The gunship wouldn't stop shaking from the effects the explosion that occurred inside the marker facility that they left behind.

When they were at ease, Ellie looked at the controls quietly, not saying a word to Isaac. She felt stared, so she looked at him who looked at her with a weird look on his face

"What?" Said Ellie with a smile.

"Oh... um... I don't really know how to say this... but... thanks for coming back for m- aghh!" He said, when he really meant to say that he thought he would see Nicole at his side.

He suddenly felt a big hit to his cheek, not as painful as the attack of a slasher or as demolishing as the charge of a Brute... it was a slap.

"You better be thankful! I was worried sick about you! You are a selfish bastard you knew that?" She looked, sounded angry. Best guess would be that... she was angry as hell with a mixture of concern.

"I-I'm sorry... I just didn't want to carry on knowing I was putting you in danger... I won't let someone beloved to me die again... it already happened with Nicole..." He wasn't actually meaning he felt something for Ellie, though they had some sort of flirtatious conversations and he appreciated her a lot.

"Oh... um... it- it's okay. I was worried... um yeah... worried..." She avoided his look, he could have sworn she was blushing, but as for what he thought, he just feels tired and believes that it's his imagination.

"So... how much time do we have until we get to Zeus Station?" Isaac just wanted to flee to the nearest point with human life so he could successfully warn of the dangers of the marker and the true nature of the so-called "holy convergence".

"Jupiter? Well... according to the computer..." she touched some options on the hologram screen until the route was marked on a map and she continued "... it will be at least 2 days" She was kind of disapointed, but she couldn't argue... the gunship wasn't a ship made for fast travel. However, it had the ability for space travel.

"Well, at least we have life support, a bathroom in the back, and enough food for triple the time we have to travel"

"Yeah... hey mind if I ask something?" She looked curious, rather different as he just talked to her in situations of danger or the sort.

"Well... we have two days and nothing to do... go ahead"

"How was Nicole?"

"N-Nicole?... um... I... she..." He looked nervous, it obviously wasn't a comfortable subject for him.

"I'm sorry if it was too sudden, you just dealt with this... you don't need me to be asking you such things"

"No... it's okay... I appreciate your concern. But I also need to talk about it..." He sighed and took a deep breath like preparing himself for a task where great effort is required.

"She and I started going out six years ago... I met her because of a mistake of mine..."

"A mistake? What kind of mistake?"

"Well... I was working on the CEC building at Mars... just transferred there..." As Isaac was telling his story, the memories came to him and it was like a vivid image.

"All passengers please check your belongings before leaving the transport, CEC personnel does not take responsability for thefts or missing items, thank you" and a catchy tune played after the message from the computer system.

The ship docked and the doors opened, divided in groups, people started walking to different places... some walked in a group of pilots, other of miners, a small group of heavy machinery handlers and a lone engineer.

He was young and was just using his civilian clothes, his suit had been delivered earlier along with his stuff to his new apartment. As he was going to ask for directions towards the engineering's office, a man in an engineering suit came to him and asked

"Isaac Clarke?" He looked tough and old with a scar on his face. Exactly above his left eyebrow... he must have been a veteran from the resource wars, Isaac asumed.

"Um, yeah... who are you?"

"I was sent to guide you to your new working station. The name's Frank Gilmore"

"Thanks sir... well, you already know but... Isaac Clarke" He shook his hand and quickly he started following the man.

"So... fresh from good ol' earth?" He said while walking ahead of him.

"Yeah... a year and a half working at CEC from earth and then they ordered my transfer to mars a few weeks ago"

"Well, just so you know, things aren't easy on mars, lots of malfunctions out in space, you gotta' be skilled on zero gravity"

"Ok, sir... no problem"

They walked quietly for a while until they got to an office with the CEC logo on a wall.

"Okay... you go there fill in some forms and papers checking that you arrived and then go to the shift distribution office down that hall..." he pointed a long hallway that seemed to lead to another lobby."... and check you shifts, when you start I'll guide you and tell you what to do, when you get used to it, you go alone unless it's a 2 person job... got all that, kid?"

"Sure sir! Um... filling forms here, and check my shifts and when I start you'll guide me... got it" Isaac tried to leave a good impression but he knew Frank couldn't shake the cliché of rookies.

