Singularity - Chapter 10: Priscilla

Chapter 10: Priscilla

The president didn’t look up as an aide entered his office. He had been interrupted too many times today, and he was behind on reviewing the monthly Senate summary. If he didn’t get through it soon, he would be late for his appointment at the club. His table golf partners never seemed to respect his position of power the same way most others did. He was powerless in their presence, since most of them were old business associates of his father’s, and many had great investments in the purification industry. At any rate, he enjoyed spending time with them, it was a relief to be able to relax once in a while, and just enjoy a few drinks. Still, the interruptions were becoming an annoyance, and his response to his aide was less than gracious. Eyes closed, he grumbled, “What is it now?”

“I’m sorry sir.” Was the reply, but what surprised President Rennet was that the voice was female.

He looked up to see Dania at the door. Immediately, his voice softened, “I’m sorry Dania, it’s been a tough day. What can I do for you?”

“Priscilla Faust and Garst Jasper have returned from Mars. Albrick Hunter would like to have a word with you about their findings.” Dania was obviously shaken from the President’s reaction a moment ago, and her voice was slightly shaky as she spoke. “May I send him in?”

“Yes, please do.” The president arranged the papers on his desk as Dania returned to the door. “Oh, and please let Mr. Hunter know that I only have a few minutes, so he should be brief. I find these meetings go much more quickly if the schedule is set beforehand. Thank you Dania, as always, you are a terrific assistant.”

The door had almost closed as Albrick shuffled through, and helped himself to a seat across from the President’s desk. He was always annoyed by how the president never acknowledged him when he came in, but just kept his eyes on his desk, as if there were more important things to do. It could be very disarming, but Albrick refused to let it bring him down. He determined that he would just be bold this time around.

“Mr. President, I thought…”

“Hold on Albrick.”

Albrick lost his focus. How had the President done it again? How could he consistently get under Albrick’s skin, and throw his mind off of what he was there for. It was as if the President enjoyed conflict so much that he had to find a way to incite it. Albrick sat in the chair, tapping his fingers on the lightly padded armrest.

The president looked up as he set some papers aside, “Ok Albrick, what do you want to say?”

“I was hoping to give you an update on the status of the Homestead mission.”

“Homestead? Oh, right, the Mars thing.” The president said, with obvious mock disinterest.

“Two of our staff members returned unannounced from Mars, Priscilla Faust and Garst Jasper.”

“Didn’t we send four?”

“Yes, precisely. We sent four staff, only two of our staff returned. The craft only has space for 4 passengers, so two of the staff, Elliot Adams and Sarah Angler remained at the base on Mars. The reason was that Faust and Jasper returned with two other people.”

“Wait, other people? What other people?” The president’s voice contained tangible interest and wonder at the idea of mystery people returning from Mars. Albrick was happy, he had finally gotten the President’s full attention.

Albrick grinned, “My question was the same. It turns out that the previous Mars missions from Pre-Travesty had created a base on Mars as a sort of research station. The Homestead team arrived, and to their surprise, they were met by a very full base of people. The people there had survived many generations on Mars, and had no contact with Earth during the time, due to the lack of communications satellites after the wars.”

“Fascinating. Albrick, hold that thought a second.” The President pressed a button on his desk, “Dania, can you bring me the files on Faust and Jasper? Thank you.” He released the button, “Albrick, please continue.”

“So after some discussion, and catching up, they discovered that the Genesis people, they call their base Genesis, I don’t think I mentioned that, the Genesis people were stationed there for the purpose of studying deep space travel to neighboring stars. Apparently, they discovered ways to do it, but after one journey, gave up on it because they didn’t find much when they got there. Anyway, since then, they’ve been living there, and have survived all these years.”

“Wait, they figured out how to travel to other star systems? That’s amazing.” Albrick could tell that the whole story had touched a special nerve in the President’s heart, which brought out a child-like curiosity. “Tell me more!”

Dania walked in and left the files on the president’s desk. The president didn’t even notice, he was so engaged in what Albrick was saying.

Albrick continued, smiling to Dania as she came in, “Well, we don’t know much else at this point. The Genesis people have said that they have certain secrets that they don’t wish to share just yet, they wanted to have discussions with us here on Earth before they shared any of that with us. At any rate, they sent two of their leadership staff here to have discussions with you, and see if there’s any way to come to a cooperation agreement.”

As if a switch were flipped in the President’s mood, he shifted back into Presidential mode. “It’s unfortunate they don’t trust us. We will need to remedy that. Of course I will discuss things with their ambassadors, but I’d like to debrief the Homestead staff first.”

He looked at the edge of his desk, suddenly noticing the files Dania had brought. He looked at the door, and then back down at the files. He opened them up and briefly scanned the first pages of each. He read quickly, with the occasional ‘mmhmm’ and ‘uh huh’ before putting each aside.

“I’ll send them to talk with you.” Albrick said as he got up to excuse himself, determined that he would leave on his own terms, just as he had entered.

“Albrick, hold on a minute. Don’t bother sending Jasper, he’s just a meathead. I just want to talk to Ms. Faust for now. Thanks Albrick. This is a very exciting development, I think the Earth’s prognosis just got a lot better. You can go now, Al.”

Singularity - Chapter 9:Genesis (Part 2 of 2)

Ok, so I'm excited about this section. It's probably the most technical section of the book, so I hope it doesn't turn people off. See if you can follow it, and then leave me a comment telling me how good/awful/interesting/unrealistic it is.

The Homestead team spent a week at the Genesis base. Garst met with the engineers around the base, gathering as much knowledge as he could about their transport technology, which was surprisingly basic, but had a few points of light that he could use. Priscilla gathered information about their life support systems, and some of their computer technology to bring home. They had agreed that Elliot and Sarah would stay behind at the base, to open space in the return craft for two of the Genesis people to go back to Earth.

They all agreed that the information about the people on Mars had to be kept under wraps for a time, until the proper people were notified, and a plan was put in place for what to do with this knowledge and how to notify the people of Earth. The Genesis staff, and Tom specifically insisted that their new technology be kept secret from the Homestead crew until after they had the opportunity to meet with President Rennet and some other Earthdwellers to be sure that they could be trusted. Priscilla protested, but Tom stood firm.

By the time the craft left the surface of Mars, Elliot and Sarah had already begun making friends with the staff and people of Genesis. Once they got past the accent, they found the people very interesting to speak with. They were, quite literally, like speaking to someone so foreign that you don’t even share the same frame of reference. Sarah was basking in all the knowledge she could gather from the others.

Elliot spent a lot of time with Tom. He enjoyed talking to him, he was a visionary type of man, and Elliot just got excited when he was with him. It wasn’t long before there was a genuine trust between the two men. About a month after Garst and Priscilla had left the base, Tom invited Elliot into his private quarters. Elliot arrived and took the seat offered him. Tom was smiling like someone who was keeping a secret.

“Hi Tom, why are you so happy?” Elliot asked jokingly.

“Elliot, I think we’ve got a certain understanding. We trust each other, right?”

