Yves Giraud - Kahnu

“Mommy, where is Sylvia?” asked Chasma looking for her doll.

“I don’t know, baby. I’m sure Sylvia is in our luggage, somewhere,” she replied while packing.

“We have to find her, Mommy! I can’t leave her behind!” Chasma was almost in tears.

‘We don’t have time, baby. I’m sure she’s in your blue bag.”

“No, I checked. I can’t find her anywhere! We can’t go. We have to find Sylvia!” she screamed.

“Ok, baby, calm down. We’re gonna find her. Let me look.”

“You guys ready?” asked François, who had just popped into the pod.

“We can’t find Sylvia!” replied Vera, frantically lifting up bags and clothes.

“There! Is that it?” asked François, pointing at the doll lying under Chasma’s bed.

“Sylvia! There you are,” rejoiced the girl, grabbing the toy to her chest.

“Ok, good. Come on baby, it’s time to go!”

The three exited the pod through the small corridor, and were soon in the garage, adding a few more bags to the already over-packed rover trunk of ARC 1.

“Where is Liu?” asked Dedrick.

“Right here!” replied the Korean. She climbed on board and sat in the front passenger seat next to him. Vera was already setting herself in behind them with Chasma. Near by, François and Sabrina were waiting in ARC 2. Both rovers were packed to capacity, waiting. Dedrick pressed a few keys on the dashboard screen. The garage door opened, and the two vehicles started making their way to ARC 3, already waiting outside with Tendai and Ladli. Chasma turned her head back, looking at the only habitat she had ever known.

“Mommy, are we going to a new home?”

“Yes, Chasma, we’re going to a new home,” replied her mother, stroking her blond hair softly.

“Are we coming back?”

“I don’t know, baby. I don’t think so…”

As Chasma watched through the rear windshield of the vehicle, the station kept shrinking until it finally disappeared in the dust behind them.

“ We can extend the ship’s primary resources to the immediate surroundings of the cave but no further. If you can bring your greenhouse here, we should be able to provide you with air and an acceptable atmosphere. There is a large platform behind the ship, near the back of the cave where you will be able to secure it. We will do the rest .”

Jorh’s words had greatly reassured Dedrick and his teammates. After unloading the supplies and its passengers, Dedrick, François, Tendai, and Ladli were off on one last trip, to get one of the greenhouses. They knew only one could be taken back to the cave. They had already taken most of the living essentials on the last three trips. Now they would try to transfer as many plants and vegetables as possible to greenhouse two.

François’ idea of using the three trailers to transport the greenhouse had proven an excellent one. A few hours later, the small party was returning with a full greenhouse, hauled behind the two rovers. A few tubes and wires hung unplugged to one side of the cargo. Using the crane they had installed a few weeks earlier above the cliff, the team began pulling up the big container from down below to the cave’s level, about fifty meters higher.

“Tendai, can you hear me?”

“Ten-four, François. I receive you loud and clear.”

“Ok. We’re ready. You can start lifting the package.”

“Ok.”

Down below, Dedrick, Sabrina, and François watched as the cables started rising, slowly forming a large pyramid above the greenhouse. Finally, the four corners stretched tight, and the platform was jolted slightly, and began its ascent to the cave’s entrance.

“Looking good, Tendai. It’s coming up nice and straight,” informed him Dedrick.

A few minutes later, the platform and its cargo were slowly swinging fifty meters above the ground. In no time, Vera and Ladli, standing at the cave’s mouth, secured the anchors and slowly pulled the package in. After a bit of manual coordination between the two rovers and the cave’s team, the container was resting on its bottom, in front of the large alien passage. Jorh, Mahhzee, and Gahneo were ready to help as well. They had joined the human team, wearing their gelatinous suits. François wondered why the aliens had not ventured out before in those suits. If the aliens heard his thoughts, they did not offer an explanation. Instead, with hand gestures, Jorh and his companions commanded the large Zarfha they had brought with them. The object began to hover. After going through its spectacular light show, the sphere came to a rest, floating just above the greenhouse. Then, as if pulling it with invisible force, the white Zarfha levitated the dwelling a couple of meters above the ground. The three aliens then proceeded to walk back to their ship, Zarfha and greenhouse in tow.

A few hours later, one more trip to the Mars First station was made to grab some overlooked items, but by early evening, everyone had safely moved into the alien vessel.

“ Thank you! ” said Dedrick to Jorh again, while everyone was busy relocating all the plants that had been moved separately to the greenhouse behind the ship.

“ You are welcome ,” he blinked.

The first night on the alien vessel was a bit strange to the new tenants. They had never spent a single night away from the station in fifteen years, except for rare rover excursions. It was not for lack of comfort. They had brought their bedding with them, and the aliens had allocated four of their twelve rooms to house the colonists, although Dedrick’s team would have been just as grateful with one. It was the unfamiliar surroundings that made it hard for most to fall asleep. Aside from Chasma, none of them slept much that first night. The next morning the humans were up long before the aliens. Quickly realizing their range inside the ship had been widened, they took the opportunity to explore a few new rooms, transported at will by the alien fog throughout the purple corridors.

Eventually reaching the Time-Frost room, they were greeted by their three hosts. Jorh and his companions had slept in their hibernation pods. They still preferred those over the rooms’ hovering beds, at least for now; especially for their nourishing and reinvigorating properties. They were not weak from their long hibernation anymore, but they had gotten used to the pods. They didn’t know it yet but soon, everyone on board would be glad the pods were so nurturing.

Dedrick recognized the familiar feeling right away. It was the one he always got when Mahhzee was about to speak to him in his head. Similar to the light electric jolt one gets as he puts his tongue on a small battery; uncomfortable, yet slightly arousing.

“ Hello Dedrick. How are you feeling? Did you and your friends sleep well? ”

“ Hi Mahhzee. I’m well. Thank you. How… are you? ”

“ I am well. Thank you .”

Her voice was low and thick and had a soothing effect on Dedrick. The Russian commander was by now quite familiar with it.

“ We would like you to join us in the main room. We wish to show you something ,” she added.

“ Sure, I’ll be right there .”

By now, he was quite used to thinking back to the aliens, instead of talking out loud, but the feeling was still foreign and slightly unnerving.

He leaned above Vera still in bed and kissed her forehead. She moaned a bit in her sleep.

“I’ll be back, love,” he said quietly as he got up and made his way to the other end of the room. A few minutes later, he was floating slowly down the ship’s main corridor. The door opened as his body approached, and he slowly glided inside. Mahhzee, Jorh, and Gahneo were standing in the middle of the large white space, encircling the central sphere hovering a meter or so above its low pedestal. Dedrick slowly approached the tall aliens.