Hey folks!

Oh wow, first of all, THANKS SO MUCH of all the reviews and kind comments! I feel very overwhelmed...

Secondly, I'm very sorry that it took me this long to write the next chapter, things have been hectic..

So, something about this chapter: there's more history revealed and maybe a deeper dive into some of the characters here...to create some of the backstory. But more to come in the future chapters as well, didn't want to cram everything into one chapter :) Also, there are some minor things I've changed in some of the characters' personal histories as you will come to notice...But let's be fair there ain't too much info on these original characters out there, so it just means we get to be creative :)

Well, thanks again to you awsome readers out there! Here's the second chapter... Hope you guys like it!

Take care and thanks again!

-SpaceFlora

Story of Hope and Rebellion

2.

The three bikes dashed through the desert that was turning from red to black as the night was crawling in and the air was quickly dropping to the freezing numbers. Even if the three bikers had furs it was only a little consolation against the harsh winds. They felt the cold wind brushing against their furs and skins as it swept the vast open space with force, creating walls of whirling sand around them, while they desperately tried to beat the sandstorm that was getting more powerful by every minute. It was difficult to even see in this storm where one was riding but luckily the Martian Freedom Fighter bikes were equipped with GPS along with the Artificial Intelligence and if they were to go astray on their road back to the Headquarters, the bikes would inform them and even drive them back. They rarely used the "auto-pilot hands-free mode" though, they were bikers after all, they took great pride driving the bikes themselves, otherwise they could just take the bus...

The chilly breeze sent shivers all around their bodies, their tails already curled around their muscular waists to keep them not getting frozen and it worked as a way to warm their bodies the same time. It didn't matter that they've gotten quite used to the extreme weather conditions the planet had to offer by now, it still didn't make the drive more pleasant or the sensation of the cold more bearable.

Throttle was mentally kicking himself for not remembering to bring a jacket with him but he hadn't thought that their little mission to check out the strange space craft and their trip back to their base would take them this long as it was already close to midnight. He blamed the sleep deprivation they were all experiencing for his distracted thoughts. After their two-weeks-long battle at the frontiers, fighting the evil race of Plutarkians that was trying to invade the planet and stripmine it bare while at it, they had barely gotten back to their Headquarters along with the rest of the Fighters before Stoker had seen an unfamiliar object in their radars and ordered the trio to go check out the strange space craft entering Mars' airspace. The three males hadn't had the time to eat or take a short but much needed nap before they'd already left the base again. They were all tired and hungry and their bodies ached.

Throttle could feel his eyelids becoming heavier as the dull and unchanging scenery offered little to concentrate on or keep his mind active, he only was trying to avoid hitting the occasional rocks and holes. It was hard to keep the eyes open. But there was one thing that kept him from nodding off on his bike, and that was the continuos babble coming from the radio, inside their helmets.

Vinnie was still riding in the front with his red racer, his silhouette only this red dot in the distance, only vaguely to be seen through the thick sandclouds. The white furred adrenaline head might have even been back at the Headquarters by now as his racer was a fast one and even faster if firing the jets but the ride back would've still been a boring one, for his restless mind anyway. So, to keep things a bit more interesting to himself, he had stayed in the acceptable distance for the radio connection to still work between him and his two comrades and he had been entertaining them the whole long ride back with his wild but predictable stories, where the punchline always was him being the greatest.

"...oh, man, that was an awsome jump! I could still feel the air under my wheels, the ground getting nearer by each nanosecond and just when I was to hit the ground I turned on the jets and zooooooom! I was up in the sky again, riding with the winds, like a bird, but more cool and without the feathers... I heard the girls screaming in awe and all the geezers sighing "Look at that man, whatta legend!"...Say, have I told you already about my crushing win in the Mars Desert Derby contest...? Well, everyone enjoys a good rerun, right? Anyway, it all started...!" Vinnie's voice joyfully echoed in the radio and Throttle let out a sigh as this, what seemed to be an endless flow of high-pitched static noise, started to really hurt his sensitive hearing and what's worse it sounded that this voice showed no signs on getting tired or even running out of material.

