CHAPTER 3

JOURNEY

SCRIPT:

In the morning, as we gathered in the common room, it was clear that I was not the only one who had had a troubled night. Around me, my companions had troubled expressions and didn’t seem eager to talk. My job on the crew was for situations exactly like this, but my own professionalism struggled in the face of what we were experiencing. There was nothing to draw on by way of previous experience, the closest our race had wandered to that line of thinking was works of fiction and wild speculation.

Our commander called a meeting. We gathered in somber silence around our table, and she looked at each of us slowly one by one.

‘Command wants us to bring the Cube back, as quickly as we can. The rest of the mission is hereby canceled.’ She said.

This caused a ripple of surprise through the ranks. Though deeply, I think we knew that it was always going to go down this way. (MATTER-OF-FACTLY) What else were we supposed to do?

Discussion quickly turned to the logistics of it all. The camp would remain standing, ready for whoever followed in our footsteps, and we would take only what we needed to make it back. The true weight of the cube was an unknown factor, and leaving scientific equipment behind, though unpleasant, was not without a purpose. We would need to save as much weight as we could. The lighter gravity of Mars would assist us in that regard, but landing our shuttle back on Earth, could be a problem. It would also be one that Command would have months to work out as we flew back.

The thought passed my mind of having Elis in contact with the cube while we made our ascent and descent. (REFLECTIVE) He looked healthy enough, but there was a brittleness to his eyes that made me pause. It was then surprising when he suggested it himself. Elis pointed out that someone would need to touch the cube to load it in the ship anyway, there was no way we’d be able to get it onto the ship any other way. He also pointed out that as we had no idea as to the effects of contact with the cube, and it would be best to limit contact among the crew as much as we could. It was professional and logical reasoning, but I saw the pained look on Joanna’s face. They knew something we did not.

I still had a strong desire to touch the cube myself, but when I thought to offer myself instead, my thoughts faltered and my tongue stayed still in my mouth. A feeling that it was not yet my time came over me. I let the thought pass from my mind and relaxed. Whatever those two knew, would have to wait for it’s revelation.

Still, it was not as though I had nothing of my own to work out in my mind. (WITH EMPHASIS) My dream still weighed on me heavily.

With a plan in mind, and our duties outlined, we set to work. There was little to pack in the camp, most of it being left behind for the sake of speed and for future missions. We moved with deliberate haste, but maintained our required exactness. Our food and water supplies were gathered and moved to the ship, it’s cargo hoist being operated continuously to get it all on board and stowed away.

I made one last survey of our camp buildings, to see if anything vital was left behind, and spied through one of the port holes in a wall, Joanna and Elis in a trembling embrace. My heart felt a heaviness toward them. I felt this heaviness settled upon me as I looked at them through that window. Their embrace was tender, but tinged with a desperate kind of finality. I didn’t know what to make of it. I stepped away from the window and leaned against the wall, staring at the far side of the wall of the room I was in. A thought drifted across my mind, I let it float there for a moment, seeing it’s shape.

He told her what he saw.

The thought was simple, yet direct, and with it came a wave of sadness, mixed with hope, it’s source unknown to me. I leaned against the wall as these emotions washed over me, in waves and eddies, mixing through my mind. For a moment, (PAUSE) I felt I knew their hearts. Then the feeling faded, and in its place, a calmness settled over me. The thought that everything would be alright, was the core of this new calm.

Taking a deep breath, I continued my task, and soon finished. I stepped outside, fully suited up, ready to go, and walked toward my companions as they gathered around the cube.

Elis was standing next to it, holding Joanna’s hand. He looked slowly at everyone, then took in a deep breath of his own, let go of Joanna’s hand, and stepped toward the cube.

He placed his hand upon it, and we all felt an electric feeling surge through us, a kind of tingling anticipation, as the cube surged up into the air, floating above the hole it had made in the dirt. He walked to the cargo hoist on our ship, and stood on the platform. Our crew member on the ship activated it, and it rose up into the air, into the waiting cargo hold. (WITH WONDER) There was no sign of strain on the hoist as it lifted it’s cargo upward.

The rest of us ascended up the ladder and in to the ship.

At the top of the ladder, I cast a final look at the camp we were leaving behind. The pre-fab domes were still looking stark and new against the red orange landscape. The fabric of some of the outbuildings rippled from a passing wind on an otherwise calm day.

With some sense of longing, I finished my climb into the rocket. We had come all this way to explore this planet, and learn it’s secrets, but after only a few days here, we were already heading back with a secret far more potent than anything we had expected to see.

(SAD REFLECTION) Still, some part of my wished we could stay longer. The excitement of exploration had been replaced with a sense of uneasy anticipation toward what would happen when we arrived back.

