“Elixir or no elixir, Irene, I am happy to end my time on the same planet as my late dear beloved Rolf. I do hope that my daughter Ruthie might apply, but, of course, as we all know the chances of being selected are many millions to one.”
Jack Crossan spoke up next lowering his voice in a more sombre tone.
“Actually, ah too fail the forty five test, but ah suppose ah win a ‘get outta jail free’ card on the basis of bein’ a Space Commander. We are a scarce commodity at present an’ we gotta do our duty whether we want to or not. Tell the truth, ah would rather stay here on 3R with ma two boys. They are both too young to be selected.”
There was a general shaking of heads and Marcie spoke up for the rest of the group.
“Jack, we all understand what you are saying but these missions to Mars are vital for the survival of mankind. I have wrestled with my own conscience as to whether my work in DNA selection is right or wrong and I have reconciled myself that it is. But, without survivors on Mars to carry on and progress my work, then there is no point to it. You, however, have the task of ensuring those survivors make it for all our sakes.”
Jack nodded sullenly and looked around the group of friends and answered with little conviction in his voice.
“Ah guess you’re right, Marcie.”
Ari spoke next.
“Well, the Americans have had their say, so as the one Israeli here, I shall state my piece and leave it to our Scottish friends to wind it up. My position is slightly different from Jack’s. Ewan and I also receive that ‘get out of jail’ card on the basis that astrophysicists will be needed on Mars, but in our case it is not compulsory to go. I fully intend to return to Tel Aviv ASAP and to be with my beautiful wife and daughter so that we can all be together at the end.”
The mood was getting more sombre by the minute and Gary butted in on a lighter note.
“Well guys, ah’m definitely no goin’ tae apply for Mars. Ma sexual proclivity is no very conducive to the survival of the species!”
Marcie tut-tutted in a maternalistic manner.
“Now Gary, the selection process does not exclude applicants on the basis of race, creed, colour, gender or sexual orientation. So long as your sexual production, so to speak, passes the test, then there’s nothing to stop you applying.”
“Ah suppose so, Marcie, but ma jokes are so bad that they’ll probably exclude me from Mars on that basis alone. Seriously though, ah’ve made up ma mind not to apply.”
Ewan looked around the table a little sheepishly and then took his turn.
“I know that Ari let you all know that we both get the option to take a place as astrophysicists on the trip to Mars. But I too will not be going. Jill - I’m not leaving Earth without you! I want to be with you until the end.”
Irene threw up her hands in exasperation and laughed loudly.
“Lord Almighty! Ain’t nobody on this God-forsaken planet want to go to Mars? Way things is goin’ we’ll be putting people onto those Oceanus spaceships at gunpoint! Jill, please tell me you want to go to Mars, honey, please cheer me up?”
Jill looked around the table then her eyes fixed on Ewan’s before she spoke her piece.
“Ah guess ah am the odd one out here tonight, Irene. Ah will certainly be applying for the immigration programme. My job as a journalist means recording human history on a day to day basis and my belief is that mankind will still have a future – maybe not here - but certainly on Mars. Ah still hope to be there recording that future. On a more personal level and as Marcie also knows - ah unfortunately had to abort my precious wee - b-baby. But ma hope is that in time ah can have another baby and a healthy baby. An’ if you want to be a part of that - Ewan Sinclair - then indeed you will take your place on that flight to Mars!”
They all laughed and Gary threw in one last quip on the discussion.
“Well, Ewan, ah guess ah’m no longer sharing the bedroom wi’ you from now on!”
