“I think I’m gonna go lay down, buddy. I’ll see you at dinner,” he said before exiting the balcony through the same single door.
“Sure. See you there,” replied the Russian, half under his breath.
Leaning back against the wall behind him, Dedrick aimed his gaze at the small sparkling lights past the dark forest in front of the complex. Thousands of vehicles, small as specs, were rushing along the string-like highways, barely visible in the far distance. He suddenly recalled the footage of a bomb striking a similar looking city on the news the previous night. A new war had just broken out between two Asian countries he could not remember the name of. There was so much unrest in the world. He was going to miss many things about Earth but that, not so much.
It was only after a long phone conversation that Lars was able to convince the other board members to authorize a leave of absence for the crews to go spend some time with their families. He had felt very strongly that the astronauts could benefit greatly from the break. After all, they only had a few months left before the big launch, and it would not be long before the whole complex would be locked down for obvious safety reasons.
To everyone’s surprise, however, one of the crew members had preferred to stay put.
François, who had initiated the whole “vacation” idea, had been the first to turn it down. He had quickly explained he did not really get along with his family back in France and didn’t see the need to go anywhere. Dedrick and Vera had chosen to go to their respective stumping grounds together. Vera who loved traveling was looking forward to seeing Russia, but most of all, her sister, Cathy, who had recently moved back to Boston with a new man. In fact, the younger sibling was dying to meet the famous Russian commander in real life. Dedrick, on the other hand, wasn’t so sure he wanted anyone to meet his dysfunctional parents, but to his mother, he could never say no.
Sabrina had been hesitant to head back to her Guatemalan hometown at first for fear of her stepfather’s wrath but had eventually agreed to it at the insistence of her mother. Going back would stir some painful memories of her sister, Sofia, who had passed away two years earlier from ALS, a lethal disease, but this would most likely be the last time she would see her mother in person. In truth, most were glad to spend these few days apart from each other, regardless of where they went. After more than ten years of constant proximity, only punctuated by rare personal time off the base, the change in venue had been a welcomed one.
However, things were a bit different for one of the future astronauts. Like François, Ladli had stayed at the complex. Born an orphan, she had left her second foster family on her eighteenth birthday and never looked back. The following years had been challenging for the Irish girl. Moving from job to job and having one bad relationship after another, she had also been left to deal with an abortion on her own when her fiancé had left her for a co-worker three weeks before the wedding; something she never talked about. That same year, she had met Patsy, her first lesbian experience. Several months later, Patsy had broken her heart too. That’s when Ladli had thought of enlisting for the MSF, Médecins Sans Frontieres, an international humanitarian organization, in the hope to be sent to another country altogether, but she had abandoned the idea soon after. A chance encounter with an old high school girlfriend in a book store had been the catalyst for her interest in continuing her education. Eventually securing a good job as Lab Assistant for a large corporation, while taking night classes at the University of Dublin, Ladli had finally obtained her MA in 2013 and applied for the Mars First contest the very same year. After having been selected as one of the twenty-six in late 2014, she had sold her one bedroom flat and left Ireland for good. She had never returned to civilization after that, always finding a good reason to stay at the Mars First headquarters. This time, she could have gone with Tendai to visit his friends and family. He had asked her to, but she could not deal with that much social stimulation anymore and had preferred to stay put. For the past ten years, the Mars First complex and its residents had been her home and family, and the redhead, green-eyed woman had no real urge to go anywhere.
Chapter II
Twenty-three days before lift-off
Lars walked into the lobby, his daily report in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other. Don Arnold, Mars First’s operation manager, was sitting in a low-back chair, facing the chief mission controller. The two men were deep in a technical conversation when Lars interrupted them.
“Don, I need to talk to you. Can you come to my office?”
With those words, Lars passed the two men without looking at them and disappeared through a door at the other end of the lobby. A sign, “Authorized Personnel Only” hanging from the door, squeaked a couple of times as it rebalanced itself.
“Sure Lars. I’ll be right there! Sorry, I guess we’ll have to continue this discussion later.” He got up and left the room.
Don entered Lars’ office with a smile.
“What’s the word, boss?”
Lars was leaning back in his office chair, looking at Don with a frustrated look. He dreaded what he was about to say, in a way. He never liked lying, no matter the reason, but it wasn’t the first time he had had to make decisions that didn’t please him, or the people around him. It was part of the responsibility that came with his position as CEO of Mars First.
“I want to address a few things with you. Have a seat.”
Don wasn’t quite sure how to take the comment. Suddenly feeling a bit nervous, he turned to the small counter against the wall, where the coffee machine was. “Mind if I grab a coffee first?”
“Go ahead.”
While he was pouring himself a cup, Lars began, “Don, I’m afraid we may be facing a few complications we had not counted on. I just talked to Robert Carone at the Swiss embassy. The mayor’s office is putting some serious pressure on him to have access to our portfolio. I’m not sure why or what they are after, but we can’t have our sensitive information fall into the wrong hands. I just don’t trust anyone these days.”
Still listening, Don came back to Lars’ desk and sat down across from him.
“What do you mean?”
“I talked to our security adviser, Michael Blem. He is worried about the daily traffic we have with the media coming in and out, and employees changing shifts and doing the same. He thinks we need to lock down the facility sooner than we had planned.”
“How soon?” asked Don, sounding concerned.
“Now.”
His jaw dropped.
“You mean today? Right now? Then, I… I need to go home and tell my wife, see my kids. I mean, I can’t just leave without telling my family what’s going on. I need to take care of a few things first. It wasn’t supposed to be for another two weeks, at least. What’s going on, Lars?”
Don was getting worked up and somewhat alarmed at the possibility of being stuck inside for the next twenty-three days, the number of days left until the launch.
“I know. Believe me, I don’t like it any more than you do, but we are facing some serious challenges and we cannot let anything go wrong. Too much is at stake. That’s why I wanted to talk to you first. I know we can’t just lock everybody in like this. I wanted to give you a head’s up. I’m going to call an emergency meeting in the next hour. We have no choice, I’m afraid.”