James Gardner - Space Inc (collection)

“… details continue to emerge on the accident that occurred at Banting Station just under an hour ago…”

Banting Station was one of ADC’s Earth orbiting research labs that used the microgravity environment to develop new pharmaceuticals. Jamie stepped closer to the monitor.

“… explosive decompression of the laboratory module…”

The mess hall lights suddenly flickered, and the screen went momentarily dark. When the image returned, it showed a gash along the end cone of the lab module. Around the edges of the opening, serrated aluminum was bent outward like a twisted, metallic flower.

“… emergency bulkheads engaged, sealing off the rest of the station but trapping four researchers in the lab, who are now presumed dead. The rupture occurred near a docking port on that module, but no vessel was attached at the time…”

Jamie spotted Maria and Paul. She put a hand on his shoulder, whispered something into his ear, then turned and strode quickly out the door.

He took a step to follow her, when a sudden wave of dizziness hit him. Instinctively, he grabbed a chair.

“Are you all right?” someone asked.

Jamie nodded. His light-headedness disappeared as suddenly as it had come. But Maria was gone.

Jamie didn’t see Maria again for almost a week following the Banting accident.

The cause of the tragedy was found within days. As a matter of procedure, the UNSDA investigation team reviewed the maintenance records of the station. They discovered that seven years earlier, an automated cargo vessel had collided with the laboratory module during a botched docking, cracking the end cone pressure bulkhead but not breaching it. ADC had dispatched a repair team to patch the bulkhead, but they took a tragic shortcut. The crew had spliced on the reinforcing section with only a single row of rivets instead of double, compromising its long-term structural integrity. Seven years of thermal contraction and expansion from orbital sunrises and sunsets every forty-five minutes had taken their toll. The bulkhead simply blew out.

The accident itself was bad enough, but news of the company’s complicity in the tragedy further eroded morale at Maryniak. Jamie noticed people were eating less, leaving more on their plates for him to clean up.

He finally saw Maria seven days after the accident. She was sitting at a table in the mess hall after the Shift Three dinner slot, sipping a coffee, alone.

“May I join you?”

“Jamie!” She gestured at the empty chair. “Please.”

“I haven’t seen much of you lately,” he said. “You’ve been eating in your quarters?”

She nodded, and sipped her coffee again.

Jamie thought for a moment “I know just the thing to go with that.” A moment later, he returned to the table, his right hand hidden behind his back.

“What’s that?”

Jamie whipped out a raspberry muffin, and with a flourish placed it on a napkin in front of Maria.

She bit her lip.

Jamie sat down, concerned. “What’s wrong?”

“Rick Chang was one of the guys killed on Banting Station last week.”

“A friend?” Jamie asked.

“My ex-husband.”

There was a moment of awkward silence. “I’m sorry,” Jamie said at last.

“I hadn’t as much as gotten a message from him in over five years. Didn’t even know he was on Banting until the news reports came in.”

The lights dimmed momentarily before flickering back on. Jamie waited for Maria to continue.

“We met at a summer job in the university medical biophysics department. On my birthday, he came to my desk with this huge raspberry muffin he’d bought at the coffee shop in the bookstore. He took out a napkin and put it down, much as you just did, except he’d stuck a candle in it.”

“Sounds like he was a sweet guy,” Jamie said.

“He was a jerk.”

Jamie’s eyes widened.

“He could be sweet, sometimes. But overall, he was a really selfish person. He’d do things for me, but he’d only go so far until it started encroaching on what he wanted, and then it stopped. One day, he came home and told me he’d accepted a job with Honeywell-Dettwiler in Darmstadt. He never even told me he’d been applying for other jobs! Rick expected me to follow him, just like that. It was all about him. So he went to Germany, I did not, and that was that.”

Maria looked up at Jamie. “It seems we have something in common, don’t we?”

Jamie started to reach over the table toward her free hand—but stopped. He felt a runny dampness in his nose. A red blotch appeared on the table.

“What the—” Jamie put a hand to his nose.

“Are you all right?” Maria grabbed some napkins and handed them to Jamie.

He nodded.

“I’ve gotten some complaints about nosebleeds lately. Maybe we should ask environmental control to increase the atmospheric humidity,” Maria said.

“Dat wud be a gud idee-uh.”

“So there’s three golfers, a priest, a chef, and an engineer. They’re at this course, but it’s very frustrating because the guys in front of them are really slow and won’t let them play through. So back at the clubhouse, they ask the owner who these jerks were. The owner says, ‘Oh, please try to be tolerant of them. You see, they’re firefighters who put out a blaze here at the clubhouse last year. Sadly, they damaged their eyes saving the building and they’re now legally blind. So, in gratitude we let them play here for free.’ The priest says, ‘That’s terrible! I’ll go back to my church and pray for them.’ The chef says, ‘What a heroic bunch of guys! If they come to my restaurant, they can eat for free.’ Finally, the engineer says, ‘Why can’t they play at night?’”

Billy started laughing hysterically.

“That’s a good one,” said Suhana Aziz, a mass driver technician.

Jamie was seated to her left. “I’ve heard that joke before, except it was a doctor instead of a chef.”

“Well, I thought I’d make a slight variation in honor of present company.” Billy gave Jamie a pat on the shoulder. “Listen, you probably don’t hear this much, but I just want you to know that I think you’re doing a great job.”

Jamie was surprised. “That means a lot to me, Billy.”

“I’m also glad the company didn’t cheap out and got us a real cook,” said Suhana.

“Thank you,” Jamie said quietly. He eyed the unfinished plates of baked chicken around the table. “Although, I guess I didn’t do so good today.”

“Oh, no, it’s not that at all!” Billy said. “I just haven’t been very hungry lately.”

The conversation was interrupted by a retching sound. The threesome turned simultaneously in the direction of the noise.

Sarah Schubert, a rover driver, was throwing up.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Paul called out as the pungent odor of vomit filled the room.

Billy and Suhana helped Jamie clean up the mess, amid a string of apologies from Sarah. She had no idea what had happened, but told them she’d had a queasy stomach for days. She promised to make an appointment to see Maria at the earliest opportunity.

Jamie went to the sink to wring out the mop. He was rolling up his sleeves, when he suddenly stopped and brought his arms to eye level.

“What the hell?”

The insides of his forearms were dotted with blisters.

“Do they itch?”

Jamie shook his head.

“Okay, if you don’t mind, I need another blood sample.”

As Jamie pressed the cotton against his arm, Maria gave him a small tube. “This cortisone should ease the blistering.”

“Do you know what caused them?”

“No,” she admitted, securing the cotton with a bandage. “How do you feel overall? Anything unusual you’ve noticed?”

Jamie thought for a moment. “Sometimes nosebleeds, like when I was with you in the mess hall a few nights ago. I’ve also been getting these sudden dizzy spells. Just for a moment, then it goes away.”