By the Light of Two Moons

Breakfast was different that morning. No dehydrated protein cereal today. Instead, they feasted on real potatoes and ham from a can. It was the last breakfast Nathan’s father would get at the Jamestown colony base camp before the expedition, and as such, it was a special one.

“Where are you going this time, honey” Laura asked, blowing on her instant coffee.

“They’re sending the five of us up to Olympus. Which, let me tell you, a volcano will be a welcome expedition site after the last one at the pole.” Nathan’s dad, Luke, chuckled, but shivered at the thought.

“If you find anything, will we go home?” Nathan asked, looking up from his plate. He hadn’t eaten anything, just pushed it around with his fork.

“Do you want to go home?” Laura put her coffee down and raised her eyebrows towards Luke.

“You know that’s not an option, Laura.” Luke sighed. “We knew what we signed up for. You had a choice. Either I come by myself and we don’t see each other for years, or the whole family packs up and goes together. This whole searching for life doesn’t have a time stamp on it. We go home when we’re done.”

Nathan went back to pushing around his gourmet breakfast. “How do you find the animals? What kinds of tests will you do?”

“Nathan, honey, don’t talk with your mouth full.” Laura reprimanded, arms crossed.

“I’ll tell you all about it when I get back. Right now, Daddy has to get going so he doesn’t miss the rover.” Luke took his disposable tray and fork to the compost bin and tossed it in. He kissed Laura on the forehead and ruffled Nathan’s hair. “I’ll see you guys in a week.”

After Nathan finished his schoolwork for the day, his mom encouraged him to go outside and play. Nathan suited up in his flexible exploration space suit and exited through the double entry air lock to the courtyard.

The courtyard was the only good thing about moving to Mars. There were no toys to play on, all his friends were back home, and he was the only boy his age at the colony. Basically, there wasn’t anything to do. But being outside in the courtyard was better than being trapped in his family’s habitat. And here on the Martian surface, he could run and jump beyond what he had previously imagined possible, literally. Roaming around, Nathan left a circuitous trail of boot prints in the dusty Mars surface, replacing the ones that had blown away since yesterday’s foray.

Today, he set about making an obstacle course for himself in the dusty red soil, digging a little crater here and mounding the extra soil over there, all the while staying far from the perimeter fence. If his mother had told him once, she had told him a hundred times, Stay away from the fence! Nathan didn’t know what was beyond the fence, but he knew that everyone made sure to stay inside. He looked past the fence, at the giant crevices layering the red land beyond. They were probably part of the reason he had to stay inside the fence. He was never allowed to explore anything cool here.

Turning away from the fence, Nathan scouted for large rocks to add to his obstacle course. Another good thing about Mars – he looked really strong when he picked up boulders he wouldn’t even be able to budge back on Earth. Spotting a nice big one, he bent down to get a grip on it, and he noticed a design in the soil that he had never seen before. It definitely wasn’t made by anything at base, he had already thoroughly explored everything there, and it didn’t look like the designs drawn by the wind, either. Squatting down to get a closer look, Nathan thought the clusters of four small circles kind of looked like tiny footprints. Intrigued, he began to follow them.

The mysterious footprints meandered across the red dirt, leading Nathan on a rather extensive tour of the courtyard. Finally, he found himself at a pile of boulders, about twice as tall as himself, just inside the perimeter fence. He hadn’t realized he had gotten so close and instinctively took a step backwards. Turning to check his habitat window, his saw no sign of his mother. He crouched down to investigate where the footprints had disappeared into a small opening near the bottom of the boulders.

A tiny head peeked out of the hole, causing Nathan to fall back in surprise. He scrambled away, while the tiny head also retreated into its hole. A safe distance from the rocks, Nathan waited to see if the head would reappear. And sure enough, after a few minutes, the head cautiously re-emerged. Nathan remained frozen in place, hoping the little animal would come all the way out. The little head looked left and right, and then the entire animal emerged from the hole.