Throttle gave a look to his right where Modo was riding his deep purple and chrome coloured chopper and he saw the big male blatantly but without a word to push the button on his helmet's side, closing the radio connection, clearly done with the mindless jabbering Vinnie was producing. Throttle raised his eyebrow and opened his orange hued visor, giving the grey furred Fighter a look. Modo saw this and opened up his deep purple visor, giving Throttle a quick glance back, squinting his eyes to prevent sand hitting them.

"Ah turned off the radio...!" Modo raised his deep baritone voice, so that it didn't entirely get drowned under the loud roaring of their bike engines or the howling winds, his mouth releasing vapor into the cold night while talking. A fierce wind hit Modo's face with a good amount of sand in the mix and as he accidentally inhaled sand into his lungs he started to cough violently before spitting the sand out of his mouth and quickly lifted his dark bandana to cover his snout but still looking quite content with this newly gained radio silence. While riding, it was not exactly allowed to close the radio connection but Throttle thought that their ears might need a little break, so he made an exception to the protocol and turned off the radio as well, the bubbly babble stopping inside his helmet and he experienced an instant relief. He still made a mental note to make sure he constantly saw the red racer in the distance. Still trying to keep his eyes open and focused on the vast sand plains infront of them, he finally let out a yawn. Maybe a little small talk could keep him awake now that the noise was gone.

"So, what do you think of the kid?" Throttle raised his voice while he thought that the radio silence allowed him to ask Modo's opinion on their newest addition to the Fighters. When they'd be back at the Headquarters they rarely would have time to talk in private since it was quite crowded in there and with their good hearing, there hardly were any secrets around the base.

"He's alright..." Modo muttered back and Throttle nodded with a small but knowing smile. The big guy always tried to avoid conflicts and tried not to upset anyone, even if he didn't exactly jump for joy about the fact that the loud daredevil was now a part of their little team, changing them from duo to trio.

"Ah would've preffered a little quieter edition though..." Modo let out a chuckle, still clearing his throat after his violent coughing fit.

"I hear what you're sayin', bro... But I guess we just need to respect Commander's orders...Anyway, maybe our little team will gain from having three Fighters instead of two while out on our missions..." Throttle thought out loud while giving a look at this red dot in the distance, which was swirling and moving up and down, from left to the right, as the young driver was improving his skills and stunts, possibly to make the trip more tolerable and exciting for his restless mind.

"Maybe." Throttle heard Modo's deep muffled voice coming behind his bandana.

Throttle's thoughts turned to silently contemplate their little trio, one of the many smaller teams in the rows of the Freedom Fighters as sometimes it was more handy to send only a couple of Fighters to check something out or do a smaller task. He was a bit sceptical about how this trio would work as a team as Stoker's order to include this new kid to his and Modo's team had comen out of the blue since they were already playing quite well together, he and Modo, and not least for the reason that they've known each other for a long time.

Their start as a trio, even if not being a complete failure, had not started without the hiccups either. Today's little schism between Modo and Vinnie was a good example how they weren't really at ease with each other just yet. And at the moment, Vinnie wasn't even riding with them, another violation of the protocol but Throttle let it slide since he had patience but what's more, he had a plan and that was to use reverse psychology on the young male. Gods knew that the young rebel didn't take orders... Throttle was more or less still trying to understand Vinnie and studying him. It'll be a long process but if Stoker's mind was already made up that Vinnie was now part of their team then Throttle had all the time in the world to get their little trio's dynamics to work.

Everything relied on the fact how well they worked together, as a team and also as a whole unit, as the Freedom Fighters. In the battlefields their most powerful weapons were their strong bonds, their loyalty and their commitment to each other as well as to their cause. They even referred to each other as "bros" or "brothers", they were a big family. As Vinnie had entered the Fighters only six months ago, he still needed to fit in and gain trust with each member of this family to be finally considered a fulltime member of the troops. They all needed to trust each other since if there were trust issues it could produce dangerous situations in the battlefields and it had already happened many times when there had been Fighters who hadn't been too commited. This matter should not be taken too lightly either as the end result could be that someone ends up dead.

