NOVEL NEXT Chapter 85: Consummation
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Marie: I just want it to be romantic.
Jillian: Marie, you don't have a romantic bone in your body. Not yet, anyway.
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Sol 498 FY 26, 08:00 Mars Time, Bonestell Crater Colony, Hab Layer, 9.32.002.B
"This was one of the first arrival structures, repurposed from the colony ship—thus the dramatic window, there. Traffic controllers used it to oversee air and ground traffic. Or," Marie added with a small smile, "they used to. Now, I come here for the view when I can. Most people don't think it's worth the hike."
"Hike?" Gordon repeated, skepticism clear in his voice.
The rover pulled to a stop a moment later, near the base of a slope that looked deceptively gentle from a distance. The "shed"—which more closely resembled a prefabricated structure, logical given its origin as a ship module—perched near the top of a low cliff, maybe forty feet above the Martian plain. Its smooth metal walls and solar panels glinted in the sunlight, and a massive window dominated one side, catching the light like a beacon.
"It's perfectly safe," Marie assured him, unhooking her rover harness. "That was the docking window from the vehicle bay while it was still part of the ship, so it's vacuum-rated." She paused, a hint of a smile tugging at her lips. "I just really wanted to get you to the one place on Mars where you can breathe easily and enjoy the scenery."
Climbing the slope was harder than it looked. Each ledge was made of undifferentiated rock, with a coating of scree and dust that shifted unevenly beneath Gordon's boots, and his weight and the elastic of the suit made every movement more awkward than normal. The canister swinging at his hip and the unfamiliar mass of the tank on his back conspired to give him more spin than usual per each step, and the lighter gravity made this spin more effective than it would have been on Earth. Combined with the loose rock and dust underfoot, it was tougher than it sounded.
By the time he reached the top, his breath was coming hard. He hauled himself over the final ledge after three tries, grit coating his suit thoroughly, only to look up and see Marie already standing at the top, her CO2 tank dangling casually by her side, unmussed.
She offered her hand. He took it. Her grip was firm, steadying him as he scrambled to his feet. She didn't let go once he was upright.
"Welcome to Vehicle Bay 2!" she chirped over the shortwave. The airlock cycled, blowing their hair back and scattering the Mars dust from his suit about the narrow chamber for a moment—then, the inner door slid open, revealing a small room with two overstuffed chairs, a couch, and the breathtaking expanse of a massive window.
The view was stunning. The Martian plain stretched endlessly in every direction, a vast expanse of red and ochre under a salmon-pink sky. The sun hung low, casting long shadows across the surface. For a moment, Gordon forgot about the climb, the suit, even the ache in his legs. All he could do was stare at his girlfriend's exquisite form, backlit against the window, an alien planet as her backdrop.
"You are stunning," he told her, his voice low, honest, and a little awed.
She glanced down for a moment, as though embarrassed, then tilted her head up to give him a fluttered-lashes look that made his breath hitch. "Not so bad yourself," she teased, her lips curving into a playful smile.
"Anyway, all the equipment's been moved into the colony, now. The chairs don't fit through the doors, so they're staying here for the time being."
She busied herself hooking up the larger O2 tank to the room's system, gas hissing as she spun the valve.
Looking around, Gordon took in the space. There was no dust on the surfaces, no abandoned scraps of equipment or forgotten tools. The room was simple, clean, and deliberate.
"It certainly looks well-maintained."
Marie paused, straightening up and brushing her hands against her suit. She turned back to him, a faint blush dusting her cheeks. "Of course," she said, hesitating just enough to make him curious. "There's another reason we never moved the chairs."
Her voice softened, growing shyer with each word. "I was leaving out the most important, ongoing purpose of this place." She met his gaze, her lips curving into a luminous smile.
"Privacy."
Her fingers were sure on his suit fasteners, hisses and pops preceding clicking and zippers unfastening. He groaned in relief as the underlayer eased its grip on him, and she made small sounds of sympathy that were quickly subsumed by those of eagerness. First came the breather, then the tanks, the shoulder harness, the helmet, the gloves—and then it was his turn. Somehow she'd gotten down to her pressure suit without needing any help, its rigid hoses and elastic material throwing her curves into sharp relief, then hissing with escaping air as he undid the clasps.
And then they were just two people, alone together, and the rest stopped mattering.
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"I don't think I'll ever get tired of looking at you."
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She blushed, but didn't move away from him, their intertwined forms taking up most of the space on the faux-leather couch. Her eyes were fathomless, intense, her mouth set in a smirk which had persisted for at least the past hour. "I am very happy to hear that," she told him. Her languid eyes closed, peace settling over her features as she snuggled in to his chest. "I am just very happy."
Gordon held her, his arms encircling her small frame, his fingers lightly tracing patterns against her back. The Martian evening sunlight filtered through the massive window, casting long, golden rays across the room and painting their forms in a muted glow.
The heater hummed faintly in the background, its warmth barely cutting through the coolness of the air. But Gordon barely noticed the chill—it was part of life on Mars, something the colonists had learned to live with. Besides, the cold only made Marie burrow closer, her head tucked neatly under his chin, her breaths steady and rhythmic against his chest.
He wasn't complaining.
