Jun and the Silent Martian Drumroll by Fabella Publishing
Reading Age: 4-8 years | Genre: 🚀 Sci-Fi, Cosmic Space & Future Tech
Synopsis: Inside the glass biodomes of Mars, seven-year-old Jun loves making music. But when he tries to start the colony’s grand parade with a mighty drumroll outside on the surface, the thin Martian sky swallowed all the sound! With help from his best friend Maeve and her seismic maps, J
Characters: Jun, Maeve
Page 1
Inside the glass-domed colony of New Olympus on Mars, seven-year-old Jun had one enormous dream: to perform the grand opening drumroll for the annual First Footsteps Parade. He tapped out energetic beats on nutrient canisters, metal hydroponic pipes, and greenhouse benches, filling the warm indoor air with joyful rhythms.
Page 2
Jun’s best friend, Maeve, was the colony’s junior seismologist. While Jun practiced his percussion, Maeve monitored the red planet’s subtle crust vibrations on her digital datapad. “Mars is different from Earth, Jun,” Maeve warned, looking up from her colorful charts. “Out on the surface, the air is freezing, thin, and mostly carbon dioxide. Sound waves don’t travel through the sky the way you think.”
Page 3
“Don’t worry, Maeve!” Jun laughed, adjusting his tuning fork. “If I play loud enough, the whole colony will hear me from miles away across the crater!” Maeve shook her head with a gentle smile as they stepped into the airlock, sealed their pressurized explorer suits, and clicked on their clear bubble helmets to head outside.
Page 4
For his first attempt, Jun carried a high-pitched acoustic siren onto the outdoor crater surface. Wearing his pressurized spacesuit and clear bubble helmet, he took a deep breath, raised the siren high, and cranked the handle as fast as he could. *Whirrr!* But in the thin Martian air, the high frequencies warped into a comical, weak squeak. “That didn’t even reach the greenhouses,” Maeve said through the radio, checking her ground sensors.
Page 5
Therefore, Jun decided he needed crashing metal instead of high-pitched wind. For his second attempt, he dragged two massive copper cymbals outside. “Stand back!” his voice crackled over the suit radio. He leaped into the air in the low Martian gravity and slammed them together. *Clack.* The thin atmosphere absorbed the ringing instantly, sounding like two dull spoons dropping on a rug.
Page 6
Time was running out. The distant parade floats were already lining up at the far end of the crater, waiting for their signal. Frustrated but refusing to quit, Jun prepared his third attempt. He hauled out a gigantic bass drum built from rover wheel rims. “If high pitches and crashing cymbals fail,” Jun said through his helmet comms, “I will use pure, booming force!”
Page 7
Jun grabbed his heavy wooden mallets, swung his arms back, and struck the giant bass drum with all his might. *CRACK!* The drumhead split right down the middle, tearing the thick fabric. But the sound was nothing more than a muffled thud that vanished into the cold wind. Jun dropped his broken mallets into the red dust. He had ruined the drum, and the parade was about to start in silence.
Page 8
Maeve knelt beside him, her cherry-red spacesuit boots crunching softly on the regolith. She held out her digital tablet, glowing with vibrant wave lines. “Jun, look at my seismic maps,” she said gently over the comms. “You keep fighting the Martian sky, but the sky here is empty. You forgot about the ground! Vibrations travel beautifully right through the rocky planet crust!”
Page 9
Jun sat heavily on a nearby dark basalt boulder, resting his gloved hands on his knees. He felt foolish for trying to force Earth-like air sounds onto a totally different world. He gloomily tapped his spacesuit boots against the rock in a slow, sad rhythm. *Tap. Tap. Tap.* He wondered if there was any way to turn the planet itself into their instrument.
Page 10
Suddenly, the thick soles of Jun’s magnetic boots tingled! He tapped his heel hard against the solid basalt. *Thump!* The vibration traveled straight up his legs, sharp and crystal clear through his suit sensors. His eyes widened behind his clear visor. “Maeve! The air is empty, but the energy ripples perfectly through the ground! If the sky won’t carry our rhythm, the planet will!”
Page 11
Jun didn’t need a drum. He unclipped two heavy titanium wrenches from his toolbelt. “Maeve, stomp with me!” he shouted over the radio. Together on a wide sheet of solid bedrock, they pounded their heavy wrenches and boots directly into the Martian crust. *THUD-THUD-BAM!* They poured all their rhythm into the stone, sending a powerful, rhythmic seismic pulse racing through the ground.
Page 12
Miles across the crater, the parade crowd felt the thrilling drumroll vibrating up through their boots, shaking the ground with joyful energy. The parade floats lit up, and the celebration erupted. Jun and Maeve danced on the trembling bedrock, cheering under the starry twilight. Jun smiled through his visor, knowing that the most powerful music on Mars is something you feel in your boots.