Gus

by Terry Smith

  “My research is in Astrobiology which is basically the origin of life, planetary systems and the future habitability of other planets, plus some other stuff. A lot of people seem to enjoy discussing topics in this field, but I am not too sure any of them really believe in the entire process. To them we are here, and here is all there is. Who knows, we may be heading to an area where all of this will be explained, and you will all be witnesses. Boy, could I write a book about our travels someday, I hope.”

  “The voice we all heard was the closest I think I have ever been to something real about my studies. I have played the words over and over in my head. I don’t want our journey to continue, but I do hope we hear the voice again and hopefully even see where it is coming from. I really had goosebumps when we heard the voice, and still get them when I think of it.”

  “I’ll be next” volunteered Dr. Ivan Trabosci. “I am the first physician with a Board Certification in Space Medicine, probably since no one really knew the questions to ask to determine my knowledge in this area. But, I need to cover something about myself. I actually have two marriages, one to my wonderful wife Betty and the second to my love of medicine. Both wives get angry at me for not spending enough time with them, but I have learned to deal with that by going to the one who is not angry at me for the moment for comfort. My wife, the real one, and I have a wonderful daughter who is studying to follow in her Dad’s footsteps in the same field, and I am sure she will be much better at it that I am. I will need to warn her future husband that although he will be a lucky man to land such a wonderful girl, he will also need to deal with her other love. There is still a lot I need to learn about what happens to the human body in space and outside of our environment, and I guess you will be some of my test tubes. Good luck to both of us and I, like the others, am excited to be part of this team. By the way, I make house calls”

  “I want to add that I am a true believer in a supreme being. I have been able to do some things in my medical practice that I have not been good enough to do. But, I don’t split fees so I just accept what has happened.”

  “Hi, I am Lorencio Hernandez, a zoologist specializing in animal evolution. I am happy that we are doing this as I think it is the first time I have seen us laugh together. Please call me Larry, because if you call me Lorencio you might think I can speak Spanish, which I can’t. My parents were both born in the United States, Texas to be specific, and their Spanish was already poor so we always spoke English at home. I am recently divorced, which was something really sad for both my former wife and myself, and I really don’t know if either one of us understood what drove us apart. Fortunately we had no children, so all we had to divide was some meagre possessions. Back to more pleasant information, I played football while in college, and was actually pretty good, but didn’t see going pro as a good option as I really hurt after the games. I don’t like pain. I have had the opportunity to work in the past with Dr. Anthony, err I mean Billie Jo, and I am really excited to be working with her again and to be part of this project.”

  “The people on Earth are seeking a new planet to inhabit as we seem to have screwed ours up a little. The feeling is that none of the planets that we may discover will mirror the conditions on Earth, and part of the solution is to make modifications in humans to make it possible to live in those conditions. If I would have known about making modifications when I was in college I would have made myself a little taller and a lot more handsome.”

  “Ivan, I am particularly pleased that you are part of our group to help with some of the medical component of this evolutionary stuff. Studying evolution as it occurred in the past and putting that together with designing and controlling evolution under specified conditions is a daunting task. Historical evolution took hundreds of years; we will have only a few years to meet our deadline in response to the deteriorating conditions on Earth.”

  Jim Struthers took a break from monitoring the electronic equipment in the spacecraft to give his introduction. “I’m James Struthers but have long ago quit using James, preferring Jim. I also have a notable academic background at a technical college studying electronics. As far as electronics is concerned, I guess I am pretty good as recently my wife bought our toaster to me to fix it. I took care of the problem in no time – the new one I purchased at Target works fine. My job is maintenance of the Space Station America and installing additions which are taken up periodically by the various missions, plus I assist Col Lambert in the control of the space ship. Sorry, but it will take me a while to call him Woody. I had hoped to be joined when we reached the Space Station by a co-worker who is currently one of the quarantined individuals on the SSA but I guess we have a problem with that assignment now. I can fix some of the problems with our vehicle, but I do want to report that neither I, nor Col Lambert, have found any problems with the monitors or equipment, other than the fact that it is not responding. All of the internal operations are working correctly. So, I guess we can float around until we run out of food and water, or until we get tired of each other and we have a free for all.”

  “Like everyone else I am happy to be with this group, even though I am not a member of the world famous, or soon to be, Dream Team. I notice that many of you have your test equipment and other electronics. If any of you have any problems let me know and I will skip on down to Target and pick up a replacement. Well, it worked for my wife.”

  “I feel it is a big responsibility keeping the log for our travels, but I am afraid that for now the pages will be a repetition until we get to wherever it is that we are going, if anywhere. I know we were told to not be afraid, but I guess I am afraid. Normally I like to feel that everything can somehow be fixed, or replaced at Target, but whatever is happening to us is out of our control and I can’t fix it. I don’t like the feeling of just moving rapidly into nowhere, but that is what we seem to be doing. I guess that is about it for me.”

