Leroy: Travels across Mars

"I'm not meaning to criticise or anything, but what on Mars was that glowing red wire thingy?" said Erasyl.

"Oh, that. I got the idea from the time when Maggie made half a dozen nails fly out of her purse and was ready to use them as lethal weapons. I thought, why not do something similar? So I now always carry a few short lengths of wire. Using my ability, I can heat up one end until the wire glows with heat, while keeping the other end at room temperature so I can hold it." said Adalace.

"Ingenious. I'm happy to have given you that idea." said Maggie.

Erasyl remembered something else that was important.

"I don't suppose it is time for lunch?" said Erasyl.

"Sorry, that is still another hour or so." said Adalace. "But, it is time for Erasyl's turn to drive."

Erasyl swapped positions with Adalace.

"Say, Maggie, do you think you might like a chance to ride at the front?" said Sarsaparilla.

"Thanks, I do."

Sarsaparilla sat next to Adalace, and they continued across the Martian desert.

Mid afternoon, they stopped and Adalace collected all of the wristbands again and put them in the Faraday box.

"OK, I'm now switching on one of my GPS relays. From now on, they will think we are still going to our designated destination, but in actual fact, we will be going to Industrial Dome Ironbark. It's a pretty big dome, about a kilometre across. It housed the original iron smelters and steel rolling mills for the Mars colony, before they became obsolete by modern technology. That's why it is no longer in use, nobody wanted to spend the money cleaning up the contamination inside. But it's atmospheric control processes are still fully functional."

"Oh, and also we can no longer rely on the GPS navigational system to guide us. But, it just so happens that I've built a simple guidance system and will be running it from my laptop."

A twitter of amusement from the other teenagers.

"As long as it can be programmed, you've got us covered!" said Erasyl.

They put back on their wristbands, and continued, with Adalace sitting in the left front seat, laptop on her lap, giving directions, while Maggie took her turn driving.

Late afternoon they crawled up and over the last dune and there, in front of them, was the dome. Like most of the larger domes on Mars, it was built inside a blast crater from some ancient meteor. The floor of the crater was lower on the inside when compared to the outside plain; the crater wall itself sloped upwards. Maggie drove the vehicle around the perimeter of the crater and eventually came to a sign saying:

'Ironbark Dome Air Lock #5'

"This is it!" said Adalace, big grin on her face.

"There is a fully functional automatic main lock on the other side, but we don't really want to go through there, I'm sure it will send telemetry back to Mars Surface Control. Instead we will sneak in through the side entrance!"

Half an hour later, they were inside the dome. Unlike Verdant City, this dome had very little in the way of vegetation. The air was kept fresh by automatically controlled hydroponic gardens tucked into one side of the dome. But, where Lock #5 opened out to, was just the back lot of several large factory buildings, now silent and mostly empty.

They got out of the vehicle and walked around the small clear area.

"May I strongly suggest that we don't go exploring until tomorrow, and that whenever we venture away from here, we always go with either Leroy or Maggie?" said Adalace.

"Sounds like a good idea to me." said Teylon.

The others agreed. Nobody had any real desire to go off by themselves, and having someone who could fly be with them at all times felt kind of reassuring.

"Very quiet, isn't it?" said Sarsaparilla.

All that could be heard was a distant hum of the main atmospheric circulation fans. They could feel the occasional soft draft across their faces. They air was dry and musty, but breathable.

Leroy levitated straight up as far as the dome ceiling would allow him, which at the dome edge was only ten metres or so.

"Just a whole lot of factories and buildings. There's a couple of trees towards the centre, they must have automatic reticulation. Perfectly still, no signs of any movement." he said when he came back down.

"So, do you know where to look for the VIC-20?" said Sarsaparilla.

Adalace looked sad. "Unfortunately I don't. I'm thinking that Leroy and Maggie could fly around and try to match the buildings with the ones seen out of the window in the image. But let's worry about that tomorrow."

They took out the sleeping pods and inflated them. These were designed to be useable on the surface and provide full protection against the vacuum and also against cosmic rays. Nonetheless, they still used them in the dome. After all, one never knew what could happen; domes that had catastrophic failures were not unheard of on Mars, especially abandoned domes. So the two sleeping pods were set out, one either side of the vehicle, and attached by access tubes to the air lock doors of the vehicle.

