“Let’s go on vacation he said… let’s leave Earth he said…”
“It could be worse, Qi, we could be on Venus.”
“Ah yes. Being on Venus is definitely worse than being stranded on the Martian frontier.”
“Well, Venus doesn’t have breathable air yet, so we would probably just perish.”
Qi looked at her message projector. Her brother, Xi, had messaged them less than a kilosecond earlier but it already felt like hours. The three of them had decided at his suggestion to take a week off work and visit the colony on Mars which had just opened up to tourism. However, Xi’s hovercraft that he had rented was stolen when he left the hotel to get snacks, and their tickets for the flight back to earth were still in the trunk along with their wallets.
“Look at the brightside, Qi. There is literally an entire planet that we can explore! They’ve got clean water, and vegetation, and I hear they’ve even developed new species of bears!”
“Why would you be excited about bears, Suzie? Bears could chase you down and attack you.”
“Not these ones! These ones you can tame like horses and ride!”
Qi sighed. “Well, I guess we have nothing better to do until Xi finds the car… let’s go tame a wild bear.”
“Woo-hoo!” Suzie bounded off towards the Martian wilderness. Even with developments in fixing the atmosphere and temperature of the planet, Mars still had less gravity than Earth, so humans used to Earth’s gravity would be capable of many acrobatic feats while on Mars. The people and animals raised on this world, however, were more accustomed to the lower gravity and to them it was as intense as Earth’s was to an earthling. That meant that the first bear they found was not able to jump away so quickly.
“Look Qi! There’s one right there!” They watched as what would possibly be described as a bear was wading in a stream and attempting to catch fish. It was a bit smaller than a grizzly bear would be though, Qi thought it might even be smaller than her dad.
“Are you sure we can ride those? They look pretty small.”
“It’ll be fine. Trust me!” Suzie landed from her leap into the air and gracefully touched down right on the Bear’s back. The bear tossed and turned while making roars as Qi landed a short distance away to watch the sight. True enough, the bear seemed to be attempting to buck her off like a bull rather than put up a fight.
“Look Qi! I got it!”
“Freeze!” A man who wore a uniform like that of a park ranger stood behind them, pointing a blaster in their direction.
Suzie and Qi immediately raised both of their hands into the air, causing Suzie to fall off the back of the bear and thud gently onto the ground before the bear bounded away.
“Owwie…” Suzie dusted herself off before standing back up with her hands above her head.
“The Ride-a-bear is a protected species, you’re not allowed to go near them without explicit permission.”
“Then shouldn’t you ask if we have permission before pointing a blaster at us?”
The ranger looked at Suzie. He was wearing mirror sunglasses so I wasn’t sure if he was looking her in the eyes, but before she could say anything else, the blaster fired. Shackles of light shot out of the end of the blaster and grabbed onto Suzie’s legs, causing her to once again fall onto the dirt. “I know you didn’t have permission, because I’m the one who gives permission around here.” Now, how about we see some identification?”
Suzie and Qi looked at each other and sighed before Qi answered. “Our wallets were stolen.”
“Of course they were… I suppose I will just have to take you up to the station with me then, won’t I?” He shot out another set of shackles which fastened around Qi’s arms. Best to get in the craft, unless you want to see what else my blaster can do…”
“Actua-” Suzie was cut off by Qi nudging her and the two clambered up into the ranger’s craft and strapped themselves to the seats on the wall.
The craft itself was spherical, however the inside did not rotate when it moved. The reason for this roundness was simple: this was a special craft known as a Cannonball. Suzie had taken a course on primitive weaponry, so she knew the namesake of the craft and was excited for this trip. Qi, however, had no idea until it was too late.
The craft rocked a bit as it seemed to fall into a hole. Then, before Qi could process what was about to happen, the sphere shot upwards at an incredible velocity. Before they knew it, the ship had entered the lower orbit and had managed to enter the magnetic pull of a low orbit space station that had been straight above them. With a Thud the craft landed and the ranger opened the doors.
“Let’s get you written up.” The ranger stepped first off the ship and into the station, releasing the duo of their restraints.
“I’ve never gotten arrested before!”
“Park rangers can’t arrest you, Suzie.”
“I assure you that I can, and have arrested you.” The ranger said, inputting a code on a terminal to open the door.
“See? Arrested.”
“Worst. Vacation. Ever…”
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