
22 Feb Human Nature
âHuman Natureâ
Written by Shannon Higdon Edited by Craig Groshek Thumbnail Art by Craig Groshek Narrated by N/ACopyright Statement: Unless explicitly stated, all stories published on CreepypastaStories.com are the property of (and under copyright to) their respective authors, and may not be narrated or performed, adapted to film, television or audio mediums, republished in a print or electronic book, reposted on any other website, blog, or online platform, or otherwise monetized without the express written consent of its author(s).
đ§ Available Audio Adaptations: None Available
â° ESTIMATED READING TIME â 67 minutes
Laura pulled her cellphone out of its storage compartment and queued up the first video before wondering if she really should watch it again. They had, technically, only been in space for eight hours with another seventy-two yet to go and sheâd already viewed the three-minute clip close to a hundred times. The little voice in the back of her head that said she would tire of it if she continued at her current pace was quickly silenced, however, once play was pressedâŚyet again.
âHi, mommy!â Kevin, who just turned six a week ago, smiled and waved at the camera while hovering over the birthday cake which Mike had decorated with stars, planets and a tiny replica of the Olympus Space Station. âI love you,â he continued.
âWe both love you!â Mike called out from behind the camera. âTell your mommy what youâre getting ready to do.â Kevin nodded in commiserative approval; his smile contagious. Laura, as with each watching, smiled as well.
âIâm going to blow out my candles.â Her son brushed the hair from his eyesâŚMike always let him slack on the haircuts when she wasnât thereâŚand puffed his cheeks in anticipation of a large enough exhalation to extinguish six candles. Before he had a chance to blow, however, Mike caught him with another question earning something of a perturbed expression for his efforts.
âWhy are you blowing out candles?â
Kevinâs perturbed expression shifted to one of outright incredulity. Seemingly the dumbest question heâd ever heard, the boy shrugged and threw up his arms. âBecause theyâre on fire, daddy.â His tone was deadpan serious, bringing involuntary laughter from both his dad, who was there, and his mom, who wanted to be there more than anything. It broke her heart to think of the special days she had missed spending with her husband and child: the birthdays, holidays and anniversaries; but that was part of a price that they all, as a family, agreed to. The bottom line was that they were both so proud of her that those things were easily forgiven. Most six-year-olds would throw a fit if their mother didnât attend their surprise birthday party but Kevin spent his bragging to the invited classmates about his amazing mom: Laura HillmanâŚthe astronaut.
âNo, silly,â Mike corrected the boy. âTell your mom why youâre blowing out these candles.â
âOh, yea!â Kevin finally understood. âThis is the super-special cake thatâs just for us.â
âBecause the other one got eaten up at the party,â Mike added, his voice louder than the boyâs given his proximity to the microphone.
Kevin laughed in agreement, âYea. I only got one piece.â
âBut thatâs okay because weâve got this one for you and me and mommy.â
âAnd daddy says that this video will make it like you were here too and that I should tell you like Iâm telling the cameraâŚumâŚI meanâŚâ Kevin tied his own tongue momentarily.
âItâs okay buddy,â Mike prompted, âshe knows what you mean. I think you probably need to go ahead and make your wish. The candles are getting a little low there.â
With wax coming dangerously close to frosting, Lauraâs child and, despite all her accomplishments, the best thing she had ever done, puffed his cheeks once again and blew them out with only the tiniest degree of spittle released. Mike kept the footage running as Kevin cut the first and largest piece which they set aside for her. It was to be freeze-dried and sent overnight to Russia where it would be included with the supply manifest for the ESAâs Automated Transfer Vehicle launching with the Ariane-6 Heavy-Lift Rocket exactly thirteen hours after Laura and Dimitriâs Orion Capsule, The Daedalus, lifted off from Cape Canaveral. If it all went according to plan, in three daysâ time she would be able to sit down in her own private quarters aboard the OSS and eat a portion of the triple-chocolate cake while, most likely, watching this video againâŚfor the thousandth time.
Mike set the camera down on the kitchen table and directed it so that she could see both the men in her life enjoying their cake together; repeating, âitâs good,â and âmmmm,â to each other over and over. When Kevin was down to a few bites, Mike drew his attention to some tiny detail in the frosting that the boy couldnât quite see. Urging him closer and closer, her husband was somehow able to pull off the oldest gag in the book and mush Kevinâs face into the cake, smearing his nose and cheeks with chocolate. Lauraâs son was a rare breed who thought of other people first and practically never harbored ill will, and his reaction of laughter and then hamming it up even more for the camera was exactly what she wouldâve expected it to be. Every parent wanted to say that they had a good kid but in her caseâŚwellâŚshe had a good kid.
The video would close with a clean face and Kevin offering up the sacred secrecy of his birthday wish without provocation. âYou donât have to say if you donât want to,â Mike had assured him but his son insisted. Adamant about the fact that the wish was coming true regardless, the boy felt strongly that her knowing about it would help to âkeep mommy safeâ. In the final seconds of the video, with Mikeâs strong arm around the kid, Kevin looks first at the camera and then back at his father before saying with complete sincerity, âMy wish is for mommy to get to the Olympics Stadium okayâ. It was an incredibly sweet moment and also very unfortunate that the clip ended when it did because she would have loved to have seen the look on Mikeâs face. It didnât matter how many times they had told their son that it was the âOlympus Stationâ it almost always came back to them as the âOlympics Stadiumâ. It had gotten so many laughs out of them, at this pointâŚthe kid was probably doing it on purpose.
Laura sighed and switched off her iPhone before slipping it back into the console. She might not get tired of watching videos of home, but her battery would. It amazed her. The Daedalus was equipped with some of the most advanced circuitry in the world and yetâŚthey couldnât have put in a USB port? Admittedly, the Orion series werenât exactly designed for luxury travel. Utilitarian in nature, the capsules were created for transporting goods and supplies and, in this particular instance, they were the âgoodsâ. The astronauts, cosmonauts and French spationauts that used the four and two-man capsules werenât exactly boxed away like cargo, but they werenât flying âfirst-classâ eitherâŚor even âcoachâ for that matter. Comfort seemed to come very low on the list of specifications the various agencies used in their creation. Significantly lower, at least, than things like âhull-integrityâ and âoxygen stabilityâ. Keeping them alive seemed to be of higher priority than reclining seats and an in-flight movie. She wasnât complaining.
She looked over at Dimitri who was sound asleep and found it remarkable that he could do so with such ease. While they had specific sleep cycles that they were to try to adhere to, Laura had been unable to catch a single wink during her first four-hour shift. There had been too much adrenaline and norepinephrine surging through her system to even make it possible; it felt like two too many double espressos. She was in space! Dreaming of this moment since she was Kevinâs age, it was the fruition of everything she had ever wanted growing up. Her high-school yearbook quote was, âIf I get to go to space, I will die happyâ and she meant it. Breaking through the cloud-line, leaving the atmosphere behind and delving into the incomprehensible vastness was like nothing she had imagined; and nothing like the simulations either. It was a rush! Giving birth to Kevin, marrying Mike, graduating to a gold-key NASA astronautâŚthese had been the defining moments in her life and now they all just seemed to pale by comparison. She would leave that part out when relaying the story to her boys.
Her co-pilot, however, did not appear to be as impressed. Dimitri Vladimir Kapirski had a few more seasons under his belt than she did, as a pilot-cosmonaut and a test-cosmonaut on thirty-nine different missions to space, including two two-year stints aboard the, now defunct, International Space Station. The man had logged more time in space any anyone who hadnât retired; which was part of the reason why he was being made the Commander of the OSS.  Dimitri had the type of serious temperament and fastidious eye for details that only came from being in the game for so long.
Most people that met him once thought he was a hard-ass but once you really got to know himâŚwell, he was still a hard-ass; but he was honest and brave and intelligent and, frankly, there was no one else youâd rather have watching your back. Laura had first met the revered cosmonaut twelve years ago when she took an eight-week course he was instructing and he had intimidated the hell out of her at the time. He had seen something in her, however, and, two weeks into the program, pulled her aside out of nearly three hundred people who all had the same dream of being an astronaut or cosmonaut and told her, âyouâre going to spaceâ.
Unbeknownst to her, he had followed her career after that and it was he who put in the request to have her on his station crew. Laura knew he had given a recommendation but had no idea the extent to which he was responsible for her wildest dreams coming true. In three daysâ time, the adventure would really begin. Dimitri would be replacing current OSS Commander Jill Milner and Laura was relieving Alex Wang, both of whom would use the Daedalus to return to Earth after completing four-year tours in space. Astronauts Nick Geary and Rukia Kanagi would be staying behind leaving a continued skeleton crew of four once the Daedalus departs again.
Theirs would be the final preparations that would need to be made in advance of the full crew arrival in three monthsâ time. The Olympus Space Station was a masterpiece of civil engineering and deep-space construction created as a long-term alternative to the archaic tin-can known as the International Space Station. Built to comfortably house a working community of two-hundred and eighty-eight people, Lauraâs team was responsible for a large variety of nit-picking tasks. From inputting personal and medical data of all the incoming personnel to testing every system available to test, they would have their hands full, no doubt, but the heavy lifting had already been done. Dimitri would be the first OSS Commander to maintain the station at capacity and she would be one of the flight crew. It was all very exciting.
Laura wasnât the only one to have high hopes for Olympus. The crew were coming from every corner of the world and through every space agency available, including private companies like SpaceX. There was a real emphasis on global cooperation and working together and it was hoped by many, in America at least, that the station would act as a beacon for the rest of the world to follow. There was a quiet optimism that the glorious utopia of collaboration orbiting above the rest of humanity might somehow ebb the rising tide of hatred and violence spilling over all borders.
Since the beginning of the nuclear age, the threat of mutual destruction has been the only thing keeping the peace between nationsâŚsupposedly. It now seemed, however, that the world was evolving into a different place with a different mindset. There were countries in the world with egomaniacal leaders who cared more about power than their citizens and some who were even worse; some that cared only for destruction. There were factions of generational wealthy who funneled ungodly amounts of money into creating propaganda, distrust, riots and eventuallyâŚwar. To these people war equals money. They just donât seem to understand that the world has the capacity for only one more war. At the very bottom of the pyramid was the majority of the planetâs seven and a half billion peopleâŚand those people were completely terrified; wanting nothing more than peace.
Part of the reason Laura finally decided to actually go into space and leave her family behind on terra firma was the hope that she was working to create a better world for her son than the one he currently resided in. With no eye for politics or the law, the only way she knew how to do that was through science and the idea that global resolution could come through mankind experiencing and thriving far beyond the bounds of any country or even the world itself. She didnât know if her co-pilot and future Commander was going to Olympus for the same lofty idealisms that drove her, however. It was hard to say how he felt about the future of the planet or even, being unmarried and without children, his desire to be on it. âHeart to heartâsâ werenât exactly his strong suit. Motivations aside, there could not have been a better person available for the position.
Dimitri snorted loudly, breaking the silence of the capsule and causing Laura to jump in her seat, startling her from her thoughts. The older man wasnât a snorer, thank goodnessâŚthat could have been maddening; but he did, on occasion, release an involuntary snort which, when it didnât scare her half to death, tickled her to no end. She had heard a rumor in flight-school that he once had the nickname âHot Sauceâ but she was never able to verify its authenticityâŚlet alone find out how he might have gotten it. Presumably, it had something to do with hot sauceâŚhopefully for eating it. She watched him for a moment to see if the splutter was a soloâŚsometimes they came in pairsâŚand when she was satisfied that there wasnât another coming she turned her attention to the beveled window known as âviewpoint sixâ.
The motion wasnât terribly comfortable as she had to twist her neck somewhat to look over her right shoulder, but it was the only one of the six openings that provided her with a view of the Earth which was, for all intents and purposes, in their rearview mirror. The windows were actually three different frames of aluminum silicate infused glass, with the center pane adjusting for the dramatic difference in pressure between the vacuum of space and what they needed to survive the trip, so the view they provided wasnât crystal-clear. That being said, it was still a breathtaking sight to behold.
