text: Primis was playing with his legos when his mother called him through the dome speaker. “Primis!” yelled his mother with a fair bit of static. “Dinner’s ready!”. He was almost finished with the lego set his dad gave him last Christmas. Slightly faded with some pieces missing, it was one of the lego sets his dad played with as a child growing up on Earth. Carefully placing the remaining pieces at the front of his bed, he heard the howling sandstorm that had been engulfing the planet for the past two weeks. The high pitched, sometimes shrieking, sounds frightened him as a child. Not anymore. He had grown accustomed to the noises, finding them soothing as he slept. “Coming!” he yelled leaning close to the speaker. He sprinted out the room, through his transport tube, and into the kitchen where his mother was preparing dinner. Freeze-dried spaghetti with canned broccoli. No surprises there. Ever since his parents left Earth, they have grown accustomed to the limited, sometimes flavor-less, cuisine that was available on the planet. Primis’s parents took part in the last phase of the final migration to Mars from Earth, a now desolate planet. His mother, two months pregnant on departure, became the first woman to give birth on the red planet. Primis belonged to a new class of Martian born humans, humans that have never known life without a spacesuit or decompressed space domes. He often wondered what life was like for children growing up on Earth. He would get lost in the stories his dad would tell him of summer trips to the beach, trailblazing through snowy mountains, or backyard barbecues. “Not hungry?” his mother asked after seeing him play with his food. “He must be daydreaming again” replied his father showing a hint of annoyance. His parents had just returned from a full day trip to the Jezero Crater, spending most of the day looking for rare ores and metallics. As a former marine biologist who spent most of his life on the ocean, his father struggled to adapt to his new profession of “rock collecting” as he called it. “I’m just not hungry Mom” replied Primis, still swirling his food. “Can I be excused?”. His mother let out a sigh then looked up at his father. Rolling his eyes, he nodded to his mother. “Yes, but make sure you clean up that mess of Legos before bed. I had to pick them up all over the room last time after work”. Primis gave her a small smile and started carrying his dish to the kitchen sink. “Hey bud” his dad said with a more benevolent tone. “Guy from work got me another copy of National Geographic if you wanna take a look. It was one of the final issues before, you know” his dad paused to not bring up the migration again. “I left it on your bed. It’s all about deep sea diving with neat pictures of Phylum Chordata, you know uh, rare fish and sharks.” “Thanks dad” Primis, more elated now, started walking out of the kitchen. As soon as he was out of the view of his parents, he picked up his pace with anticipation. He loved these magazines. He would spend hours at his bed getting lost in the close up images of Dwarf Puffer Fish and Sawsharks. As he was sprinting down the space dome hallway, he caught a bright reddish light coming from one of the windows. Slowing down, he neared the window and smiled. He knew exactly what it was. It was the unmanned space vessels taking off one by one. He knew that these exact ships would soon be landing on Earth. They would fly right over those oceans his dad always talked about. These were the last missions back to the home planet, completely unmanned and automated. These vessels were tasked with gathering the last precious resources left on the desolate planet. With the sandstorm still raging outside, Primis made his way back to his room. Pushing the remaining legos under his bed, he collapsed and sunk his head deep into his pillow. He let out a sigh. Leaning slightly forward, he picked up the magazine his dad left him by his feet. Deep Blue Sea: Creatures Of The Unknown. Unknown indeed he thought. Skimming the magazine he knew these fish and sharks would always be what they are, ink on paper. He knew that where those ships were going is where you could truly experience what Earth was like. Remnants of the past. Where those ships were going. He kept repeating this in his head. He knew that he’d most likely spend the rest of his life on Mars, especially as NASA recently postponed the Solar System Exploration program due to budget cuts. Mars was the end destination for most people. “This is it” he said out loud. “This is my chance”. He knew the unmanned vessels would be a perfect way for him to see where he truly came from. Earth, up close and personal. Since the launchpad was only two miles from his family’s space dome, he could traverse through the sandstorm under cover, and sneak onboard the vessel before a scheduled launch. Completely undercover, completely undetected. The idea of having no helmet and staring out into the ocean made his heart race. He wondered how the fresh pure air would feel on his lungs as he breathed it in. He became lightheaded and stood up in his bed. He walked over and sat down at his desk. He knew his parents wouldn’t take it well, especially his dad. He really didn’t want them to worry and told them that he’d only be gone a few months. More importantly, he told them he knew which necessary supplies to take and that food was not an issue. He knew these vessels were used during the final migration and had enough food to feed fifty people on one mission. Feeling confident, he thought his parents had trained him well, well enough to complete a round trip mission by himself. He took a deep breath in. He was ready. “Love Primis” he concluded his note. An empathetic thought of the sadness his parents would feel crossed his mind. He knew his parents would not be happy and would worry endlessly about him. He planned to send them frequent transmissions to keep them informed of his well being. He thought