Lori’s limbs felt heavy as April pulled her orange jumpsuit onto her body and guided her to another examining table where she was strapped down with strips of velcro. Mark had heard everything. And if he said anything in reply, she hadn’t caught it. Last words were sometimes overly dramatic, right?
A surge of warmth spread through her body as she realized that she still meant every word. She also felt a sharp prick as April plunged an IV needle into her arm.
“Don’t worry.” April patted her hand. “I made a recording. Everything Mark said to you, even when he knew you couldn’t hear him.”
Lori imagined the expression of hope on her face must have looked ridiculous, but she didn’t care.
“Or maybe Mark should tell you himself. He’ll be along shortly,” April said. “For now, just rest. Okay?”
Lori nodded. Then she closed her eyes and was instantly asleep.
Mark stripped off his own EVA suit in what he was told was near-record time—with help from Yoshiko who stowed everything away, from helmet to boots, as Mark wriggled free.
Everyone onboard knew he had an important appointment to keep.
His oxygen levels had run into the red while he was outside the station, but April had reassured him that he had a good twenty to thirty minutes of breathable air in his suit. Enough time for the airlock to cycle and get him back inside.
But what Lori had said over the comms, thinking she was dying . . . He’d been rather impatient with April and everyone else from that point forward. He was pretty sure he’d yelled at a few people—April included—when he had to wait an additional thirty seconds for the sealant to harden on the new repair inside the airlock.
Mark’s heel got stuck inside his LCG, probably hung up on some tubing, and his patience was at its end. He started tearing at the fabric, and soon felt the pressure of Yoshiko’s hand on his shoulder.
“Mark, what I need you to do right now is take a breath.” Yoshiko’s smile was tolerant. “A good long breath.”
Mark complied. On the second exhale, he felt his irritation melting and leaving him with the warm tingling in his chest that had fueled his impatience in the first place.
“We’ll get you off to see her soon enough.” Yoshiko turned himself upside down to free Mark’s foot from the tangle of his LCG. “There’s no point ripping apart the equipment. This stuff isn’t easily replaced.”
Finally free of his LCG, Mark wasted no time in shimmying out of his MAG and giving himself the fastest possible space shower before he dashed out of the airlock prep bay.
“Umm, Mark?” Yoshiko called him back. “You think you might want to put some clothes on?”
Mark realized he was naked. Just like when he and Lori had first met. He went back for the orange jumpsuit Yoshiko held out to him.
Mark got lost a few times trying to find the medical bay. He realized he’d passed it somewhere along the way and had to retrace his floating steps.
The medical bay was a white-and-silver cube of a room, equipped with readily available defibrillators, first aid kits, and other emergency supplies attached to the walls.
Gilbert looked alert, though groggy, as Molly bound his wounded leg in several lengths of stretchy gauze. Mark looked past him and spotted Lori, bound to an examination table with velcro across her legs and waist while Dina took her vital signs.
His heart beat fast in his chest, even skipping a beat when Lori saw him and smiled.
“Oh, okay, here we are, then.” Dina glanced at Mark and made room for him at Lori’s side. “No signs of shock, which is what we’d be worried about.” Dina pulled the IV out of Lori’s arm, and Mark felt a sympathetic sting when she grimaced.
“So you’re free to go.” Dina winked at Lori before patting her arm and moving a discreet distance away.
Lori freed herself from the waist strap and went to work on the restraints around her legs. “Mark, I have to tell you, I mean, you know about hypoxia—”
Mark rested a hand on hers, stilling her futzing with the velcro straps. “Before you say anything . . .”
He leaned in close, their faces almost touching. It would have been more romantic, he thought, without the bright lights or the sounds of air circulators and beeping monitors. But this was their new reality—a world of manufactured habitats and recycled air. It was a world they would help build, one they would make their own.
Mark didn’t know why he was nervous. They’d already proclaimed their love to each other—with all the world listening in. But it was quite different to make the same statements in person, one soul to another and without the drama of failing life support.