Almost as if mother nature had coordinated for her benefit alone, the cloud-cover was practically non-existent. Even at the distance they had already traveled, the outline of the North and South American landmasses were clearly discernible in the sunlight bathed side of the Earth, brown and green against the brilliant blues and aqua-marine of the oceans. They had, of course, traveled too far to make out any of the footprints of mankind: cities, monuments and the likeâŚor so she thought.  A flash of blinding light from somewhere on the US east coast flared out as bright as the sun leaving spots on the back of her eyelids when she reflexively squeezed them shut.
Her first thought was that it had to be weather-related but logic quickly dictated that that couldnât be the case. It was way too bright to have been anything like lightning, which shouldnât be observable from space anyway. Could it have been a reflection of the sunâs light? A basic understanding of geometrics and the sunâs current location made that highly improbable. Lauraâs mind was running through the logical possibilitiesâŚto the point of even considering breaking Dimitriâs slumber early for his opinion, when the communication channel designated âTangoâ began flashing on the digital dashboard. It was accompanied by its own unique beep and the moment it went off, Dimitri woke up anyway, constantly tuned-in. It was an alarm they werenât used to and probably shouldnât be hearing.
There was there main line of communications, âAlphaâ, which was the direct contact with their Mission Control at NASA in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The had regularly planned interactions but it wasnât completely uncommon for either side to relay messages outside of the scheduled check-ins. âBetaâ was a back-up com-channel which also linked to Mission Control in the unlikely scenario that the main line became compromised.  Once you got past the first two channels, you had a dozen more which were direct lines to the various space agenciesâ Mission Controls around the planet. Tango was so far down the list of probable contact that Laura had actually forgotten who it connected to, having not used it since the early days of training. Not surprisingly, Dimitri knew immediately as he switched off the alarm and connected to the European Space Agencyâs Mission Control in Darmstadt, Germany.
âThis is Daedalus,â Dimitri began, his English thick with a Russian accent. Pulling up the confirmation codes needed for an unscheduled transmission from his console screen he continued, âConfirmation: EchoâŚRainbowâŚstraw-hatâŚsevenâŚfourâŚrazorbladeâŚâ
âDaedalus thereâs a problem.â The unidentified person on the other end cut him off, seemingly unconcerned about national security since Dimitri still had four more verification words left to read. âWeâre getting reportsâŚOh GodâŚI donât even know how toâŚâ The manâs voice seemed strained and disconnected at the same time, tones they werenât used to hearing from their Earthly contacts, who were trained to maintain calming dispositions when dealing with their counterparts in space. The capsule-mates shared a bewildered look before Dimitri tried again.
âESAâŚwhy are you guys contacting us?â His best guess was that they had some atmospheric questions or numbers for Daedalus to run for the unmanned supply launch that should be taking place within the hour. Perhaps an update on the launch itself. âWas there something we can help you guys with?â There was an extended silence, which was also unusual.
Finally, âDaedalusâŚwhen did you last report to NASA Mission Control? How long has it been?â It was Laura who replied.
âApproximately forty minutes ago. Due for next communique at oh-nine-hundred hours.â The ESA rep left them with an extended silence yet again and this time it was long enough for Dimitri to say, âscrew thisâ and pull up the Alpha channel as well.
âMission Control, this is Daedalus, do you read?â There was no reply, and after a few minutes, he tried again. âMission ControlâŚthis is DaedalusâŚdo you read?â
âYouâre not getting anything, are you?â asked the ESA line who had been listening the entire time.
âWhat the hellâs going one ESA?â Laura blurted. They were both getting a little irritated with the situation. The astronauts could hear the man sigh and then begin talking to someone else that wasnât them. It was mostly muffled but small bits of phrases would make their way through unscathed, like âhave to tellâ, âwhat if itâs trueâ, and âbetter off than we areâ before finally speaking in a voice clear enough that it was obvious he was speaking to them again.
âDimitriâŚLauraâŚthis is coming strictly outside of the chain of command andâŚâ Again the line went quiet and the informal nature of the way they were being addressed was, alone, enough to find quite disconcerting. They both had codenames that were to be used during transit. Once aboard the OSS, NASA or anyone else that wanted to make contact would be fine in calling them by their birth-names. It was protocol, however, that during the actual flights he would be referred to as âHandlebarâ and she was âTeacupâ. It was highly unusual to hear her real name coming from the tiny speakers in her flight suit when she had been hearing âTeacupâ since day one of the missionâs training period and it make her squirm uncomfortably, strapped into her seat.
âWhat the hell is going on there, ESA?â Dimitri blurted out, seeming to recognize the difference between intentional silence and signal tangibility, which Laura was suspecting. The voice with German inflections finally replied but not before they could both hear a blood-curdling cry coming from somewhere else behind him. It was enough to send shivers down both their spines as they looked at each other, searching one anotherâs face for any sign of understanding; each hoping the other might have figured out what was happening.
âIâm sorry guysâŚthings are going to hell right now. This is DolphâŚDolph Weiner.â They had both worked closely with the man in the past and it was somewhat surprising that neither of them had recognized his voice but, thick with panic, it was undeniably different now. Dolph, much like Dimitri, was very well respected for his experience and tenure in the space and aeronautics fields. Cutting his teeth at NASA, straight out of MIT, he bounced between government sectors and private corporations like Northrup Grumman and Boeing before finally ending up with the ESA as its Mission Control director for the sunset years of his distinguished career. For someone of his caliber to be the one establishing contact was justâŚwrong.
âI donât want to be the one telling you thisâŚbutâŚsomebody has to. Things have gone to shit down here. Itâs…itâs war. The big one. I think NASA is gone.â Dimitri struggled to grasp what Dolph was trying to tell them but Laura immediately thought of the flash and knew.
âGone?â Dimitriâs voice was confused. âWhat do you mean âgoneâ?â
âNukesâŚDimitri. The bastards are all usingâŚâ The signal went dead, its light extinguishing as well to signify that the man hadnât just stopped mid-sentence. Laura twisted her head back to viewport six and released a horrible scream that echoed off the capsules walls long after it had ended in a tormented moan. It had only been a split-second. In that minuscule moment of time that her eyes were open and facing the glass they were bombarded with a series of simultaneous flashes so bright it seemed as though the Earth had, in fact, become the sun itself.
The scream was one of physical agony and not at all pertaining to the emotional anguish which was far from setting in, even though her brain had realized what was happening. The thoughts of her husband and child being burned away to a pile of nuclear ash or even worse⌠living through the blasts⌠hadnât set in yet. The shock of being so suddenly and completelyâŚblinded kept everything else at bay.
With quicker thinking that Laura displayed, Dimitri activated the solar shields which blocked, very nearly, all outside light with the type of tint one could watch a solar eclipse through and unlatched himself from his seat to set about doing whatever he could to treat her eyes. Although neither of them were doctors, it wasnât as if they were without medical training altogether. Every person that went into space, especially those expecting extended stays, were required to learn just about everything first-year med students were taught.
Lauraâs entire body vibrated with involuntary shaking, a physical reaction to the trauma of having her eyes open and not seeing anything but the assortment of flashing spots, over and over again. At the periphery there seemed to be some acuity but if she shifted her gaze to any area she thought she might have taken in a small bit of Dimitriâs movements, it was filled with the disruptive optical echo. In the thousands of times she had been required to spend extended time in the tiny, cramped spaces that being an astronaut required, she had never once experienced any claustrophobia and now, without warning, Laura was overwhelmed with the sensation of being trappedâŚin her own body.
Struggling for breath, she was vaguely aware of her co-pilotâs voice doing the best it could to calm her histrionics, but it was distant and foreign; the visual barrier somehow reaching into her mind to affect her cognitive abilities. It took several long minutes and his placing a medicated bandage over her eyes for his words to slowly sift into any recognizable form of communication.
ââŚsolar retinopathyâŚknow itâs terrifyingâŚnot permanent.â He placed one large palm on her forehead with his fingers drifting into her hairline and something about the warmth and pressure of it eased the hyperventilation and calmed the tremors from her body, much as Dimitri had intended it to. It brought back warm and comforting memories of her father who used to do the same thing when she was a small child. She wondered if there was any way the Russian could have known that once her mind returned to the summit of being able to process thoughts once again.
âOnce we get aboard Olympus weâll be able to treat it better and you could be seeing fine in just a few weeks.â Laura nodded her head to convey that she not only heard the statement but also that she was back in the realm of clinical response and Dimitri seemed to understand its meaning. âGood,â he continued; âokayâŚlisten, I need you to keep your eyes closed for now and do your best to stay calm.â He sighed in a way she didnât think sheâd ever heard before, before finally asking; âDoes it hurt?â She nodded. The two small bonfires beneath her eyelids kept her from little more than a responsive state while the shock momentarily held the rest of reality at bay.
She could hear him rummaging through something, airtight foil being removed, while she concentrated on the burning and flashing lights that inundated her optical nerves beneath closed and covered eyes. In a moment his voice had returned to her side.
âIâm going to give you a fentanyl dose.â She nodded again and when he gently slid the plastic tip of the nasal applicator for the synthetic opioid into her right nostril he said, âOn three. OneâŚtwoâŚthreeâ Dimitri squeezed the bottle as Laura inhaled deeply and the medication began to do its thing almost immediately.
Within thirty seconds she was granted relief with the sweet embrace of darkness offered by unconsciousness. Shortly after that, she found herself in the loving arms of Mike with Kevin desperately trying to squirm his way from between them.
The three of them were in the double-king, canopied bed that Mike had insisted they spend way too much money on, wrestling and tickling each other and reveling in the unabashed and unrestrained joy of being a family in love and of being all together, which was a truly rare thing. Kevin would pretend to try to get away but only so much as to re-position himself at an angle to get at her weak-spot: between the ribs, just below the armpits. The child was getting stronger every year, but with Mikeâs assistance, they were able to keep him between them and smothered with kisses. It was a moment that they would have all been happy to have last forever. It didnât.
In unison, Mike and Kevin quit laughing and sat upright in the bed, smiles completely erased. Her husband and child each turned to face her and the expressions of fear etched upon their faces was enough for her to bolt upright as well. Perhaps it was a reaction to Kevin taking her hand or Mikeâs saying, âI love you both so muchâ, but the fear they seemed to be feeling gripped her by the throat as well. Suddenly terrified by the certain knowledge that some impending doom was imminent, all she had time to do was shed a single tear when the bay window flooded the room with blinding and oppressive light. It consumed them and the smell of burning hair filled her nostrils before the wall of fire came through to wash them away.
It was a momentary relief when the psychological sledgehammer of a dream jerked her back to a waking state, but the moment was short-lived. Discovering, yet again, that she had been blindedâŚhopefully temporarilyâŚthe reality of her situation setting back in was just as horrific as the dream had been. She could hear DimitriâŚand he was speaking to someone.
âIâm telling you thereâs nothing.â It was Rukia Kanagiâs voice. Dimitri was communicating with the OSS. âWeâve scanned the entire planet, Sir. There are no signals of any type. Weâve gone over every known man-made frequency in the database. I thinkâŚOh Dear Lord, I donât even want to say it out loud.â Rukia was a communications expert, among other things, and she wasnât exactly known for her emotional outbursts.
âItâs okay Kanagi,â Dimitri offered, using a voice with the same calming qualities he used on Laura; âyou donât have to say it.â There were a few minutes of silence and Laura wondered if she should let them know that she was awake when Rukiaâs voice filtered through the speakers in her flight-suit again.
âSirâŚgiven everything thatâs just happened, IâmâŚuncertainâŚabout bringing this upâŚbut,â her voice became conspiratorially low; âI think there might be another problem that you need to know about.â
âGo ahead, Kanagi,â he pressed.
âWell,â still at a whisper; âitâs been nothing more than talk at this point butâŚwellâŚI thought you should know. Itâs Alex and Nick⌠geez, I canât believe Iâm even having to say this butâŚtheyâve been trying to convince the Commander that we shouldnât let the Daedalus dock with Olympus.â
âWhat the fuck are you talking about, Kanagi?â Laura cringed involuntarily; she had never heard Dimitri cuss before. She could only imagine what Rukiaâs reaction was. It took a moment for her to respond.