It was small, Nathan could have easily held it in one hand. It walked on four splayed legs, reminding Nathan of his friend Ben’s lizard back on Earth. Unlike Ben’s lizard, though, this animal was almost the same rusty color as the Martian dirt. Confident that the tiny lizard creature wasn’t going to hurt him, Nathan slowly reached out a hand. The animal watched him, blinking rapidly with clear eyelids. When Nathan was only a few inches away, the animal turned and scurried alongside the rocks, hiding around the corner.

“I’m not going to hurt you, little guy,” Nathan called out softly. He knew the creature couldn’t hear him through his spacesuit, but he wanted to reassure him anyway. The little head again poked out from behind the rocks and seemed to study Nathan. It took a cautious step out from behind the rocks and towards Nathan, who remained as still as the boulders around him.

“Nathan, where are you?” His mother’s voice came through the headset in his spacesuit so suddenly, Nathan jumped in surprise. The tiny creature, spooked, turned and ran back into the rocks.

“I’m just exploring,” Nathan replied, peering at the spot where the lizard like animal had just disappeared.

“Well, come inside. It’s time for lunch.” His mom said.

“On my way.” Nathan continued to watch for the little animal, but after a few minutes knew he needed to head back or else his mom would start to worry.

The next morning, after breakfast, Nathan asked to play outside again. He suited up, and on his way to the air lock, grabbed a couple pieces of dehydrated cereal. Once outside, he headed straight for the rocks where he had last seen his animal, slowing down as he got closer. He found the place the animal had disappeared yesterday and happily noted more little footprints. Nathan piled the dehydrated cereal pieces near the footprints and backed up to wait.

After a few minutes, his little animal poked its head out from the rocks and went to investigate the food. A long, teal tongue flicked out of its mouth towards the cereal. Nathan could hardly contain his excitement! Until, apparently unimpressed with Nathan’s gift, the creature turned it’s back on the cereal and started back towards the rocks. Disappointed, Nathan absentmindedly started gouging the soil with a rock, thinking about what else he could bring to tempt the creature. To his surprise, the animal stopped and turned back towards him, cocking his little head to the side.

“What is it? Do you like this?” Nathan asked the animal.

In response, the animal walked directly over the Nathan and the hole he had made and started investigating the hole with its tongue. Nathan watched, amazed. He couldn’t see anything, but whatever was in that hole, the little animal wanted it! When the animal seemed to get bored of that hole, Nathan quickly made another one, turning up more of the Martian dirt.

“You need a name.” Nathan declared, as the little creature again shot its tongue into the hole. “What about Rex?”

Rex stared at Nathan. “Okay, another hole for Rex!” Nathan said happily as he carved away more of the Martian topsoil.

When Rex seemed to have had his fill, Nathan decided it was time to try something new. Getting onto his belly, Nathan tried to make himself as small and low as possible. Then, he slowly reached out his hand towards Rex. This time, Rex did not run away. Instead, he flicked out his tongue to investigate Nathan’s gloved hand. Inside his space suit, Nathan giggled. And then, to Nathan’s surprise and delight, Rex climbed right onto his outstretched hand!

“You are so much better than Ben’s lizard! But I bet you guys would have been friends.” Nathan jabbered away, telling Rex all about Ben and his lizard back on Earth. He spent all morning with Rex, until his mother called him inside again.

After that morning, as soon as his mother would allow him, Nathan would rush outside to find Rex. When Nathan wasn’t outside playing with Rex, he was constantly talking about him. “Today, Rex and I are going to play expedition,” Nathan would tell his mother. Or, “I hope Rex is feeling better today, he was a little sad yesterday.”

One week after the discovery of Rex, Nathan’s dad returned from his expedition. Over dinner, he and Laura discussed what he had missed. “Your son made a friend while you were away.”

“That’s great! See, I told you there was no need to worry.”

Laura sighed. “Luke, there are no other children here Nathan’s age. Rex is imaginary.”

“He’s not imaginary,” Nathan corrected.

“Tell me about your new friend.” Luke asked, raising his eyebrow at Laura with a silent I told you so. “Where did you meet him?”

