© Finlay Borthwick 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or modified in any form, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
© Finlay Borthwick 2018
Human Nature II
Contents
Chapter 1: Homesick
Chapter 2: Isolated
Chapter 3: Sacrifice
Chapter 4: How We Must Survive
Chapter 5: Home Truths
Chapter 6: Now, We Can Relax
Chapter 7: Final Hours
Chapter 8: Space Dementia
Chapter 9: Weightless
Chapter 10: Hard Times
Chapter 11: Philosophy
Interlude
Chapter 12: ‘Down to Earth’
Chapter 13: People
Chapter 14: Just in Case
Chapter 15: A Death in the Family
Chapter 16: Two Steps Back
Chapter 17: Living in the Moment
Chapter 18: Nightmares
Chapter 19: Still Criminal
Chapter 20: Shattered
Chapter 21: Socialising
Chapter 22: School’s Out… Forever
Chapter 23: To the Gods
Epitaphs
Chapter 24: A Quest for Vengeance
Chapter 25: On the Path of Death
Epilogue
About the Author
Chapter 1: Homesick
2nd February 2026
Space Station Gemini, Far Above Earth
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Sonia’s eyes were fixated on the planet beneath her. She watched out over the beautiful blend of blue seas and lush-green land, occasionally mixed in with brown mountainous dry lands. “It is… It really is,” Roger was half-serious but half-playing along as well. Both he and Sonia had seen the exact same view a million times before. Yet for Sonia it never got repetitive or boring – a lot more than could be said for Roger.
“Roger, I get it. I do.” Sonia turned to face him, “But you should be more grateful. Who cares how many times we’ve seen it? We’re only going to be up here for another two days remember. After that, we may never see this kind of view again.” She looked saddened.
“Son’,” Roger put his hand on her shoulder, “You might be right. But you also might not be. Even if we never get a chance to come up here again, at least someone else will. We weren’t the first astronauts up here. We won’t be the last.” Upon hearing him say this, Sonia’s hand connected with his.
“Roger. Professor Sonia. We need you two in the coms room right now.” A male voice broadcast over the intercom. Both Roger and Sonia sighed. “We’re on our way,” Sonia spoke into her earpiece.
It didn’t take them long to reach the coms room – the space station wasn’t too large. “Bertie, this had better be worth it. Or I swear I’m going to… You don’t even wanna know.” Sonia restrained herself, while Bertie’s expression indicated he had taken her threat far too seriously.
Bertie swallowed hard, “This is rather urgent.” He continued to stare at Sonia. “Oh for heaven’s sake man,” Roger crouched down, “If it’s really that urgent, stop wetting yourself over joke-threats and start telling us what this whole ‘crisis’ thing is about!” He nodded, and leant down to the microphone in front of him.
“Hello Earth Control, this is Gemini, are you receiving us? Over.” A few seconds passed, but there was only static in response. “Repeat, this is Gemini, are you receiving us Earth Control? Over.” Again, there was only static in response. “Ok? So what? Everyone’s probably asleep right now.” Roger didn’t see the problem. “We haven’t heard from Earth in over twelve hours…” Bertie once again swallowed hard.
“Twelve hours?” Roger turned around in confusion and slight annoyance, “You didn’t think to tell us this until now?” Sonia stepped in front of him in Bertie’s defence, “To be fair, the guidelines did state that it should only be considered a problem if there’s radio silence for upwards of twelve hours.” Roger closed his eyes and stepped away from her. He turned around and looked up at one of the monitors showing Earth.
“What could have possibly happened down there then? I mean, not a single person at Earth Control is available?” Roger couldn’t make sense of the situation.
“Roger,” Sonia tried to get through to him. “No, Son’!” But he wasn’t listening to her, “We’ve been up here for six months. I haven’t seen my son or my wife for six months. We’re due to re-enter in just two days! Someone had better be on the other end of that radio! Or so help me, I’m taking the emergency escape pod back!”
