15:00 Days on Mars |
Day 3
The next day, Christine disappeared. When everyone gathered at breakfast and discussed plans for the day, no one paid attention to her absence. Only when everyone was about to disperse Kelly asked: “But where is Christine? Why didn’t she come to have breakfast?” “He’s sleeping, probably,” Steven suggested, adding coffee. “I saw her early in the morning. She went out of the shower,” Mary recalled, “I just went out to feed the cats.” “Maybe the Martians stole her?” Steven smiled, “such a chick is hard not to notice even here.” “Don’t joke like that,” Mila chided, “this is a bad joke.” “You don’t like all my jokes,” Steven objected. “Not all. But don't say that. Then I will explain why.” “Okay,” Jason said, and turned on the surveillance camera in Christine’s cabin. It was empty - she was not there. “It's weird. Now I'll see what the external surveillance cameras recorded.” “Yes, there she is!” Paul shouted, pointing a finger at one of the monitors. On the screen, Christine slowly walked away from the ship with Hana. “Dog went for a walk and ...” “Martians stole,” Steven interposed. Mila nearly cracked his forehead. “OK OK. I won’t do it again.” “Her space suit has cameras, a navigator and a motion scanner,” Alex said, “we can easily trace and find her. And she could not go far. A virtual card is displayed in the suit, it is easy to find the way back using it.” “Yes, and Khana should already be running back. At least to eat,” Kelly agreed. “Can you find her by the sensors?” Jason asked. “Easy,” Alex checked the readings of the sensors, “she’s two kilometers from the ship.” “Let's go,” Jason said and headed for the rovers. “We ran both rovers.” “No need to go all. Someone should stay on the ship, ” Steven argued. “That's right, you stay,” Jason agreed. We quickly plunged and went for Christine. Found her on the edge of the cliff with her eyes red with tears. “Christine, what are you doing here?” Mary threw herself at her, and we all followed her. “Khana, she ran away,” Christine sobbed. “How? Where to?” Jason asked. Christine waved her hand to the side. “There. I called her, but she did not come to me. I didn’t want to return without a dog. I was afraid you will scold me.” “Fool,” Poul said, “the main thing is that everything is alright with you.” The dog will be back. Let's go home.” Everyone agreed and went to the rovers. Kelly and I were a little behind. “It's strange that we found her so far from the ship,” Kelly said quietly. “Yeah,” I agreed, “strange. Something is wrong here.” “Let's go. Then we'll talk,” Kelly went faster. I follow her. We joined the others, got into the rovers and safely returned to the ship. But, on board the ship we didn't find Steven. He disappeared too.
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