âSirâŚI canât stress enough that theyâre simply suggesting it as a hypothetical. I know these people and I canât imagine that theyâd really do it. Itâs justâŚwell, right now the food supplies are somewhat low. Even with reduced rations, thereâs really only enough for four people to survive for a few months. Everything that we needed to keep a continuous supply of food was supposed to be on the Ariane-sixâŚall the seeds for crops and enough MREâs to last three hundred people a decade were on that supply ship andâŚwellâŚweâve not been able to verify if she got off the ground before the shit hit the fan. Until it clears the Van Allen belts weâre not going to be able to lock onto her signal and that wonât be for another six hoursâŚassuming she’s even out there.â
Rukia went quiet again and Dimitri considered her words before asking, âSo what youâre saying, Kanagi, is that if the Ariane never made lift-off then theyâre not going to let the Daedalus board the station?â
âIâm so⌠sorry, sir.â Dimitri could tell the young Japanese-American astronaut was sickened by her own words. âAccording to Nick, the current supplies would last six people no more than a couple of weeks. I donât know what to say, sir, exceptâŚI will die before I let that happen; you have my word. I have to go before they discover that Iâve contacted you. Maintain your course and the second I can, Iâll give you an update. God speed, sir.â
âKanagi.â Dimitri caught her before she cut the transmission.
âYes, sir?â
âKanagiâŚRukiaâŚyour father would have been proud of you.â Laura could hear the other womanâs breath hitch quietly, just short of an actual sob. It was a noise she often made herself when she needed to keep her composure in a haze of emotion.  Although it was customary for commanding officers to refer to their crew by their secondary names, Dimitri had been doing it his entire career. It was a rare treat to hear your first name coming from his lips.
âThank you, Sir.â Â Olympus cut the connection and, after a moment of quiet, Dimitri turned his attention to his bandaged co-pilot.
âYou had nothing to add to the conversation, Hillman?â She smiled despite the grave situation; the man never ceased to amaze her.
âHow did you know I was awake?â Her voice was dry and cracked and, before she could ask for water, he had positioned the flight suit’s drinking tube into her mouth. The water tasted fine even though she couldnât help but think about the fact that a portion of it was her own reconstituted urine, much as she did every time she drank. The flight suits were equipped with ten gallons of water and an advanced filtration system for the astronautâs urine which would stretch the ten gallons into the fifty or sixty that they would need to stay hydrated on the trip to Olympus.
âYour breathing,â he answered her question as she drank.
âIs it true?â she asked after finally satiating her thirst. âIs it allâŚgone?â
Dimitri shook his head despite her inability to see it. âI donât know. I thinkâŚI think it would be unwise for either of us to make any assumptions.â
âBut you tried all the channels?â
âWhile you sleptâŚyea. Iâve scanned every frequency this little Orion capsule is capable of. That being said, we canât afford to lose ourselves in hypothetical conjecture. Dwelling on what happened down there isnât going to help us any up here. All we need to concentrate on is getting to the OSS.â She was incapable of taking that advice, however, and her brain vomited up the thought it had been tip-toeing around for as long as it could.
âOh, GodâŚMikeâŚKevinâ She felt the already weak grasp on her sanity slipping away as the notion of a ârest of her lifeâ without her husband and child tried to take hold. Dimitri grabbed her shoulders and gently shook her, hoping to bring her attention back to the here and now.
âNO!â He screamed into her face. âYou cannot do that right now.â His voice was compassionate but forceful just the same. âFor oneâŚyou canât cry if you want your eyes to heal. Thereâs no way around that. If something did happen to your family, then there will be time to mourn them laterâŚon Olympus. Right nowâŚIâm giving you a direct command: you are not to think about the conditions on Earth while you are aboard Daedalus. Do you understand?â
Technically he wasnât her commanding officer until they were aboard the OSS and he had relieved Commander Milner of the position, butâŚshe knew what he was doing, and more importantly, he was right. Nodding again, she did her best to wipe the anguished look from her face. The new one wasnât a whole lot better but Dimitri could see the determination Laura was trying to convey. He could trust that she was, once again, a competent co-pilot and wouldnât be slipping back into hysterics of any typeâŚnot yet, anyway.  Although it took several long seconds, she somehow managed to compartmentalize the pain into a spot where it could be relatively ignored for the time being. It was an ability that she wasnât aware she had and that wasnât necessarily a good thing.
âYes Sir,â she finally managed and then, after a few more seconds; âWhat about the Ariane-six?â
âWhat about it?â She wasnât exactly sure what she was asking either.
âI donât knowâŚis there any way that we can track her? Weâre a lot closer to it than Olympus.â Dimitri shook his head ânoâ before yet again realizing that her condition made it moot to do so.
âNot without knowing her flight-plan. Sheâs unmanned so thereâs nothing more than a beacon and without Mission Control to give us coordinatesâŚwellâŚthe answerâs ânoâ. Olympus will find her before we ever could. All we can do now is continue on with our flight-plan.â Without her eyes, Laura found herself concentrating on the timbre and cadence of his voice more than she ever had before and there were no cracks. Still calm, still in control and still working the problem with a thorough logic that she couldnât hope to achieve, given the circumstances. Laura knew her life was in his hands andâŚshe was grateful.
âDo you really think theyâll exile the Daedalus?â It seemed unimaginableâŚbut then againâŚso did this entire situation.
âNo. No, I do not.â She could hear the certainty in his voice.
âHowâŚhow can you be so sure?â
âBecause I know Kanagi and Commander Milner wonât let that happen. Wang and Geary had a knee-jerk reaction. Panic and fear make some men revert to base instincts, butâŚthey will come to their senses. Itâs been my experience that those who make it to space generally have a strong reverence for life.â
âOkay⌠I believe you.â And she did. They sat in silence for thirty minutes before Dimitri broke out their meal-injections. Being that a toilet was one of the amenities the Daedalus lacked, solid food consumption was out of the question. A pre-launch colon-cleanse combined with the injections that contained all the vitamins, proteins and nutrients their bodies required made the process possible. Which wasnât to say that it was pleasant in the least. Several days of tapering off the injections and slowly re-introducing food to the system was required afterwards, and it could be several weeks before your stomach was ready for a spicy burrito again.
Fortunately, they were privy to the most advanced supplies available and their nutrient-shots came in MIT-engineered devices which injected their âfoodâ without needles, delivering a high-velocity jet of liquid that breached the skin at the speed of sound. They included appetite suppressants as well which kept the tummy from rumbling its disapproval at the unnatural attempt to sustain its needs.
âEverything a growing cosmonaut needs to become big and strong,â Dimitri said as he depressed the injection into his neck. It was the same thing he said every time they âateâ. His consistency was doubly reassuring in that moment and for the umpteenth time she thought, thank God for Dimitri. Although he offered, Laura was able to handle her own injection. Ironically, it was just the day before that she told him she could have done it âblindfoldedâ and now it was time to put up or shut up.
Dimitri did the honors of cleaning the dishes and informed her that it was time for her to sleep. Without her vision to provide a framework of her surroundings, she was losing all sense of time; after the last, drug-induced, chainsaw of a dream, she was in no hurry to return and put up a bit of a fight as well. After all, he hadnât slept since she had…and they both needed him to be as his bestâŚor at least better than he would be if sleep deprivation took hold. Her arguments held no sway, however, and he pulled premature rank on his capsule-mate once again.
Finally, she agreedâŚshe was tiredâŚbut she declined Dimitriâs offer of more fentanyl. Her eyes werenât burning nearly as badly now and, frankly, she couldnât take another dream like the last one.   Before attempting to sleep, Laura did something she hadnât done since she was a small child: she prayed.   It was the first time the adult version of her had done so without feeling like a hypocrite and it was a short, simple request. There were a great many things that probably should have been prayed for moreâŚshe knew that…but she only asked for a moment of peace, an opportunity to sleep safe from the torment of pain. Her prayer was answered.
Falling asleep quicker than she had thought possible, her mind remained mercifully blank. The burning thoughts she had been holding at bay, the ones that wanted to rip away at her soul, were enveloped and replaced by the soothing balm of utter blackness. It was impossible to say how long she was cradled by the nothingness, but when Dimitri put his hand on her shoulder to wake her, it felt like only a few minutes. When he told her it had been six hoursâŚit was a shock and, had it been anyone else, she wouldnât have believed him. He said that he wouldâve let her sleep longer had they not been anticipating an update from Olympus on Ariane-sixâs status. That and he wanted to change the dressing on her eyes.
They were mid-way through the process of removing the bandage and cleaning her eyes for the new one when Olympusâs signal went off. Â Multi-tasking, Dimitri switched on the com and addressed the OSS while finishing the task.
âGo ahead, Olympus,â he stayed somewhat official, unsure if heâd be speaking Rukia again or not.
âOh, God, sir.â It was Rukia. She sounded unusually frantic. âTheyâve⌠Oh, God⌠I canât believeâŚâ
âKanagi!â Dimitri barked with authority pulling the Olympus communications officer back from the edge of panic.
âRight. Iâm sorry, sir.â Her voice returned to it normally stoic tone. âItâs mutiny, sir. Wang and Geary have cordoned the Commander to the brig because she refused to side with them regarding the Daedalus.â
âYou mean us?â Laura asked.
âLauraâŚ?â
âYea Rukia, itâs me.â
âOh, Laura⌠Iâm so sorry. Commander Kapirski told me about your eyes. Donât worry⌠weâll get you fixed up.â It had been a number of years since the women had seen each other but they had always considered each other âfriendsâ.
âHow are we going to do that if we canât come aboard, Rukia?â Silence took a full half-minute from them before Dimitri took control again.
âKanagi, what is your standing with Geary and Wang?â
âUm⌠itâs not great, sir.â Dimitri chuckled seemingly getting the answer he was expecting. âThe sons-of-bitches know Iâm not going along with them either, however, it would seem I know Olympusâs electrical grid a little better than they do. Iâve managed to lock myself down in E-wing and until the morons figure out how to manually override the door controls, I should be okay. Iâve re-routed communications and most of the central systems so that I can control them from here.â Dimitri was impressed. For that matterâŚso was Laura. She had always thought of Rukia Kanagi as a competent scientist and advanced electrical-engineer who, most likely, had a kind heartâŚbut this fierce loyalty and bravery was really showing her something. In the wake of extreme tragedy, peopleâs true colors were bleeding through the facades they liked to present and Rukiaâs were downrightâŚadmirable.
âYouâre a smart girl, Kanagi,â Dimitri offered what they were both thinking.
âWell, sirâŚI donât know about that. I may have control of the OSS right now but the one thing I have absolutely none ofâŚis food. Iâve got maybe four days tops before Iâll have to turn the station back over or risk dying and having the whole place go down as a result.â
âKanagi, can you control the docking ports from your position?â Laura broke in and Dimitri, knowing where she was going, nodded in agreement. It was the only way any of them could go without resolving themselves to disagreeable deaths.
âThat was the entire reason why I stole control of Olympus, Laura. At your current trajectory, you should be here in fifty-six hoursâŚIâll make it that long. Thatâs not the only problem though. Even if I get you hooked up to the station that doesnât mean that Iâll be able to keep Geary and Wang from greeting you at the door as you come in.â
âYou donât need to worry about that, Kanagi,â Dimitriâs iron tone put it to rest. âAll I want you to do is to keep yourself safe until we can get there to help you. Do you understand?â
âYes, sir⌠Commander, sir. I will not let you down.â
âI know that, Kanagi. You never have.â After a short moment of reflection as they all instinctively wondered if this communique were between the last friends any of them would have again, Dimitri asked, âDo I take this to mean that thereâs been nothing from the Ariane-six?â
âNo, sir,â Rukia lamented, and, after a moment said, âBut that doesnât necessarily mean anything. Without any communications with Earth⌠well, we just donât know. I tried to explain that to AlexâŚI mean âWangââŚbut with Geary breathing down his neck, he just wouldnât listen. There are a million different things that could have changed about the launch-time or flight-plan that would affect our ability to locate it. Thereâs no way to know for absolute sure that sheâs not coming until the damn thingâs only twelve hours away or closer. So it will beâŚwhatâŚlike two and a half days before I can narrow the search enough to say, definitively, one way or another.â
âRukia?â Laura piped.
