Chapter No.29. Red Planet.

Robert, Janet and James appeared in the JPL mission room. Both Jason, the administrator, and Ralph the astrophysicist were there along with an Indian woman, who appeared to be in her late forties.

"You seem to pop up here when things go really bad," Jason said.

"Now what?" Robert said.

"Our Mar's supply module's vessel is on course to Mars, but we haven't been able to make contact with it for the last forty-eight hours, and if we don't make contact it will burn up in Mars' atmosphere. The supplies that it carries are crucial to supply the Mars' Mission. Without it, they will have to abandoned Mars and return, but it's not really the optimate time for that."

"Hey, we're finally going to get to go to Mars," Janes exclaimed, smiling.

Robert gave him a smirk and turned to Jason. "Show us the vessel's course and velocity."

Jason gestured to the woman. "This is Uma Bharatiya, Mars Mission coordinator."

Uma brought up a course plot of the vessel. "The present course, assuming no change, would put it near Mars."

"How much time do we have before it hits Mar's atmosphere?"

"We estimate six hours, but it could be less if the retro rockets didn't fire. We have no way to verify that."

"I think we could take care of that, but I'm not sure how we'll get it to land on Mars correctly," Robert reacted.

"I think we can just slow it up before it enters Mar's atmosphere and then gently bring it down to the surface," James said.

Robert looked at him for a moment before turning back to Uma. "We'll need to know where the Mars' colony is located."

Uma displayed a map of Mars. "The colony is on Hellas Planitia," she said, pointing to what appeared to be a large crater on the southern hemisphere.

"Why there?"

"It has the highest atmospheric pressure on Mars."

"That crater is huge," James said. "The colony looks like a speck."

"The crater is around 2400 kilometers wide," Uma said. "The reason we chose it is because there are water sources there."

"Okay," Robert said. "We had better get cracking if we hope to get this done in time."

"Are you going to need space suits?" Ralph asked.

"No. We realized that we don't have to worry about being protected from space."

They just stared at him not knowing how to react to that outrageous claim.

The Steris family transported to the vicinity of Mars and began looking for the lost supply vessel.

Since a vacuum can not transmit sound, they had to communicate by mental telepathy.

"There it is," James said, pointing at a tiny speck that reflected the light of the Sun.

Robert looked over at it. "Okay, let's go see if we can slow it up before it enters Mars' atmosphere,"

They flew over to it and placed their hands on the front shield. With effort, they slowed its velocity enough to ease it into Mars' atmosphere.

"There's the Mars Colony," Robert said, pointing at a tiny speck in a culvert on a massive ancient crater.

They moved the vessel down to the surface and slowed it to an easy landing fifty meters away from a large domed structure, surrounded by six smaller domes connected by covered shafts.

The superheroes didn't have to wait too long for a crew of three to come out of the colony and walk over to them.

Robert gestured to the supply ship and smiled.

The three men were attired in soft space suits with bubble helmets, and they stared with awe at the three superheroes who were not wearing any space suits or sources of oxygen.

Two more men came out of the colony in a vehicle that resembled a truck and began removing things from the vessel.

One of the first group of men gestured, a sign that he wanted Robert and his family to follow him to the colony.

Once inside the compression chamber, the thin atmospheric gases of Mars were replaced with breathable air.

The man removed his helmet. "How are you able to survive without oxygen?"

"We're not sure," Robert said. "I think it has something to do with the fact that we are everywhere and only appear in one place at a time."

The man, who appeared to be in his early forties, scratched his head. "We had heard rumors from Earth that there was a superhero family doing amazing things, but I never thought I would actually see them here on Mars."

"We normally don't go trapsing off to outer space, but we promised NASA that we would help them if they needed us."

"Well, you saved our butts for sure. Without the supplies we would have to return to Earth and it's not the best time for that. Plus, we also have some colonists in bad shape. They would not have survived a trip back."

"What's wrong with them?" Robert asked.

"We believe it's radiation damage. As you might know, Mars is bathed with radiation from the Sun. Normally, it's not too bad but some recent flares have irradiated us with more than a safe dose."

