Snippet #2691305

“Is it on?”

Though he would have appreciated the simple humour in turning on the microphone early, Quentin didn’t even hear that first part. He was intently focused on checking the air lock latches that held the vessel that had carried the bolstering crew to the Skylab. Now that they had arrived on mars, the last thing even a joker would want was for their vehicle to be the cause of a huge depressurization event. As the main pilot of the entry, he was the first aboard their transport, and the last to leave.

Thankfully, he had triple-checked the last latch in time to hear the continuation of the announcement. Pied Piper sending the first orders, eh? He smirked. This station must be a lot larger than it appeared from the cockpit if it’s sheer size warranted an intercom system. The longer he merely existed within the station, the more the size seemed to truly dawn on him.

The older man hadn’t even dropped off his small case of personal items and change of clothes. Thankfully, he already had trained to efficiently navigate the Sky Lab. He knew that the dormitories were on the way to Central. Quentin quickly dropped the case off in an empty dorm. The door held a plaque engraved with “Q. FISHER”. Once he had tossed the case inside, he briskly walked to the chute that led to the central hatch. With a hop, the old man leaped straight up the tube, toward the centre between spinning compartments, where there was no sensation of gravity. From the central tube, Quentin grabbed and pulled lightly on each of the many handholds that littered the zero-gee sections of the Skylab.

Hopefully he’ll be getting to ground soon. While Quentin is experienced with the sciences as all astronauts are by-nature, he does have a soft spot for soft earth… well, not Earth anymore. Mars was rocky, and sandy, and dry, and cold. Ungodly cold. with little atmosphere to speak of, the red planet waiting below was beautiful, yet terrifying.

Quentin couldn’t wait for the day humanity would eventually terraform the planet. He had a few ideas on how to solve the atmosphere problem, but it would be incredibly expensive… Cost was such a huge aspect in these sorts of things. Plus, most everyone else had already thought of them even back when NASA was created.

“Howdy, kids,” Quentin’s gravelly voice emitted as he floated down another shaft into the artificial gravity of the command centre. “Caprain, Ma’am,” he saluted after standing up, as he had always done back in his air force days. “Fisher reporting, our entry vessel is snug as a bug in a rug.”