“So… where should we… bury him?” asked Sabrina hesitantly.
“That’s why I wanted you all here. What do you think?”
“Do we really have to talk about this now?” asked Ladli, almost in tears.
“I’m sorry, Ladli. I know how you feel, but we need to address this.”
“He’s right. What about Mount Shamsi?” offered Tendai.
“That was my thought as well,” replied Dedrick.
“Yep, I think that’s a good idea. He would have liked that,” added François.
“I miss him,” said Sabrina. She was now crying.
They all got quiet for a moment. There wasn’t much anyone could say.
“Ok, I guess I’ll go get ARC 1 ready, then,” finally said François.
“I’ll come with you,” offered Vera
“Wait for me,” added Tendai.
There were seven of them now. It seemed an odd number to Tendai who was somewhat superstitious, although he would never admit to it. He was a logical man, a scientist by nature, and had a need for balance and stability. Eight was always preferable to seven; it was an even number. It felt safer to him. Odd numbers seemed… chaotic and unpredictable. In some cultures, odd numbers often represented danger and evil. He was a bit obsessive that way, always worrying about numbers and their significance. But they were all used to it.
Liu was walking along Vera who was holding her against her side, an arm wrapped around the poor woman. They were walking right behind the three men carrying Najib’s body, still in his suit. There was no coffin. The Mars First outpost offered many amenities, and the colonists had many essential resources at their disposition, but a coffin wasn’t one of them. Dedrick was in front, holding the stretcher with both hands, his back turned to the rest of them to face the way up the hill. François and Tendai behind him, one on each side, were carrying the other end of the load. Ladli had fallen a bit behind but was slowly catching up, while Sabrina was following the group from the side, a camera in hand.
They were all silent. It was a sad procession to see, for sure. The sun had already begun its descent towards the Martian mountain range to the west. Cast by the amber light of dusk, rocky shadows were slowly growing all around, and the late evening sky was adding to the dark mood, bathing them in shades of deep reds and somber oranges. Slowly making their way to the top of the hill where they all had agreed Najib should be laid to rest, their convoy finally reached the summit. After each one of them had taken their turn to say a few words about their friend, the teammate and co-worker, the loving brother, the often funny, always wonderful, most honest, hardworking, true loving soul they all would miss terribly, Najib’s body was lowered carefully in the hole François and Tendai had dug earlier. They then shared a few minutes of silence. Seated in a circle around Najib’s final resting place, each began absorbing the reality of the tragedy.
François was now the one behind the camera. He followed the small group around with his zoom. Looking at his colleagues through their helmets, he tried to imagine what each one was thinking.
It was obvious Tendai was praying. He was the most religious of them.
He paused a moment on the Asian member of the group.
“Poor Liu. She’s not taking it well. I’ve never seen her this way. I guess she really loved him.” He slowly turned his attention to his Russian team mate.
“Now, I bet Dedrick is eaten away by the feeling he screwed up, somehow. Najib was under his care. He keeps mentioning he was his responsibility. I wish he wouldn’t put so much on himself. It was an accident… Bad luck… Ladli… Hmmm… I’m not sure what Ladli is thinking. What is she looking at?”
Following her eyes, François easily spotted the large boulder near the ridge, just a few dozen meters behind them. “Najib’s block.” It was by far the biggest rock on “Mound Shamsi,” and had been the very first Martian feature to be named after one of the colonists. The oddest thing about the rock was obviously its shape. It was almost perfectly cubic. Seriously battered by the elements of time, and half buried, the artificial looking block had managed to go unnoticed, until, only days after his arrival on Mars, Najib had tripped over the protruding top, on his very first outing. He had spent the next several hours trying to convince the rest of them to help him “unmars” the unusual boulder. Two days later, the colonists had managed to reveal most of the rock.
François carefully took another look at it, zooming with the camera. It was an unusual rock, no doubt. But eventually, they had all agreed it was probably a broken piece from the plateau above, that a lucky set of circumstances had shaped that way, nothing more. Najib kept coming back to the site every time he got the chance, regardless. He always hoped to find something else nearby, something just as unusual that would vindicate him and his theory.
“Another object would multiply the odds, you see,” he had argued.
Najib was convinced another intelligent civilization had lived on Mars. He was a huge follower of the “Face on Mars” movement. Decades earlier, a NASA photo showing a large rocky feature on the red world resembling a humanoid face, had sparked a worldwide debate on the subject. The belief by some that the monument had been made by an ancient Martian civilization, had been rekindled in 2021, when another NASA photo, taken by its rover, Mars Explorer II, had clearly shown a pyramid shaped formation in the Cydonia region. Several dark spots along the ridges of the pyramid, believed to be entrances, had proved to be the most controversial argument. With NASA unable, or unwilling, to send the rover back to the area, the public’s interest had quickly died down. In the end, the pictures had brought up for some, more questions than it had delivered answers, but Najib had his own opinion on the subject. In fact, he hoped Lars and the board would eventually allow him to go check the area. He had suggested it to them many times. The place also offered some very intriguing features. Strange geometric formations, seemingly grouped intentionally, that had many question the possibility of random coincidence. Here again, he felt the sharp geometry of his NS1 boulder was more than a natural formation. He has scoped the surrounding area many times. Unfortunately, he had never found anything else unusual.
“Either way, I’m glad we got to name the place after you while you were still alive, buddy…”
“Mound Shamsi” and its Najib block had both been suggested to the Mars First committee by the Martian group, in honor of the Pakistani’s discovery. Now, it would also be where the first human casualty would rest, a sad reminder of how fragile life can be.
And although, he would have agreed Najib’s life had ended too soon, François found comfort in knowing that his colleague had lived his dream of going to Mars. A feat only seven others had ever done, in all of human history. And for that alone, Najib Shamsi would be remembered for posterity.
Later that night, the Mars First public relation’s department issued a lengthy statement to the press about Najib’s untimely death, calling the incident a regrettable and tragic accident, but also clearing any wrong doing or negligence on the part of the Mars First company and the colonists. A commemorative event would take place that weekend in Bangalore, Najib’s home town in India.
And all over the world that same night, thousands of small communities and large cities alike joined in large groups outside to light candles and observe a night of silence in memory of a human being who had gone further than most ever could. A funny and loving man many had come to admire. They had followed his training and subsequent landing on Mars on MFN, the media channel Mars First Now, for almost fifteen years. That night, astronauts watching Earth from the International Space Station, reported a significant increase in brightness in many parts of the world.