craft with startled expressions. The sunlight reflected off their white uniforms as they looked on Mars in a scolding way.
‘You should have waited we need to check the air quality, and the make up of gasses in the atmosphere to make sure the human body can survive here,’ his mother said sharply.
Although everything looked fine and better than expected, the pair quickly ducked back inside the craft and rummaged around for the instruments they needed to check for air pollution. Wolfe also checked all the instruments on the flight controls to ensure the craft would not drain its batteries. As the two of them gathered all the equipment together and helped Sheriff to the base of the craft they had unwittingly taken their eye off of boy, now Mars was nowhere to be seen.
Mars oblivious to the anxiety he had caused had been strangely drawn away from the craft. He was in a trance wandering through the undergrowth, fascinated by the terrain. Around him brown shrub land, which was over shoulder high, hid him from view. Everything in this land looked familiar yet strangely different. The trees were a whopping odd shape like round lollypops, and carried vivid shades of orange and brown colours within their foliage. They led his eye into the distance. All around him the land seemed to give him unconscious thoughts of which direction to walk in. As he ventured further away from the craft, he noticed that here the land remained quite flat as if it had been levelled. He could feel the grass around his body as he picked up his feet to stride forward across the ground, his path left a trail as he trampled onwards.
The further the young boy travelled, the more he realised he was ill prepared for the heat. It was incredibly dry, as he moved deeper into the bush. Sweat began to trickle down his face; the boy had never experienced anything like this before. Mars wiped away beads of perspiration from his forehead and soon realised that the uniform did not help him in the heat. Indeed it was compounding his body temperature, he could feel a trickle down his back. His uniform reluctant to absorb any moisture. He could feel the sun beating down on his head, and his hair was intensely hot to the touch. The boy realised his body temperature was too high, his cheeks were flushed with colour. He could take it no longer. He had to stop for a moment to try and catch is breath.
If Mars wanted to cool down he would have to remove the upper part to the IGE uniform or become dehydrated. He reached underneath his top and pulled the material over his head, instantly he could feel a slight relief as the breeze evaporated the sweat on his body’s skin. When he had cooled down enough to continue he pushed on against the grass, which appeared as a wall in front of him. He clawed away at the tough stems with his fingers determined to get out of the heat and reach shade under the towering trees that dotted the surrounding area. Suddenly he could smell a refreshing pine scent on the breeze.
With his concentration disabled for a few moments he carelessly stumbled on an uneven patch of ground and twisted his ankle. The exaggerated movement made him wince with pain, as bruising instantly puffed up around his ankle. Like an animal possessed he was determined to soldier on, but what had he stumbled upon?
The boy hung his uniform on the thick stem of a grass and bent over to uncover a giant pinecone. The cone was the size of his hands, and the seeds within it were the size of his fingers, he had never seen seeds that size before not even in Halley’s lab. ‘The trees must be larger than they appeared!’
Mars threw the offending cone to one side, before rubbing his ankle with his right hand. He could feel the blood collecting around his joint as it stiffened. He would have to continue at a slower pace until he was out of the sun.
Moments later he felt the coolness of shade on his back as he stopped to look skyward, towering above him was the structure of a large conifer tree, its branches resembled a giant umbrella which shading the altering terrain around him. Mars was in awe at its dimensions, the size of its trunk dwarfed any of the other types of trees three fold. Its colour was dark green with silver interspersed between the pines; the trunk also had a silvery appearance.
The bare backed boy stood for a few moments taking in the scenery and enjoying the cool scented breeze wafting across the woods sheltered floor. Scattered around his feet were pinecones, he would have to take care in case any from above were to fall and endanger him. Thoughtfully he surveyed the woods contours to plan a path weaving through the fauna that grew at knee height.
The boy was still driven on, but his courage was bruised as he hobbled over small plants and herbs. He joined a dusty trail that led into a darkened woodland. Overhanging branches from the trees concealed his view, and on occasion he felt spooked as if people were watching him. He had an urge to walk faster , but his tired limbs could not easily manoeuvre the root systems of the trees spanning out in front of him.