âYea?â
âDo Alex and Nick know that youâve been in contact with the Daedalus?â
âNot yetâŚno. Wang isnât the complete idiot Geary is, however. It wonât be long before he figures out how to, at least, monitor the com. Iâll know if that happens though soâŚoh shit.â Rukia cut the communication completely and Lauraâs first reaction was to re-establish the channel. Dimitri said ânoâ however and, being blind, there was little she could do about it.
âWhat the hell?â Laura demanded, serving the dual purpose of questioning both Rukiaâs abrupt exit as well as Dimitriâs refusal to find out why. A full minute passed without an answer when she reiterated the question. This time it earned her a, âShhhâ, like she was a child to be shushed. In any other situation she might have taken offense but in this instance: it worked. After a few more minutes of silence, Dimitri said; âItâs Morse code.â
âWhat?â
âKanagiâŚsheâs using the channelâs connection light to communicate in Morse code. I thought maybe it was broken butâŚokay, waitâŚhereâs the beginning: L, I, S, T, E, N, I, N, G, D, O, C, K, B, A, Y, S, I, X. She wants us to dock in Bay Six.â Dimitri clicked the channel off and on to acknowledge the received message. Shortly after that, the channel opened again.
âDaedalus this is Olympus, do you copy?â It was Rukia again, formal this time. âDaedalus, I have your docking information.â She was obviously attempting the lay the trail of crumbs for Geary and Wang.
âRoger Olympus, this is Daedalus. We copy.â Laura replied since she was technically the com-officer in the capsule.
âRoger that Daedalus. Weâve got you docking in bay twenty-five. Do you copyâŚbay twenty-five?â There were only 25 docking bays so she was giving them as much distance as she could without making it obvious by putting them in the first few bays. Rukia really was a smart girl.
âCopy that Olympus. Bay twenty-five. Over and out.â Dimitri flipped off the signal and sighed. The next two days were going to be that much longer if theyâd be unable to speak to Rukia anymoreâŚunfettered, at least. What had started out as an expedition based in science and the advancement of the species had turned into a Darwinian nightmare where, hopefully, it wouldnât be âsurvival of the fittestâ but rather âsurvival of the smartestâ. With the advantage of knowing what it was they would be walking into, they had approximately two days to formulate a way of making sure they ended up on top. It was Dimitriâs contention that there was a significant difference between what the two men would do if they actually made it aboard the Olympus. There was more than a fine line between leaving them to their own devices by denying the Daedalus and committing cold-blooded murder in person and he seemed fairly certain that the Olympus astronauts were incapable of such an act. She wanted to believe him.
For Laura, the next two days passed like two months. She had never realized how acutely integrated her sight was with her sense of time. Her inability to monitor the clock and the distance traveled seemed to mess with her sanity more than anything and it required Dimitriâs having to talk her back from the edge more than once.  Every five hours they changed her bandage and Dimitri cut his sleep times down to ninety-minute intervals. Those hours and a half segments were the worst, teetering on the edge of her seat while he slept and straining her ears for any one of the one-hundred and three different noises the Daedalus might make to let them know if there were an issue or if the course needed adjustment. Those short periods felt like days unto themselves and she was grateful for those rare moments when he would release one of his sleep-snorts. Rather than surprise her like they normally did, they felt like Dimitriâs way of saying, âyouâre okayâ while he slept and brought her back from the sensation that she was all alone and floating aimlessly through space.
When they were within twelve hours, it would have been procedure for the OSS to make contact with the Daedalus every forty-five minutes but Olympus made no more contact. Rukia, knowing that the gig was up, no longer attempted the routine B.S. and concentrated solely on her survival and keeping tabs on Astronauts Wang and Geary through the OSS security cameras. At least thatâs the message she conveyed in her last Morse code transmission around the twenty-hour mark. When they were a mere four hours away and riddled with adrenaline-fueled anticipation, they did receive a transmission from Rukia. It was shortâŚand it gave them no time to respond before the connection cut again.
âCommanderâŚLauraâŚtheyâre coming through the door. I canât hold them back any longer. Automated docking routine Epsilon-Epsilon-Seven-Nine-Tango. God speed.â Dimitri did try to reestablish contact this time but there was no raising the station. Rukia had done everything she could to give them a fighting chance of getting aboard the station. The Daedalus was at a decided disadvantage, no doubt. Without someone to make the tiny rotational adjustments to the OSS that are usually neededâŚnot to mention Lauraâs inability to monitor the capsules gyroscopic readingsâŚwell, Dimitri would have his hands full.
What he did have, however, was the exact pitch and roll the station would be in along with the remarkable gift of being able to fly any vehicle designed for zero-gravity with the precision of a machine. From time to time, including his current approach, he was known to say âHan Solo eat your heart outâ, but the Daedalus wasnât exactly the Millennium Falcon and Laura wasnât sure she wanted to be thought of as Chewbacca. She did her best, throaty âggrrrrlllhhâ impression of the Wookie regardless and Dimitri unleashed his first authentic laugh since they had left Earth. There wasnât much to it but it was a moment they both needed; the tension palpable and suffocating.
Olympus was enormous. It was the first trip for either of them and it could be seen by eye at nearly five-hundred miles. The closer they got the more Dimitri marveled at its size and struggled to verbally describe it to Laura. Even though he knew specs by heart, it was so much larger in person than he had imagined. At five hundred yards it was like navigating the capsule above a large city; a city which was rotating at fifty miles per hour. Bouncing between his manual controls and Lauraâs gyro readings, Dimitri was a one-man dynamo. Navigating the Daedalus like it was an extension of his own body, he somehow made the piece of unwieldy metal and its twenty-four opposing jets control like a sleek, flying sports-car. Even without her eyes, Laura was impressed.
Dimitri had to circle the OSS twice in order to bring the Daedalus into alignment with Docking Bay Six, and then rotated an additional four more times with the station before making sure the capsule was locked into the magnetic hold with an airtight seal. Once the green light for the first stage of decompression came on they knew they needed to move quickly. Bay Twenty-five was at the far end of the station but if Wang and Geary had regained control of the surveillance system then they probably already knew that they had been fooledâŚif they had been fooled at all.
Dimitri stood and handed Laura one of the only two weapons they would be armed with: their doctored nutrient shots. The usual sustenance they contained, however, had been removed to make room for their homemade roofie-cocktailsâŚor, at least, the closest facsimile they could create without actually having any Rohypnol on hand. Instead, each injector was re-purposed with the entire supply of fentanyl, promethazine and diphenhydramine they had on hand. In theory, it was both a non-lethal and quick-acting solution to possible aggression which should put a man three times the size of Dimitri down for the count. It was hard to say how long they would be unconscious, but all they really had to do was to get the men behind bars. They could decide what to do with them later.
Laura stood behind him, keeping her hand on the shoulder of Dimitriâs flight-suit as they made their way through the capsuleâs door and into the short decompression tunnel which led into the larger world of Olympus. Unlike Dimitri, who seemed solid as a rock, her legs were weak and shaky from sitting in zero gravity for so long as well as being unable to see her foot-falls now that gravity had returned.
They shared a moment of legitimate concern while waiting for the tunnel to decompress once the capsule was sealed off. It remained unspoken, but they both knew that if Rukia had lost the stationâs controls to Nick and Alex, this would have been their ideal opportunity to see to it that they didnât make it aboard. If they had really regressed to the primitive point of being cold-blooded killers then now was the time to get it done without dealing with the actual blood, cold or otherwise. Two and a half, very long minutes later they were able to breathe a combined sigh of relief as the door to Olympus slid open. Rukia came through for them.
Bay Six was large, to say the least. Not designed for receiving personnel, it was crammed with robotic, assembly-line loaders and unloaders as well as a lot of empty space. It made sense for Rukia to have them come in this way if they were trying to be discreet, but it wasnât the easiest route to navigate with a blind woman in tow. Not to mention that they had really been hoping to see the lockers they would have found in the docks made for receiving crew. They were both anxious to get out of their flight-suits which, no longer free of gravity, had become quite cumbersome. Taking longer than heâd hoped but quicker than heâd expected, Laura and Dimitri found themselves before the enormous set of electric sliding doors that let into an equally large hallway which would, in turn, open up into one the stationâs main arteries.
They kept a steady pace towards the doorway until the motion sensor slid the barrier aside when Dimitri came to an abrupt, unanticipated stop which sent Laura smacking into his back. His body felt rigid.
âWhat is it?â Laura whispered from behind him.
âTwo menâŚwaiting. ThemâŚI guess.â Dimitri did not lower his voice which seemed to imply that they had been made. âBe ready.â She knew exactly what he meant and clutched the tranquilizer in her hand, ready to depress the button at a breathâs notice. The stood quietly for several long seconds before he spoke again, this time much quieter than before. âTheyâre not doing anythingâŚjust sitting there on the floor next to the door.â
âDo they see us?â
âI thought so⌠but⌠maybe not.â
Laura wasnât sure what to do with that and; âIs there another way around them?â was the best she could offer. She was, more than at any point before, infuriated with her inability to contribute more to the situation. Hell⌠she wouldâve been happy just not being a detriment, keenly aware that Dimitri would take responsibility for not just his own safetyâŚbut hers as well. If something were to happen to him because he was trying to save herâŚwell…it was another one of those thoughts that needed to be packed away somewhere in the deep, dark corner it would share with Mike and Kevin.
âNoâŚitâs the only way through. One is movingâŚI think he may seeâŚâ Dimitri went quiet and then Laura could hear another manâs voice, coming from not too far ahead.
âNo⌠no fucking way. Who the hell are you?â There was genuine shock in the manâs voiceâŚor perhaps insanity and the next few moments came in a rapid flurry of frenzied activity. She could hear the man scramble to his feet and run headlong towards them while screaming; âI donât believe it! Youâre not real!â There was a thud from all three of them when he made contact, sending Laura to the floor while Dimitri seemed to be wrestling with his attacker. âYouâre real! Youâre real! Youâre fucking real!â the crazy man cried over and over as Dimitri struggled to subdue him. There was no way she could tell but from the Russianâs grunts, but he may have been losing.
Laura struggled to get back to her feet and still keep a firm grip on the injector when she heard the other man call out from the end of the hall.
âItâs open, Alex! You have to come NOW!â She did her best to try and target the second man so that they wouldnât be able to double-team Dimitri and was going to put herself between them as best she could when the struggling astronauts made contact with her once again, sending all three of them to the floor this time. Somehow she found herself atop the sweating, panting mad-man and, with a deftness she hadnât imagined possible with her blindness, she plunged the tranquilizer into his neck. Almost instantly he ceased moving and his breathing became calm and even. It had worked.
âDimitri?â she whispered and from beneath her, he replied.
âWrong guy,â was all he managed to gasp and she suddenly realized that she was feeling the cosmonautâs flight-suit on her palms. Dammit straight to hellâŚshe had injected Dimitri. She was trying to helpâŚwanted to help…but it had all been so disorientating. She could only hope that he wouldnât blame her later; assuming there was a âlaterâ. There was no time for guilt in that moment, however, as her mind calculated the math equation of what two crazy guys plus one her would equal. Laura climbed over his sleeping form as gently as she could, only to fall over once again on yet another unconscious body. Dimitri had apparently gotten his shot in after all and crazy guy number one was out cold as well. While that was a good thing, she supposed, it made her feel twice as bad about drugging the man that had been keeping her alive.  If she had only left well enough alone, he would have been fine and they would still have another shot for the second psycho.
