I only wanted to be first. I didn’t intend to cause such trouble. They had promised as I remember to let me be the first man on mars. Then they seemed to change their minds. I am sure it was Shipton who persuaded them. He must have done it when both stravinski and me were off watch and asleep. He could be a persuasive bastard when he wanted to be. Still that doesn’t excuse what I did. We hadn’t been getting along on the journey. The three of us rubbing veach other up th wrong way. Inevitable I suppose on a small ship with a long journey. Stravinski coped by keeping quiet. His job was always to stay in the orbiter that was accepted. Shipton and I would go down in the lander. We were both trained to pilot but it was supposed to be him that landed the craft and me to step out. Then it was changed. I only wanted to be first. So after I landed the craft, I put a delay on the hatch opening and pushed Shipton aside. Only it wasn’t aside. It was out. He was the first on mars after all trouble is, he hadn’t finished connecting up his oxygen tanks. He hadn’t given me the signal to open the hatch either. I rushed down the ladder but in the low gravity it took me too long to get to him…too long to connect up his oxygen.
Flash fiction the first
