by Dom Testa
“But,” he said, beginning to pace slowly around the table, “it was labeled the ‘best chance’ by assuming that all would go well during the journey. And, granted, if this had been a trouble-free mission so far, we would all feel much better about things. But, that obviously has not been the case.”
Merit had reached Triana’s end of the table, and now passed behind her seat. For reasons she couldn’t explain, this irritated her, as if he was subtly trying to take charge of the meeting, challenging her to turn around and give him her attention. She refused to budge, and kept her eyes forward. It had quickly become a battle of wills between the two.
“Within the first four months after the launch,” Merit said, “we had not one, but two separate incidents which almost destroyed us. Two.”
Gap spoke up, a touch of irritation in his voice. “Two incidents which were neutralized.”
“Is that the word you use? Neutralized? If you ask around, you’ll find that many of the members of this crew believe that we got lucky. Very lucky.”
Channy was clearly puzzled by the discussion. “What are you talking about?”
“Think about it. In the first instance, we missed a collision with a madman by what, fifty feet? And then, if I’m correct, we were almost blown to bits around Saturn, and would have done exactly that in about ten more seconds. Fifty feet, and ten seconds. You wouldn’t call that lucky?”
“What’s your point, Merit?” Gap said.
“My point, Gap, is that we haven’t even officially left the solar system, we haven’t been away for even eight months, and we’ve already used up all the luck we could ever hope to have. The next time—and we all know there will be a next time—we probably can’t count on good fortune again.
“This is an extremely bizarre universe we live in, with an awful lot of things that Dr. Zimmer and his team could never have imagined when they scribbled out their plans on some scrap paper. For a bunch of scientists, sitting in a safe, warm room, in front of their computer screens, it probably seemed much easier. Build a ship, fill it with a bunch of bright kids, launch it, and five years later it docks safely at a new home.”
Merit had returned to the far end of the table and now leaned on it with both hands. He looked directly down the length of the table, into Triana’s eyes. “It’s just not that simple. We’ve encountered one madman, and one incredibly advanced super race of beings. What else can we expect to stumble across in the next four years? Aren’t we in way over our heads?”
Lita leaned forward, a gentle expression on her face. “I don’t think I quite understand what you’re hinting at, Merit. You’re suggesting…what?”
He straightened up. “It’s time that we admitted that this is a much more dangerous mission than anyone ever imagined. It’s time for us to turn around and head home.”
“What?” Channy blurted out. “Are you crazy? We can’t go back to Earth. Bhaktul’s Disease—”
“Bhaktul’s Disease is horrible, to be sure,” Merit interrupted. “But remember, we’re talking about ‘best chance,’ and the odds have shifted. For many of us, it makes more sense to take our chances on finding a cure at home than taking any more risks out here in space.”
Gap chuckled. “The best medical minds have worked on Bhaktul for years, and they have absolutely nothing to show for it. Nothing. And now that the disease has wiped out such a large percentage of the population, there’s hardly anyone left to devote the time and research to finding a cure. Face it, Merit, going back to Earth is a death sentence for everyone on this ship. A slow, grisly death, I might add.”
Merit smiled his half-smile, and Triana felt a cold chill down her spine. There was a definite energy that radiated from him, an energy that made her very uncomfortable.
“You’re forgetting one very important factor,” he said to Gap. “The Cassini.”
Silence greeted this comment until Lita spoke up. “Meaning?” Merit spread his hands. “It’s obvious, isn’t it? The Cassini read everything in not only Bon’s mind, but in the minds of several other crew members. The Cassini would have to know about the problem on Earth, and, as we know, they’re in the business of fixing things, right? For all we know they’ve been working on it for the past few months. It might be a very different Earth that we return to.”
Gap frowned as he said, “Might, maybe, possibly. We don’t know.”
“Nor do we know what’s going to happen in the next five minutes out here,” Merit shot back. “And so far our track record is not very good. Would you be more willing to put your faith in a handful of very tired, very ill scientists, or the Cassini?”
Triana had been silent, but finally spoke up. “You mentioned that many of our shipmates agreed with you. What do you mean by ‘many?’”
Merit looked down at the folder he had carried into the room. Flipping it open, he pulled out a sheet of paper and passed it down to Triana. “I have begun a rather informal polling of people, and so far eleven have stated that they would prefer we turn around and take our chances back on Earth.”
“Eleven?” Gap laughed. “You, your two buddies outside. That’s three. And, what, eight other people with more time on their hands than brains?”
“Gap,” Triana said, shooting him a look. She waited until he sat back, then glanced at the names on the sheet of paper. She recognized them all, of course, but didn’t know them that well. “I appreciate your concerns,” she said to Merit, “and the Council will take your suggestion under consideration.”
Merit crossed his arms. “To be honest, I don’t expect the Council to do anything. Not when eleven people speak out. But a week ago that number was six. A week from now it will likely be fifteen, and then twenty. I’m simply bringing this to your attention now so that you’re not surprised when a majority of crew members vote to go back. There will come a time when you have no choice but to listen. Consider this visit today a courtesy call.”
