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Mars Girl
 Jeff Garrity
Published:
2008
Categories(s):
Fiction, Political, Science Fiction
Tag(s):
satire "science fiction" politics media
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You are free to distribute “Mars Girl” with attribution for noncommer-cial purposes.
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Prologue
The MarsDestiny lander roars through the Martian atmosphere, generat-ing intense heat that blossoms off its shield in a bright, miles-long trail.Under dim emergency lights Mirellen Garasovic staggers to the bridgeand pushes
the useless console
buttons, at first with her finger, thenslams them with her palm until it hurts.The ship’s shudders turn to violent quakes and Mirellen is thrown tothe grated metal floor. She uses a rail to pull herself to her feet thenhangs on as she works her way to the window. Looking out, she sees therusty soil and deep blue shadows of Mars floating below her. The plan-et’s immensity startles her.The ship spins and Mirellen sprawls into the galley and onto the floor between a row of padded chairs. She pulls herself into one of the chairsand draws the straps across her body just as she had in countless train-ing sessions, but now her trembling hands fumble with the latches.Mirellen looks around at the empty seats and hears the hiss of theretro rockets. Instead of steadying the ship, they send it twisting one wayand then the other.Mirellen throws off the straps and struggles toward the sleeping quar-ters. The ship jerks violently and she’s thrown again to the floor. Shecrawls to the eighteen sleeping pods, stacked like coffins three-high.Holding onto one of the pods, she gets to her feet and checks the displaypanels on each sleeper. Except for her own, all panels are dark and eachhatch is sealed tight.The ship bucks and Mirellen lands in her open pod. She raises herhand to touch the bottom of her mother’s sleeper, then looks at the nextstack and silently says goodbye to her father and brother.She pulls down on the hatch and waits for impact.
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