot towards safety. There was no way that I could throw something at her, for fear of potentially killing her. She was more valuable than I, besides she has a family, I don’t. It makes sense. I know what I needed to do. “Halls I need your help! The other generator is knocked out and is going to short out!” No time to think. I need to act. I situate myself on the side of the Hercules, making sure my aim is good, and I push off. I stick out my arms ahead of me, exerting all of my force into Briggs. I look to see if I aimed true. “Halls what are you doing?!?” She screams, but I don’t care. I ignore her cries as I know that she’s going to make it. “You’ll be fine Briggs, just make sure to grab onto the ship.” I say. I laugh to myself as I feel relieved that she’ll make it, hopefully. I sit in the middle rather bliss and happy with where I’m at. My oxygen is close to empty, but who needs oxygen anyway. I take a minute to take another look at my friend, silently watching me. I hope he’s proud of me, and while I don’t think I’ll be able to explore the surface, I think it’s better this way. Maybe one day I’ll have a chance to. The oxygen in my tank empties as I close my eyes, I feel accomplished. I think I made my mark.