Even with filters down, Yak, Shorty and I were nearly blinded as the blazing light reflected off the glittering dust of the mare. The wheels reverberated through the cabin of the grounder as we rumbled along the dusty washboards of the hardpan basalt. We were somewhere between the blast pans and Tranquility Habitat, riding the slow bus in to the lock. Earth caught my eye as it hung in the sky, shining through the endless black night. It might look nice from a distance, but the not-so-subtle orange tint of the upper atmosphere was proof enough that the cradle of humanity has suffered the crushing pressure of our race far too long. Earth was the last place I wanted to be. It wasn’t all bad down there, I suppose. If you get far enough away from the cities, you can still find nice places. In the service, I took classes in the Idaho Labs, and you could go out in the high deserts and see countryside that probably hasn't changed since the last ice age… but even far out in the seemingly endless sagebrush of southeast Idaho, the orange glow from the sprawling Snake River Metropolitan Area would just about hide the stars at night.
