“Well, that confirms it.”
“Are you sure?”
“As sure as I can be given the tests we have run.”
“So what are we going to do next?”
“Well, I guess we need to tell someone.”
“The Commander?”
“Isn’t there someone else?”
“Controller Morrow?”
“He’s not exactly been in the best of moods since we left Ariel space…”
“Look, we probably have to tell someone.”
“Don’t look at me, I’m just here for moral support.”
“We could go to Professor Bergman. Have him look over the test results…tell him that we need another opinion.”
“Hey guys, what’s up?”
“Professor Bergman?”
“Professor Bergman it is.”
The four of us ended up together by default. Breakaway changed everything for everyone and we clung onto each other more from a feeling of being ‘outsiders’ than anything else. There were supposed to be 12 interns on Moonbase Alpha at any one time. Four interns went back to Earth on one of the last Eagles leaving the Moon before Commander Koenig commandeered them all. Two interns died during blast. One died from injuries in Medical about a week later. Lisle committed suicide. She couldn’t deal with never seeing her fiancée again – at least that is what the note said. You really just never know in these circumstances.
So ‘Four Little Indians’ remained and no one was quite sure what to do with us.
I mean, for the first little while, we just did whatever we were told. And we were told lots. But when things settled (and I use that term loosely), Dr. Russell realized that we needed titles and positions with a little more structure – something other than a daily report to maintenance and no idea where we would be going that day.
Guiseppe Favelli – “Gee” to us these days – eats, sleeps, and breathes Eagles. Alan Carter is a ‘god’ and Gee is a faithful follower. Not that you would ever catch Gee flying an Eagle. He just wants to repair them and then turn them over to the pilots. Needless to say, Alan Carter almost beat Dr. Russell to finding him a position with Reconnaissance. Not that we knew a lot about each other in the beginning, but I am fairly sure that Gee actually slept with the Eagles that he was nursing back to health. He still does.
I have no idea how Gee actually got to the Moon; he is a lousy passenger. Isn’t even too thrilled with the travel tubes – you can see him tense up just that small amount when the tube starts up. Funnily enough, put him in a space suit and he’ll stroll on the Moon all day – just as long as his feet are in touch with the ground in some form he is happy. I admire the man. He knows Eagle engineering cold and can work wonders when the birds come in all battered and bruised.
Talking about Gee always leads to Isabel. Isabel Jones and Guiseppe Favelli were in the same orientation seminar when they got to Moonbase Alpha. It was ‘love at first sight’. According to rumors started by some of the people who were there, you could actually hear music when they caught each other’s eyes across the crowded room. He, of the big boisterous Italian background, and she, of the prim and proper English upbringing, put off sparks when they are together. It is truly something to be in the presence of those two.
The two were as close to inseparable as you could get before Breakaway and were even more inseparable after. I think Isabel was actually relieved when she found out her time on Moonbase Alpha was going to be permanent. She was having trouble trying to figure out how to put her family in the proper frame of mind to accept Gee and continue with her work with hydroponics back on Earth. Isabel is some cousin of the Royal family and I guess the family is a bit of a handful when it comes to dealing with things. Breakaway solved just about all her problems. No family to pass judgement on her taste in men and an unlimited challenge in her field of work. What Gee does with Eagles, Isabel does with plants. She doesn’t go sleeping in Hydroponics though – she just joins Gee in Reconnaissance instead. While I can’t swear for sure, Alan Carter has to have walked in on something at some point in our time here on the Moon because statistically there has been so much to ‘walk in on’.
Luke Terry ended up in Technical Section because if it has electricity running through it – Luke can tell you what is wrong with it. Everything from vacuums to composts to stun guns – he is your man. And Luke will tell you that he is ‘your man’ too. He has a kind of self-assurance that runs close to obnoxiousness but never actually gets there. Luke is never without female companionship. He may even give Alan Carter a run for his money. I’m guessing that it is the California surfer looks and his laid-back attitude that people are reacting to most of the time. Luke has never surfed a day in his life, but does – or rather did - have the California tan. He was at U.C. Santa Barbara doing electrical engineering and did a lot of his studying outside. He was originally from New York, but fell in love with the West Coast seaside and spent a lot of his time reading and watching the tides go in and out.
Luke doesn’t talk about New York a lot. I don’t think he had a very happy childhood or adolescence. He seems to basically spend his time in the “here and now” and leaves worrying about the past and future to someone else. I swear the only thing I have ever heard Luke say about ‘Breakaway’ was: “This just blows.” Nothing else. Luke, for all his ‘playboy’ ways, I think really envies what Gee and Isabel have. I have caught him looking at the two of them when they are together and there is a look in his eyes that comes close to envy.
“Come in. Come in Malcolm. I hear that you have something that has you up at nights. And is that Gee behind you? Come on in.”
“Yes, Professor. Er, thanks.”
“Well, what is it? It can’t be as bad as all that. Now what’s on your minds?”
