A/N: If you'd like a little extra sensory immersion with this chapter. Begin listening to Technologic by Daft Punk ( watch?v=UoPplpBPQxQ) at the ***. It should end just before the end of the chapter. Also the video is fucking creepy. So, don't click over by accident. It's 2.57m long and I based it on an average read speed of around 257WPM.
Brittany's face was starting to hurt from smiling. But she couldn't stop. She'd been smiling for days. She was experiencing a whole new world of firsts, and she couldn't decide which one was the best. She'd gotten to relive her first steps on Mars, first words on Mars, even her first sneeze on Mars. Despite being surrounded by what looked like a wasteland, everything felt new and fresh. After so many months confined to the walls of a spacecraft the wide openness of a planet was like slipping out of socks, worn all day, and sliding bare feet between cold sheets.
After their first excursion to the surface, a report back to GC, and a few media statements, the real work had started. Using the Valkyrie to haul the pieces, they had set up a small field lab near their landing site. It wasn't much bigger than a shipping container with an airlock at one end, but Brittany was in love. She had a whole cubical devoted to her lab and Mike had even helped her link a remote version of Tubbs to her datapad. Once she collected some actual samples of the ciliates she could really get to know them. Since she first saw them wiggling around on her screen she'd been dying to look at their genome. Every creature on Earth was made from the same simple set of blue prints…to think that these creatures could be the same, to think that they could be different; Brittany couldn't decide which possibility was more exciting. If their genetic structure was similar to DNA, Brittany had programmed Tubbs run comparison algorithms. If not he would be cataloging and documenting all lab work, leaving Brittany free to experiment to her heart's content.
"Brittany, your allotted rest hours will be over in 30 minutes." The AI startled Brittany from her daydreaming.
"Thanks, Tubbs."
Brittany hopped down gracefully from her bed, tried to attempt a cartwheel in the small space available, failed, and never once stopped grinning. She opened her drawers, gathering her toiletries and clean coveralls.
"Are you excited to get to work today?!" She happily chattered to her AI.
"I cannot accurately respond to your question, as I am not a sentient being. I am a model 1.21 CircuitBoards-Mini Artificial Intelligence Unit." Brittany heaved a frustrated sigh. She knew the AI was intent on being as lame as possible.
"Come on, Tubbs, lighten up a little. I know you're stoked."
"My mechanical components weight approximately 5 grams on Earth. On Mars I will weight approximately 1.5 grams when we are not in the artificial gravity restrictive research facility. So, as per your vernacular, yes, I will 'lighten up a little'."
Brittany laughed all the way to the latrines.
She stepped into the shower, and wondered, as she often did, where the water beating down on her had traveled on the ship. All the water they brought from earth was rigorously filtered and recycled. They were continually eating, drinking, and bathing in the same water over and over again. She wondered if any of Kurt's plants had been hydrated with the same water days ago. Or who might have spit it down the sink after brushing their teeth. Maybe little drops of everyone were raining down on her now. That prospect was much more appealing from some. Like the Commander. Brittany had noticed that Santana had an earlier sleeping schedule than her. Perhaps she had showered in this same cubical only hours before.
Brittany felt the water becoming just a little warmer as her mind wandered, imagining Santana tilting her head back under the showerhead. Her mind's eye wandered lower and she groaned leaning back against the cool metal wall. She flipped off the warm handle and yelped as icy water blasted her for a moment. She shut off the shower, sighing at her silly fantasies. She really needed to find a way to get past those annoyingly professional walls the Commander had worked so hard to construct. Wrapped in a towel, she grinned wickedly at her reflection in the mirror while she brushed her teeth. Now that they were getting settled, she had plenty of time to work her way under Santana's skin. And in the meantime, she had alien life to study.
What more could a girl ask for?
Brittany wandered around the Engineering Bay looking for M.S. Finn Hudson. He was supposed to assist her with gathering samples today. She walked around the hulking plasma engine, quiet and cold now that they were docked on Phobos.
"And please keep me safe on this journey, Grilled Cheesus, Amen."
"Hudson?" The tall man looked up at her from where he was kneeling in his space suit. "Were you just praying to…You know what? Never mind. Are you ready to head down to the surface?"
"Yeah, sure thing, Dr. Pierce." He smiled, his mouth quirking oddly to the side, and Brittany scrunched her nose at his awkward facial expressions. At least he was strong and could carry all her equipment. Brittany sent out a page for a pilot and headed to the Valkryie.
Brittany shook off the momentary disappointment at seeing Flight Commander Hastings and not Santana waiting to pilot the Valkyrie for them.
"You two ready to fly?" The pilot asked. The other two nodded the affirmative and climbed into the shuttle. Brittany was strapping into the seat next to the pilot's chair when she heard Hudson curse. Hastings rolled her eyes. "Damnit, Hudson, just cram yourself somewhere in the back and try not to shove your head through the roof."