over time they would understand. He envisioned himself describing his adventures back at the dinner table and imagined how excited his dad would be. After all, this is the home planet his parents longed to return to, just as much as he did. He started packing his backpack with clothes, his lego set, and few issues of National Geographic, including the new one that his dad had given him. The journey back to Earth would take a few months so he’d need some form of entertainment. The magazine would be a reminder of what was to come, and what to look forward to when he arrived. He never once thought about being alone - it’s something he’d grown accustomed to, spending hours, days, and years in his room within his family’s space dome. It’s all he ever knew. As he zipped his backpack shut, Primis started to feel something he’d never felt before. A sudden rush of euphoria and excitement. He was doing it. He carefully placed his note in the center of his desk and quietly closed his door behind him. He inched his way through his transport tube and back into the kitchen. He saw the dirty dishes lying in the sink, the faucet dripping, and the light shining through the crack underneath his parents bedroom. His dad would stay up reading the same magazines until he fell asleep, always dreaming about his life back home and the days he spent on the ocean. I’ll bring something back for him, Primis thought. He entered the code to the airlock and stepped inside to grab his spacesuit. He took one look back at the light under his parents bedroom door and put on his space helmet. He grabbed his backpack, adjusted the strap, and took one final deep breath in. He pressed the seal latch to enter the payload bay and took his first step out onto Mars’s terrain. He was suddenly hit with a strong gust of wind that nearly knocked him off his feet. He could barely see in front of him and used his arm to shield some of the sand blowing in front of him. He had only ever been outside during a sandstorm once with his father, when they ran late returning from a NASA training seminar. Luckily, he was able to keep his balance, hold onto his backpack, and slowly started to move forward step by step. He was slowly walking towards the bright red light of vessels taking off in the distance. The gusts of wind only seemed to get more intense after each step. It was like the wind was on a mission to knock him to his feet. Struggling to maintain his balance, he forgot to look up to see if he was going in the right direction. Starting to panic, he looked left and right and even behind him. He was unsure of his exact location and was not able to see his family’s space dome anymore. Primis began to breathe more heavily and heard the elevated heart rate warning go off in his spacesuit. He picked up his pace, now ignoring the fact that he was losing his balance with each step. What am I doing out here, he thought. Realizing that he might have made a mistake, he felt a sudden thump on his helmet and fell backwards on his back. Regaining his sense of surrounding, he looked up to see what he had hit. Through the thickness of the sand, he was able to make out two steel bars that led up into the thickness of the storm. The vessel ladder. He realized he had run right into one of the vessels without even seeing it. This must be one of the last vessels to be leaving tonight, he thought. He grabbed a hold of the ladder, took the first step, and started climbing. After climbing a few steps, he started to see the vessel in its entirety. On the front of the ship, he made out the giant logo plastered behind a white backdrop: *NASA - Mars Exploration, Vessel #4523*. These were the same reusable rockets that took the last humans from Earth. Now, it will be able to take another human back home for one last visit. He reached the passenger access hatch, turned the handle, and pushed it open. To avoid setting off any alarms, he quickly pushed himself inside the vessel, turned around and pulled the hatch shut. Catching his breath and letting his heart rate settle, he removed his helmet and laid it beside him. Looking around he could see the old instruction signs from the previous missions. As he got to his feet, he heard an automated message over the loudspeaker: “T-minus 10 minutes until launch” Realizing how close he had cut it to launch, he knew he needed to secure himself before liftoff. He had not actually been on one of these vessels before but followed the instructional signs to the passenger section of the ship. For the previous missions, most people had never even been to space. NASA did it’s best at trying to provide guidance on what to expect and how to properly operate aboard a spacecraft. Embarrassed about how little he knew, he found the signs and instructions helpful. He followed the signs into the passenger seating area and placed his backpack underneath one of the seats. He sat towards the back of the passenger area so he could get a good look out of one of the oval shape windows. “T-minus 2 minutes” . Feeling anxious and excited, he closed his eyes and took another deep breath in. He looked back out the window and could make out the lights of certain space domes in the distance. “10 seconds remaining”, echoed the loud speaker. Before he knew it, he was being propelled through Mars’s atmosphere, feeling the force of the rocket engines on his entire body. It was a level of intensity he never experienced before. I think I’m going to be sick, he thought. After a few minutes of fighting his nausea, everything suddenly got quiet. He knew he had reached Mars’s upper atmosphere and was now officially on the start of his journey. He loosened his seat strap and adjusted his spacesuit to get a better view out the window. It was the first time he could see Mars as a whole. The red barren planet, his birth planet. He turned away from the window and smiled. He was going back, he thought. Back to the home planet and for that he was grateful.