"Okay, see you later, kid"

The next hour Isaac filled his registration papers at the office, took note of his shifts and headed to his place.

Then, after some sleep and a video call from his mother Octavia, to check up on him. He headed fo his first day of job in Mars.

"You ready, kid?" Frank was putting on his stasis module and checking his RIG.

"Yeah, done here"

"Well, then let's go... I was told there was communication antenna broken down at the government sector and... well, we are needed"

Isaac felt excited, his fist job was a zero gravity one. He was eager to try and prove himself useful to the work he always wanted to do, besides... he enjoyed zero gravity.

They took the tram towards government sector along with some guards and people who might work there too, apart from people who might have some errands to run. Some could be seen talking, joking or whispering. He knew some people didn't like engineers thinking stuff like: "engineers are nerds"

When they got there, they asked at reception and after confirmation they were given the location of the communication antenna.

"Here we are, kid. We'll both go and replace it... know how to replace it?" He obviously was trying to see if he at least knew how to do his job. Besides, he didn't like training rookie engineers.

"Sure thing... you disconnect the power soure at the base of the structure, then take out the crews with kinesis, remove old antenna and then it's just putting the new one with screws and reconnect... then the configuration is a thing they must solve..."

"At least you know the theory, let's see how you handle practice, kid"

Isaac was growing tired of Gilmore calling him kid all the time. He would tell him sometime... but he just felt like if he complained he would punch him... he did have a really serious face that made him look pissed off most of the time. Forgetting that, both Isaac and his, for now mentor, Gilmore went ahead to the decompression chamber, the decompression went okay... they had 2 and a half minutes of oxygen plus canister suppliers right next to the antenna.

Once the door opened, they deactivated the fixations on their boots and started flying towards the antenna. While Gilmore disconnected the power unit, Isaac waited next to the antenna.

"Ok, I'm ready kid. You go on ahead and take out the screws... I'm bringing the new antenna"

"Got it, I'll take care of it" Isaac said as he was just taking the first screw. He removed a total of 12 screws, and they weren't small, they were heavy but, well... without gravity he couldn't tell. As he took the last one and started removing the antenna Gilmore came with the new one.

"Good job kid, looks like you are doing well... maybe you're gonna be just fine here on Mars after all" At least he showed some appreciation for his work. "Go and re install the power unit, I'll go ahead and install the new antenna... I'll tell you when I'm done"

Isaac started flying down, heading to the power unit at the base of the structure. He felt really happy about his current job and he was happy his first job was to do some Zero G related reparation. He did love Zero G.

"Ok, I'm at the power unit, are you done there?" He didn't expect him to be, just a mere 'almost done'.

"Done, go ahead and connect the energy cell" He couldn't imagine it, he was really quick... for his age he would have thought but age wasn't a major factor.

"Ok..." He took the energy cell and while carrying it towards the power unit, he accidentally bumped it against a wall. ".. agh! Shit!"

"What's wrong kid? Is there a problem?" He could look tough and pissed all the time but he did sound like a concerned superior.

"N-nothing, hitted my foot to the wall while turning in the air... nothing serious" He couldn't go arround saying he damaged an energy cell on his first day of job... as much as they built them on large scale, they weren't cheap. He kept moving the energy cell and installed it... as it started lighting the green and blue lights he was about to say he was done but...

*GZZZZ!* The power unit lights turned from green and blue to red. An alarm started sounding and Isaac, nervous of course tried to get the energy cell out of the slot. As he, with a lot of effort started pulling, he just moved it the wrong way and it sounded he broke something, and without a second to see what happened, the power unit blew ip.

"Agh! Fuck!" Isaac yelled as soon as the small explosion made him start flying against his will, he was going rather fast and against a wall, so he tried using his thrusters. But... why weren't they working and making him slow down?

"Awww damn! Come on... work dammit!" He was heading towards that big metal wall, it wouldn't be much of a nice landing.

"Come on! Don't let me die on my first day!" Somehow someone heard his prayers and his thrusters started working... but not as soon as they should have "... Yes!... Uh? Agh!"

He had hitted himself, a bit slower but still pretty hard against the surface of the wall... he wasn't instantly unconcious but as he bounced from the really hard wall, he saw someone flying towards him... it was Gilmore... then his resistance didn't last longer and he passed out.