“I think so, don’t you?”

“Absolutely. I know I said I wouldn’t share our biggest secret with your team for a while, but I think it’s time I brought you into the loop. I think our team could use your perspective in the next phase of the project.”

“Tom, are you sure? I’m honored, but I don’t want you to regret telling me.”

“ Of course I’m sure. Now just be quiet and listen.”

Elliot sat back in the chair, and took a drink from the glass on the table next to him. He settled in, as Tom told him a story. Tom’s storytelling style was engaging, but not over-simple, very easy to listen to.

After the first trip to Alpha Centauri, the Genesis people decided that it wasn’t worth all the effort to travel that way. It was too costly in time and materials, and the lack of any suitable landing planet in the system highlighted the problem of what to do when you get to a foreign system. The fact was, it could be decades before they even stumbled upon a good place to land. They returned home, scrapped the program and focused on other priorities.

One of those priorities was potential environmental refunctioning of the planet of Mars. There was evidence in the lower regions of the Martian underground that there could have once been life on the planet, and they theorized that they could one day return to that state. The problem with creating an atmosphere is that it took a tremendously long time to accomplish. To solve this problem, a brilliant young physicist backed into a theory that would allow for travel forward through time, which after several years of diligent work, he was able to prove conclusively, when he created a machine to successfully send himself a note from 10 minutes in the past.

The full efforts of the base were re-directed at developing this technology for human travel. The goal was to set the environment on a course for change, and then transport thousands of years into the future to benefit from the intervening years. After decades of development, the whole civilization was celebrating the success of properly scaling the machine for human sized transport. A young woman volunteered herself to be sent forward 10 minutes in time. To the amazement of everyone present, she materialized out of thin air 10 minutes after disappearing in the machine. To their horror, she died 15 minutes after the jump.

The experiment was attempted several more times, with other brave volunteers, and they discovered that the further forward in time the person travelled, the faster they died after the transport. The cause was relatively unknown, but it was as if time were stretched like an elastic band and released, snapping the traveller. This was an unexpected side effect, and effectively shut down the time travel project at the Genesis base, the equipment was boarded up in a closed chamber. The program was forgotten for several centuries.

In the 50 years prior to the day the Homestead team arrived, the Genesis people were again exploring intergalactic travel. A maintenance man stumbled upon a door that was welded shut behind several stacks of boxes. After cutting the door open, he discovered the time travel chamber and all the records of the original time travel project. The program was re-opened, and the top engineers in Genesis were tasked with resurrecting any technology from the time travel device that they could.

One of the engineers on the project had been exploring the machine and its controls, and discovered that the machine had a forward orientation programmed into the software that operated the machine. After reconfiguring the machine, he was able to send a wrench backwards in time, where he found himself holding two identical wrenches for about 10 minutes. The discovery was a breakthrough that opened a whole new course of exploration. They were able to successfully transport a person forward in time, and immediately back to the instant from which they left. The key was to have the person transport back quickly enough that they didn’t die in the future time, and the time period known as the Time Elasticity Interval became irrelevant when they returned to their natural timeline.

This engineer theorized that there was a point infinitely into the future at which the Time Elasticity could be stretched to the point of breaking, allowing the traveler to remain at that point in time for an extended period. Because of the infinite nature of this point in time, it exists at a point that is always infinitely far from any point in time, which causes the Time Elasticity Interval to remain constant. A person could remain at this point indefinitely, and travel back to the time they left without being affected negatively. The timeline for a living thing that travels to this infinite point in time would freeze, since the place does not literally exist on any timeline, but actually outside the literal timeline itself.

The theory was finally tested once the engineer was able to calibrate the machine to an infinite time horizon. The engineer who devised the theory was the first to test it. What he found when he travelled infinitely into the future was that the point was not only infinitely far from his home time, that this point in time, by its very nature exists outside the universal timeline and thus outside the physical universe as well. He found that he existed outside time, between matter, everywhere, nowhere, and all the time. He called this point in non-time and un-space the “Infinite Singularity.” The phenomenon became the central focus of every effort of Genesis from that point forward.

The time travel device was modified and replicated. The device was able to transport everything within the chamber, living or inanimate to the Singularity and a small handheld console was able to transport the objects back to the point where they had left. Time for the physical person would suspend as it entered the Singularity, and they would resume their timeline upon their return.

The biggest breakthrough was the discovery that because a person at the Singularity could exist at all possible locations simultaneously, the physical re-entry could be targeted anywhere in the physical universe. The machine was calibrated so that the re-entry time was fixed to the instant from which they left, but the physical re-entry was variable, expressed in relative position from the origin. This could be calculated relatively accurately, however, the possibility of sending a person to another planet presented some serious difficulties. The problem with the vast distances involved in some of this travel meant that even with pinpoint accuracy, the point of a pin was still ridiculously large. 99.9999999999% accuracy over only a single light year of distance is still a 5,000 mile margin of error, which only grew more and more as distances stretched out over parsecs, or for intergalactic travel, over distances of Megaparsecs. The chance of re-entering the timeline at the exact right location to stand on the surface of a foreign planet was so minute, it was hardly worth trying.
The Singularity Matter Transference Theory was proven on the surface of Mars, with several people successfully transporting across the planet instantaneously via Singularity. Even over that short distance, on one occasion, the traveler re-entered the timeline about 10 centimeters too low, and was forced to dig her own feet out of the ground. This margin of error was too much of a risk to attempt to send a person to another planet without assuring precision and accuracy of the coordinate system.

The plan devised to solve this problem was a brilliant one. The transport chamber was scaled to the size of a small space probe. The probe would be sent through the Singularity, and re-emerge in the vicinity of the target planet. The probe would land on the planet, run several tests, and send back data recorded on electronic media that it transported through its on-board Singularity chamber back to the Genesis base on Mars. The probe data was read, recorded, and it was determined whether the planet was a candidate for human exploration. The probes determined to be safe locations were referred to as Guideposts, and served as nodes in what became a significant travel infrastructure. Presence of a Guidepost allowed a traveler to link directly to the precise location of the probe’s linking chamber. The problem of accuracy had been solved, opening wide the gates of intergalactic exploration.

When Tom had finished with his explanation, he paused to give all the information some time to sink in for Elliot. “Kid, you look shocked. How you doing?”

“A little confused. I have to admit, a lot of that went over my head. What I really don’t understand is how all of this has anything to do with me.”

“Yeah, I was going to get to that, just thought I’d let you absorb that info first.” Tom said sympathetically, “As you may have guessed, the guidepost probes are a little costly to build. We have sent a few of them out, and haven’t yet found a planet suitable for human travel. It’s a tough thing, you know, to find a planet parsecs away with the possibility of even walking on it, much less breathing the air, or being remotely comfortable.”

“I can imagine.”

“Well, we’re hoping you might be able to help us find candidate planets, so we can narrow our search. Your friend, Sarah says you are somewhat of an expert on planetary positioning and the relationship to atmospheric formation. We’d like to have you jump in with the team that has been collecting star system data, maybe you can make some sense out of all of it.”

