Mars Ho! (Mars Adventure Romance Series Book 1)

by Jennifer Willis

  Lori let her gaze slide over the curve of the biodome to study the deepening sunset. “Yeah, I think I knew that.”

  “And it’s not just because I would never do that to you.” April tugged at her elbow, making Lori look at her. “Because I never would do that. You’re my friend. So is Mark. I wouldn’t get between you. You guys, I picked you out right away. I knew you would be important to me. I wanted you to be.”

  “Okay.” Lori lifted her gaze again to the watercolor sky. She refused to look back at The Ranch. Her family was probably already long gone anyway. “I’m not sure you’d be getting in the way of anything, though.”

  April planted herself squarely in Lori’s field of vision. “Don’t be an idiot, Lori. I think there’s something real there for you. I mean, as far as I can tell.”

  April’s face changed as she wrestled with what was really on her mind.

  “I’m not like you. I don’t like men or women, not romantically,” April announced flatly. “I can only imagine what that kind of love looks or feels like. That’s why I had the spreadsheet. That’s why I made such a pest of myself with all the flirting and gossiping. It was a caricature, like you said. I gave the cameras what I thought people wanted, so I can go to Mars. Someplace where I can be useful and where I might fit in a little better.”

  Without thinking, Lori rested her hands on April’s shoulders, and April stopped talking.

  So many questions tumbled through Lori’s mind, competing with and cancelling each other out. There was shock and anger and surprise skating together on the dull surface of her grief. She didn’t know where to start.

  “I don’t understand,” Lori managed to say, finally. “Why . . . or, how . . . ?”

  April shrugged, the gesture barely translating though her suit and looking more like a startled shiver. “That’s what I was talking to Mark about, in the fitness room. I was upset, and he was there for me. Like a true friend.” She paused. “I wanted to tell you, but you were so angry. And I was afraid. But there’s simply no way I’d ever want Mark. Not like that.”

  Lori stared at April. The sun was low in the sky and her visor had dimmed to counter any glare. With the visit with her mother weighing on her, and now trying to wrap her mind around April’s revelation, Lori felt her head starting to throb inside her helmet. “Okay, I guess.”

  April smiled quickly. “Of course I want Mark—and you—on the final team with me. I’ve always wanted that. And I want the two of you together, you know?”

  Lori’s eyes, still raw with tears, stung now with new emotion. She was in serious need of a tissue.

  “I wish I could tell you how the next selections were shaping up, but somebody blocked my access after the power outage,” April said. “I’m still working on getting back in.”

  Lori looked again to the sky and the bold colors of sunset. She listened to her own breathing, and to the suit processing her exhalations and maintaining airflow to regulate her contained environment. Everything was so bottled up in this new world—every breath, every scrap of food waste, every bit of gray water was recycled. Nothing wasted in a closed loop of renewal.

  It would be easy to stagnate, Lori thought, to become little more than another cog in the ever-churning machine. Doing her part, but nothing more. Maintaining without moving forward. As spent as she was, just sustaining sounded pretty good. But she had entered the program to do more than just survive.

  Could she really have both ambition and love?

  Lori gave April a short nod. She was ready to move on. They started walking again toward their simulated Martian home.

  All twelve candidates gathered at the airlock. The call had gone out barely an hour after Lori and April returned from The Ranch: A double elimination, the result of expert recommendations and audience voting.

  So Mark once again packed up his belongings and carried his Mars Ho duffel to the biodome’s main airlock to await sentencing.

  He saw his own fatigue and withdrawal reflected in the faces around him—except for the smug smiles of Oskar and Cecilia, hands intertwined as they whispered to each other and tittered quietly. The tension and intrigue of previous eliminations was absent, probably because everyone left was inured to the show’s manufactured drama. Or they were all simply too exhausted to care.

  Mark moved closer to Lori. She was looking particularly bleary as she stood to one side of the airlock with April, though she did seem to lighten a little when he caught her eye.

