Authors: Eddie Hastings
“You had better hurry home, and bring little Jeremy...”, “Susan” interrupted Mary, “whoever, home with you”. They kissed some more and then they finally agreed to part.
“I love you” said Mary. “I love you too” David swallowed hard as they each got into their own vehicles. After a final wave and blown kiss they left for work.
For David the journey to work on this particular morning had been a tedious one. It did however afford him time to reflect on the fact that once again he was losing his wife for three whole weeks. After seven missions, he thought to himself, this one was going to be the last. A horn sounded behind him. He had been daydreaming and for an instant he had forgotten that he was in the car. He shook himself back to reality and caught up with the car in front. He leaned across to switch on the radio, and as he did so he noticed a small note stuck to the dashboard above which simply read ‘I LOVE YOU’. He smiled and settled back in his seat listening to the radio. As he pulled into his parking space he spied his friend, Bob Majors. It was hard to miss Bob’s car, even in the dark, as it was painted in a strange luminous green. Bob had always joked that when he had been out for the night, he was nearly always the worse for wear and that it was useful to be able to find the car.
David waited for Bob and they walked into the building together. “Morning David, how’s Mary?” “Pregnant” Bob was just about to say “oh, good”, until he had realised what David had just said. “Well I’ll be... that’s brilliant news. This calls for a celebration how about tonight at the 1066?” David sighed “I’m afraid that isn’t possible. Mary has had to go to work”. As he spoke he gestured with his hand in the fashion of a craft taking off.
“Oh well definitely when she gets back then”. The two friends agreed as they walked across the foyer.
Everything that day had started slowly and the journey to the fifteenth floor was no different. During the lift ride David never spoke. Bob turned to him and enquired if he had a problem. David assured him that he hadn’t. He shrugged off the question as the lift reached his floor. He said goodbye to his friend and promised to meet him in the bar during their lunch break. David had not wanted to burden anyone with his thoughts but he was obviously preoccupied with his wife. He had always felt these emotions every time that she had taken on another mission. He knew that his fears were irrational; there had not been a space accident for countless generations. This fact, however, did little to calm his worries. He knew that the next three weeks would be an eternity.
As Mary approached the base, she could already see the nose cone of the shuttle rising from its underground hangar. She could imagine all of the ground crews feverishly working to ready everything for the take off later that day. The radio had been on during her journey, but she had not paid much attention to it until she heard a song which had stirred something inside of her. She turned up the volume as the song was ending “That was for a special lady, Mary. David loves you very much and can’t wait to be together with you again, and he wishes you a safe journey. Stay tuned because next we have the news, and indeed the news that you have all been waiting for”.
Mary already knew what the great important news was, however, hearing it on the radio made it somewhat official. “Today, the government announced that there will indeed be a three hundred and sixty hour public holiday as sunlight returns to our planet. The holiday will officially commence in twenty hours time from. . . Now! Volunteers are now being accepted at your local town hall and the rate of pay this time is a staggering four hundred credits per hour. So, if you are not going to be one of our volunteers, I suggest that you dig out your sunglasses. More news on the hour, now back to the studio”.
Even as she listened, Mary could feel an intense rush of adrenaline surge through her body. She mused over the fact that she would be one of only a handful of people in her lifetime, which would have the opportunity to stand on an alien planet and maybe breathe without the aid of cumbersome apparatus.
She swiped her card through the reader and she could see through the glass doors all of the frenzied activity within. As she entered, she could hear snippets of various conversations that were being held. They were a mixture of excitement for the public holiday, excitement by a few people over the extra credits that their families would earn by becoming power volunteers, and not least, that the orbit of their planet would once again take them within reach of a planet not visited for over twenty generations.
When she walked across the lobby she was greeted by a pleasant receptionist, “Good morning Mary, everyone else is already in the briefing room. Good luck, I wish I was coming with you”.
Mary smiled and passed through a door marked B1. Immediately upon entry she was confronted by two security officers who demanded her handbag, her security pass and all items of metal that she had about her person. She was only too happy to comply with their wishes but she did however feel reluctant to remove her wedding band. Having completed this first stage of entry she was directed towards a scanner beam which not only checked for anything missed by the security guards but also was designed to give her a preliminary medical check. She always passed through this machine with a little trepidation; a red light at this stage would almost certainly preclude her from the mission. As she passed through an almost inaudible beep was heard and a green light was displayed on the end column. Mary breathed a small sigh of relief and continued through the next door at the end of the corridor. As the door closed behind her she was met by two people dress all in white. “Morning Mary, big day today” said a man’s voice. She hated this room “I’m sorry Mary but you know the drill” he said. Mary then, somewhat embarrassingly began to take off her clothes. As she stood on the travelator she could not help but think to herself how totally degrading this part of the security procedure was. The way in which she coped with the embarrassment was to sing the song that had been playing on the radio earlier to herself. After passing through another doorway she had reached the final room, she was pleased to leave the embarrassment zone as she called it and pass into the final stage. There was no one in this last room. It was, except for a small pile of clothing, completely empty. She immediately recognised the clothing as being part of her uniform. While she was dressing she could feel the warmth of the uniform, it felt comfortable against her skin. Impatiently she sat on the small white seat that was protruding from the wall. ‘It would be approximately five minutes now and there would be no further contact with the outside world, except for verbal communication, until the mission was over’ she thought to herself as the room went into its final cycle. No sooner had she made this thought when a hum was heard, the lights dimmed to an iridescent purple. The lighting and the humming seemed to pulse in unison as the room sterilised every part of her body. It had a soothing effect on her, almost hypnotic. She gave no thought to the fact that she was pregnant or for the safety of her embryonic baby growing inside of her. The medical department had already assured her that this process held no danger for her, or her baby.