“I’m happy to help where I can.” Elliot said, “Now one question, could you just explain the whole Singularity thing to me again?”

Singularity - Chapter 9: Genesis (Part 1)

Chapter 9: Genesis

The team was sitting around a large metal table. Across from them were several people who, unexpectedly, lived in the Mars base. The youngest, a teenage boy sat against the wall in a small chair, while the oldest, a man with a scruffy beard and white hair sat directly across the table from Sarah. He introduced himself as Tom Bosworth. He was obviously the leader of the base, and took the lead in the discussion at hand. Sarah had taken it upon herself to speak for the Homestead team. The man had a very even, calm voice, with an accent that was hard for the Homestead team to understand. He seemed to take everything in stride, and had a very dry wit and humor about him.

He leaned back in his chair, crossed his ankle over his knee and addressed the team, “Well, I’m guessing you are all a bit more surprised than we are. We had expected some visitors someday, but I imagine you never expected to see us here.”

“Yeah, you can say that again. I’m feeling a little overwhelmed right now.” Sarah said, sounding more overwhelmed than her words spelled out. “I admit we weren’t sure what we would find when we arrived, but I can say for certain that we weren’t expecting to find people living here.”

Tom laughed a hardy laugh, “I imagine not. Let me just say that you should not feel threatened to be here. In fact, we’re overjoyed that someone finally found us. This base is called Genesis, we’ve been here nearly 500 years, dozens of generations have come and gone from our numbers. The human race has long ago forgotten us, we’re sure. The problem with a secret base such as this one is precisely the secrecy. Our people at NASA couldn’t acknowledge us. We, and when I say we, I mean our ancestors of course, had been here about 13 years when we last had contact with Earth. We had been sent here on a 25 year mission of discovery. In the 13th year, we were awaiting a mission to bring a relief crew and supplies to repair our return craft. The craft never arrived. We tried to communicate back to Earth, but we couldn’t find a satellite. Since then, it’s been silence from Earth.

“The crew had a choice at that moment, either try to repair the craft themselves, and attempt to get home, or prepare to survive on Mars, and wait for another rescue mission. They chose the latter. After a decade or two, it became clear that a rescue wasn’t coming. They determined that they would survive here on Mars. The base was expanded below ground, where sealed chambers were easier to build. The greenhouse became more valuable than ever before, and a great deal of work went into the production of food, fibers, and the other things needed to survive. Our original mission was neglected for a century.”

“Pardon my asking,” Sarah took the opportunity to jump in during a pause in Tom’s speech. “Do you have any idea what has happened down on Earth?”

“Not a lick. Although, we’re pleased to find out you’re not all dead. Our leaders sure did have quite the arsenal back then, figured the planet was dead long ago. But I’m glad you’re still alive, that’s great news!.”

“You and me both.” Sarah Laughed

“We can get to that in a minute.” Tom said. “So after that initial 100 years, we were able to increase our population enough to get on to some research. Technology used to advance pretty slowly on Earth, other than military tech. We were able to devote our full efforts to studying what we came here to study. We advanced in leaps and bounds. In fact, after being here for 500 years, we have done things we never dreamed were possible. Sure, we accomplished our original mission, but we took it way beyond that as well.”

Sarah had a confused look on her face, which Tom recognized, and stopped, allowing her to get a word in. “Tom, this is interesting, but I don’t think we have any idea what your mission was. You see, we found our way here because of some documents we found on Earth, but those documents said nothing about why you were sent here, only that there was a base here. We came hoping to find some answers, and find a way to make the Earth livable again. So I guess I’m just wondering, what exactly was your mission?”

Tom smiled, “Intergalactic travel, of course.”

Sarah’s jaw dropped, “But you said you accomplished that a while ago. Why didn’t you come home?”

“We are home here. By the time we got ourselves to Alpha Centauri, nobody here had ever seen the surface of Earth. Earth wasn’t our home, it was a planet that we see in the night sky once in a while. But this base right here is the place we call home.”

Garst was amazed by this, the gearhead in him came out immediately, “Oh man, what kind of thrusters do you use, what’s the craft like, is life support at those speeds difficult? How long did the journey take? Man, I gotta sit down with your engineers.”

Tom guffawed. “Slow down there, kid. If you talked to any of our engineers, they wouldn’t know the first thing about it. That’s a bit like asking you to explain a steam engine. Obsolete technology, long gone. Fact is, we found that travelling by spacecraft was terribly inefficient. All that mass to move over all that distance, and it took so long to do. No sooner had we returned from Alpha than we changed gears immediately.

“Truth be told, we haven’t even gone anywhere since that first trip. We’ve been waiting a long time for the right technology, and we finally have it.”

Singularity - Chapter 8: Hunters

I'm sorry that this is a little longer than some sections I've posted, I couldn't figure a good way to split this one up without making one section really short and boring. Still, it's not that long of a chapter, so enjoy.



Chapter 8: Hunters

After Bruck’s death, Cheslie struggled with what she would do. She was 17 years old, nearly graduated from primary school, but she had been so far ahead of her peers, she had already completed the requirements to go on to college, but no universities accepted students under 18. They all said it was because they wanted to be sure students had all the pre-college experiences that would make them well-rounded people, but Cheslie knew it was just to keep the schools from getting over-crowded. She didn’t want to stay in Inner-London any longer. Without Elliot there, and after her father’s death, there was no reason to stay there anymore, and every day just reminded her of Bruck.

She had decided to sell everything in the apartment, and use the money to move to New Washington. She had applied at the University, and was certain to be accepted with her perfect grades. She just needed to find a place to stay for a while until she found a permanent apartment. She remembered that when she had spoken to Albrick Hunter, Elliot’s program director, he had told her that if there was anything she needed, just ask. She hated imposing on people, but decided that just this once, she would try depending on someone else for help.

She called the phone number he had left, and watched as the video phone began the ringing sequence, with the multi-colored bubbles rising randomly across the screen, the ringing tone quietly humming away. A woman answered her call. “Hello, this is the Hunter house.”

The woman was probably in her late fifties, or early sixties. Cheslie could tell that she was once a beautiful woman, which still shone through the wrinkles and gray hair left by time. Her eyes were a gray/green shade, her face was welcoming and her smile was broad. Her gray hair was cut short, in a distinguished cut, like you would expect from a businesswoman or politician. Cheslie was a little startled by the woman, since she had been expecting Albrick to answer.

“Yes, hello, is Mr. Hunter in?” Her voice was a little shaky, she did not enjoy talking to strangers on the phone, especially when it was personal, and not business.

“I’m sorry dear, he’s just run out for an evening meeting. Can I leave a message for him?”

“Oh, sure, can you tell him that Cheslie Adams called, and if he has a minute, could he call me?”

“Cheslie Adams? Albrick told me about your father, I am so sorry for your loss. Can we do anything for you? Oh, I’m so rude, my name is Hadessa, I’m Albrick’s wife.”