  Just as he’d arrived at the airlock, the announcement went out to their tablets: Two more candidates had secured their spots, a decision made while Lori was at The Ranch. Mark didn’t understand the logic of the crew assignments. There was supposedly a system to prioritize the dwindling array of skill sets, a system that wasn’t comprehensible to anyone inside the dome.

  Leah Yew was safe from elimination, as was Mark himself.

  But not Lori. She had proven herself worthy and demonstrated her resilience and mettle. After everything she’d been through, her position was still in jeopardy and that made Mark both nervous and angry.

  He’d tried to get Hannah on the line, but all the screens were dark and no one at The Ranch was answering. Mark started to worry that his Mother Jones routine on Lori’s behalf might end up costing her the future she deserved.

  The screen across from the airlock flickered to life, and Gary Nelson’s scintillating smile filled the picture.

  “Greetings, future colonists of Mars!” Gary’s bright energy felt like an assault. Dina actually cringed.

  As the camera zoomed out, Gary clasped his hands together and turned down the wattage on his smile. “Life in the dome hasn’t been easy for anyone. The Mars Ho simulation is as close to the real habitat on Mars as you can get here on Earth, to underscore the harsh realities of life on another planet and to help our panel of experts and our viewers across the globe to get a better sense of how each of you might perform under real Red Planet conditions.”

  Trent huffed and sat down on the floor. When Mark glanced his way, Trent shrugged sharply. “What? I’m tired of standing around.” He gestured toward the screen. “It’s probably pre-recorded anyway.”

  “Works for me.” Leah dropped her duffel bag and joined Trent on the floor.

  Gary expounded on something vague and hyperbolic about valor under pressure while most of the candidates got comfortable on the floor. Mark and April sat on either side of Lori. The Blocks remained standing in defiant unity, though Trent did ask them to move out of the way so they weren’t obstructing everyone’s view of the screen.

  “The time has come for another elimination,” Gary said, finally coming around to the point of his appearance. “We’ve consulted with our panel of experts and have also taken into account a worldwide, popular vote to make the difficult decision of which two Mars Ho candidates will be the next to leave the biodome. It’s been a tight race for many of the contestants who remain, and countless factors have been taken into consideration as the People of Earth select their representatives to colonize a new world.”

  Leah rested her elbows on her knees. “Blah, blah, blah. Just get to it already?”

  Mark took Lori’s hand gently into his own. On her other side, April clutched Lori’s arm. Mark guessed he and April shared the same thought: Please, let Lori stay.

  “And so, it has come to this,” Gary proclaimed at the same moment that Trent let out a hiss of exasperation. “Oskar Block.”

  Oskar stood suddenly rigid and tall, his chin lifted. Cecilia stifled a gasp.

  “Your conduct has been exemplary and your contributions to your candidate colleagues significant, but I’m afraid the time has come for you to go,” Gary said. “Please prepare to exit through the airlock.”

  Oskar’s face froze in a mask of surprised displeasure, and Mark scooted out of his way as Oskar marched toward the airlock. Mark couldn’t recall any significant contribution or exemplary conduct from either of the Blocks, but he didn’t have access to all of the foot
age recorded by the dome’s many cameras.

  “They’re splitting up the married couple?” April whispered.

  Lori’s response was a zombie-like shrug. Mark squeezed her hand and hoped his support might act as a charm against her elimination. Gary had named one man to leave the dome, and now it was time for a woman.

  “The second candidate to be eliminated from the Mars Ho program today is . . .” Gary paused for dramatic effect. Trent and Leah grumbled jointly at the screen, and Mark very nearly shouted an expletive. He balled his free hand into a fist, his knuckles turning white while Gary drew out the moment.

  What would he do without Lori on Mars? Mark glanced around at the other candidates, everyone now looking considerably less apathetic. Lori, Cecilia, Dina, Melissa—one of them was leaving. The men were probably considering their shrinking options for off-world partners, and Mark gritted his teeth when he realized that he too was sizing up the women on something other than intelligence or technical skill. He didn’t want to be that guy, but he couldn’t stop his imagination from auditioning and discarding every woman who wasn’t Lori.

