“Wait, that Erick Gomez?” Henry whispered. “That tool your mom’s dating now?” Tamara winced sympathetically in my direction as I nodded.

Maybe I was being unfair. I suppose I hadn’t really known Erick long enough to know, objectively, if he was actually a tool or not. Mom had only introduced him to me and Celeste a couple of weeks ago. Although, from the way they were acting, I suspected they’d been seeing each other for a while before Mom told us about him. I mean, they’d worked together as long as we’d lived in Tierra Nueva. They had plenty of opportunity.

And I couldn’t really begrudge her dating again. After all, Dad was the one who’d abandoned us all so unceremoniously two annums ago, during my first term at the Academy. Considering the fact that he hadn’t contacted me or Celeste once since he’d left, it was obvious he was only concerned with his own happiness. So why shouldn’t Mom be happy, too?

It was just weird to have some new guy showing up at the house all the time. Especially since this one was so… different from how Dad had been.

“I’m sure most of you are wondering what exactly we’re working on way out here in the middle of nowhere,” Erick said, smiling with way too many teeth. “It might not look like much, but it’s actually very exciting. This study is continuing work begun by the first Mars landers sent from Earth over a hundred years ago.”

“Riveting,” Henry muttered. I snickered.

“As you all know, we humans have not been on Mars for very long. There’s still a lot to learn about our new home. And here, we’re using geological methods to do just that. We’re studying the planet’s past, specifically its atmospheric makeup over the millennia and behavior of ancient and precolonial waterways. Our data will enable modern scientists currently working on Phase Three of terraformation to better understand what challenges to expect while adapting the planet for life now.”

As Erick spoke, Professor Luna started leading the group of us down a trail that wound between ditches of varying size. A few of these had groups of people working inside them with shovels and picks, but most were empty and roped off—to keep us from wandering around inside them, I guess.

“This site we’re currently excavating is fascinating for two reasons. First of all, it’s the site of an ancient stream bed, which provides us with information about how water behaved on Mars in the past, and what sort of organic material it supported. We’ve already found fossil evidence of early ancestors of the modern spider weed, as well as extinct forms of Martian flora, and even primitive fauna. We’re hoping to uncover more evidence of other ancient lifeforms that might have existed here before atmospheric degradation set in.”