Cheslie was a little taken aback that Albrick’s wife knew who she was. But it made sense, since Albrick worked with Elliot, she had probably heard her name come up after Bruck’s death. “Um, well, actually, I um, yes, that’s why I, um.”

“It’s alright Cheslie, you can ask for anything.”

“Well, I was calling Mr. Hunter to ask for a favor.”

“Of course, first, a tip. Don’t call him Mr. Hunter, he hates that, it makes him feel old. Stick to Albrick, or Al if you prefer. Come to think of it, I don’t like being called Mrs. Hunter either, so that’s out too, guess you’ll have to call me Hadessa.” She smiled broadly at Cheslie, which made her feel much more comfortable.

“Well, obviously, you know what happened to my dad, so I am planning on selling our furniture and moving away from Inner-London. I applied at NWU, but they won’t take me for another six months, so I’m planning to move to New Washington in the meantime.”

“Enough said, our guest room is your home.”

“How did you…?”

“Just a hunch.” Hadessa shrugged her shoulders, “We’d love to have you stay with us. When will you be arriving? I’ll meet you at the station.”

“Um, Next Monday, I guess. Are you sure that’s ok? Shouldn’t you wait until Mr. I mean Albrick gets home?”

“He’d say the same thing, hon, when you’ve been married 35 years, you start to think alike.”

“Well, thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. Albrick has said so many nice things about Elliot, and surely we can take care of his sister when she needs help.”

* * * * * * *

Cheslie had been living with Albrick and Hadessa for several weeks by the time they got word that Elliot’s team had safely reached Mars. It was an exciting day for everyone, and was heralded around the world as a major advance in the human struggle against the world they had inherited from the destructive generations before them. The world rejoiced together at what a prolonged peace could provide. At the center of this triumph was the figure of Zeke Rennet, the president who set the wheels in motion to achieve this success. The regions of the world had been in constant communication with the NAR government to offer assistance with the program, and ask for inclusion in any benefit it provides. A movement was underway in the NAR citizens to vote Rennet in as President for Life.

Cheslie was surprised to find out, upon moving to New Washington, that Hadessa was a Senator, representing New Washington in the NAR Senate. Albrick and Hadessa seemed to work almost every hour of the day, so she had a lot of time to herself in their apartment. The view from their apartment was fantastic. They lived near the edge of the cavern, with a view over the city. Cheslie loved sitting on the balcony looking out over the city below. She could see the Capitol and Artemis building in the center, and the roads radiating out from the bright center like a sunburst. It brought her hope in the human race to see the way the city functioned, everything working together to make the habitat continue. She would sit there and stare out, dreaming about her future, and what her part in society would be. She was enrolled in the Political Science program at NWU, and would be starting in just a few weeks. She had told Albrick and Hadessa that she planned to move out of their home once she started, because she didn’t want to overstay her welcome, and wanted to be closer to the university.

Cheslie was sitting on the balcony in one of her long daydreams when Hadessa came up behind her, and put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Cheslie, how’s the view?”

“Oh, hey Hadessa, you’re home early today.”

“Yes, after the senate passed a resolution recognizing today as ‘Zeke Rennet Day,’ they decided that we should celebrate by taking an afternoon off. I had to give my staff the afternoon off, so I decided to come home, and spend the afternoon with you. How would you like to take a walk with me?”

“Yeah, that would be nice.”

They headed outside and began to walk towards the city center. They discussed life, told stories about where they grew up. Cheslie talked about Inner-London, and how it was so unpleasant and dark all the time, wherever you went.

As they neared Pratt Square, they sat on a bench and watched street performers entertaining children and tourists nearby. Hadessa turned to Cheslie, and put a hand on her arm. “Cheslie, what are your plans for college. Besides school, I mean. Are you going to find a job to pay the bills during school?”

“I dunno, I hadn’t really thought about it in great detail. I was most likely going to just work at a coffee shop or something like that I guess.”

“Well, I’d like to make you an offer that I think you might want to consider. I would love to have you work for me in my Senate office. I know that’s going to take a significant amount of time, and I’m sure it will limit the amount of leisure time you’ll have. I will be flexible with your hours, you can work between classes, and if you need an afternoon off to study for an exam, no problem. “

“Thank you for the offer, I’m not sure I’m qualified, I’m only 18 years old, and I haven’t even started college yet.”

“Frankly, Cheslie, you’re over-qualified. The job involves a lot of mundane work, filing, answering phones, a little bit of research, nothing that you aren’t prepared to do. The most important qualification is trust, and I can trust you more than anybody currently on my staff. You’re a brilliant young woman Cheslie, and if I didn’t hire you now, I’m afraid I’d lose that opportunity.”

“Well, you make it hard to say no, are you sure there’s room on the staff?”

“Yes, I had to let half of my current staff go today.”

“Oh no, what happened?”

“Well, I was one of only 10 senators to oppose the resolution on Zeke Rennet Day. It made me very unpopular among my fellow Senators, and I started getting dozens of calls in my office every minute. I heard several of my staff telling the callers that I was opposing the measure, but could be convinced. I couldn’t have such mixed messages coming out of my office, so I had to let them go.”

“Oh…” Cheslie looked down at her feet, “I’m not sure I understand why you oppose that.”

Hadessa placed a hand on Cheslie’s shoulder, “Cheslie, it’s ok, you don’t need to be embarrassed. Your feelings are the same as most. It’s hard to understand why someone who has done great things for the NAR would not be honored in such a way as this. It’s why most of my colleagues voted in favor of the measure.”

“Yeah.” Cheslie looked up at Hadessa, who had a very soft look on her face, “Can you explain it for me?”

“Of course, let’s walk back to the apartment, I’ll explain on the way.” The pair got up and began to walk back towards the apartment. Hadessa dropped a few coins in the hat of one of the performers as they walked past.

Hadessa looked up at the dome of the Capitol and smiled. “Cheslie, do you know the story of Mayor Morgan Pratt?”

“A little.”

“Well, here’s a story you probably hadn’t heard. When he built the city of New Washington, he had no plans to become the Mayor. He was a visionary man who was incredibly inspirational. He knew that nothing would unify people more than a goal. He made this city his goal. He organized the people around the construction of it, he designed it, he managed the process, he took care of details. No single person was more involved in the founding of this wonderful city. He did not want to be mayor, in fact, when they held the first election, he specifically asked not to be on the ballot. But the people wrote his name in. He won the election with over 80% of the vote. It was overwhelming, to the point where he could not turn down the people’s sincere request that he lead. He became the mayor of the city, and when his four year term was done, he requested that they not vote for him, but encouraged them to vote for his vice-mayor instead. The people did this out of respect for the man.

