The Mars One Incident

by Kelly Curtis

  “Allegedly connected to Terra Nova,” another judge corrected her.

  Alma ignored the judge’s interruption, “I ordered my crew to investigate the ship as it’s rare to have two similar ships owned by humans. And I had standing orders to investigate Terra Nova activity on top of any other mission. My crew also discovered that the Alba was emitting low levels of unexplainable radiation, not unlike the radiation we had detected in the Dante’s cargo bay.”

  “How could your sensors detect such low levels of radiation, Captain? I find that difficult to believe as, what are the Indy’s capabilities?” The younger judge looked at through some papers, “Thirteenth in the fleet?”

  “Your rankings are outdated. When I took command of the Indy, my first mission was to Titan Station. While there, I upgraded a lot of the Indy, especially her sensors and weapons.”

  “From whom?” another elder judge asked.

  “A human trader from the starship Explorer and when I arrested the crew of the Dante, I integrated the best of their ship into the Indy as well, as it is a common practice.”

  “Before you took command of the Indy, was it common that you disobeyed direct orders?”

  “No.”

  “What made you disobey direct orders then with regard to the Dante?”

  Alma looked at Shana across the courtroom. Her face was unreadable.

  “Captain, answer the question. There is no need to look at anyone else in the courtroom.”

  “I found women and children onboard the Dante.”

  “Were they a part of the twelve?”

  “No.”

  “Then why did you disobey orders?”

  “I didn’t think it was necessary to kill them or destroy the ship.”

  “You thought you knew better than your commanding officer?”

  “No, I knew myself.”

  “You knew yourself,” the judge said a little mockingly. “And because of that, were you only thinking of yourself when you didn’t destroy the Dante? That actually, it really wasn’t about saving innocent children, regardless of their heritage, but it was about upgrading your ship?”

  “No.”

  “But you did salvage the best parts of the Dante to integrate into your ship?”

  “Yes.”

  “Were you also only thinking of yourself when you confronted the Alba? All the records and scans that have been submitted here show it was a very nice ship.”

  “No. If I had wanted any part of the Alba I wouldn’t have destroyed it like I did. I fired on the Alba because I was only thinking about protecting the JC and Earth.”

  “Why didn’t you meet the Alba head on in open space?”

  “All the information we collected on Mars One showed their ship to be faster and with better weapons. The Indy could not have stopped them.”

  “Are you sure? Your crew stated over and over again that the crew of the Alba was cocky and inexperienced. Isn’t it more likely that you didn’t want to risk your newly upgraded ship in an open fight?”

  “No. You don’t understand. In open space without anything to camouflage ourselves we had no tactical advantage and they would’ve had to be asleep for us to have destroyed them in space. And they weren’t asleep. Quite the opposite, they knew we were waiting for them and what they were carrying.”

  “How would they have known that?”

  “If you check our communications records, you can see that I spoke with the Mars One Station Master twice while in orbit around Mars about the Alba and the weapon they were carrying. It was obvious to me the Station Master was complicit in the matter as he refused to investigate the matter. I knew the Alba could both outgun and outrun me so I made a decision. If the Alba had not been carrying nuclear weapons only their crew would have died.”

  “Unfortunately Captain, none of us here can verify what kind of capabilities the Alba really had. Your crew all say the same thing, but there is no proof that they were the better starship. Regardless, you were prepared to kill some of the twelve based on inconclusive findings of your crew that you have only known for three months?”

  “Yes. I was willing to kill some of the twelve on the findings of some of the best officers in the JC fleet which were not inconclusive, the weapons were there and headed for Earth.”

  “At the time, could you think of other options to resolve this matter?”

  “No, because I exhausted all other options and I was unable to establish any communication with JC Command,” Alma replied.

  “Surely, you and your crew must have been able to think of an alternative? Don´t you think it was more likely your inexperience that lead you to this decision and therefore your inexperience that led to so many deaths?”

  “I assure you my supposed inexperience had nothing to do with my decision. I dare you to call any captain and ask them, given the circumstances, what they would have done,” Alma could not keep the emotion from her voice.

  “We have indeed asked other captains and the military agrees with you Captain Johnson,” another judge replied. Then the judge addressed everyone in the court room, “I am content that we have enough information now to make a judgement. We will be in recess until tomorrow at nine in the morning. Court adjourned.”

  Alma was whisked away then by the guards back to her pink cell. That night she lay on the cold pink floor looking at the pink ceiling going over everything. Wondering what everyone said about her before she had arrived in the courtroom. Wondering what Afia, who hated her, had said. She wondered what a MAC would be like and if she would be able to say ‘good bye’ to her family before she was sentenced.

