Daughter of Mars

In a moon-white building in the red red sand, there stands a quiet room.

Quiet, but full of life.

The air system hums, pumping oxygen and CO2 through the building in a constant cycle. Vital signs beep, steady and strong on the monitors.

A woman hums softly, accompanied by the tiny breaths against her chest, as her husband digs through one of the cupboards.

Her song cuts off as something clatters to the floor. “Ben,” she hisses. “You’re going to wake her up.”

“Sorry!” he calls back in a whisper, eyes wide and looking a little frazzled. He holds up the electric blanket apologetically. “It was a little buried.”

He crosses the room to the bed as she gingerly adjusts the sleeping infant to let him tuck the blanket under her. As soon as the blanket is in place, they both wait with bated breath to see if they disturbed her.

Her tiny pink brow wrinkles, nose scrunching up, and then she settles, still fast asleep.

Her parents let out identical, silent sighs of relief.

Ben sits carefully on the edge of the bed. They rest quietly for one of the first calm moments of the whole day, watching the child sleep.

“You told the others no press yet, right?” Sophie whispers at last.

He nods. “Reporters have been calling. Emmett told them she’s healthy and strong, but there’s not going to be any pictures until you’re up for it.”

She shoots him a grateful look. “Good. Soon, I promise. But not right now.”

“They’re going to love her, you know. The whole damn planet’s going to.”

Sophie snorts. “Which one?”

He grins. “Both of them,” he answers immediately.

She laughs softly, reaching up to adjust the blanket. Her smile fades. “Do you think she’s going to hold it against us?” she asks quietly.

Ben frowns. “What?”

She shrugs, careful not to jostle the baby. “She’s going to be in history books. Students are going to learn her name in their classrooms. The first human born off-world. That’s...that’s a lot for someone who didn’t get any say in it. I know we’ve already talked about this, but I just...her childhood is going to be so different from everyone else in the whole species, and, and what if she just feels so alone -” she’s nearly in tears by this point, and Ben hurries to reach out and grasp her hand.

“Hey hey hey,” he sooths. “She’s going to have a fantastic childhood, you hear me? She’s going to be surrounded by a bunch of engineers who love the hell out of her, and once this place is fully operational and the colony arrives, she’ll have a whole town full of people who love her, and a whole planet to call her own, and a brilliant, spectacular mom who’s going to teach her so many nerdy things - ” she laughs wetly, reaching up to wipe at her eyes with their interlocked hands. “ - and someday she’ll write a famous autobiography about what it was like to be the first kid on Mars and we’ll all get rich off the movie rights, okay?”

She nods, smiling even as her chin quivers a little.

He snorts quietly, and she lets go of his hand to smack him on the arm. “You don’t get to laugh at me, I just had a baby, I’m allowed to be all sappy and teary today,” she whispers indignantly as he raises his hands to defend himself, shoulders shaking slightly with mirth.

“I’m not laughing at you, I swear to god,” he snickers. “I was just thinking - have you noticed how Emmett and Aparna have been looking at each other lately? She might not be the only baby here for long if those two would just figure it out already.”

Sophie has to cover her mouth to stifle her laughter. Finally, she lets her hand drop away, drifting back to take her husband’s once more.

“Yeah, you’re right,” she tells him, as the newborn stirs against her. “She won’t be the only one for long.”