c. 2024 Rod Ice
All rights reserved
(10-24)
The Morningstar III was a sleek and modern vessel in every sense. Yet from appearances, it still had the profile of a flying sardine. Something that miffed Commander Hornell Block more than a little, when interacting with his peers in the Space Force. He longed to be in charge of a craft designed to cover long distances in a virtual instant, with a compliment of crew members that could populate a city on Mars. Yet having endured challenges and calamities throughout his military service, he felt grateful to still be at the helm of ship.
Once the team had offloaded their cargo at Callisto Fort, in the Jovian system, he clutched at his belly. Then gave the order for a roundabout turn, toward Planet Earth. It was a duty that made him sick with regret.
“Navigator? Lay in a course for our ancestral homeworld, we have our orders. Let’s not be tardy...”
Benson Rayl looked too young and gangly to be sitting in the command hub of a transport with such rock-hopping capabilities. Yet he had amassed a reasonable amount of experience in traveling between orbs in the neighborhood of their primary star.
“Aye sir, back we go! Ahead full with the C-drive activated!”
Lieutenant Kelly Strafe sat stiffly in her position as second in charge. Yet she had not recovered from being treated with the Hidecki Wellness Chair. A numb sense of emptiness plagued her daily efforts for concentration. But at night, images emerged from the fog in her brain. She saw faces and heard voices, all unfamiliar. Only now and then could she pick out an echo of what had gone before. The person that she had been, from birth. Her genuine self. Like a blackboard losing characters of chalk, all of that vanished with the scrub of an eraser.
Her heart ached to know what was on the other side of that memory veil.
“Earth? We are going to visit... why? What will... we see there? What will... we find?”
Block looked sideways, still feeling guilty for having instigated the cause of her absent-minded confusion.
“Admiral Nauga is a soldier first. Among the planetary colonies he is respected and trusted. But civilian authority matters. We are a free people. He holds no seat of power. So, when there is debate and disagreement, he has to play the diplomat. I’m guessing that his change of heart about going back to that blue ball was the product of a face-to-face confrontation with the high council...”
Strafe raised her eyebrows.
“Going back? We’ve been there... before?”
Her superior officer heard his gut gurgle. He wanted to cover his face.
“Mankind came from that point in the cosmos, you know? Genetically, we all did...”
Navigator Rayl tried to provide a conversational diversion.
“I’m looking forward to the trip! My parents didn’t know much about how our species ended up on Mars. Or maybe they just didn’t care. Either way, I’d like to learn more about what happened. I know what they taught us in grade school, at New Cleveland. But there’s nothing like getting hands-on experience!”
Commander Block sighed and scratched his angular chin.
“We’ve got a proscribed mission, one I’ll stick to righteously. Get in, and get out! Find our target, if we can. Convince him to hitch a ride. The brass at home will take it from there. Anything more is above my pay grade...”
His subordinate twitched lightly, and snorted.
“Find... our target?”
The crew leader tried to deftly avoid naming their prey.
“Umm... the scientific professor we left behind. When we last ventured out this way...”
Rayl did not get the gist of keeping their intended capture undercover.
“You mean Dr. Baines? That scholar from the university? He never stops talking!”
Strafe swallowed hard. Her hands had begun to tremble. He long ponytail flipped and jerked with emotion.
“Juddy! You’re going to rescue... Juddy?”
Block cringed at the mention of this name, aloud.
“Our instructions are to do some reconnaissance, in preparation for future missions. Nothing out of the ordinary, I assure you...”
His assistant-in-charge gasped with a mental overload taxing her consciousness.
“Juddy... who is he? Why are we hunting... for him... on Planet Earth?”
Navigator Rayl dampened with a cold sweat.
“We never got an explanation of the Admiral’s orders, sir. What would make him turn us around so far out into space?”
The ship supervisor thumbed illuminated tiles on the arms of his seat.
“Enough! Enough! This isn’t a debate class, dammit! We’re on a voyage to another spinning rock in this solar circle. Why doesn’t matter! We don’t get paid for asking questions. We’re all grunt soldiers, ultimately. They bark and we bite! Everything happens on cue.”
Strafe had tears in her eyes. She went limp like a wilted flower, as if a fainting spell was about to hit.
“Juddy... who is Juddy?”
Commander Block gestured with concern, while leaning forward. He tapped at an icon for emergency assistance.
“STAND DOWN, KELLY! YOU’VE GONE THROUGH ENOUGH! NAVIGATOR RAYL, HELP ME GET HER TO THE ENTRYWAY! I JUST CALLED FOR A MEDICAL TEAM! HER DUTY SHIFT IS THROUGH! SHE NEEDS TO RECOVER!”
The lieutenant woke in a bed, at their sick bay. Her skin had turned oddly pale. She couldn’t remember much about being re-assigned to the Morningstar, or her duties as second-in-charge.
“Juddy... what happened to Juddy? What are they going to do with... Juddy?”
Veteran physician Becka Stoudt lingered for a moment, after calming her patient with a sedative spray. The chemical pen delivered a dose of medicine that would induce sleep, for the moment. A temporary measure until more could be learned about after-effects of the Wellness Chair. There had been few documents published about the controversial technology, in medical journals. So, she had no foundation of knowledge upon which to rely.
She was a graying matron on the staff. Very experienced in caring for the different needs of human physiology. But in this moment, she felt nearly helpless.
“Don’t fight it, Lieutenant. Let yourself fall into oblivion. Rest your mind, and body. I’ll develop a treatment plan in the interim. I’ve got some searching to do, and reading. For now, rest, rest, rest...”
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