Stowaway

“Mount Olympus Mining & Manufacturing: We Keep An Eye Out For You!” The tacky banner above the waiting room hung crusted in dried soil of ole big red. To the right of the lettering, sat the company’s mascot alien, waving to its viewer with her big, round third eye. It’d looked cute the first time I’d seen it. Back then, Mars was a bit of a risk for Mr. Crestan and his ventures. The red planet had only ever doled out low quality iron and nickel to its diggers. But with the man came money, and with the money, Mr. Crestan struck gold. Well, actually he struck marium, but it was the next best thing. Better in some ways. Marium forks, marium toilets, hell, even the engine in my truck had components built out of marium. As versatile as plastic, and strong as steel. I never met Mr. Crestan, but I heard he’d quickly turned his billions into trillions after the discovery of what the element could do. Last I’d heard, he’d outsourced all the mining work to the locals and bought himself a pile of land on Earth. Damn lucky that one.

“Hey Draven! Your load is ready!” Jareth called from behind the counter. I’d been so caught up in that stupid banner, I hadn’t heard the guy come back in. “Looks like another four hundred crates of marium? Sound about right to ya?”

Pulling myself out of the chair with a grunt, I hobbled over to the stumpy ole man, and took the clipboard from his hands. “Sounds right.” I answered, skimming over the paperwork, making sure the “t”s were crossed and the “i”s were dotted. Jareth was a good guy don’t get me wrong, but he’d caught a touch of the red lung a few months back, and ever since, I’ve had to double check any papers he handed me. Damn planet, only the Martians could really handle all that crap that blew in the air. Scribbling my signature on the paper, I handed the clipboard back to the man. “Shipping it over to the plant in Texas this time. Be my first visit to Earth in several months.”

Jareth nodded his head and opened his mouth to answer, but coughed up a storm instead. By the time he finished, he was gasping for air and grains of the red dirt hung from his face fuzz. “You still paying off that plot of land in Antarctica?” he choked out.

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Paid.” I corrected him. “And picked up the deed this morning.”

Jareth had a good laugh at that. “Still seem crazy to me that a Neptuner like yourself be retiring to a place like that!”

“Still warmer than Neptune. And I hear the climate control under the Arctic Dome there is pretty nice too.” I said to him. Sure, it sounded strange. A guy like me from an ice pop like Neptune moving into the arctic to retire; but there’s a difference. Out in Neptune, we didn’t have those big climate-controlled glass domes surrounding our settlements. Just a couple of those old lava blankets to brush off the hypothermia whenever we stepped outside. And not just anyone could afford a place on Earth, I spent the better part of seventy years working off that little 5-acre plot of land. Besides, it was the only plot of Earth I’d even had a chance of paying off in a single lifetime, and God it felt good to finally have the deed to that place.

“So, when’s your last day then?” Jareth asked. “Probably itching to go check it out I bet!”

“Oh I still got a few years yet. Just turned the big one double zero last week. But I’ll be making stops here and there to start getting her ready.”

Ole Jareth smiled and waved me off as another trucker stepped up into the room. I gave the man a wave and out the door I went. They already had my truck loaded and ready for take-off. I slapped on my oxygen mask when I stepped out of the confines of the Martian Dome to do the standard inspection of the craft. The Panther Freight Series X was a nice interstellar truck. It looked more like a minivan than a spacecraft, but the trailer added 20 feet of solid marium steel, and the paired gravity thrusters jutting out from the sides gave her plenty of power.

Once in the cabin, I started her up, and awaited permission to take-off. Seated at the steering wheel, I couldn’t help but glance at the glove compartment next to the passenger seat. I popped it open and there inside was the red envelope that I’d worked so hard for. The deed to my retirement paradise on earth. It’d still be another fifteen years, but damn I couldn’t wait for it! I snapped the little door shut and glanced out just in time to see my runway lighting up green. Revving up the engine, and pushing down on the throttle, I heard my Panther roar to life as we took off into the atmosphere.

