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CAPTAIN EO DESCENDED his spaceship into the tangerine, hazy mist of Mars' atmosphere. As his spaceshield floated to the arid rock beds of the landscape, Eo kept a steady, white glove over the hull's micro-navigators. His eyes recorded the slight twitches of his fingers and matched the tilt of the craft's wings in milliseconds. Bog, standing by his side, judged the landing silently, not impressed by Eo's ridiscovered attention to detail in his presence.

 

Fortunately, Bog reasoned to himself, Eo's former crew were not needed for the simple students' escort to Mars' historical sites, and they had all more than agreed to take the requested vacation from mission duty. So far and so good was the consensus Bog reached after a routine departure and close-to-final landing on Mars' grounds.

 

The Academy students seemed bright and obedient, for they had kept their conversations in Eo's guest bunks to a reasonable level. Bog was relieved at the laughs and jitters of camraderie he had heard during the flight through the Milky Way galaxy, for the silence of space was always deafening, nearly tangible. Eo, who knew this as well as anyone, had been difficult to make conversation with, even after Bog had attempted an inside joke, leaving Bog to ponder if Eo wasn't speaking as his usual self at the command bay for the sake of the students' poosible listening ears.

 

Eo's reservedness had the air of a punishment, Bog thought, and it underscored how, frankly, boring the mission truly was. As if Bog hadn't already known that on a personal level; he and Eo had seen Mars more times than a toiletseat.

 

Reassuming his new role not as Eo's former roomate in flight training but as his reluctant superior, Commander Bog glanced over Eo's shoulder to make sure Eo's landing was correctly within the coordinates the Colonel had sent. "Easy...and a little to the left," Bog advised Eo lowly.

 

Eo toggled his navigation grips sidways, and the nose of the starship squeaked before the hull leaned left.

 

"Not so fast!" Bog shouted, gripping a balance rail. "Your model is an older and sensitive aircraft; be more gentle."

 

Eo obeyed, and soon his starship restored its balance. Bog sighed in relief at his navigation gizmo when the readers of Eo's starship showed that its real position and the landing coordinates were in-sync.

 

"Disengage all controls," Bog announced immediately, "and input power-saving mode, please."

 

"I did that already," Eo muttered. "Let's get this over with." Eo said, advancing towards the cabin's where the children from the space academy were waiting. Eo felt a hand push his center square once more with Bog's shoulders.

 

"Not quite." Bog said. After an indifferent pause, Eo remembered and he turned off the light-beams of his starship's rears, fins, and nose beacons with gentle flicks of his controls.

 

"Don't make faces," Eo said, ignoring Bog's satisfied smirk.

 

Meanwhile, in the starship's guest cabins, the academy pupils were waiting for Bog or Eo to knock on their port and escort them to Mars' geosphere.

 

One alien space academy student was Org. It was a salmon colored, four-foot, squid-like anthropod that buoyed above its own gravity emitted by its body. It didn't say much because it simply couldn't say much, for it didnt have vocal chords after all.

It hoped to find some rare Martian plants it had seen in a e-log and take their measurements so it could reproduce a model of them back at its home in the star base. It did not trust the other two students, mainly because they talked much more than usual, and they didn't like to include it in their conversations.

 

It did not blame those Human descendants, for it could not talk after all, but it did not like the feeling of lonliness, for it had suffered a lot of it in space academy classes. Org turned its head to his center when his name was mentioned.

 

Another student, a ebony-skinned, almond-eyed, and short-haired girl named Zephyr, had told it, "Org, you're so boring it's annoying. Anyway," she then turned to the third student who sat next to her on a comfortable bed.

 

Zephyr continued sharing to her partner that she wished to see all the nature that Mars had to offer, and hoped to take plenty of pictures to show her family, astronauts, and friends. She secretly hoped that during their tour, her knowledge of Mars´ geography might impress Xavie beside her, who was the last Mars exploration student of their group assigned to Captain Eo. 

 

Xavie, olive-skinned and athletic, shared to everyone that a group of older classmates had betted that he would fail a ritual they had all done on their past visit to Mars, which was to go to the scariest part of the planet's ruins to touch 'the thing'.

 

He recoiled at Zephyr's zealous encouragement, but tossed her a nervous smile in knowing that her words were good-natured. The two humans, mostly Zephyr, talked on aimlessly.

 

Org did not look forward to being an outcast for the day, but it was inevitable, it seemed, that Xavie and Zephyr were getting along more by the minute. Org made a quiet burble to itself, looking low. Suddenly, it turned to the port when it heard a knock on the port.

Eo ushered all the students outside. "We have arrived on Planet Mars, known by Martians as the Red Planet. Your current position is safely within the free-exploration section of Mars' ancient ruins. I am sure you have heard before that ninety percent of the ruins are prohibited to non-Martians. Pause for effect." Eo recited to the students with his eyes glued to his gizmo's reader. "On Planet Mars, your objective is to learn all about the...."

 

Eo squinted at his gizmo, and then glanced at Bog, who Eo realized had inserted a hard-to-read correction to his briefing.

 

"Components of the universal geospheres, and the philosophies and anthropological origins of extraterrestial civilizations." Bog said.

 

"That," Eo continued, "and to complete all essential benchmarks needed to fulfill the requirements of your very first mission badges." Eo moved on to attendance, "Okay, let's take roll. Zephyr?"

 

"Present!" She said.

 

"Okay. Zah-vee?"

 

"It's Zay-vee." Xavie said.

Eo shrugged and texted himself a reminder. "Org?"

Org's tentacles breathed in place.

"It looks like everyone is accounted for. On to the ruins."

"Hold on," Bog interrupted quietly. "You forgot safety."

"Bog. It's an abandoned rock garden."

"Anything could happen. Please just follow protocol."

Eo adjusted his boots to a comfortable stance before his long recital, and then sighed, "It is important for everyone to remain safe at all times, inside and outside of a spacecraft. At all times we will use the partner system. You may know that the space force's motto has always been 'no man left behind' for centuries. That applies then, and that applies today, and for every single mission, including field trips. There will be no person seen alone, and if I see anyone alone, neither of you will earn your mission badge today."

Bog nodded with approval, and added, "You have been equipped with a safety laser on your toolbelts. Have you all been trained on it?"

The students agreed.

"Excellent. We are sure you will never have to use it, but if you may use it, always use two hands, and never aim at anything if you do not intend to stun it. Is that perfectly clear?"

"Yeah," Xavie said, "but how come you guys have two lasers and we only have one?"

" 'Cause one's for killing," Eo replied.

Bog regarded the students' excitement and reminded them, "it is highly unlikely we will ever need to use our other lasers, it is only for your safety. Now, to the ruins, shall we?"

The teens went ahead, with Org floating behind them at a distance.

"Eo, don't encourage them!" Bog said once the students were out of earshot. "They're unpredictable and unruly as they are!"

"I just told 'em the truth," Eo chuckled.

Bog huffed. "This may seem like a simple student's excursion Eo, but one slip-up, and...." I'll lose everything, Bog thought to himself.

Eo fixated on him with an incredulous glare. "What makes you think I'm going to mess this up?!" Eo accused.

Bog recovered, "just please follow my lead exactly this time, Eo, and we'll both be sure to get home safely."

"How about this? I'll follow my own lead, because I know exactly what I'm doing!!" Eo said. "And it's 'captain' to you, from now on." He recallibrated his guns and stalked ahead.

Bog sighed behind him and then he tracked Captain Eo and the space academy students towards a labryinth of massive, orange canyons on the horizon that led to Mars' ancient ruins.

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