Teylon, Erasyl and Leroy grabbed their bags, and crawled through the access tunnel to their sleeping pod. Inside they could stand, and there was enough room for three sleeping bags across the floor.

Leroy stopped and looked at the space with a certain amount of awkwardness.

Oh-oh. I really don't want to sleep next to Erasyl, after all he does go both ways. But, I don't dislike him or anything, so saying something will be really impolite. So what do I do...?

Teylon, however, did not show any hesitation.

"How about I claim the middle location?"

"Sure!" said Leroy.

Teylon to the rescue again! Must come from being an adult.

As the sun set, they gathered back in the vehicle. They detached the seats from their normal positions in the cabin, and dragged them around so as to have a rough circle, with a small table surface in the middle. They made and ate their evening meal, and cleaned up.

"I'm so glad my genes were edited, otherwise I will be in great danger of getting fat from all of this good food provided by Teylon!" said Sarsaparilla.

Naturally, she was sitting next to Adalace.

"Don't mention it. Obviously this is what I made my pile for." said Teylon.

"Of course!" said Adalace.

Two hours later, the three males were lying in their sleeping bags. The night was perfectly silent.

"Hmm, do you think that Adalace and Sarsaparilla have, you know, made any progress with their relationship?" said Erasyl.

Typical, he's obsessed with that question. Ah, actually, so am I. I just don't show it as much.

"Don't really know..." is all that Leroy said aloud.

"Rubbish" said Teylon, "I doubt that they have so much as held hands yet. I mean, this whole trip is a sneaky ploy by Adalace to get more time with Sarsaparilla. If they had made any progress at all, then why would she want to take along an extra girl, and three extra males? They could just have made a reservation for two somewhere. Like the Blue Ocean Dome, spend three or four days swimming and sun baking by the sea shore."

"Yes. It's obvious when you say it like that." said Leroy.

"But, I bet you, they have their sleeping bags next to each other!" said Erasyl.

I bet so too. But I'm not risking my life asking Maggie that question.

Sarsaparilla: Has a fight

Next morning Sarsaparilla woke early. The dawn light was dimly lighting up the interior of the sleeping pod through one of the windows. Not that the window was open or anything like that. These sleeping pods were made for use on the surface of Mars. So their windows could not be opened. But they did come with the ability to darken down to total opaqueness, or lightened to total transparency. And right now one of the windows was letting in a view of the buildings surrounding them, lit up by the rising sun.

Sarsaparilla opened her eyes and yawned.

That's right, I'm on a camping trip.

Right in front of here was Adalace's face, still sleeping, tucked into her own sleeping bag. Sarsaparilla took the opportunity to study her face.

Amazing. She's right here, next to me. And she's a friend. And, this time, we are both old enough to make our own decisions about where we live. So no one's going to come and take her away.

She's so lovely.

Sarsaparilla examined Adalace's face as she slept on. Her hair was fluffed up and partly obscuring her, one of her hands was partly out of the sleeping bag and near her own. Sarsaparilla noted the contrast in colours, her own copper brown shade as against Adalace's pure white colour.

She's so cute... although she was really angry when Leroy was hammering Teylon yesterday. I wonder what that was all about?

Also, I need to go to the toilet as soon as possible.

She quietly got out of her sleeping bag without disturbing the other two girls, grabbed her clothing bag and her towel, crawled through the access tunnel to the vehicle and used the combined toilet/shower at the back to get ready for the day.

After breakfast, Adalace addressed the troops.

"I've just realised that, of course, we can't split up into two groups when we do our searching. Because one of my GPS relays will only work over about a forty-metre radius, and we need to leave one at the vehicle, so that it keeps on reporting its location where we should be, and not where we actually are. So everyone has to either remain within that distance of me, or remain at the vehicle. Alternatively you can take off your mobile, but in general is not recommended, since we are in an abandoned dome, after all."

"I'm sure we will manage to enjoy ourselves anyway." said Teylon.

