Chapter 9

Journey to Death

The Mars Camp One situated near the West Sea satellite launch station was in disorder. The reality show, was about to select its last winner. The survived teams’ tension and expectation, eliminated teams’ disappointment coexisted. The last four teams were getting prepared for their final mission. It was a task to operate the spacecraft manually at Earth’s orbit and dock it. Some of the team members hugged each other as they felt regretful not to have achieved their best scores.

“Captain, I will go for a run,” Hugh approached Raye. She said, “You didn’t forget the time, did you?” Hugh answered, “Of course not. Do you think I will be late for the briefing?”

Hugh kissed Raye on her forehead. Raye raised her fist towards Hugh. Hugh smiled playfully and walked back.

A truck drove into the camp. As the stowage opened, men who seemed like the Mars Camp One employees lifted up the baggages of the eliminated team members.

“Surveillance camera bypassed,” a signal came to Hugh’s personal mobile phone. “Noted,” answered Hugh. He got off the road and hid his body in between the lodgings. Christina, his colleague at Humanity, a private organization, had arrived before he did. Christina covered one of her eye and had bandaged up her left hand. She looked terrible as her face and hand were swollen. Hugh asked, “What happened to your head? And your hand?” Christina answerd, “I know it’s incubated at a culture room, but I really didn’t want to have his eyeballs and fingers on me any second longer. So, I dug them out as soon as I came down.”

To achieve her goal, Christina would stop at nothing. She gathered the supervisor’s DNA, duplicated them and transplanted them into her body. This is how she broke through the security system of Dragonfly which is the most notorious even among the smartest hackers. She actually had Igor’s eyes and fingers. Hugh said, “Was this the only way?” “It’s none of your concern, isn’t it?” Christina answerd. “You mean...is it that you still...” said Hugh. Christina cut the words of him, “No time for talking nonsense. Concentrate. I scanned this.”

Christina handed Hugh a cassette tape. It had a picture of a lady’s face in a black background, and the title was “Sinawi 1st Album”. Hugh received tha new tape and handed Christina the identical looking tape. She said, “Since it was impossible to understand, I examined the data over and over again. But the result was always the same. Seriously, the previous freight sent to Mars, hardly had any food on it. The amount was no way near enough for four crew members. This way, the crews will die before the next freight ship arrives at Mars." Christina twisted her face and held her left wrist with her right hand. Christina felt her replanted finger beginning to throb.

“What does this mean...maybe they calculated the hibernation time wrong?” asked Hugh. “No, no way. The pre-sent freight was like that. As for the next freight, I had no time to approach the data. Not only that, there are only 2 outdoor clothing sets. Other amenities are same as that. They are NOT prepared for 4 people,” answerd Christina. “Then the crews die? They flew all the way to Mars!” said Hugh. “That’s correct. If you cannot make the Victoria do a U-turn and come back. Wait, there is a second choice. You can jump off, before the ship goes too far. That’s the answer,” said Christina, with a grim look on her face. Hugh asked back, frowning as if it were nonsense, “What? Jump off?” “Yeah, then at least you will rotate around the Earth’s orbit. We can track you. But if you leave the Earth and enter the orbit that leads to Mars, then we can never follow you with RKB,” She said.

All of a sudden, Christina hugged Hugh with her right arm which was not hurt. “Do you really have to go?” : She hugged Hugh, but Hugh stood still. After a while, Christina pushed him away and said, “I really regret I got to know you. As much as having recruited the housework robot which killed my mom.” Christina turned back. “Christina!” Hugh called her but she ran without looking back. She got on a self-driving truck. As she shut the door, tears fell down from her left eye, the eye which did not have surgery. She didn’t cry because of Hugh’s response. She was crying because she had a bad feeling, a feeling that this maybe the last time she meets Hugh. However, she also knew she could not stop him from going.

Although Hugh did not accept her love, they may remain as friends. She thought that if she were to lose him, then she would not be able to speak to a human, ever again. X was not trustworthy. Moreover, if Hugh could not come back alive, then Humanity will no longer sustain.

...

Dragonfly’s lunar base Out Post was in the Aitken Basin near the South pole of the moon’s hidden side. This was a place where the nonsense rumor spread that there were gasoline underneath the surface. In the middle of the base was a black hexahedron with a 1:4:9 ratio. Its towering height went near 90 meters. It was built by Howard Mason to commemorate the , inspired by Monolith, but rather resembled a gigantic tombstone. There was a dock, a research office, and a tourist office in the base; the research and tourist office were under protection of a shielding material for blockage of the cosmic rays.

A RKB approached to the deck. The fuel-sage with an oil-pressured shock absorber connected itself to a docking port and transformed its upright form and descended to the surface. Nicole Jacqueline came out from the opening hatch. Jacqueline was wearing a brand new pressure suit which resembled a reddish leather suit. She was slender, fitting in well with the suit. Two Robotas with their uniforms stood in front of her. They led Jacqueline through a long corridor to a small black room.

"Welcome, Jacqueline,“ a voice came from the ceiling with a bright lights. Jacqueline blinked her eyes due to the lights. Her pupil shrunk from the lights, not enabling her to see anything. “I am not used to it yet” “No worries. Of course,” the voice was soft and greasy.

“There is a chair. Kindly sit,” The lights shone onto the metal stool in the center of the room.

“I was wondering why you chose to help,” the voice said. Jacqueline intentionally smiled a wide-open smile and said, “Why so curious?” It said, “Everytime, I wish to know why people make such choices; including you, of course. Until now, I had no reason to know, but now, I wonder why. For sure, I'm not 'totally the same being' as before.”

Jacqueline raised her second finger of her right hand and put the finger on her lips. This was what she often did when she contemplated. “Well. For me, it seemed interesting,” said Jacqueline. “Is that so? You may be accused of being a murderer,” said the voice. “I am not that stupid,” answered Jacqueline.

One side of the wall lightened up with white. Finally, a screen showing a certain point of Earth’s orbit appeared. It was Base Selene. The voice said, “It will be a noble sacrifice. They are people already prepared for death.” “Hmm...I am worried about certain things,” said Jacqueline. She wanted to share some of the information she recently gathered, but there was no need to do that. “You mean these?” said the voice. On the screen was the RKB which was returning to Earth after having been separated from Base Selene. Christina who was connecting to Hugh through satellite communication device appeared clearly. Jacqueline’s face expression stiffened.

“I simulated it already. Their acts...whatever they do, the result remains the same,” said the voice. “If you say so, yes. Then, why did you call me?” asked Jacqueline. The screen went off. The voice said, “You know, don’t you? My twin brother who disrupts everything I do?” Jacqueline nodded. It continued, “Think about it. We are monozygotic twins, but how come this genetic trait did not turn up in him? Why do I have this genetic trait? That, I wish to know.” It's greasy voice seemed like a predator’s roaring. The soft tone of it's voice was as cold as ice.

“Well, I suppose that curse brought me here. It made me push myself to the extreme. No matter how many times I try to figure out the reason, I just can't understand why the bad gene had been selectively expressed to me.” said the voice. “That is the medical field. I am not a doctor,” said Jacqueline. There was a dead silence for a few seconds. The voice said, “That is correct...yes, you are not a doctor. Nor a biologist, nor a programmer, nor a psychologist, nor a robotics engineer. Not even a pilot. Simply put, you are nothing.” Jacqueline detected that something was wrong. “But...you know too much about this project. About me as well,” said the voice.

Everything became faint. Oxygen was decreasing. Jacqueline blacked out and fell to the ground.