“Everything I said back there, outside the station . . . I meant every word of it.” Mark paused, waiting for her to fall into his arms and profess her own undying love, even if it was just a repetition of what she’d said over the comms. Instead, she frowned.
“But I couldn’t hear you.”
“Right.” Mark nodded, and he squeezed her wrist. “So I’ll—”
“I was all alone, Mark! Except for Gilbert, who was unconscious. He was terrible company.” Lori took Mark’s hand between both of her own as her eyes filled with tears. “I wanted to set things right. I thought I was dying.”
“Yeah, I got that.” Mark laughed instead of sniffing back his own tears. He wanted her to see them. To see him. He wrapped one arm around Lori’s waist to anchor himself in place, close to her. “I’ll just have to tell you again in person.”
She squeezed his hand tight.
“Okay. So. I’m not going anywhere without you,” he said. “Not to Mars, not to the moon, not back to Earth. We started this adventure, well, not exactly together, but it’s been you from the start, Lori. I didn’t expect to find . . .” He battled the lump that was rising in his throat. Being direct had always been his way, but this was new territory.
“A real partner,” he choked out at last.
Lori brushed away the tears that were starting to cloud his vision. At first she simply made things worse, rubbing the salt water back into his eyes. She pulled a tissue from a wall dispenser next to the examination table and handed it to him. Mark blew his nose and laughed again.
“That’s basically it.” He dabbed at his eyes, then slid the wadded tissue into his chest pocket. “It’s not eloquent. I mean, I could go on, if you want. You took up plenty of airtime yourself. I mean, wow, Lori. That was . . . impressive.”
She kissed him quickly, and he was relieved not to have to say anything more. Her soft lips lingered on his, and he tasted the salt of their shared tears. When she pulled away, she didn’t go far. She pressed her forehead against his and dug her fingers into the fabric of his jumpsuit.
“Let’s do this,” she said softly. “Let’s go to Mars.”
He smiled and breathed in her sweet scent.
“Um, but first?”
Mark opened his eyes to find Lori smiling shyly at him.
“It’s just that Molly told me where the Cozy is, and I thought maybe we could try again?”
Lori’s words were hardly out of her mouth before Mark scooped her off the examination table and pushed off toward the corridor. “Tell me which way.”
She laughed as she guided him through a series of turns and past the galley and several bunk rooms. Mark pointedly ignored the cheers from the colonists and crew they encountered. Would anything in their lives ever truly be private again?
They spilled into the Cozy together and shut the door behind them. The compartment was significantly larger than the storage locker, with padded walls and conveniently placed tethers. For a brief instant, Mark had the uneasy feeling that he’d stumbled into the space station’s psychiatric holding cell, but then Lori flipped a wall-mounted switch and the Cozy’s bright lights were cut by more than half, with the addition of a red filter to set the mood.
“I’m really sorry about how I handled things before,” she said. “I never wanted you to feel like, or to think—”
Mark launched himself at her, pulling her in
to his arms just before they collided against the padded wall. She giggled as he tore at her jumpsuit zipper.
“There will plenty enough time for talking, Ms. Ridgway, on the flight to Mars.” Reality struck him then. They were, both of them, actually going to Mars. He felt a twitch of a smile at the corners of his mouth just before she started nibbling on his ear.
“We’re not on camera in here,” she murmured against his throat, her hands on his chest.
Mark grabbed one of the tethers and pulled himself forward, pressing Lori between his body and the wall. “Think you’re up for some experimentation?”
Her lips parted in a mirthful smile, and his breath lightened at the sound of her laughter. He pushed a dark snake of swirling hair away from her face so he could see her eyes in the dim light.
She tugged at his zipper and plunged her hands inside his jumpsuit. Her fingers were electric on his skin, moving across his stomach and ribs and exploring downward. He slid his arms free of his sleeves and then pushed the suit over his hips and clear of his legs. He hadn’t bothered to don any undergarments before he raced from the airlock to the medical bay. Lori looked him up and down with appreciation.
