Queen of Mars - Book III in the Masters of Mars Trilogy (23 page)

Also with us were members of the Science
Guild, a few self important dignitaries and others deemed important
or curious enough to fill out the delegation of fifty.

It was a fine day, and a fine launch. With
precise instructions from Stella, who assured us that the ship’s
controls, once set, were mostly automatic, our lift-off was a
smooth one. Our designated captain was one of Newton’s trusted air
ship pilots, and Darwin sat in the co-pilot’s chair. I occupied the
third seat, at one time used by a navigator, behind them. The rest
of our Martian contingent was in the spacious crew quarters behind
us.

The launch went much as the first one Darwin
and I had experienced. Our pilot was a lean fellow with small eyes
which grew very wide when, in a matter of moments, we found
ourselves high above Mars and hanging in space like an ornament. It
was as if a switch had been through from light to dark. The sun,
which had hung so serenely in the glory of a mid-morning Martian
day, now hung in blackness.

We studied our beautiful planet, its reds and
browns and whites and greens, and I could hear the chorus of Ooo’s
and Ahh’s behind us, for the crew quarters were appointed with
their own porthole windows.

Then the pilot pushed a button and the view
began to fade behind us into a shrinking reddish ball, and the ship
turned in space toward its destination.

I held in my hands my most precious
possession, the book of Old One composers that had been my
father’s, and my grandmother’s before that. It was a connection
with them, and the past of my planet, that was precious to me. I
was told by Stella, through Newton, that they were informed that
there were still musicians on our destination who still played the
strange instruments that the Old Ones had composed music for, and
that they would be happy to play a concert in honor of the Queen of
Mars.

I would make of the book a present to these
strange Old Ones who had once regarded us as pets, and now stood as
our equals.

For that matter, what would they look like?
Had evolution changed their own forms and features over two million
years? Would they look like the pictures in my book – or something
completely strange and alien? They had seemed particularly excited
to hear that we had dogs as pets, and requested that I bring
Hector, who now slept peacefully under my seat.

Under the book was my other precious
possession. In my swelling belly, I could already feel faint
movement which Dr. Mandrake, who was also on the trip to attend to
me, assured me would only increase. Already I knew there were at
least two kits, possibly more. The first two, whether male or
female, would be named Haydn and Sebastian.

They would be born on the trip, making them
children not only of Mars but of Space.

The ship had completed its turn, and now
pointed toward the tiny blue planet, far in the distance, that was
our destination.

I felt a strange stirring, as I always had
when contemplating this jewel in the sky.

Finally, I knew what it was.

As the space ship accelerated, and the blue
speck became ever larger in space before us, I understood at last
the feeling that all Martians had always felt when looking this
way.

We were going home.