Red With Envy
An hour later Andrews was tense once more as he had suited up for his first walk outside the Lander. Owens was checking every joint to make sure that it was secure. Finally, Andrews put on his helmet and turned on the microphone.
“Owens, can you read.”
Owens flashed him a thumbs-up sign and hit a button on the control panel.
“Loud and clear.”
Andrews nodded and slowly backed his way through a small round door. Once he was clear of the door, Owens slowly closed it leaving Andrews in a dark cylinder room about the size of a closet. Here Andrews waited as the air slowly was removed from the room. He crouched in there, muttering something to himself over and over waiting for the all-clear.
“Board signals ready for an extravehicular excursion.”
Taking a deep breath, Andrews hit a switch on the panel next to him and turned around as a hatchway opened up. He reached out for the descending ladder and began to exit the Lander.
About halfway down he turned around and looked out at the scenery around him. Wow, he thought, spectacular. He continued to descend the ladder slowly one rung at a time.
He stopped at the last rung, about half a meter off the ground and smiled to himself. Time for the history books, he mused.
He cleared his throat and said, “Man has taken a large step to make the unknown, known.”
He lost his balance and fell the rest of the way landing on his back with a thud.
“DAMNIT!” he cried out.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.