  July 19th, 2635, The Joint Confederacy, High Court, Atlanta, Georgia, North America

  Alma had hardly slept. That morning she couldn’t eat her breakfast. She was just waiting. By the time the guards came for her, she didn’t care anymore what happened. She thought, This is how all prisoners must feel at the time their fates will be decided. Indifference. She knew that she had made the right decision for herself. Had she let Terra Nova win, she would have been betting on a group she knew nothing about with a new leader that Shana had hinted might be an unhinged revolutionary. Of course, she wanted to see technology slowly introduced back into the JC just as Roscoe had suggested but she didn’t want it done by force. Not through Terra Nova.

  Alma was returned to the same stand she had been on the day before. Everyone else was in their same positions as well and it felt like déjà vu. Alma looked out on her crew, who’s faces revealed nothing of what was going to happen.

  The head judge from yesterday stood up and addressed Alma and the courtroom, “Captain Alma Hattie Johnson after hearing the testimony of your crew and of military experts and looking over the documentation we find you a capable captain who was put in a very difficult position. Therefore, we exonerate you from any crimes committed at Mars One Station. It is our opinion that you were only acting for the best interests of the Joint Confederacy and its people. However, as 305 members of the twelve were killed, as an act of atonement you will give up four levels of your community social standing and lead the people in a public mourning for those who were lost.”

  Alma was relieved to find out that she would not be going to a MAC and she still had her command, but falling four levels in social standing was terrible, as she was only at six out of ten to begin with and if you fell below one, you were sent to the Ethereal. Yes, it was a fair sentence, she thought. It wasn’t a MAC, but she was definitely paying for those deaths. And she wanted to pay some price for although she made the only right choice she could, it was still the wrong choice as there was truly no right choice.

  Alma also realized that this was the most they could do to her. That those involved couldn’t see her punished without revealing themselves to be Terra Nova supporters outright. She wondered then if Admiral Jackson was a supporter of Terra Nova. She looked over at Shana, but she just gave Alma a small smile.

  Alma returned to her apartment after the trial. It felt strange to
be there. it wasn’t long before she received a note signed by all the other tenants that they all voted for her to leave due to her low social standing. She was not surprised. She read through the letter on the floor and then went out and over to Scott’s.

  She couldn’t help but notice all the people staring at her and outright giving her dirty looks on the tram. She didn’t dissuade them, she had killed those people, all a part of the twelve. However, she had done it for all of them. She wanted to shout at them all, and tell them that their world wasn’t peaceful at all, that it was people like her, who were paid next to nothing, who kept their peaceful constructed dreams for them by participating in all the violence of the solar system themselves. But, of course, she said nothing. She just closed her eyes and let the rocking of the tram and the murmur of strangers calm her and remind her, This is what I saved, this innocence. And I deserve this hatred towards me. I am a nightmare, a reminder of what humans can and will continue to do when set to it. We have not evolved from the Great Leap Backwards, we have just realized our weaknesses. Weaknesses I must still confront and live by.

  Alma arrived at Scott’s and he buzzed her in. His apartment was immaculate and in a much better area of town because of his much higher social standing. When she entered his apartment she went to him for an embrace, but he pushed her away.

  “I can’t be with you, Alma.”

  She just stood there looking at him, stunned. She said nothing.

  “I don’t even know you. First, the Dante and now this? How could you?”

  “They were going to bring weapons to Earth to overthrow the government.”

  “You didn’t know that for sure,” he countered.

  “No, but I had a good enough guess.”

  “You killed 300 people, 300 of the twelve on a guess?”

  “In the end, I was right. Had there been no weapons they would mostly be alive. Did your guild crier tell you that?”

  “She told me enough to know that I can’t be with you anymore.”

  “I just saved this government and you think I’m immoral now?”

  “I think you are a sadistic, self-obsessed killer who deserves to die in the cold vacuum of space alone.”

  Alma looked at him then and wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She turned to leave without another word. She went back to her apartment where she found some more hate mail on the floor and a letter from the government. The letter was notifying her that she and Scott had been awarded the privilege of children and that her birth control supply had been cancelled. She ripped up the letter and then began to cry. She sat on the floor and cried for everything.

  After about an hour, she picked herself up and used her IC to call Christopher. He picked up on the first notification, “I need you to come and help me move my things,” she said without preamble. “The neighbors don’t want me here anymore.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  Christopher arrived 45 minutes later and Alma put her things into a few suitcases. She would put the little furniture she owned into storage for the time being. Then she had Christopher help her to her father’s place in Savannah. She had not let him know she was coming, she felt that he would probably know she would be.

  Her father was sitting on the porch when she arrived. The lightening bugs were out. He greeted them both solemnly, “I expected you a bit earlier.”

  Alma dropped her suitcase and went to give her father a big hug.

  He held her tight and said quietly, “It’s okay. It’s okay.”

  After a few minutes he let her go and shook Christopher’s hand. Then they took Alma’s things in and up to her bedroom. Christopher stayed for dinner and no one mentioned Mars One, Terra Nova, children or Scott.