Liftoff from Mars was never all that exciting. There was nothing to look at as you left the planet. The winds usually kicked the topsoil up off the ground leaving a red, dusty trail all the way to the outer stratosphere. But once out of the planet’s gravitational pull, I popped in a few coordinates on the dash navigator and kicked myself back to enjoy the star-studded view.

The view you experienced when up here on your own was breathtaking. More stars than could ever be counted, and believe me, I’d tried on several occasions. I’d gotten good at identifying the constellations. Draco and the Hydra were a few of my favorites to look for. Others I had to know as a trucker. Constellation location told you where you were allowed to drive. They were the traffic cones of outer space. Drive too far in one direction and I’d be driving into the lightspeed lane. Drive too far in another, and that was military owned, or even privately owned in some cases. Nope, my spot was between the Centurion constellation and the Gorgon constellation; otherwise known as the commercial traffic lane.

It looked to be a rather quiet day in space, or at least for my lane. It’d still take a couple days, but I was the only trucker on this route. If I was lucky, I’d get to watch a star shower, or see an asteroid farm pass by. But, before any of that, inventory came first.

I ended my stargazing and hopped up out of the driver’s seat. Wandering back into the cabin of the truck, I snatched the wool coat off my cot along with the clipboard and oxygen mask. To help conserve on power, the trailers held little to no oxygen. And on top of that, were rarely heated. It’s what made the job so much fun. Depending on the cargo, a truck driver might spend half his trip in the trailer. Fortunately, marium didn’t require that much babysitting. It just couldn’t take light speed; something about being finicky with the initial jump.

Stepping over to a side door adjacent to the cabin, I pressed a big green button embedded into a metal panel on the wall. The button lit up, and through the small window on the door, I watched a metal tube unfold like an accordion, creating a narrow hallway from the back of my cab to the trailer. We called it the “bridge.” It only spanned fifteen feet or so, but was the most rickety thing you could walk out on.

Once fully connected, the bridge lit up with a few lights and my door finally opened. A wave of brisk air hit me, and I quickly stepped out into the metal tunnel so the door to the cab would be closed. With the floor rocking at each footstep, I hurried over into the trailer and slammed the button on the metal panel to close the door behind me. And with a couple of overhead lights, I took a moment for an initial inspection.

The trailer was twenty feet in length, twelve feet wide, and twelve feet tall. To either side of me, metal crate after metal crate of marium stacked to the ceiling. I checked my clipboard. How many? Four hundred? Yeah, it looked about right. But, better count. If I was missing so much as one crate of marium, I’d be sorry.

The crates were designed like those old interlocking plastic bricks the kids always played with. It allowed for quicker loading and unloading, higher stacking in the truck, and more stability during transport. After some quick counting, there looked to be forty crates to a pallet. And let’s see . . . one, two, three, . . . eight, nine, ten. Yep. That made four hundred.

I’d worked my way to the back of the trailer by the time I’d finished counting. Just in time too, my body had started shaking somewhere between the fifth and six pallets. I hadn’t realized it, but I found myself hyperventilating into the oxygen mask. These masks were always cheap, throwaway items never intended for heavy use. Only the best equipment for us drivers!

I’d started on my way back to the front of the trailer, thinking I’d come back later to pop open a crate (just to ensure the safety of the cargo), when I noticed one of the pallets sticking out a bit further than it should. Was it like that before? No, it couldn’t have been. I’d have tripped if it were. Those pallets took up most of the room in this trailer. I considered leaving it. I was starting to freeze, and getting a headache from this damned mask. But I knew if I left it, I’d trip over the stupid thing when I came back on the next round.

Pressing all my weight into the wooden pallet, I started kicking it back into place. The wood creaked and splintered against the metal floor of the trailer. But the pallet was moving, inch by inch. Then suddenly I gave the thing a kick and thought I heard something from the other side. That and the pallet had stopped moving, like something was in the way.

