Phobos station

"This is my last day on Mars."

It took my fingers several minutes before they could type that sentence on my keyboard. 2 years and 9 days crisscrossing the surface of a red pebble floating in space. In a few hours, I will leave everything. Leaving Adhémar is hard. I will also have to leave my gang: Jeremya, Pelemon, Juan, Melibée and Mayra. I can only bring my 40 kg of accumulated belongings, the maximum allowed per person. The images of the next few hours pass before my eyes: Fly up to Skyreach Station on Phobos aboard an "Albator", Then, arriving near the rotating torus at the heart of the base, our little transport will be caught by a capture arm which will dock us next to a huge Starship, waiting patiently for its return journey cargo. We will stay in transit while we trade propellant, food and exchange crews. I will spend the time thinking about Mars and its people. I will look feverishly through the glass roof at the red planet, looking for a thin shiny line linking two tiny green spots. I will put my fingers on the glass, thinking that I am stroking my lover’s face as the vibration caused by the moorings snapping open signals the end of a great adventure. But I haven't left yet, and I am waiting for the taxi at tube 28. For the moment, I smell that odor of air conditioning mixed with enclosed plants that I’ve grown so used to. This fragile, manufactured air. I know in my heart that the future is playing out here, that human endeavor is taking on another scale with the rebirth of this planet. Mars was once covered with water; someday...

Journalist, it wouldn't be so bad here. The media on Mars are becoming more and more crucial to the communications between the City-States. The next flight to Phobos is in 3 hours... and I think to myself: “There is still time to stay. " (From Lucie's notebook).