Once she finally found her feet, which was no easy task, Laura had absolutely no sense of her bearings.  She might as well have been back in space for the ocean of darkness she was swimming in, no idea what direction her assailant would come from. Every nerve tight, every hair standing on end, she battled to keep her breathing slow and steady if for no other reason than not to overpower the ability to hear her immediate environment. Locating the remaining aggressor by sound was already hard enough with her heartbeat pounding in her ears like a jackhammer; she didnât need to add hyperventilation to her growing list of impairments. Her muscles screaming in agony beneath the weight of the flight-suit; they could barely maintain the unrelenting tension they were being kept in.
Despite what she thought to be a heightened sense of awareness, when he grabbed her shoulders from behind it caught her completely off-guard and she screamed like eight-year-old Laura screamed when Freddy Kruger jumped on screen for the first time. It was a cry of pure, unabashed horror and the fear only got worse as he began to drag her down the hall. The most terrifying thing of all was that, no matter how strong an effort she wanted to put into fighting him, she was no match for his strength. Being out of zero-g for less than an hour and given everything she had already endured in that short time; her body was in no condition to challenge him.
The man said nothing as he drug her slightly squirming body, and it seemed that he had gone a considerable distance. They had obviously made it into Olympusâs main hull but she had no idea where he was taking her. After several nightmarish minutes of feeling like a fly being pulled away by a spider, he seemingly found a place to his liking and, after hearing a door slide shut behind them, Laura found herself being lowered into a seat. The man left her there and she could hear him rummaging through things on the far end of the room. She considered making a run for it, but the futility of the act which was likely to be more comical than successful kept her in her place. Before too long his heavy breathing was back her side and he had returned with a metal tray of clanking itemsâŚweapons?  With fear and exhaustion playing âtagâ with her psyche, a quick snippet of her wedding vows shot through her mind like oddly-timed lightening and Laura knew it was time to âspeak now or forever hold her peaceâ.
âWhatâŚâ her voice was dry and cracked, the little saliva she had a thick paste. âWhat are you going to do to me?â There was no part of her that wanted to know the answer. The question was really just a last-ditch attempt at conversation and the highly-unlikely scenario that she could talk her way out of not dyingâŚor, at least, not being tortured before she did. The man was quiet for a moment and Laura hoped he was reconsidering whatever perverse avenues he had planned to go down. Finally, he gave a long, guttural sigh, sounding nearly as tired as she was, and spoke.
âIâm going to try to save your lifeâŚand mine while weâre at it.â The manâs voice was deep, with a hair of British inflection, reflecting his nearly thirty years removed from the English territories. âBut for now, weâre going to start by having a look at your eyes and getting you out of that zoom-bag.â This was not what she was expecting and it put her off her second line of conversation completely, which was to start begging for her life. âAnd since I answered your question,â he continued, âI appreciate it if youâd answer one of mine: exactly who the hell are youâŚand how the hell did you get here, Miss? I guess thatâs two questions.â
Given that nothing else in the last four days had been remotely close toâŚnormalâŚit didnât really come as too much of a surprise to see the trend continue. She was confused, to be sure, but more than thatâŚshe was relieved. Not being tortured and killed in the depths of space, where they say screaming isnât heard terribly well, put her mind at ease considerably.
âIâm Astronaut Laura HillmanâŚand I got here on the Daedalus with your new Commander, Dimitri Kapirski.â
After another moment of silent pondering her unseen companion blurted out; âpsycho-bitch!â and Laura flinched instinctively. The man put his hand on her knee, perhaps to comfort her, and she nearly fell out of her seat trying to pull away, suddenly quite wary of her imminent safety again.
âIâm sorry,â he apologized several times over as sincerely as he could. âI didnât mean to scare you. I realize you must think I was talking about youâŚI wasnât.â He sighed. âListenâŚIâm Nick Geary. You can call me âNickâ. Iâm the medical officer onboard the Olympus until the crew getsâŚâ Nick trailed off, realizing his own mistake. âWellâŚIâm the medical officer. If youâll let me, Iâd like to take a look at your eyes and see if we canât get you fixed up. After that, we need to get you changed into some real clothesâŚand, as much as I hate to be a pain, we probably need to do these things at an expedient pace. I donât think itâs wise for us to stay here too long.â Every time she thought she was beginning to grasp the situationâŚit just went right out the window. Her head was swimming in confusion.
âI donât understand, NickâŚwe were told thatâŚwell, that you had taken control of the station and were denying access to the Daedalus. We thought you were there toâŚI donât knowâŚdo something to us. We were only trying to defend ourselves.â Nickâs response was a dry chuckle that didnât sound like real laughter.
âWell⌠we were told that the Daedalus never made lift-off from Earth beforeâŚyou know.â The doctor reached for Lauraâs bandage and this time she didnât flinch or pull away. It was due more to her being captivated by his words than her no longer being afraid of him, however. It was hard to fully trust anyone when you couldnât read their face.
After a brief inspection, the man who claimed to be the stationâs doctor agreed with Dimitriâs earlier assessment of solar retinopathy as well as the cosmonautâs confidence in its ability to be treated. This was very welcome news given the intensity of the distracting flashing that flooded her visual senses while the bandage was off, the intense light of the Central Medical Bay playing havoc with her optical nerves until Nick reapplied a new bandage, bringing back the merciful darkness.
Nick took a swab of the inside of her mouth for Lauraâs DNA and fed the sample into one of the most expensive pieces of machinery on the entire OSS. It was a one-of-a-kind, bio-processor with a sixteen-digit number as its only ID, but which its makers had affectionately dubbed âPrometheusâ for its ability to restore life to humanity and perhaps even achieve immortality. Prometheus, unimaginable for most of humanityâs tenure, was science-fiction become science, creating synthetic stem-cells on a nanoscopic level which could combine with specific DNA or RNA to create cures for nearly every conceivable ailment from the common cold to cancer to fifth-degree burns.
âWe honestly thought we were the last people leftâŚâ Nick gently patted her head like she was made of fine China while they waited on the amazing machine and she could hear the reverence in his voice. âIâm really glad you made it here. I donât know how you did itâŚbut Iâm really glad you did.â It took a remarkably short amount of time for Prometheus, with some specifically inputted instructions, to produce the solution which, once painlessly injected, would reduce Lauraâs healing period from several months to a day or two.
Nick helped her get out of her flight-suit, clean up and change into better-suited clothes and Laura, beyond the point of modesty, let him. It had nothing to do with her being blind or his being a doctor either. Given the circumstancesâŚit just didnât matter. They spoke as she changed and she kept getting the impression that she wasnât moving nearly quickly enough. Nickâs increased cadence and high rising intonation gave every word a thinly veiled sense of urgency and, without seeing facial expressions, it was the only way she had to âreadâ him.
He explained the Alex had not been trying to attack Dimitri at all, but had slipped into a state of mental delirium and wanted nothing more than to verify their reality with his own sense of touch. The situation escalated quickly between the two men and it was unfortunate for them all the way it turned out. Apparently the strain of the last few days had been too much for Olympusâs main engineer and he had snapped long before the Daedalus made port. It hadnât helped any that the two men had been led to Bay Six by a false alarm touting blockage in a ventilation shaft, and then trapped there for the last two days without food, water and a toilet of any kind.
âYou can bet your ass that thereâs some blockage in that shaft now,â Nick joked and had she not been standing nearly naked it would have qualified as âT.M.I.â but instead it produced a real chuckle from both of them. Astronaut Geary was somewhat crude with the mouth of a sailor but she could tell by the time she had her clean, OSS jumpsuit on that she really like the man. He didnât seem to have much of a filter between his mind and his mouth, not mincing his words in the least, but he seemed to be a straight-shooter which was part of what she loved about Dimitri so muchâŚand Mike. Once she had her boots laced up he was insisting that they leave the Med BayâŚthat they were most likely being watched. Laura refused to budge this time without some answers first.
Where were they going? Why were they running? Who were they running from? On top of all of that, she was demanding that they go back and help Dimitri. Yea, they may have still been alive, but they couldnât just leave him passed out on the metal docking platformâŚand Alex too, for that matter. Nick could see her determination and, by her best guess, was probably too exhausted himself to drag her any further. With the frustration plainly evident in his voice and a sigh after every other sentence, Nick did his best to explain what he could.
For starters, he didnât know where they were goingâŚjust that they had to keep going or risk being trapped in whatever room they happened to be in. More than forty hours ago, he and Alex had contemplated trying to access they only real weapon aboard the OSS: a 9mm handgun locked in a safe in the Commanderâs office but the only way in was with a numeric code only known by the acting Commander. The idea had been nothing more than a vicious tease to them but Laura made a mental note: Dimitri would know that code. It was another reason they needed to go back and get himâŚif not âsoonerâ then definitely âlaterâ. Nick paused and promised more answers if they could just start moving to a new locationâŚany new location.
Laura reluctantly agreed and let him lead her, hand in hand, out of the Med Bay and towards the housing units. It was his contention that, being some of the only areas without cameras, if they could get into one of the apartments unseen, they could finally rest and formulate some sort of plan. He repeatedly stressed the need for stealth but she could only be so covert, shuffling along, at his side and slightly behind. Nick held her left hand while she traced the cool, metallic wall with her right. She tried to work through the conundrum in her head and to her, their antagonist couldnât have been more obvious.
âCommander Milner,â she said, her voice just above a whisper. Without slowing his pace, Nick looked over his shoulder at her.
âWhat about her?â He shared her hushed tone and Laura found that she actually preferred it in her current state of blindness. There was something about the tone and volume of the words that came her way which affected her ability to process them properly. Having to rely solely on an auditory palate for the world to color itself from had created unique and surprising effects on the way her brain was rewiring itself but this was hardly the time for a scientific analysis. For that reason alone, she hadnât even begun to wonder why all the abstract hums, beeps, whirs and other background noise that made up the station seemed to drift through her mind as vibrant colors instead: a cacophonous kaleidoscope of Olympusâs soundtrack. It made her dizzy if she let herself focus on it.
âThatâs who weâre running fromâŚCommander Milner. I bet she went off the deep endâŚlike Alex, except worse. She deceived all three of you and tricked you into doing exactly what she wanted you to. I meanâŚI havenât got it all figured out yet butâŚitâs something like that, right?â
This did seem to halt Nick momentarily, and just as she was sure he was about to confirm her suspicions, he said; âAre you hungry?â Offbeat and random seemed to be the manâs forte and Lauraâs mouth literally dropped open. In point of fact, however, she wasnât. It would be another twelve hours at least before her body would be ready to start accepting solid foods again.
âI canât eatâŚI just boarded. Didnât you say you were the Medical Officer?â She was teasing with her jab. Under the current circumstances, anyone could be forgiven a large degree of âscatter-brainâ.
âOf course,â he agreed; âhoweverâŚIâm hungry.â As if on cue his belly rumbled in confirmation. âI helped myself to a Nutrient Shot back in Med but we hadnât eaten in a couple of days. Iâm going to need a little something.â Laura had no great alternate plan to propose so she simply shrugged her shoulders as if to say, âwhateverâ and allowed him to adjust their course accordingly. They shuffled along quietly together for some distance before Nick finally revealed what had been troubling his mind.
âCommander MilnerâŚâ His voice was soft and low and conveyed a somber seriousness; âmade sure that everyone called her âJillâ. She was unlike anyone else youâd ever meet. She was a pioneer and in my personal and professional opinion, she could have been one of the greatest deep-space astronauts of all time. The Commander was something of a hero of mineâŚI would have given my life for hers without deliberation.â The anguished pain she heard at the edges of his sentences sounded like it might break into sobs at any moment and she totally understood when he needed the time to collect himself.
Within a few minutes they found themselves in âKitchen Câ, just outside of âCafeteria 47â otherwise labeled âThe Rainbow Room Bar & Grillâ. Grabbing a menu and reading it aloud as they made their way back to the meagerly supplied shelves, Nickâs mouth began watering for something significant but he would have felt like a hypocrite if he had taken the time to fry a steak or whip up some bacon and eggs when he had pressed her so hard about their mobility while she was struggling to get out of the modified spacesuit. She was inclined to agree. Instead he pocketed several of the NASA distributed granola-bars which were designed somewhere underground by DARPA and tore into one immediately. Laura was quite familiar with the bars herself having, on more than one occasion, brought them back home to Mike and Kevin, who had liked them a lot more than she did. They didnât taste bad with their genetically engineered oats, synthetic chocolate and hundreds of chemicals designed to improve production, however. By her recollectionâŚthe ones from Walmart were worse.