Triana felt a recurrence of irritation. It wasn’t so much the message from Merit, but his manner that grated on her. His cocky attitude was frustrating, as if he was daring anyone to challenge him. Bon could be cocky, too, but only because of his self-confidence. With Bon you got the feeling that he simply believed that he was right. Merit, on the other hand, seemed to want to prove something, to force others to bend to his will. His brand of cockiness stemmed from a desire for power.
And that could be very dangerous.
She kept her expression neutral, and said again, “We will take your suggestion under consideration. Thank you for your time.”
With a nod to Triana, and then to the other Council members, Merit picked up his folder and walked briskly from the room. Before the door closed, Triana saw the two other boys fall into step behind their champion.
“I can’t believe it,” Channy said. “That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”
Lita looked thoughtful. “I didn’t give him much credit before, but I’m afraid this could become…a problem.”
“That guy is a jerk,” Gap said.
“He has every right to voice his opinion,” Triana said. “And it seems that he will be voicing those opinions to just about everyone on the ship. It’s our responsibility to make sure that the other side is heard, too. Agreed? Or…do some of you share his concerns?”
“What? No way,” Gap said.
“I don’t,” Lita added.
“I don’t even know what he’s talking about,” Channy said. “But if he wants to go back to Earth, then he’s gonna have a hard time convincing me.”
Triana looked down the table at Bon, who had not uttered a word since Merit had walked in the room. “Bon?”
“I will not go back to Earth. We started something, and we’re going to finish it.”
“All right,” Triana said. “I need some time to process all of this. Let’s get some rest, and we’ll meet again soon.”
For the first time, she walked out of the Conference Room before the others had a chance to stand up.
7
Lita walked into Sick House adjusting her hair ribbon. It was almost eight o’clock in the morning and she had finished a strenuous workout with Channy’s “Early Risers,” a group of crew members who preferred to get their exercise out of the way before the rest of the ship came to life. Channy had varied their routine today, and Lita was feeling muscles that she had never been introduced to before. The steamy shower afterwards had never felt better.
She wasn’t surprised to find Alexa already on the job. The fifteen-year-old was inputting data into a computer terminal with one hand while the other grasped a mug of tea.
“How can you do that so fast with one hand?” Lita said.
Alexa looked up and smiled. “Good morning. How can I what? Oh, this? Listen, nothing comes between me and my tea. If it means I have to learn to type quickly with one hand, that’s a skill I can master.” She took another gulp then nodded at the vidscreen. “Of course, you never know what that does to my accuracy. I might have just invented a whole new blood type or something.”
Lita laughed and sat down across from her assistant. “I trust you. So, what’s new this morning?”
“Nada. Just preparing all of the files for next week’s crew checkups.”
“Good. Need any help?”
“Nah,” Alexa said. “You do your doctor stuff and I’ll take care of the boring paperwork. No sense wasting your special training on this junk.”
“You mean my crash course in how to be a doctor? How to be a doctor on a spaceship full of teenagers in just five easy lessons?”
Alexa rolled her eyes. “Please. It was a lot more than five lessons. Besides, your mother was a doctor. You practically grew up with a stethoscope around your neck and a thermometer behind your ear.”
Lita sighed. “Mom was amazing. You know, she was the youngest person in her graduating class, and still had the highest test scores. She had offers from all over, including some of the top universities in America, and she chose to return home to Mexico and work in Veracruz.”
“She did it because she loved it, I guess.”
Lita nodded. “Yes. She loved her work, and she loved the people in her hometown. Plus,” she added, a smile bending across her face, “she happened to love a certain grocery store owner in Veracruz.”
“Oh, I just love a love story,” Alexa said, batting her eyelids. “Especially one with such a touching theme: Big money in the big city, or love in the produce section.”
Both girls laughed. For Lita it was good to discover that she could finally talk about her parents without falling into a state of gloom. She missed her family every day, and often daydreamed about the long walks on the beach with her mother, talking about life, about fate, and about finding happiness. Maria Marques had done it all, had excelled at everything, yet had not hesitated when it came time to choose her life’s path. It had been home and family first, career second. Some had questioned her priorities; she had dismissed them without a thought. Lita considered this the greatest lesson her mother had ever taught her: putting family first.
“Well, our backgrounds obviously don’t matter, because we both arrived in the same place,” Lita said. “Your mother wasn’t in the medical field, but look how you turned out.”
“Sure,” Alexa said. “A medical assistant who can’t stand the sight of blood.”
Lita laughed. “You’re funny, you know that?”
“I’m serious.”
“What are you talking about? You’re not afraid of blood.” Alexa shrugged. “Sorry, but it’s true. Can’t stand it.”
Lita sat forward, a look of disbelief on her face. “How in the world did you manage to sneak that past Dr. Zimmer?”
“What can I say? I thought this would be a cool place to work on the ship, and how often were we going to encounter blood? So during our training I either looked the other way, or went into some kind of Zen place. I don’t know. It worked, though.”
“That’s about the funniest thing I’ve heard in a long time. A medical assistant who’s afraid of blood.”
Alexa took another sip of tea. “Yeah, but my incredible bedside manner makes up for it, huh?”