Teylon looks pretty laid back about everything, in fact he sometimes appears to be amused by it all.

So, did Adalace arrange this all just so that she could be with me? I need to make the most of the opportunity!

Sarsaparilla sat next to Adalace at breakfast.

"Ooh, let me try those apple sticks too!" she said, taking one from the small packet that Adalace had opened for herself.

Adalace volunteered to wash the dishes.

"And you can help me, Sarsaparilla!"

"No, no, you use a separate clean tea towel to dry the dishes, then put them away." said Adalace, pointing to the dish that Sarsaparilla was currently drying.

"Oh, OK."

So far, so good.

Sarsaparilla tagged along after Adalace as the group started the search, happy to follow her lead. Adalace had the GPS repeater unit in a carry case, with its lead slung over her shoulder. Each person also had a copy of the image, the one that showed the VIC-20 on one side, and a view through a window on the other. Leroy flew around above their heads, trying to see if any buildings in the distance matched the image. Maggie hovered closer to the ground, taking advantage of any steel structures. Teylon and Erasyl, mostly by default, tended to stick together, and walked the streets and looking in any windows they found.

After an hour or so:

"Can we have a rest or something? This is getting a little tedious." said Sarsaparilla.

"No, no, we've barely started! Let's keep going!" said Adalace.

"Oh, OK."

After three hours, she had had it.

"Can we stop already? It must be time for lunch."

"Oh, OK, everyone?" said Adalace.

Everyone was agreeable.

At lunch, a few stress lines began to appear.

"Hey, try the chicken and cranberry protein bar, it's the best!" said Sarsaparilla to Adalace.

"OK."

Adalace took the indicated bar and peeled off the wrapper. Only to have it taken out of her hands by Sarsaparilla, who took a bite and gave it back.

"It's yummy!" said Sarsaparilla.

"But that's was mine!" said Adalace.

"But we're friends, so it doesn't matter!"

Adalace ate the rest of the bar, looking just a little disgruntled. The others seemed to be starting to notice a few things, but Sarsaparilla was oblivious.

An hour later, they found the first promising site. A combined office and residential building. It had two floors, so Adalace split up the party.

"The males do the top floor and us girls do the ground floor."

Maggie went off to one side.

"No, follow me, Sarsaparilla!" said Adalace.

"But wouldn't it be faster if we checked rooms separately, just like Maggie is doing?"

"Just follow me! Struth!"

"OK, OK!"

Finally, things blew up in their faces.

They didn't find anything of significance. They all met up at the front foyer of the building and decided to have a snack.

"Ah, a sesame seed bar with apple and cinnamon! Can I have a bite?" said Sarsaparilla.

"Actually, this is the only one left and it's my favourite."

"But why can't I have a bite," said Sarsaparilla, as she reached out with her hand.

Adalace pushed it away. "No!"

Unfortunately, in doing so their hands collided and Sarsaparilla's hand bounced off the top of the GPS relay unit. There was a click.

"Shit! You've turned off the unit!" said Adalace, as she hurriedly turned it back on.

"Bloody hell, it will take a minute to reboot and to grab the initial signals! We're broadcasting our precise locations in the clear!"

Her voice echoed around the room. Everyone else was by now looking at the two girls.

"So go away, I want to eat my own food in peace!" said Adalace.

Sarsaparilla jumped up, much agitated. "Well, damn it! You certainly don't give me much peace. You've been bossing me around ever since breakfast! What's with you?"

"What's with me? You mean what's with you! And, frankly, I'm getting tired of constantly being in your company."

"Is that so? Well, then, I shall get out of your company! You can have your stupid food bar!"

By now, Sarsaparilla was shouting. And Adalace shouted back, and threw her half-eaten bar at Sarsaparilla. It bounced off her and landed on the floor.

"I don't want it any longer! I'm going!"

"And so am I!"

Since they were both near the front door, they both stormed out, and each stomped off in opposite directions along the road. For about ten metres, when they both, almost simultaneously, realised that they were in an abandoned dome, with nowhere to go to, and the only people they could complain to were back in the building. They stood there, each facing outwards, shoulders slumped, heads down.