“Well Professor, it is like this. Gee heard a couple of pilots talk about flying over Nuclear Disposal Area Two again in some of their test flight when they are checking out repairs to the Eagles.”
“And this got me to thinking about how Breakaway started and I wondered if it was safe to be out there.”
“Gee mentioned it to me and I mentioned it to Dr. Russell and she okayed it if we went for a look. So we did.”
“And what did you find out?”
“Well, we are getting some readings from parts of Area Two. Gee and I did a bit of a walk around the area and examined what was left of some of the canisters. We got some strange readings in a couple of places and we’d like you to look over what we have.”
“Let me see what you have. Maybe the area didn’t completely burn itself out…”
The Professor looked over our findings and made the appropriate noises that we expected of him. He took the information that we gave him and processed it and finally made a pronouncement.
“Well, it looks like something is going on and we should maybe look into it. There is a Command Conference tomorrow. I’ll put it on the agenda. You boys can make your report then. Get permission from whom ever you need to and be in Main Mission and ten hundred hours. ”
There was a reason why I went into Forensic Medicine - with a minor in forensic psychology - a lot of my patients would be dead. I don’t do crowds and I don’t do speeches. Defending my thesis almost involved throwing up on the doctorate committee. It was a nightmare. And I was having another one. Speak at a Command Conference! Ya, right.
“You don’t look too well Malcolm. What’s wrong?”
“The Professor wants Gee and I to present the results of our ‘Area 2’ tests at a Command Conference… tomorrow…in front of Commander Koenig…and Dr. Russell…and…”
“What did you think was going to happen once you ran the tests? What did you want to do with the results? Mail them in?”
“Well, I…”
“Don’t tell me you are nervous?”
“Well… And Luke, don’t tell me to picture them in their underwear. That would not be helping.”
I know: ‘physician heal thyself’. Doesn’t happen. I was up all night and actually did throw up a couple of times. It was not a pretty sight. Isabel did her best to calm me down when she heard about the Command Conference. She is the only one that knows how badly speaking in public scares me. She gave me all the speeches that I have tried to give myself only she made it sound better. I was not convinced. She would have done an all-night vigil with me, but I promised that I would be alright and she went off to meet Gee.
When we got postings, I ended up in Medical of course. Dr. Russell was really great about making me feel ‘a part of the team’ – but being a part of the team was not on my list of things I really wanted to be doing. I wanted to be back on Earth doing police forensic work and communing with the fish in my 40 gallon salt-water tank. I had ended up on the Moon when a professor put my name up for the internship program – this was not my idea. I just let everything ride so that I wouldn’t hurt Dr. James’ feelings. How was I to know…?
Don’t get the wrong idea. I don’t hate being on the Moon. I enjoyed the Eagle ride up. The Moon is absolutely fantastic. I can just sit for hours in the Observation Room looking at the surface of the Moon and drinking in the shapes and shadows that change almost daily. I find it peaceful and comforting. The internship itself was under the supervision of Dr. Mathias – one of the coolest people in the universe. He gave me lots to do and I worked hard for him. I was beginning to think that I would survive the internship when Breakaway happened. I didn’t have time to really think about the implications at first because I was too busy either trying to put the human body back together or taking it apart to see why it wasn’t working anymore. I got some great night’s sleep back in those first days because I would be up for 24 hours at a time and have six off to rest. In my warped way, I just loved it. When things settled down to more of a routine Dr. Mathias suggested that I put some of my psychology training to use. I thought, OK, just one person at a time – I can handle that. And I eventually did.
Surprisingly enough, though sad to say, I have actually been putting my forensic medicine knowledge to use. Life has not been quiet out here in space. People have died and we have needed to know why and I am the one who does the finding out more often than not.
I truly couldn’t tell you why I have this fear. It is completely irrational I know. Or maybe only partly irrational when it comes to tomorrow’s conference. Dr. Russell I can handle. And Professor Bergman, I mean, how can you possible be intimidated by him with his warm way of being with you? Gee has told me too much about Captain Carter to make me panic about him being there. Sandra Benes? Kano? I can hang in there. But, I got to admit that Commander Koenig and Controller Morrow are a bit more challenging. Maybe it is that air of ‘command’ about them that does it to me. I don’t know.
“What? What is it?”
“Time to get up. We have that meeting in one hour. Are you actually coming or are you leaving me to dangle in the non-existent wind.”
“Gee, I solemnly promise to be there with all the charts and graphs.”
So, here I sit. Waiting in Main Mission for the doors to the Commander’s office to open and for me to make my first appearance in front of Command personnel. I briefly watch my life passing in front of my eyes and realize that I have got here mostly through an insatiable curiosity at how things work – like the the human body and the human mind (and Nuclear Disposal Area 2) – and a total lack of planning. Well, what can you say? If push came to shove I would probably have to admit that life was pretty good. I had friends, a place to live, a connection to hydroponics, and someone who could fix my razor when it quit working. What more did a man actually need?
“Mr. Alcott. Mr. Favelli. Would you both come this way?”
December, 2003