“Damn stupid pallet. Probably busted up a board . . .” I cursed to myself. Not only was it getting difficult to breathe in this thing, I had a pallet that was now going to be a bitch to unload. Deciding to take one quick look before heading back, I squeezed myself between the crates to see what the hell was going on. Holding in my gut, I peered around the back of the pallet to see just what had hung the thing up.

“A girl?” Those had been my first words, but weren’t entirely accurate. It was indeed a girl, an unconscious one at that. But this was a Martian girl. Dark green hair tied back into a ponytail with dry, cracked orange skin. I saw the goggles over her two eyes, leaving the third on her forehead exposed. And the cheap overalls that stuck to her body were coated in the Martian mine soot.

“Well shit.” I cursed. She was probably dead or dying by now.

My lungs heaved and I hit a fit of coughing. I couldn’t stay in this trailer any longer. Reaching down, I grabbed the Martian by the front of her overalls and pulled her up between the pallets with me. She had to be no more than sixteen-seventeen tops in age, but it still took all my strength to pull her out from where I’d found her. My back cracked as I used both hands to drag the girl out from between the pallets and into the walkway.

Stupid thing probably snuck aboard during loading thinking she could make a break from the mines. I’d heard Martians weren’t treated too well in those holes. Stayed down there for weeks at a time, and stopped working only for the toilet, food, or sleep.

Dragging her out back to the bridge, I stumbled into the cabin and tossed the green haired girl into the seat next to mine.

The Martian dust poofed up off her body in a small cloud when I’d dropped her into the seat. It settled into the black polyester, embedding an amber shadow into the backrest. And then I just watched her. What the hell was I going to do with her? I’d dealt with more than a few varmints scurrying through the cargo in my time, but never one of these. Her body, though frail, was quite tough. When I’d picked her up, her skin didn’t have that normal plush feeling, but instead had a coarse sandpaper like texture.

The overalls were a cheap, worn denim. With the tears and the oil stains, they’d seen much better days. What caught my eye though, was a strange leather holster strapped to her hip. Not the kind that carried a revolver, but something else. Reaching over, I popped open the snap and stared in utter confusion.

“A video game controller?” Yeah, that’s exactly what it reminded me of. A matte black, dual stick controller with triggers, bumpers, and even a d-pad. The only thing out of place was a strange dial at the top with a couple of LEDs underneath. “What in the . . .”

“Ahhhhh!” The girl bolted up in her seat and flung herself as far away from me as she could. Holy shit she’s alive! Her pale blue eyes darted from the windshield, to me, to the cot behind us and then back. She rambled off in a tongue that I did not understand and scrunched herself against the wall opposite of me.

I held my hands up and pulled off my oxygen mask, hoping to display myself as anything but a threat. “Easy now. Easy. You’re okay. I’m not gonna hurt you.” I didn’t know if she understood a word of what I was saying, but I also don’t remember reading anything about escaped Martians in the job description. “Just calm down,” I said more to myself than to her.

The girl’s chest heaved for air, and I could tell she was having trouble breathing. With the mask in hand, I stepped out of my seat and the girl screamed. I stopped in my tracks, and watched her shaking her head like mad. It was then I noticed the bruises around her eyes, and the scars along her face.

“I’m sorry.” I said without thinking. She’d been beaten, and now that I looked closely over her arms and legs, I could see more cuts and blemishes. “Y’all treated like this?” And I glanced back up to her face, seeing her starting to convulse.

“Okay.” I said, and I knelt down in front of her. She flattened herself against the other side of the cabin, her eyes locked onto me. I kept my eyes on her, and slowly pressed the oxygen mask up to my face. With her watching, I inhaled so that my lungs filled with air, puffing my chest out, and then slowly exhaled into the oxygen mask. I did it again, and then one more time just to make sure she understood what I was doing. Then pulling the mask from my face, I offered it up to her. “You try. It helps.”