Yes, he thought that Vinnie was irritating at times and maybe even too loud even in the Fighters' standards but Throttle could see that he was on the right path to become a great Fighter, it came natural to him, he was like a rebel prodigy. And like said, Throttle had patience and he was quite sure that their trio could work in the end. Mainly he was concerned how it seemed that Modo and Vinnie didn't really get along at this point.

Maybe Modo did not really trust the young daredevil yet, maybe that was the reason for him to act out the way he had been acting out around Vinnie. Or maybe it was the fact that the youngster was hard to control and seemingly lacked any kind of respect for the others, or maybe it was his "in-your-face" attitude that rubbed Modo the wrong way since he himself was always trying to be polite and avoided any provoking, it was against his gentler nature which was maybe a good thing since as his big frame was impressive by any standards he could actually do a lot of damage with it if choosing so. But most of the time his sheer size was enough to give him a powerful presence in every situation without even needing any words or take any actions. Modo also valued manners, something Vinnie seemed to lack also. Maybe the grey furred Fighter even felt conflicted as he liked kids, which to be fair Vinnie still kind of was, and maybe Modo even considered the young rebel as someone who could use a little guidance but the young rebel had made it very clear that he didn't want nor need any advice as he already considered himself perfect.

And as to why Vinnie seemed to be acting out himself, well, maybe he was just trying desperately to fit in and it made him even more cocky with his attitude. Maybe this all just took time. Gaining trust during a war was a delicate thing anyway.

He could see how similar Modo and Vinnie were though, despite their ongoing schisms, they were like the different sides of the same coin. Both fun-loving, both having this almost childlike excitement in them and the tendency to joke around and most importantly they both had the capacity to still dream, to still be optimistic which was a rare attribute to find amongst soldiers and Martians in general in the midst of these dark times. But where as Modo was far more relaxed and laidback and enjoyed the peace and quite every once and awhile, Vinnie was a hyper-active rebel child who was on the move 24/7 and who clearly enjoyed living life to the fullest, to the extreme, testing the limits and boundaries as well as the authorities, constantly searching for the next rush and nearly unhealthyly craving the near-death experiences.

Throttle pulled his red bandana to cover the lower part of his face as he got tired of spitting out dirt and sand out of his mouth as well and gave Modo an absent-minded glance before consentrating on the road ahead of them again. The lives of these two men couldn't be more different either, he thought. Modo was a familyman through and through, and he constantly talked about his loved ones: about his Mommah and his big sister, these two strong females in his life that had brought him up with strict but loving parenting, his niece and nephew, who he adored and finally but not least, his mate Sienna with whom he had been a long time, their lovestory being a typical one where the boy falls in love with the girl next door.

Vinnie on the other hand never talked about his family, his family history as well as his whole personal history being a complete enigma to everyone and he liked to tell colourful as well as coloured versions or maybe even completely made-up stories about his past that never included any family or anyone else for that matter. Like there would have never been anyone in his life except himself which Throttle knew was a complete lie and only an illusion the white furred youngster liked to present. Throttle wondered why Vinnie had built these walls around him, he had known him only for about six months now but could already see that behind those walls there was actually a very lost and confused kid. Throttle thought that even Stoker must have seen this and it had to be the only reason why their Commander still tolerated Vinnie's antics. That and the fact that Vinnie made an excellent Freedom Fighter.

Where as Modo was nearly comically easy to read, like an open book, Vinnie's walls were unpenetratable, at least for now. They did have the same fire burning inside them though, as they both were highly emotional, both of them obeying their hearts rather than their heads, even if they expressed themselves differently. Albeit Vinnie had the walls around him, he wasn't exactly a cold person, quite the opposite, he was an outgoing extrovert and very bubbly if the others just didn't come too close. And even Modo had to admit that Vinnie did bring laughter wherever he was, he was like the class clown who liked to cheer up others even if it meant he would accidentally hurt himself while at it. Throttle could tell that the kid had a big heart. A big heart that was bumping pure adrenaline he thought while giving the red racer another look and was glad to find out that Vinnie hadn't taken off and even if he could've driven back to the base by now, he hadn't done that, which Throttle took as a small victory. The reverse psychology working here...