“Outside by the rocks.”

“How old is he? I think Jim has a son that would only be a handful of years older than Nathan.” Luke mused.

“I don’t know. He isn’t a kid, though.” Nathan said. At his parent’s confused looks, he got up from his chair and ran into his room. He returned with a piece of paper. “Here, I drew a picture of him.”

Looking at the drawing, Luke’s eyes lit up. “This is Rex? Where did you find him? Can you take me to see him?” He pushed back his chair and made to get up.

“We’re in the middle of dinner!” Laura protested, craning her neck to get a view of Nathan’s drawing and what had excited her husband so much.

“No! He is very shy!” Nathan said at the same time, hugging the drawing to his chest.

“After dinner then. Take me to see Rex, okay kiddo?”

Hesitantly, Nathan agreed to show his dad where he and Rex played after dinner. Once they were both suited up, Nathan led the way through the air lock and out towards what he now assumed was Rex’s house, in the rocks by the perimeter fence. Heading towards the blue sunset, he kept looking back at his father, to see if he was going to get in trouble for playing so close to the fence. But his dad didn’t seem to notice.

“He lives in those rocks.” Nathan pointed to the place where he had first laid the pieces of cereal to entice Rex to come out.

“Get him to come out.” Luke demanded, scanning the rocks, unsure where to set his eyes.

“I don’t know, Daddy. What are you going to do to him? He is shy with new people.”

“Don’t worry, I just want to see him.” Luke reassured his son.

Crouching down, Nathan began turning over the soil with a rock. Upon hearing the noise, Rex poked his head out of his rock and scurried towards Nathan.

“Amazing.” Luke breathed. He took a step forward and Rex froze mid stride. Luke also froze, not wanting to scare the creature away. “We need to take him to the lab,” he said.

“No, Dad! You can’t!” Nathan pleaded.

Scared off by the sudden outburst, Rex scampered back to his rock. Nathan refused to coax him out again, much to Luke’s dismay. Knowing it was a useless endeavor, with Nathan so worked up, Luke suggested they go back inside.

“Mom! Dad wanted to steal Rex!” Nathan cried when they got back inside.

Laura crouched down to console Nathan. “Don’t worry baby, Daddy isn’t going to do anything to Rex. He knows Rex is your friend and would never take him away.” At this, she raised her eyes to Luke in warning.

Later that evening, after Nathan and Laura had gone to bed, Luke silently suited up and left the habitat. By the light of the two moons, he retraced his and Nathan’s boot prints from earlier. When he reached the rock outcropping, he squatted down and grabbed a rock. Scraping the red dirt as he had seen Nathan do, he scanned for Rex. Finally, almost invisible against the dirt, Luke saw Rex cautiously creeping towards him.

“That’s it, just a little bit closer,” Luke coaxed. “Just a bit –” he lunged at Rex, cupping his hands to trap him. But Rex was faster, and he scampered back to the safety of his rocks. Determined not to leave empty handed, Luke scrambled up and after Rex. He searched for a way to get around the boulders, but it was useless. So, Luke began shifting the boulders, hoping to scare Rex out again. He moved one, causing several others to cascade down, blocking the hole Rex had run into. He swore, but continued working.

Finally, when he was considering going back to the habitat to get another oxygen tank, Luke lifted a final boulder to find Rex pinned by the tail. He grabbed the animal and hurried back toward the habitat. But instead of his house, he went straight for the lab, calling his expedition team on the way. “You guys will never guess what I have…”

The next morning, after breakfast, Nathan asked his mom if he could go outside. “I need to apologize to Rex for scaring him last night. And promise him I won’t let anything happen to him!”

He headed straight for Rex’s house as the sun rose in the sky, red chasing away the blue. But when he got close, Nathan stopped short. Something was wrong. Rex’s house had fallen over in the middle of the night and the hole to his rock cave was covered. But worse than that, his dad and the other four scientists were all there with their instruments, poking around. Hands limp at his sides, Nathan stared at his dad. Luke was holding Rex, unmoving, in a plastic container while he directed the others.