T-Minus Two

by K. G. MacGregor

  “Please tell me Lindsay didn’t become your girlfriend.”

  “Oh, but she did, and that was after I fired back that NASA wouldn’t have needed a dime if it had been able to patent the things it developed. Water filters, smoke detectors, scratch-resistant lenses. Then I went on to list the medical technology, the computer science and telecommunications. You wouldn’t believe how much of that stuff can be traced back to NASA engineers.”

  “I would actually.” Mila would have given anything to see that, a fiery Jancey Beaumont taking on a roomful of bureaucrats. “You would have melted me on the spot. I’m sure you did the same to her.”

  “Something like that.” She chuckled and took on a faraway look as she gazed out the porthole into nothingness. “We ended up spending the night together. And the next three years.”

  A most erotic scenario. Armed with a first name and affiliation, she would have to Google this woman to fill in the blanks of her voyeuristic fantasy. “What happened to her?”

  “Stanford University happened. Sir Charles funded a program on space sustainability and brought me in. He was laying the foundation for Tenacity and Grace was already on board. It was pretty clear by that time that funds for space travel were going to have to come from the private sector.”

  Jancey settled against her pillow and stretched her legs alongside Mila’s under the blanket. Still sitting with her back to the wall in their sleeping chamber, she was the most relaxed Mila had seen her since the analog started.

  “Why didn’t Lindsay go with you?”

  “There are things you don’t give up for someone else, and apparently one of those is tenure at Harvard. She was already living her dream when I met her.”

  “That’s kind of sad.”

  “It is what it is.” If she was heartbroken, it didn’t show. “So where’s Frederica? You gave up on her to do this, didn’t you?”

  “That’s different. She didn’t love me.” Their last encounter had been so vicious, Mila wondered if she’d ever erase the memory. “That’s probably not true. She loved me in her own way, but she hated that she did. Even if I’d done everything perfectly, I still would have been a woman. That wasn’t how she wanted other people to see her.”

  “That’s just screwed up. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my life, it’s not to give a damn what anyone else wants of me. I always made selfish decisions…Monica, Lindsay, Jill. And I felt bad every time. But it would have felt a lot worse trying to be someone else.”

  “Who is Jill?”

  “Jill. Palo Alto. Investment fund manager. Big house. Fast car. I liked her a lot.”

  “Yes, I’ve noticed your affinity for big houses and fast cars. Tell me again why you want to go to Mars.”

  Jancey laughed. “To break my addiction. What’s your excuse?”

  “I thought it would look good on my résumé.” She held a straight face as long as she could as she watched Jancey’s face contort with confusion.

  “For whom?”

  Their laughter was interrupted by a sharp beep from their tablet.

  “That’s the all clear,” Jancey said. “Six hours and eight minutes. That gives us about five hours of sunlight to charge our power packs.”

  Mila slid out of the chamber and flipped the switch on the solar panels. After being cooped up in their bunk for so long, she was unexpectedly disappointed by the all clear. The personal time with Jancey had flown by too fast. “I’ll go out and turn them west.”

  She gathered the pieces of her spacesuit that she’d strewn about the hut while hurrying to get inside the chamber. No one in their right mind would be wishing for another solar flare, but she was. Anything for another chance to sit and talk like friends.

  “I was thinking, Mila…it’s obvious that bunk is plenty big enough for both of us. If you think it would help you sleep better, we could try turning in at the same time. That would cut down on the noise and distractions. As long as we’re up by first light, it should be okay.”

  Okay. It was all she could do not to shout her excitement. “It would save power too since we wouldn’t need light.”

  Jancey nodded seriously. “Good, good. It’s settled then. We’ll turn in around ten and see how it goes.”

  Mila knew already how it would go. Perfectly. Even if she had to pretend to sleep.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The predawn light filtered through the porthole, barely illuminating their sleeping compartment. Jancey had slept soundly for seven hours, more than enough to feel thoroughly rested.

