“What does he do at Apollo?”
“Um, I think his official position is something like vice president of accounting or something like that. I’m not sure, really. I know it holds no real responsibility. It’s more of a paid job until he retires. Which I don’t know why he hasn’t taken retirement already.”
“Don’t worry about him. That would take more time than we care to take. Okay, he’s got the company. You have the brain. I have money. And Damien is our ally.”
For the first time since this shit began, Ryker smiles. “We do have all of that, don’t we?”
“That and Mars isn’t inhabited by a damn thing.” I pat his leg then lean over and kiss him, sending us to that place only we can take each other. When the kiss ends, he and I are both smiling.
“Here are the copies. I put them in this large manila envelope for you,” the secretary says.
“Great,” I take it and we both get up. “See ya.”
I keep my mouth shut as we walk out between the two CIA pricks and go to the elevator. As the doors close, Ryker puts the car seat on the floor and wraps his arms around me, giving me a real kiss. When the elevator stops, he ends the kiss. “Baby, you really are my hero.”
“And you are mine,” I tell him. “Never doubt that for a second. We’re a team, you and I. What you want, I want. And I want you to see Mars.”
The glazed look in his eyes does something to me. “Gia, you don’t have to…”
I stop him with another kiss. “Shh. I want it too.”
We step out of the elevator with our arms around each other as the doors close. “The baby!” we both shout.
He throws out his arm to stop the doors from closing and grabs the car seat with our son in it. “That was close!”
I clutch my chest and try to calm down. “Damn, baby!”
“I know,” he says as he shakes his head.
Walking out of the office has us knowing things are very different. But not so much so that we can’t handle those changes. Nothing worth having is ever easy. And neither of us mind working hard.
The future doesn’t scare me. I hope it doesn’t scare him, either.
RYKER
“I’m broke, Gia,” I say as I drive my wife and son home. “For the first time in my life, I am dead broke.”
“How does it feel?” she asks me from the backseat as she looks at me through the rearview mirror.
“I’m still breathing. It doesn’t cost a dime for the air I need to stay alive.”
“Are you feeling worried at all?”
Digging deep into myself, I look for worry, dread, fear, and I find none. “I’m not. You know I think I can deal with this.”
“And it doesn’t hurt that you’re married to a pretty rich chick, either,” she says with a laugh.
“Oh yeah, you have money. I kind of forgot about that. Funny, huh?” I stop at a red light and look back at her. “Guess you can be my sugar-momma.”
“I got you, Big Daddy.”
We both laugh then quickly shut up as the baby starts to move. “We almost woke him up,” I whisper.
She pats his little leg to settle him. “We don’t want to do that. He’s going to want to eat as soon as he wakes up and I can’t take him out of this car seat.”
Driving home in silence, I think about how I really feel. I’ve had everything I’ve ever worked for taken away from me. By a man who doesn’t deserve it. A man who’s lied about me and stolen from me.
I should be furious. I should be seething with anger. But all I can be is happy. Looking in the rearview mirror, I see my gorgeous wife, dozing and the car seat with my son in it. Happiness is all I can feel.
So what if I’m not a powerful CEO anymore. So what if I have only a few dollars in my wallet. So what if I have no clue what I’m going to do in the future. I have people to love and they love me.
That’s all I need!
The sky is still blue. I don’t have money and the sky is still blue. The breeze still blows, the birds still chirp. Life goes on. Money or not, life goes on.
“Baby, I’m starving,” Gia says as she shakes her head in an effort to stay awake. “I’ve got money in my purse. Can you pull through somewhere and get us something to eat?”
“Dollar burgers?” I ask with a chuckle. “Anything off the dollar menu, Gia.”
She laughs and sighs. “You’re hilarious.”
“I think I’m going to be good at being poor,” I tell her.
She wrinkles up her nose as she shakes her head. “You’re not going to be poor. Not a damn thing is going to change. We’ll keep the staff at the house. The cars, the house, all of it will remain the same.”