Sonia and Bertie fell silent with widened eyes. “You have twenty-fours,” Roger waggled his finger at Bertie, commanding him in a low-tone aggressive voice. Again, Bertie swallowed hard.
“Byron,” Sonia put her hand against her ear piece, activating it. “Byron, listen to me. Enter the emergency override code. Disable the escape pod…” A few seconds passed. “Sonia? Are you out of your mind?” Byron was the English member of the team – With Bertie being American, he could hardly hear the difference between Sonia’s Australian accent and Byron’s English one.
“Just do it Byron, please. I don’t trust Roger right now. He’s threatened to use it. Disable it, now.” Again, a few seconds of silence passed. “Trouble is Sonia, if I do that, that means no one can access it. As the engineer, I’m the only one who knows the override code. Should, God forbid, anything bad happen to me, you’ll never be able to unlock it again!”
Sonia snapped, “For goodness sake Byron! Just do it!” She heard him sigh over the earpiece, followed by four beeping sounds; Byron entering the code presumably. “It’s done,” He mumbled. “Thanks buddy,” Sonia deactivated her earpiece again.
In his living quarters, Roger sat on his bed, looking out across Earth again. He was still longing to return to his family. He looked over to his bedside cabinet, picking up the photo frame on it and examining the photo. The picture was of him, his wife, and his son. They were smiling happily in front of the zebra enclosure at a zoo. From behind the grated fence, a confused zebra was staring at the camera. Just looking at the photo was enough to provoke a tear to roll out of Roger’s eye. “I’m coming home… I’m on my way, my love…” He moved the photo up to his chest, clenching it over his heart.
There was a knock on his door. “Just a second!” He wiped his tear away, putting the frame back on the cabinet, turning it away from him and towards the wall. He got up, and opened the door – Sonia stood outside, “May I come in?”
Roger stepped out of the way, allowing her to pass by. “Please, make yourself comfortable,” He gestured to an armchair in front of his window. “You’ve been soaking up the view then I would imagine?” Sonia asked him whilst she starred out of the window.
“Perhaps you can see through my wall then,” they both chuckled lightly. “Roger,” she turned around to face him, “Look, I get it. Really, I do understand. You miss your son, and you miss your wife. That’s understandable. But we have a crew of thirteen up here. Each of us has someone we love back on the ground. Even Bertie. I’m sure he can’t wait to return to his pugs.” Again, they both chuckled lightly. “Listen to me, Roger. We’ll get back down there; I promise you that. With or without Earth Control, we can still do this.”
He looked up at her in a daze, “Without Earth Control? Sonia, how would we possibly be able to get back down there without help from them?” She smiled at him, “I’m a genius. You know that. I know that. Even Bertie knows that.” Yet again, they shared a laugh.
“Six months, Sonia. Six months we’ve been up h
ere for. We’re only the third crew to step foot on this station anyway.” Roger sat down on his bed, as Sonia rose out of the armchair and sat down next to him. “Think of all the wonderful new friends you’ve made up here as well,” She was trying to make him think positively to calm him down for sure, “Byron, Wells, Nadia, Me.” She looked at him deeply whilst he continued to focus the planet beneath. “The point I’m trying to make is… You don’t have to be so vindictive. You don’t have to be so angry. Your family might be down there, but they’re up here as well. We’re all here, for you. Just us we’re all here for each other. No one’s an exception up here. Not even Bertie!”
But this time, there was no laughter. Sonia looked up at Roger, noticing his eyes had widened, his mouth slightly open, along with intensified breathing, “Son’… Look…” He slowly raised his hand, pointing out of the window towards Earth.
They both jumped up off the bed and ran towards the window, planting their hands up against it – They watched as several bright purple lights launched up off of the land.
“They’re coming from all over! That one there isn’t even from the same country as these ones here!” Roger traced them with his finger. “Something huge must’ve happened…” He slowly turned to face Sonia.
