Time's Landfall

July 20, 1976

Tinselina curled herself into a ball within her protective fabric cocoon and tried not to cry. Viking had warned her about the so-called Seven Minutes of Terror – the final stage of their descent towards the Martian surface – but it was one thing to hear about it, and another thing entirely to feel the thin atmosphere buffeting them back and forth while the Red Planet grew larger beneath them. Viking shook like a tin roof in a thunderstorm. For a moment, Tinselina was sure the turbulence would tear him to pieces. She trembled.

If all went well, they'd soon set gently down on Chryse Planitia, the Golden Plain, in a spot deemed safe by the team back on Earth. If all did not go well…well, Tinselina didn't want to think about that. She hoped the humans had it right this time. They were supposed to land on July 4th, America's two-hundredth birthday, but the scientists deemed the landing site too dangerous based on orbital photographs. So, here they were. Second time's the charm, she thought.

As terrifying as falling from the sky felt, Tinselina was relieved. Over the course of their nearly yearlong interplanetary journey, she realized that she detested space travel. Everything about it – the weightlessness, the tedium, the pitch-darkness of her traveling quarters – wore her down. She didn't know how she would have maintained her sanity without Viking for company. As they floated in the emptiness between worlds, he reassured her that this was only a brief excursion, a little adventure. There'd be Christmases aplenty once they were back on Earth, and he was sure she'd look stunning atop that tree.

Not that he'd been the one doing all the sweet-talking. When Viking asked her if she'd like to visit him in his museum once his gallery was ready, Tinselina said that he'd make the best-looking exhibit she'd ever seen. Neither one could see the other in the capsule, but damn if they didn't flirt like lovestruck kids beneath a moonlit sky. It was very romantic, when she thought about it, the two of them exploring a strange new world together. They were like the heroes in those science fiction stories that the people who built Viking loved to read, facing the unknown with determination and wonder and good cheer.

Tinselina heard a faint pop! above the wind. The parachute was off. She huddled beneath Viking's dish, wedged between it and his body, as they kept falling.

Suddenly she felt herself pressed into Viking. The pressure grew so strong that she thought it might crack her porcelain. There was a click, then the roar of the retrorocket coming to life. The pressure began to ease as the retrorocket slowed them down. We're almost there, Tinselina thought. Now he just has to deploy his – Before she finished the thought, she heard Viking's three legs unfold without a hitch. He was ready for landing.

She was surprised at how quickly it went. One minute they were in the air and still going too fast, and the next, they touched down with a gentle bump and a puff of red dust.

There were a few creaks and cracks as Viking stretched. "Good Lord," he said, "whose damn foolish idea was it to set me down like that? Almost shook my guidance batteries right out of me!"

Tinselina undid the knot in her cloth bundle, untangled herself from the fabric, and tossed it onto the ground. She looked up at the pale butterscotch sky as Viking raised his dish and unfurled the antenna. She tapped her foot twice to get his attention.

"You alright up there?" he called. "I hope that chaos didn't rough you up too much, darling."

She laughed. "Well, I'm still in one piece. Would you mind letting me down from here?"

Viking wrapped his arm around her, picked her up, and set her on the ground.

Tinselina stepped back to get a good look at him. That was easier said than done, as he was so tall and wide that she could barely see all of him at once. His eyes, taller than she was, regarded her with warmth and delight. His smile was wide, and Tinselina noted that he had very nice teeth. A single arm topped with a weather sensor that adopted the look and function of a two-fingered hand reached for her. She extended her own delicate hand. When they touched, Tinselina smiled.

"Forgive me if I'm being too forward," Viking said, "but you're even more beautiful than I imagined."

Tinselina was grateful for the rouge that her creator had painted on her cheeks, for in that moment, she blushed warm enough to melt the Martian poles.

Viking's antenna twitched. "My first command from JPL!" He sounded positively giddy, which Tinselina thought made him look adorable. "Do you mind, um, stepping over there for a moment?" He gestured to her right.

"Not at all," she replied, moving swiftly out of his camera's field of vision. She watched as he turned his eyes to his right foot, blinked, and laughed.

It made sense that he couldn't have her in the photo. She wasn't supposed to be there at all. An arrogant, entitled NASA employee named Jim had decided to commemorate his contributions to the mission (which were nowhere near as significant as he liked to believe) by sending along a little memento with the lander. She had been unlucky or lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, and now here she was.

True, it was not the path Tinselina would have chosen, had she been given a choice, but as she watched Viking marvel at the rocks and soil and even the air surrounding them, she decided that there were worse fates than hers.

"You can come back over now," Viking said. "I'm sorry, again. I'm afraid we'll have to be careful. We don't want to scare Mission Control to death."

"I suppose not, though I wouldn't mind getting Jim in trouble. Did you know he cut my wings off?"

Viking grumbled at that. Then he uttered some impressive obscenities.

Tinselina burst out laughing. "Where did you learn to talk like that?"

"JPL, of course. Scientists are a foul-mouthed bunch. Dr. Brackett always came up with the most creative curses."

"You'll have to teach me some of them."

"I'd be delighted," he replied with a wink.

Another antenna twitch.

"This time they want a panorama! Why don't you hide underneath me?"

She did so. From behind his foot, she caught glimpses of their surroundings. Chryse stretched as far as she could see in every direction, the ground dotted with loose rocks. A large boulder sat a few yards in front of Viking. Tinselina reckoned it would have hurt something fierce if they'd crashed into it.

"Done!" said Viking. Tinselina came out from her hiding place and gestured for him to pick her up.

When she sat beside his left eye, her skirts swishing in the gentle breeze, she asked, "Is it everything you hoped it would be?"

"Even more. You're here, too."

"Don't count that as a blessing quite yet. You might be singing a different tune after all my Christmas talk."

He laughed, deep and kind. "Aw, you know I can't sing to save my life! Besides, I've got my arsenal of science facts. If anyone's going to annoy the hell out of anyone else, it's going to be me. And once I run these experiments? Forget about it. I'll be absolutely insufferable!"

"I'm counting on it."

They laughed together and waited for the next signal from home.