*
Earthdate: 19:30 Friday August 13, 2083 EST
Jill listened on her cell phone as it rang Ewan’s number. Jill had just arrived back at her hot-desk in the Sky News office in downtown Washington on Philadelphia Avenue. She knew Ewan would still be in the office at NASA in Houston and he would probably be up to his eyeballs in work, but she needed to call him. She now knew her feelings for Ewan. They had both made passionate and sensual love the night of the dinner party at Lex’s home and they both knew they were deeply in love with each other. Reuniting with Ewan after all these years that had passed, had a cathartic effect on Jill. The hurt she had carried inside her over Khan al Ahmed’s deception and the loss of her aborted baby now felt as though it had been thoroughly cleansed from her soul. Even though she might only have nine months left she had been feeling happier now than she had been in years. Well, until today and that is why she was desperate to hear Ewan’s voice. However, lately she seemed to be spending more time up in Washington than down in the Sky office in Houston. The political ramifications of the impending Armageddon always seemed to be currently outweighing the scientific and cosmic ramifications. She was feeling a bit down on her luck because she had not seen Ewan for nearly two weeks and Jill longed to hear his soft Islay intonations as she mused aloud to herself through the eternally continuous ringing on her cell.
“God, it sure is appropriate that it’s a Black Friday!”
Then he answered.
“Hello? Jill?”
“Ewan, thank God. Ah was hoping that ah would catch you.”
“No probs. But I’ve got to go into a meeting to give my latest progress report on the Schenkler comet, Jill, so is it a fast one?”
Jill felt her voice start to break.
“We-ell, ah-h – och, Ewan it can wait till ah see you –“
Ewan detected that Jill was close to tears and he felt that it was better if she got the problem off her chest now.
“It’s okay Jill – whatever it is, you can tell me.”
“It’s just that – um – ah got ma email result on ma application for the emigration programme today. Ewan – ah’ve only made the second tier reserve list, which puts tens and tens of thousands of people in front of me. My chances of going to Mars are pretty slim. Oh God, Ewan, ah’m going to lose y-you!”
Jill burst into tears and Ewan attempted to console her.
“Look Jill, if you’re not going to Mars, then I’m not going either. Do you think I would leave you behind?”
Jill took a deep breath and composed herself.
“No way, Ewan. You fully deserve to go. It was you who identified Schenkler in the first place. From that knowledge mankind at least hopes to save twenty five thousand and you deserve to be one of them. Anyway – we need your kind on Mars to identify the next rogue comet and help work towards pushing man further out into deep space. Ultimately, if we don’t eventually get out of this solar system then we are all doomed!”
In Houston Ewan was shaking his head and he spoke through an emotionally constricting throat.
“Okay, Jill, I’ll think about it and we’ll talk more when you fly back to Houston. Looking on the bright side, at least you are on one of the reserve lists. There are billions of men and women who are not on any of the immigration lists for Mars. So let’s not completely write off your chances just yet.”
*
Earthdate: 12:00 Monday September 20, 2083 CST
It was the start of a new working week but all normal work around the globe was suspended as billions of people were glued to their 3DTVs. Everyone gathered together to watch the televised feeds coming down from Alpha Base showing the Oceanus fleet of twenty five spaceships pushing off slowly at first, one by one, until they were far enough out of Earth’s gravitational pull to fire up their fusion drives. Jack Crossan had detailed fleet command to his old second-in-command Xi Xhu Pan. Jack would command the second fleet departing in February
2084. The ships carried the first wave of 10,000 young men and women and with their departure also went the hopes and dreams of the billions left behind. Each ship was cheered off enthusiastically by the billions of viewers as it was filmed passing close by Alpha Base. Jill reported the momentous event in human history from the Sky News office in Houston and she was hoarse and exhausted by the time the twenty fifth and last Oceanus had blasted off and disappeared from the screenshots heading out towards Mars. She stoically finished her report as viewers looked into the empty blackness of space still on their screens.
“Today the hostile Red Planet somehow feels a more hospitable place to be.”
Immediately after finishing reporting at around three in the afternoon Jill grabbed an air-taxi and headed for the nearby City Hall a few blocks away in downtown Houston. On the way there she tried to fix up her make-up and take the tired look out of her eyes with fresh mascara and a helping of bronzer. As she stumbled up the steps of City Hall she saw Jack Crossan in full Space Commander’s uniform waiting there for her in the atrium. He looked slightly disheveled and unshaven as he gave her a weary wave.
“God’s sake, Jack. You look about as bad as ah feel.”