The girl sat frozen in place, looking from me to the mask I’d held out to her. She didn’t know quite what to make of things. I was about to give up on the whole idea when she quickly snatched it up and pressed it to her face like I’d shown her. I let out a sigh of relief and hobbled back into the driver’s seat, giving her some space.

The girl took a breath like she was about to go underwater, and then exhaled it all out into the mask. She did it again, and then one more time, just like I had done. When she finally pulled it away, she stared at me for a while. Then she handed me the oxygen mask, and for once, didn’t flinch when I reached out toward her.

I took the mask and walked it to the back of the cab, setting it on my empty cot. I considered bringing back a blanket, but she didn’t look cold at all. Maybe it was the overalls, or maybe it was the thick skin she had. I’d have been a popsicle if I’d spent that long in the trailer without heat.

“You uhhh . . . got a name?” I asked her. It felt awkward to just sit here in silence, and I still hadn’t quite decided what to do with her yet. When she just cocked her head at me, I asked again, “A name. You know, a . . .” and then I stopped. I felt stupid for doing this, and maybe I was just wasting my breath. “A name!” I said a little louder. And I tapped on my chest with one hand, “Draven. My name . . . Draven.” And I tapped a little harder. Then I pointed my hand at her, giving the girl the same motion. “Your name?”

She stared back blankly at me for a moment, but then a light must’ve gone off in her head. She patted her chest, and said, “Mika. Mika . . .” and then rambled off some more Martian gibberish.

“Mika?” I asked, pointing at her, clarifying what I’d just heard. She nodded, and I said it again. “Mika. Good.” Alright, now what?

I’d finally felt like we’d made progress when the light blinked to yellow on my CB radio. Well, I called it that, only because that’s what it looked like. The big wigs never saw the need to afford us truckers with holographic communicators or even video calls. These radios were cheap, but reliable. So that’s what we got. I tweaked the nobs and grabbed the mic. “Yeah, Draven here. What’s up? Over.”

Jareth’s voice echoed back through the radio’s speakers. “Yeah uhh Jareth here. We got ourselves a bit of a problem on our hands. Looks like one of them miners escaped and nowhere to be found. Over.”

At the sound of Jareth’s voice, Mika had stiffened up and focused her eyes on the radio. She’d started mouthing something unintelligible. Did she know Jareth? I didn’t think he worked with any of the Martians back there, just an office guy. I heard some rumblings from the radio and answered back, “Uhhh say that again Jareth. Over.”

“I said, we need ya to check your trailer. Make sure you ain’t got no stowaways. Damn Martians ain’t allowed outside the mines without permission. Over.”

I was just about to radio back that I’d found her when Mika whispered something. I turned my head and she said it again. “D-Draven . . . help. Draven, help.” Her two eyes pleaded with me behind those goggles, and her third eye, though closed, dropped a tear that rolled down and puddled against the bridge of her nose.

I heard Jareth calling for me on the radio, and without taking my eyes off Mika, I answered, “I haven’t noticed anything. But I’ll take another look. Over.”

Jareth’s voice answered back, “Ya find anything, let me know. Over and out.”

I hung up the radio and sat back, looking up to the ceiling of my truck. There was still plenty of time to change my mind and turn back. I wasn’t exactly committed to helping her anyway. I looked over at Mika and she smiled. It was a welcome change for a dead girl.

“Draven help,” She said with a bit more spring in her voice.

“Yeahhh, Draven helped is right.” I said, nodding my head. “Now what is Draven gonna do? Draven wants to retire, not go to prison for kidnapping.” And I gazed out into space, watching a few stray asteroids tumble on by. Would it be kidnapping? Or theft? Were Martians treated as property, or did they have rights? I’d never seen a Martian on their own before, and the politicians on the radio were always arguing over Martian rights. So then was theft a lesser crime? I shook my head just thinking about it. Whichever came with the higher sentencing, that’d probably be the one I’d get.