“Everyone! Get to the coms room now! Right now!” Bertie sounded anxious and frightened over the intercom. Sonia and Roger rushed out of the living quarters.
As Sonia and Roger rushed into the room, they noticed all eleven other members had already arrived. Everyone was focused on one single monitor, looks of fear and terror flooding their faces. Sonia and Roger ran over to them, looking up to see what was going on.
There was a news broadcast on the monitor. A reporter spoke into her microphone as chaos unravelled behind her. People running around, screaming out loudly, and collapsing to the ground directed the crew’s attention.
“It’s simply unremarkable!” The reporter fearfully said, “It’s happening all across the globe! Right now in every single country! People are dying everywhere! On the streets, in their homes, in public restaurants, offices, beaches, on buses, everywhere! No one is safe! This… This… this Virus! It just has to be! It’s wiping out the entire human race! Where it came from, and what exactly it is are completely unknown. Just know this… Hold your loved ones closely, and kiss them… This is our final hour everyone… May God reserve a spot for each of you in Heaven…” The reporter began to gasp for air, before coughing up blood. The cameraman rushed to help, but the reporter choked and collapsed to the ground. The camera was knocked over, revealing even more people collapsing to the ground and choking on their own blood, people everywhere dying…
Chapter 2: Isolated
Everyone was silent on deck. Sonia and Roger stood up in front of them all. “Listen up friends,” Sonia began, “You all know what’s happened. There’s no point in sugar-coating it. The Earth, as we know it, has died. It is quite literally the end. People have died, many people have died, most people have died, perhaps even everyone has died. At this moment, we don’t know who’s still alive down there…” She was brutally honest. “I know you all have loved ones, as do I… But I won’t hide the truth from you. The chances of all your loved ones down there still being alive are somewhere between very slim and nil. I’m sorry to each and every one of you for your possible losses.”
Wells raised his hand, as Sonia nodded to him. “Hate to be the bearer of even worse news,” he was the Irish member of the crew – though he was also of African parentage, “But how exactly do we survive now? I mean, how do we get back to Earth? The escape pod is designed to carry only four people; at a squeeze we could push for six or seven standing despite the high risk of permanent injury or even death. But in no way could we even fit all thirteen of us on there. So, what do we do about that?” He had put Sonia into a position where she was stuck for an answer.
Roger stepped forward in front of her, “The answer, Wells…” He stuttered to think of an answer, he hadn’t planned this far, only far enough to cover for Sonia, “… Is that we stay, up here.” Confused murmurs filled the deck.
“I know people, I know. It sounds utterly insane. But let’s be honest. We can’t get back to Earth right now. All we have to do is wait. We don’t know if this is truly the end of the world,” Despite the fact that he thought it indeed was, he wanted the others to still feel hopeful, “Someone will have to come across Earth Control eventually. So long as we transmit on an hourly basis, eventually we’ll be found. Ok?” He sympathised, and nodded at the rest of the crew.
“But that in itself raises another problem,” Nadia, the Swedish member, spoke up, “Do we even have enough resources to survive for that long? Food? Water? Oxygen even.”
It was now Sonia’s turn to speak out again, as she stepped away from Roger. “The Water generator can function for a long time. Thanks to our engineer Byron, it can be repaired rather quickly should anything happen. As long as we continue to… You know… urinate, there will still be a source for water. The generation will recycle it, sterilise it, dispense it, and bam! We can drink it all again.”
Nadia nodded slowly to her answer, “Ok…” She didn’t sound very convinced, “But you still haven’t answered my other two queries. What about Food and Oxygen?”
Sonia nodded to stall for several seconds, “We’re all very good at conserving resources. Thanks to that, we already have an extra two weeks’ worth of resources saved. But that’s not all. Remember, in case we ever missed an opportunity to re-enter Earth’s orbit, we can open our emergency supply cupboard. An entire week’s worth of extra resources is kept in there. Again, given how good we are at conserving food, and also how long we can survive up here with only water, we can probably last up here for around another month or so.”