Teylon, followed by the other three teenagers, carefully stepped out of the foyer and onto the road.

"Ah, Adalace and Sarsaparilla. How about we walk back to the Mars rover and perhaps we can have a talk, just the three of us?"

Teylon walked back to the vehicle. Followed by Sarsaparilla and Adalace, walking apart and not talking to each other. And trailing behind were the other three. At the vehicle, Teylon put his hand into his coat pocket and took out a pack of cards.

"Here, kids, amuse yourself with this."

So, while Teylon, Sarsaparilla, and Adalace sat in the vehicle, they could see, out of the front window, three teenagers sitting on the ground, and Maggie shuffling and dealing the cards.

Silence inside, until Teylon finally cleared his throat.

"I know I'm not the best to be offering relationship advice, as you know... But I have gained a few lessons from my fifty years. And, well, I think you are both trying too hard. It's obvious you two are interested in each other, and neither of you have ever had much socialisation in the past, correct?"

"Yeah," said Adalace, fidgeting nervously, "I didn't think all of that was so apparent."

Teylon laughed. "The entire purpose of this trip is basically to allow you to be in Sarsaparilla's company for three or four days, right?"

Both girls blushed, although Adalace's blush was a lot more visible than Sarsaparilla's, of course.

"I thought it would all be easier than this." said Adalace, "I thought it would only take a few days for us to, you know, become an item."

"Not a hope, young lady. Relationships are hard. Even I know that, although mostly because it's a trite cliché. But that doesn't prevent it from being true. Hmm, what about you two have a discussion between yourselves, not to work out how to be in a relationship with each other, but merely how to enjoy the next two days? Work on the little details first, and worry about the big picture stuff later on."

Teylon ended up going back outside. The girls could see, through the windscreen, him sitting down with the other three, and Maggie handing him the cards so as to start a new game.

"Let's sit in the sleeping pod for more privacy." said Sarsaparilla.

They sat on their sleeping bags and looked at each other.

"Well, ah, are you interested in me?" said Adalace.

"Oh, definitely, yes. And, you?"

"Of course."

Silence for a while.

"Teylon is right. This is difficult." said Adalace.

Sarsaparilla nodded her head. "So what do we do for the next one or two days?"

Awkwardly, with many hesitations and some embarrassments, they came to an agreement on how to act with each other. Always subject to further conditions, of course.

Finally: "Well, I suppose we should go out and say hello to the others." said Sarsaparilla.

"How embarrassing. And I honestly thought we would have made much more progress than what we have."

"Yeah, I know." said Sarsaparilla, as she fiddled with the sleeping bag she was sitting on.

"Oh, I just realised that this isn't mine, it's yours!"

"So it is..."

They looked at each other.

"What if we swap them over?" said Sarsaparilla.

They jumped up and hastily swapped them over, with much giggling.

"Ok, let's go out." said Adalace.

They walked out of the main air lock of the vehicle, one at a time, and strolled over to the others. Teylon was now sitting apart from the teenagers, reading a news website on a tablet-reading device. The three teenagers were having another card game.

"Hello, girls." said Maggie, looking up from her cards.

"Oh. Hi." said Adalace.

Small silence.

"Say, didn't Teylon start out playing cards with you?" said Sarsaparilla.

"Yes, I did, but after my fourth consecutive win, they accused me of cheating!" said Teylon, expressing immense indignation.

"Well, weren't you?" said Adalace. Who clearly expected him to say yes.

"Of course not! Cheez, I spent a professional lifetime cheating at cards and never got caught, and then when I make an real effort to play straight, I get accused! I just can't win!"

"How sad." said Maggie, "But, if you weren't cheating, how did you make all of those wins?"

Teylon looked exasperated. "Because I have spent thirty years practicing, of course! Card games were never how I made my money, but I had to do something to fill in the time between my jobs. It kept me busy."

"Kept you busy? I'm guessing you didn't have any real connections to anyone, did you?" said Leroy.

"Ah, no I didn't. I suppose you could have called me a loner. Not that I thought of myself as being lonely, of course. Not back then."

Sarsaparilla contemplated this answer.