“Draven needs to drive.” I told Mika, needing some kind of distraction. Why I kept talking in the third person though, was beyond me. But it seemed to delight Mika when she heard a word she knew. So, I kept doing it.

Flipping a switch, I grabbed hold of the steering wheel and gently hit the gas. We pushed off a little faster into space. The stars could more noticeably be seen moving by the windows. I think that’s when Mika finally grew comfortable enough to actually pull her attention away from me. She stared out her window, pressed her face against the glass and “wow”ed at the vast emptiness that lay on the other side. Least I think that was a “wow.”

“I never had myself a ride-along before.” I said to her, watching the stars and checking the navigator. “Not really sure what to talk about. Course it doesn’t help you don’t know English.” And I looked over to Mika. She’d been staring out the window, counting the stars. “Ehhh, not like you’ll be here very long.”

She must’ve realized I was talking about her. She sat down in her seat, and stared back at me with that same tilted head stare as before.

“I’ll have to turn you over when we hit Texas. You’ll probably end up back at the mines.” And I saw that while she didn’t understand the words I spoke, she seemed to grasp the meaning.

“No!” Mika said. “No! Draven, no!”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t have a say in that. It’s just the way it is.” And Mika turned her head away from me, pouting. “I doubt they’d sell ya to me. Doubt I’d afford you anyway. My money’s elsewhere.”

Mika only repeated. “No. Draven no.” And she got angrier. “No sale. No. No sale!” Then Mika turned back to me, almost begging me with her eyes. She understood me, to how much I couldn’t tell, but she understood enough.

“I don’t know what to tell you.” I relented. It wasn’t up to me.

Mika dropped back into her seat, defeated. She couldn’t fully express herself. I could see that with how she mumbled under her breath. It was probably a mix of anger towards me and curses at herself. Probably wishing she’d picked a different trailer to sneak onto.

“I know.” I told her. “Be nice if things would be different. But they’re not, and here we are. Better make the best of it.” I leaned back in my chair with one hand on the wheel. I turned and expected Mika’s grumbling face once more, but she’d turned her attention to that strange game controller she had holstered.

Mika had taken the thing out, and was fiddling with it. She rocked the joysticks, and pushed the buttons. She played with that dial up top. A few of the lights blinked on and off, but nothing seemed to happen.

“What are you doing?”

Mika looked up to me, and she smiled. “Mika help! Mika stay!” She knew more words than she let on. How she’d help with a game controller was beyond me. Not that I minded a game or two, but I stopped playing with games when the games started playing with me.

Still the controller confused me. Every time I looked over, Mika was fine tuning the different buttons on her controller. A light would blink, and she would adjust that dial. Another light would strobe, and she’d push a button.

After several minutes of this back and forth, I finally looked at her and said, “Just what the hell are you doing . . .” But as I finished asking, the steering wheel jerked. I darted my eyes back to the outer space in front of me, thinking we’d bumped into something. Nothing. The steering wheel jerked again, and turned with such force that it knocked my hands away.

“What the . . .” But I looked over to Mika, and found her playing with that game controller. She moved the left stick left, and the steering wheel turned the truck left. She moved that stick right, and well the steering wheel followed suit.

“Mika help!” She proudly announced when she saw me looking at her.

The navigator on the dash went red. We’d jumped out of the commercial lane. “Mika stop!” I shouted, reaching over and trying to grab that controller away. The Martian easily dodged my swipe.

Mika leapt behind the seat and said more aggressively. “Mika help!”

I scrambled to my feet. “Turn that damn thing off! You’ll get us killed!”

Before Mika could even respond, a buzzer went off from the truck’s speakers. A loud buzzer, high pitched and followed by a red, flashing light. I didn’t have time. We were in the wrong lane, and that sound was warning us of someone who was in the correct lane. I jumped Mika. She’d been so distracted by the alarm that she didn’t see me coming. I wrapped my hands tight around her smaller figure and dropped us both to the floor.