He didn't know how he'd gotten so lucky.
"I wish this would never end," he said. To her or to himself, he wasn't sure.
"Then stay." Two simple words, heavy with meaning and invitation.
"I think I'm planning to," he said without thinking.
Before he could process what he'd just said, her eyes lit up like stars, and she kissed him. Her lips were eager and curved in a smile even during their kiss, carrying a joy that didn't need words. He kissed her back, his hand slipping to the nape of her neck, holding her close as if she might drift away if he let go.
I think I'm planning to stay on Mars, he realized.
"If you don't, I may just have to come after you," she murmured. Her fingers brushed lightly over his chest, right above his heart. "You're mine now."
The words sent a shiver through him from the intensity of them, the way they struck some raw, unguarded part of him. She wasn't just being playful. She meant it.
He smiled, a slow, almost disbelieving curve of his lips. "Yours, huh?"
"Mm-hmm," she said, her smirk returning, her fingers tightening just slightly on his arm as though daring him to disagree. "All mine. I've claimed you. Fair and square."
"Fair and square?" he echoed, raising an eyebrow.
"Absolutely," she said, leaning in closer, her voice dropping to a whisper. "Finders keepers."
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The Martian day passed slowly, deliciously. Shadows crept up the rough-hewn shapes of millennia-old formations, stretching longer and thinner as the hours ticked by. The sun hung low in the winter-blue, cloudless sky, its pale light refracting faintly in the fine red dust suspended in the thin atmosphere, and in Vehicle Bay 2 the temperature dropped lower and lower as the solar panels fell into twilight. Blue tones bled into the pale Martian sky, spreading to a halo around the sun and coloring the clouds with brilliant sky-blue jeweled tones. As the heat faded, the azure light crept higher and higher over the airlock and the pair entwined on the old leather couch.
Mars has 38% of Earth's gravity. Gordon hadn't thought about it—he hadn't had a reason to—but, to put it mildly, it made supporting and holding another person much easier. Gordon wondered whether, afterward, if anyone saw Marie's handprints in the dust where the walls curved to meet the ceiling, they would understand what they signified.
Eventually, it was obvious that their stolen time together was drawing to a close. No matter how fiercely Marie pressed her small face into the side of his chest, burrowing for warmth, her teeth began to chatter, the sound soft and rhythmic against the quiet hum of the heater struggling to keep up. Her espresso skin shone, awash with blue in the Martian sunset. He liked it, but it did complicate telling how cold she actually was. He couldn't tell if her lips were turning purple, or if that was just the way the light painted everything.
Gordon adjusted his hold on her, wrapping his arms tighter in a futile attempt to ward off the chill. She snuggled closer, her breath warm against his shirt but quickly stolen by the growing chill in the air around them.
"I'm going to have to cut you open and crawl inside for warmth," she said, her voice muffled and half-serious. "Or. . .we might need to head back."
Gordon's feet were heavy with regret even in the lightened gravity as he donned his jumpsuit, then his EVA harness and helmet. The fabric felt stiff and unfriendly against his skin after the warmth of their shared closeness. Piece by piece, he reassembled the layers of his pressure suit, each buckle and clasp feeling like a small step in the wrong direction.
Marie, already halfway into her own suit, paused to watch him for a moment, her dark eyes soft but knowing.
"Freezing to death might be worth it," he suggested, but she just snorted.
"This will happen again," she promised. "I will always find a place for you next to me."
He paused to take in the sight of her in the glow of the sunset—blue light stark against her skin on one side, the glow of the airlock lights showing her true skin tone on the other. "My Martian," he said.
She smiled at him as she pulled her suit back in place and ratcheted down the breather, a persistent thing which brightened at intervals whenever he looked up selfconsciously from his amateur attempts to do up his suit.
For a moment, the silence stretched between them—then, gently, she pulled her visor down, sealing herself away behind the reflective glass.
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"I recognize that look," joked Marks, one of the many engineers who had greeted Gordon when he first arrived. The man's salt-and-pepper beard was split by a broad, knowing grin as he leaned casually against a workbench. "Jeb, set the boys to cleaning out a new suite—I think we're gonna need it soon."
Behind him, a younger tech snorted, performatively pulling up a holographic map of the colony layout on a tablet.
"Yesterday would be great," Marie chimed in without missing a beat, her tone breezy but her voice carrying just enough weight to make the teasing feel like a directive. "002B would be nice. King bed, please."
The technicians burst into good-natured laughter, elbowing each other and muttering things Gordon couldn't quite catch but could guess at. Their amusement wasn't mean-spirited, just neighborly. Just the right sort of vibe for a tight-knit group like the colonists.
As they passed, Marie gave Gordon's hand a little tug, her pace brisk and confident. Her steps had a particular bounce to them that hadn't been there before.
"You're strutting," he accused, glancing sideways at her.
She didn't even hesitate, turning to him with a grin so smug it practically glowed. "So what if I am?" she asked, tilting her chin up in mock defiance.
"It's hardly very subtle," he pointed out, though he couldn't quite keep the smile off his face.
"Who said I wanted to be subtle?" she replied, clearly enjoying herself. She gave his hand a squeeze, her tone softening slightly. "I've got something nobody else has, and I like how it feels."