“Hold still!”

Zed blinked at a machine-gun pace. His left eyebrow was on fire. Tears broke free, though he wasn’t really sure if he was actually crying or if it was just an involuntary reaction.

Ana Marsh was leaning over Zed. He seemed to be on some sort of table but didn’t dare move his head to look around the room.

“Better?”

Zed could tell from her inconvenienced tone that it was very much a rhetorical question. The pain above his eye faded as if it were seeping out with his tears.

“The lidocaine should be taking effect. Now hold still so I can get this stitched up.”

Zed only blinked, his head clearing as the pain subsided. This had to be the most embarrassing and painful way anyone had started their first day on Mars.

“That was an impressive feat of bad luck, kid.”

Zed didn’t recognize the speaker’s deep voice and mild southern drawl. He started to turn his head only to have it quickly jerked back into place.

“Sorry,” said the voice. “We haven’t been properly introduced. I’m Jonah Gruene, one of the grease monkeys of Naug. I do a bit of everything but mostly keep the Monstros and Chariots rolling. Those are the two main vehicle types we use around here. The Chariots are a bit like a fancy tricycle you stand on that has its wheels on the ends of robotic arms. Not to brag, but I’m a pretty good Chariot rider myself. I’ve even won a few Earth Day prizes.”

Zed was well aware of the amazing machines Jonah had mentioned, but Jonah had so much enthusiasm it felt cruel to interrupt. To be fair, Zed wasn't exactly a great student. He'd forgotten more about what awaited him here than he cared to admit, but a robotic chariot? No teenage boy could help but become just a little obsessed with the concept, even if he had no clue how you were actually supposed to drive one.

“Once your mom has you stitched up, you’ll get to ride in the belly of one of the Monstros!”

Jonah’s enthusiasm for these vehicles was evident.

“Now the Chariots are agile, sure, but a Monstro, well, they’re just beautiful. They can haul a ridiculous amount of cargo and drive through the worst terrain Mars has to throw at us. They’re not fast, but they are unstoppable.”

Ana Marsh seemed to be getting annoyed with Jonah’s enraptured descriptions of the vehicles he maintained. Unfortunately for Zed, this meant she was stitching his brow at a frightening speed.

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“There, done.”

She stood and hurried to repack the emergency medical kit.

“Mr. Gruene, if you’d be so kind, I think we’re more than ready to get out of here. I’m sure we’ve missed any festivities at this point, but that can’t be helped.”

Jonah smiled warmly. Zed wasn’t sure if he was ignoring his mother’s curt tone or simply blind to it.

“Absolutely, Mrs. Marsh!”

Jonah held the “o” in “absolutely” for an intentional mispronunciation that Zed knew would make his mother cringe, and Zed loved him for it.

Twisting with care, Zed set his feet on the floor and looked around to get his first glimpse of Jonah. Jonah looked more or less like he sounded. He was somewhat heavyset—at least in comparison to the average astronaut—with a blond mustache and a “skullet.” At least Zed was pretty sure that’s what you called it when someone let their hair grow out in the back as their crown went bald.

Jonah hurried over and helped Zed stand.

“Come on, kid, let’s get you your first look at Mars proper. There’s no better view than from the cockpit of the beast!”

Jonah was right. As the landscape stretched for miles before them, Zed watched in unblinking awe. Part of him had worried that after all the years of preparation and being dragged around the world to chase his parents' plans and dreams, this moment would lack any real punch. He was thankful to be wrong.

No matter how many pictures he’d seen or virtual vistas he’d explored, nothing could compare to looking out at the surface of a new world with his own eyes.

It surprised Zed just how much color painted the surface of the red planet. You could certainly find the expected strokes of rust, but there was so much more. There were shades of tan and brown, with grays that turned almost blue. Perhaps most surprising of all was the fact that the sky itself was blue. Certainly not a blue like one would expect to see on Earth, but not the empty black horizon that mankind had looked up into after taking their first steps on the moon.

The landscape itself was a thing of sculpted beauty. Wind-worn yardangs emerged from the sand, directing the flow of the dunes that washed up against them like waves in a waterless sea.

Jonah and Zed sat side by side in the cockpit of the Monstro. Zed hadn’t gotten a good look at the outside of the massive vehicle, but the whale-like features that the name had implied were plain to see. It had a massive belly lined by flip-down seats that could transport dozens of passengers with ease. A large section of the ceiling in the hold looked as if it could open wide, allowing for larger cargo to be loaded. There were even retractable walls in several places that made it possible to expose large sections of the interior to vacuum without disturbing the pilot or other occupants.

As Zed watched the rough "road" ahead of them, he was surprised by how little vibration he felt. Terrain like this would have shaken apart most trucks back on Earth, but in the cockpit, it felt like they were gliding down a newly paved stretch of highway.

“That’s it up ahead,” Jonah said, breaking the silence.

Zed looked up as the end of the road came into view. A few miles ahead, an unnatural formation broke the landscape. While most of the rocks around them were sharp and wind-torn, this shape resembled a massive clay bowl placed upside down in the middle of a valley.

“Home sweet home. Inauguration in all her 3D-printed glory. Though I should warn you, everyone here just calls it ‘Naug.’ Why they named a place intended to be an international melting pot something so damned difficult for non-English speakers to say, I’ll never know.”

Then, as if it were a trivial detail that Zed might find amusing, Jonah said, “Oh, and if you squint really hard and look to your right, you might just be able to make out that crater where they think they found some alien life yesterday.”

“I’m sorry. What?”