“Just like how we met,” she laughed. “Although, I’m afraid I’m dressed a bit differently this time.”
With one hand still grasping the tether, Mark slid the other beneath her open jumpsuit, running his fingers over her silky skin and stopping when he came to the elastic of her bra. “I think this needs to come off,” he said. “Now.”
“Yes, sir.” She shucked off her clothing with an eager smile and only once came close to kneeing him in the chest. She pushed her jumpsuit and underthings away and looked at him, her breath quick and her eyes wide. They were naked, together. Finally.
Lori opened her mouth to speak, but Mark laid a finger across her lips. She smiled and reached back to grab at a couple of tethers, anchoring herself to the wall. Mark reached for her, drawing closer and pressing his flesh against hers. She let out a soft, delicious moan that shot through him like a lightning bolt.
“Will you close the fucking vents!” Molly’s voice echoed into the Cozy from somewhere on the station. “Sheesh! You people!”
“Oops.” Lori laughed against Mark’s chest.
He reached over her head to close the Cozy’s vents, while she released one of the tethers to dig her fingers into his backside.
She cleared her throat. “Um, so you know, they have us on hormonal birth control. Until the new habitat is ready. So we don’t have to—”
Mark covered her mouth with his. He didn’t want to hear or think about practical matters or anything else outside this space with Lori. He ran one hand down her body, rounding her hip, while the other wandered over the curve of her breasts. He watched her face as her eyelids drifted down, the tip of her tongue moistening her lips. Her breath was a sudden spasm of pleasure as he took her erect nipple less than gently between his thumb and forefinger.
And then he started to float away from her, his hands grasping at open air. Her eyes flew open. She chuckled as she pulled him back. He laughed deep in his throat.
“What?”
He shook his head. “I wonder how long it will be before there’s a Mars Ho branded manual for sex in space.”
“Who says the Blocks aren’t already on it?”
He frowned. That was precisely not the image he needed in his head at that particular moment. But before he could begin to cool off, Lori lifted one knee and drew him closer.
“Forget about everything else,” she whispered. She hooked her leg around his waist and grabbed the tethers with both hands. “I do want you, Mark Lauren. I want only you.”
She moaned against his neck as he entered her. It was difficult to find his rhythm at first without the assist of gravity, and he worried about a satisfactory conclusion for anybody. But Lori gripped him with her knees, holding his body firmly against her own, her breath a laugh of delight with each thrust as they moved together. He closed his eyes and clutched at her, digging his fingers into the softness of her hips and burying his face in her hair.
He felt the tremor of her orgasm move through her body as she sighed into his ear. He drove deep into her and cried out with the explosion of his own release. She laughed and let go of the tethers.
They clung to each other for long, blissful moments, breathing in rhythm as they floated together. Finally, Mark lifted his head to study her easy, untroubled smile. He traced the curve of her bottom lip with his thumb.
“Okay, Lori Ridgway. Let’s go to Mars.”
18
The first Mars-bound transport ship had been packed with supplies of air, food, fuel, and even entertainment for a tolerable 98-day, one-way trip to the Red Planet. The cargo holds were stocked with dehydrated meals; mechanical equipment and replacement parts; pain killers, surgical tools, and first aid provisions; and building materials to support the fledgling colony once they made landfall. Lori didn’t want to think about how much protein paste they were carrying.
The only thing left to do was to strap in and get underway.
The main cabin of Red Wing 1 was larger than the capsule that had brought them to ISS-5. In the main cabin, eight reclining couches were arranged like spokes around a central column, heads pointed inward. Video screens were mounted in the ceiling above, the displays dark. Someone back at Mission Control had decided the colonists wouldn’t be interested in real-time launch data.