“Ah am done in, Jill. Ah have been training the crews for those twenty five ships up there without hardly a break for the last few months. Ah only have a coupla days off then it is back onto training for the final fleet. By the time ah’m finished ah will hardly be fit to command a paper boat never mind an Oceanus spaceship.”
Jill laughed.
“Ah’m knackered too, Jack. Ah feel that ah’ve been reporting non-stop for weeks. Is everybody here?”
“Ah think so –“
Jill tried to straighten out Jack’s tie and brushed off his uniform.
“My God, Jack. We don’t exactly look like the best man and the best maid, do we?”
They pressed on into City Hall which was packed full of various wedding parties all keen to tie the knot before that fateful date with Armageddon. As they entered the Function Hall Lex and Irene ushered Jack and Jill to join them quickly in front with the impatiently waiting Registrar. Seated behind the happy couple were many of Lex and Irene’s family, friends and colleagues from NASA. They included Jimmy Soderline, Aaron Eckler, Beth O’Donnell, Ari Schenkler, Ewan Sinclair and Gary Mackintosh. Even Lars and Freda Nilstrom, Lex’s former in-laws, had flown in from Dallas to celebrate the wedding. Later at the intimate reception Jill and Ewan sat hand in hand listening to the various wedding speeches. Ewan lent across and whispered in Jill’s ear.
“Jill, you know I love you so much. Why don’t you and I get married too, before everything comes crashing to an end?”
“Ewan, ah love you too. But ah will only marry you under one condition.”
“What condition, Jill?”
“Ah will only marry you if and when we both get safely to Mars.”
Ewan gazed at Jill, perplexed.
“But you made me promise to take my place on the Oceanus fleet even if you don’t make it out the reserve list. That might mean that you may never be my wife –“
Jill brushed Ewan’s cheek with the softest of touches.
“Well then, ah don’t propose to tie you down as a would-be widower here on Earth, when you might have to find a new wife on Mars. We can only hope for some divine intervention which will see us both walk down the aisle in Capitol Base.”
“But, Jill –“
“No buts, that’s the way it’s got to be!”
They were then raised to their feet along with the other guests as Lars Nilstrom raised his glass.
“Ah give you a toast – the bride and groom.”
“THE BRIDE AND GROOM!”
Chapter 21
Earthdate: 09:30 Wednesday January 5, 2084 GMT
Gary Mackintosh groaned aloud with the pounding pain in his head. The whole world had been celebrating this New Year like there was no tomorrow, mainly because there was literally no tomorrow. Gary had been drinking hard since Hogmanay but it was more to drown his sorrows than to celebrate and he had awakened in the fog of a deep black depression. He had made a lot of money through his work on the computing projects to transfer the E2MSN to Mars Control and the NOAHSARK database. Both of these projects were now almost complete. He only had some peripheral work to see them to final stage sign off, which had left him feeling a bit redundant. There was also some strange information that he had stumbled on that left him feeling confused and depressed. It was something he had meant to speak to Ewan about but had not found the right moment. Virtually all his money and the stock portfolio that he had built since his school days had been transferred into Martian commodity stocks on the NYSE. His intention had been to transfer his stock holdings to Ewan, the lost love of his life, shortly before Ewan was to set off for Mars next month. He felt that if he left his stock transfer until the last possible minute, probably a few days before 28 February, when Ewan was scheduled to blast off with the last Oceanus fleet, then he would make an absolute killing. However, on 30 December, following some devastating meteor showers from the tip of Schenkler’s tail, there was a stock market crash. Martian stocks crashed spectacularly, along with most other Earth-bound commodities. Gary had urgently called his stockbroker in order to sell his stocks. However, when he eventually got a hold of him, Gary was told that his stocks had been wiped out and that he was now virtually broke. All he had left was about $14,700 in the bank and an open return ticket from Houston to London Heathrow. He had bought the flight ticket to fly home and celebrate the New Year with his family and friends in Glasgow for the last time. His last few days in Glasgow had been spent in an almost drunken stupor, which had not helped his depression one bit. Last night his old Glasgow University mates poured him on to the Glasgow Central to London Euston train to head for his return flight to Houston from Heathrow. Gary held his thumping head in his hands and tried to focus his eyes when he began to realise he was in a first-class sleeper compartment. He noticed that the train was stationary. He looked at his watch, 09:32. Must be in Euston by now, he thought. Gary drew up the closed blind on the window and looked out onto a chilly frost-covered platform. However, he was perplexed when the station signs did not read Euston but instead read Carlisle, still 300 miles north of London! He noticed that there were quite a few cold-looking passengers milling around on the platform. Still dressed in his clothes from the previous evening, Gary grabbed his travel bag and staggered out onto the platform, immediately noticing a railwayman in uniform.
