Bones on Mars - A paranormal, sci-fi, fantasy romance

Landing

"All systems green. Initiating lander separation from mother ship. Separation in two minutes."

The female voice was calm and impersonal while counting down their fate. Well, the AI was only doing its job.

Floyd was a pro. He wasn't nervous. Nervous astronauts soon turned into dead astronauts, and dead astronauts made bad colonists.

The droids had done the groundwork. Alpha station was ready, awaiting their arrival. Their equipment had landed safely; the provisions, the building material, the computers—even PEMAR, the Personnel Mars Rover, was sending signals it had arrived safely and enjoyed robust health.

Goosebumps broke out on his arms and spine. No, he wasn't nervous.

Equipment was one thing, human lives were something entirely different.

"Separation in one minute."

Floyd scanned the control panel one last time. All systems were still green, ready to go.

Ready to eject the landing pod with him, Leelawati, and Bones and send them hurtling toward the red planet, where they would crash-land on its dusty surface.

Crash landings were the safest way to get equipment to the surface. He knew that. Recent missions had confirmed that SHIELD really worked. Its accordion-like, collapsible base acted like the crumple zone of a car and absorbed the energy of a hard impact. Much better than using only parachutes in Mars's thin atmosphere. That was really dangerous, and that's how the first teams of pre-colonists were lost.

Rest in pieces.

SHIELD worked, period. And they would be the first humans to write home about it.

Mars, the final frontier.

"Ten seconds to separation."

Leelawati turned in her seat, her golden visor facing his. Floyd gave the mission's biophysicist a thumbs-up.

Somewhere behind the visor would be her trademark derisory smile, but there was no point in thinking about that now. He had a mission to complete.

"Five."

Bones, the missions engineer and medical expert, checked his safety harness again.

No harness would save them if SHIELD failed.

"Three. Two. One. Separation."

At first, nothing happened, but that was normal. There was always a delay until the impulse reached its destination and did what it was supposed to do.

Like it did now.

The pod shuddered, jerked, and suddenly the figures on the control panel changed. They were moving, accelerating away from the mother ship. It would remain in orbit, recording their descent and possibly the pod's disintegration...

Cut it out, dammit.

"Separation successful."

The theme from Alien burst from the speakers.

"Bones!" Leelawati's voice, transmitted directly into Floyd's right ear, reminded him of the crack of a whip. "Turn that off."

"No sense of humor," grumbled a gravelly bass in his left ear. "We're in space. We shouldn't even hear you scream."

"We're in Mars orbit, not in space," Leelawati said.

Floyd suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. "Cut it out. Both of you. I've got a ship to monitor."