mars | year 2052

"We'll come back in the morning, I promise." Reed pleaded, pulling me away from the crater. We had begun walking back, but everything in me wanted to stay behind and continue investigating our groundbreaking discovery.

"You have to promise." I shot him a look that said I meant business.

"He promises." Monday interjected. "Come on, Ziara."

↞↟↠

"Dad... we went looking for the crater today..." I told him, tucking a strand of my orange hair behind my ear.

"Why were you looking for the crater?!" My mother chimed in before Dad could open his mouth.

"We were getting bored." I shrugged.

"Anyway...?" My father rested a hand on my mothers shoulder, as if to soothe her.

"We found something at the bottom of it that looks like water." I leaned back in the plastic chair.

"Water?!" My mother nearly shouted.

I nodded, sucking in my lips and furrowing my brow. "At least, it looks like water. We're going back in the morning to check."

My father nodded, staying relatively calm unlike my mother and the rest of their friends who were whooping and hollering with excitement.

"We'll check back in with you when we meet up with the rendezvous ship." My father smiled. "Take care, my little explorer."

"Will do, captain!" I winked, turning off the tablet.

↞↟↠

Our plans of exploration were delayed by a solar wind storm early in the morning. We ended up staying inside most of the day, playing music from the Dome speakers and racing each other in our golf carts around the HAB. Our meals while our parents were away consisted mostly of easy to make things, like Mac & Cheese or overnight oatmeal for breakfast. And though we occupied ourselves with board and card games, my train of thought kept circling the possible discovery of water on Mars.

How groundbreaking... The children of the First Five Families not only colonized Mars, but found liquid water beneath the Red Planet's surface. We would be heroes back home. Home? This, Mars, was my home now. I read once in something called a book that "home was where the heart is". My heart is here.

"I see your Tennant. I raise you Hiddleston and Cumberbatch." Lavender grinned smugly, laying down the Ace of Hearts and the six of clubs with pictures of Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch taped sloppily onto them. I rolled my eyes. We had been "gambling" with M&Ms and vintage movie actors.

"I see your Hiddleston and Cumberbatch. I raise you Ackles." I threw down the King of Spades with Jensen Ackles' face taped onto it. Monday cackled, rocking back and forth in her spot on the floor of the Gallery. It had become a mutual "club house" so to speak over the past few days.

"I acknowledge your Ackles and raise you Rogers and Barnes." Monday threw down her cards.

"Well..." Lavender folded. I looked Monday in the eye and pulled out one of my two remaining cards.

"I see your Rogers and Barnes and raise you Armitage." I threw down the four of diamonds.

"I see your Armitage and raise you Jackman." Monday threw down her second to last card.

Still unwilling to admit defeat, I played my last card.

"I raise you Cruz."

"Come on!" Monday shouted, nearly falling backwards. "I fold, I fold." she sighed.

I laughed maniacally, leaning forward to pull towards me the twenty or so packets of M&Ms we had bet with.

"You are going to share those, right?" Reed asked from somewhere behind me. He, Knight and Archer were playing their own card game in the opposite end of the Gallery.

"Most likely not." I shrugged, ripping open one of the packets and popping four blue M&Ms into my mouth.

"Piggy." he whispered, barely loud enough for me to hear. I grinned to myself before picking up one of the packets and turning around slowly so he wouldn't notice. When he looked down to play his cards, I chucked the M&M packet at his head. It hit him square on the forehead just as he was sitting back up. His expression was a mix of confusion, pain, but also joy.

"Your... face!" I wheezed, nearly rolling around on the floor with laughter. Monday and Lavender were giggling too, since they had seen what went down.

"You're mean, Ziara Thindrell." Reed grinned. I laughed.

This was my home. These people were my family. Nothing would ever change that. Ever.

↞↟↠

earth | year 2121 | transition hospital

"So what happened with the water?" Jameson asked, furrowing his brows. By this time, the sun had nearly disappeared behind the skyscrapers. "And why did you come back to earth?"

The thought crossed my mind to make up something like... When we found the water, there was really an alien bacteria that ate through the HAB and I was the only survivor. But I couldn't do that. He'd waited this long to hear what happened, I figure he might as well hear the truth.

"Well I came home now pretty much because, as much as I hate to say it... I'm old." I shrugged, squirming a little to get comfy in the stiff hospital bed. "The water? That was a completely different story."

"I have time." Jameson shrugged.

"Don't you have work? Maybe a lady waiting for you at home?"

"No ma'am. I'm a single pringle."

I giggled to myself. "Oh! I remember now! It started with those words..."

↞↟↠

mars | year 2052

"I am so jealous of you and Reed." Lavender sighed. "I feel like no one notices me."

"That's not true!" Monday piped, hopping in front of us. The light of the Martian sun reflected off her visor and into my eyes. I held up my padded arm to block the light.

"Ladies, can you please not talk about us when we're on the same com line?" Knight chimed from somewhere behind us. I rolled my eyes and kept walking towards the crater.

It took only a few more seconds before we all arrived. "Well, here it is."

"Whoa." Lavender mused.

"I feel like we should name it." Knight shrugged. "Every big discovery ends up getting named."

"What do you even call something like that?" Archer gestured to the hole in the ground and the muddy water at the bottom.

"You can always call it... Crater Lake." I shrugged.

"Crater Lake?" Monday spoke, tasting the words. "It's got a nice ring to it."

"Crater Lake it is then." Reed smiled, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. "And now... We rappel."

The boys tied our roped to nearby boulders and secured them, checking and double checking. We brought a ton of rope, just in case it was deeper than we originally thought. We then attached the ropes to carabiners on our belts and walked backwards slowly down the crater wall.

When we reached the bottom, we were standing in about six inches of water that left a muddy ring around my shins. Looking around, it was beautiful. Elaborate caves and caverns that appeared higher than we had rappelled down... Pillars made of eroded Martian rock... A relatively deep layer of water covering the entire floor of the cave.

"Oh my God." I whispered, in total awe. Where the light from the sun hit the muddy water, the reflection danced on the cave ceiling like stars in the blackness of space.

"I'll take a sample for my parents." Reed said, since his parents were microbiologists.

"Should we explore?" Monday asked as Reed leaned down and filled a vial with the water.

"I vote wait for the adults. The trained scientists." Knight said looking around at the rest of us.

"I side with him." I shrugged.