Throttle gave Modo a quick glance, as he had been so quiet Throttle wondered if he actually had fallen asleep but the big guy was still having his both eyes open, although looking a bit drowsy he let his eyes wander on the deep shadows of the night that crept around them. Modo changed his posture and shook his head, forcing himself to stay awake.

"Oh, mommah, hopefully we'll be back at the Headquarters soon before Ah'll fall asleep..."

"Well, I'm sure Lil'Hoss will gladly drive you back if that'll be the case..." Throttle answered but yawned into his fist too.

"Nah, Ah couldn't do that to her, she's tired also, poor lil' darlin'..." Modo stroked his bike's side which beeped back with an odd whiny noise, like she would've agreed and yawned. Throttle gave the pair a raised eyebrow. Even if all of their bikes had the AI installed into them he didn't know what kind of voodoo had been poured into Modo's bike which seemed to be even more lively than the other bikes. Modo said it was because she was special but then again, they all thought that of their bikes.

The grey furred male looked around him, studying their surroundings carefully before a slight frown appeared on his half-hidden face, his red eyes observing the sand under the wheels.

"We're riding the old river bed..." He raised his voice again behind the bandana.

Throttle turned his eyes to his left and then to his right and he could see that in deed they were at the moment riding between two faintly recognizable banks, where in-between had once one of the longest rivers on Mars flowed, years ago, before it got dried up and drowned under the red sand, blending in with the desert, like erased from the history and the scenery.

"Didn't even notice..." Throttle wondered.

"Ah only recognized it since Ah used to fish here..." Modo's voice was muffled behind the bandana, and Throttle only barely made sense of the mumble. He gave the grey furred male another glance but Modo looked like he was done with that topic already. He had no desire to dwell on the matter, on all the great fishing spots now lost forever, even if usually he tended to see the glass full rather than being empty, the war still had the tendency to really test the limits of one's sense of humour.

Throttle turned his look to the open scenery infront of him and even if they couldn't yet see their destination with their bare eyes, there was already a small blinking dot in their bikes' radars to mark the spot of their Headquarters. Throttle closed his visor and opened the radio connection again and instantly his ear canals were hit with the neverending flow of melodic sing-songy voice that obviously had been there all this time not realizing that his listeners had been absent.

"...and there I was, hailed by the crowd and kissed by the maids! The undeniable King of Derby! The previous track record destroyed! A prime example of a crushing victory...!" Vinnie's voice echoed inside Throttle's helmet again as he turned to give Modo a hand signal to open the radio connection as well, which the grey furred male seemingly very reluctantly did as he would have liked to have a few more minutes with his thoughts.

Throttle cleared his throat, interrupting Vinnie as he was already starting to tell yet another story from his what seemed to be an endless treasure chest of tales mixing real life events and memories with fiction.

"Only thirty minutes and we're back at the base, bros. C'mon, let's kick it, it's already night-time and my fingers are about to turn blue, we need to get back inside before we freeze our tails off!" Throttle raised his raspy voice, talking on top of Vinnie who closed his mouth to hear what he had to say, a very considerate act on his part and they put more speed to their powerful machines and gunned through the now pitch-black desert, only their headlamps showing the road ahead of them, streaks of light piercing the nothingness.

x

x

Charley woke up with a sudden startle and she sat up, breathing hard while glancing around her in the dark. Everything seemed to move around like black lava, floating and waving, changing all the time until her eyes could settle in the dark and she could see some familiar shapes and objects in the darkness: the folding chair beside her bed, another bed a little further away and then she already could see the entire row of beds around her and heard the deep sleeping sounds and some small snoring. She closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh. Oh yeah, Mars. They were on Mars. They had been travelling through space for nine months before finally getting to their destination, to this strange planet. Over fifty million kilometers from home. Alone and in a way stranded as they did not have any means to get back home in the next twelve months.

