The Last Station... and the First

The rescue team arrived forty minutes later in two big rovers, their powerful lights cutting through the dust. Commander Hala was the first to jump out. She ran across the red sand through the wind and dust and hugged Reem so hard their helmets bumped together: clonk!

At first she didn't say anything. She just held her. Then she hugged Jad. Then she knelt down and laid her hand on Saif's scratched body.

Then she said, her voice trembling between anger and relief, "You're grounded, Reem. For a whole month. No rovers, no going outside, no sweets."

"I know, Mum," said Reem.

Then the commander added, more quietly, her eyes shining behind the glass of her helmet, "And I'm prouder of you than of anything in the whole universe."

The Great Storm lasted three weeks. Three weeks of orange darkness, of wind that never stopped and dust that covered the domes. But Hope Station wasn't afraid any more.