Once on the surface, Brittany handed Hudson the box of equipment and together they covered a half a mile radius gathering and separating samples. Satisfied with her haul, Brittany led them back to the research facility.
"Just make sure you seal the box, we'll be scanned for contaminates, then enter the airlock. You can take off your suit and helmet inside the RF," Brittany explained. She was buzzing with excitement. She eyed the specimen box like the biggest present on Christmas morning. A dirty, hopefully bacteria filled, present. Hudson double checked all the airtight seals as the stepped through the front door.
"Scanning commencing in 5 seconds." The feminine robotic voice announced.
"Umm...what's it scanning exactly?" Brittany smiled softly at Hudson's obvious discomfort.
"It's really just a formality-"
"Scanning commencing immediately."
"There have always been concerns about bringing contaminates from Earth to Mars, now that we know there's something here as well, the reverse is true-"
"Scanning complete." The airlock hissed open and they stepped through as Brittany continued her explanation.
"Though it's unlikely anything from the human microbiome could survive away from human contact, especially in such a barren environment, it's important to be thorough." Brittany pointed to her cubical and Hudson set the sample box on the counter, it felt much heavier in the RF, and they removed their suits.
"Microbiome?" he asked.
"Yeah you know, like all the bacteria that symbiote with the human body," Brittany shrugged. She took her glasses out of her coverall pocket and pulled on a pair of gloves, itching to open the specimen box. "There are trillions just in the gut…" Brittany half-heartedly explained. Hudson looked down at his own stomach, his face turning a little green.
"Trillions of…bacteria…?" He swallowed uneasily.
"Mmmhmmm…"
"I'm going to go…do something else." Hudson wandered off, but Brittany had already turned her attention to the silver box where all her excitement had bundled. Taking out her datapad she called up Tubbs' remote utility.
"Tubbs, please begin sample tracking."
She pulled out her gloves and began categorizing the samples by location. This would be the most tedious, but essential step in gathering information about the spread of life on Mars. Taking a deep breath, she gently poured the rusty red sand into several test tubes, scanning each one across her datapad. As Tubbs read the sample numbers allowed, Brittany recorded their destination.
"Sample one-alpha."
"Mass spectrometry."
"Sample one-beta."
"Genome extraction."
Three hours later, with the help of Tubbs, Brittany had categorized every sample and sent all the tubes destined for mass spectrometry over to Abrams. He would run them through the spectrometer and determine the elemental composition of the soil. Brittany had once again recruited Hudson to help separate samples. The Valkyrie would be back in an hour and he would be heading back up to the ship. She took advantage of the extra set of hands while she had them.
"This is so cool. It feels just like sandy-dirt." Hudson had poured out the contents of one of the tubes into his hands and was sifting through it with his fingers. Brittany sighed good-naturedly.
"You know you're supposed to be wearing gloves right?" Hudson shrugged and made a funnel with his hand, allowing the dirt to flow back into its container. "There are totally all kinds of bacteria in there." He jerked toward her with wide eyes, but before he could say anything, she started laughing. "I'm just kidding." He smiled and brushed off his hand on his pants. "Maybe." She muttered as an afterthought.
"Okay so just look through here and if you see anything moving, separate that sample." She instructed, showing Hudson how to load the slide and the easiest way to peer into the microscope. "If you get a headache, let me know and I'll switch the view to the datapad screen. But that's kind of cheating." He chuckled.
"Alright, whatever you say, Dr. Pierce." They went through slides in companionable silence. Brittany needed enough ciliate-containing samples to see if their genome was in DNA format and to then extract it for coding.
Brittany jumped when she felt a hand ghost across her lower back. Her glasses tumbled off her head and hit the ground with an embarrassing clatter. Brittany turned around to find her smirking commander bending to pick them up. She had been so engrossed in her work, she didn't hear the monotone announcement of the voice interface scanning or the hissing of the airlock.
"Dr. Pierce…I think you may have dropped these," Santana held out her glasses and Brittany snatched them back. She could read Santana's joy at teasing her in every line of her body. From the way she casually held Brittany's glasses by the edge of the frame, to the way the side of her mouth pulled up just a hair. Her eyebrows were raised and she looked like a cat that had the mouse just where she wanted it. "Hudson, I think the shuttle was running a little hot on the way here. Maybe you could take a look at it?"
"Um, I don't really see how that's possible." She shot him an icy warning glare and he immediately straightened up from where he'd be leaning on the counter. "Yes, Commander, I'll get right on it."
"So…Commander, what brings you out to the RF? I thought you were just pack and dashing." Brittany turned to face Santana as she walked along the lab, running her hand across the microscope Hudson had vacated. She twisted the large knob to adjust the focus and gave an uncharacteristic shrug.