CRASH!

The crash landed with the power of an earthquake, and the booming sound of an electrical storm blowing over a fireworks factory. I heard Mika scream as our bodies hurled up over the seats and into the dash. The tearing and bending of metal jerked the cab, fishtailing it as whatever hit us plowed through the marium filled trailer.

When everything had settled, I clung Mika close to my chest, panting for breath, afraid to move. It took several seconds to clear my head, and several more to notice the young Martian beating her fists against my sides. I sat us both up and released her. Checking the cracked navigator, at least our oxygen levels weren’t disturbed by the impact.

A searing pain stabbed against my head and reaching up, I felt a trickle of blood rolling down past my ear. Nothing impaled though, so at least there was that.

“Ahhh God Damnit” I cursed, getting myself up onto my feet. “You alright?” I asked. When Mika didn’t respond, I stepped over and grabbed her, “Are you hurt?!” I shouted a little louder, as if that’d make her understand.

Mika didn’t respond, and I could see the tears welling up in her eyes under those goggles. I ignored her as I checked her over. She was fine. The controller was on the floor, and smashed into several pieces. Good riddance.

“Mika . . . Mika . . .” She tried to speak through her stuttery, hiccupping voice. It was clear she didn’t know the words that she wanted. The Martian ended up rambling something off, and then dropped to the floor, crying.

I stretched my back, hearing it pop as I walked over to the door at the back. Grabbing the radio as I walked, I switched to local frequencies and spoke through, “Is there anyone alive over there? Over.” I said, and looked out the window.

“Shit.” The trailer had been torn wide open into three, now very separate chunks. Crates of marium floated out into space, while others had been broken open and chunks of the ore floated in every direction. “Damn. There goes the paycheck.” Least we hadn’t veered into the lightspeed lane. There’d have been nothing left of us if we did.

“The fuck were you doing in my lane?! What are you, drunk?!” Came the reply from a husky voiced, older man.

“No, but I wish I had been.” But I didn’t say that into the radio. Instead, I asked again, “Is anyone hurt? Over.”

“No, thank you I’m fine. But what the hell are you gonna do about this?!”

I sighed. “Sit tight. I’ll take care of it. You need anything till then? Over.”

“No.”

Well, this was going to be fun. Least the driver didn’t appear to have a path into my cab. Fortunately, it was the trailer that took the brunt of the damage. My truck, apart from some dents and scrapes, appeared to be fine. I sent out some flare drones to help alert others of the accident and radioed back to Jareth. He wasn’t going to be happy about this. During the whole time, Mika just stayed on the floor, rocking herself back and forth.

“What happened? In all your time, you’ve never had an incident Draven. Over.” Jareth’s voice came through the radio.

“Yeah well . . .” and I looked over to Mika. There was no way to hide this one. “I found your Martian. She had some kind of controller . . . I don’t know, used it to steer the truck into oncoming traffic. What in the hell is that thing anyway? Over.”

“That damned girl’s been more trouble than she’s worth.” And Jareth let out a sigh. “It’s just something we tossed together to make working the machinery easier for them. Efficiency, you know? Didn’t think the stupid things had enough power to steer a whole semi though.” Jareth cussed under his breath and finished with, “Send your coordinates.” A silence followed by, “Any of the load survive? Over.”

I shook my head. “Not unless you wanna go fishing. It’s everywhere. Over.”

Jareth cussed again. “Alright. I’ll send someone up. Over and out.”

I hung up the CB and sat myself back down. Really, I kind of deserved this. One nice thing, I tried to do one nice thing for someone and look what happened! If I would’ve just told Jareth from the start that I’d found her, he’d have picked her up and I’d been on my way. But no, I had to be Mr. Gentleman. I just had to make friends with a girl who couldn’t understand a word I was saying!