  Mr. David Watson introduced himself by stating “I am David, but answer to Dave. Either is ok with me. I have always had a nickname which my older brother came up with, and I am traveling thousands of miles to escape that nickname. I am single, and always have been. I have really liked some women, but in every case we drifted apart – never any major disagreements, just didn’t seem like a fit for either one of us. I haven’t given up. I want more to be a father than a husband, but generally I guess they go together. I have enjoyed my career in Meteorology, but quickly tired of simply reporting the weather and wanted to know more about the causes of weather conditions and hope someday we can discover a way to minimize the terrible weather events that are increasing in both number and intensity. I have come to love my research and this project seemed like the ideal opportunity to move forward in some of my theories and data analysis.”

  “I guess it was widely known in our group that I had a challenge to lose a little weight in order to be allowed on this mission. I was successful but it was a lot of hard work. I think I will be able to maintain my weight and even lose a little more, thanks to the wonderful meals that NASA has provided for us. Somehow I think someone at NASA has a real mean streak. Wanda, I am looking forward to playing a game of chess against you. I am not very good but I assume we will have some time for me to work on my skills, but I hope not.”

  “I appreciate the introductions I have heard tonight. I have been caught up viewing you as very highly regarded leaders in your fields, and never really thought of you as the people you are. You are really some outstanding and interesting people.”

  Col Lambert was sitting next to Dave, so he was the next to speak. “I am so used to being called Colonel instead of by my name, it will be nice to hear my nickname from our group, which is Woody. I have been in the Air Force for 26 years, with the last 10 working with the space program, specifically the U.S. Space Force, which I really love. You might have heard that in the Air Force we get flight time, but only after I got into this program did I learn that time on space ships doesn’t count. At
least I get free meals while in space, but as Dave has reminded us this isn’t really much of a benefit. I also have two wives – the Air Force and my beautiful wife Beverly. We have always waited to have children until we were in a permanent location, which never happened, so we have each other and our pet Collie, Sylvester, who is the ranking officer in our household. I am third in the chain of command.”

  “I was really interested in hearing about the research you will be doing while on Space Station America. Even though my assignments in the Air Force and the new Space Force have sometimes been exciting, the work you are doing goes far beyond simply working with air navigation. I am excited to be on this mission with this distinguished group, hoping that some of your brilliance would rub off on me, and I am still hoping for the best. I was relieved to be told by our visitor not to be afraid as I was getting ready to wet my pants when the voice was there. I guess like Jim I am still a little afraid, but fear is always a little less when it is shared with brave souls like yourselves.”

  Dr. Evin Phillips is the last to speak. “I’m Evin. I actually dreamed for many years about becoming a Catholic Priest, but that came to an end in my late teens when I discovered girls and decided I really wanted to have a little higher salary than I would get as a Priest. So, here I am in Cosmology, which doesn’t have a lot of demand to receive a high salary. I am one of the few individuals who still smoke, but always have to go outside to enjoy a cigarette. This is a great opportunity to quit that bad habit as going outside to smoke doesn’t really appeal to me now. But maybe when I go outside to use the restroom facilities I can catch a quick smoke. I really have no specific research goals dealing with the field of Cosmology but am hoping that this expedition will give me greater insight to add to the research I have done in this subject. I am married, with no children yet. My wife is an elementary school teacher and is really dedicated to what she does. I already miss her and hope to be back with her again soon.”

  “I hope that the voice we heard was God. Who else could it be? Maybe we are approaching heaven and will get to meet him, or her. Our faiths, regardless of what yours is, will help get us through this experience. We should keep praying, and holding hands sounds like it would be a good part of our prayers to help to continue to bring us all together.”

  So, that is the group. The introductions are over and they find themselves gazing out the three small windows in the spacecraft. It is still dark, but they all think they can see some stars far in the distance. The spaceship has an internal telescope that also detects stars in the direction that the vehicle is heading. No one speaks, but all seem to be doing silent prayers. Then the voice “It’s pretty, isn’t it?”

  Evin was the first to speak “Is that you?”

  “Yes, it is me. I have been listening to your stories, but I am sure there is a lot more to each one of you. I promised I would be with you, so here I am.”

  “But we want an image to look at” Evin responds.

  “Sorry, but I have so many I don’t know which one to use.”

  “Are you male or female, a question we have all wanted to know?”

  “Well, I can be whatever you want?”

  “Well, what do we call you – that should be an easy one for you.”

  “Not really, but I kind of like Gus – so call me Gus.”

  Dave chimes in “You can’t be just Gus. We expected something with a little more pizazz.”