“You’re killing me. All right, I need to go check this morning’s email before I find out something else that’s absurd, like maybe you actually enjoy that horrible hospital smell.”
“No, but hospital food is much better than people think.”
Lita grinned and stood up. Before she could walk away, Alexa’s face took on a serious look and she reached out to touch Lita’s arm.
“Hey, before you go, I wanted to thank you for whatever you said to Triana and the Council.”
“Why, what happened?”
“I got a nice note from Triana, thanking me for all of the hard work I’ve done. She said that you told the Council that I was doing a great job. So, thank you for that. It’s nice…it’s nice to be appreciated, I guess.”
“Wish I could do more for you,” Lita said. “I’m glad you’re here.” She turned to walk over to her desk, then looked back. “Of course, if I’d known about that whole blood thing I might not have said anything.”
“Don’t you have email to check or something?”
Triana breezed through the door to the Conference Room and found Gap with his feet up on the table, rolling a cup of water between the fingers of both hands. He gave her a quick smile of welcome.
Triana had an odd feeling about the meeting. For one thing, in the seven months since the launch, Gap had never requested a private meeting. They had been through some hair-raising experiences, but he had always voiced his opinions and concerns in the company of the Council. If he was wanting to speak with her alone, something was obviously of grave concern.
Triana also picked up an interesting vibe from him. Gap was, for the most part, very cool under pressure. He had a temper—she had seen that a few times, including some memorable episodes between Gap and Bon—but when a crisis arose, she knew that she could count on him to remain composed and to help her navigate through the storm. Today, however, he seemed almost…jittery. The feet up on the table seemed like a manufactured calm, betrayed by the nervous actions with the cup.
And betrayed by his eyes.
There was, of course, another possible explanation that flitted across her mind. Perhaps this was “the talk” that she had anticipated for so long. She knew that Gap had feelings for her—or used to have. He had often seemed on the verge of expressing those feelings, too, until either something interrupted the moment, or he lost his nerve. For a guy who had remained cool while a madman threatened to destroy them, he had an awfully hard time verbalizing his feelings about Triana.
And just what feelings, exactly, did she harbor for Gap? Or for Bon? It was easy to critique another person’s difficulty with expression, and yet she was no better. Perhaps it was the intrigue itself that she embraced.
Besides, now that Gap had developed a relationship with Hannah, what could he possibly say to Triana?
“Thanks for carving a few minutes out of your day to chat,” he said.
“No problem. What’s up?”
“Not much, unless you count the boulder the size of a locomotive that just zipped past about a mile below us.”
Triana took the seat across from Gap and let out a sigh. “A mile? And when did we spot it?”
“About five seconds after it passed us.”
“Oh, great,” Triana said. “Just what our friend Merit needs to hear, that we had another close call. Roc, why didn’t we catch this one sooner?”
The computer’s reply was immediate. “How can I possibly concentrate on my piano lessons and watch for asteroids and comets at the same time?”
Gap answered her question. “Because it was one of those ricochet shots we talked about. This thing bounced off not one, but two different rocks before it flew right at us. Which leads me to the real reason I wanted to talk to you alone. Roc has actually come up with an explanation for why Galahad Control wasn’t prepared for the mess o
ut here in the Kuiper Belt.”
Triana sat back. “Okay, I’m all ears.”
“I love that expression,” Roc said. “All ears. You humans look sorta funny anyway, just imagine—”
“Roc,” said Gap. “Can you get on with it?”
“Gee, you’d think a giant boulder had almost creamed us or something,” Roc said.
“Okay, here’s the lowdown. We knew before the launch that the Kuiper Belt was a vast collection of space junk: rocks, comets, ice chunks, sand grains, all of the missing socks that seem to disappear in your dryer. They’re all circling the sun way out here in no man’s land, and almost impossible to see from Earth. Our calculations about the makeup of the Kuiper Belt, aside from the bigger objects, like Pluto, were mostly guesswork. Educated guesses, but still guesses.
“Then, we come sailing along, and it’s nothing like we expected. Sure, we’ve found the ice chunks, the comets, and even Bon’s missing sense of humor, but we never expected so many items clustered together. It’s way crowded out here, and that did not factor into the equations.”
“And you have an answer for this?” Triana said.
“Give me enough time and I’ll come up with an answer for almost any puzzle. Well, except for ketchup on eggs. That’s just gross, if you ask me, and I can’t figure out why anyone would do it.
“But the Kuiper Belt is another story. I’ve spent a little time analyzing everything we knew about this area before we got here, along with all of the new data in the last couple of weeks. It turns out that the Belt is lumpy in some areas.”
Triana looked at Gap, who waited for the computer to explain.
“We’ve assumed that it has a uniform thickness all the way around the sun,” Roc said. “Instead, there are some sections that are rather thin and sparse, with almost nothing around. We could drive a million Galahad’s through these spots and never come within a million miles of even a pebble.
“Then, however, there are stretches that are teeming with an excess of rubbish. Kinda like that one closet in your grandparents’ house that is stuffed with all of the gifts you ever bought for them but they never took out of the package. You know what I’m talking about.”