A/N: "The Cold Equations" was a short science fiction story by Tom Godwin - available now to read on the internet if you haven't read it before - published in 1954 (later used in various forms on television, radio and film) that addressed the subject of math, physics and choices. Much criticized in the decades since for several reasons, it still was meant as a vehicle to showcase a situation and solution. As if that wasn't enough, I present an alternate ending that others may now complain about! This picks up immediately where Marilyn is finishing last contact with her brother after being doomed to die. Trigger warning - she still dies.

Cold Solution

Faint and ineffably poignant and tender, the last words came from the cold metal of the communicator: "Goodbye, little sister …" And with that, brother and sister ended their conversation as static took over the channel, Gerry's base now on the planet's far side and out of range. Marilyn hung her head and said quietly "I guess it's time now."

"Not quite yet." Barton got up and made a show of turning off the communicator; in the process, he also deftly turned off the chronometer and switched on the small cabin's recorder without being seen. He sat down on the metal box she had been sitting on originally and swung the pilot's seat around to face him.

"What difference does it make? I'm already dead. I can't talk to Gerry anymore, I already wrote my parents a goodbye note, and nobody can do anything. That's the cold equation you talked about, right? As cold as the grave." Her eyes were no longer crying, but her face held a somberness that was difficult to look at. "What do you call it? A no-win scenario? No choices."

"There ARE no-win scenarios for sure, but that doesn't mean there aren't choices sometimes," Barton explained. In his head he kept mental time until the 1910 hour deadline when she would HAVE to be spaced to save pilot, ship and desperately needed medical supplies for the Woden colony. He just didn't want her to see the clock - it would only make things more difficult now that he had set his mind.

"You mean like do I go out with my chin held high or fighting and screaming?"

"That's one." He needed to keep talking to distract her from the time. "Everyone is going to die. Some have an idea when, and most of us don't. But how we face death, or at least life, is what really shows our character."

"I'm only eighteen - I don't have any character yet."

"Nonsense. You're bright, just ignorant of how it works out in the Frontier. You're a hard worker, you finished school early and you offered to work for your keep on Woden when you thought you could get there. You have family and friends. You care enough to say goodbye with your last notes." Just a little longer. "Ever have a boyfriend?"

Marilyn closed her eyes. "Maybe one or two. Nothing serious. You?"

"I've never had a boyfriend."

Marilyn opened her eyes and stared at Barton trying to see if he was serious or not. When he cracked the faintest of smiles, she returned it. It wasn't a time to laugh, but she appreciated the effort. "A girlfriend?"

"No. Oh, there were a few that I admired from a distance. But I was hellbent on becoming a pilot, and then with more school for the science background I just didn't seem to have the time." Speaking of time, the mental clock in his head went off and he relaxed a bit. "I might be ten years older than you, but I've spent most of the last six out in space. I haven't been on Earth more than two weeks all told since I graduated."

"I miss it. I know I chose to go to Mirim and make a new start, but Mom and Dad are back home. Of course Gerry..." she said before her voice drifted off.

Barton knew there was a light blinking behind her, but he ignored it and she wouldn't be able to see it as long as she didn't turn around. "Home is where you make it, and with WHO you make it."

"Whom," she corrected automatically. "With WHOM."

"Thank you. But even being part of a crew, it's a lonely job. I share duties with a starship crew, then take an Emergency Distress Shuttle and land some needed supplies on a planet and then have to wait with strangers for the next regular supply ship to pick me up. It gives you a lot of time to think. TOO much time, I think when the weeks turn to months."

"Now I don't have much time to think about anything."

"Sometimes we think, or worry, about things that aren't important anymore - or never WILL be important. But right now there's only one thing I want you to think about: Will you marry me?"

Marilyn's face changed slightly. It was still somber, but now her jaw was slowly descending. She worked it a couple of times and finally managed a "What?"

"Will you marry me? I think the question is simple enough."

"I'm sure you're probably a nice guy, and now I understand that you have to space me to save everything, but don't try to make me feel better by promising something you can't deliver on and has no meaning."

"I'm serious. As the acting captain of this ship, I have the power to marry. I don't think anyone would quibble if I just happened to be one of the parties exchanging vows."

"You should find someone and marry for love," she said. "I would if I had had the chance. Eventually."

"I am. My heart leapt when I first say you in that cabinet and it wasn't out of fear. I've been wracking my brains ever since on why I love you." Barton shrugged.

"It's guilt, not love. Love is when you can only think of the other person's best interest, so much you put it ahead of yours."

"I understand that, and I am. I am prepared to love and care for you for the rest of your days. And the rest of my days, too."

"I don't understand," she said. "It's not a very funny joke."

There really wasn't enough time to lay the groundwork like he wanted, but enough that it was beyond the point of no return. "Let me show you." Barton swung her around and then reached over and pulled up the chronometer display again. The time was now 1930 hours.

"I thought the deadline was 1910."

"It was, if just you were leaving the ship. I weigh more, so the deadline for me leaving instead of you was 1925, give or take a minute. Now we'll both be taking a stroll around the planet together. I was just hoping to have a nice date for the event, but a wife would be better."

"How...could...you...do...THAT?" she asked, getting angry and confused at the same time. "And what's that red light blinking?" she added, distracted by the light that was now blinking more urgently for attention.

"That would be the Stardust. I was supposed to radio them at 1910 that I had finished removing my passenger. I imagine they're pretty mad about now."

"No no no you didn't you couldn't..."

