CHAPTER 1- A Message from the Home Office
Lt. Lynn Jaeger pulled herself, hand-over-hand, along the grips provided in the hospital station's corridor. Despite her four years of zero g training, three years on the station as XO for Captain Stanley and a natural talent for mid-air acrobatics in micro-g, the Lieutenant couldn't propel herself fast enough to quell the erratic beating of her heart.
Clipped to the Lieutenant's belt, and knocking against the walls of the station each time she reached for the next hand-hold, her E-Slate continued to chime. No matter what she did- clicking "accept" on the message, rebooting the software, even trying to power down- the E-Slate refused to stop its panicked chiming. Message Alpha- Highest Priority dominated her screen, and shut down all other functions on the E-Slate.
Usual communication traffic on the lieutenant's E-Slate ranged from priority Yankee up to priority Victor. Medical emergencies were usually coded from Tango, for sprained ankles, fungal infections, pustulating STDs and the like, all the way up to Quebec, for fatal construction accidents or battlefield casualties. The worst message Lt. Jaeger had ever received on her E-Slate, priority Juliette- Urgent, had occurred when the hydrogen carrier Dromedary had exploded off the port gantry of Manufactory 9. That incident had resulted in 94 deaths and 114 severe burns- enough weight of bodies and ships docked to the hospital station to burn out the station's attitude thrusters and nearly throw her off orbit careening into Mars.
And now, priority Alpha- Highest Priority. Lt. Jaeger couldn't even begin to contemplate such a message could mean. Underneath the flashing Message Alpha screen, a touch field indicating the need for authorization from Captain Stanley or Chief Medical Officer Em before accessing the actual message.
When Lt. Jaeger reached the Captain's ready room, she skipped the customary shipboard knock and simply kicked the foot-plate to activate the door. The door wasn't locked, and buzzed open. Lt. Jaeger torpedoed under the rising door before it could lock in place and into the edge of the conference table that dominated the ready room.
Chief Medical Officer Em had beaten her to the Captain's ready room, and was presently braced against a crash couch and leaning forward over the Captain, close enough that her spit covered the Captain's hair as she screamed at him. The Captain, facing away from the door and looking out through his porthole, sucked on a bulb of hot lemon tea.
"… fucking scanners can track self-replicating, infectious shit down to the quark level, for god's sake. Nobody from the Lewis & Clark's got anything, accept that Justin boy's bezonked out of his head and the lady…"
Both looked up when Jaeger flew into the office. Em pulled back from the captain. White gobs of dried spittle crusted at the corners of her mouth. Her face was a red as the martian soil 243 miles beneath the hospital station. The Captain did not spin around to face the Lieutenant.
"You have no doubt heard," droned the Captain.
"Heard what, Captain? What what," said Jaeger, shaking her E-Slate at them. "The Alpha's locked. I need your permission to open it."
Em pushed off her crash couch and drifted over to Jaeger. She snatched the E-Slate out of Jaeger's hands and entered the override access code into the touch field.
"Think that's a good idea," the Captain asked. He took another mouthful of tea and continued his vigil out of the porthole. Phobos rising in the east, over the Chryse Planitia. The thousands of lights of Dardanelle City, the moon's only city and the solar system's largest shipyard, winked on and off at them.
"What's good about any of this shit," responded Dr. Em. "Got to rip the mustache tape off the girl at some point. And why don't you plug a tampon in it, Stanley."
"Did war break out on Venus, sirs? I have family there," said Jaeger.
"Worse," said the Captain. He took another sip from his tea bulb. Dr. Em thrust the E-Slate back into Jaeger's flat chest with enough force to set her adrift. Em took her place back on the crash couch next to the Captain's. She pulled an old-fashioned flask out of her coat pocket, unscrewed the cap and took a hit. She grimaced, wiped her mouth with her sleeve and slipped the flask back into her coat.
Jaeger gently rebounded off the far wall of the ready room as she stared at the screen. She mouthed the words as she slowly read the message, over and over and over.
After the fourth read through, she looked back at Stanley and Em. Both now stared out the porthole. Phobos crested the Chryse Planitia, and raced between Mars and the station.