S Morden - No Way

He walked through to Comms and sat himself in the chair. There was a message pad open on the console, and he tapped a few letters on the keyboard to make sure it was active.

“This is Frank. You wanted to say something to me.”

He sent it, and got up. Lucy was in the doorway.

“Got to wait half an hour. You want me to fix some dinner?”

“I’m not thinking of food right now.”

“You want to faint? Look, I’ve tried that whole denial thing. It doesn’t make anything better. It sure as hell won’t bring Yun back.”

She stood aside with a sigh. “Knock yourself out. It can’t make it any worse.”

“You haven’t seen my cooking yet.”

“Don’t make jokes. Please.”

He checked they were still alone. “You got to hold all this together. Isla, Fan, Yun, they’re relying on you.”

“Save me the pop psychology. I know what I’ve got to do.”

“Then damn well do it. You got a gun. You got a fucking cannon outside. XO aren’t going to be any help except to themselves—their best outcome is that M2 wipes us out. Second-best is that we take each other down. The only guys rooting for us are us.”

“There should be a way of getting Yun back without a fight.”

“You want me to go over and ask nicely? Or have I tried that already with Jim, only to discover. They. Fucking. Ate. Him.”

“This is a scientific mission.”

“This is war.”

They were both shouting. The others would have heard them. Frank didn’t care. But it wasn’t what he wanted to do.

“So while I wait for a reply, I’m going to make a big bowl of greens, soak some grains, get some fresh herbs and a couple of chilies and see how that goes together. Then we’re going to sit down and eat together whether we all like it or not. We get an early night, because we’re up again at two, checking our equipment and loading it up, and it is cold at that time of night. If you’ve got a better plan, then sure, I want to hear it. Otherwise, get out of the goddamn way.”

“I’m not in it.” She was still standing to one side of the door.

“It’s a metaphor. Or something like that.”

“I’ll tell you when something comes in. Otherwise, go.”

Frank went and washed up, then rattled around the kitchen for some bowls. He got water onto a bunch of wheat and microwaved it up, and while that was settling, went into the greenhouse for the leaves.

He was on his own. While he was passing the airlock, he heard low voices in the med bay, and presumed it was Isla and Fan. He hadn’t asked about Jerry. Maybe they’d decided they were going to toss him at the same time they’d decided they were going to talk to XO. Could they keep him on permanently? As a prisoner? Or even a trusty? Did he want to share living space with this guy? And yet, the irony was, XO had told him right at the very start of this, that the base would be a prison facility. Frank himself was prisoner number one. This guy was just the second.

So sure, he’d worked with murderers and thieves and perverts. Why not Jerry?

He carried the veggies back through to the kitchen and got mixing. He could still do with some oil for a dressing, and by that, a press for the groundnuts, which he still hadn’t gotten around to making. He threw a cupful of them in whole anyway, and used the starchy liquor from the wheat to carry the finely chopped chili and cilantro across the whole meal.

At some point, he became aware of Lucy sitting at the end of the table, waiting for him.

“How long you been there?”

“Five minutes or so. Watching you work.”

“You could have set the table.”

“I could have done. But then I’d just be setting it for four, not seven, and that’d remind me how far down we’ve gone. Yes, you’re right. I need to hold it together. But I’m also a human being and those were my friends, and I’m entitled to grieve.”

“I’m not busting your balls, Lucy. You handle this however you want. All I’m doing is giving you advice.”

“You’re pretty persistent about it, Frank.”

“I’m just trying not to die here. That’s all. Not yet, anyhow.”

“They’ve responded.”

Frank shook his hands and rinsed them over the sink, then in the absence of a working towel, wiped them on his overalls.

“So what do they say?”

“Why not come and take a look?”

She led the way back into Comms, and left the seat free for Frank. He settled in it and moved closer so he could see the screen.

He was quiet for a while, just absorbing what was probably going to be the very last contact he was ever going to have with XO. This clearly wasn’t from Luisa. The suits had taken full control of the message feed. He kicked back and thought about his response.

“What do you think? A simple ‘go fuck yourself’, or something more profound?”

“You think that’s a good idea? Yes, OK, I admit I was wrong. XO have no intention of cooperating with us, but willfully antagonizing them?”

“You’re going to pull the plug on them after I send this, right?”

“I don’t see how I’ve got any choice,” said Lucy, “but telling you that ‘protecting XO assets on the Martian surface is your chief priority’ and then threatening to sue the U.S. government for the cost of what gets damaged is pretty clear. Just so as I know, are you going to,” and she chased down the lines of text with her fingertip, “‘prevent third parties from pre-emptively acting against XO-owned and maintained facilities, without prior authorization and agreement, and in direct contravention of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967’?”

“No, you’re good.”

“Because otherwise I was going to invoke the Rescue Agreement of 1968, which technically only applies to state actors, which NASA is, but in the circumstances, XO are obligated to help us.”

“They’ve no hold over me. Not any more. I can’t help my son, whatever happens. But I can help the people in front of me, here on Mars.” Frank flexed his fingers and began to peck out his response on the keyboard.

“Tell me about him.”

“He was blond when he was born. Didn’t expect that at all. Blond curls. Then they all fell out and it came out dark brown and straight, like his mother’s. He was a good kid. Athletic. I must have spent hours sitting on the bleachers while he trained. Then it kind of started to slide when he hit senior high. Got in with the wrong crowd. Stopped sports, started parties. You know. I guess we were all young once. The way I dealt with it all, I made as many bad choices as he did, except mine went way over smoking some weed and taking a few pills. What the hell was I thinking? I could have done so many other things. I just got lost in it all. But I never stopped loving him. I never have.”

“And he doesn’t know you’re here?”

“How could he possibly know?”

“XO really did a number on you, didn’t they?”

“Yes ma’am, yes they did.” He looked again at what he’d written. “How does that sound?”

She leaned over his shoulder and read his words. “‘Dear XO, the deal’s off. I quit. I’m going to take my chances with the Feds if and when I get back—just like you will. If you hurt Luisa, you’ll answer for that too. She was the only one of you bastards who ever showed me any understanding, and is pretty much the only reason I made it this far. Also, go fuck yourselves. Frank.’ You really want to burn all your bridges, don’t you?”

“We’re on our own here. It’s us or M2. Everyone else is too far away to do jack. Unless you’re telling me you don’t need me.”

“Not saying that at all. But as commander, I need to be able to explain to my superiors every decision taken on this base that might affect crew safety. This, this is pretty final. You send this and we’re cutting all contact.”