“Once he was out of office, there was groundswell across the nation to elect him as president of the NAR. He was nominated by his party as their candidate, and he attended their national convention. At the convention, he gave an incredible and courageous speech. He talked about the responsibilities of the office of President, and the power associated with that office. He discussed how important it was to be cautious on whom you place that awesome burden. He spoke about the potential corrupting force of power, and the way that a person can become addicted to that power, to the detriment of the governed. He then said that he was declining their nomination, because he was severely disturbed with the legendary status he had attained, and did not trust himself with the responsibility of that legend. He knew that if he were given a seat of power, he would not easily relinquish it, and the people who voted him into that office would willingly enable him to stay. He argued for the necessity of a change of power in government as a way to keep any one person from achieving pharaonic status. He warned against the mindset that places any man or woman above human status, and made the profound statement that any person who would accept such a status could, by no means, be trusted with such. He said that his fear was that he did not have the character to turn down that status, and therefore, could not accept their nomination.

“The crowd was shocked as he walked off the stage. It wasn’t until several silent minutes later that a slow applause started in the gallery, and eventually spread to a loud standing ovation. The party nominated a new candidate, who won the election with the support of Mayor Pratt. The mayor lived out the rest of his life without holding office, but was a strong figure speaking out against abuses of power around the world.

“Most people stop their history of Mayor Pratt before that presidential nomination speech, but it’s that principle of preventing abuse of power for which he spent the latter years of his life fighting. I serve in the Senate and hope to emulate the vision of Morgan Pratt. That is why I could not support a resolution honoring a sitting president. That is why I fear this movement to make President Rennet more than just a president. I fear that it will come to the Senate before long, and I don’t have much time to get support from my colleagues. I refuse to allow our government to go down the road of crowning an Emperor.”

Cheslie was speechless, she tried to think of something to say, but nothing came to mind. It would take some time before that all sank in for her. She was caught up in the fervor around the constant praise of Zeke Rennet, so this shift was something that she had a hard time accepting. But Hadessa’s story was very compelling. She knew that she could learn a lot by working on her staff. “I’d like to accept your offer, Hadessa. I look forward to working for you.”

“Good. I don’t suppose I can talk you out of moving out of our apartment, so take a week, get settled into your new place, and you can start next Monday.”

Singularity - Chapter 7: Contact (Part 2 of 2)

The landing on Mars was not as smooth as the Moon. The atmosphere on Mars was considerably thicker than the Moon, causing additional heat and friction on entry. The B-537 landing craft took all of this in stride, the aerogel shell that surrounded the craft effectively deflected the heat from the thin metal hull holding the crew and equipment. This craft was significantly smaller than the A-537, designed to be able to easily land on a planet, and leave the planet’s atmosphere easily without the aid of rail launchers. It was more difficult to control during turbulence than the larger craft, but more maneuverable. Garst set the craft down on the dusty clay landing strip that was remarkably clear of debris. The landing was bumpy, but safe.

The crew put on their space suits for their first steps on a foreign planet. The excitement of the moment was electric. They had all trained months for this, and it was finally happening. They would be the first people to set foot on Mars post-travesty. Garst silenced the airlock alarm warning of the lack of suitable air outside the craft, and pushed the outer door open. Because he had done all the hard work so far, they had decided that he would be the first out of the craft. He descended the ladder to the ground and bounded around in a circle while the others watched from the windows of the lander.

The gravity was stronger than the moon, but not as strong as Earth, providing a good balance that made him feel like he could move effortlessly, but without that feeling that he could jump off the planet if he tried. He smiled and touched the communicator switch, “You guys really oughta get down here, or I’m going to have all the fun.”

The rest of the team took their turns exiting through the airlock and down onto the planet. They spent a few minutes chasing each other around, bounding, and just enjoying the planet that they were all visiting for the first time. The strangeness of their situation took a while to sink in.

After a few minutes, Priscilla said, “Hey guys, I just realized, we’re standing on Mars. I have no idea what I did right in my life to arrive here, but I’m glad I did it.”

Elliot Laughed, it was the first honest laugh he’d had for days. He looked towards the horizon where he saw the sun rising above the thin red line that marked the curve of the planet. It illuminated the dusty amber color of the sky, which was the most striking feature of a planet that otherwise looked similar to the surface of his home planet. He was somewhat disappointed in the sunrise, or was it sunset? No, sunrise, definitely. The sun was small, distant, and no noticeable warmth came with the light. By far the most noticeable difference was the size of the sun in comparison to what he was used to seeing on the days he spent at the surface research station. It was a tiny spot in the sky. It still illuminated the landscape brightly, but did not dominate the sky the way it did on Earth. The pale sky, small sun, and barren landscape gave him a cold feeling. The suit he wore kept his body warm, but he felt chilled to his soul by the view in front of him. This was truly a strange place.

Priscilla led the way from the tarmac to the research station, while Garst ran back to the craft to grab a toolbox. The team found the main entrance, and Garst began to examine the door. It looked to be in decent condition, but he was sure that the hundreds of years would have taken a toll on the mechanics of the door, and definitely would have ruined the motors that control it. Besides all of that, the world that designed this base was a warlike world, and even Mars wasn’t far enough away for security. Thus, the door was built with a keypad entry system, and a 32 digit code, which, of course, was only ever communicated verbally, and never recorded on the schematics unearthed recently. Needless to say, they had anticipated a bit of a struggle to access the inside of the base.

Garst began to eye up the door. It was a beautifully constructed device. The schematics had shown that the door was actually a rotating chamber that served as an airlock as well. It was designed to rotate and stop at three points, spaced evenly around the chamber. The first was the exterior opening where they currently stood. The door would allow up to 10 people to enter the chamber, then rotated to the second point. The second point was a completely sealed position, where the chamber would be brought to equal pressure with the inside or outside, depending on the direction being travelled. The final stop was the opening to the inside of the base.

A solid sheet of metal curved slightly across the opening of the door frame before fitting snugly back behind the other side of the frame. The fit of the door in the frame meant that there was only a few molecules width separating the door from the frame, so no amount of prying would do any good. There was a mechanical override for the door, but that was located inside the base, not on the outside. The team decided that the only way in was to cut the metal. It would be a tedious process, and would require repair later if the base was going to become airtight again, but they didn’t come all the way to Mars to look at the exterior of a Base, maybe peek in the windows and head home.

Garst removed the protective cap off the laser cutting device. He flipped on the safety catch, and started the cutter through its warm-up cycle. The cutter gave off a low tone, which grew higher and higher in pitch as the device warmed up. When the green light came on, he began to test the cutter on a large square of metal sunk into the ground next to the door. The beam flared up where it contacted the metal, and the material could be seen melting away at the sides of the laser. The beam reached the edge of the metal, and Garst flipped the safety back on. “Seems to work well. Kinda fun actually.”

He walked over to the door, and drew a square on the door with chalk, about a meter on each side. He pointed the cutter at the corner of the square, and released the catch when a speaker overhead crackled, causing them all to look up, expecting to see something move. Nothing moved, but a few seconds later, the speaker came to life again.

“If you’re planning to treat the door like that poor bench, we’d really prefer if you’d just knock. It would save both of us an awful lot of time and effort.”