While slowly sipping her water, Laura stood and listened to him lip-smack his way through two of the questionable âhealth foodâ bars and she couldnât help but to think about her Commander again.
âEverything a growing cosmonaut needs to become big and strong,â she said more to herself than anything. It did earn a âHmm?â from Nick, however, whose mouth was too full to say anything else. âOh⌠itâs just something Dimitri liked toâŚyou know what, never mind.â Now was not the time for nostalgia. Once she felt certain that the ex-Britâs mouth was empty enough to speak, she put a little more pressure on what she knew was an already sore spot. âSo, NickâŚCommander Milner. You got so upset because of what sheâs doneâŚright? I meanâŚyou would have laid down your life for her and now sheâs trying to kill you? Believe me, the hellish irony isnât lost on meâŚI can understand how painful that must be.â
Laura waited patiently for Nick to respond, hoping for some continuation of the story. There were still so many questions that needed answering. Not the least of which was: where the hell was Rukia in all of this? She had been wary to bring up the subject of her friend since the last time theyâd heard from her she painted quite the picture of opposition between herself and Nick, in particular. As she waited, his unspoken seconds turned into minutes and the longer it stretched, the more uncomfortable she began to feel. She would have given anything to see his face. There was no way for her to know exactly how much time had passed before Nick cleared his throat and broke the silence or that he had been spending those minutes fighting to keep his emotions in check, but it was long enough that she wouldâve said something herself had he not beaten her to it.
âYouâve got it wrong, Miss Hillman.â
âLaura,â she corrected him; âLauraâs fine.â It wasnât so much that she felt the current situation dictated less formalityâŚwhich it didâŚbut rather a case of her really not wanting to hear her last name, âHillmanâ, said aloud. It was the name shook took from her husband and shared with her child and, unfortunately, she might never be able to hear it again without thinking of them both involuntarily. It was yet another unanticipated idiosyncrasy in the brave, new world that was the rest of her life.
âLauraâŚright, of course,â Nick agreed before releasing his hundredth sigh in the last hour. âThereâs really no easy way to say thisâŚso I guess Iâll just say it. The Commander isâŚâ Nick didnât get to finish his sentenceâŚor if he did, she was unable to hear it. Without warning, a vibrating alarm filled the room, echoing off the kitchenâs metal walls and creating the effect of two or even three sets of competing digital beeps. It was accompanied by flashing red emergency lights she was unable to see and when Nick spoke again, he had to do so at very nearly the top of his lungs.
âItâs a lockdown!â He screamed. âSheâs found usâŚwe have to go now!â
Grabbing her hand, he jerked her towards the door with significantly more force than he meant to, almost sending her to the floor again. As difficult as it had been to trying to navigate her environment without the benefit of sight, it was unimaginably worse now that her hearing was being taken away as well. The simple act of just placing one foot in front of the other became a Herculean task and Laura allowed herself to be pulled more than progressing by her own volition. One foot shuffling behind the other, she prayed she wouldnât trip over anythingâŚincluding her own feet. Well aware that she wasnât being expedient enough, it didnât help when Nick called out something from in front of her, most of which was lost to the audio assault. All she was able to make out was ââŚneed to hurryâŚâ and ââŚtrapped for goodâŚâ She felt like she had a pretty good idea what he was trying to get across.
They made it out of the kitchen just before the doors sealed themselves and the blaring echoes behind them, apparently locking in the process, and partway through the Rainbow Room before the familiar alarm erupted again. The open space and linen-draped walls of the dining area absorbed a large portion of the mentally grating blasts, allowing her to thinkâŚand walkâŚa little straighter than she had in the confined spaces of the kitchen. Moving much quicker as a result, the motley pair easily made it out of the âloungeâ. Oddly enough, however, the alarm stopped as soon as they did, ceasing the exact moment they crossed the threshold. The door didnât close and lock and they stopped just outside of it.
âSheâs fucking with us,â Nick concluded and after a moment; âI need you to hang tight for just a second.â
âWhat? What the hell are you talking about?â She didnât sound happy.
âI dropped my bagâŚI have to run back in and get it.â
âWhat bag?â
âI had a bag with some supplies: food, medicine and the like. Iâd been grabbing stuff as we went and it mustâve fallen off my shoulder back there. I think I see itâŚitâs not far. It will only take a moment to run back in and grab it.â
âWhat about the door?â Laura asked; âThe alarm?â
âThat alarm is nothing more than a twenty-second warning of a lock-down. Even she shouldnât be able to override it. If it goes off again, I should have more than enough time. Iâll be quick.â He pulled softly and, reluctantly, she let his hand slip away. She couldnât have really stopped him anyway. As hard as it was to accept, the fiercely independent woman she had been was having to come to terms with her current state of vulnerability and it was having to do it so damn fast that it probably wasnât good for her psyche. The state of dependence sheâd been forced into was bringing back emotions not felt since early childhood and random thoughts that were better-suited keeping their distance. Donât leave me, DaddyâŚIâm scared of the dark without you.
She followed his hustling progress as well as she could with his offering; âAlmost got itâ, âHere it isâ, and âIâm coming back nowâ to aide her as he went. Laura could hear his heavy breathing again once he was only a few feet away but he never quite made it back to her side. The door to the Rainbow Roomâs main entrance did close and lockâŚwithout warningâŚsealing off the space between them with an airtight and soundproof glass door. If she hadnât lost the ability to see, the sight of Nick screaming and pounding on the other side of the door, eyes wild and panicked, would have probably made her sick. Instead, her only awareness was of the low, vibrating hum of âConcourse Deltaâ and the complete and utter helplessness felt in the pit of her stomach. It was 1979 again and all she wanted to do was to pull the sheets over her head to hide from the monsters under her bed and in her closet. Laura could feel herself regressing exponentially and she was getting dangerously close to the point of not coming back.
âLaura?â A voice broke through her psychological swan diveâŚa familiar voiceâŚand the joy she felt upon hearing it played a crucial part in holding back the madness. There was still the fear that it may have been an auditory hallucination and when she heard, âOh God, LauraâŚit is you,â her chest swelled as she tried to keep her ailing eyes from producing any tears.
âRukia!â she cried towards the direction of the voice and then the women were clutching each other in a warm embrace. It seemed like a lifetime since they had been together face to face and yetâŚneither of them wanted to let go.
âI was so worried about you Rukia. I thought maybe Commander Milner had done something with you.â Laura whispered as they hugged.
âIâm sorry Laura. I couldnât say anything until I got you away from Nick. Iâve been monitoring you guys and waiting for a chance to isolate you. You have no idea how lucky you are.â Laura pulled back and shook her head.
âI donât understand. Nick was trying to help.â
âNo LauraâŚyou donât understand.â Rukiaâs voice had something of an edge to it. âI donât know what Geary said or did to you butâŚheâs a master liar. If I were to tell you what he had planned for all of us it would sicken you. The man is a lunatic; I probably saved your life.â That was so hard to believe. Nothing anyone was saying seemed to make a lick of sense. Laura made a half-hearted attempt to sort the drastically different accounts when she remembered the most important thing.
âDimitri! We have to go back and help Dimitri.â
âYea,â Rukia agreed; âwe do. I already moved Wang to a secure location but Commander Kapirski will still need our assistance. I managed to get him on a stretcher but havenât had a chance to move him. I thought it was more important to stay close to you and GearyâŚwatch for my opportunity. IâŚI donât know what I wouldâve done if he had hurt you.â Laura could hear the sincerity in her voice and it did nothing but further cloud her ability to judge the situation. If she could just get a clear picture of exactly what was happening on Olympus, it would make dealing with it a whole hell of a lot easier.
âWhere is Commander Milner in all of this?â Jill Milner felt like the missing piece of this puzzle. âIn the last communication, you said sheâd been putâŚwhatâŚin the brig? Is she still…I meanâŚcan we find her?â
âDefinitely.â Rukia squeezed Lauraâs hands which sheâd still been holding. âI got her out of lock-up shortly after I was able to free myself. We can go see the Commander right now.â Not what Laura was expecting, the revelation came as a genuine shock and, despite the other womanâs words, she couldnât stave off the feeling of mistrust she had for the OSSâs, should be former, commanding officer. Maybe it was just the fact that she was the only crew member Laura had yet to encounter but ever since the first signs of chaos aboard the station made themselves known, she stayed behind the scenes. It seemed logical to presume that she was the one pulling the strings behind the crewâs animosity; she was the Commander, after all.
âOkayâŚletâs do that.â Laura was still wary butâŚshe needed to know. Commander Milner, or âJillâ if she believed Nick, could either be a strong ally if there was a schism in power hereâŚorâŚor she will have found the mastermind behind all their current troubles. Rukia said, âOkayâ and Laura let her lead the way, making better progress than she did with Nick insistence on sneaking but amazed, nonetheless, that her muscles allowed her to continue on at all. The fear of dropping at any second and passing out from exhaustion was a legitimate concern.
For that reason more than any other, Laura remained relatively quiet as they went, the majority of her cognitive abilities spent concentrating on continuing to place one foot in front of the other and staying upright. Rukia remained relatively distracted as well, the tablet which she kept constantly in hand consuming most of her attention with its readings on all of Olympusâs operations. The current situation had obviously forced her into a role with a lot more responsibility than that of a Communications Officer and it seemed the station only continued to function properly through her diligence…at least that’s the way it sounded as she spent the majority of her time tapping away at the touchscreen. It would have been impressive as hell if Laura had a spare synapse to fire off a thought about it.
Laura didnât bother to ask where Rukia was leading her and Rukia never bothered to tell her. In her current state of exhaustion, bouncing from one frantic situation to another, she had given herself fully to the notion of now being safe. Having been found by her old friend, learning that Dimitri was no longer laying on cold steel, and that both Alex and NickâŚdangerous or notâŚwere contained and alive was incredibly cathartic. It gave her well-worn adrenal glands a much-deserved break.
They werenât required to actually walk but for a short distance before Rukia was steering them into a mobility chamber: a glorified elevator than ran horizontally as well as vertically. It was probably a good thing too as, even with transportation, it took nearly twenty minutes to arrive at their destination. By the time Rukia was sliding her onto the hard, metal stool, Laura was so grateful to take the weight off her feet that it felt as good as a Lazy-Boy. The stool was attached to a table which Laura surmised to be a dining area and she put her head down on her arms like pre-school nap-time. All she wanted was to sleep. The second she quit fighting it she was out.
When she finally came back to her sleeve was wet with drool and it felt like it had probably been a significant amount of time. Much like her time in the capsule, however, the ability to properly detect and measure increments of time was impaired beyond the point of any degree of reliability. Her bodyâs internal-clock had always been a source of consistency and it came as a shock to discover how closely tied it was with her ability to monitor an actual clock. Outside of the steady hum of a few electric devices or appliances, the room was completely silent.
âRukia?â she called out, her voice echoing off the cold walls. The acoustics sounded very similar to the kitchen she had been earlier with Nick.
âIâm here,â Rukia replied from somewhere across the room. âYouâre okay.â Laura was still tired and weak and for the first time in a week, her stomach was showing some interest in food.
âHow long was I asleep?â She could hear Rukia coming closer as she replied.
âNot too longâŚbut you were out good. I figured you probably needed to recharge a bit.â She wasnât wrong about that. âYou were asleep just long enough for me to take care of Geary.â  Any residual fogginess was quickly blown away and Laura shook her head.