“But I’m not going to be paying it. It won’t be me keeping us wealthy.” Then it hits me like a brick wall. “I’m going to be a kept man. I really am going to be kept. I’ll have to ask you to give me money. I’ll have to rely on you, Gia.”
“So?” she says like it’s not a great big, huge, deal.
“So? So, Gia? That’s not cool!” I pull into the drive-through of a fast food place and have to reach back for money to pay for the cheap stuff. “I need some cash.” The words feel thick on my tongue.
She places a twenty in my palm and runs her fingertip over it as well. “Don’t ever think about this money as mine. This is our money. The way it’s always been. Now order me a burger and fries and a bottle of water, please.”
I think about what she’s said as I look over the menu. Our money. Her money is now, our money. Nope, it still feels bad!
“Two cheeseburgers, all the way with mustard. Two small fries and two bottles of water, please.”
“That’ll be twenty-five dollars and seventeen cents,” the man in the box tells me, freaking me out.
“How much?” I ask as this has to be a mistake. It’s a couple of burgers and some fries and water, for God’s sake!
“Twenty-five, seventeen, sir. And do you need extra ketchup?”
“How many ketchups come with it?”
“One small packet. Most people want extra,” he explains.
“Baby, do you need more than one packet of ketchup?” I ask Gia.
“Please,” she says.
“Yeah, give me some extra ketchup.”
“How many?” he asks.
“Um, how about two or three more?”
“You want two or three?” he asks, annoying the crap out of me.
“What does it matter? Put in a couple or so.”
“There’s a thirty-cent charge for each one. So, give me an exact number” he says, sending me into a tizzy.
“Thirty cents each? For little tiny packets of fucking ketchup? Are you fucking serious right now?”
“Ryker!” Gia hisses at me. “No cussing! They’re going to spit in our food!”
“Sir! You can’t speak to me like that! You know what, I’m deleting this order. Find somewhere else to eat. I’m refusing you service,” he tells me, sending me into a rage.
“Listen here, dipshit! You can’t refuse me service because I’m deleting this order. That’s highway robbery, anyway! So, fuck you, prick!” I peel off and then I hear the baby crying and Gia’s glaring at me and I think I may have just messed up.
“Pull over. Now that you’ve woken him up, I have to get him out and feed him. Way to go!”
Pulling into a parking lot, I spot a little pizza place. “I’m sorry. I am, Gia. But that guy was crazy.”
“No, you were the one being crazy,” she tells me, making my jaw drop.
“Me?”
She nods as she gets the baby out. Spotting a little pizza place in the strip mall I’ve pulled into, I get out of the car. “Where are you going, Ryker?”
“To get us a couple of slices of pizza and some water. I’ll be right back.”
I can feel her icy stare pummeling my back as I walk away from the car. Am I really the crazy one?
GIA
Icicles are forming on the trees as I look out the window of my parents’ far
m house. “Ryker, can you see if Noah needs his diaper changed? I smell something funky.”
Ryker gets off the bed and goes to check on our son, who’s sleeping in his little playpen at the foot of the bed. “Yep, he’s ripe. But won’t it wake him up if I change him?”
“If you don’t, he’ll get a rash. We certainly don’t want that to happen. Not when we’re about to leave.”
“It’s hard to believe that we’re really doing it, Gia,” he says then shushes our one-year-old as he wines about being moved around. “I know, Buddy, but you went stinky and Daddy has to get you all cleaned up.”
“The house and cars have been sold. The plane tickets have been paid for. We’re really doing it, Ryker.”
“Damien sure pulled it off, didn’t he?”
“It’s hard to believe, but he certainly did. Giving you a job at Markov Global is the best thing to happen to us since Noah.” I get out of bed and stretch as I watch a cardinal perched in the tree outside my childhood bedroom window. It looks back at me and flies away when I wave at it.
“There will be no birds. No trees. No barking dogs.”