Singularity - Chapter 7:Contact (part 1)

Chapter 7: Contact (Part 1 of 2)

If the trip to the Moon was long and boring, the trip to Mars was torture. The journey was ten times longer, the scenery was infinitely less interesting. Ten times as many hours to fill, and nothing with which to fill them. The small sleeping quarters on the A-537 were cramped, and not even remotely comfortable.

Garst spent most of the time reading. He said that all the adrenaline of flying needed some balance. So he was an avid reader. He brought an electronic reader with him on the trip, and stuffed it with thousands of books. He was working his way through them in alphabetical order by author. He especially liked old fiction novels. By the time the team left the moon, he was just finishing up with the Douglas Adams section of his books.

Priscilla was in the small exercise room for a good portion of the time. The team was prepared for their muscles to atrophy after a long time in space, so they had all spent time exercising their muscles. For Priscilla, it bordered on obsession. She would strap herself into a treadmill and run for an entire 2 hour briefing video on some of the equipment they were likely to find on Mars.

Sarah and Elliot spent a lot of time playing scrabble and card games. The games ended up being a light distraction while talking. They were both amazed at how much time they could spend talking, since they already thought they knew everything about each other. “Quack!” Sarah shouted, “and a double word score, 40 points!”

“Really? Quack? Do I need to get Garst’s dictionary?” Elliot teased.

“It’s the sound a bird called a duck made. Remember, I have a doctorate in natural sciences, I just know these kinds of things, Elliot.”

“Ok, ok, you can keep quack.” Elliot shook his head as he tried to find a way to build off her ‘Q,’ but sadly had no ‘U’ to pair with it. He vowed to himself that if he ever invented a language, he wouldn’t have letters be dependent upon each other, it makes scrabble so much more difficult. Maybe the ‘K’ had potential.

“Elliot, can I ask you something?” Sarah said. Her tone was gentler than before, almost timid.

“Of course, what is it?”

“Remember when you came back from your leave in Inner-London? I had asked you what was wrong, and you said you didn’t want to talk about it then. Are you ready to talk about it now?” She wasn’t sure how to break into this conversation, so she did her best.

“I guess so. I just got this feeling while I was at home that something was going on and nobody would let me know what it was. I kept asking Cheslie, but she would always change the subject. I just felt very distant from her and my dad, it wasn’t a very good trip. I felt like I might have upset them in making the decision to join this program, and I worried that I was distancing myself from my family. It really hurt, and I had a lot of doubts on the trip back to New Washington. When I saw you there, it just added to the conflict, because I knew that I had to stay on to help you with the work.”

“Elliot, your family wasn’t upset about the program. At least I don’t think they were. Cheslie seemed very excited last I talked to her.”

“I don’t know Sarah, it just felt weird.”

“Elliot, I have some bad news for you, and I have been putting this off, but I need to get it off my chest now, before we get to Mars. Elliot, your father died of Tuberculosis.”

“What? When?” It was as if a brick wall fell on Elliot right then. His head felt heavy, his vision blurred. The shock of what he had just heard took time to settle in. The trip home made more sense in this light, but it didn’t lessen the blow of the news.

“When we were at the Moon Base. I wanted to tell you earlier, but I didn’t want to have your feelings distract you from the preparations. You weren’t supposed to know at all, Albrick was forbidden from telling you, but he got a message to me the day before we left.”

“How could this happen? He was young, strong. What’s Cheslie going to do?”

“Elliot, Cheslie will be ok. She’s an adult now, she’ll take care of herself. They didn’t want to tell you he was sick when you were home, because they wanted to be able to enjoy the time together without worrying about Bruck. I know this is going to be tough for you, so I wanted to give you some time before we got to Mars. I’ll leave you alone.”

“Please stay.” Elliot said. He could feel himself choking up, and forced back the tears. Sarah sat on the bench next to him and pushed the small table away. She put an arm around his shoulder, which was just the trigger his tears were waiting for. He began to sob, head in hands. His body lurched as he struggled to take in breaths between moans. He turned and looked at Sarah, and she hugged him while he cried on her shoulder.

Sarah felt ashamed that in the midst of Elliot’s grief, all she could think about was the embrace they shared. She had felt a sort of tingle as she wrapped her arms around the grief stricken man who was her best friend. She knew that she should be sharing in Elliot’s grief, but had learned to repress feelings of grief long ago. Somehow she had not developed the same control over feelings of love. She rubbed her hand across Elliot’s back as the tears became slower. She knew there would be plenty of time to explore love later, once Elliot had recovered from his grief, for now, she needed to be a friend.

Singularity - Chapter 6: Zeke Rennet (Part 2 of 2)

Chapter 6: Zeke Rennet (Part 2)

Albrick stormed from the Executive Residence across Pratt Square towards the Artemis Building. He was fuming from the argument with the president. How could he be so cold and calculating? Does he not think of human emotion from time to time? The confrontation was something he had been wanting to do for a long time. He was doubtful about the direction the President was leading the Homestead program. He didn’t like that the President was micromanaging the project.

As he arrived at the Artemis building, he walked with a purpose. He didn’t notice the receptionist greeting him as he walked across the lobby to the elevator. He failed to hold the door for another program director who was running to the elevator. When the elevator finally arrived at the 14th floor, he got off, walked to his office, threw his jacket at the coat rack, where it fell in a heap on the floor.

He sat at his desk, and pressed a button on his com-screen. The screen flicked to life, showing an office with a young red haired man studying a computer monitor intently. “Gredge, can you come to my office please?”

The redhead on the screen looked up, “Right away sir.”

Less than a minute later, Gredge entered the office, and Albrick got up, grabbed him by the arm, and walked him into the hallway. “Come on, we’re going to the roof.”

“Al, I don’t understand.”

“Just walk with me, I’ll explain in a minute.”

Albrick walked to the stairwell at the end of the hall, pushed open the door, and bounded up the stairs to the roof. Gredge followed behind, still confused about why they were going to the roof. Albrick swung open the door at the top of the stairs, and shuffled out onto the roof. Albrick paced back and forth, waiting for Gredge to catch up. He kicked a pebble across the roof, and it struck an air-recycler with a satisfying clang. Albrick picked up another pebble, threw it at the recycler. CLANG.

After throwing three or four small rocks at the recycler, he looked over at Gredge. “Gredge, how long have you been my program assistant?”

“About five years now, I think.”

“Have you ever known me to have poor judgment? Have I made many bad decisions?”

“Nothing comes to mind. Why are we on the roof?”

Albrick laughed, and walked to the edge of the roof, standing a few inches from the lip at the edge of the building. He looked down at the city below, and then across the cavern at the edges of the great engineering marvel that was New Washington.

Gredge was getting nervous. He didn’t understand why Albrick was so upset, and what they were on the roof for. “Al, is something wrong? Why don’t you step back from the edge?”

“Don’t worry, Gredge, I’m not going to jump.”

“Of course not, so what’s going on, Al?”

