Marco took a deep breath in. This was going to be his first adventure to Mars. He stepped aboard the B26612 SpaceSparrow. It was clean. Everything was white, and the light that spread throughout the ship blinded him, but it was fascinating. Almost 20 years ago people couldn’t even land on Mars, and now they’ve colonized it and created a space shuttle between worlds. Of course, there is the slight disadvantage of time. They’ve discovered a way to shorten the time it would take to get there, but it's still about a fortnight to get to there. However, that is an extreme improvement, given that the very first adventure took 6 month. Most of the people on the first trip died though.
It was quite unfortunate. They waited 6 months to get to Mars, and just as they were touching down on the ground, there was a great sandstorm that took 15 lives from the group. there were still 5 left, though and they made great improvements to the technology. 3 still live today! The 5 left were meek compared to the people that died, but they were all brilliant minded. One, the biologist, was said to have been Dr. Alfred Zachary Sharrow, then there was an astronomer, Mr Cleve Maxwell Albani, both of whom are dead, due to old age. But Dr. Morgan Samuel O’Hearn the paleontologist, Dr. Clarence Jerry Anson the metrologist, and Dr. Melissa Scarlett Livia, the director of the organization, as well as architect/engineer, and astronomer were alive. 
Dr. Livia created the entire mars colonization idea. But she also created the planet bubble, the greatest piece of technology since the smart phone! It was a huge bubble that covered the entire red planet and produced new oxygen and protection against bad chemicals that weren’t on earth. It also gave off a glow that was almost as effective as the sun, since the planet is further away from earth, and also extinguished at night.
Marco had never been to Mars, but his sister Caitlyn Marion and her husband Cameron had. They had been living there for more than 15 years, but Marco hadn’t heard much. The system of communication between Mars and Earth was terrible. When you send a letter, it takes about 2 years to get to Earth through the teletube, that sucks up mail through a long glass tube that transports all the way to the satellite and stays there for about 2 weeks before being transferred with a whole other bag of letters to europe, where they have to interpret where the letter says to go after that. Then it goes from your own continent, to your own country, to your own state, to your own city, to your house, each of which takes about a week, not including the the transfer from mars to the satellite.
He was going to Mars on account of his sister. About a week ago he had received a letter that her husband had died and that she needed his help with money and her kids. She had three of them; Emma, Mia, and Daniel. Of course, this would have to have been about 2 years ago, so Emma would be 15, Daniel would be 13, and Mia would be 8. All of them went to different schools now. They would most likely be in a massive mess by the time he got there, since Catlyn had asked for help 2 years ago. He pondered this worriedly as he sat in his “space room.” He got out the letter from his sister and read it again.
Dear Marco,
I apologize for having to send you this but I am in desperate need of help. Cameron has been killed by a meteoroid. We are all sorry for the loss, but I’m worried about the impact it has taken on my children. They lost their father, a good man, who never did anything wrong, supported his family, and loved and adored them all the while. The worst he’s ever done is ground them for 30 minutes. It wasn’t even fair how he died! There were some complications with the technology in the protection from projectiles in space, and the meteoroid broke through the oxygen bubble and hit a building site, where cameron was working, and only cameron. Later Found out he was building a farm house for us. It was suppose to be a surprise. But now even that's completely destroyed. Almost everyone on the planet was killed, but Drs. Livia and Anson managed to stabilize the oxygen levels and are having us wear our emergency space suits all day and night for 3 months while they repair the damages the meteoroid had caused. These have been unfortunate times for us all. However it has taken a particular toll on our family, since teaching doesn’t get much money. And….Marco I just can't take care of all of them on my own.  I need your help. I hate to ask you, but please, please come to mars! Help me. Just until we get back on our feet. Then you can go home. Please come. I can't do this all by myself.
   Your dear old sis,
  Caitlin Rose Higgins Marion
He folded the letter back up with a sigh. He knew there was more he didn’t know about. She always “forgot” the details. Her letter was rather short for 2 years, but that was his sister, always rushing to do stuff.