  If they made her leave, Mark decided, he would wait. Lori would get another chance at Mars and they would reunite on the Red Planet.

  “Cecilia Block.”

  Cecilia uttered a sharp cry. A collective sigh moved through the remaining candidates as tears streamed down Cecilia’s face.

  “I, I don’t know what to say,” she stammered as she tugged at the strap of her bag, still slung over her shoulder.

  Standing by the airlock, her husband extended his arm toward her, hand open. “Come, my dear. It is time for us to embark on a different adventure.”

  Mark respected Oskar’s outward expression of calm when they both were likely devastated. But for Mark, there was barely constrained joy. He turned to Lori and kissed her, too quickly to know if she welcomed the gesture.

  “Lori!” April gave her a squeeze.

  Lori looked at April and then Mark, her eyes bright but not comprehending. “Is it over?”

  “We’re very close now.” April was still beaming, even as Oskar and Cedilla opened the airlock door and stepped through.

  Around them, the others laughed away their tension. Leah, Trent, Melissa, and Dina clustered together in an excited gaggle, while Trevor and Guillermo started a mock fist fight. Yoshiko pressed back against the wall, his gaze silently tracing the curved ceiling.

  Mark climbed to his feet and offered Lori his hand. “You live to fight another day.” He helped Lori up from the floor, then grabbed her bag for her. The airlock door closed and cycled, the panel turning from green to red as the outer door opened and expelled the Blocks into the awaiting “clean shuttle” that would ferry them to The Ranch.

  “Not so fast, Mars Ho candidates!” Gary announced from the screen. “This latest elimination brings the competition to the next, and final, stage.” Gary flashed his trademark grin. “And it’s a very exciting one.”

  April’s arms dropped to her sides. “Not another power outage, I hope.”

  “You will not be returning to your bunks.” The shot of Gary widened to reveal a line of five white vans behind him. Workers in clean suits were busy installing heavy plastic sheeting to secure the two-person isolation compartments inside each vehicle. Mark recognized them from the first day of competition.

  “In a few short minutes, you’ll be exiting through the airlock and taken directly to the launch pad!” Gary spread his arms wide.

  “Launch pad?” Lori asked. “We’re going already?”

  Mark felt Lori lean into him. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

  “So grab your bags, future colonists!” Gary’s smile was wider than Mark had ever seen it, the man’s white teeth almost hypnotic. But his enthusiasm seemed genuine as he planted his hands on his hips. “And say goodbye to the biodome habitat. The next stage of your Mars Ho journey is happening in space!”

  15

  The launch had been a fiery, jarring blur.

  Just as Gary promised, the ten remaining candidates had been taken directly from the biodome into a small fleet of “clean vans” stocked with personal supplies for their stay on the ISS-5 and one-way trip to Mars. Leah and Lori traveled together and helped each other into their custom-made space suits, while their driver chauffeured them across the desert to a private launch center in New Mexico.

  But there was no rest to be had in the van. Lori was limp, her mind a dull fog, as she she’d been strapped into her crash couch and peeked past the launch crew to spy April and Dina being secured on either side of her. Then she’d heard Mark’s voice through the comms in her helmet, telling her everything was going to be all right. They were going for the ride of their lives.

  And then she fell asleep, right at the top of the launch sequence. She was jolted awake not long after by the violent shuddering of the crew cabin as the rocket engines fought Earth’s gravity to lift them off the ground. Trent had shouted, “Earthquake!” with vibrating laughter following over the comms.

  Fiery smoke had billowed over the cabin’s windows, gradually giving way to the night’s sky as they hurtled upward. Lori thought she even felt her teeth rattling in her skull as the g-forces pressed her down into her couch. But she was out of her body, watching the launch happen to someone else. There was no rush of adrenaline, no excitement or even fear. She was numb all the way through.

  After they reached Earth orbit, while her companions cheered around her, Lori fell asleep.