  That night it was unseasonably warm so Alma slept on her father’s upstairs screened in porch as she had done when she was a young girl. She reveled in the moment of the dark night. The clean crisp plain white sheets and the irregular flashes of the lightening bugs around her with the sound of the cicadas near and far. Alma let her mind and body just live for that moment. She looked out into the darkness over Savannah and saw Earth and what humanity had made of it in that moment, alone. She closed her eyes reassured that she had made the right choice. Three-hundred and five of the twelve had died at her hand to protect this sacred life they had made. She let all the hatred wash over her and forgave everyone, all the people who would never understand what she had done for them. She closed her eyes and decided anytime she felt the guilt creeping in she would listen to the night and the cicadas and be reminded of this moment for in this moment, it was all so easy and clear and her actions had been moral, without regret.

  July 20th, 2635, Savannah, Georgia, North America

  Alma woke up with the bright sunrise the next morning. She heard the soft sounds of people on the neighborhood streets and the comforting sound of the tram bell and bicycles. She stared at the sky through the screened in porch and rallied herself, “The worst is over. I still have my command. And if I could kill, I can publically mourn.”

  Alma slipped out of bed and walked into the house, every footstep resonating on the creaky antique wooden floor. She went into her father’s prehistoric bathroom and had a shower. Then putting on her uniform descended downstairs to the open plan kitchen. She could smell the coffee and fresh bread.

  Harold poured a cup of coffee for Alma and handed it to her without saying anything. He had not slept well for the last two days fearing for her future. The last thing he wanted for her was to become a pirate and if she had lost her command that is exactly what would have happened. As it was, she just took a minor hit. He knew more than she did what this meant though, that she had stepped on some big toes in the JC and they could not openly punish her now, but would definitely try to eliminate her in the future. No doubt, they thought his little girl would have let the Alba pass. Even he was surprised that she didn’t let the Terra Nova ship pass. He was proud of her despite everything he had raised her right, to respect all that the JC struggled to preserve, even though he also knew, she didn’t fit in here, she never had.

  After drinking her first cup of coffee in silence, she refilled her cup and her dad’s and said regretfully, “I don’t know if I can eat, but thank you for making some food.”

  “Are you sure, it’s going to be a long day,” Harold commented not wanting to push too much. “Do you want me to go with you publically? I will.”

  Alma smiled, the first time in days, “You said the same thing the first day I went to Military Guild. Do you remember?”

  He gave her a small smile, “I guess it’s what I say when I am truly and deeply concerned.”

  “Thank you Dad,” she said honestly, “But I’ll be fine. I don’t want you to be contaminated by this. I don’t want you to lose anything you or mom have worked so hard for.”

  “I don’t mind. If you need me. Just say the word. I know a lot of people didn’t take the time to understand the situation you were in. They just listened to their guild crier without a second thought to condemn you as a young captain who killed 305 of the twelve. But, I just want you to know. I listened to all the details and other people listened too and many sensible people know that you made the only choice you could to keep our way of life safe. To keep the JC safe. I am proud of you today Alma.”

  Alma’s heart warmed at hearing her dad say that he was proud of her. Her eyes filled with tears, she realized that it didn’t matter what anyone else thought, not Scott or the public, that as long as she did right by her father then she made the right choice, “Thank you, Dad.”

  Alma left her childhood home and decided to cycle to the Savannah Central Station rather than taking the tram. She didn’t walk far before she spotted a free bicycle at one of the bicycle parking areas along the road to the station. She got on it and joined the other cyclists on their way, feeling free.

  On the train, no one would sit too close to her and she got a lot of nasty looks. She said nothing. And tried not to make e
ye contact with those around her.

  July 20th, 2635, JC Headquarters, Atlanta, Georgia, North America

  When she walked into JC Headquarters it was a different situation altogether. She was astounded by the round of applause that she got when she walked in. She had to control herself from not crying. She had just felt like she had run the gauntlet getting there and now this completely contrary reception was almost too much for her emotions. She gave everyone a small smile, not knowing what else to do and continued on her way into Admiral Jackson’s office.

  Shana looked up and then said, “See, you did a good job, even if the rest of the twelve don’t see it that way. Your guild knows you.”

  “Thanks, Admiral.”

  Shana sat behind her desk again, “Now, tell me who is your spy for Terra Nova. You were blocked from contacting any of us. I know it wasn’t you obviously.”

  “I don’t know yet.”

  “Off the top of your head, who do you think?” Shana asked slightly impatient.

  Alma did not want to condemn anyone without evidence, “Let me deal with it, please.”

  “No, you know what I had to do to make sure you didn’t lose your command?”

  “I can imagine.”

  “Right so you owe me at least this conversation. Let me help you. I’ve spoken to Afia. Who’s the spy?”

  Alma took a deep breath, “I suspect Selma Kim my communications officer as it was strange our transmissions to anyone other than Mars One was jammed.”

  “Yes, I thought that too, but when you were in jail, we looked at everything that had happened. She had been truly jammed from getting any communications out further than Mars orbit. Someone onboard was jamming your signal until after it happened. Who else?”