Rain On The Red Planet

The deafening howl of a siren forced me upright. Red flashing lights attacked my groggy eyes and adrenaline flooded my body. Enzo bounced into my quarters as I frantically unbuckled myself from my sleeping pod. He helped me put on my breathing apparatus as I slipped into my jumpsuit.

“Is it the O2 system?” I shouted over the alarm.

“Not sure. I wanted to make sure you were upright first since you’re the only person I know who can sleep through the racket of an asteroid shower.”

Even though his mask covered his mouth, I could hear the smile in his voice. I was thankful my mask covered my flushed cheeks as I nudged him out of the way. 

Muscle memory took over my body as we bounded into the control room. I looked through the glass rotunda towards the blanket of stars hidden behind a layer of red dust. Deep breath. Remember your protocol. We practiced system failures in our simulation training a million times, but this felt different. This time, our lives could be in danger. Once in the control room, I discontinued the siren, but the red light continued, creating a disorienting hue across the computers. Enzo checked for structural damage while I inspected the base’s atmosphere. 

“Electrolysis system is operational and O2 levels are within range.” I called out.

“No exterior damage.” He echoed back.

With robotic-like precision, we ditched our breathing apparatuses and maned our respective stations. The control system for the biosphere lit up like a marquee sign. 

“Alright. Everything looks clear on my end.” Enzo said as he made his way over to my terminal.

“It’s the biosphere’s water supply.” My hands trembled as I double-checked the fault code. 

Enzo’s chest pressed against my seat back as he looked over my shoulder. The sound of his steady breathing filled my ear and set a calmer cadence for me to mimic. The smell of sage filled the surrounding air.

I said, “There must have been a leak in the reservoir. It’s reading critically low.” 

“Hm. Let me check the exterior cameras.” The aroma of his soap dissipated as Enzo pushed himself away from my station.  

On the monitor, a pool of ice covered the ground outside the water storage container. My stomach dropped. Our entire mission was based on the success of the biosphere, and the success of my career was now frozen on the surface of Mars. 

My skin burned and my throat tightened as I paced. According to protocol, once the communication satellite aligned with the base, we were to contact Command and abort the mission. Tears filled my waterline with the threat of spilling over. 

Enzo blocked my path and held each of my upper arms. His voice was soft as he asked, “What are you thinking?” 

I shook my head. My voice quivered as I said, “I don’t want to fail.” 

“Then let’s fix this.” 

“But protocol says-”

He cut me off. “The satellite won’t be in range for a few days. We have time. Plus, I’m really not looking forward to the trip back, anyway.”

I couldn’t help but grin as the corner of his mouth lifted into a smirk, but pessimism soured my mind.

“And how are we going to go about that?” I asked as I peeled myself away from his grasp to continue my pacing.

After an aching moment of silence, he asked, “What about your dissertation?”

A fluttering sensation filled my abdomen. My feet became cemented in place. “You read my dissertation?” I asked.

“Of course. I wanted to scope out the supposed amazing astrobotanist I was getting partnered with for my most important space mission to date.”

There was no hiding the pink hue that stained my cheeks. “You read all two-hundred-and-something pages of my dissertation about theoretical terraforming just to scope me out?”

He shrugged his shoulders before disappearing down the corridor toward the sleeping quarters. After a moment, he returned with a bound stack of papers. Different colored tabs stuck out from the various points. As he flipped through the pages, highlighted lines and notes scribbled in the margins spotted the sheets. I was dumbfounded. Not only had he read my research, he studied it. 

Enzo opened my dissertation to an image of a famous sealed terrarium that was over fifty years old. “Why can’t we mimic this? We’ll keep our current configuration to maintain the CO2 and O2 levels which will maintain the integrity of our experiment, but we can use your research to recycle the water.”

