The Mars One Incident

by Kelly Curtis

  Scott admired her as she put on her new uniform. He loved so many things about Alma, her quick intelligence, her bravery, her beauty, her big brown eyes and her body. However, there was also a long list of things he didn’t admire about her, for instance right now, her ability to just emotionally turn off and decide she didn’t have time for him, with no thought at all to how this made him feel. Although, he said nothing of his feelings and never did. And he knew, he did this so that he could always hide behind the lie he kept to himself, that she didn’t realize she was hurting him when she behaved like this.

  Alma looked over at Scott and wondered what he was thinking about with such a sullen face, “You don’t have to come to dinner at my dad’s tonight if you don’t want to.”

  “I want to,” he reassured her. “It’ll be your last night here for a while.” One of the most complicated aspects of their relationship was that Alma was gone for weeks at a time, and as he was not in the military, he had no communication with her while she was somewhere else, gallivanting around to who knew where in the solar system. Occasionally, he had taken those times to find other women to warm his bed, usually waitresses from his own guild, but none compared to Alma. So, when she was on Earth, he always wanted to make the most of their time together. He often put aside his own plans to conform to hers. He liked the prestige of being with Alma. She was renowned for being an adventurous young beauty throughout the JC and her reputation would be even greater now that she was the captain of the Indy. He explained away a lot of her selfish behavior on her youth and adventurous personality, that she could not help but be excited about new things rather than always conforming to normal routines. Secretly, sometimes only when he was thinking about the reality of their situation, he would wonder as well if her bad behavior was a result of her using technology daily, but just as quickly as these thoughts popped into his consciousness, he would rationalize them away.

  Alma was grateful that he wanted to come. She was happy to have a buffer between her and her parents tonight. She had not talked to them since she got command of her own ship, but she knew they weren’t going to like it. They were pacifists and believed anything to do with the military and using too much technology daily would lead to violence in one form or another. “Good, meet me at the Savannah Station then and we will take the tram together to my dad’s house.”

  “Why don’t we just use a military transport?” Scott asked, confused since Alma often used a military transport, as was her privilege by rank, to get to places around Earth. Only military and high ranking government officials were allowed to use transports. Everyone else was limited to the free public magnetic trains, solar powered trams or bicycles.

  “It’s just easier to use public transport,” Alma lied. Her parents hated any reminder of her being in the military so she tried to shield them as much as possible.

  Scott knew she was lying, but he wasn’t going to push it, “Fine, I’ll pick up a bottle of wine and meet you at seven o’clock.” He moved forward and picked Alma up from under her arms and gave her a big kiss. “Good luck today, Captain Johnson,” he emphasized the word, ‘captain.’

  Alma returned the kiss and then looked into Scott’s blue eyes and wondered if this was what all relationships felt like after a while, hardly a ripple of intensity. Alma wanted to ask him if he felt the same way, if he was also just going through the motions because they were the best each other had found yet, but knew that if she asked, that would be the end of the relationship. And she needed him. She needed him like you stockpile wood for a long winter, “Thanks. I appreciate it, but I don’t need luck. I’ve earned this.”

  Scott put her down frowning, “I’ll see you later at the Savannah Station Meeting Point. Have a good day, Captain who-needs-no-luck.”

  “Thank you, you too,” she said half sarcastically and then picked up her IC, went into her small kitchen and was about to simply eat a piece of bread when she noticed that Scott had left her a bowl of oatmeal that he must have made while she was in the shower. Next to it was a handwritten note,

  I love you even when you’re grumpy because you are nervous. My captain needs a good breakfast. Eat this and don’t forget lunch.

  Alma was charmed. She smiled at the note and ate the lukewarm oatmeal. Yes, she thought, Maybe, I can spend the rest of my life with Scott. He has a very reputable job as a chef and he understands me better than any other man I have ever known. After eating, she rinsed her mouth for 30 seconds with pro-teeth, a wash that simply eliminated excess food and killed bacteria.

  Alma left her one bedroom apartment with her small black bag that had her knives and a change of clothes in it to please her parents. On her way down the stairs, she heard the communal telephone ring in the lobby of her building. Alma didn’t have time to answer it, but she knew if someone saw her not answering it as she passed, she would be marked for it and lose more SCs. She liked this building and didn’t want to have to move just because she didn’t always like to be an active part of the community. So she sighed and answered the phone. Of course, it was for Jane. Jane was a popular beauty who lived across the hall from Alma on the fourth floor. They weren’t friends but weren’t enemies either. Just neighbors. She checked the wooden peg next to the door. Jane’s wooden tab showed her to be ‘in’. Alma ran back up the stairs as quickly as she could and let Jane know she had a phone call, then ran back out with just a wave ‘goodbye’ to Jane. But a few seconds later, Alma hurriedly ran right back in through the front door and turned her wooden tab to ‘out,’ and then just as quickly ran out again.

  Alma stopped running as soon as she reached HQ. She quietly walked through the busy lobby and across the golden JC seal as she caught her breath. Christopher was waiting for her in the doorway of an open office down a long hallway. She had to sign an official document that would be stored in the Library that she was taking command today. Alma gave Christopher a knowing smile as she made her way down the hallway.