He struggled on following the path around various trees until he brushed a branch to one side and realised there was a massive drop to his right, here the soil floor gave way to flat red sand stone which halted his progression. Now wary of falling over the cliff's edge he felt a chill run down his back, there seemed to be a more prominent cool wind at this side of the wood. He continued to walk around a massive tree trunk, running his fingers across the balk examining how course it felt under his skin. Then he saw a line of sunlight slicing through the trees, it lay a line of brilliant sunshine at his feet. He stopped in his tracks and stood to admire the vista which opened up before him.
Mars let out a weary sigh of relief that he had reached the woods edge and was out of the shadows. He looked down at his legs they were beginning to shake; although he had not travelled far his exertion had burned off lots of energy. He leant against the tree and eased the pressure on his throbbing ankle, placing it on top of his left foot to keep it off the ground. It was really beginning to throb. To avoid more discomfort he decided to sit on a tree root and rest for a while, he sat with his back on the warm bark of the tree and soaked up the mid afternoon sun. He was overjoyed and felt a sense of freedom he had never had before. He relaxed and enjoying the warmth of the sun on his face. Mars examined his ankle as it started to shake uncontrollably, as if to tell him enough was enough. He realised he had pushed himself too far.
There was so much to see, and he wanted to take everything in, so he raised his left hand to shelter his eyes from the sun and looked out from his seat and surveyed the incredible view before him. The sky was almost without cloud, its blue colour had an unusual orange tint. Set within it he could see unusual flying creatures, that were nether birds nor bats. He watched them rise on the warm thermals, which were ascending the stone face in-front of him.
Mars could see that the deep red stone on either side of him rose out of its surroundings at varying heights to form a mountain range. He could make out clumps of pine trees like the one he was underneath. Some of the conifers were green, and others had a silver appearance, there were patches of grass, which added a brown colour to the planet’s canvas. Way below him, there was a valley meadow with rolling hills and set within fields were withered crops that made a checker board pattern. The crops which had died some time ago, appeared to have once been watered through what looked like a disused complex irrigation channels. The channels seemed to cascade from a central source of water splitting the meadow down the middle like a canal basin, it now appeared as a dried out cracked canal bed. The canal was extraordinarily long and stretched as far as the eye could see. It disappeared into the lush tropical ferns and palm trees just below the horizon. Their purple and blue colours jarred with the red and brown shades of the mountains. Beyond the palm tree line was a purple haze, which he considered to be an ocean.
Mars appreciated the look of the planet and especially the foreground landscape where rounded rocks and tall lollipop trees dotted the fields; these unique characteristics complimented the man made terrain. How would he get down there? His thoughts were interrupted by the screech of the flying creatures as they flew in front of him and then disappeared down the rock face to his left, Mars turned his gaze to where the wings had flappe
d by and saw some odd looking straight lines etched into the edge of the mountain.
He looked more closely, and realised there were some steps. Wearily he pushed himself up with the aid of the tree, and slowly approached the cliffe edge. Then he clung onto some long grass before peering over the edge. Below the rock face gave way to a sheer drop of what looked like three hundred feet, he gasped and retreated back up the grass verge, but eventually the desire to push on gave him enough courage to slide down the sandstone steps one by one as they curved around the contours of the rock. As he shuffled down a few more steps he could see the stairway led down to arched windows. Was it a look out tower, or some kind of dwelling? Half way down he paused where the steps came back on themselves to give his leg muscles a rest, he looked around the corner and saw that the steps ended where a shiny metal door blocked off any advancement.
The stairway was cool and littered with dried leaves, as he ventured closer to the door passing arched windows he could feel his hair being swept back as the breeze whistled through the opening. Just then from the rock face above, he heard a
Space Refugees - Star Warriors Page 3
