[ WP ] A man regrets volunteering to be the first human to travel to Mars

The silence was the worst part. 
 
 Four light minutes out from Earth he got used to the lack of two way communication from Earth. Everything you had to say was scheduled. 
 
 But Rolando had n't expected the silence that had come the day before they were due to land and that silence, true silence, was terrifying. 
 
 `` Houston we're preparing our descent now,'' the pilot, Liu said this as she clicked the final pre-detachment check buttons. 
 
 `` What's the point?'' Ray growled. `` They've been dead 20 hours. No-one back home can hear us.'' 
 
 `` Until we have confirmation we have to assume it is just an error with our receiver,'' Rolando agreed with Lui. He clicked his radio on. `` Houston, Briggs and I are heading into the MEM.'' He nodded to Lui. `` Take care of the Nerine.'' 
 
 `` See you in three hours,'' Lui waved them good bye. Her black hair moved as if in water as she turned to watch them go. 
 
 Rolando and Ray climbed into the MEM and closed the hatch. It sealed with a perfect *phut*. Rolando checked the clock. Detachment in three minutes. He pulled himself into the pilots chair and strapped in. 
 
 `` Houston this is Gomez, I've taken position in the MEM,'' Rolando pressed the radio, hoping against hope someone was there to hear it. 
 
 `` The Nigerian War could have escalated, that's all I'm saying,'' Ray said as he hauled on his space suit. 
 
 `` Can it,'' Rolando ordered. There were a dozen pre-detatchment procedures to go through and none of them were made easier with Senor Doom and Gloom putting in his two cents. 
 
 `` The Chinese have been buying up Africa for years, do you think they'd lay down and let the US roll tanks into-'' 
 
 `` I said can it Ray or I'll replace you with Lui,'' Rolando said in an empty threat. Lui was the best pilot Nasa had. 
 
 `` No skin of my nose if you did,'' Ray shrugged. `` I'd just come out of orbit and leave you on Mars. Whatever's left on Earth.'' 
 
 `` Just get into the chair,'' Rolando shook his head and despaired. He loaded up the piloting computer and finished his pre detachment procedures. `` Alright Houston we're go for the landing.'' Rolando said into the radio. `` Detachment in five.'' 
 
 There was a jerk was the MEM burst away from the Nerine. Rolando spared a glance out the window at it. It had been their home for three months. It was as large as a semi-truck and strangely beautiful. Like an icicle that as been blown this way and that by the wind. 
 
 `` Beginning our descent,'' Rolando reported and fired the rockets. 
 
 Compared to the Nirene the MEM was just an egg in space. It did nothing but get two men and a crate of scientific instruments on and off the Martian surface. 
 
 The descent was fast, scarcely fifteen minutes to travel 400 miles down and fifty miles across. The pod shook as they passed through the thin martian atmosphere, it was n't unlike returning to Earth. 
 
 `` Deploying shoots.'' The descent slowed. `` Firing retros.'' 
 
 When the pod landed it was soft as a moth. A few scorched rocks sat under them but otherwise the MEM did n't disturb a stone. 
 
 `` Picus has landed.'' Rolando announced. 
 
 `` Look at that, it's like... it's like Death Valley.'' Ray was at the window. `` Rocks, kinda reddish... orange.... far as the eye can see.'' 
 
 `` Helmets on,'' Rolando pulled on his own and checked the seal. The Martian gravity was strange. It was n't as weak as the moon, the airy, trampoline like bouncing, but it was no-where near as strong as the Earths. 
 
 `` We're seeing a lot of boulders here Houston,'' Rolando said, joining Ray by the window. `` And sand, and pebbles. Rock of all different sizes. There's a crater in the distance. `` We're going to... we're going to make our descent now.'' 
 
 Ray moved out the way of the door. The air lock was time consuming and awkward with the two of them in bulky high pressure suits. But it did n't take long for them to be out and onto the Martian surface. 
 
