The Mars Landing - First Witnesses (Variation)

The Mars Landing - First Witnesses [ Verse 1 ] Eight of us strapped in the Artemis Five Hull groaning hard in the heat of descent Thin Martian air rattling every plate Six months of drifting end in a crush Gravity hits like a hammer of bone Thrusters cut out and the cabin settles Heavy metallic thud on red floor The silence that follows is deafening and strange. [ Chorus 1 ] I reach for the latch of the inner airlock My hands are shaking from weight of the miles Humanity’s endurance is a quiet, heavy thing Rewarded by the silence of a new world's history. [ Verse 2 ] Hayes is the first to unhook her straps The air in the ship is stale and tired She turns the crank as the gears start to grind The seal breaks open to biting Martian cold The ramp lowers down into Jezero’s dust To the Octavia E. Butler landing site. [ Chorus 2 ] I reach for the latch of the inner airlock My hands are shaking from weight of the miles Humanity’s endurance is a quiet, heavy thing Rewarded by the silence of a new world's history. [ Bridge ] The walls of the journey dissolve in the wind First witnesses standing on Martian terrain Near the landing strut sits a silent ghost The dust-covered Perseverance rover A monument metal that scouted the path Wonder is washing out years of the dark. [ Verse 3 ] We step out onto the rust-colored mud Kneeling deep in the dust of the delta Gloved fingers tracing where water once flowed Billions of years in a breath of the cold Exhaustion is falling away like a shadow Only the awe of the ancient river bed. [ Final Chorus ] Touching the rock of the ancient river delta Our hands are shaking from weight of the miles Humanity’s endurance is a quiet, heavy thing The profound silence of a new world's history Is the prize we finally won. [ Outro ] Dust on the rover, mud on our boots The rattling has stopped at last Jezero Crater is quiet now We are the first to see it We are finally here.