‘Don’t be stupid,’ said Dad. ‘It’s a perfect avatar of Rover, but it’s controlled by artificial intelligence.’
Knowing it wasn’t really Rover, Zak ignored the creature.
He gazed into the sky, and found he only needed to squint slightly to be able to stare at the Sun, which appeared much smaller than from Earth. He noticed an object emerging over a hill. It was a plane, but its wings were so long that Zak had trouble making out the cabin.
With an instant scene change, they found themselves sitting in the plane. Its tiny cabin only had seats for the four of them, squeezed behind the cockpit, but gave them a breathtaking view of a huge plain banked by mountains. They were approaching a city.
Involuntarily, both Zak and Skye gasped.
‘We won’t be living in the middle of nowhere,’ said Dad, smugly.
The skyline was dominated by three large domes, but countless housing units were lined up in blocks across the surrounding landscape. There were no highways, and only a handful of vehicles moved across the open terrain.
Zak noticed that there were no pedestrians. He knew that in reality, it was not possible to survive out in the open on Mars, as they were doing in this virtual presentation. Dad must have deliberately obscured that problem. Life on Mars was one of confinement to relatively small spaces. But then it occurred to him that he spent most of his spare time in his bedroom.
‘And don’t forget, we’ll also have a magnificent journey through space to get here,’ said Dad. ‘Travelling into space is absolutely fantastic. I’ve been to Mars once before if you remember. I can’t wait to make the journey again.’
If Zak had no plans, he would have welcomed the news – a new planet, a new adventure. But he already had an exciting future planned. His career had been plotted in detail. He had worked hard to get into that position. How could they take a decision like this, without even asking him?
Could he have prevented it – if he hadn’t hid himself away for the last six weeks?