  Near as she could tell, Mila had slept peacefully as well. All week, in fact. Her lanky frame took up slightly more than half the space, but only because of her propensity to drift diagonally in the night, away from the edges of their enclosure and toward the center of the bed. Since their pillows were at opposite ends, Jancey sometimes dealt with feet that came to rest on her stomach.

  It was almost comical how quickly they both had adapted to sleeping together. Or, as she’d phrased it for the logs, syncing their sleep schedules.

  She studied Mila in the gray light. A youthful face on the body of a woman, not a child. If she needed a reminder of that, she had only to dwell on the curve of her breasts beneath the thin shirt that fit her body like a layer of blue skin. Temptation.

  And why shouldn’t she give in? There was no reason to resist something that was inevitable. Already they were committed to living together forever. Mila wanted her. Jancey could feel it, just as she felt Mila’s eyes on her every time she undressed.

  She sat up and plotted her exit strategy from the chamber. With Mila sleeping so close to the doorway, the only way out was to crawl over her. Poised on all fours directly above her face, she was startled when Mila opened her eyes and blinked.

  “This is certainly interesting,” Mila murmured with a faint smile.

  “You’re dreaming. Go back to sleep.”

  “I’m afraid I’ll miss something.”

  Jancey continued her maneuver, but with less care. Her knee crushed Mila’s shoulder, causing her to howl in pain. “You won’t miss a thing. I promise I’ll put it in the log.”

  Since they’d begun sleeping together, she too had taken to wearing shorts and a T-shirt instead of her long thermal underwear. Even when the temperatures outside dropped overnight to freezing, their small compartment stayed warm from their breath and mutual body heat. Not so with the rest of the habitat. The low fifties, she guessed as she pulled on her flight suit and zipped it to her neck. She followed with her spacesuit, taking over Mila’s usual job to conduct the morning walk-around.

  It had been several days since their last disruption from the staff. The fact that they’d been sleeping soundly at the same time made them even more vigilant about checking for sabotage.

  Mila had pulled the blanket over her head, signaling her refusal to get up.

  Jancey passed her comm and headset through the opening. “Put this on. I’m going out to look around. Listen for anything coming in from Mission Control.”

  No obvious changes to the exterior of the dome. Water supply intact. She climbed the ladder to inspect the connections to the solar panels and turned them toward the rising sun. From the top, she could see a vehicle parked on the service road near the habitat two spots away from theirs—Jerry and Wade’s. Two staffers emerged, each lending support to one of the astronauts as they walked them to the vehicle.

  “You aren’t going to believe this,” Jancey said into her comm. “Jerry and Wade are being evacuated. Looks like they’re very sick.”

  “Can you tell what’s wrong?”

  “No, but it’s both of them. Probably something in their food supply. We should go through everything again.”

  In their first examination, conducted on the day they arrived, they’d found a handful of suspicious items. Sealed pouches that appeared swollen, an indication that bacteria were growing inside. Vacuum-wrapped meat that was discolored. They’d used their microscope to examine a packet of dried pot
atoes with suspicious black flecks. Bug droppings. Seasoned pros like Jerry and Wade should have caught those things, so it was worrisome to think something had gotten by.

  “I’ll be out here a while longer. I need to collect some materials for a new water filter.”

  “Keep me posted. I’ll start the food check.”

  The selection committee had promised not to disqualify anyone with a genuine medical emergency. That might not be the case if their health issues sprang from carelessness. She and Mila had a lot more flexibility when it came to food because they ate less than the others. They could afford to discard anything that appeared marginal.

  She removed a plastic bag and trowel from her tool pouch and stooped as low as her spacesuit would allow to scrape up a layer of rocks and gravel. As she filled a second bag with fine sand, another vehicle pulled in, this one even with the dome three sites down from theirs. David and Kamal.

  “Mila, I don’t think it’s the food. Stay away from the water.”

