Chapter 10

Nash and the others inched towards the open doorway. ‘You go first,’ he told Raj. ‘I want you to go down in history as the second kid on Mars.’

‘No, you go,’ Raj replied politely. ‘I insist.’

KC jostled beside them. ‘What about me? Why can’t I be Number 2?’

Nash and Raj exchanged glances. ‘Good point,’ Raj said. ‘Off you go.’

‘Thanks, you guys are the best!’ Grinning widely, KC stepped onto the surface of the red planet. ‘That’s one small step for kids,’ she said. ‘One giant step for kid-kind.’ She jumped and skipped around, giggling at her own joke.

The others followed behind her. Nash walked several paces onto the Martian surface. Strong winds whistled across the desolate landscape, dust and sand eddied and whirled. Everything seemed so … red and dry.

Nash tested his footing and the gravity boots to make sure the ground was solid and that he could walk properly. He took a deep breath, drawing in cool, clean oxygen from his suit’s in-built tank. His pulse slowed slightly, and he relaxed as he realised that everything seemed to be working. He turned to give his companions the thumbs-up and they did the same back to him.

The group set out, soon discovering they had landed in one of the many extinct volcanic craters the planet was covered in. When they came to the cliff face of the crater, they had to carefully scale up it. Once at the top, they heaved themselves over the edge and kept walking. The Martian surface was flat and firm and they made good time. Soon they spotted the glass-domed Alpha Colony in the distance. As they continued towards the settlement, they passed abandoned rovers and rusting vehicles, many of them covered in sand and dust. None looked to be in working order, unfortunately. They even passed a fallen, broken-down robot half-buried in the sand. One of the robot’s metal fingers pointed in the direction they were heading, as if it were a signpost to the colony.

‘Is this a junkyard?’ Nash asked.

‘Looks like it.’ Orson frowned. ‘No matter where humans go, we always manage to drop rubbish everywhere. Looking at the rust, they’ve been here a while.’

KC laughed. ‘This whole planet is made of rust.’

‘You’re right,’ Orson said, laughing too. ‘It’s spectacular, isn’t it? Positively stunning in its severity.’

The group paused to admire their surroundings. While they stood on flat ground, jagged mountains rose into the sky to the west. The sun felt warm, but it was getting darker and cooler. Temperatures on Mars could reach around 20^o C in the day, but at night they dropped to -80^o C.

‘Let’s keep moving,’ Orson said, ‘We need to reach the colony before dark.’

As Nash started walking again, his foot caught on a rock, and he tripped. He reached his hands out in front of him as he fell forwards. Jagged rocks scraped his knees and gloves, but thankfully didn’t cut through. Something shiny caught his eye. He rubbed the top layer of dirt away to reveal a seam of gold. ‘Hey! Check this out!’ he gasped, rubbing away more dirt.

‘Is that gold?’ Raj asked.

KC squealed with excitement. ‘Yes! Yes! It’s gold.’

Orson bent beside Nash, peering at the long gold seam he’d revealed. ‘There’s enough gold here to buy three banks,’ he said. ‘And if this is sitting on the surface, there must be more below.’

‘Can we take some with us?’ Nash asked. ‘We’ll be rich!’

Orson shook his head and stood up, motioning for Nash to do the same. ‘Cover it up,’ he said, pointing to a pile of rocks nearby. ‘Use those.’

‘Why?’ Nash asked.

’We’ve seen what mining has done on Earth, what gold rushes, and chasing the almighty dollar has done. That’s why we have so many problems with the environment. It’s greed, really.’ He studied each of the children in turn. ‘I don’t want to see this place plundered, at least not yet. We can’t hide the gold forever but maybe we can buy Mars some time.’

The others agreed and worked together to cover up the gold then continued trudging towards the Alpha Colony. The setting sun’s light glinted off the protective dome and the solar panels lined up in long rows beside the settlement. Some of the solar panels were damaged and falling over, Nash assumed the wind had blown them down. Through the dusty exterior of the dome, evidence of life could be seen. Spindly trees and plants were visible as were small, blue-and-white domed buildings – resembling igloos – with arched doorways and round windows.

A familiar sound made Nash’s ears prick up. ‘Is that coming from inside the dome?’ he asked.