Life on Mars?

Ah! Here comes the next short short story for you lot.

Before I allow you to read it, I thought I'd update you on that story I said I was writing. You know, the one I mentioned in one of my blog posts called 'More'? Anyway, as I never said the title of the the story and so here's stuff on it.

The title of that story is The Disappeared, and it's a story which I'm a bit hmm about because I tried writing it in a different way: I wrote it in first person. Crazy! I hear you call, and I know. But I did it, and it... it worked out alright. Well, I don't know.

Sadly, I've put that story on hold for now, but I will get back to it. It's close to its end - I can feel it - but it just kept on getting longer! I ended up not finishing it in time for the deadline my school set (The Disappeared was for a school mini-test thingy), but I did send in what I had done, and my teacher enjoyed it apparently, so once she gets back to me I'll finish it and then let you lot read it.

So now for my second short short story.

This one is set on Mars (hence the title, named after one of my favourite songs) and it is about a small colony.

(Again, please don't steal this.)

*

Beyond the window Tom could see the orange world of Mars. Rocks and sand for as far as he could see, like a mix between the aftermath of a cave-in and a dessert. The sky was also orange, but a lighter one. It was plain with never much to see.

Sometimes a sandstorm would come and block his view, but that never upset him. It reminded Tom how much more alive this planet was (despite their lack of evidence for any intelligent alien life).
Tom was a part of a Mars colony, a small city-like base on the red planet. There were about fifty other people living with him up here, which was enough for it to not become boring. They had all been here for a good six years now, and no matter how many times his brother tried to convince him otherwise, Tom was loving it.
Back on Earth, Tom’s parents and brother Jamie were living in England, and they often got to send messages to one another - video emails, if you want. Sadly, they couldn’t manage a real-time conversation due to the distance between the planets, but the video emails were good enough for Tom.
Right now, Tom was waiting to receive his next video email. Jamie’s wife had gone into labour the last Tom had heard, and so in the next video he should finally be able to see his niece or nephew. He sat at a round desk with a few screens around him, the one in the centre was blank, waiting for the video to be played on it.
After waiting for half an hour, he received a video. Tom played it.
It was his brother, Jamie, holding a small baby. “Alright, Tom… This is Lucy,” Jamie smiled, small tears in his eyes, “and she’s beautiful. I dunno if you can see that there, but she’s got Hannah’s blue eyes, and apparently the same jaw-line as me. But I don’t actually see how that’s possible as I’m a grown man who has gone through puberty.” Tom snorted a laugh. Jamie continued, “I wish you were here, Tom, you could have met your little niece. Ah, I miss you man.” Jamie looked at Tom, his deep brown eyes full of happiness and sadness. “Right, I gotta go be a dad now - bloody hell - so I’m gonna have to cut this one short! Hope to hear from you soon, bye! Say bye Lucy; bye!”
Tom leaned back and rubbed his eyes. Maybe he should go back home…
Looking out over the surface once more, Tom saw something move in the sky, something fast. Before he could register what it was, it was gone.

* * *

One month later, Tom found himself in the same room, looking out over the surface and pondering about aliens and listening to Life on Mars by David Bowie.
Before he could receive a message from his brother (which actually came in about once a week, not monthly), a friend of his burst into the room. “Cameron?” yelped Tom as Cameron pushed Tom out of the way and set up a telescope on top of the computers.
“Not clear… Not clear enough,” he muttered under his breath urgently. Cameron’s long hair was sticking to his forehead, which was laced in sweat.
“Cameron… Are you alright?” asked Tom. “What’s not clear?” Tom got up and put his hand on Cameron’s shoulder. When he did, Cameron suddenly looked round as if he hadn’t noticed Tom being there.
“Earth— can’t see Earth here,” Cameron said quickly. “Where can I see Earth again?”
“We have an observance room… Cameron you’ve been here for six years.”
“I haven’t got a reply from my family since the beginning of the week - I get Tuesdays - something’s happened.”
“Nothing’s happened—”
“No, no, something’s happened! I checked, we’re not getting any signals from Earth. Looked into the system.”
“How did you do that? We’re not allowed to do that. And we would have been informed if something had happened to Earth...”
“Why would they tell us?” Cameron said, leaning in so that his nose was almost touching Tom’s. “There would be madness on this base— can’t have that, no no—” then suddenly he ran out of the room with his telescope.
Tom got up and followed him into the corridor. Cameron muttered, “Gotta find Earth… Gotta find Earth…”
Why didn’t he just use the observance room?
Following the path he knew so well, Tom made his way to the room. On the way he passed many of the people he knew here. All calm, all waving. Tom could still hear Cameron somehow… His voice, that made voice was there. Earth— can’t see Earth. Gotta find Earth. Gotta find Earth. Something’s happened. Something’s happened.

When Tom reached the observance room, the only room which faced Earth and had updating footage of it, constantly running, he found that it—

— was locked.
Beside the OPEN button, it said LOCKED. Tom pressed the open button several times, but nothing would happen. Tom stood back a few steps and breathed in slowly. OK, OK, he thought to himself, calm down.
He turned and walked down another route. Yet again, he passed more people he knew. There were only people he knew here. He could trust them all, yeah? Maybe the observance room just had some damage to it. No harm in wanting to check it out in another way.
Soon, Tom reached another room full of space-suits. There were two large doors, one was the airlock, and the other contained everyone’s space-suits. Inside there, they all also had spares just in case one were to get damaged. Beside the container, there was a control panel, and Tom typed in his full name.
<<WHY DO YOU WANT TO GO OUT?>> asked the computer.
<<IT’S MY FREE HOUR. I WANT TO GO OUT FOR A BIT, MORE FUN OUT THERE.>> replied Tom, tying in with the computer’s small keyboard on the wall. A difficult task.
<<DON’T YOU WANT TO WAIT FOR YOU BROTHER’S MESSAGE?>>
Sometimes Tom wondered whether it was a human typing these messages. <<I’LL SAVE IT FOR MY NEXT BREAK.>>
<<VERY WELL.>>
The container’s door opened up, revealing many space-suits. Like a vending machine, Tom’s space suit was picked out and lowered to him. Tom quickly put it on where he stood. As soon as he had the mask securely on, he closed the container then pressed the OPEN AIRLOCK button. The large door, similar to a garage door, opened up. Inside, there was another door in front of him. The room depressurised and then the second door opened.
Beyond: the beauty of Mars.
On other trips to the surface, Tom had taken a long moment to take in the view of another world at his feet. But he didn’t have time for that. Trudging along Mars’ surface, Tom walked beside the colony, trying to remember where the observance room was from the outside.
From the outside, the colony looked like one large dome, complete with other, smaller domes surrounding it. Only one of these other domes were nearly completely glass; the observance room. And Tom could just see it.
How much more time did he have left before he had some work to do? Quarter of an hour. Sure, plenty of time.
Eventually, Tom reached it. On his way he got some confused looks from the people within the dome peaking out the windows, but he ignored them. He needed to know this. He needed to know his parents were safe. He needed to know his brother was safe. He needed to know his niece was safe.
The observance room didn’t looked damaged in any way. Tom walked along it to get a peek into the room, hoping to see the monitor of Earth.
Then he saw it.

He gasped for a second, but then he realised that Earth was… fine.

But there was something nagging him. He couldn’t get a live call to his brother or his family, so how could this footage of Earth be live?
Suddenly he saw something move, something fast. But before he could register what it was, it smashed into Earth.
Tom saw huge chunks of Earth break off, and an explosion, before the footage cut off.