  * * *

  Mila finished the last of her oats, which she’d heated to boiling from their emergency water supply. That had been Jancey’s idea. Always thinking two or three steps ahead.

  The hot breakfast warmed her up, so much that she unzipped her flight suit to her waist and slipped it off her shoulders, leaving her in a tank top.

  Jancey, on the other hand, still looked practically crisp in the same outfit, despite having worn it twenty-two days in a row. She was studying a sample from their water tank through her microscope. “There’s the culprit right there. Fecal coliform. Want to see?”

  “I’d rather not, thank you.” Biology wasn’t Mila’s forte, but even an idiot knew what the word “fecal” meant. “Reminds me of your little energy tablet test on the first day of orientation.”

  “This is worse. It would be like drinking water from a cow toilet. No wonder they were sick.”

  That was way more descriptive than Mila would have liked. She’d grown accustomed to recycling her urine, but didn’t care to think what lay in the bottom of their compost lavatory. “So how did it get there?”

  “It had to be in the water supply wherever they’re loading the delivery truck. That’s the only way it could have infected all of us. They could have gotten a blockage in their stack vent. It causes the sewer or the septic tank to back up into your tap.”

  “Stop already. I’m sorry I asked.”

  “Basically, we need to chlorinate and boil.”

  “That’s going to drain our power packs, especially since we’re down a panel.”

  “I’ll say this…it would have been a lot worse if it hadn’t been so cold up here. That stuff thrives in warm weather.”

  “You don’t think Mission Control would do something like this on purpose, do you?”

  Jancey turned off the light on her microscope and leaned back in her chair, rubbing her eyes. “Seems a little risky. Infections like these can be deadly if they aren’t treated right away. I should write up our findings and send it in.”

  While she did that, Mila added chlorine tablets to the water they’d drawn for the day’s use. “We have to assume this is part of the trial, don’t you think?”

  “Unless we hear otherwise. We should collect more gravel and sand. If we filter and chlorinate, we may not have to boil.”

  Which meant saving their precious power packs.

  Mila dressed in her spacesuit and stepped into the bright sunlight. After trudging several dozen meters up the hillside to a fresh area of scree and silt, she paused to catch her breath. From her vantage point, all eight habitats were clearly visible.

  Four huts away, one of the Norwegians was climbing atop their dome. Had he been suffering ill effects from the water, he likely wouldn’t be out and about.

  “Hey, Jancey. If the problem was at the water source, wouldn’t everyone be sick?”

  “Depends on how much they drank. To tell you the truth, I’m surprised they haven’t sent out a notice.”

  “Me too. It makes me wonder if they did this on purpose. But not to everybody.” She clicked off her comm as she entered through the hatch and removed her helmet. “Like when they stole our solar panel. Maybe they’re just trying to see how we respond.”

  Jancey dipped a medicine dropper into the bucket of water that had run through their rock and sand filter. Peering into the microscope, she said, “Good news. Between the chlorine tablets and the filter, we’re under one part per million. That’s well under the threshold for potable. But to be safe, we should use a new filter for every two liters.”

  “That’s a lot of time outside scraping up rocks. I had to go about fifty meters up the hill to get enough sand for two of these.” Their two-hour limit outside was barely enough to stay ahead of their needs. The whole plan would collapse if another emergency arose, or if they lost time due to another solar flare. On the other hand… “Should I feel guilty for appreciating the fact that we have something to do?”

  Jancey huffed. “You should feel grateful I went outside at just the right moment to see those guys taken out. Otherwise we probably would have been puking our guts out right about now…or worse. I can’t believe we still haven’t heard anything from Mission Control. It’s been over an hour.”

  Mila dressed again in her spacesuit and went back outside to collect more materials for another filter. No one else outside this time, and no vehicles in sight. After climbing the dome to adjust the solar panels to the midday sun, she reentered and stripped out of her space suit.