  The next thing she knew, April was unbuckling Lori’s harness to release her into the pleasant disorientation of free fall. They had reached the space station.

  Lori removed her helmet and pushed away from her couch, then laughed when she bumped her head against the craft’s ceiling instead of stepping down to the floor.

  “It’ll take some getting used to.” April gripped Lori’s couch with one hand and wrapped her free arm around her own helmet. The rest of the cabin was empty.

  Lori’s movements were awkward and overzealous in the new reality of microgravity. She tried to turn toward April, but then had to catch herself against a bulkhead to keep from spinning all the way around. She felt her face break into a broad grin. “We made it!”

  But the competition wasn’t over yet. Ten candidates had been sent to ISS-5. Two alternates wouldn’t be leaving Earth orbit, and she might end up being one of them.

  Then thoughts of her mother came flooding back. But she had no tears left.

  “Where is everyone?” she asked.

  “Already on the station.” April gestured toward the open hatch joining their craft with ISS-5.

  Lori frowned. She didn’t even know what vehicle she was in. Seven private companies had contracts with the Mars Colony Program for flights to orbit, where the colonists would make their final preparations before their long journey to the Red Planet. Was this the Phoenix Red 7? Or maybe the SpaceX Dragon-3K? She glanced around the cabin for signs of corporate branding. She spotted the winged circle of the Hauer Industries logo on the central buckle of the crash couch harness. It was the single instance of corporate subtlety she’d seen since the first day of Mars Ho.

  The Hauer Ozone. Ten space-age recliner chairs were arranged in a circle to face two additional crew chairs at the center. But she didn’t remember a pilot and co-pilot being aboard. It was probably an automated flight. The biggest flight of Lori’s life, and she’d barely been present for it.

  “Mark thought we should let you sleep.”

  Lori nodded. Mark’s reasoning was always sound. And he was always calm, always strong. Always maddeningly and adorably honorable. And always, it seemed, looking out for her.

  “Come on, I’ll show you the station.” April pushed off from the wall with more grace than Lori could muster, and guided her through the narrow, double-hatched entry connecting the Hauer craft to ISS-5. “We’re bunk mates, along with two of the crew. We’ll get out of these suits and grab a couple of coffee bulbs. You hungry at al
l?”

  Lori followed April down another tight corridor, pulling herself forward using the handholds she found at regular intervals. Every square centimeter of the rounded walls was occupied by storage lockers or equipment. The terms “ceiling” and “floor” quickly lost meaning.

  On her two rides on the infamous Vomit Comet before she entered her Mars Ho isolation, Lori barfed more than anyone else on the plane—and more than she’d thought humanly possible. But she felt no nausea now, just a buzzy, spinny feeling inside her head as a little voice inside kept exclaiming, I’m in space!

  But then she heard the familiar sounds of vigorous lovemaking echoing through the station’s air vents.

  “But the Blocks are gone, right?”

  “Yeah.” April seemed similarly mystified. “Maybe they started it, and somebody else picked it up and ran with it?”

  There was a sudden squeal of delight, and April’s eyes widened with mirth. “Sounds like somebody’s doing it right, I guess. Who do you think it is?”

  The cacophony of enraptured grunts neared a crescendo, and Lori found herself suddenly helpless with laughter. She gripped the nearest handhold to keep from drifting into the middle of the corridor. “Practicing for the ride to Mars?”

  “That’s not even funny! Can you imagine? It’s already going to be a long trip, but with this . . .”

  A mutual, climactic moan was followed by as much silence as a space station could offer, with the constant whirring of air recyclers.

  “I’m glad that’s over.” April started moving through the corridor again, with Lori following.

  A two-toned bell sounded throughout the station.

  “Attention future Mars colonists!” Gary Nelson’s voice boomed over the station-wide speakers.

  “Holy hell.” Lori caught herself on a nearby handhold. “He’s not up here with us, is he?”

  April chuckled. “God, I hope not.”

  “Please make your way to the galley for an important Mars Ho update!” Gary said. There was a pause, and then the announcement replayed twice.