Everyone sighed. “You sound confident that everything’s going to work out just fine.” Nadia scolded her. “It will,” Roger took centre stage again. “I know that,” He tried smiling, but it only caused an uproar from the rest of the crew, as everyone began shouting at one another.
“Quiet!” Roger bellowed out so deeply, he burned his throat. “Byron! Nadia! Wells! Bertie! Kristina! Neil! Augustus! Amanda! Seth! Julian! Rosie!” He roll-called out everyone’s names, prompting them to all fall silent again. “Now listen up! Because there’s something important that you all have to know. Something important, that none of you seem to have realised thus far!” He panned across, looking at everyone’s blank faces.
“That news reporter believed that this thing is a virus of some kind… Now, while we don’t know if she’s right or not, it’s the best guess we have so far. But here’s what we do know. Not a single one of us has been infected by it! Do you see any of us coughing up or choking on blood? No! Therefore, that can only mean one thing. This virus, this strain, this pandemic… It’s only recently broken out on Earth. It hasn’t been a dormant pathogen for six months, otherwise we’d be dying too! So for those of you thinking that we should go back to Earth, for those of you planning on using the escape pod… Just bear that in mind.” This remark caused Sonia’s expression to change to surprise from remorse. “Now then… All of you go back to what you were doing! Sonia and I will try to get some kind of message to Earth. Remember, we have emergency flare missiles as well. Just like the ones sent up back down on Earth. After that, we can try and get details on all of your loved ones using your names. You’d be surprised just how far technology has come, even for astronauts like us…”
Everyone silently piled out of the deck, returning to their normal duties. “That’s some really good bullshit you’ve got going on there,” everyone except for Wells at least. “You know that everyone down there is dead… False hope won’t do you any favours. When the others begin to realise that you’ve pulped them with a pack of lies, they’re going to turn against you. Just remember that…” Now, Wells finally left.
Roger and Sonia returned to the coms room. They had to keep their conversation low as both Seth and Bertie were worki
ng in there still. “So what do we do in that case then? Suppose that Wells is right. If everyone turns against us, how do we deal with that?” Sonia still kept to a low tone despite how worried she was.
“Just… Leave it to me. The less you know right now, the better…” As Roger went to turn away, Sonia grabbed his arm and turned him back to her. “The less I know? Rog’, I know literally nothing at all about what’s happened back down on Earth all of sudden. Why should I know even less than that? You’re going to tell me what the plan is. Right now.” Her eyes fiercely pierced his solemn look.
Roger looked at Seth and Bertie, ensuring they were distracted by their duties. “If people rise up… We throw them out of the air lock,” He looked down and sighed. “Are you kidding me right now, Roger?” Her fierce expression turned to one of sheer shock and disappointment. “No, Sonia. I’m deadly serious about this. You said it yourself, our food resources can only last us for another month at the very most. Byron can maintain the water and oxygen generators, but supposing he refuses to help us, we’ll be in a catch-22. But… If we dispose of those who are turning against us, we will be able to spare more resources – less mouths to feed, less water and oxygen consumed.”
Sonia pointed out the flaw in his plan, “The less people there are, the less water produced and recycled! That resource is far more important.”
Roger still stuck to his guts however, “Look, the Green Room still exists, it hasn’t magically disappeared.” He pointed up to one of the monitors showing a small room with small plants and bonsai trees inside. There was a large vent crate on one of the walls as well. “As long as someone is breathing, oxygen and carbon dioxide can still be exchanged. And as long as someone is still breathing, water is still produced. We only need enough water to sustain those who are left. It’s not a problem, Son’. What is a problem is having thirteen people on board this station – coincidentally that’s also an unlucky number…”
Human Nature (Book 2): Human Nature II Page 1