Before Teylon introduced me to Adalace, I could have ended up like that. A loner, all by myself.

I really don't want to go back to that state.

I going to do whatever it takes to be with Adalace.

Even if the process is painful.

They decided to call it quits for the day, and they also decided to spend all day tomorrow searching. They had their evening meal, watched a video together, and retired for the night.

Sarsaparilla, snuggled up in Adalace's sleeping bag, smiled at Adalace. Who gave a big grin back.

Maggie turned off the light, and they all went to sleep.

Industrial Dome Ironbark

Ironbark dome had eight large air lock entrances, distributed evenly around its perimeter. Number one was the still fully functional one; the others had all been converted to manual operation.

Just in from Lock #5 were Teylon and the teenagers. At 3:00am in the morning, they were all sound asleep. In the boy's sleeping pod, Erasyl and Leroy had their sleeping bags right against opposite walls, with Teylon's in the centre, a twenty-centimetre gap between him and the others. Teylon was snoring, but very softly. As of yet he had not woken anybody up. In the girl's sleeping pod, Maggie was up against the wall, with a half metre gap to Adalace and Sarsaparilla's sleeping bags. Whose sleeping bags were right against each other. No one was snoring, although Adalace did mutter in her sleep at one stage.

The rest of the dome was quiet and still. Almost. If a person was standing just outside a particular building located next to the Main Lock #1, they may have been able to hear something that sounded very much like someone snoring.

And, just after 3:00am, the soft sound of the air lock #4 being operated from the outside could have been heard.

Teylon and the teenagers sleep on, not hearing anything.

Maggie: Has a nice talk for once with Erasyl

Next morning it was Maggie who was the first to wake up in her pod. She sat up, yawned, and stretched her arms out. She noticed Adalace and Sarsaparilla, still asleep in their sleeping bags, facing each other.

So, they're already having arguments and they are barely an item yet. Do all couples start that way?

She, of course, certainly had never been part of a couple before.

I suppose I wouldn't mind finding someone.

She thought about kissing a girl...

Ugh, no, definitely not. Looks like it's boys only. Teylon?

Double ugh. He's far too old. And he may be a reformed con man, but still.

Leroy? Nyah, he has potential as a friend, but, I don't know, he's just not my sort.

Erasyl? Who are you kidding? Totally inappropriate.

Never mind, I'm sure I'll find someone some day.

In her mind's eye, she pictured Adalace. And Sarsaparilla.

They both have such nice figures, with curves in all the right places.

She looked down at her chest.

Unlike me. Almost flat, and no curvy hips, either. I could easily pass as a slim male. Maybe I should grow my hair out long? At least I can be proud about my legs.

Face settling into a grumpy expression, she quietly got up, gathered her towel and clothes and made a move to the hatch. In doing so, she glanced at the hemline of Adalace's sleeping bag.

Huh? The nametag says 'Sarsaparilla'. So did they make a mistake...? Like hell, they deliberately swapped over!

She started giggling, and was still giggling when she emerged from hatch into the vehicle's cabin.

Only to find herself face to face with Erasyl, standing there, looking surprised. She started to make a token apology and to turn away, when she noticed...

"Green tree frogs? You have pyjamas with green tree frog patterns all over it? That is so not what I thought would go with your image!"

She kept on giggling.

"Well excuse me, but I happen to like tree frogs. And as soon as I started to live apart from my family, I brought these. Any objections?" said Erasyl.

The green tree frog admirer doesn't seem too happy, does he?

More giggles.

Also, he is resolutely keeping his eyes off my body, so I suppose I can grant him a point or two for that.

"Sorry, sorry. I don't mind, after all my pyjamas have pink bunny rabbits on it."

"Ah, yes, I suppose one could say that it's surprisingly feminine."

"Oh yeah? In other words you're saying I'm not generally feminine?"

"Ah, no, no, I mean, you have a very nice body, ah, oops, I think I'm not supposed to say that, ah..."

Erasyl was slowly backing away; his face had the look of one who was wondering: how the hell did I get into this danger? Maggie, still feeling some of the good vibes left over from her giggling, decided to relent.

"OK, it's all right. I mean, I know my assets are not as good as the other two girls."