  A young man sat behind a desk and asked with some humor, “The trams busy this morning, Captain?” It was acceptable in JC society for people to be late sometimes, but in this man’s experience, no new captain had ever been late signing in for their first command.

  “Aren’t the trams always busy at rush hour?” she asked ironically. Looking over his desk and eyeing the piece of paper he was preparing.

  “I guess they are,” he said and slid a paper across his desk.

  Alma quickly read through it to make sure there was nothing strange in it, like no unusual conditional clauses. When she was satisfied there were not, she took a pen and signed the document.

  “I’ve not seen cursive from anyone in the Military Guild before. Your handwriting is beautiful,” the young man commented.

  “My father insisted, he’s…”

  “Oh yes, I know who you are. Of course, your father would have insisted on one of the beauties of writing,” the young man laughed and then took the paper back. “This will be transferred to the Library. Thank you.”

  With the paperwork completed, Alma and Christopher left the offices at HQ and headed to the transportation pads. It was not long before they approached the transport waiting to take them up to the Indy.

  Alma motioned for the pilot to give up her seat saying, “Thanks, but I’d rather fly myself.”

  The pilot was surprised, but immediately obeyed Alma and took a seat in the back of the transport.

  Alma strapped herself into the pilot’s seat and looked at the navigator and then looked at Christopher.

  The navigator quickly gave up his seat as well and Christopher sat down, “Why would you do anything by the book, even today?” he asked with some humor to his voice. Christopher and Alma had been best friends for as long as they could remember. Alma was the dominant rule-bending one and Christopher adored her for the adventures she led him on. He strongly felt today was the start of a new adventure for them both. He just prayed, as Christopher was a traditionalist and still secretly prayed, that this was the s
tart of a good adventure and not the kind that would leave him dead or in a MAC, Main Administration Camp for re-education.

  Alma gave Christopher a broad smile and then requested permission to leave from HQ Control. When it was granted, she flew up to the Earth One Space Port where the Indy was docked. She circled the port, instead of going directly in, so that she could get a good look at her ship, “She’s a little small, but she’s fast and strong.”

  “Sixth best ship in the fleet and no doubt will rise in performance under her new captain. Not bad for your first command,” commented Christopher as he watched her. He had never seen Alma as excited as she was now.

  Alma landed the transport in the Indy’s hangar bay. Her senior officers were lined up to meet her. The JC Military was small and even though she didn’t know most of her crew well, she knew of them and them of her, no one was a complete stranger in the Military Guild.

  Christopher as her first officer, took his place next to Afia, her science officer. Alma and Afia never had gotten along well, but Alma considered that to be a good thing. Afia was the kind of woman who saw things in black and white and wanted evidence before making decisions, not instinct. Alma was used to being around people who trusted her instinct and rarely expected an explanation. There was no doubt that working with Afia would be a struggle for them both, but one she felt she could benefit from.

  Afia saluted Alma, “Welcome aboard the Indy Captain.”

  The rest of the officers present followed suit.

  Alma acknowledged her and then walked down the line of her officers, inspecting them. She stopped in front the doctor first.

  Doctor Galen Harvey stepped forward, he was an older man and the most talented doctor in the fleet. He famously had spent an exchange year on a Trappist science ship and had managed to bring a lot of their medical technology back to humanity, “Captain, welcome to the Indy.” Galen had signed up with Alma because he loved adventure as much as he loved learning about new medicine. He, of course, had his choice of any fleet vessel, but when he had heard yesterday that Alma Johnson had been given command of the Indy and she was without a doctor, he put in for a transfer immediately. He knew the next three years with her would be the most exciting of his life. Galen even preemptively backed up all of his work on Earth because he doubted he would live to see the end of the three years.

  “Happy to be here, Doctor. And your Junior Doctor, she’s adequate?” Alma had specifically requested a young woman directly out of the Fleet Academy to join them. She had heard rumors of the woman’s brilliance and sought her out in the dormitory of the Military Guild. It had been an odd meeting, it had been as if Julia had been expecting her to come and offer her the position. As Julia almost answered ‘yes’ before Alma could finish her offer. She even thought she had heard the Junior Doctor quietly say, as she exited her dormitory room, ‘And just like that, it begins.’

  “More than adequate,” replied Galen honestly. At first he had been shocked and annoyed to find that Alma had replaced his trusted assistant with this very unusual young woman, with no record at all until she had joined the fleet. He had no doubt that somehow she had escaped the Ethereal, where criminals and religious fanatics were sent. However, after speaking to her for an hour or so he realized that he didn’t care, she was mesmerizingly bright and could learn a lot from him and he from her. Inexplicably, Galen had the feeling that they had always worked together, as it felt like she knew what he was going to say, before he said it. Additionally, this young woman used a lot of traditional medicine Galen thought was lost to humanity forever. So, he was grateful already to Alma for her insisting on this particular Junior Doctor.