For any other human being these thoughts alone could drive them insane but Charley along with her eight team members had been carefully chosen for this mission from thousands and thousands of applicants. They had had to go through numerous evaluations and tests but finally had been showed the green light, that all the nine of them were the most suitable ones for this mission. All the psychiatrists and interviewers knew her better than she perhaps even knew herself by now and they all knew that the thougth of being alone in space would not make Charley flip out of her mind. And it didn't. If anything, she felt somehow relieved. Even free. For the first time in her life she somehow felt she was in the right place at the right time. Ironically that feeling came to her in another planet.

She tiredly rubbed her eyes and bent to grab her watch from the folding chair nearby. It was half past midnight and the numbers on the dark screen were shining with green neon colours. She let out another sigh and scratched her scalp underneath her thick auburn hair. Great. It would take maybe six hours for the others to wake up. She knew that since they all had learnt out their future schedules by heart.

They would wake up at 5.30 AM and go to sleep at 9 PM again. Their breakfast and lunch and dinner schedules along with what they would eat were all carefully planned out as was their working schedules and their tiny glimpses of freetime here and there. All planned ahead. No improvising, no second-guessing. Everything would have to be reported back to their Base in their weekly calls. Every small thing reported, every delay explained. Even if they were not on Earth anymore, their hectic work schedule was obeying the Earth's work etchics, like they just took their jobs and moved everything into a different planet. And that would be the plan in the future. To move to Mars.

Charley did not really understand or appreciate maybe the thought behind that thinking, if anything she thought that life here would be and should be totally different from what it used to be on Earth, it had to be. To maybe think that they could adabt their Earth-manners here would not be thinking too creatively, if anything, now it could be the time to maybe think how to do things differently. God knows that if it would even be possible for the humans to come live here in the first place, they should really evaluate their way of living and try to do things differently, or else Mars would also become just another consumed planet. Were they planning to just hop onto different planets forever without stopping and thinking that maybe it was the way they lived that needed to be changed and not the planet?

That said, she was overly excited still to be here, to given this opportunity, she just always had had an active mind that liked to ask questions and think outside the box. The evaluaters knew also this about her since the first requierment for an astronaut was to have a creative mind. Their thoughts and actions here on Mars would determinate the entire future for their home planet, their job was maybe even to challenge everything they've comen to know and the way they've done things. So, it was time to get creative as hell. Withing their daily schedules that is...

Even if her mind was already racing, Charley felt still a bit dizzy after only a few hours of sleep and she drew her legs up and rested her chin on her knees, looking around their tent, listening to the winds howling outside. Man, it sure sounded like there was a hell of a storm out there...She got startled as a sharp rattling sound suddenly appeared from somewhere but it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. She breathed with a faster pace, looking around and now seeing more clearly in the dark. She listened carefully the noises coming from outside, trying to steady her breathing the same time. What was that? Did a part of their tent fly off with the strong winds? She glanced around the facilities but everyone else was still fast asleep, she knew some of them used even earplugs to help them sleep more sufficiently. Well, they all needed their sleep after what had been a long trip to Mars which had taken a toll on their bodies as well on their minds. And now that they were on a different planet, their bodies took time to get used to live here. A quick thought entered her mind that she could go outside to check what that noise had been but quickly erased that thought, it would be too dangerous with the storm raging there. But even if she was feeling tired still, she couldn't really lay down again and go back to sleep. Her mind was already too active.