She and Cameron were highschool sweethearts, since freshmen year, and they got married soon after. They went to colleges close to each other. Caitlin, studying to be a teacher, and Cameron studying to be a carpenter. After 4 years they finally finished. Just in time to experience first mars expedition, after about 6 months, when they got all the issues under control, there was a second expedition. His crazy sister’s thirst for adventure lead she and cameron to go. She stepped aboard, 5 months pregnant, and never looking back to her home. So Emma was born, and lived her first 2 months on the Moondreamer. When they got to mars, only about 50 people lived there. But there is now a population of 3.5 billion people! His sister was now 37.
He barely knew anything about mars. His sister might have been able to take the leap. But Marco, he likes to know about the planet he’s going to live on. All he knew was that it took 2 weeks to get there, it barely has any oxygen, and the only way 3.5 billion people are able to live on that planet is because of a giant glass bubble that circulates oxygen and other chemicals found on earth. There is a water supply shuttle that is transported from earth to mars, and now mars can officially grow fruits and vegetables! It's grown to become just like earth.
Then the ship started shaking violently. Take off. Some told him this was the worst part. They say most end up puking by the end. The captain starts to talk:
“Ladies and gentlemen, as you must have noticed, take off has started, please sit down in a chair in your room, there is a seatbelt under the cushion, as you might have also noticed there is a barf bag under the cushion as well. Don’t be afraid to use it. It is 3:50 in the afternoon on a nice saturday morning. After that you free to roam about the ship, you can stop by the bar and restaurant and get something to eat. There is also a gym that I highly suggest you visit while on this trip. At 5:00-5:15 in the afternoon the gravity will be turned off on saturdays and wednesdays, except in the restaurant. If you don’t wish to partake in these events I suggest you go there. Thank you, this was your captain James D. Kirk speaking.”
Then the room got extremely hot. He could feel himself rise up off of the ground. He didn’t feel safe. He wanted to go home. Too late.
He looked out the sealed window. Buildings, clouds, black, and little dots in the sky flew past him. He gawked about at the amazing view before him. He could still hear the captain speaking, but in several other languages. People from all over the world have boarded this rocket. Then his eyes started drooping. His head felt like it weighs a thousand pounds. He barely made it to his bed before passing out.
He woke up, his head whacking something. He opened his eyes. He was on the ceiling. No gravity. Now he knew what time it was. He grabbed the curtains and lead himself down on to the floor, but his feet wouldn’t stay down. The anti-gravity was cool though. He glanced out the window. Everything was pitch black. It seemed like they were moving in a car. There was a gray dot in the distance and a few other dots later on. Must be moons, and planets. Eventually he got fed up with the anti-gravity and slow jumped out of his room where he meet several other people heading to the restaurant.
     2 weeks later…
“Marco!” Caitlyn screeched with joy.
“Polo.” He replied.
“Oh my gosh! I missed you so much! It's been 15 years!” She caught him in a big bear hug.
“Ugg! You're gonna kill me before you actually talk to me!” She laughed, that funny little bell-like laugh. Marco had forgotten how much he missed that laugh. “It's so good to see you.” He looked over her shoulder as he hugged her. 3 wide eyed, and little children stood behind her, clutching each other's hands. “Are they yours?”
She turned around beaming “Yep!” She walked towards them and grabbed the tallest girls hand. “This one's Emmy! I believe you have met her, though she has not met you.” Emma shuffled and gave a shy smile. Caitlyn turned towards her. “Emma, this is your uncle Marco! He saw you before you were born.”
“And I must say, you’ve grown quite a bit since then! I still have a sonogram picture of you.”
Caitlyn moved on to the little boy in the middle, ruffling his hair she said “This is Danny! My little rascal!” He had a big scowl across his face and his arms were crossed. She turned towards him.  He stood there in silence. She sighed and moved on. “And this is Mia!”
He shifted his gaze to a tiny little girl clutching onto her brother, looking absolutely petrified. Caitlyn picked her up and gave her a big squeeze. “My precious little angel.” She said with pure admiration.
