I take a few seconds just to breathe and look around.
My first real look at this planet—Mars.
The lake’s edge is close. I should be able to reach shelter. But the air is brutally cold. Each ragged breath feels more like sucking in frozen glass than actual oxygen. And I’m not exactly cold-sensitive.
With a final effort, I haul myself out of the water and collapse onto my back. My heart is pounding. My head is spinning. I’m pretty sure I’m about to pass out.
Dressed only in a soaking pair of pants—that’s definitely not ideal. I’m not usually bothered by the cold, but not even my fur can protect me from the brutal temperatures here—especially soaking wet and half-conscious.
Trying in vain to catch my breath, I stare up at the pink-tinged sky. My ears are ringing. The world is spinning around me.
I let go... and lose consciousness.
4-Neela
~Present day.~
I watch Sanjay’s chubby little face. My baby nephew’s grown so much. With his golden skin—our family’s Mauritian heritage—and those striking blue eyes just like his mom’s, he’s absolutelyadorable.
It’s been a few weeks since Meghan went back to work, right after Sanjay’s first birthday. She’s off this week, so we agreed to meet at the toddler center.
Snuggled into a pair of armchairs near the play area, we keep an eye on her offspring.
Sanjay’s sitting next to two little girls, offering them a pre-chewed toy. The dozen or so toddlers in the children’s zone babble happily.
I glance outside, past the de-opaqued composite wall. I don’t want to get home too late, and I still need to bring Meghan and Sanjay back to their housing unit.
They moved a few months ago, just after the baby was born. They were lucky—just swapped places with Francine and Armand, a sweet Belgian couple living less than three miles away. When their daughter moved in with her boyfriend, it freed up a room in their unit. Francine and Armand were thrilled to switch apartments without leaving the area—especially since we all enjoy chatting in French over a cup of herbal tea now and then.
So now, my brother and his family live less than fifteen minutes away by snowmobile. I love it.
Meghan and I have been discussing Kiran’s side activities for over an hour now. When he’s working at the Palace doing structural maintenance, he takes the opportunity to quietly document all the blatant irregularities he spots. Definitely not for fun. But for the past few months, the Regent and his court have gone full authoritarian—rigid, unequal, and totally out of control. Power abuse, food quota violations, overindulgence in everything. On top of that, they’ve formed a little inner guard to make sure the rest of us strictly follow the Pact.
As for Kiran’s extracurriculars? What started as a list of the Palace’s wrongdoings has recently become a deep, alarming investigation. He happened to witness a startling meeting between the Regent, Gorka, and a humanoid alien.
We all know it’s thanks to the Polarians of the Intergalactic Confederation that we ended up on Mars. They look just like Humans—specifically East Asians. And we’re not naïve—we know other species exist, in all sorts of forms. But the Pact clearly stated Mars was to be entirely reserved for former Earth species, both plant and animal.
Yet, according to Kiran, the figure he saw at the Palace had completely reptilian skin—definitely not Earth-born.
So what’s an alien species doing on Mars? Near Cydonia? And more importantly, why at the Palace?
Kiran shadowed the three of them and caught part of the conversation. The lizard-man, as he called him, spoke fluent English—the common language on Mars. They talked about cargo, discretion, and rewards.
That’s all he managed to catch, but ever since, he’s been extra careful at work. He’s even convinced a few others to help him,like Esteban, his childhood friend.
Truth is, for over a year now, a real protest movement has been slowly growing against the Palace’s abuses. At first, the special privileges granted to the Regent and his cronies were explained away, wrapped in flimsy justifications. Not anymore. They’re not even pretending.
So Kiran and Esteban are documenting everything, building a serious case full of Pact violations. The plan is to deliver it to the administrator of Arabia Terra as soon as the weather allows. That kind of journey isnotsafe during Martian winter. And our CCCs—the only long-distance communication systems we have—don’t reach that far.
Besides, we need to be sure Naoto Masayuki, Vassili Porkoff’s counterpart, takes the complaint seriously. The mountain of evidence should help. He’s our last chance. Because who else but someone as powerful as Vassili could possibly rein him in?
Maybe those who already left Cydonia for Arabia Terra tried to raise the alarm. Akiro and Jonathan, for example, moved months ago after getting fed up with Vassili’s excesses. But if they did try, it didn’t do much—nothing’s changed since their sudden departure.
Maybe a thicker file will tip the scales?
Time flies, and one by one, the moms collect their kids—so do we.
Meghan carefully bundles Sanjay into his waterproof suit and straps him into the snowmobile pod. I hop onto mine and we ride back through the pines to her place at a steady pace.