She yawned and was thinking lazyly why she had even woken up in the first place. There was no sounds except the wind outside and the occasional snoring inside. Maybe she had heard something like the previous rattle...She took a deep breath again but now felt like her throat was getting a bit dry and it hurt a little. And what's more, she thought that she couldn't actually take too deep of a breath. She frowned and tried to breathe again but it felt like she couldn't get enough air. She wasn't suffocating but it felt like the air was thinner than when they'd gone to sleep. All the alarms went on inside her brain as she jumped out of the bed and rushed past the row of beds in the dark and to the other side of the tent where their oxygen machine was situated, pumping air they could breathe into the tent and she noticed a small light that was blinking red. Charley felt a bit confused. It showed that the oxygen levels were dropping but even if the machine had been programmed to signal, rather loudly, any abnormal varitations on the oxygen levels, it remained silent.

The auburn haired mechanic quickly went to fetch her bag of tools and still wearing her set of long and warm underwear she crouched beside the machine and took the flashlight and placed it in her mouth, to point at the machine while her hands began to work quickly but silently. She started to carefully screw the tiny screws off from the side panel and as soon as she got the panel off she placed it on the floor next to her, careful not to wake people up. She didn't really know why she hadn't just rushed to wake everyone up, it was quite critical and urgent matter, but she hadn't done that. What good could that do? Not that she didn't thought that they wouldn't be able to handle the stressful situation, they could, they were all highly trained to these kind of situations but she simply didn't have the time to wake them up and start explaining things. She did what she was good at and that was fixing problems, fixing the machines, but she made a quick mental note that she gave herself two minutes to get the machine work properly again, after that she would wake everyone up since there actually would be a huge problem at hand if there was no oxygen for them. Two minutes, that's all she needed.

She looked inside the machine, carefully moving her head, to point the flashlight around the inside, the big tangled mess of different coloured wires, a couple of circuit boards and a small screen that showed the oxygen levels dropping still and she could actually feel how the air was getting thinner again, it was already quite difficult to breath with the flashlight in her mouth but she kept working, fast and with steady hands, her mind already awake and her hands knowing her way inside the machine.

She let her fingers follow one cable that lead to the back of the monitor where they had placed an oxygen tank, big enough to give them air for the entire week. She quickly circled the machine to check the tank but it seemed to be okay, no leaks anywhere and she got back to the front, to look inside the machine again and her fingers were feeling the thick cable leading to the tank, she had to glide her lean fingers on it slowly, her finger tips hardened by the years of working but still sensitive to feel any small flows of air that could cause the machine to fail to work properly. She didn't feel anything first and started her task again, in her mind all the time counting down from the 120 seconds she had given herself, her eyes carefully watching the small screen showing the ever dropping numbers, she let her finger tips feel the cable from every direction and there it finally was, the small hole that lead the oxygen inside this big machine instead of guiding it into their tent with a steady flow. While holding the finger on top of the tiny hole, she rummaged her tool bag with her right hand, and soon found the duct tape. A releaved sigh passed her lips as she quickly closed her eyes. Who would have thought that the good ol' duct tape would save lives even on Mars... She dropped the flashlight to her lap, the light getting dimmed by her clothes and tore a strip of tape with her teeth and then carefully wrapped it around the cable before sitting there on the floor quietly but intensely looking at the small screen showing the oxygen levels. She swallowed with difficulty a couple of times, only now realizing how hard her heart had been beating.

But the oxygen levels weren't dropping anymore, and soon they were starting to get higher, by every ten seconds. Charley closed her eyes in relief and took a deep breath and it felt a tad easier now. Okay, that was a close one. This is exactly what they didn't need to happen. For them to suffocate on their first night here on Mars. Charley frowned, letting her green eyes settle on the tiny screen again. How could that have even happened? They had tested every single item hundreds of times. She had personally tested many of the machines including the oxygen machine and everything had seemed to be in order and in perfect condition. Everything should work perfectly. She let her fingers glide on the cable once more, thinking but then startled violently as she felt a hand on her shoulder and a shout nearly escaped her mouth but after glancing over she saw the dark figure behind her and even if not seeing him exactly she knew his smell and she knew his voice.

