This is the first thing I've written in years. I don't feel ready to post it on AO3 yet, but I need to post it somewhere or I'll explode.
Yes, it will eventually include kink, it's just a slow burn.
It's For All Mankind fanfic if you squint, since I'm borrowing some settings and ideas, but all characters are original and I'm pretty sure FAM doesn't include horny aliens.
The Valles Marineris base hummed with the nervous energy of a restless crew. Usually the center of life and activity, the mess hall had become a gathering place for rumors and worry in recent days. The sound of someone clearing their throat brought a sudden end to the whispering. The entire crew in their orange, blue, and gray jumpsuits turned to face mission commander Atlas Greene.
"I know we're all worried, but I want to remind you that this is not the first communication blackout that we've had. Just like last time, the most likely explanation is damage to the network on earth-side. I'm confident that the folks back home are doing everything they can to restore communication as quick as they can," the commander said.
"It's been five days! Last time communication was restored in twelve hours," a voice called out from the back of the hall.
Callum, who had been quietly observing from the center of the crowd whipped his head around to see who had shouted. He'd never heard anyone speak out of turn against Commander Greene before, but things were getting tense. He had been thinking the same thing, but unlike whoever shouted, he preferred to keep his head down.
The commander held up his hands, pleading for quiet as the crowd began to grumble their agreement. "I know you're worried. I've got family back home too. For now, let's all try to stick to the mission and continue with business as usual. I'm confident that we'll know more soon."
Before the crowd could pepper the commander with questions, second in command Stellar Harmon stepped forward and began barking modified orders for each unit leader. Since they could no longer guarantee that their usual resupply shipment would be coming in as expected, some changes had to be made. The goal had always been to make the colony self-sustaining, but they were at least a decade away from reaching that goal.
The Valles Marineris base officially reached self-sufficiency six months later. There had been no contact from earth and, more disturbingly, no shuttles. Even if communication had been permanently damaged somehow, an unmanned resupply ship should have reached them by now. Quietly and without speaking the words out loud, the surviving humans of Mars accepted that something terrible must have happened to their home planet and they were likely all that remained.
Like most of the crew, Callum was just going through the motions of his routine. If he didn’t think about it, it didn’t really make much difference. The food had changed a little, his work orders had changed, and his recreation time no longer included browsing the internet or keeping up on earth news, but his on-planet routines were mostly the same. As long as he could stick to his routine, he could pretend that nothing catastrophic had happened.
“On my way to Melas. Over,” Callum announced to his radio as he slid into his assigned rover.
“See you when you get back. Don’t forget my spinach. Over,” a cheerful voice replied.
“We’ll see, Sol. Let’s hope the Melas garden is having better luck. See you when I get back,” Callum replied. He and Solstice had grown closer over the last few months, ever since they’d both been reassigned to hydroponics.
Callum didn’t know a thing about gardening. He was a mechanic who’d wound up on Mars purely because of the pay. He’d always been good with his hands and apparently fixing broken down rovers on mars could make a guy about five times as much as fixing broken down cars back on earth. So when he found himself with a mountain of debt, signing a contract and hopping on the next shuttle to Mars seemed like his ticket to freedom. He never thought he’d find himself hanging out in a greenhouse, singing to spinach seedlings and hoping his tomatoes would germinate.
Once he was out of radio range, it was a silent drive out to Melas which unfortunately gave Callum too much time to get lost in his own thoughts. The last thing he wanted was to start thinking about Earth and all those ‘what-ifs’.
The Melas Han unit finally came into view and Callum practically jumped out of his rover to escape his thoughts. He hurried into the airlock and shucked off his spacesuit while he waited for the inner door to unlock.
“Hello?” he called out when there was no one there to greet him like usual. Where was the satellite crew?
“Hello?” he called out again as he walked down the narrow hallway of their bunk area, towards the larger hydroponics unit. There wasn’t exactly a lot of space to hide in the small, emergency habitat unit.
Sweat began to bead on the nape of Callum’s neck, sticking his gray uniform to his bronzed skin. His heart climbed with each echoing step he took through the empty hab. He was alone with the withering plants.
Callum stood in the doorway of the greenhouse and looked back towards the bunk, noticing one very important detail he had missed during his first walkthough: three spacesuits still hanging in their rack. There was no way to leave the hab unit without those spacesuits and yet all three humans were gone.
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