Red Desert - Point of No Return Read Online Free

But the light is perfect now
that the sun is high. The various layers of rock seem to shine by
themselves. It’s almost incredible that so much beauty could be
accidental.
    I’m still bewitched by
such a view when my foot slips on the terrain. Before I can
counteract the loss of balance, I find myself supine; my back hits
the breathing device and my head is thrown backwards, bending my
neck. My helmet bumps into a stone and the rebounding effect runs
all over my body, dazing me. The light becomes more and more
intense, forcing me to close my eyes, and I have the impression of
hearing remote music, rocking me softly.
    My eyes snap open; I’m
breathing heavily. I’m still lying on the ground. The sun is
directly over me. I lift my right arm with caution, to check my
suit indicators. Everything seems alright. There’s no pressure
drop, but I have been reckless. I could have damaged it, and died
in excruciating pain.
    I think about Michelle
for a moment. She tried to leave the station without her suit. Her
body swelled up in the airlock, until her more superficial tissues
exploded and spread themselves over the doorway. Her corpse blocked
it. We had to use the exit on the other side of the station to move
away what had remained of her, which had frozen in the meantime. We
tried to clean, but her thickened blood had seeped in
everywhere.
    I still cannot believe she decided to kill
herself that way. The thought that someone may have pushed her in
there and activated the door to kill her hasn’t allowed me to have
a decent sleep for many a long night. The fact I’m here now is in
most part due to that doubt.
    I try to breathe
deeply and calm down. I must have lost consciousness, but only for
a couple of minutes. I sit up with caution. My camera is tied to my
suit with a lanyard. It seems undamaged. I pick myself up from the
ground and head back to the rover.
    No more strolling, for
a while.
    Once inside, I get rid
of my equipment and I lie back in my seat. I start downloading the
photographs, which are immediately displayed on the dashboard
screen, and I activate the satellite connection. As I start the
upload, a notification appears.
    “Incoming message,”
the cold voice of the computer recites.
    At first I think
Hassan is trying to contact me again, by using the satellite
transmission, but then I read on the windshield augmented reality
that it comes from Houston and was recorded five hours earlier.
It’s mission control, attempting to persuade me to go back. I’m
really curious to hear what they have thought up.
    I turn on the video
playback and the virtual screen is filled with a person’s face.
    “Anna … hi. To tell
the truth I’m not convinced that asking me to talk to you has been
a clever idea. But I’m here now so I must try.”
    In disbelief, I put a
hand on my face. “Jan,” I whisper, while watching the image of the
only man I have ever loved in all my life.
     
     
    I was walking as fast
as my high heels and the paving of the old town allowed. I couldn’t
believe I was about to be late to one of the most important
appointments of my life. To avoid any reliance on public transport
and the risk of being stuck in morning traffic, I had taken a hotel
close by to be sure I could reach the Grand Place on foot without
any hurry.
    A woman, Maggie Moore,
who had introduced herself as assistant to Deputy Director Francis
from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, had approached me at the
end of an exobiology conference organised by ESA in Paris. She
asked me, almost casually, if I would like to put my scientific
knowledge into practice in the field. “On Mars, for instance,” she
had said.
    When I heard the Red
Planet mentioned my eyes must’ve sparkled, because without me
saying a word that woman had smiled and handed me her business
card. On the back she had written a date, a time, and La
Chaloupe D’Or , the name of a restaurant that overlooks the
Grand Place in Brussels.
    I was making my way
through