One Way To Mars

Chapter 16

Foreman had a new lease on life.He was as excited as a schoolboy going on his first date. He setabout a cleaning regime that kept them both busy for twelve hours aday. Poor Monkley was set one task after another. As he was cleaningthe buggy, Foreman was doing the really important stuff, like makinglarge quantities of wine and curing the dope. If anybody actuallyremembered his birthday party he would consider it a flop. With theessentials taken care of, he got busy with the mundane chores,cleaning everything in sight. With a marker, he crossed off each day.Any free time, he was trying to contact Mitchum on the Moonstruck,with only partial success.

'Damn solar winds.'

Finally, the day arrived for theMoonstruck to land.

'Should we wait for themoutside?' said Foreman pacing up and down. “You know, be there togreet them? Is that the right thing to do, Monkley?'

'Monkley.'

'I think we should. Do you thinkwe should? Yeah. It's only polite. I think we should. Foreman. Calmdown.'

'Andy happy.'

'You bet I'm happy. You'll behappy when you see all those people. I say all those people, I haveno idea how many. I hope there's a single lady with them. You have noidea how long... None of your damn business. Just my luck to be abunch of hairy assed guys, stinking of sweat and spitting tobacco.No. They won't be red-necks. They're astronauts. Intelligent people.Calm down Foreman. Monkley suit up. We'll wait for them outside.'

Relieved for Foreman making adecision, Monkley found his suit and wriggled into it. Five minuteslater, they were sitting in the buggy, watching the red tinted sky.Foreman realised they could be sitting there for hours, with noagreed E T A, but he didn't care. Another ship was coming and that'sall that mattered. Almost two hours had gone by when they saw it. TheMoonstruck had eased into the Martian atmosphere and was on itscircumnavigation of the planet, getting closer with each pass to thebase. On its third circuit, it was coming in to land.

'Wow. Look at the size of thething.'

'Oooh!'

The Moonstruck was massive,almost the size of the base. It was too large to land inside thecrater, so it landed on the plateau close to the ramp. Foreman putthe lever into forward and drove up the ramp to meet the visitors. Upclose, the black and grey ship was even more impressive. Foremanparked by the main hatch. Three minutes later, the airlock hatch dooropened and steps extended to the ground. Foreman could hardly breathewhen two suited humans appeared at the open hatchway. Those twostarted down the steps, followed by three more.

One man bent down and shookMonkley's hand. 'You must be Foreman.'

'First time I've been mistakenwith a GenMoP,' said Foreman.

'Just messing with ya. MikeMitchum. Good to meet you at last, Foreman.'

'Andy. Call me Andy. Hi,everyone. I can take five of you if Monkley walks back.'

'He's cute,' said a woman. 'Hecan sit on my lap.'

They all squeezed onto the buggyand Foreman drove back down the ramp. Monkley operated the airlocksand they were all finally inside the base, removing their helmets.

'Okay. Formal intros'. Mike 'headhoncho' Mitchum, in charge of this bunch of misfits. My number two,Debbie Warner, geologist . Operations manager, Joe 'If it ain't brokeI'll fix it anyway' Hancock. Pete 'if it has an engine I can driveit' Giovani, and Susan 'I'm not just a pretty face' Redcliff.'

Foreman's mouth went dry when hesaw Susan Redcliff without her helmet. Words like stunning, gorgeousand hot went through his mind. “Calm down, Foreman. And oh yeah,breathe.”

'Welcome. I'm Andy Foreman,veterinarian and personal groom to this chap, Monkley.'

'Cute,' said Redcliff, andForeman realised she was looking at him, not the GenMoP.

'Err, right. Come on in and I'llshow you around.'

'Mind if we take our suits off?'Joe Hancock asked.

'Feel free.' they all strippeddown to the regulation I S F undergarments. Whomever designed them,never imagined a woman like Susan Redcliff filling one out. 'Come andgrab some wine and we'll have the guided tour.'

'Actually,' said Mitchum, 'Thisis our third visit.'

'No shit? Sorry. I meant,really?' He led the way to the food and wine.

'We are the drillers,' said JoeHancock. 'We're the ones who found the water.'

'Is that so? And an excellentdrop of water it is too.'

'The filters probably wantchanging by now,' said Debbie Warner. Debbie was an attractive woman,but plain next to Susan.

'All done,' said Foreman. 'I'dappreciate it if you gave the sodium carbonate settings a once overwhile you are here. It can wait. What do you think of the wine?'

'Is that what it's supposed tobe,' said Giovani. 'I was about to commandeer it for fuel.'

'Italian,' explained Susan.'Thinks he knows a bit about wine.'

'Actually,' said Foreman, 'Ifound some exotic plants in the jungle.'

'Heck,' said Susan. 'The dopeseeds took off?'

'You planted dope seeds?' Mitchumsaid.

'For which I am truly grateful,'said Foreman with a little bow.

'Call it my contribution. I'llhave to sample it later.'

'Why wait? I usually have a smokeabout this time of night. Wallowing in the pool, relaxing.'

'What are we waiting for then?'said Susan.

'I err, don't have any bathingsuits,' confessed Foreman.

'Skinny dipping it is, then. Lastone in is a sissy.'

'Looks like my birthday's arriveda couple of days early. You know where the pool is, I'll be there ina minute.'