A distant lilac ball hung in a clear desert sky. The sun reduced to a small purple sphere before it set behind volcanoes silhouetted on the horizon. Streaks of silvery blue clouds shone in the twilight before relenting to the night and its two silver moons.
Inside a cave amongst the red cracked regolith, reaching up with twisted branches, a tree was growing on Mars.
Welcome to Mars
White ethereal shapes move around a Florescent lit room. A bleary face looms in front of me. Liquid drips from a pipet into my eyes. They clamp shut automatically as the saline stings like boiling water. I blink a few times to clear them.Through the tears, I can see that I’m in the reanimation room on Mars. I can’t move. A flood of panic washes cold over me, my body a sarcophagus. An image of my daughter sitting smiling on the sea wall as her hair catches the wind flashes into mind. The nausea rises and I vomit as someone turns me on my side. I remember why I’m here. Eighteen months and I can secure both our futures, but the feeling of loss is unbearable.