“No, roosters to wake us up,” he adds. “Mars is thankfully, void of those things. Is that the same damn rooster from when we came here the first time?”
“I’m not sure,” I say as I take the dirty diaper and go throw it in the wastebasket. “Why do you ask that?”
“Because it’s as stupid as that bird was. It’s not dawn at four in the morning.” He snuggles Noah back up, and he falls right back to sleep.
Wiggling his finger at me, he whispers, “Come here, pretty momma.”
I giggle and go to him. He wraps his arms around me and kisses me with a long, sweet kiss. “In a few hours, a plane will start our journey to Russia.”
“A few years after that, a shuttle will take us to Mars,” I finish his thought. “Things are still moving in the direction you’ve always been going. Just a few speed bumps got in the way.”
He sways with me as we look into each other’s eyes. “Losing Apollo was a great loss. But it helped one thing. It helped us all to realize we need to be working together instead of apart. The program that Markov Global came up with, where we all work together and stop the segregation of different countries, is pure genius.”
“It is,” I say and kiss his cheek. “And you were the mastermind behind that idea. Damien had the ability to get it done. You two actually make a great team.”
“Weird, huh?” He kisses me again. “I stole his girl and now we’re partners.”
I give him a frown. “You didn’t steal me. I left him. I hate when you say that.”
“That night, when I saw you for the first time, I knew I had to have you. I stole you then and there.” He kisses me again.
“I suppose you’re right. You got into my head that night. That’s for sure.”
“And your heart,” he says then gives me another kiss.
Laying back down on the bed, he and I snuggle down under the thick blankets. “It took you a bit longer to burrow into there, Ryker. But once you did, you made a real home for yourself in there.”
Rubbing his nose to mine, he says, “You’ve created quite the homey spot for yourself in mine too.”
“I think losing Apollo Engineering was the best thing to happen to the space industry, Ryker. Sure, you lost your shit for about six months but when you came back around, you kicked ass and made things happen. I didn’t know I could be any prouder of you than I already was but you made it happen, somehow.”
“You know I hate it when you bring up my six-month meltdown. Stick to the good parts. Like when I came up with the idea for conglomerating the tops minds in the field. Now that was sheer genius.”
“It was.” I kiss him again and feel a stirring in his pajama bottoms.
His hand moves down to the waistband of mine and he moves it on in, finding my little pearl and giving it a swirl. Our tongues dance as his fingers ignite a heat in me. What a great way to warm up!
Something thumps the blanket, followed by a grunt, stopping us. We look up and see Noah, standing in the playpen and he’s thrown his empty bottle at us.
“Breakfast time,” Ryker says with a laugh. “Mommy will have to wait.”
I moan as he gets out of bed and trots past Noah, making Noah let out a sharp sound, commanding his daddy to come back and get him. I climb out of bed and pick him up. “Daddy’s going to go make his little man a bottle. You want to snuggle with Momma until he comes back?”
I take him with me back to our bed and lie him down then get in and snuggle with him. His dark hair needs a trim and a lock of it has fallen into his face. I brush it back and gaze at our little boy. He’s a perfect mixture of us. Our little creation.
He pinches my cheek as he looks at me and I think about what life will be like for him. Growing up on Mars will mean he’ll never see some things we have here. It’ll mean he won’t get to do a lot of things we all take for granted. But he’ll have experiences no one on Earth will ever have.
I battle myself at times about taking him away from this Earth. His grandparents are people that he might never see again. That’s why we’re here now. So they can know him and him them.
But today we’ll leave here. Only sporadic visits to them will be made. But at least they will all have some time together before we leave this place forever.
The decision was made that those who leave cannot come back to Earth. Primarily for health reasons. We might bring back viruses that could wipe out the planet. There are so many little reasons for us not to come back.
The decision to go wasn’t easy. But the urge to do it was always there. So, we will start the first leg of our journey to Mars today. And Noah will be right there with us.
I just pray we’re doing the right thing!