  Next, Alma stopped in front of her chief engineer, Rupert Kelly, who looked a bit sickly and had an eye patch over his right eye, “All right, Rups?” She had learned a lot of her engineering from Rupert as sometimes he was a part-time instructor at the Fleet Academy when, he declared he needed ‘a break from all the pirates in the solar system.’ He and Alma had hit it off immediately, as Alma was a keen student and enjoyed Rupert’s more creative fixes which were fundamental to human engineering, as all JC ships were a hodgepodge of ancient human technology mixed with any alien technology they could get their hands on. No two JC ships were remotely similar and as such engineers usually remained on the same ships throughout their careers, their only reprieve was occasionally rotating through, as visiting instructors, to the Fleet Academy. However, since the engineers had a vested interest in their particular ship, engineers recruited their own teams, were very close groups of individuals and also the most keen to attack pirate vessels and plunder them for technology and parts. As such, JC engineering crews were renowned in the solar system for their ingenuity, stealth, violence and looting.

  “Aye, Captain, just a little ill,” Rups had been up the entire night before drinking. Then, he and another officer had tried to fix a cooling pipe in engineering and he had been hit in the eye. However, Galen had been back and forth all last night and this morning and had only just come back onboard five minutes before, so Rupert was gritting his teeth with pain until he could see the Doctor. He hadn’t wanted to see the scary Junior Doctor, he was sure she was a witch from the Ethereal.

  “And are you missing an eye?” Alma tried to keep the humor from her voice with the older engineer.

  “Could be?” he answered with a slight grin. “I haven’t had the courage to check.”

  “What happened?”

  “Oh, trust me, you don’t want to know. It’s all sorted now though. Just a touch of the flu.”

  Alma gave him a skeptical look, “An eyepatch with a possible missing eye doesn’t seem ‘sorted’. Go to sickbay as soon as we are done here to have your eye repaired or replaced or whatever. We aren’t pirates and I won’t have my chief engineer looking like one.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  When Alma finished walking down the line, she stood in front of them all. She rarely prepared her speeches beforehand and today was no exception, “Everything you have heard about me is true. I didn’t receive this command through luck, I got it through excellence. And as far as what I expect of my crew, I’ll hold you to the same standards that I hold myself. In terms of performance, I don’t do second place and certainly not thirteenth. The Indy has been underperforming for a long time and this will end starting today. I’ll work hard right alongside you to make this happen. I’ll demand a lot from you, but judge myself equally as harsh. Any of you who feels they cannot live up to my standards, please save us all some time and grief and see me afterwards so I can arrange for an immediate transfer.”

  Alma’s senior officers looked ahead and replied, “Aye Captain,” in unison.

  She had read their files, she assumed they wanted to be the best but their last captain had been holding them back for his own greedy purposes. “Dismissed.”

  Only Afia and Christopher remained. Afia addressed her, “Captain, everything is ready for your inspection if you will just follow me.” Afia was the most senior officer on the ship from the former crew, so it was her duty to show Alma and Christopher around.

  Alma nodded and they fell in line with Afia as they left the hangar bay and walked towards engineering.

  Afia said little to Alma and Alma felt no need to say much to her. Afia was a tall and strong woman, ten years older than Alma. She was the one to most publically object to Alma’s position yesterday evening. And Alma knew she was not going to win her over with words anytime soon, so she wasn’t going to waste her breath making small talk now.

  They toured the ship. Everyone stood to attention to meet Alma when they passed through the various sections, engineering, weapons, the galley, communications and sickbay. She had gone through her entire crew manifest, learning everyone’s name and where they were from, last night after a late dinner with Scott. Alma had secretly copied all the crew’s manifest onto a small memory device that was disguised as a small button and undetectable by the Library’s scanners. She had reasoned that th
ey were only 236 people and as she was responsible for everyone’s life, she might as well know where everyone was from. Alma was pleased that the crew that she spoke to individually seemed to warm a little to her by this small attention to detail.

  The last place they stopped on the tour was sickbay. Galen and Julia were there finishing Rupert’s eye replacement. They all looked up as Alma, Christopher and Afia walked in. The Indy’s sickbay was small with only two medical beds and one office. Made even smaller by the Trappist medical technology Galen had squeezed into it and some plants from Earth Julia had insisted on.

  “How’s that eye?” Alma asked.

  “Better than the old one,” Rupert said as he swung off the medical bed and began walking out of sickbay. “Thanks Doctors,” he said loudly as he walked out the door.

  Alma now turned her attention to Galen and Julia, “Everything up to standard here?”

  “We’re all ready to go,” replied Galen.

  “And what about you?” Alma asked Julia, “Are you ready for your first mission?”

  The young woman looked directly into Alma’s serious brown eyes, “Aye, Captain.”

  Alma felt for a moment that Julia had said more than her plain reply, but her ears knew she hadn’t so after a few seconds she dismissed her own instinct and left sickbay.

  Afia then led Alma to the Captain’s Quarters and left her there alone. It was mostly just a bunk in a room with a small desk and no window. Alma went into the bathroom and looked at her reflection in the small rectangular mirror. She smiled and asked herself quietly, “So Captain, how do you like your quarters? Do you think they killed their last Captain in here?” She then checked the entire room for blood stains. Thankfully, she did not find any, but she was unsure what she would have really done if she had. Called the cleaning crew? she thought and frowned.