"We can cure them," Robert told him.

He stared at Robert for a few moments before replying. "I heard that you could cure people, but I assumed it was hyperbolae."

"Take us to them," Robert said.

"I'm Harrold Kittnis," the man said, extending his hand. "Mars Colony Administrator."

Robert shook hands. "I'm Robert." He gestured to his family. "And this is my wife, Janet, and my son, James."

"Happy to have you here," he told them with a subtle smile.

Harold escorted them to one of the satellite domes where three men and two women were lying in hospital beds hooked up to plasma and oxygen.

The three superheroes went to work curing them. Their actions brought many other members of the colony there to witness the miracle and to gawk at the superhero family.

The colonists shook hands with the three superheroes, an action that resulted in the curing of many aliments associated with being on Mars.

Harold showed them around the base where many of the colonists were working on research projects to understand the possibilities of terraforming Mars. They had found a way to grow plants in Martian soil that was poisonous to Earth based life.

"We need to return to Earth," Robert said. "There are many threats to life there."

Harold didn't contest that revelation. He was glad to be on Mars where the only threat was from the planet itself.

After passing through the air lock, the three superheroes just flew away, amazing the workers who were still unloading the supply vessel.

They appeared in the JPL mission room.

"We found the supply vessel and delivered it to the colonists," Robert said. "We also cured some of the colonists that were suffering from radiation damage."

Jason and Uma smiled.

"We really appreciate your attention to this problem," Jason said.

"That's what we promised," Robert said.

Jason offered a smile.

With that, the Steris family returned home.

"All this space stuff has made me hungry," James said.

"You're always hungry," Janet teased him.

"I think we should go out to eat," Robert said.

His wife rewarded him with a smirk. "That's good. I really don't feel like cooking."

"I'll bet it's somewhere that the people don't speak English," James said.

"That's right," Robert said, smiling. "The weather is really nice in Madrid right now."

They transported to the Joan Pujol square in the Malasaña neighborhood of Madrid, where a restaurant had outdoor seating. It wasn't all that crowded yet, allowing them to find a table at the fringe of the veranda.

A waiter appeared. "¿Qué le gustaría?"

"Soldaditos de Pavia," Robert replied.

The waiter smiled. "¿Qué bebida?"

Robert smiled. "Anis."

After the waiter departed, Janet turned to her husband. "That's an expensive liquor, isn't it?"

"Yes, but I have the euros to cover it."

"I wasn't concerned about the cost."

"It's something we don't see in America, but it's very popular in Europe. I thought it might help us relax."

"I got some new ideas for our costumes," James said.

"Oh, now we're becoming official superheroes," Robert quipped.

"We may as well. It's what people expect us to be."

"What sort of ideas are you thinking of?" Janet asked.

"We should wear masks for one, and I was thinking that we should have shields."

"You mean like Captain America?" Robert said.

"Yeah, and they should be strong enough to deflect bullets."

"I want one like Wonder Woman," Janet said.

They laughed.

Their meal arrived and they enjoyed it along with the liquor.

"This is really sweet tasting," James said. "I would have thought it to be bitter."

"It's supposed to be sweet," Robert said.

After dinner, they decided to walk around the square to watch the people strolling around, but what they encountered was men armed with military weapons shooting into a crowd of people gathered to watch an impromptu musical show.

"Time to change into our outfits," Robert said.

They appeared in the new costumes and ran to a position between the shooters and the crowd. They held up their shields, decorated with red, white and blue circles with silver stars, to deflect the bullets, an action that confused the armed men.

As expected, armed soldiers appeared to fire on the shooters, scattering them. With the threat taken care of, the superheroes went to work repairing the damage. They knelt down near people who had been outright killed and resurrected them. Then, they attended to the wounded, curing the bullet damage that tore ugly wounds in bodies.

When the shooting had started, people ran for cover, but now they came out to witness a miracle. When the superheroes had taken care of the dead and wounded, they stood together as people took videos and pictures raising their fists to the sound of accolades and cheering. Then, they rapidly ascended into the night sky, flying away from the chaotic scene.