  “I only have about fifteen minutes left outside. I can go again this afternoon but—”

  The tablet beeped with a message from Mission Control.

  “That better not be another solar flare,” Jancey said, climbing over Mila’s discarded suit to read what it said. “Fecal coliform contamination is suspected in water supplies that were delivered to habitats yesterday. For safety reasons, you should chlorinate and boil all water before drinking it or using it in food preparation. Staff will be onsite today to chlorinate tanks and replace current supplies.”

  “Looks like this wasn’t part of the trial after all,” Mila said.

  Jancey frowned, obviously not sharing her relief. “No, but something about this feels off. We just got our water delivered yesterday. How did those guys get sick so fast? It should have taken at least three or four days for them to get bad enough to be evacuated.”

  “What are you thinking?”

  “That they must have been contaminated earlier. Which means we dodged a bullet. That could have been us. I don’t know about you, but it makes me wonder what else we’ve been careless about.”

  “We have nothing but time,” Mila said. “We might as well double-check everything.”

  “Agreed. No excuses for missing the details. All it takes to knock us out is one small mistake.”

  Mila recalled her promise to Jancey when she chose her for a partner. I will not let you down. This was a reminder to make good on that promise.

  * * *

  Jancey chuckled to herself as Mila stabbed a morsel of food and twirled it around on her fork, studying it from all sides.

  “I’ve never seen a spam in the wild. What do they look like?”

  “They’re small, rectangular shaped. A very hard shell on the outside.”

  “Sedentary, I bet. They seem to have a lot of fat.”

  If Jancey had to describe her mood in one word, it would be satisfied. Working together throughout the day, they’d inspected every single piece of equipment. Every morsel of food. Every item on four different checklists. She was confident they were in great shape.

  Tenacity staff had delivered the new water supply and chlorinated their tank. She still felt guilty for not catching it earlier. The test strips they used weren’t one hundred percent reliable. It wouldn’t have been a big deal to follow it with a look under the microscope.

  Mila held up another spear of meat. “When we get to Mars, will you be breeding these little spams? I envision dozens o
f them climbing around on the furniture, nesting in our shoes until we’re ready to snatch one and cook it for dinner. Then they all scurry under the bed.”

  “Do I detect a tongue in that cheek of yours?”

  Although Mila’s question was indeed posed with humor, Jancey knew her well enough by now to recognize a genuine curiosity. She was a sponge when it came to science.

  “We won’t need to breed our meat. Cloning technology is further along than you think. The Japanese have been working on this for decades. By the time we launch, I’m willing to bet the pilot’s seat we’ll be able to replicate similar types of protein, and I have no doubt our three-D printers can be programmed to crank out tin shells for the little critters.”

  Mila’s eyebrows arched in obvious surprise and her mouth had formed a perfect O. “The pilot’s seat? What makes you think it’s yours to wager?”

  “You can’t possibly think I’m going to let you drive. I have seniority.”

  “I have sharper vision and better dexterity.”

  “JanSolo would disagree.”

  Her cocky face fell flat instantly. “You said yourself my scores would be higher if those chickenshit men had stuck around to be annihilated. I’ll take on JanSolo anytime, anywhere.”

  “You’re on. And don’t expect me to show mercy just because you’re my partner and I’m worried about undermining your confidence.”

  “Oh, I get it. Just in case I win, you want me to think it’s because you let me.”

  Jancey grinned triumphantly. Of all their accomplishments in the past three weeks, the one that pleased her most was their rapport. A welcome surprise. Mila had turned out to be the perfect partner. She had determination and curiosity. A dry wit that moderated her impatience and frustration. And all of it in a package that piqued the imagination.

  Grace had been right to urge her toward Mila. Marlon would have been competent and professional, whereas Mila was all that, plus the little something extra she could never have gotten from a man.

  “I like how we handled the water issue today,” Mila said. She’d finished her dinner and was wiping down her utensils with an antiseptic cloth. “We think alike and that makes us very good partners.”