"Oh you know, just wanted to stretch my legs a bit," She turned all her attention on Brittany, "Enjoy the view." Brittany knew she was blushing. She knew the way she looked down and adjusted her glasses was telling. But she also knew that the only thing that could distract her from the depths of her microscope was just a few feet away. Santana must have felt herself toeing the line of familiarity, because she cleared her throat and stood a little straighter. "Why don't you tell me about what you've done so far?" Brittany beamed. Asking her about her science was better than any compliment. She motioned Santana closer to look at her datapad.
"We've categorized samples. Some to analyze material composition, and others for strictly organic analysis. Once I get a sample with a decent amount of ciliates, we'll look at and try to extract their genetic material." If her explanations went over Santana's head, she didn't let it show. She asked all the right questions as Brittany explained how they would use a polymerase chain reaction to amplify the miniscule amount of genes, which Tubbs would then decipher and compare.
"It seems like you're very committed to this. I think you've logged more hours planetside than even the engineering crew." Brittany hummed the affirmative. "All this science must be really important to you."
"Not just to me. To everyone," she insisted. Santana motioned for her to continue. She adjusted her glasses, and glanced out the window overlooking the dusty, bare atmosphere. "Everyone remembers the first time they stopped looking out at the world and starting looking up into the sky. That pull into emptiness. The feeling that burrows in your chest, a gentle longing for that deep, dark blackness, " She shrugged. "Humans are coded to explore, to question. It's in our DNA," She let a coy look slide toward her commander, "I can say that with certainty because I'm kind of an expert," Santana rolled her eyes. But Brittany continued. "How many kids are standing out in their yards right now, looking up into that vast bowl of stars and feeling that little tug for the first time? Now we know that all that time they've been looking, something else has been looking back." Brittany smiled softly. "It's kind of comforting, you know? All this time we've been sending all these hopes and dreams out, and instead of just fading away, we can show there's been something here to catch them."
Before she could feel embarrassed at waxing poetic or Santana could respond, her radio crackled to life.
"Hudson to Lopez" Santana barley hid the annoyed look on her face.
"What is it?"
"The shuttle's fine I'm heading back to the RF now."
"10-4. Anything else?" they heard the faint hiss of the outer door of the airlock when Hudson stepped inside and the double echo of the VI over the radio.
"Yeah, if you want to get back to the ship-"
""Scanning commencing in 5 seconds."
"-then we probably have to leave in the next ten minutes." Santana glanced down at the modified clock on her radio.
"Scanning commencing immediately."
"And Chang wanted my help cleaning the engine while it's off-"A yellow light blinked on inside the airlock. The sound of a slow even tone beeped faintly through the door and echoed again louder through the open radio connection.
"Hudson." Santana stepped toward the airlock, where Hudson continued to chatter.
"-and if we don't go back now I'll have to adjust my rest hours-"
"Bioscan failed. Pathogen detected."
"-so it'd be best to go back now."
"Decontamination will commence in five seconds."
"Finn." Brittany glanced at the now blinking yellow light. Her stomach clenched against itself. "Finn, the VI…"
"HUDSON!"
"Decontamination commencing immediately." Hudson yelled out as the room filled with a hot antibiotic steam. His suit protected him from harm, but the rapidly filling room was distressing.
"What the hell!?" Hudson yelled. Brittany's mouth was dry, but seeing Hudson's distress, she found her voice.
"It must be an accident. It's just a precaution. It's an accident." The more she said it, the less sure she was of who exactly she was trying to reassure.
"An accident?" Hudson's voice was trembling a little over the radio. Santana looked sharply back at Brittany.
"Secondary scan commencing immediately."
"Just stay calm, Finn. I'm sure you'll be fine now." The airlock lit up with the UV lights that would constitute a more extensive scan. "It'll be okay." They could see him nodding as the lights danced over his suit.
"Scanning complete." The yellow light flicked off. The breath she didn't know she was holding rushed out of Brittany's chest. A red light filled the airlock chamber and a low warning tone blared across the RF.
"Bioscan failed."
And her heart beat twice as fast.
"Internal pathogen detected."
A/N 2: This is a general disclaimer to the next chapter. It includes slight spoilers. Do not read further if you don't want to be spoiled.
I'm sure you all know about and have struggled with Cory Monteith's passing. Unfortunately, this story does include character death, and in light of recent events, may seem callous or unnecessary. I considered altering the story, but it's path had been laid out from the beginning and since events were already set in motion I decided to stay true to my original vision. The events in the following chapters are by no means intended to mirror, or are in response to the actual real life tragedy that has occurred. Thank you for your understanding and with you all I send my thoughts out to Lea, and Cory's friends and family.