âWhat do you mean, âtake care ofâ? What did you do to Nick?â
âRelax.â Rukia plopped down into the seat next to hers and put her hand on her friendâs shoulder. âItâs all okay now.â Her words were steady and even and did a great job at conveying their honesty. âGeary and Wang have both been processedâŚnow weâre all on the same page. There wonât be any more struggling for power, onlyâŚsurvival. We can take care of Commander Kapirski together and then the future can beâŚwellâŚwhatever we want it to be.â Laura had no idea what the Asian woman was referring to when she spoke of the men being âprocessedâ but it could have been any number of things from a decontamination routine to binding agreement. Regardless, the fact that they would all be getting along again was great newsâŚexceptâŚ
âWait a secondâŚâ It surprised her that it took so long for the thought to reveal itself but, given the strenuous ordeal her mind had been made to endure, it probably shouldnât have. âWhat about Commander MilnerâŚJill? I thought we were going to see her?â
Rukia sighed and took her hand off Lauraâs shoulder. âListen,â her voice took on a somber tone; âI wasnât completely honest with you. Thing isâŚI didnât want to lay too much on you at one time.â
âRukia,â Laura tried to match her even quality, not yet sure how to play the coming seconds. âI think now would be the time to go ahead and lay it all on me. I appreciate your concernâŚbut Iâm not a child you need to protect.â There were a few moments of silence as Laura allowed Rukia time to consider her words, except it wasnât complete silence. Beneath the electric hums and even their breathing there was a small, gritty sound Laura knew very well. Having heard it from her father for her entire life until his death, she knew that Rukia was grinding her teeth together. She also knew that it was generally a result of stress.
âOkayâŚâ Rukia began; âhereâs the truth. Commander Milner had been forced into the brig, as I stated before, but what I didnât tell you wasâŚthat she committed suicide while she was in there. By the time I was able to get to herâŚshe was gone. I was too late.â She took a moment to swallow the lump in her throat before continuing. âIt had all been too much for her; the bombs on Earth and the mutiny had her on the edge and then when she was told that the Daedalus never made lift-offâŚit justâŚpushed her over, I guess.â
Laura understood why Rukia hadnât wanted to tell her. It was tragically sad and, even though she had never met the woman, she could see how the news of someone killing themselves due to enduring horrible circumstancesâŚand then learning of new onesâŚmight not be the best story to share with someone who was also enduring horrible circumstances. Rukia had chosen the temporary sin of omission over deluding what was already thin morale.
âOh, RukiaâŚIâm so sorry.â She was too. It had to have been a devastating loss. Laura put her arms around her friend and the two women embraced for several seconds before Rukia quickly pulled away.
âOh, shitâŚâ Something had her attention.
âWhat is it?â Laura asked.
âI donât knowâŚan alarm in engineeringâŚE-Level. Could be nothing but I need to check it out real quick. ListenâŚgive me thirty minutes or so and Iâll be back and then we can talk about what weâre going to do.â
âOkay,â Laura nodded her head; âand then get Dimitri.â
âYea,â Rukia agreed.
âAnd Nick and Alex too?â
âYea,â Rukia confirmed; âtheyâll be there too. I have to go, Laura. Try to get some rest.â She stood and quickly made her way out of the room, calling back to her just before the doors slid shut. âIâm really glad youâre here with me.â
It put a smile on Lauraâs face, and she put her head back on the table and spread her arms out in a yawning stretch. The fingertips of her right hand made contact with an unusual object and, stretching further, she took hold ofâŚsomething. Odorless and firm, in vacuum-sealed plastic, it wasnât completely solid but felt tender andâŚwet. If she didnât know better she would have sworn it was a large, meaty steak. The problem with that, however, was that there should have been little to no meat aboard the station untilâŚand ifâŚthe Ariane-six made contact and it definitely wouldnât just be laying around on a table like this.Â
Rukia mustâve had it out for her next meal. Satisfied with the probable logic of that possibility, Laura would have let it go too had her hand not encountered second package, differently proportioned but similar in consistency to the first. She carefully slid down two seats until she found herself directly in front of a small pile of the mystery packages. Working them through her hands one at a time and wracking her brain in the worldâs worst âguess the Christmas presentâ game, she finally came across one she could recognize and it made her throw up a little water into her mouth. It was a human foot. The horror that gripped her as she held the wrapped appendage in her hands would not allow her to drop it even though that was all she wanted to do. Her mind seemed as frozen as her body and the only thought she could produce was, this canât be real, which repeated over and over.
It took a considerable mental exertion to free her hands of the offensive object and Laura struggled to consider her options. Was she really going to just sit here and wait on Rukia without knowing for sure? There was always the possibility, albeit unlikely, that she had misconstrued and misinterpreted what she thought she just felt butâŚshe had to know for sure. Reluctantly, she slowly peeled away the gel-infused bandage from her eyes and tried blinking several times. Remarkably, and with complete thanks to the Prometheus injection, they were already significantly better. There was a slight burning sensation and a large black spot that filled the center of her vision but the flashing was gone and if she concentrated she could make out the items on the edges of her periphery without actually looking directly at them.
It took several mind-numbing minutes of practice and an on-setting headache before she could turn herself at the proper angle to discern the pile of packaged meatâŚand yesâŚit was meat. It was identifying a womanâs hand that put her in motion, however. It was definitely time to get the hell out of there. Scanning the room and, in turn, locating the exit proved to be even more difficult. Every time she thought she saw something useful her instinct was to look atâŚand then obscureâŚwhatever it was. It was frustrating to no endâŚbut it was better than being blind.
Sorting out her environment was time consuming but it eventually came together. She was in another kitchenâŚa very large kitchen which seemed to spread out endlessly.  She had navigated past a couple of preparation tables before stumbling across a large, wooden butcherâs block drenched in bright red blood which she could only take in at a cock-eyed angle. There was something with stained metal buried in the wood but the persistent instinct to look right at it kept her from fully distinguishing its form. It was disturbing, nonetheless, and her best guess was that it was a meat cleaver.
Walking sideways to navigate her way around the gory table, she nearly lost her balance when her foot slipped in a slicked puddle of red. Even with her poor tracking abilities, the sickening trail of blood was easy to follow, leading past the pile of soaked and shredded OSS uniforms and straight to the vacuum sealing machine where it began to dry and become sticky. The pile on the large table next to the machine designed to maintain the freshness of food for the long haul of deep space nearly took her breath away. The segmented parcels made it impossible to equate to human form but the sheer mass of it dictated that it had to be more than oneâŚperson.   Lauraâs stomach lurched violently and she was suddenly grateful there was nothing for it to produce. Had Rukia done this? Was she looking at the remains of Alex, Nick and Jill? It seemed inconceivable and was at such odds with everything she knew as sanity.
Spinning on her heels and nearly slipping in blood once again, Laura decided she had lingered long enough when the door, which she had yet to locate, slid open somewhere to her left. She cocked her head and did her best to target the direction but could make out very little beyond the fact that someone had entered.
âLauraâŚdonât freak out.â Rukia was backâŚand she was taking slow, deliberate steps in Lauraâs direction. âYou need to let me explain.â With each step her friend took towards her, Laura would take one in the opposite direction, keeping her neck strained at the uncomfortable angle required to pin-point the movement. âThis is just about simple math. Without the supplies from the Ariane-six, six people would have survived for no longer than three weeks. Thatâs itâŚthree weeksâŚand then we all die horrible deaths anyway.â Laura nearly fell over a plate stand, knocking the top two or three to the floor with a crash and for a split-second lost Rukia completely. Fortunately, she didnât seem to be trying to take advantage and continued with the slow pace of both her words and her steps, allowing Laura plenty of time to locate her again.
âHoweverâŚif we supplement our resources with eight-hundred pounds of high-protein meat and cut that number down to two thenâŚwellâŚwe can make it. We only have to survive for two years before it would be safe enough to take the Daedalus back to Earth. Iâve worked this problem through several times, LauraâŚyou have to believe me. Thereâs only one way for two people to make it out of this alive.â
Still backing away and sickened to her core, Laura didnât know how to reply.  The reality and full implications of Rukiaâs words were slowly seeping into her realm of acceptance, one dreadful thought at a time. Nick said Rukia told them the Daedalus didnât make it. Rukia said Jill killed herself from hearing the same thing. It was Rukia all alongâŚshe was responsible for all their deaths. Lauraâs faith in human nature was being torn away, one painful strip at a time, and she could feel the qualities that made her the person she was going with it. No matter how this situation resolved itself, she would be a fundamentally different person afterwards.
Then there was the big question: why hadnât Rukia tried to kill her? When she said âtwo people,â had she meant the two of them? If that was the case, thenâŚOh Dear Lord noâŚ
âTwo people?â Laura blurted out, surprising even herself with the volume. âRukiaâŚdid you kill themâŚall? What about Dimitri! Did you kill Dimitri?â The combination of her forceful screams and still trying to keep Rukiaâs general vicinity in view sent Laura backwards and she braced herself against a table to keep from tumbling over. As soon as she felt the moisture on her hands, she knew which table she had grabbed. Too furious to be revolted, she held her bloody palms up in what she hoped was the right direction. âIs this HIS blood?!â she screamed again before pausing to let Rukia respond. Rukia sighed and this time Laura could barely hear it over her own panting. Now that she was relying more on her eyesight again, her cochleae and ear-drums were no longer pulling Superman duty.
âLauraâŚâ Rukiaâs voice sounded like she was talking to a small child who would barely understand the words. âI already told you. Itâs going to take two of us to process himâŚheâs a big guy. Until heâs processed, it doesnât make a whole lot of sense to kill him.â
âSo heâs alive?â Laura interrupted.
âFor nowâŚyeah. The Commander is still strapped down on a stretcher in Bay Six.â Laura felt some sense of hope return, having gotten the answer she was least expecting but it far from outweighed the shock she felt at Rukiaâs presumption.
âAnd you honestly thought I was going to help you toâŚwhatâŚkill himâŚcut him upâŚeat him? Are you out of your fucking mind?â Laura hoped she knew it was a rhetorical question because the woman was quite obviously as mad as the Hatter, sans the limericks and witty repartee. âI would rather die than do something like that, Rukia. I would have thought youâd know that.â
âWell, LauraâŚthatâs always an optionâŚbutâŚbefore you make that kind of decision I think you should know all the facts.â
âFacts?â Laura cried; âWhat bloody âfactsâ? The only âfactâ I see is that youâre as big a psychopath as the people responsible for killing my husband and child. You better hope thereâs not an after-life because thereâs a special place in hell for you, bitch!â Rukiaâs demeanor seemed unfazed by her outburst.
âLauraâŚI know youâre upsetâŚbut please, hear me out.â She paused for a moment and, when Laura didnât interrupt, decided to continue; âThe Commanderâs being alive isnât just forâŚfreshness. I said âtwo peopleâ because it will take a minimum crew of two in order to maintain Olympus. This is only even possible because of the work Iâve been doing since we lost contact with the Earth. The way Iâve adjusted the systems are very specific and thereforeâŚone of those crew members must be me. The other can either be you or the Commander andâŚbecause I wanted it to be youâŚI wanted to let you decide.
But be aware that this only works one way mathematically. Just in case youâre thinking that Olympus could hold a crew of threeâŚdonât. It will skew the numbers just enough to make the whole endeavor futileâŚand essentiallyâŚa waste of lives. For there to be meaning in any of thisâŚit has to be two people. Two peopleâŚtwo years.â
Laura couldnât believe what she was hearing. Rukia sounded too calculating and articulate to be insane but she was definitely a sociopath, ascribing no real value to any human life other than her own. It suddenly seemed odd that she had chosen Laura as her favorite based on what was now such ancient history and knowing how little Rukia seemed invested in previous attachments.
âYou honestly believe Dimitri will help you to cut and eatâŚme?â Laura knew Dimitri more than well enough to know that he would never go along with something like this. Rukia suddenly closed the distance between them in half and Laura could do nothing but stagger and try to see herâŚwhich was hard to do without looking at her.
