<div class="floatleft">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/f/fa/Mars_test.jpg)</div><table class="bbc_table"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Character name:</strong></td><td>Wing Commander Louise Cotter</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Location:</strong> </td><td>Main hanger, heading for Mission Control</td></tr><tr><td><strong>With:</strong> </td><td> Laura Hicks and everyone else.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Doing:</strong> </td><td>Leading from the front</td></tr></tbody></table><br/><hr/>I grinned and threw Major Hicks a salute in return "Now hear this!" I yelled in my parade ground voice, getting everyone's attention. "WOOOHOOOO!" I punched the air in triumph. "Ladies and Gentle men, Martians all, welcome home!"<br/><br/>There was general cheering and clapping and hugging and backslapping. In the midst of this, I totally ignored protocol, grabbed my girlfriend and kissed her passionately on the mouth. One thing that I had grown used to in the six months we'd been fuck-buddies was that we were exactly the same height, and kissing her was comfortable. With Henny, I'd had to bend down slightly. Henny's ghost watched approvingly from inside my imagination.<em>Caught yourself a live one, Lou.</em>I giggled softly. That was my subconscious talking, not Henrietta McNee's ghost. But it felt good to think she was here, watching and approving of what we did.<br/><br/>Just then I heard a faint sound in my helmet and patched the suit comm through to my implant.<br/><br/>"Franklin? This is Command Six", I replied, slightly irritated, and using my civilian call sign. "Weren't you told to stay in the garage? What the fuck are you doing down there? ... Atmosphere is within tolerances. If you're fixing the scrubbers, then I'll take back my reprimand, it smells like bad eggs. Most likely a leak in one of the sulphur based scrubs. Fix it and I'll promote you on the spot!"<br/><br/>I giggled as I cut the link, and returned to my interrupted kiss, which was causing some interest amongst the other twenty three colonists. (The remainder would be heading down on shuttles two and three in two batches of 25).<br/><br/>Finally I pulled away and with a blush and a giggle, bowed ironically to the smattering of applause and then headed for the elevator.<br/><br/>I pressed the call button and with a satisfying "ding" the door slid open. A robotic voice, a pleasant contralto, announced "Garage level. Going Down".<br/><br/>"Going to have to disable that",  I growled. I turned to the crowd. "Keep your suits on and your helmets handy for now." I ordered. We don't know what we'll find. Maintenance has already identified a problem, and are working on it. Remember the place has been on ice for thirty years. The low gravity takes getting used to. So, lets take things slow, go systematically, get things working and fix what isn't, and then we can have a big old party in the Snickers Bar, level two of the main dome!"<br/><br/>The snickers Bar? Really? 3M2 had been here for a year and eight days. They had arrived to a small under ground dome. By the time they left the base was as we found it, with only the addition of the new excavation that 3M3 had started. 3M2 had named the bar. Someone had clearly wanted to call it the Mars Bar and had been overruled by others who had thought that too obvious. So it became named for the Mars Confectionery Company's second best selling product.<br/><br/>An urban legend had it that the CEO of Mars Ltd (as opposed to MarsCorp) had received a telephone call from the 3M2 Comms operator, asking him if they could use the name and he had replied "Sir, it would be an honour".<br/><br/>I stepped into the lift, holding it for others. when it was full I pushed the button for level 4. Levels 2 and 3 were also pressed by a couple of the engineers. Me, I was heading for the Command Centre (http://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=148917.msg6750409#msg6750409).