Authorial Magazine - Manila Edition

The Krenth nation was the dominant
force in the western hemisphere of
Mars, and the country ran from the
ocean to one of the great deserts in
the north. The plan was that half the
crew, including the captain, would
embark in capsules and land in the
ocean where they would be picked up
by the Krenth Navy. If negotiations
were successful, then more of the crew
would come down, and a human space
port would most likely be established
on Mars.
If negotiations were unsuccessful then
the Krenth might, or might not, return
the crew to the Teddy Roosevelt.
Kor-Neev stated that the test was to
successfully make it to Mars, but it
was possible that regardless of how
negotiations went the crew might
have to find their own way back to
their ship.
“We knew this could be a one way
journey all along,” Nathan said. “But
some things are worth it.”
Once the Teddy Roosevelt was put
into orbit, Nathan, half the crew,
and the diplomatic team took to the
capsules and descended upon the
Martian ocean. Parachutes deployed
on the way down, but the landing was
still quite forceful.
The shapes of the ships which rescued
them were peculiar, angular in some
places and rounded in others. The
ships were all white in color, and the
crewmen wore form fitting blue and
white uniforms, with oddly shaped
blue helmets. The helmets covered
most of their heads, but were open
in front. The sides of their faces were
covered, and the front of the helmet
came down nearly to the bridges
of their noses in a widow’s peak
style point. The tops of the helmets
projected back a bit beyond the back
of their heads and shifted back in
towards the base of their skulls. Some
of them had visors attached to the
fronts of their helmets to shield their
eyes from the sun.
It was the middle of the day, but
the sun was not quite as bright here
as it was on Earth. It was rather
subtle, but still a noticeable difference.
The temperature was warm, but not
terribly hot, even though they were
technically in the tropic zone.
The ranking officers wore looser
garments and robes. Their hair was
bound up into a small cup shaped
cap on the backs of their heads, and
many of them had beards. It reminded
Nathan of ancient Chinese styles that
he had read about in his college library
and seen illustrations of in books.
He could not help but wonder what
things would have been like back on
Earth had some group other than
the western race and culture come
to be the dominant force. It might
have been that ancient Chinese styles
were perpetuated and duplicated
everywhere across the planet, or
perhaps Persian or Indian.
AUTHORS PRESS
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