Albrick walked back to where Gredge stood, near the stairs. He put his hands on Gredge’s shoulders, and lowered his voice “I didn’t want anybody hearing this conversation. That’s why we’re on the roof. Gredge, I want you to contact Sarah Angler at the Armstrong Moon Base, tell her that Bruck Adams, Elliot’s father, has died of tuberculosis. Tell her to use her discretion in letting Elliot know. Make sure nobody overhears this conversation, I’m under directive from the President not to let Elliot know, but I don’t want him going to Mars without knowing.”

“Sure thing, Al, I’m happy to help. I don’t understand why the president would direct you not to tell Elliot.”

“You and me both, Gredge.”

Singularity - Chapter 6: Zeke Rennet (Part 1)

Chapter 6: Zeke Rennet

“Mr. President, I have Albrick Hunter for you.” The male aide stood, without making eye contact, awaiting a response from President Rennet. The office in the Executive Residence was decorated to resemble the historic Oval Office of the President of the United States. The Executive residence was built as a modern steel and stone structure, a far removed building from the White House of old, but the office of the President was kept relatively similar. Still oval in shape, the office was decorated in the same provincial style that it had been for centuries of the old nation.

Without looking up from his desk, Zeke Rennet replied, “Well, send him in then.”

The aide signaled to the side of the door as he exited, and Albrick Hunter shuffled in, walking to the front of President Rennet’s desk, awaiting acknowledgement from the unsettlingly tall man sitting at the desk. Albrick was visibly agitated, and seemed to be itching to get something off his chest. After allowing him to stand several minutes, the president motioned with his left hand at a chair behind Albrick, and without looking up, “Are you planning to stand the whole time? Take a seat.”

Albrick sat down in a lush yellow chair. The cushion of the high backed chair absorbed Albrick’s small frame. It was deep enough and tall enough that his stocky legs were not quite long enough for his feet to touch the ground as he sat. It made him feel insignificant and small. He had a feeling that these chairs were chosen for that very effect on their occupants. One of the president’s aides, a young, pretty, slender woman with elf-like features brought Albrick a tray with a tall, thin steel cup and a small plexi-crystal pitcher filled with water. She set the tray on the table next to the chair, and filled the glass with water from the pitcher. Albrick smiled politely at the aide, “Thank you”

The president leafed through a few sheets of plasti-paper, signed his name at the bottom of one, closed the folder on his desk, and handed it to the aide, who took the paper out the door behind the president’s desk. He looked up from his desk at Albrick, and removed the mahogany-framed glasses from his face, laying them gently on the edge of his desk. He grabbed a pecan from a bowl at the front of the desk, and gestured at the bowl, “Help yourself Albrick.”

“No thank you, Mr. President.” Albrick was getting impatient, but did not want to break protocol by pushing the meeting faster than the President chose to lead.

Rennet tossed the pecan into his mouth, and spoke, his words muffled by the chewing of the nut. “So, Mr. Hunter, to what do I owe the pleasure of this surprise meeting?” He leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head, and crossed his right ankle over his left knee, his re-conditioned patent leather shoes reflecting the light coming through the window behind Albrick. He licked a finger, and rubbed at a scuff on the side of the wooden sole.

“I received your note, and I wanted to encourage you to reconsider your decision.” Albrick did everything he could to contain his emotion, knowing it would not help his argument.

“I respect that you disagree with me, Albrick, but I made my decision, and it’s final.”

“He needs to be told, Mr. President, once they leave the Moon Base, contact with the team will be difficult, then it will be several months before we have the opportunity. I don’t wish that sort of delay, sir.”

“I understand your concern, Albrick, but what do we do when he wants to return for the funeral? The team can’t leave the base without him. The return trip would be too costly, and would result in an unnecessary delay in the mission timeline.”

Albrick sat forward in his chair, gazing intently at Rennet, “Sir, no such delay would happen, I just want Elliot to know that his father has died, we owe him that dignity, for all that he is doing for us.”

The president uncrossed his legs, sat forward, grabbing a folder from the top of the stack on his desk. His tone flat, “We can let him know once he returns to the Moon Base after the Mars leg of the mission, Albrick, it’s only a few months, and it doesn’t make that much difference, the man is already dead, there’s nothing he could do to change that now, it’s not worth compromising the mission.”

Albrick leapt from his chair, and raised his voice in anger, “The mission? Are you so dense to think that telling the man about his father will cause him to leave the mission? Do you have no faith in my training program? Or his devotion to the program?”

The president got out of his chair, stood up, towering head and shoulders above Albrick. He leaned forward, hands on the desk, furrowing his brow, he looked down at Albrick. “Dense? I think you are forgetting who you are talking to, Hunter. Would you care to revise that last statement?”

“You’re right, I shouldn’t have called you dense.” Albrick was in a haze, not fully aware of everything around him, his mind was spinning in anger, his vision shaky as the room appeared to revolve around him. “Heartless would be more appropriate.”

The president sat down, and in his unaffected voice, “Yes, well, sometimes it’s necessary for the greater good.” He picked up his glasses from the desk and placed them on his nose, opening the folder he had grabbed.

“Spoken like a man who made his billions selling defective machines that pump disease through the cities of the world.” Albrick stared at the massive man sitting behind the desk, amazed at how he could be so disaffected by any kind of human emotion.

“Albrick, get some rest, you seem tired.” He pushed a button on the desk, and the male aide opened the door through which Albrick had entered. Albrick glared at the President, who had already moved on to his folder, and refused to look up.

“Sir, the president is very busy, please follow me.” The male aid held out his hand, inviting Albrick to exit the room.

Albrick turned on his heel, bumped into the small table with the water pitcher, causing the cup to fall off the tray to the floor. He continued to the door, taking no notice of what he just did. He walked past the aide, who put a hand on his back as he stormed out of the office and closed the door behind.

The president sighed without looking up from his folder, pushed a second button, “Dania, would you come in here please, Mr. Hunter spilled his water.” He continued reading as the door behind him opened, and the pretty, young aide walked in with a towel.

The president looked up over the top of his glasses as she wiped up the spilled water, unable to miss the way her black skirt tightened around her hips as she bent down. He remembered at that moment exactly why he had hired her. She replaced the glass on the tray, piled the towel next to it, and picked the tray up to carry it out of the room.

“Thank you, Dania.” The president smiled. “You should know how much I appreciate the work you do for me, Dania. I look forward to seeing your career develop.”

Dania smiled, flattered at the compliment. “Thank you sir, It’s an honor to work with you.”

The President’s eyes followed Dania as she left the room. He grinned and shook his head slightly as he grabbed a walnut from the bowl, and returned to his document.

Singularity Chapter 5: Bruck

Ok, so I enjoyed writing this chapter. I think it's one of my best so far. I could be wrong, feel free to tell me such in the comments below.

Chapter 5: Bruck

Bruck had been feeling worse every day since Elliot went back to New Washington. Knowing that he would see Elliot soon made him forget his illness before the visit, but once that visit was done, he began to decline. The coughing was getting more frequent, and lasted for much longer intervals. It felt as if he were coughing almost constantly now.