Marco smiled, tearing up. “They’re beautiful! And so are you.” She was tall and slim, but still had brilliant blue eyes, though at the moment they were baggy and bloodshot. She had a beautiful smile, and when she did smile, it lit up an entire room. Strands of her brown hair stuck out from her ponytail, and emma and daniel took after her with light golden brown hair and blue eyes. But Mia had jet black hair with hazel eyes, exactly like her father. The whole family looked sad and depressed. “Are you okay?”
Glancing at her children behind her she starts blinking, holding back the tears. Finally one slips and she bursts into sobs. Marco hugged her. “No, I’m not. I miss him so much!” she says in between sobs.
Caitlyn drove home, telling marco about how they adjusted the glass dome barrier and gravitational system so an incident like that doesn’t happen again.
“Okay so Dr. Livia held a press-conference explaining what will happen next time a meteoroid is about to hit.”
“So what’ll happen?”
“Well, you know we have the ability to track any projectile flying towards us, so when it's flying towards us, and gets caught in the gravitational pull, which, by the way, apparently now they can control, so they’ll make the path lead to a certain spot in the dome...where the previous meteoroid hit. A different material though, a material that can evaporate on command, so when the meteoroid hits it won’t crack the surface the dome, which won’t end up to everyone else dying. Anyway the meteoroid goes through, and at this point we will all have put our space suits on, and keep it on til the meteoroid hits exactly where all the other meteoroids hit. Then the wall material will revert to its original state again, and the wreckage the farmhouse is going to become a meteoroid dumping ground.” Her eyes started watering up again. “But it seems like a good, reliable plan.”
“That's good.” He replied vaguely. It was the first time he had looked out the window since being on the planet, and it was fantastic! It was as though the 1960s movie, The Jetsons, had come to life! There were cars speeding all over a red road, but they weren’t even really driving because, apparently the roads have magnets in them, as well as the cars, so they float forward with extreme speed and no use of energy or fuel! Then there were the buildings that were in all sorts of shapes and sizes! A lot of them were built up and sideways to save room for the building below. Bu somehow the structure managed to stay stable without a cantilever! Nothing had changed much on earth since 2058, when they discovered a way to get to mars. Then all the scientist moved to mars so they could start with all new, press technology! Catlyn, noticing his fascination with the entire place and explained that they only type of energy they used was solar powered energy, for everything!
Suddenly a bright red flash started the center building of the planet“What is that!” Marco asks.
“Planet meeting.” She replied “Come on its really cool, but we have to hurry and get home.”
When they got home, to their little apartment she got 5 pairs of silver glasses and turned on the sides of them, which, appeared before them as a hologram seemed to be Melissa scarlet, herself.
“Good afternoon, people of mars. As you must have noticed I have set off the alarm. But no need to panic because all it is is another meteoroid, and we’ve, as I explained earlier, gotten the issue taken care of. This will be like a test run. But no worries because there are no flaws to the solution. I am just making a slight warning that in about 3 days there will be a meteorite hitting the planet. But from where we are it will only feel like very slight earthquake! That would be about it, thank you for you time.
3 days later…
She went to work at Alexander Herb elementary, not before dropping off her kids, at school. Maco was at home unpacking and looking at old pictures. No one remembered the meteoroid, or cared. But there was one thing they didn’t know. Earlier it had hit a pile of debris and smashed into several pieces, manly 3, big pieces. The first one now, was plummeting towards the ground. Their system worked. Dr. Melissa was about to hologram the entire planet when she heard a huge bang, and noticed a spidery web of cracks. It hadn’t broken through the glass, but it left a scar, that covered the entire dome! Then came the third one. Flying faster than the others. It smashed into the globe, hard. Causing the structure to be severely damaged, unfixable. Slowly the gravity on the planet tore the  structure apart and for a brief second everyone on mars could feel their lunges close up. Feel as though they were underwater. Only to find they can’t swim back up. Just before almost 13 trillion tiny shards of glass came plummeting towards them. They could hear the little pieces clinking against each other. Listening intently, thinking they were the beautiful sound of bells. They came soaring at you, each and every little piece, to every person. They penetrated the skin, and pierced their heads and hearts. All collapsing. Dead. Everyone was dead. 3.5 billion people.