RYKER
The morning sun is bright as we walk to the launch pad. Noah’s holding his little sister’s hand as we make our way down the long corridor. Gia and I walk behind them, watching our children take steps most other children will never get to do.
The first group of settlers has three hundred people going to Mars. And Gia has one in the oven, just the way I wanted it to be. Only two weeks pregnant, we have high hopes the space travel won’t interfere with the pregnancy.
I take her hand and swing our clasped hands between us. “You ready for this, Gia?”
Damien walks up on the other side of her with a huge grin on his face. “She’s more than ready, Ryker. Can’t you see it written all over her face? She never planned on making this journey but here she is, just the same.”
“I am ready. I’m so ready. The little family gathering we had this last week let me know that my family will always reside in my head and my heart. And it’s important to move forward and not allow anything to stop progress. With their support, I know I’m doing the right thing.”
Damien’s wife and three children come up behind us and he gives us a nod and steps back to walk with them. “See you all on board.”
Photographers are taking pictures of the people as they stop just before getting onto the giant shuttle. We pause for a photo with the kids then step through the door.
“Wow!” Noah says as he looks around at the entry.
“You want to really see something, keep walking, son,” I tell our five-year-old.
Gia picks up Maggie, our two-year-old and carries her as she’s frozen in place. “I think she’s a little afraid.”
“Not Daddy’s girl,” I say and tweak her little nose, making her giggle.
Taking the seats that have our number on them, I strap in Noah as Gia straps in Maggie. Then she takes a seat and I strap her in too. “I like how these bonds look on you, baby.”
“Ryker!” She gives me a wink. “Wicked man!”
With the kids seated between us, I go to my seat, next to Noah. “Your dad has dreamt of this day what seems like forever, Noah.”
“Are you scared? I’m a little scared,” he says.
&nb
sp; “Sure, I’m a little afraid.” I buckle the last buckle and tussle his dark hair. “But all great adventures start with being afraid. It’s part of the lure of it all. Only the strong of heart and mind will do something like this. Not everyone has this strength in them. You’re special, Noah. You have your mother’s strength.”
“So do you, Dad,” he says as he holds his hand up for a high-five.
I give him one and say, “She did give me the strength I have today. She sure did. She’s my rock, you know.”
“Yeah, mine too. I’m not worried about Mars. Mom can take care of all of us. She’s great at it.”
I look past the kids to find Gia resting her head on the headrest with her eyes closed. “You see what she’s doing there, Noah.”
He turns to look at his mother. “What’s she doing, Dad? Sleeping?”
“No, son. Your mother is praying. That’s her secret. That’s how she stays so strong.”
“Oh, then we should do that too, Dad.” I watch him close his eyes and lay his head back. His lips move as he prays, silently.
Laying my head back, I start praying too. When I finish my prayer, I find the cabin we’re in is now full and take off will be very soon. My heart speeds up as the speakers fill with soft music.
They’re getting ready. The sound of the music is supposed to keep everyone calm and not so focused on the sounds of the rockets that will project us into space.
But I focus on the sounds beyond the music. The eerie silence in a cabin full of people. Then the clicking of the ignition and the roar of the engines.
Noah takes my hand and I look over to see Gia taking Maggie’s hand. Noah takes her other one, making our family chain complete. “Can I have everyone’s attention?” a man’s voice comes over the speakers. “I’m Captain John Stevens. I’ll be one of the people flying us all to the first manned mission to Mars. I’d like everyone to sit back, relax, and get prepared to start this eight-month journey. Once we get out of the Earth’s gravitational pull, you will be free to move around. Check out your quarters for this trip. This place is your home for now. You all share a common bond as the first settlers of another planet. So, let’s relax and enjoy this part of the ride. It’s going to be the roughest part, except for when we land. But in the middle, will be a whole lot of nothing. Once we reach the outer atmosphere, our internal gravity system will kick in, keeping us on the floor. You will hear a countdown, followed by a pretty loud explosion. Some of you may want to cover your ears. Here we go.”
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