“Mika, your ride ends here.” I said, kicking back.

“Draven. Draven!” She cried. “No! No!”

I couldn’t help but look back in surprise. It was as if she’d reverted back to when she’d first woken up. Mika had tossed her goggles off and wiped away the tears from her eyes. Even the third eye was opened, and I could see the blue, sodalite iris staring at the floor. I’d never seen a Martian’s third eye open before. Always heard it was beautiful. The third eye is what allowed them to see in the thick dust storms on the surface of Mars. It had a much thicker cornea than the two lower eyes, and could withstand a lot more abuse in that regard.

“Mika.” I said her name again. But I couldn’t think of anything to say that would comfort her, or that she would understand. So instead, I just rested my head back, and waited out this hell until I heard the wrecker arrive along with one of Jareth’s guys. It took a few hours, but it felt like weeks. The whole time I kept looking over to the Martian, and she just sobbed into her hands, shaking her head. I really didn’t know much of what went on in the mines. I knew it was hard work, and long hours, but treatment-wise, it never occurred to me that the Martians could be under some form of duress. She knew what was coming, and she was terrified by it.

Jareth’s boy finally showed up and it was a younger man, with a pair of similar looking overalls as to Mika’s. The only difference is his overalls were in much better shape than hers. He was a stick of a man, and his ship looked to be that of a dark red bus. He connected his ship to mine with a much sturdier looking bridge than what I had to the trailer.

When the man stepped in, he tipped his hat to me. “Hey Draven. I’m Erin. Jareth said you had a Martian for me.” The man took a moment to survey the interior damage to my truck. He waved a hand, and said, “Damn. Well don’t worry, we can repair this.” And then he stopped when he saw the girl easing away towards the other end of the cab. “Ahh, it’s her.”

“You know her?”

“She’s a bit of a known trouble maker in the mines. A bit of a headache . . .” and Erin pulled out a couple sets of cuffs from his pockets. He spoke fluently in the Martian language at her. Now I didn’t understand what was said, but from Erin’s heavy tone, he meant business.

Mika shook her head and looked pleadingly at me. I couldn’t help but turn my head. I heard her scream, and jolted at the sound of Erin slapping the girl. I spun around and found Mika on her knees, whimpering as the man cuffed her wrists and ankles.

“Now was that really necessary?”

“You ain’t gonna teach ’em any other way. Besides, she deserves a lot worse what with all the trouble she’s caused.” Erin then grabbed Mika by the wrists and dragged her towards the bridge. She looked at me once, then not again. Erin pushed her into the bridge and closed the door behind her. I stared at her for a moment, as she was left inside that tunnel, alone.

“We’ll have some follow-up crews stop and collect what they can of the marium.” Erin explained to me. His eyes buried in a paper he’d pulled from his pockets as he spoke. Didn’t even bother to look at me. “Don’t worry. Not your fault. We’re already working things out with Texas on it.”

I nodded my head, only partially listening as I couldn’t stop my eyes from darting back to the bridge every so often.

“I’ve already got someone with the other driver. Our insurance will cover his dents and dings no problem.”

“And what about me?”

Erin shrugged. “Nothing really. Just get back to Mars when you can, cause there’ll be paperwork. We’ll fix up your tuck, and Jareth’ll figure out your next load from there.” The man checked his watch, and I could see he was growing impatient. “That all?” He asked, finally looking up at me. “I do need to be getting her back.”

I hesitated. I was about to nod my head and let him leave. But I saw Mika through that window again. She had seated herself in the middle of the bridge, hugging her knees. She looked so helpless. Now maybe I was stupid (and that was a definite possibility), or a glutton for punishment, or both, but something inside me just didn’t want to see her go. Maybe it was the accent in her voice when she first used my name, or that beaming smile she had when she decided it was a good idea to help me; I quickly came to the conclusion that I couldn’t let her return into those mines.

“Erin.” I finally said just as he was turning to leave. “I-I want her back.”