"Marilyn, listen to me." Barton put his face just two feet from hers while he spoke slowly and calmly. "I'm telling the truth. I love you, at least more than I've ever loved anyone before. We don't have time to find out if it would have lasted fifty years or not. I made up my mind, and there's no changing that now. The same cold equations that sealed your fate have now sealed mine - but I MADE the choice. Do you think I could go on living the rest of my life, alone, knowing what the law said I had to do? Life is full of cold equations, but WE can make decisions within them. Now maybe this is just an impulsive decision from someone who has spent most of his life striving to be rational - but let this be the first really impulsive thing I do in my life. It'll also be the last..."

"I won't let you! I'll space myself..." she pleaded.

"...and I would still be a dead man, whether I follow you out the airlock or crash on the surface when it runs out of fuel trying to slow down. This tub has a very crude autopilot in it that they really don't like to rely on - that's why they put a pilot in it; I'm going to have to answer that communicator and then put in the numbers they'll give me. The ship and the supplies will still reach the colonists and six lives will be spared. If six lives is greater than one, then six lives is greater than two." Barton looked at the chronometer. "We've got to be coming up on the time fast. Marry me or not?"

"Um...ah...why couldn't you ask me BEFORE all this?"

"I hadn't met you two hours ago. Yes or no?"

Marilyn gritted her teeth. It's not like she would live to regret it either way. "So, to be straight, you gave up your future to be with me for a few more minutes?"

"Yup."

"Okay. I mean, the answer is yes I will."

"Great. Do you, Marilyn Lee Cross, take Walter Samuel Barton to be your lawfully wedded husband?" he asked.

"I do."

"And I, Walter Samuel Barton, do take Marilyn Lee Cross to be my lawfully wedded wife. Till death do us part. By the power vested in me by the standards, authority and tradition of ship captaincy I pronounce us husband and wife. I better get on that radio." Barton reached over and switched on the communicator.

"...calling EDS dropship, come in Barton."

"Barton here," he responded.

"Barton! Where's that report?" the speaker barked. It was Commander Delhart's voice for sure.

"Change of plans. We're stepping out together. Send new figures for weight minus one seventy-five. No biological limitations."

There was a long pause as the Stardust captain digested the implications. Not only was Barton spacing himself too, but the ship would now be able to maneuver without regard for gee forces on a pilot. There was no other course of action to get the supplies to the colonists. "Acknowledged. Wait, please." It was over two minutes before the voice came back. "Commence burn at 1955 hours. Good luck."

"Roger. It's been great working with you, and Godspeed. Barton out." He clicked off the communicator and turned to Marilyn. "Well, it's done. Now just to clean up the loose ends." He quickly input the data for the autopilot that would kick in shortly. While the cabin recorder was still creating a record of everything said, he continued. "I, Walter Samuel Barton, do hereby bequeath all my worldly goods and possessions to the parents of my wife Marilyn Lee Cross effective the time and date of this recording." He looked at his new wife and nodded in the direction of the console microphone.

"I, Marilyn Lee Cro...er, Barton, do hereby leave what few things I have to my mother and father." She shrugged - she didn't have much to leave to others.

"That wraps it up then," Barton concluded. I suggest we leave a minute or two early so the ship can take over and have a little extra just in case."

"A little extra just in case. I wish you had said that after we first met."

"It wasn't meant to be. We came up against the cold equations. Let's leave the airlock with our not-so-cold solution. Our HUMAN solution, as feeble as it might be, that no formula or algorithm could ever make."

For the first time in forever, Marilyn smiled. "Do we at least kiss or something?"

"Just enough time for that." Barton bent down the eight inches to kiss his new partner. "Where would you care to take our honeymoon?"

She frowned for a moment, then brightened again with an air of - if not contentment - at least easy resignation. "I hear Woden is nice this time of year."

"Sounds good to me. Let's go there, then."

Five minutes later the airlock outer door closed silently and shortly after that the lightened ship began it's deceleration maneuver toward the landing for the afflicted colonists.

O-O-O-O-O

Commander Delhart finished concentrating to the audio recording and shut it off when it was apparent that there was no more to be heard after the airlock cycled. The recording went on, probably until the ship had touched down after which someone had entered to get the medicine out of the cabinet. They found the medicine, but they had already been notified there would be nobody on board. All six stricken colonists were saved with the medicine.

He pondered the fate of Barton. Sure, it would have been an easy call if the stowaway had been a fugitive or wanted criminal. The law was the law though, and he was sure that he would have done what needed to be done if the situation was reversed. Pretty sure, anyway.

Barton had been a good crewmember and pilot. A little quiet perhaps, but out in space that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It was a lot harder dealing with someone who turned into a chatterbox and wouldn't stop talking. That tended to get on EVERYONE'S nerves. With no family on record for Barton, he would forward the portion of the recording that contained the last will to the company's legal department for processing along with the woman's particulars as well.

One thing baffled him though, as he prepared to close the file. As was routine, they had scanned the area thoroughly for the bodies, both for possible recovery later and to log as a potential navigation hazard. Using the EDS telemetry, they would have entered into an eccentric orbit around Woden, but absolutely nothing showed up. Even checking other possible orbits produced nothing; additionally, surface radar would have picked up anything entering the atmosphere but detected nothing. They couldn't have gotten tangled onto the outside of the ship because it would have changed the mass. It didn't make sense. It was like they walked out of the ship and just kept walking. They COULDN'T have just vanished.

He shook his head. Just one more thing he didn't understand about the whole incident, and probably never would.

The End

A/N: Yeah, still not a happy ending exactly. There are a few ways I could made it happy, but I wanted to work within the confines of the original material which meant there was no happy solution. But this one at least provided the opportunity for a CHOICE, no matter how contrived the original or my version is.

I originally left the ending where the two walk out of the airlock, but when I came back to proofread it I wanted to give it a little more of a feel for the Twilight Zone where the original story was the basis for an episode. I guess that's what happens when you write something and let it sit a little too long - at least when it comes to modifying a less than happy ending.