Martian Dawn

Part 2, Chapter 3: The Spaceport

(Image credit: NASAspace.com)

She followed her father around to the Garage, which was simply a natural overhang enclosed by a rolling gate to protect the buggies from the dust. Dust sometimes caked the track, making the gate stubborn, but not today. They'd been out four times in the last three weeks to pick up unmanned probes, so the track was temporarily clean. They opened the gate, Marguerite drove the buggy out, and they pushed the gate shut again and latched it.

One of the robots rode up top. One would be in the cab. Both would be recording video for the show. The airlock was too small to handle two astronauts and the robot at the same time, so they loaded the robot into the airlock first.

As they waited for the lock to cycle, Dawn reflected on reality versus fiction. She'd become something of a fan of science fiction related to Mars in the last few years, always thinking about how her reality compared to the predictions of the authors. Two things struck her as different. 1) the books always called these vehicles "rovers." In reality, rovers had a very specific meaning on Mars, and that was semi-autonomous robots--the original explorers of the planet. Solar-powered vehicles did not rate the honor of sharing a name with the likes of Opportunity, Spirit, Curiosity, Lewis and Clark. 2) More importantly, these buggies did not have the capabilities that most of the fictional ones did. There were no planetary explorations with these buggies. Much as Dawn would have loved to go take a month-long trip to see the polar ice cap, that was what real rovers were for. The buggies were just day-trippers. There was a rumor that the Aguila would be bringing them a solution to this limitation. It was ironic: Earth had spent the last sixty years perfecting the electric car. Meanwhile, Mars couldn't wait to get a practical internal combustion engine.

Nevertheless, as Dawn popped the latches on her helmet and shrugged out of her suit top for the one hour drive to the spaceport, she counted her blessings. The buggy was comfortable. The seats were cushy, there was air and water and heat and even snacks, if Mars bars counted as snacks. Yay for high calorie protein supplements!

Terra Aurora occupied one of the small canyons that extended into the Arabia Terra uplands from the Acidalia Planitia lowlands. The Spaceport was out on the Acidalia sands. The landscape grew more and more empty as they drove.

Her dad drove. She put her feet up on the dash and enjoyed the view. There was something satisfyingly macho about wearing just the legs of one's suit. Could a girl be macho? Was that the right word?

"Hey Dad, can a girl be macho, or does that word only apply to guys?"

Jerry puckered his eyebrows while he thought about that. "No, as I recall, there were various other words that might apply, but you would never use macho for a girl," he finally concluded.

"Well," Dawn declared. "I assert that in Martian English, girls and guys can both be macho."

"I'll let everyone know," her dad agreed, amiably, as Marguerite laughed.

"When I was little," Marguerite told them, "I used to imagine that there was a committee that got together at the beginning of time to decide what to call everything. Now here, I find myself sharing a ride with that very committee."

Jerry laughed and said, "I think France actually has a committee like that."

"Norway does," Dawn said. The other two looked at her in surprise. "No really! Torsty told me about it. He's one of my subscribers. A hundred years ago or so, a professor at a Norwegian university did a project to recreate what Norwegian would sound like if they'd never been conquered by Denmark. The people of Norway liked it so much, they adopted it as their National language. They changed all their signs, and they've been teaching themselves to speak Danish-free Norwegian ever since. They've had a team of linguists working on it round the clock for a hundred years to make sure they get it right."