  “Sorry, I don’t do pizazz anymore, so it will have to be Gus. I just wanted to let you know I am still around.”

  “But wait, where are we going?”

  Gus responds, “I don’t really know, but I will make sure you are safe getting there and you will be safe when you arrive. Don’t be afraid.”

  And then it’s quiet and the group is back to themselves. They don’t know where they are going and what it will be like when they get there. All they know is that they have no control over the flight of the vehicle or who is controlling their voyage – or why they have been taken away from their original destination. It’s quiet now in the vehicle and everyone is thinking their own thoughts, but they are not afraid, not even Jim and Woody, after they heard from Gus a second time.

  During the voyage they occupy their time by talking about family at home, their hobbies and some of their past victories and challenges. Wanda broke out her magnetic chess set and began to take on all comers, one by one. She was unbeatable until finally Woody won a game and everyone cheered for the Air Force. Of course, she got her revenge but could no longer say that she had a perfect record.

  Jim kept them up to date on the number of days they had been in flight as all of the days seemed to merge into one long day. There wasn’t even a way to tell when there was day or night as they had long ago lost the Sun in the Earth’s galaxy. Every day Jim would ask if anyone had anything for the log, but all anyone had to say was that they wish they were back on Earth or that they missed their loved ones.

  As the time passed the group got quieter and quieter, looking out the windows more often into pitch blackness. Their thoughts expanded to all of the different possible outcomes of their flight and wondered how there could be a positive outcome to this whole thing. They continued to believe in the protection provided by Gus, but the unknown nature was still concerning to all of them.

  Evin led prayers for the group a couple of times a day, always with everyone holding hands. The prayers were simple, generally asking to be returned to Earth safely and for their loved ones to keep their faith that they would return. The group would often add things to Evin’s prayers which were based on the same requests. They even started to pray to Gus as they were convinced he, or she, was God. They discussed him often after prayers wondering how he ventured on their space ship and what he meant by making sure they would be safe. If he could do that, why couldn’t he just return them to Earth? That even became part of their prayers as they continued their flight.

  Chapter 3

  The Landing – But Where?

  Several days pass, which turn into weeks. Outside they pass stars and other lights, followed by darkness again. The group is becoming more and more anxious, but acknowledges that they are not truly afraid. Their communications with earth still aren’t working and Woody still can’t navigate the vehicle. They know they are under someone else’s control and talk about who, or what, that might be. Will they look like them? Will they be able to communicate with them? Will they be friendly or will they imprison them in some way, or even kill them all? Is it a foreign power from Earth? Their questions are many, their answers are none. Still nothing from Gus, but somehow they feel he is around. Maybe it is even Gus who has taken control of the space ship and taking them to somewhere he wants them to be.

  The group continues to have meaningless conversations as they soar through space. Seldom do they discuss the possibilities that may come of their situation, and when they do they continue with the belief that everything will be all right. Evin is the one who is the most positive and leads daily prayers concerning their flight. Often the prayers deal with the families and loved ones on Earth that they maintain the faith that the group will be safe and returned to them. Their faith and devotion are strong. Most of the time the people in the group sit in silence with their own thoughts of their past lives and their futures. They look out of the small windows on the space craft as if they will see something that will be familiar, but the chances of that get smaller and smaller the longer they are in space.

  Every day Jim asks for input into his log, and every day no one has anything to add. He gives them an update on the days in space, but now it is only an estimate. Their clocks don’t synchronize with satellites so they don’t work. They don’t have sun rise and sun set to watch the days pass, in fact they could go days without any light on the outside. His estimate is that they have been traveling just over two months. The group still say they feel positive about the outcome, but their enthusiasm isn’t
as strong as it was.

  The living arrangements are tight. There are no showers and the two sleeping cots are always in use but not based on any schedule. The group often sleep in their chairs which aren’t really made for comfort. The weightlessness helps prevent backaches, but it is starting to affect them in strange ways. The food has no variety and they are starting to complain but there is no one to really complain to except each other. They want to return to earth and make the people at NASA eat the same rations for two months and see how they like it. It is amazing that there hasn’t been any arguments with their being in such close quarters. The men are allowed to use the women’s rest room. Woody and Jim take turns monitoring the navigation and communication equipment which still doesn’t allow any control of the flight of the space ship and there is still no communication. The days are monotonous. The daily prayers seem to help maintain their spirits. Still nothing from Gus.

  One morning there is light outside the vehicle and they seem to be slowing down. Their vehicle begins a descent and they land, gently, and they congratulate Woody on the landing. Woody responds, “Thanks, but it wasn’t me. I still have no control. The interior controls and equipment continue to work, but nothing on the outside.” They look out of the windows, and it appears a little barren but they see hills and mountains and even a river off in the distance. It looks peaceful enough, but looks can be deceiving.