The Boy from Earth

The ship arrived at dawn.

It touched down on the landing pad outside the station in a small storm of red dust thrown up by its engines, and the windows of the domes rattled. Reem stood behind the glass of the long corridor in her orange suit, her heart pounding.

The first person off the ship was a woman carrying a medical bag. Then came a tall, quiet man with a short beard, carrying a box of tools: Dr Munir, the new water engineer. And last of all came a boy.

He was a little shorter than Reem and wore thick glasses, and under his helmet he had a green woolly hat on, even though the suit was warm. He walked slowly down the ramp, looking around at the red desert and the pale pink sky, and his face... was not happy at all.

Reem waved at him with both hands. Saif waved one of his six legs.

The boy looked at them. And didn't wave back.