Serenity On A Crimson Desert

The pale red sky stared down at the barren, rusted landscape of Mars. The sun glared down on David's visor, he had pulled the reflectory shield over the face of his mutlifunctional hazard suit. The once white skin of his suit was now a a covered in red dust, his boots were caked in tough red rust picked up from the harsh landscape. David had been out here about an hour or so now, he wasn't quite sure.

Not more than a quarter mile behind him lay the science complex, it's dome shaped labratory facility dominating the smaller rectangular living quarters, and the large humming tower that was the power plant. The smallest of these yet was the computer labratory, any crew member with proper authorisation could observe and maintain the conditions in the main base. Each of these facilities were about two metres apart, each connected by a clear plastic tunnel held together by a metal frame.

David enjoyed standing in these tunnels, staring out at the martian landscape, sometimes he would stand for hours, just staring. He took great pleasure in being able wander freely around the landscape, outside of the science complex, but he always felt a mild discomfort inside the hazard suit, he never felt totally free inside the suit; there was nothing he wanted more than to walk freely around thi beautifully barren place without any bulky suit keeping him grounded.

He took a brief glance at his WristCOM, he had plenty of oxygen left, and the orbitting satelites showed no sign of any voilent weather his way. He pressed the touch sensitive screen on his WristCOM, pushing what looking to be buttons. Nothing happened, he pushed the button display harder this time, to his satisfaction he heard a series of beeps through his headset, confirming his command. The display showed a small blue bar, slowly moving from left to right, with a percentage underneath it. He would definitly take a look at his WristCOM tonight, it had been needing maintenence of some time now. A few seconds later a new display emerged, to his delight, his on board computing unit it predicted no potentially dangerous weather for at least another two hours.

Great, another two hours all to himself, he couldn't explain how much serenity this place gave him. David couldn't be more at peace.
A female voice suddenly rang through his headset, it suprised him, his hour of silence had been so far undisturbed; he didn't expect anyone to call.

"Dave? You there?", the voice said

It was Maria, Dave's colleague. She was a Microbiologist, around twenty-four years old, he wasn't sure, though he had never actually asked; he considered it rude.

David sighed silenty.

"Yes Maria, I'm here, can I help?"

"The temperature regulator's gone on the blink again, d'you mind takin' a look at it?", she replied.

Dave sighed again, he wanted so much to stay here, but he knew his duties took priority over his personal agenda.

"No problem Maria, I'm on my way"

"Thanks Dave"

David heard a quiet click as Maria switched off her headset, and with that the conversation was over.

He turned and began to walk back to Complex, he stumbled occasionly , he still hadn't become accustomed to the low gravity here.

He wished he'd taken the Rover.