The First Kid On Mars
by David Boswell

Nothing they had taught him in first grade was able to prepare him for this moment. There was a sharp jolt and a loud noise from the back of the ship and then every alarm and siren on board started to go off. The dogs were barking their heads off. And his co-pilot was looking around frantically for the problem.

Dylan closed his eyes and slowly counted to ten to calm himself. Then he looked down at his controls and saw what had happened. Part of the protective shielding had come loose near the landing craft. This was serious. The dial on the radiation meter was slowly climbing as he wondered what to do.

"I've got to go outside and fix it," he said to Riley. His co-pilot nodded in agreement since he knew there was really no other option.

Dylan unstrapped himself from his seat and headed back to the airlock. He picked up his helmet, took a deep breath and opened the hatch. He took a step and was outside with a million stars to keep him company.

A couple of weeks ago I was wearing this helmet while I was riding my bike around my block, he thought to himself. Now I'm in the middle of outer space wearing this helmet and trying to save my ship, my dogs and my best friend. Maybe this summer vacation idea wasn't such a great idea after all?

In March, Dylan and Riley had started making plans for what they wanted to do when school was finished for the year. Riley had suggested that they try to find the lost city of Atlantis. Dylan had been to the beach with his parents over spring break so he wasn't very excited about another trip to the ocean.

"Why don't we go to Mars instead?" he suggested.

They had recently spent a whole Saturday watching a Star Wars movie marathon and the thought of going into space sounded like a great idea to both of them.

"OK, we can always find Atlantis next summer," Riley said. "But instead of Mars, why don't we go to the Moon? It's closer, so we could do that and still have time to dig for buried treasure in your backyard before going back to school."

"Nah, the Moon's been done already. I want to go someplace where no one has ever been before."

And that was that. They spent the remaining weeks of the school year building their ship. And now here they were. Halfway between Earth and Mars and half of their protective shielding had been torn off.

He was carefully making his way to the back of the ship while he was remembering how they had ended up out here. When he got near the landing craft he saw what the alarms had been screaming about. A whole section of shielding had peeled off and was hanging on to the skin of the ship by just one bolt. Things could be worse though. At least the shielding was still there and hadn't been knocked completely off.

Fixing the problem turned out to be relatively easy. Dylan took a few extra bolts and a wrench from his tool belt and went to work securing the shielding back to the ship. When everything was back in place he saw what had caused this mess. There was a big dent near one corner where an asteroid must have struck the panel and knocked it loose.

Before heading back he took a look around to make sure that the asteroid hadn't damaged anything else. As far as he could tell everything looked normal, so he turned around and made his way to the airlock.

Once he was back inside and strapped into his seat again he let out a big sigh. "Let's hope that is the worst thing that happens to us on this trip," he said to Riley.

"I bet that there aren't any asteroids near Atlantis," Riley replied. "Whales, sharks and squids maybe, but no asteroids."

There was a short pause and then they started laughing. Now that the crisis was over they could both relax a little.

When they stopped laughing they heard the sound of whimpering behind them.

"The dogs! I had forgotten all about them."

Dylan and Riley got out of their seats and went back to go comfort the dogs. The loud noises and all the commotion had upset Trudy and Lyndon, but once they started getting some belly rubs and head scratchies everything returned to normal. Trudy gave Dylan a big slobbery kiss on his check. Dylan wiped his face off with his sleeve and then got up and found a box of treats on a shelf and gave a couple to both of his dogs.

When they were building the ship they made sure to make it big enough for both of them and also for both of the dogs. Dylan couldn't stand the thought of spending a whole summer away from them.

Dylan and Riley had built the ship out of spare pieces of wood and metal that they found at Dylan's dad's building site. His dad was leading the construction of a new house a few blocks away from where they lived. Each day Dylan and Riley would ride their bikes over to the site and pick up some wooden planks and metal sheets until they had everything they needed for their ship.

Getting enough food for the trip and getting enough fuel for the ship was a whole different matter though. Fortunately they figured out a way to take care of both of these at the same time.

Dylan told his mom and Riley told his mom that they were really in the mood for beef jerky and 7-UP lately. Usually their moms gave them more healthy snacks like dried fruit or homemade banana nut muffins. Dylan and Riley had both been on their best behavior at home while they were making their plans for their trip though, so their moms were happy to indulge them just this once with all the beef jerky and 7-UP they could eat and drink.

What their moms didn't know was that they were storing the beef jerky in the ship for food during their trip and that they were using the 7-UP for their rocket power.

Beef jerky was the perfect food source since it wouldn't spoil during the long trip. They made a point of also taking plenty of dog food with them since dogs shouldn't be eating lots of beef jerky when you are going to be spending lots of time with them in a small ship.

When shaken up the soda would make an excellent rocket fuel. They had to try out a few different methods before they found the right way to get things to work. The first couple of times they did a test launch they ended up getting themselves and the entire garage soaked with 7-UP.

