Losing Sight Of the Forest

During the long trip from Earth Jim had practiced all the procedures needed to keep a nonprofessional astronaut alive in deadly environments. As a geologist, most of this involved his space suit. In order to explore any planet on his own he had to master all aspects of the suit. “Check,” Jim said to himself before the ship reached the gray, lifeless planet.

They landed, set up the base and Jim waited. Finally the expedition commander, Susan, let him loose. “Sunset is in four hours Jim, don’t lose sight of the base.” With that he was in his suit, and out the airlock.

“Kid in the candy store”, said Susan, “what trouble could he get into on a dead dusty planet?”


Jim was excited, had to practice his breathing to keep from fogging his face mask. A whole world for him to explore, one step at a time. He had surveyed the geology from the base and orbital pictures, this was the time to get up close and personal. He walked through the dust pausing to examine rocks, breaking some open with his pick. One rock followed another, his boot prints making history that he completely ignored.


The light from the dim red star quickly faded to nothing, leaving Jim in the dark. The only illumination was the massed starlight, a bare fraction of the moonlight he was used to on Earth. The base wasn’t in sight.

“Homebase, Jim here.”

Static for many seconds, then, “You’re late.”

“I’m lost.”

“No you’re not. Remember, you are the first to walk on this planet.”

He was confused for far longer than he would later admit to when he retold the story. “Okay Base. Thanks Susan.” Jim turned around until he found his footprints in the dust and followed them back.