The doctor had been uncertain what the cause of his coughing was, but attributed it much to the low air quality in his sector of the city, and lowering oxygen levels throughout the city. The air recyclers were working full time now, and weren’t able to keep up with the demand. Cheslie had been taking odd jobs here and there, saving up to buy a home unit air recycler, hoping to help with their air at home, but even that wasn’t helping much.

His body was feeling weak, and his muscles were starting to deteriorate. He could no longer work, the demands of his job being too heavy for his weakened body. He spent most of his time in bed, watching news reports, and reading books.

Cheslie brought the doctor into the room, and walked over to her father. “Dad, Dr. Schindler is here to take a look at you. Are you feeling up to it?” She gently rubbed his shoulder, and was disturbed by the way she could feel the bones of the joint without the muscular shoulder she was used to. She hated to see him this way, and could hardly stand to stay in the room for long.

“Hello Bruck, I just wanted to take some tests and let you know a few of the things we’ve been figuring out. How are you feeling?”

“I’m feeling ok Frankton. My lungs haven’t been hurting as much lately, but my stomach has been pretty bad. I can’t eat much anymore. Anything other than water makes me sick.” He began coughing, and didn’t stop for a few minutes. Cheslie left the room, at the edge of tears.

Dr. Schindler sat in the chair next to the bed, and avoided eye contact with Bruck while he coughed. He pretended to look through some papers, and study what they said, but he already knew what was on them, and reading again would not change that. He had been seeing more cases like Bruck’s for the past few months, and had heard from doctors around the world who were seeing the same sorts of problems.

As the coughing stopped, Frankton looked over at Bruck, “Well, Bruck, we’re starting to get a little more information about your cough. It seems that this has been happening more frequently lately. It appears to be a disease called Tuberculosis, which was common at one point a long time ago. The disease seems to have become somewhat eliminated at one point, but it has been showing up more commonly of late. It seems to thrive in the poor air quality that is in most cities. Unfortunately, the disease doesn’t show signs until it is fairly advanced, and by that point, it’s hard to change the course. We will try giving you some medication that should help, but most of the strains that have survived are drug-resistant due to over-medication in the past. I wish there was more I could do for you. I can give you some pain relievers to help with the aches. Otherwise, just get some rest, and eat if you think you can. I’ll be back in a few days to check in.”

He left two bottles of medication on the table across the room, and turned to look back at Bruck, he was falling asleep, and his body was trembling slightly from the muscle fatigue. He shook his head slightly and walked out into the hall closing the door behind him. He saw Cheslie slumped against the wall sobbing into her hands. He walked over to her, and sat down against the wall across from her. He put a hand on her foot, and she looked up.

“Sorry, Dr. Schindler, I have such a hard time looking at him lately. I remember a man who was so strong and independent. I don’t recognize the person laying in that room. That’s not the man who raised my brother and me by himself. I don’t know who that is, but the disease has taken my father from me. Is he going to be ok?” She choked back the tears as she asked the question.

“It’s hard to say, Ches, he is very sick, and we don’t know a lot about his disease, because it was thought that it didn’t exist anymore. I left two medications on the table. You can give him the pain relievers when he asks for them, but the other one he can only have one per day. Otherwise, he just needs to rest. Try to think about the Bruck you love, and hopefully that will help.”

Cheslie got up to walk the doctor to the front door. He gave her a hug as she opened the door, “Please, let me know if there’s anything Marylee and I can do for you, anything at all.” And then he was gone.

Cheslie went back inside and thought about all the great times she could remember. She remembered the day that Dad had brought home their first computer. She knew how much it must have cost him, but he insisted it wasn’t expensive, and that they needed it for their schoolwork. Or all the times he had taken a day off of work to watch her debate matches. Or the first time she had gone to New Washington to visit Elliot, and the tears she saw in the corner of his eye that day. She realized that he lived his life for Elliot and her. Everything he ever did was to give them a better life. He never thought about himself, only them.

She was sad that Elliot couldn’t be there for her right now. She thought about him, thousands of Kilometers away, off the planet at the moon base. She wished that he had known what was happening with their dad. But Bruck had insisted that Elliot not know he was ill. He put on a great show of being fine. He had worn heavy shirts to hide his thinning body, and held back the coughing as much as possible. Cheslie had to do everything in her power to keep from letting Elliot in on the secret, but it was what Bruck had wanted. He didn’t want his illness to keep Elliot from following this dream.

Everything he did was for Cheslie and Elliot.

Cheslie heard Bruck calling her name from his room, so she went in there by him. He was sweating and flushed, and his breathing was irregular. She brought him a pain reliever, and a glass of water, and held his head up while he swallowed. He coughed a little as she lowered his head back to the pillow.

“Cheslie, sit down.” Bruck’s voice was weak, almost a whisper, raspy and airy, as if coming out of a ghost. Cheslie took the chair next to his bed, and held his hand. She wiped his forehead with a towel.

“Is there anything you need, Dad? Are you too warm?”

“Just you…Sit with me Ches…” There were long pauses between phrases, as if each thing he said were so exhausting that he needed to gather strength to speak again. “Dr. Schindler…Says I have…Tuberculosis…”

“I know dad, I spoke with him. He said you should rest.”

“Elliot.”

“Elliot is at the Armstrong Base, Dad, he couldn’t be here.”

“He’s there…” Bruck coughed quietly, and pointed at the video screen on the wall. There was a video of Elliot’s team arriving at the Armstrong Moon Base. The news reporter was talking about the equipment and supplies they had brought to the base, and said they would be doing research at the Moon base for six months.

Cheslie squeezed Bruck’s hand, “He’s safe, Dad, the team made it safely.”

“Good…so proud of both…Tell…New Washington…”

“Dad, you’ve been there.”

“Elliot… New Wash…” A slight cough told Cheslie that the talking was hard for Bruck.

Cheslie wasn’t sure what he wanted from her. But she decided to tell him the story about when she had first met Sarah. She told him about how she had mistakingly believed she was Elliot’s girlfriend, and had treated her so awfully, only to later find out that she was his professor and friend. She said how they had laughed so hard over tea, and had become such good friends. That was the trip where Elliot told her about the Artemis program. She told him about the Surface Studies building, and how Elliot had taken her to the surface research platform one day, about how beautiful the view was of the open ocean, and the mountains. How wonderful it was to see for such a long distance, longer than even in New Washington.

She had been talking so much she didn’t notice how his breathing had changed. She started to feel his grip on her hand loosen, and she looked at him. His eyes were nearly closed, and his breathing had slowed. It was regular now, but weak. “Dad, do you need anything? Are you ok?”

“Love…Ches…Elliot…”

“I love you too, Dad, Elliot and I both do.”

His eyes closed, and his breathing continued slowly, quietly. His grip on her hand released, and she kept holding on to his.

His breathing was slow, quiet, rhythmic. His body had stopped trembling, he had stopped sweating. He was relaxed.

He inhaled slowly, quietly, a slight smile came across his lips.

Exhale slowly, quietly.

Inhaled slowly, quietly.

Exhaled.

There was no more coughing. No more pain.