Trevor, Trent, and Leah had already climbed into their reclining chairs, and Mark and April were double-checking their restraints. Most of the ride to Mars would find them in zero-gravity, but the initial acceleration away from Earth would subject them to forces up to four times the pull of gravity.
Lori hovered just inside the hatch connecting Red Wing 1 to ISS-5 and completed her third pass through the same checklist on her tablet, confirming again that the propellant and life support levels were holding steady. She felt like a child tasked with making an inventory of the pantry, just to have something to do. Everything onboard had been checked and re-checked a hundred times before a single colonist floated aboard. But the cameras were on her—they always would be—so she did her duty without complaint.
She looked up at the sound of April’s giggle as she teased Mark one more time about the fan mail and interview requests that had been pouring in since Lori and Mark’s “dramatic love reveal” on live television. Rufus Day himself had sent along his congratulations and promised a case of champagne on the next Mars-bound supply mission.
“And all the girls are like ‘OOOOH! Mark Lauren, what a hunk!’ whenever you come on the screen.” April grinned while she tightened the straps across Trevor’s chest. Trevor winced as she pulled too tight.
“Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be?” Trevor protested. He tried to get comfortable within the taut harness and looked up at April with a smile.
“We’re going to have a little talk. Later.” April patted Trevor on the shoulder and moved on to Leah’s couch. “They’ll have posters of the two of you on the walls at every airport.” April winked at Mark. “After you’re dead, they’ll probably put you on the money, too.”
Lori approached her own reclining couch and stowed her tablet in a pocket on the chair’s base. “So we’ll have that to look forward to, being dead.”
April let out an exasperated sigh. “You know that’s not what I meant.”
“Strap in, folks, we’re getting close,” Molly’s voice came over the crew cabin speakers.
“I’m a rocket man!” Trent exclaimed from his couch. Strapped in beside him, Leah giggled. On his other side, Guillermo offered a enthusiastic fist bump and then turned to murmur something to Melissa, who laughed in reply.
Pretty much the entire cabin reflected the “honeymoon in space” vibe the producers had been playing up, though Lori wondered how long it would take for the novelty to wear off, both for the colonists and the viewers. There would certainly be bickering on their journey, and lots of m
ake-up rendezvous, too.
When Lori looked back at the connecting hatchway, she saw that Gilbert and Maya had already closed and sealed the door. The wall-mounted panels glowed red, letting her know that the dock had already been depressurized. They were surrounded by the vacuum of space, and that wouldn’t change until they entered the thin Martian atmosphere.
So this was it. She pushed herself into the contours of her couch and reached for her restraint harness.
“Let me get that.” Mark hovered at her side, his hands on hers as she snapped her buckles into place.
“I think I’ve got this, handsome.” She nodded toward the empty couch next to hers. “You’d better get yourself situated.”
He leaned over to kiss her, and she smiled. While Mark secured himself in the couch to Lori’s right, April took her place in the berth to Lori’s left.
“Well, here we go!” April’s voice trembled with excitement.
Lori’s stomach was roiling with nerves. Now that she didn’t have the distraction of her checklist, there was literally nothing for her to do but wait. Her heart pounded in her chest so hard that it hurt.
She stretched her fingers out long a few times to ease the tension in her joints. They were free of pressure suits and helmets for this launch, at least. She closed her eyes, worked at deepening her breathing, and tried to ignore the verbal countdown coming in over the speakers, care of Molly.
Lori reached out to her right and felt Mark take her hand, interlacing his fingers with her own. She turned her head toward him and saw him begin to say something, but his voice was drowned out by a heavy clunk outside the cabin’s outer hatch as Red Wing 1 detached from ISS-5 and auto-fired its auxiliary rockets to move away from the space station and into position for the orbital launch to Mars.
“Bon voyage, Red Wing 1,” Molly said. “And have fun out there.”
Low, nervous chuckles echoed through the cabin. A large image of the planet they were leaving behind filled the sectional screens mounted over their heads.
“Okay, folks, the computer’s in charge from here on out,” April announced.
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