Dylan certainly had a hard time trying to explain to his parents what had happened without revealing their plans for their trip. He was pretty sure that they didn't believe his story about a freak rainshower happening inside the garage, so he decided that he needed to be extra careful with his rocket tests in the future.

They did finally figure out a way to get all of the 7-UP cans set up correctly for a perfect launch. For the first stage they arranged a hundred cans of soda upside down at the bottom of the ship. Through each pop top they passed one long string that led up to one of the ship's window. Right before launch, Dylan and Riley got on opposite sides of the ship and shook it as hard as they could.

Once the cans were all shaken up, they hopped into their seats and they both pulled as hard as they could on the string. All of the cans opened at the same time and the ship jumped up from the launch pad they had built in Dylan's backyard.

As soon as they were in Earth orbit they pulled a second string that they had strung through all of the cans in the upper stage of the rocket. This stage only had fifty cans of soda in it. This stage didn't need to be as powerful as the first since they were already in orbit and just needed a little more kick to set them on their way.

Now that the problem with the shielding was taken care of all they had to do was wait until they made it into orbit around Mars. Based on their math, it should only be two more days until they were there.

It had been a long day so they decided to get some sleep. When they woke up they spent the rest of the day getting things prepared for their landing on Mars. After getting everything stowed away and in order they had some beef jerky, fed the dogs and went to bed early to prepare for the big day ahead of them.

When they woke up they saw the red planet filling each of the windows of the ship. They had come all the way from Earth and were about to land on Mars!

Dylan did a few last minute calculations to make sure they were still on course and then pulled the string that was connected to the deorbit thrusters. There is no sound in space so they didn't hear the hiss the 7-UP made as it came out of the cans. They knew something had happened though because they saw a jet of soda out of the side window and they felt the ship slow down and start to descend.

Things were bumpy on the way down as their ship passed through the thin Martian atmosphere. The windows quickly became covered with red dirt kicked up by the strong winds as they got closer to the ground. Although they couldn't see past the dirt, they could tell that they had landed when there was a slight bump in the cabin as the ship settled onto the surface of the planet.

When they were building the ship they spent most of their time planning for this part of the trip. How were they going to decide who should be the first one to step out of the ship and onto Mars?

Dylan argued that it was his idea to come here instead of going to Atlantis, so he should be the one to go first. Riley pointed out that he was the one who finally got the 7-UP thrusters working correctly, so he should be the first to go.

If they couldn't come to an agreement on this then the only thing to do was to play for it. Rock, paper, scissors. Best 2 out of 3.

The first round went to Riley. He came out with scissors and Dylan had choosen to go with paper since he was sure Riley would go with rock.

The second round went to Dylan who choose paper again thinking that Riley wouldn't dare go with scissors a second time. He was right. This time Riley went with rock. Dylan covered Riley's closed fist with his outstretched palm and they were even.

The first time they played for the third round things came out in a draw. Both of them had gone for scissors.

They took a quick break to think over their strategies before playing again.

After a minute they put their right hands behind their back and counted to three. This time Dylan came out with rock and Riley had gone back to scissors. Dylan had won. He would be the first person to step foot on Mars.

Dylan was now standing in front of the hatch preparing for the big moment. Ever since he had won their rock, paper, scissors match he had been trying to figure out what he would say when he stepped foot on Mars.

It was a great responsibility to come up with something appropriate. There was also a great temptation to say something silly. As he began to open the hatch, he had to force himself not to yell out 'John Lennon was the greatest Beatle ever!'

Even if it would be a lot of fun to have that be the words that the world thought of when they thought of the time that someone from Earth first went to Mars, he didn't think that would be appropriate.

He was ready. He was out of the hatch, down the stairs and he was standing on the surface of Mars. Before he said anything he lifted his left foot and looked down at the footprint he had just left in the red dust.

"I hope that I am only the beginning," he said.

Now that he was done with the serious part of the trip it was time to play. Dylan moved away from the ladder so that Riley and the dogs could follow him onto the surface. Once everyone was off the ship, they set off to check things out.

Dylan and Riley ended up having a great time. They explored the hills, gullies and plains that surrounded their ship. Lyndon and Trudy had a great time exploring too. They ran around and sniffed at all the strange new smells they were encountering.

After everyone was thoroughly exhausted with all of the running around they had been doing, they went back into the ship to sleep. When they woke up in the morning, they planned to spend a few more hours on the surface of Mars and then get ready to go back home.

It had been a long time since they left home and they were ready to get back. They thought their parents would be ready for them to be back home too.

Before they drifted off to sleep, Riley turned to Dylan.

"You were right," Riley said. "This was the perfect thing to do this summer. I get to pick where we go next summer though. Atlantis may be a lot of fun, but let's keep our options open."

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