Our mission was to see if we could create a habitable atmosphere on another planet. A team of engineers, scientists, and I designed the biosphere to test a conglomerate of hypotheses. The construction was comprised of two domes; one large dome that encased the smaller one, the biosphere. The large dome was filled with the first layer of Mar’s atmosphere. The small dome resembled a greenhouse. A ventilation system pumped the carbon dioxide from our contained atmosphere into the biosphere and expelled the oxygen created by the plants into the large dome. Hypothetically, we could lower the carbon dioxide levels and raise the oxygen levels to mimic that of Earth. 

I paused chewing on the inside of my lip to say, “I’m not saying it’s impossible, but we need to figure out a way to increase the temperature of the biosphere and there’s the issue of finding some water.” 

He said, “I can handle the electrical issue. It might get a little chilly though, but I have a solution for that too.” His eyes lit up with devious excitement as he shot me a wink and took a seat at the engineering terminal. After a rapid series of taping, the lights flickered and lowered to a dim glow, the blasting central air weakened to a whisper. “I redirected some of the electricity to the biosphere. We should see an increase in the temperature in a couple of hours.”

“Any ideas for the water in that genius mind of yours?” I asked as I sat in the seat next to him. 

“I do but you’re not going to like it.” 

Over the next few hours, we worked silently and diligently to turn the biosphere into a large-scale terrarium. Enzo hauled the water designated for bathing to the door of the biosphere while I gathered my spare moss spores and soil. After ensuring the dome was airtight, we covered the ground with the soil, moss spores, and water. Then, we waited. 

Goosebumps covered my skin as I shivered in front of the biosphere’s metric screen. The temperature slowly rose, but the humidity stayed the same. 

“If we can’t get the humidity higher, it’s not going to work.” My gut ached and numbness weighed down my bones. 

Enzo placed an emergency blanket around my shoulders. “I can redirect more power to the biosphere’s heating system, but there’s no guarantee I won’t fry the hardware or freeze us out.”

There was no suppressing the tears that welled up in my eyes. They spilled over onto my cheeks and ran down my neck. 

Enzo ran the backside of his finger from my jaw to my cheekbone. “Say the word, Naomi, and I’ll do it. I’ll throw all my water rations in there too if that what we need to do to make this work.”

Electricity covered my skin along the line where his touch traced my face. I looked up into his full, hazel eyes, desperate and wishful. A gravity pulled my gaze to his lips. Without a word, he pushed himself to the engineering terminal, taking the warmth from my core with him. The lights faded to nothing, leaving the orange hue of the emergency lights, and the central air quieted to barely a murmur. 

He took my hand and guided me down the hall to my room. My heart pounded against my sternum as I studied the shadows of his facial features. Once in my quarters, the skin on my face and chest flushed as he silently pushed me against my sleeping pod. I slipped out of my jumpsuit, revealing a white tank top and shorts. He motioned to my bed with his chin. I slipped under the covers with my breath caught in my throat and I waited for Enzo to join. Instead, he clipped me in and placed the emergency blanket overtop. 

“Come get me if you get too cold.” 

And with that, he was gone. Disbelief and excitement caused me to writhe around until I drifted to sleep. 

“Naomi.” 

I awoke to the hushed sound of Enzo’s voice. His breath was visible in the air and his lips lacked their normal blush color.

“Naomi, you gotta see this.”

My body was stiff as I lifted myself from the warmth of my bed. As quick as I could, I slipped back into my jumpsuit and followed Enzo to the biosphere’s door.

He cracked the door, slipped inside, and closed the door behind me. Condensation covered the entire dome and the moss spore had already begun to sprout under our feet. Then one drop at a time, water fell from the roof.

A child-like screech fell out of my mouth as I admired the water that dripped all around us. “We did it! It worked!” I cheered.

“And guess what? The O2 levels are rising in the external dome. The experimenting is working!” Enzo’s face lit up as he took each of my hands.

We jumped up and down and danced in the rain that kissed our exposed skin. It didn’t matter that it was artificial, the dome smelt like a stormy day on Earth.  The patter of rain mixed with our laughter as we celebrated our success. Without warning, Enzo dipped down and pressed his lips against mine. Everything slowed as I soaked in his warmth. After he pulled away, we stared at one another with flushed cheeks and enjoyed the new atmosphere we created, together.