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Halloway leans his head against the narrow window near his cot. It’s not a good sign to have a captain worrying like this. He should be in the control center, preparing for the landing. I need to make sure he keeps his cool.
Outside our starship, the green planet rests next to its three moons. When we first saw them, we were in awe. Now, the monoliths haunt everyone.
The other four crew members of the Starship Tera Earth-373 have described an increase in nightmares. They attribute the affectation to the triple moons.
No one can be sure of anything anymore.
“You’re hiding something,” I say.
Halloway breathes forcefully. “Boy, do I wish that were the truth,” he says. “Just a bad feeling, is all.”
Great.
Roy jerks forward. “Halloway, don’t fuck with us. Not now. Not this far into the mission,” he says.
Halloway growls. “Hey, I’m the captain, remember? Everything I do is for the good of the crew. Just remember that.”
Something is on his mind. Whatever it is must be big, but we don’t have time to get it out of him.
Fassbender circles the room. A straw from his juice packet wags from his teeth. “Well, captain, tell us about this good,” he says. “What exactly are we going to find when we touch down on Avalon?”
Fassbender is so intelligent, he is always one step ahead of the captain. He’s a showboat, but overall, he hasn’t been too much of a pain.
Captain Halloway wipes the sweat from his temples. He digs his thumbs into two pressure points, sighing with grief. “You tell me, Fassbender. You always seem to be one step ahead of me,” he sneers.
Fassbender grins. “That’s because I know how to do my job,” he says.
Halloway’s face turns a darker shade of red. “You don’t have an ounce of respect for me, do you?” he asks.
I can’t speak for the others, but I’ve never experienced tension between crew members. I’ve traveled through the outer atmosphere of our Earth to our moon, and I’ve orbited around the dead planet Mars.
I’ve received numerous awards for some short stints at the international space station. Not sure how many podcasts I’ve been on, but it’s more than I can count on my fingers.
That’s why we were picked for the job. We were the best in the academy.
“Turning on one another gets us nowhere,” I interject. “We all have a reason to be here.”
Fassbender is the computer guy. Roy deals with the mechanics. I’m a medical officer. Halloway is, of course, the captain.
And then there’s Hugh.
Hugh differs from the rest of us. He’s a little too overqualified for the job, but tragedy forced him into enlisting.
Four years ago, doctors diagnosed him with Guillain-Barré syndrome. It bound him to a wheelchair, paralyzing his body from the waist on down. He lost his job, his wife, and every penny of his savings went toward paying his debt to the insurance companies.
He’s a quiet hero.
Most of the time, he keeps to himself. But every Friday night, he likes to join the crew for a drink.
It’s Thursday.
The sound of his wheelchair startles me. “What’s everyone arguing about now?”
I nod over at Fassbender. “He was just about to announce the bad news.”
Hugh rolls to the center of the room. Sighing, he tenses. “Without me?”
“Announcement?” I ask. “Guys, what’s going on?”