"Everything alright, Charley?" Noah's voice, deep and hoarse after just woken up, asked her but he also sounded a bit worried. Charley caught herself lingering on those words as she had gotten so used to the metallic voices from the radios and the voices muffled by the deep rumbling noises inside the space craft. Only here, on Mars they finally had been able to here their real voices pierce the total silence, no distractions. And the real scents not overpowered by the smells of their uniforms and the cold unpleasant almost plastic type of a smell inside their spacecraft. His voice sounded so soft all of a sudden, so warm. So human.

"Yes." She whispered, but then turned her eyes back on the screen that showed that the oxygen levels were perfect again. She swallowed and let out a sigh. She cleared her throat and shook her head.

"I mean, there was a leak..."

"What?"

"There was a leak, I found a tiny hole in the oxygen cable..."

Noah quickly knelt down beside her, looking inside the machine and grabbed the flashlight from her lap to point it inside the machine, soon finding the part that had been taped with the duct tape. Charley could see the man more clearly as the flashlight he was holding gave a light glow to their surroundings even if pointed inside the machine. Charley noticed her eyes to dart on his chiseled face, on his week-long beard stubble that somehow calmed her down a bit, she didn't know why. Maybe it was that she suddenly was struck by memories of all the mornings a year back when she had been woken up from his apartment and seeing that stubble from close, pressed against the white pillows, feeling prickly to her touch. Charley's thougths got interrupted as Noah cleared his voice while he let his fingers touch the taped part of the cable.

"Duct tape?" His voice was filled with surpressed laughter and Charley felt a small smile appearing on her face.

"Yeah. And to think they weren't to give me that to our space mission...Boy would they be sorry now..." Charley huffed back.

Noah merely nodded back and clicked the flashlight off.

"The levels seem to be in order again. Good work, Charley." He then got up.

"The oxygen should last for about nine hours still. C'mon, let's go to sleep. We'll change the tank tomorrow."

"I'm not feeling sleepy anymore..." Charley said while trying to make her eyes form a clearer vision of the man by her side in the dark.

"Charley, I know how eager you're to start working our assignment but even the most brilliant mechanics need their good night sleeps." Noah's voice was warm but strict and it felt like a low rumble in the silence and Charley could feel the warm air of his breath collide with her few bare skin parts.

"I know but..."

"No buts, this is an order. You, go to bed." Noah poked Charley gently on her chest with the flashlight.

"Okay, got it, chief." Charley smiled back and Noah helped her up from the floor, slightly fumbling to get a firm grip of her hand in the darkness but managed in the end but she was to turn around again.

"Oh, I'll need to close the side panel..."

"That can surely wait for six more hours... "

Charley nodded back, deciding that maybe Noah was right even if she still didn't like to leave work hanging.

"Sure." She replied.

But they still stayed standing there close to each other in the dark.

"Noah?"

"Charley?"

"I checked that cable like a hundred times..."

Charley heard an audible sigh coming from Noah.

"This ain't your fault, Charley. These things happen."

"No, these things can't just happen! Not here, when there's noone to help us."

"You stop that train of thought right away." Noah's voice was strict.

Charley glanced up and studied the dark silhouette infront of her a bit surprised by his tone.

"Sorry, it's just... I checked that damn cable so many times..."

"I know. And so did a lot of other people as well. Maybe the cable just got damaged while transporting it here from the shuttle..."

"Maybe, yeah."

"Now, how about we catch some sleep? It's a big day tomorrow." Noah's voice became softer and he gently guided Charley into momevent towards her bed before he got to his own and laid down on it, pulling the blanket over him. Charley walked back to her bed and laid down as well but she glanced over the monitor's direction in the other side of the room.

"Charley?" She heard Noah's voice that got muffled by the blanket.

"Hm?"

"Close your eyes."

Charley let out a faint chuckle. He knew her so well.

"Yes, sir." Her lips twitched slightly as she closed her eyes.

x

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x

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The end.

Well, no, not even close, hehe. As I have so much things already in my head ready to be written to this story that has only begun!

In the next chapter we'll meet more astronauts and also more Martians will enter the story!

Stay tuned and please leave a comment, like always, they're very much appreciated!

Until next time!

-SpaceFlora