Suddenly the room reverted to its former state, everything changed with such urgency that it made Mary flinch as she came back to reality. There was a series of clicks, and the door automatically opened to reveal the briefing room. As she entered six faces turned to greet her, she returned their greeting and sat down at the one remaining desk. All the people assembled here were to be the crew of mission 1472 alpha.
The seven colleagues sat in silence as they each filled out documents which sworn them to secrecy about their mission, a secrecy which by law would last two years after the conclusion of
the mission. This however, was a standard document signed by all participants. When they had all finished they were collected together and placed in the hyperbaric chamber which was located in the glass wall in front of them. Mary sat, quietly studying the others, in an attempt to get a feel for the people who she would be spending the next three weeks of her life with. At the front of the room, with his back towards her, was the captain of the mission, Jason Daniels. She had worked alongside him twice before. He was a hard task master but at the same time fair, always open to new suggestions and willing to spend time to sort out any problems that the crew may have. She had, in the past, had time to converse with the captain on a semi social level and had discovered a little of his history. He had twice received the medal of honour for bravery; in fact he was one of the most highly decorated private contract pilots in the service. He was also quite unique amongst this crew in so much as he has managed to combine his military life with a highly successful sports career. Being one of the worlds leading practitioners of ‘Hung Quan’ he enjoyed the status of superstar. ‘Hung Quan was one of the most popularly watched sports on the television networks. It involves a mixture of ancient martial arts combined with modem day hand held weaponry. Unfortunately Daniels status in this field did not preclude him from his military commitments; the law was very specific about their ongoing conscription policies. It had never seemed to bother him; Mary quite suspected that this part of his life bought some modicum of relief from his other roll totally within the public eye.
If Jason Daniels had worked his way through the ranks to his present position, the man sitting next to him was quite the opposite. Marius hatch was a small squat man who carried a little too much weight, his hair was beginning to thin about his crown and his complexion bore the tell tale scars of juvenile skin complaint. This did not however distract from his brilliance within his field. He was a well studied man, a man who had attained every possible academic award in the fields of
quantum mechanics and quantum physics. He was also very learned in all of the fields that would be necessary on this mission. He had passed through the academy in half the time it took for any normal cadet to do so. Subsequently he had entered service at a highly elevated position, and at twenty seven years of age he was already the youngest commander in the service. Even though he was obviously the right man for the job, Mary had always found difficulty getting along with this man she reasoned that it was because he was on a higher intellectual level than the rest, he himself found it difficult finding common ground with other people on which to converse. In a certain sort of way she felt sorry for Marius; she considered that his intellect had made him a lonely man.
She found herself musing over the other three men in the team she had neither worked with nor even met any of them before now. Firstly she considered Matthew Watkins. By his appearance she judged him to be about her own age, his physique nor his features gave anything away about him, he seemed pretty average in appearance, however she did know one thing about him, about all of her colleagues, that was the fact that if any of them were not expert in their field or totally dependable they would not be here now. Each of them held impeccable credentials and all were veterans of at least five previous flights. John de Vie cleared his throat. This diverted Mary’s attention away from the meteorologist to the geologist. John De Vie, or as his name tag implied J.D., was in her estimation the odd one of the bunch. He had almost casually draped himself over the chair, one leg was completely obscuring one of the arms of the chair and his arm was rested on the back supporting his upper body. His deep golden hair was neatly tied back into a pony tail and his face had not been shaved. This gave him, she thought, an interesting air. He would be probably the most fascinating member of the crew she would get to know, she hoped that he would be a refreshing change from the average type of astronaut she was used to working with.
Sometimes the mere sight of a person, or the way in which they present themselves, their looks, or even just their general demeanour, causes some people to take an instant dislike to others. Travis Wheatley was one of these people. Since Mary had first entered the room she had been evaluating the others, generally she could find no reason to dislike any of them, but, there was something about Travis that she had taken an instant dislike to. He was probably a very nice person. Maybe he was a little misunderstood but somehow Mary didn’t think so. He had, what she considered to be, a shifty face. He had very thin lips and piercing brown eyes which picked up every reflection of every light in the room his eyebrows were pencil thin almost plucked and shaped. His hair was short well groomed and of a colour that she had never seen before, it was the richest, brightest shade of red she had ever seen. She had always hated people with ginger hair.
This would be the first mission she had been on where there had been another woman in the crew; about this she had mixed feelings. Normally she had been used to being the one whom the male members of the crew would pussy foot around, she was not sure how she would react to the fact that she now had to share her spotlight. On the other hand however, it may be that she could use her as a confidant, someone who would at least understand that sometimes it is comforting talk to another woman. Anne Homer was the medic, she was single and possessed the looks of a model, and the type you see in every glamour magazine, this in itself did not make Mary feel threatened in any way, Mary was a happily married, pregnant person who was not unattractive in her own right. Anne rose to her feet and asked Mary if she would like a refill for her now empty glass. Mary said she would and watched as Anne walked across the room to the water dispenser. When she returned Mary commented on elegance of Anne’s wardrobe, they laughed and a friendly conversation was struck up. The room was filled with the sound of quiet conversation as the crew chatted amongst themselves.