Those were all important facts that Tendai would learn much later. Regardless, the two had eventually become involved.
Practice makes perfect
Jumping off his bucket seat, Dedrick plunged forward and grabbed François’ right arm, stopping him in his tracks. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“What? I’m opening the cabin door, like I’m supposed to?” replied François.
“I would not do that if I were you.” Dedrick was pointing at a bright red light slowly pulsing to the left of the door.
François immediately removed his hand from the handle, but it was too late.
All at once, the simulator’s four alarms suddenly trumpeted in unison, and all the lights in the room came on, full bright.
Dedrick, shaking his head, let out a heavy sigh.
Behind one of the glass panels surrounding the room, Dr. Arnold’s silhouette was starting to emerge, as the computerized black tint was quickly fading away. The lab director was leaning forward, both hands on the console in front of him for support and staring, with pure rage in his eyes. Putting his hand back in his pocket and turning slowly towards him, François simply said with a tone of mild indifference, “Sorry.” Then, glancing at Dedrick with a smirk on his face, the culprit gave his colleague a wink and exited the room.
Everyone stood there without a word, watching him disappear down the corridor, a cameraman on his tail. Dedrick didn’t move for a few seconds, stoic and silent, while the cleaning crew hastily entered the pod to reset everything.
“Seriously?” he thought to himself.
A few minutes later, the Russian astronaut, crossing a doorway that looked more like a submarine hatch than it did a door, entered a small red and white room, his every movements followed by two cameras secured to the ceiling.
François was lounging on a small couch in front of a round table adorned by a basket of fruits.
“So, what is it exactly that’s wrong with you again? Because there’s definitely something wrong with you, my friend!” Dedrick’s tone conveyed an equal part of serious irritation and one of absolute amazement.
“I just don’t understand why you do it. I don’t even understand what it is you’re trying to do. If it’s to have us both fired, then you’re doing a fine job! What do you think the guys back at headquarters are gonna say? We only have one job to do, ONE! Now Dr. Arnold is going to have a field day with this latest stunt of yours and one more reason to try and replace us. What were you thinking?”
“I don’t know. I was just distracted I guess…”
“How can you be distracted during a test? You know they are watching us and evaluating everything. Trust me, all they’re thinking now is one distraction like that on Mars and we’re all dead in seconds.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m just tired of these simulations.”
“Come on, François! You know how important this is for all of us. Can’t you take at least one thing seriously, once in your life?” Dedrick was losing patience.
The two were now engaged in a serious back and forth conversation, as they often did, with Dedrick pacing around the egg-shaped room, babbling to no end, and at times almost shouting in frustration while François, lounged in a reclined position against the soft cushion of his seat, eyes closed and smiling, was enjoying some grapes from the fruit display in front of him.
“I really don’t see what the big deal is,” he finally said to the Russian.
“What? Are you for real? We barely got out of Dr. Arnold’s office alive after you pulled that ‘Karaoke’ stunt last week, and you don’t see what the big deal is?”
It wasn’t so much what François had done or was saying that infuriated him, it was the way he always seemed to rejoice in those moments that drove Dedrick mad.
The Russian commander grabbed a fork from the counter nearby, and still talking, started poking around at a couple of apples on the table in front of François.
The Frenchman, his eyes still closed and not noticing his friend had moved so close to him, was just about to grab a few grapes when he felt the fork brush his fingers.
“Hey! No need to get violent, Mr.!” he said teasingly. “What happened? You didn’t get lucky last night?”
Dedrick was about to say something back when a feminine voice behind them said, “You two sound like an old couple!”
Both immediately shifted their attention to the doorway where their team’s biochemist was standing, holding a tea cup in her left hand. Pale vapors of smoke could be seen rising against the poorly lit corridor behind her.
Sabrina was a little over one and a half meters tall, slightly overweight for her height but still sexy. Sporting long dark hair resting evenly on her shoulders, and eyes of a bluish tint, she had a Latin complexion, and as François liked to say, a nice rack. Dedrick preferred to mention that “she had a smile that could melt any heart.”
And although, in her red and white outdoor PLS suit, the feminine curves of her body were not readily apparent, the feminine scent of her perfume and the way her hips swayed when she walked both confirmed without doubt that she was all woman.
She started walking towards Dedrick.
“Hey Sabrina, come on in, love. Grab a drink from the cooler, and come join me.”
“Stop calling me love, François. You are going to get me in trouble.” She was holding her index up and pointing in his direction in a reprimanding gesture.
François, his legs crossed under the table and both arms up behind his head, simply reclined even further back in his seat, a big smile on his face.
“How could he ever be mad at her,” he thought to himself. She was so cute and sexy when she was mad like that, and that Spanish accent, “I love that Spanish accent of yours, Sabrina Cherie,” he thought.
“Plus, I already have a drink, if you didn’t notice, Mr. Columbo,” she continued, raising her cup. She then walked to the other side of the room, put her coffee down on the table, and sat next to Dedrick.
The three were now quiet. Dedrick, looking out the only small window in the room, far into the darkness of the desert outside, was thinking about his dog, Rita, who he had been forced to leave behind with his brother back home when he had received his acceptance into the Mars First project six years earlier. He truly missed her. For a moment, he imagined Rita in a space suit and smiled to himself.
Sabrina was slowly stirring her coffee while trying to decide if she should add another cube of sugar in it or not, when François suddenly bolted out of his seat.
“OK, you really want to know what my problem is? I’m tired of doing the same thing every day! Yeah, that’s what my problem is, and you know perfectly well what I’m talking about. How many times have we done this simulation? How many times do they want us to get it right? We know it so well, we couldn’t screw it up even if we tried! No, I’m telling you man, I think they’re just buying time, that’s what they’re doing. Stalling while the ‘big guys’ fuck it up with their stupid politics and their budget concerns! I’m telling you, Dedrick, we’re ready. I’m ready! I just want to go!”
Sighing heavily, “I don’t know, I just don’t know anymore,” finally said Dedrick, shaking his head. “Something’s definitely wrong with you.”
Will you marry me in space?
Liu had managed to decline every advance teammate Najib Shamsi had attempted on her and cursed herself for it. In truth, she liked him a lot but was too shy to act on it. Of course, the opportunities to meet anyone were limited. Outside of their daily training, the future astronauts were confined to their own quarters, with no other distractions than an indoor pool, a recreational area, and a beautiful but gated compound. But the Indian man had finally worn her out, eventually tricking her in accepting his invitation to a challenging game of ping pong. His “group” competition had turned out to be just the two of them. Of course, he had later admitted that it was François who had given him the idea. The Frenchman had heard through the grapevine that Liu was a ping pong champion back in her home country, and he had a feeling she would be hard-pressed to turn down a chance to play. He had also warned the Indian the petite woman had been known to be a fierce adversary. On that last point, Najib would later wonder if the Frenchman had spoken from personal experience that day. Regardless, he had been right. Later that same week, Liu was talking to Ladli about her new-found love and she was radiating.