He titled his head, confused. “Excuse me?”

“Mika . . . The Martian, I want her back. She’s staying with me.”

Erin laughed. “Draven. She crashed your truck, and destroyed a load of marium. Not to mention, she’s company property.”

I felt myself starting to sweat, getting a bit anxious. I never had much skill with winging things like this. “What if I pay you? You said she was nothing but trouble anyway. Let me take her off your hands.”

The man laughed, and pushed the button to open up the door to his bridge. “Draven. You’re a truck driver. There’s no way you make enough to tempt me.” And Erin stepped out onto the bridge, the door closing behind him.

I cursed. My mind raced as I tried to think of something, anything to get her back. I glanced over my cracked navigator, the empty seats, and the smashed in glove compartment next to where Mika had sat. Then, I got an idea. And even as I bolted over to that door, banging on the glass to get the man’s attention, my brain was already screaming in my head. No Draven! Don’t! 70 years Draven!

“Earth!” I shouted through the glass. “Earth!”

The man stopped. He turned and I said it again. “Earth! I own a plot on Earth!”

“The hell you do.” He said, his voice muffled through the glass.

I stepped back and the door slid open again. Erin stepped on inside as I rushed over and broke open the glove compartment. Pulling out that red envelope, I handed it to the man. “It’s Antarctica, but it’s Earth.”

Erin took the paper and read it over, almost in disbelief. “You’re really offering me this? For her?”

I bit my lip, and nodded. I feared if I allowed any squeak of a noise out of my lips, it’d be to cancel the offer. The couple minutes that passed with Erin’s deliberations felt like years as he glanced back at a confused Mika and then back to the paper.

When he finally turned back to me, he folded up the paper and stuck it in his shirt pocket. “Deal.” He said. “But I don’t wanna hear about this ever. As far as I’m concerned, she splattered all over the Milky Way with your damned marium.”

“T-That’s fine.” I watched with half a broken heart as my little plot of Earth disappeared out onto that bridge, and a young green haired Martian girl hurried back into my cab.

Mika stood there dumbfounded, watching Erin’s bridge flatten back up against his ship and then was gone. I stood there, equally dumbfounded. What had I just done? Seventy years? All down the toilet! Just like that! I didn’t know whether to cry, to laugh, or to jump out the damn window. If I’m being honest, all three sounded mighty tempting. So, I just stood there until I felt Mika’s gaze on me.

“Draven . . . help?” She asked, tilting her head to meet my gaze.

I nodded. “Yeah. Draven helped. Draven don’t know why, but Draven helped.” There was that stupid third person stuff again. “Draven really don’t know why.”

Mika lunged at me, wrapped her arms around and hugged me. “Draven! Mika! Stay!” She shouted again. Fresh tears rolled down her face, but this time, a smile accompanied them. She buried her face against my chest and just repeated our names over and over again.

“Yeah. You’re welcome.” I said, still catching my breath. “Seventy years. Seventy years. You’re welcome.” God I was starting to sound like her.

Finally taking a seat at the wheel, I felt Mika find her seat next to mine. I didn’t know what to do. Couldn’t go back to Mars. Not like this. Starting the engine, it heaved and lurched, but turned right on. I pulled the truck out back into my lane, and saw they’d already cleaned up the mess.

“Draven?” Mika asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t know what we’re doing either.” I said. And she just laughed. Well, least that was two of us. I took a few moments to gather my thoughts, and then said, “Well. I still got that place on Neptune. You been to Neptune?”

“Nep . . . Nept?” She struggled with the word. By her reaction, I guessed she’d either never been there, or had no clue as to what I was talking about. My bet was on both.

“It’s your new home . . . I guess.” I said, and turning the truck around, started our journey back to Neptune.

Mika just beamed a smile and thrusted her hand into the air. “Home!” She cried out.

I chuckled. “Yeah. Home, wintery home.”

The End.