NOVEL NEXT Chapter 84: Subterfuge
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Gordon: Marie, you betrayed me and let Mars kick me in the nads.
Marie: HAHAHAHAHA
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Sol 498 FY 26, 07:30 Mars Time, Bonestell Crater Colony, Hab Layer, 9.32.002.B
She walked around him, grinning.
"You look like a Mars man," she confirmed.
She hugged him. His suit flexed much more than the old one had—he could feel her arms around him. They stayed for a moment, possessive, but she reluctantly peeled herself off after a moment.
"You'll still have to be vacuum-prepped before I get you again," she said. "One of the instructors will give you a quick walkaround up top, by the entrance. Shouldn't be too bad. Meanwhile, I'll see about getting your tour group ready—I can't wait to show you how beautiful it all is. I really can't."
He hesitated. "What about Father?"
She hesitated. Then:
"Okay guys, I need a moment with my man—scootch!"
The two who'd been loitering nearby grinned knowingly and sauntered off.
"We'll have chaperones everywhere we go here unless we say otherwise," she warned him.
"Um. . .so, you know how your dad didn't want a Martian suit?"
"I didn't know that," he said, "but he doesn't seem to have been suited."
"He won't be. He declined. But it seems his O₂ sensor started acting up on the one from the ship. Could be nothing, could kill him. His diagnostics started failing shortly before we got him out of the suit, so that's being refitted now too."
She gave him a sideways look, waiting for his reaction.
"I put a clamp on the hose leading from his airway to the sensor. The suit is fine, and I didn't put him in danger—but I didn't think we wanted company. For the surface tour. I thought we might not."
"They won't find the clamp?" Gordon's chest was fluttering. She wanted to be alone with him. That was good.
"I removed it. So they'll spend an hour or two running diagnostics under vacuum in the lab, trying to figure out why it works fine in atmosphere but not under vacuum. . ."
She trailed off, letting the implication hang. Gordon found himself smirking.
"And they haven't gotten to it yet, since you'll be here a while and it wasn't a priority. I even got the tour guide to let me take point while he stays in the base. What I'm saying is. . ."
She leaned in, voice warm and conspiratorial.
"Go get pressure certified—so I can have you all to myself."
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Gordon stepped into the airlock, suited up. He was fine. Everything was fine.
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The outer door sealed behind him with a deep mechanical thud.
"Pressure up!" someone called from outside.
The suit didn't just tighten—it clamped down like a hydraulic press. For a moment, Gordon just felt constrained, compressed by the unfamiliar grip of the gel pads. Then the real pain hit.
A sharp, gut-deep jolt shot through his lower body, like being kicked between the legs by a steel boot. And worse, it didn't fade—it stayed, blooming outward in a nauseating surge.
The gel padding didn't give. It held its shape, unyielding, while the rest of his body was shoved into whatever spaces remained. Thighs, hips, groin—everything compressed into shape by slow, methodical violence. His stomach twisted. He swallowed hard against the lurch of nausea as a wave of dizziness swept through him.
He barely stopped himself from doubling over. His balls had probably retreated all the way back up into his torso. He felt the irrational urge to check if they were still there, as if he could without removing layers of atmospheric gear first.
Instead, Gordon planted a hand against the wall of the airlock and forced himself upright, locking his knees, jaw clenched tight.
The pain hadn't faded so much as stabilized, his insides still buzzing with the aftershock. Across from him, the other Martians grinned like older brothers who'd just watched a younger sibling take his first punch.
"Not bad, rookie," one chortled. "That's one point four earth atmospheres, straight to the jimmies."
Gordon exhaled shakily. "Why. . .do it in this order?"
The Martian shrugged like it was obvious. "Would you rather cycle first and let vacuum hit you without a pressure suit?"
He thought about it. "Yes?"
The instructor's grin widened. "Yeah, you'd have liked that better. But then you'd miss the bonding moment."
Gordon grimaced and didn't reply.
"You're gonna love this, though." Another Martian hit the control panel.
The airlock cycled.
And suddenly—
The pressure vanished.
Or rather, it equalized. The gel that had felt like a second skeleton strangling him seconds ago? Now it softened, barely noticeable. No crushing. No stabbing pain. His whole body felt. . .normal. Weightless, even.
He took an experimental step. Nothing pinched. No protest from the suit. He blinked in surprise. His guts roiled.
"Much better. But I think I actually got damaged the first time."
"It does all of us that way. No surprise babies for new Martians."
The men all chuckled.
"Girls don't have it this bad, do they?" he asked warily, a suspicion forming.
The Martian smirked. "Oh heck no."
Gordon's stomach dropped. That was the worst possible answer.
"That's why rovers are ladies first," the man added cheerfully. "Personally? I only Marswalk when I'm feeling sentimental. Gotta really want it. And me, I had to see who our Marie had chosen, make sure you were up to scratch."
He clapped Gordon on the shoulder—hard, making everything worse.
"Feeling complimented yet?"
"I think I have questions for Marie," Gordon muttered.
"You'll get used to it," the aide said, already walking off with a gait Gordon now recognized as duck-footed and disturbingly practiced.
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Through the portal window, Marie and Adya had watched the moment Gordon doubled over.
"Wimp," Adya said.
Marie gave her mother a sidelong look. "Mom, his literal balls were in a literal vice."
"Yeah, but it's gel. He's overreacting."
"You keep saying that."
"He can try childbirth, then tell me what real pain is."
"You were out of your mind on morphine," Marie countered, "and told Dad I had suckers."
Adya didn't reply, but her frown deepened.
Marie smirked.
They watched as Gordon straightened, adjusted his stance, and took another step forward.
"Well," Adya muttered, "at least he didn't cry."
Marie smiled faintly, her fingers twitching with the urge to go to him. "No yet," she murmured. "But I bet he's about to ask me why I let them do that."
Adya raised an eyebrow. "And what will you say?"
Marie didn't hesitate. "Come on, mom. It's not like I could have stopped them. If not this, something else. I'll show him how to sync inflation when I take him out myself."