âWell hereâs the thing LauraâŚI wonât need his help to kill or cut you up. Youâre not as sizable a job as he would be. Once itâs just the Commander and I who are leftâŚwell, I think you know heâll believe whatever I tell him. Including the freak shipment of four sides of beef that came in with the last supply run. I donât knowâŚmaybe Iâll come up with something better. The point isâŚwhatever it isâŚheâll believe me.â Laura was scared. She had lost everything that held any importance to her except DimitriâŚand now she was being told that the only way she could live was if she lost him as well. All things considered, it made sense to just give up. If there was nothing left to live for then why bother living? ExceptâŚdown deep, where the primal instincts and urges lived, she wanted to live. Beyond rationality and defying logicâŚshe wanted to live dammit, and it wasnât for the pursuit of happiness. That ship had sailed. It was that thing inside of her that told her she had toâŚwhat was it Rukia had saidâŚsurvive.
Sliding her hands back to the cutting table again, Laura began reaching out behind her as nonchalantly as she could before finding and taking hold of the cleaverâs handle. She was only able to pull off the illusion because of the funky angle she was already standing at in order to keep Rukia somewhat targeted.
âOkay,â Laura said, âIâll do it. Iâll help you.â
âReally?â Rukia sounded hopeful.
âBut you have to answer one question for me firstâŚand be honest.â
âOkay,â she nodded, still not noticing Lauraâs left hand gripping the dull end of the chopping device embedded in the wood-grain table-top.
âWhy me?  You said you wanted it to be meâŚsoâŚwhy me?â Now that Rukia was closer, Laura could hear her grinding her teeth again, this time much louder than before. It was her âtellâ. She was about to reveal something she didnât want to, which meant she was probably going to be telling the truth. Rukia had to believe they were beyond the point of lies now, anyway. Laura hoped so, at least.
âI chose you, Laura Hillman, because, next to me, you have the smallest body size and caloric intake to provide maximum output efficiency. The odds of my survival are twelve percent better with you than the Commander.â If there were any laughter left in Lauraâs soul, she would have laughed. She wanted to laugh. There was no doubt Rukia was telling the truth because it reflected her cold and calculating nature perfectly.  She didnât choose Laura to be her last neighbor ever for any reasons of friendship or even familiarity. It really was a math equation to her where âXâ equaled âco-workerâ and âYâ equaled âTV dinnerâ and it really didnât matter who was which variable as long as it came out to âZâ: her continued and extended existence.
The answer wasnât exactly what Laura was expecting but it was close enough to push her to the end of her own little calculation. Was her desire to live, despite the multitude of reasons not to, stronger than her desire to make sure that Rukia didnât? Was self-preservation âgreater than or lesser thanâ the chorus of her blood-thirsty nerves screaming in unison to bury the blade somewhere deep in Rukiaâs skull?  It, for damn sure, wasnât âequal toâ and Laura knew with complete certainty that the other womanâs life needed to be ended; she shouldnât be alive for even another minute. Even if she were the very last human in existenceâŚshe would need to be put down. Like a rabid dog, it was an act of mercy; that kind of sickness justâŚshouldnât exist.
Laura yanked on the meat cleaverâs handle with every ounce of energy she had. In her mind, she saw the large cutting device sliding free from the wooden surface and then gliding through the air in one swift and fluid motion. It would make contact with Rukia long before sheâd even registered an incoming attackâŚmaybe not a killing blow, but good enough to get the party started. A single, lethal strike was a better death than she deserved anyway.  The problem with all of that, however, is that the cleaver refused to budge. She yanked a second time and, of course, by this point, it was painfully obvious what she was trying to do.
The third time seemed like it might be the charm, as the handle moved just a bit, and Laura turned her head to reestablish a bearing on her ex-friend. Inconveniently timed as it was, she was able to catch the movement before her nose took the worst part of Rukiaâs fist, shattering the bridge and sending her sprawling to the floor in a pool of other peopleâs blood. Her face felt like it was on fire, except burning from within. Laura tried looking up through the red haze and could barely see Rukia straddled over her. The psychopath was so close that the black spot only concealed her face and chest, so Laura was able to easily detect the meat cleaver dangling from her right hand. SureâŚafter sheâd loosened it up for her.
âIâm not going to lie, LauraâŚIâm a little disappointed.â Rukia expounded. âFor some reason, I really thought you were going to see things my way. I thought we couldâŚwellâŚI donât know what I thought. I guess it doesnât matter now.â She raised the cleaver in a striking position and Laura held her hand up in front of her face, knowing full well it was a useless gesture. âIâll make sure the Commander gives a eulogizing toast in your honor the first time we dine on your liver. Iâm sure it will be very moving.â Laura couldnât see her face, but she could swear she heard a smile in that sick bitchâs voice. âIn the meantimeâŚtry not to fight this.â
Rukia raised the blade over her head and began arcing it down with as much force as she could muster which, given her already proven ability to butcher, was probably quite a lot. Laura prayed it would be quick and relatively painless and she wondered if she would get to see Mike and Kevin againâŚbut that wasnât the same thing as acceptance. She didnât want to find out what happens when you die.
As the blade slid through the air, it glinted the fluorescent kitchen lights on one of its only clean spots and momentarily completed her blindness. In that same instant, there was a hollow pop from across the room which made Laura think, of all things, of champagne being opened. In the back of her mind, Kevinâs voice asked, âIs it a special occasion, Mommy?â Perhaps it was. Rukia suddenly lost her grip on the deadly cutlery, sending it flying from her hand and clanking away unseen; and Laura had no idea what had happened. Due to the flash of light and the ever-present blank spot, she was unable to see the look of astonished surprise on Rukiaâs face. Nor did she see the thin line of red that had begun to run down her cheek from the tiny hole in her temple.
Laura remained frozen in her spot on the floor, like a child waiting for admonishment, for the several long seconds that Rukia continued to stand there. Face burning, eyes stinging, she waited for some type of aggressive impact, the fight all but beaten from her, and it came as a complete shock when her tormentor tumbled down on top of her, crumpling into an immobile pile. Laura screamed and desperately tried to pull herself from beneath the lifeless body, much heavier than she would have imagined, while her hands and feet slipped in the blood. For one horrifying split-second, she was convinced that it wasnât going to happenâŚand then Rukiaâs body was lifting itself off of her. NoâŚit was being lifted. Another second laterâŚshe was too.
The searing ache and pooled blood around her nose and eyes had her nearly blinded again, but she knew she was safe the moment she felt the strong arms wrap around her and lock her into their embrace. It was Dimitri. Her commander, co-pilot, protector and dear, dear friend had promised to keep her safe no matter what and somehowâŚhe kept his promise. Held tightly in his arms and covered in blood, it was the only place in the universe that she wanted to be in that moment and Laura found herself unable to hold back the torrent of salty tears, despite the acidic pain they brought with them. Seemingly, the roller-coaster ride of emotions had come to an end and it had cost her everything to ride it. The relief that it was over, even for just that moment, was like nothing Laura had ever dreamedâŚor desired.
Over the next twelve hours, she passed in and out of consciousness. Dimitri had set her up in a Med Bay bed near Prometheus so that she could take hourly injections. Prognosis was twenty-twenty eyesight in three days and broken nose healed in about a week but the first few hours were obviously going to be the worst and the pain medication kept her from asking any questions. At the fourth hour, after the most intense pain had passed and the opiate fog had subsided somewhat, she mustered the single word that covered her wide range of inquiries: âHow?â
âIâm a big guy,â Dimitri had chuckled. âHow long did you think I would stay unconscious?â
âBut,â Laura pressed; âshe said she had you tied down.â Dimitri laughed again and Laura reflected on just how much she had missed that soundâŚand how close she had come to never hearing it again.
âIâm Dimitri Kapirski,â his tone saying that should be answer enough. Laura had always thought that she knew what that meant but nowâŚshe hadnât known anything. The Commanderâs reputation was one of legend and one wouldnât have been faulted for thinking that it was, in large part, an exaggerationâŚnot that she ever hadâŚbut they would have been wrong. If anything, his lore was probably under-embellished. For Laura, at least, he was nothing short of a frigging superhero.
While gently cleaning and doctoring her wounds, Dimitri proceeded to tell her the story. âI think weâve got the time,â heâd said sarcastically. Rukia had strapped him to a medical stretcher but, given the number of distractions she was dealing with, neglected to remove the small utility knife from an exterior breast pocket of his Daedalus flight-suit. Once free, it hadnât taken him too long to get inside the security and surveillance systems to figure out what Rukia had been up to. From there, he went to the Commanderâs office to retrieve the only firearm on Olympus from the safe with a code that only he and Commander Milner knew. He was the one that set off the false alarm that drew Rukia away in the first place but then a real issue kept him from getting back to Laura as quickly as heâd wanted to.
âWhat about her fail-safe?â Laura asked. âRukia made changes to the OSS systems so that only she could keep it running properlyâŚor so she said. It might have been BS like the rest of her lies, butâŚshould we be worrying about it?â This didnât come as a surprise to Dimitri who apparently already knew and didnât seem overly concerned about it.
âKanagi was a bright officerâŚvery clever…but foolish to think that she could do anything that I couldnât undo. I helped design most of the critical systems on this station and the complexity of Olympus is well beyond her. Frankly, if she had kept the station on the rotational path she had chosen, it would have torn itself apart in a few days. There was a reason I was chosen to be the first Commander for a fully operational Olympus.â
âI guess she wasnât as smart as she thought she was,â Laura offered.
âYea,â he agreed; âShe was a great astronaut and Coms officerâŚnot so good with the engineering and engines. Even if she was the best in her field there was still nothing she knew that I hadnât already taught to hundreds of others. There was nothing unique or special about herâŚnot like you.â  Laura pulled Dimitri close and held him tightly once againâŚso grateful for his being there.
âShe was a âspecialâ piece-of-shit,â she whispered into his ear, bringing yet more of that laughter that was like a balm for her soul every time she heard it.
âThat she was,â he whispered back; âIâm ashamed to say that she had me fooled.â
âDonât beat yourself up over it. She had us all fooled.â Dimitri nodded and a grim expression came over his face. Laura had mixed feelings over it. It was never a look she wanted to see on his face, but it was hard not to feel some joy in the fact that she could see it. There was still some blurriness and the fine details were obscured but Prometheus had delivered on its promised miracles.
âWhat is it, Dimitri?â She could tell that he was considering whether or not to reveal what was weighing on him and decided that the concealment of information was coming to an end, once and for all. âYou donât get to decide whatâs for me to know or not for me to know anymore. Itâs just us. We have to tell each other everything. Do you understand?â His face went from grim indecision to solemn certainty. He knew she was right. Neither one of them had even bothered considering what it would be like living out the rest of their lives, but if it was just themâŚsecrets would have to be a thing of the past.
âOkayâŚâ Dimitri began and Laura could tell that the words were hurting him to say. âThe reason I didnât get back to you quickerâŚwhen I distracted Kanagi earlierâŚwas because of an incoming transmission fromâŚâ He sighed and shook his head. ââŚthe Ariane-six. Sheâll be here in ten hours.â
Lauraâs face ran pale with quiet shock and her eyes began to pool with fat tears, even though she was sure they had all run dry. The Ariane-six and all her supplies had actually made it. Rukia Kanagiâs horrific algebra was pointless. Not that her reason for murdering the people that trusted her was a good one in the first placeâŚbut nowâŚeven it had no merit. Her callous selfishness was the perfect cosmic reflection of the evil motivations that culled the Earth with nuclear fire and, in the end, it proved to be just as meaningless. It was sickening. Rukia had known damn well that it was impossible to write-off the Automated Transfer Vehicle without some time passing, as she claimed to have told her crew, and yetâŚshe had begun to implement her cannibalistic plans within hours of the first bombs falling. It wasnât calculatingâŚit was evil.
After several minutes of stunned silent sobbing, overwhelmed by the sadness of it all, Laura finally shook her head and asked, âIs this what we are as a speciesâŚmurderersâŚtakersâŚdestroyers? Is this what âhumanityâ is?â She paused to sigh but it came out as a mournful moan instead. âBecause I donât think I know anymore.â Dimitri put his hand to her chin and pushed her healing eyes to meet his own.
âWe⌠you and I⌠Dimitri and Laura Olympus⌠are what âhumanityâ is. Our species is whatever we decide to make it.â Laura nodded in agreement. âAnd in the coming days, weeks, months and, hopefully, years⌠what we need to be⌠is strong.â
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