I went down to the cargo bay once I was inside, and went down the ladder to see how Elis and the cube were doing. His wife was helping him secure himself into a flight seat down below, the cube still floating next to him, as though stuck to his hand. Normally we would all ride back in the command pod, but a pair of seats had been prepared in the cargo space, in case someone needed to be strapped into some medical equipment during the G forces of lift off. Mercifully, taking off from Mars would not require the same forces as Earth.

I suggested that we try to strap the cube in place, while still allowing Elis to maintain his touch, so it didn’t float free during lift off.

Elis looked at me with his serene eyes and a soft smile crossed his face.

‘Everything will be alright. You need not worry about it.’

I wanted to protest, yet, in my core, I knew he was right.

I assisted his wife in strapping him down. The cube floating next to him was surreal, bobbing up and down with the motion of his arm. He lowered his arm down so the cube was resting on the ground, but it could still be moved with the barest of effort on his part. I worried about the strain on his arm, as it was not resting as well as it could of in the chair. As this thought passed through my mind though, another thought followed in behind it. (SLOWLY, AS THOUGH LOST IN REFLECTION) A sentence, spoken, almost as a whisper, into my thoughts.

It will be alright, it said.

I believed it. It was, in the end. Things turned out for the better, but if I had known what that version of ‘alright’ looked like, maybe I wouldn’t have… (TRAIL OFF)

We can get to that at another time though.

With that thought, that sentence in my mind, my trepidation stilled, and I made my way to the bridge of our small landing craft. Joanna stayed behind for a few more moments with Elis. I climbed up the final few rungs of the ladder and made my way to my seat. The rest of the crew was already secured, and we waited only on Joanna to come to her seat as pilot.

We waited in a still silence, only marred by the hum of the ship’s computers and the hiss of the engines waiting to be ignited below us.

Finally, Joanna came. With the help of Christian, they went over the pre-flight check, they were crisp, professional, leaning hard on their training and experience to get them through something that had never been in the training manuals.

I admired their resolve under this situation. I felt that my own expertise would likely be needed on the trip back, but somehow I had not being able to shake myself out of whatever it was that was driving me forward. It was a calming influence that defied what we were going through. I couldn’t deny it’s effect on me though. It was more effective that any therapy or counseling I might have been able to offer.

I had the opportunity to reflect, laying back in my seat, on the things that had brought us this far, and where, exactly, we were. I had no real answers for the question of where we were. We were on the brink of something incredible, something spoken of in hopeful whispers by so many, but now here it was, on our door step, ready to come in. The proof of life on another world.

(WITH EMPHASIS) But my dream! It felt so vivid. As real as the waking world, except I was only a passenger along for the ride. I watched what I watched, and saw what I saw, and I could not deny it. Those people, on that field, in that settlement, gathering in that complex of stone and earth, looked like us in such an uncanny way. Little things separated us, they were taller, more slim, but still maintained our shape, our features. If one wore our clothes and walked down the street, I cannot imagine they would attract any more attention than someone blessed with above average height would.

As I lay there, reflecting on the people I had seen, the checks finished and it was time to launch.

At the end of the countdown, the engines roared to life, and we ascended back into orbit. The push of gravity was felt, but not as crushingly as it would have been back on Earth, for which I was grateful. If it had been heavier, Elis’ might have been in trouble, to say nothing of the Cube or our ship.

As we reached our orbit, and began to position ourselves to meet up with our main craft in orbit, left in standby with the autopilot, the gravity lessened, and I felt myself floating against my restraints.

Joanna gave us a status update to tell us the orbit was good, and I volunteered to go check on Elis.

I pulled myself down the ladder, and entered the bay.

Elis looked up at me as I floated out of the opening for the ladder.

‘How are you holding up?’ I asked him.

‘We made it. We are on our way now,’ he replied.

‘There’s still some time before we make it back to the ship. I’m going to check your vitals,’ I told him.

I moved up beside him, on the far side from the cube, and lightly grabbed his arm. There was a simple display worked into the suit, to allow us to read vitals quickly in the event of an emergency. Everything looked good, though his heart rate was lower than I would have expected. A look at his face showed the same distant euphoria I had noticed in the rover. We would need to monitor him. We dare not let his hand stray from the cube until we could secure it on the command ship. There was much to be considered. The mass of it when it was not being touched by Elis, would have to be considered in our thrust calculations. The early termination of our mission would also need to be considered, we would have more supplies than before, which would have to be measured against our longer return path. The orbit of Mars and Earth had continued on their drift while we were on the planet, and our departure now was not at an ideal time to get us safely and efficiently home.

It seemed almost too much to consider all at once, but then again, we would not have to do it all by ourselves. Mission control back on Earth would help us make the decisions we could not. At least, that’s what I had thought.