“Hey, mate, what the hell’s goin’ on? How’re we no’ in London yet?”
“Sorry, sir, but there’s been a meteor strike on the main line at Penrith. They say it’s practically wiped out the whole town.”
The news momentarily snapped Gary out of his hangover.
“Bloody hell! Does that mean we’re stuck here?”
“They’re looking at sending the train back up to Edinburgh and diverting it down the East Coast, but at the moment there is no timescale for this happening.”
The black wave of depression again clouded Gary’s brain.
“Aw, fuck this! Are there no any trains runnin’ out of this God forsaken place, man?”
The railwayman, who was a Carlisle local, looked scathingly at Gary and with a slight sarcastic sneer in his voice, he spoke back.
“There is a train on Platform 1 leaving for Grange-over-Sands in two minutes. It’s over there – maybe the sea air will do you some good, sonny!”
Gary had no time or inclination to pick a fight with the man, so he just took off across the concourse and jumped onto the small local train. As the train began to wind its way around the Cumbrian coast in increasingly sleety conditions, with the snow-covered mountains of the Lake District on his left and the icy-grey Irish Sea on his right, he began to wonder what in God’s name he was doing. Grange-over-Sands? He had never even heard of the place. Oh well, it
will have to do, he thought, who will miss me anyway? About half an hour later he alighted at the small old-fashioned and slightly dilapidated seaside town to be met by a biting sleet-laden wind coming off the freezing sea. He quickly checked in to the first B&B which had a vacancy sign showing, situated close by the railway station. After grabbing a tasteless greasy breakfast which did not sit well in his ailing stomach, he decided to go for a walk. The sleet had gone off but the biting westerly wind caused him to head inland in an easterly direction away from the sea and he found himself walking along a deserted country road with tall pine woods lining either side. Looking to the north-east he could see a pall of blackish smoke rising into the sky and he guessed that it was from the town of Penrith still burning after the meteor strike. Gary had been walking for about an hour when he came into a small hamlet, which consisted of a few cottages, a café and a small rundown church. Gary was freezing by this time and he stepped into the warm café and ordered some tea and scones. He must have been sitting morosely for some time as the waitress sidled over and absently wiped his table.
“Something got you down, lad?”
“What-t?”
“Is it all to do with this comet thing?”
“Ah don’t know, aye well, sort of –“
The waitress put a gentle hand on Gary’s shoulder.
“Don’t you worry, lad, the man upstairs will sort it all out in the end.”
“Och, ah was brought up a Catholic but ah don’t really believe in God.”
“In the end we’ll all believe, mark my words.”
Gary sat for a few more minutes finishing off his pot of tea, then he paid and tipped the waitress, who gave him a knowing smile as he stepped back out into the village street. Across the road he spotted the little old and slightly decrepit church. He was about to turn around for the walk back to Grange-over-Sands when he somehow felt compelled to walk over to the church. The door creaked loudly when he pushed it open. Gary had not been to church since he was a wee boy in the Sunday school at St Margaret Mary’s. The church was empty and hollow-sounding as he walked down the aisle towards the altar. He sat in one of the pews near the front and he quickly glanced around. He was completely alone in the musty old church and he felt cut off from the rest of the world. Involuntarily, Gary felt his body to begin spasmodically trembling, not from the cold, but from raw fear. Subconsciously, his hands came together and he looked upwards to the rafters and for the first time in his life he really began praying to God.
2084 The End of Days Page 29