Not detecting any retaliation, Erasyl started to feel safe again.

"No, really, you're fine as you are!"

Erasyl stood there, changing his weight from one foot to the other.

Did he give me a nice compliment for a change?

And is he desperate to get to the toilet?

Hee, hee, I could go first and make him suffer... But on the other hand...

"You appear to be first in line, so after you."

Erasyl said thanks and hurried towards the back of the vehicle.

After everyone had completed their acts of daily living for the morning, they gathered for breakfast. As per yesterday, they were all dressed in utilitarian overalls, although everyone had a different colour. Naturally, Adalace's was bright pink. The others had shades that were more conservative; with Maggie's light green almost the same as Teylon's darker green. They had breakfast.

So, so, the two girls are respecting each other's boundaries when it comes to eating. Although they look terribly self-conscious about it all.

And everyone else is pretending not to notice.

After breakfast, Adalace stood up in front of them, and pointed to a rough map of the dome that appeared on the cabin display screen. As usual, she was controlling it directly from finger twitches of both hands.

"This is where we had lunch yesterday, and stopped our search..."

She hurriedly moved on.

"This side we have covered, so what is remaining is a large area that stretches from this place out towards the front airlock. So, for lack of anything better, I propose we go there, then zigzag across the area and end up at the main lock."

They moved in a clump, in no particular order, towards yesterday's lunch place. The dome was laid out with streets and pathways in a mostly regular grid, buildings of different sorts on all sides. Being an old dome, there was not much in the way of underground building. Instead, everything was above ground. Some of the buildings were small, residential houses and flats, a shopping centre, small offices. Others were large factory units, through open windows and huge doors they could see cavernous, empty, interiors that would have once been filled with clanging machinery, flashes of arc welding, the roar of air extraction motors, the glare of overhead spot lights. Now, all was quiet and serene. Their feet making small scuffling sounds as they walked along the paved road, they were mostly silent; no one could think of anything to talk about.

There was a muffled bang from somewhere in the distance.

"Eh, what's that?" said Teylon.

There were two more bangs, not very loud but distinctive nonetheless. They stopped.

"I don't know." said Maggie.

No one else had any ideas either.

"Well, all of the environmental control machinery is fully operational, so perhaps it's something to do with that?" said Adalace.

"Pneumatic machinery blowing off excess pressure, perhaps?" said Leroy.

"Could there be other visitors here?" said Sarsaparilla.

Without quite realising it, they had all moved together.

"Could be embarrassing meeting someone else, since they might notice that their GPS positions are acting funny." said Adalace.

"Well, I'll fly up a bit and keep a lookout. But, apart from that, surely there is no reason why we shouldn't just keep on with our plan?" said Leroy.

"Remember, we're not meant to be in this dome," said Teylon, "But, on the other hand, I'm sure I can talk us out of most problems."

A snort of amusement from Maggie. "Yeah, I'm sure you can. What say I and Teylon walk in front?"

Having the most powerful esper amongst them be on the front line was agreeable to the other four teenagers.

"In which case, Erasyl and I should take up the rear, and the two girls, who have the least defenses, should be in the middle." said Leroy.

"Hey, wait a moment, I think your hero complex is taking over, you're over thinking all of this. It's not as if there is any danger, is there?" said Adalace.

There was another bang, slightly louder this time.

Nobody said anything more, but they all formed up into the suggested order.

"Aww, relax everyone. We're spooking ourselves out, it's probably nothing. Shall we continue?" said Maggie.

All a fuss over nothing. It's amazing how a few strange noises in an abandoned dome can freak us all out.

They were still standing there, in a small laneway that lead to a larger street way ahead. Nobody objected to waiting for a while, but there were no more bangs.

"OK, ladies and gentlemen, your intrepid tour leader will continue, let's go forward!" said Maggie, after her patience ran out.

Leroy went up, then back down. "Can't see anything moving."

Maggie strode forward, with Teylon closely following. They reached the street, and turned into it. Sarsaparilla and Adalace were lagging a bit; apparently they weren't as resolute as Maggie was. Leroy and Erasyl brought up the rear.