 Ronaldo went first. He was the captain. This was his moment for history. Slowly he descended the ladder out of the pod. It was ten feet to the martian surface and a million miles to the nearest hospital. Finally he was on the last rung. 
 
 `` With this, we surpass the gods of our fathers, to take our place among the stars.'' Rolando said it almost as a whisper. He had worked on it for weeks and now, possibly, there was no one to hear it. He dropped to the Martian surface and bounced slightly in the low gravity. 
 
 Ray came down next, carrying the camera. In theory it was sending a high-definition feed back to Earth. In theory. 
 
 `` Look at that,'' Ray's cynicism melted in the face of the rugged beauty of Mars. From here the sun was smaller and its light weaker but there was no denying the majesty of what they were seeing. 
 
 It was morning light on the red planet, and the sun sat in a blue sky. When it reached the zenith it would be red, and the sky clogged with dust, but here, now, the entire sky was as blue as a cool winter's morning. 
 
 `` That's where Earth would be,'' Ray pointed up at the sky. Ray was their navigator, Ronaldo trusted his judgement. 
 
 `` OK Houston we're going to begin deploying the flag and plaque,'' Rolando said stepping back towards the MEM. `` If you give us a few-'' 
 
 `` Rolando, come in!'' Lui's panicked voice burst from the speaker in Rolando's helmet. 
 
 `` I read you Lui,'' Rolando said, continuing his shuffle-float-walk back to he MEM. 
 
 `` I'm about to pass onto the dark side of Mars, but there was a burst of Gamma Radiation on the sensors.'' 
 
 `` Are you alright?'' 
 
 `` I'm shielded up here but on the surface you could be-'' 
 
 `` Look!'' Ray gasped and staggered. Ronaldo followed his finger. For a brief moment there was a second, tiny star in the heavens. 
 
 Just where Earth was supposed to be. 
 
 `` -get into the MEM,'' Lui was continuing. `` Then I can pick you up as scheduled.'' 
 
 `` The mission-'' 
 
 `` Surely science comes-'' Lui's voice crackled and disappeared. She had passed to the dark side of Mars. There was no ionosphere on Mars, their transmissions could only go in straight lines. 
 
 `` I think we should get back into the MEM, Ray,'' Rolando said. Ray had dropped the camera to the Martian surface. 
 
 `` It's gone.... it's gone...'' 
 
 `` That flash could have been anything!'' Rolando said. `` It could have been lightning in the high atmosphere! It could have been cosmic rays hitting the optic nerve! It could have been-'' 
 
 `` The complete thermonuclear annihilation of the Earth.'' Ray continued. `` The unleashed power of the stars.'' 
 
 `` Get in the MEM,'' Rolando ordered. He dropped the flag and the plaque he was holding to drag Ray towards the ship. The man was compliant but child like. 
 
 `` It's the only thing that'd explain the gamma ray burst and the light,'' Ray said quietly. He had to be pushed into the airlock. Thank goodness they were on Mars, and a full grown man weighed only as much as a child. 
 
 `` We're going to get back to the Nirene,'' Rolando said. `` We're going to get back to Earth. We're going to be fine. It's just paranoia.'' 
 
 `` We'll drift in the Pacific until we die.'' 
 
 `` If we ca n't radio them,'' Rolando shut the airlock with a dull clunk. The thin martian atmosphere did n't carry sound well. `` They'll still track our descent on Radar.'' 
 
 `` They'll never find us.'' Ray said dreamily. `` There's no-one there to find us.'' 
 
 `` We'll be fine.'' Rolando opened the inner airlock door and climbed inside the MEM. 
 
 Ray sat quietly in the navigator's chair from then on. Every now and then Rolando heard him whimper to himself and turn over. 
 
 It would still be two and a half hours before Lui could reestablish radio contact. Houston had gone dead for 21 hours now. 
 
 Rolando was left alone with his own thoughts. 
 
 And the echoing sound of silence.
