Page 7 of Hidden
Together, we carry his tools and supplies into the hangar. It's the largest space in the station, four times as long as our common room. Boxes and crates are scattered all over the floor, surrounding the broken rover in the centre. On one side of the room are the six pods the men arrived in. I resist looking at them too closely; they trigger too many good and bad memories.
Bastian immediately gets to work, opening several hatches on the rover's sides and tinkering with the electronics inside. I have no clue what he's doing, so I sit on a metal box and watch him. He's completely focussed on his task, his brow furrowed in concentration. There's a tiny smile clinging to the edges of his mouth, showing how much he enjoys his job.
He pulls out a few cables and inspects them carefully. When the rover broke, I tried to fix it, but it's completely different from a car on Earth. To withstand the pressure and radiation on Mars, its outside walls have to be thick and the openings well sealed. None of the cables inside made any sense to me, so after some random unplugging, I'd decided to focus on the more important tasks. Like surviving.
"Can you hold this for a moment?"
Glad to be of use, I jump off my crate and stand next to Bastian. He's got a whole bunch of elastic tubes in his hands, all in different colours and sizes. Why don't people put labels on these? It would make life so much easier.
"Stretch out your arms," he asks me, and then begins to sling a large blue cable around them to keep it apart from the others. For a moment, his fingers touch the soft skin of my arm and goosebumps travel up my back.
I miss being touched. Not in a sexual way, no, just human, friendly touch, to show that I'm no longer alone. I thought it would all change once they woke up. I was looking forward to long hugs and gentle embraces. None of that has happened. Not even a handshake. Because of that, every accidental touch is a special moment for me. One I will treasure and remember.
I can still feel Bastian's fingertips on my skin even though he's already moved away. The echo of his touch is lingering and I enjoy every second of it.
Bastian, the man with the stray lock and the thoughtful eyes.
He puts two more large tubes on my outstretched arms.
"Let me know if it gets too heavy," he says. "I just don't want to put them on the floor, cables always seem to tangle up in a mess as soon as I lay them down."
"Murphy's law," I mutter and Bastian laughs heartily.
"Exactly." He reaches into the rover and pulls out a tiny red cable which has burn marks on its rubber casing. "Look at that... I think I may have found our culprit."
––––––––
AFTER SOME MORE TINKERING, the rover sounds the same as it used to. While Bastian is doing the final checks, I wipe the windscreen, removing thick layers of Mars dust. That stuff gets everywhere, even in rooms it should never reach. It's like cat fur; I once found a ball of fur in the attic even though my cat never went in there.
It's a pity we can't keep pets here. Axel, one of my former colleagues, joked that we should get an alien as a pet. But so far, no signs of aliens. Not even microbes. Not that we expected any; there were enough scouting missions to Mars before they sent people here.
"Do you want to drive?" Bastian asks me and I nod enthusiastically. Driving on Mars is exhilarating. There are no roads, no traffic signs, nothing to stop you from driving wherever you want. The only speed limit is that of the rover itself - which is not very fast, but still fast enough to make it fun.
"Are we inviting any of the others?" I ask, already on the way to the suit room. Once we're in the rover, we can take off our helmets, but for safety reasons we need to wear the heavy Mars suits. And maybe I can persuade Bastian to go for a stroll at the Pinnacle. I need some fresh air - or the illusion of it. The air in the suits isn't any fresher than in the station, but somehow, my senses tell me otherwise.
"Jordan was really excited about going outside. I'll comm him to see if he's free."
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IN THE END, THERE'Sfour of us: Bastian, Jordan, myself and Toby, who even brought a packed lunch. It's handy to have the cook with us. He may not look like your stereotypical big-bellied cook, but his mind is always on food nonetheless. I've had some fun conversations with him about the best way to make soufflé. Sadly, that's one thing I'll likely never eat again, unless they send us some chickens from Earth. Martian eggs, now that would be something.
I shoot a quick look at his blackened arm. It took him a while to come to terms with it, but he says he doesn’t blame me.
“Why would I? You saved our lives. This is a small price to pay,” he said, running his fingers over the hard skin that has formed on his arm. It looks artificial somehow, as if it’s not really part of his body.
Han reassured us that it won’t spread. Otherwise he would have had to amputate, but luckily, we avoided that.
Still, whenever I look at his arm, pangs of guilt squeeze my stomach.
Toby and Jordan squeeze onto the back bench while I take the driver's seat. The seats aren't made for comfort, but I'm too excited to care about that. We're going outside!
Slowly, the hangar airlock opens, flooding the hall with bright sunshine. After the sandstorms of the past few days, it looks as if this is going to be a gorgeous day. Having such good weather also means that we'll be able to drive for longer since the solar panels on top of the rover will replenish some of the battery power we'll be using.
I carefully start the rover, very aware that it's only just been fixed. I trust in Bastian's skills, but our rovers have been temperamental from the start so it wouldn't be the first time one of them breaks as soon as it got fixed.
The moment we're out of the station and on the sandy Mars ground, I can't help but smile. We're outside! I've been holed up inside the station for so long, alone with the ghosts of my dead friends, that this feels like a major turning point. The sun is an omen, it has to be. Everything is going to be alright.
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