Darkworld: Earth

27.

“So that’s it?” Sarah challenged, raising her voice and shouting over the din of the staff meeting. “We’re just going to abandon Diego to the aliens? We’re not even going to try to get him back?”

“The situation is more complicated than that,” Captain Moon said. “Diego has made the decision on his own to stay. He understands what’s at stake. The situation is complicated and nuanced, and -”

“It’s not complicated at all! You let them abduct him and brainwash him until he chose to abandon his own people! Gabriel is not in his right mind, he can’t make a decision like this on his own!” she shouted.

“Gabriel is acting rationally given the situation he has stumbled into,” Anders said sternly. “Please calm yourself, Sarah, before I ask the members of the security team to remove you from the meeting and forcibly sedate you.”

“Fuck you Anders,” Sarah said. “You don’t even know him. You don’t give a shit about any of us! Neither does the captain! We’re just expendable guinea pigs!”

Sarah continued to scream for a moment, causing disharmony to run through the meeting. She floated closer to Anders, shouting and getting in his face. Anders floated stoically in the face of the abuse, his face impassive and almost appearing bored with the situation.

“Is that it? Are you done?” he asked when she took a moment to catch her breath.

Sarah roared and swung a fist at him. That was a mistake, however. He was trained in unarmed combat and subduing assailants in zero gravity. She was not. Within moments, he had her in a submission lock, her arms pinned behind her back. The pair spun throughout the common room which had become the primary meeting area for these all-staff meetings.

“Calm yourself, Sarah,” Anders said sternly. “Get a hold of yourself!”

“Fuck you!” she screamed, continuing to struggle until Liu appeared and gave her an injection in the thigh. She earned a boot to the stomach for her trouble.

Sarah continued to struggle fruitlessly for a moment before the injection kicked in and knocked her unconscious. Anders nodded at two of his security men, who took the limp body from him and pulled it, floating behind them, out of the room to be placed in one of the secure holding cells.

“What the fuck was that?” Gabriel said, expressing the shock of what had just happened for many of the members of the crew.

“That was a breakdown, that’s what it was,” Someone muttered.

“She’s delusional,” another person muttered.

“She might be,” Anders agreed, “And it might not be her fault. Captain, when possible, I would like to raise the option of bringing Sarah aboard the Toormonda for a detailed medical scan using Yonohoan technology. I believe that she has been showing psychiatric symptoms for some time which have been unnoticed or undiagnosed by members of our crew. I believe her reaction just now was medical in nature, people. And unfortunately, I believe that we’re currently unable to provide her with the level of help that she requires.”

“Command and medical staff will review the situation in private,” Captain Moon declared. “This is not the forum for that discussion. It’s unfortunate that the meeting was disrupted in this matter, but I believe that we’ve covered the relevant points on Sergeant Cruz’s situation. As unfortunate as the segue into this topic was, I do have to take the opportunity to request that anyone who has been experiencing any psychiatric symptoms and hiding them from the medical team to please privately come forward for screening at the soonest opportunity. I also request that anyone who has noticed any potential signs or symptoms in their crewmates to bring the matter to their direct supervisor immediately.”

She paused as she allowed her words to sink in. “This is not the forum for those discussions, except to remind everyone that we are a team. We all knew that there were risks when we accepted this mission. Some of you have been talking about rumors of a hidden objective of measuring the effects of the Tunnel Drive on the human body. I wish I could deny it, but the fact is that I can’t. We’re operating well beyond the known safety limits of the technology in question, and we would be doing a disservice to ourselves and the brave men and women who would follow in our footsteps if we did not measure the effects on our bodies.”

She paused, allowing her words to sink in. “That said, it has come to my attention that the scanners aboard the Toormonda ship are several generations more advanced than what we have available aboard the Seeker . I am making the command decision at this time to accept the Toormonda ship as a gift from the Yonohoan government. They have assured us that the ship itself is presently sterile to the highest extent which their technology can achieve. As such, I will be waving the quarantine protocols for travel between the Toormonda and the Seeker from this point forward.”

There were some quiet susurration as the crew realized where this was going.

“We all need a break. I am ordering each shift to take a trip aboard the Toormonda for a medical scan, a tour of the facility, and general relaxation,” she concluded.

“Are we abandoning the Seeker , Ma’am?” A crewmember asked.

“Not at this time,” Captain Moon said. “We must at this time consider the possibility that the dangers of the Tunnel Drive were more extensive than we believed, and that the damage it has been inflicting on us is more insidious than we realized. We’ll know more once Liu and the Yonohoans have gone through the medical data we’ll be getting from the medical scans from the Toormonda. Depending on the findings, some of the crew may be quartered aboard the Toormonda going forward as we attempt to integrate the gift from the Yonohoan people into our mission.”

The meeting broke off there rather than going through the minutia of minor details which usually occupied the moments after the primary topics had been exhausted. The crew members began arranging the schedule for the rotation to board the Toormonda. Several crew members came forward after the meeting had ended to confess to have been hiding symptoms such as insomnia, bad dreams, and hearing whispers.

Those who had been suppressing their symptoms were placed at the front of the list to receive medical examinations rather than being reprimanded for violating the mission policy of immediately reporting such measures.

In a private meeting area, Anders and Captain Moon exchanged a drink.

“Well that was a shit show,” Captain Moon exclaimed. She looked at her juice pouch. “You think we’re coming apart at the seams?”

“I think that there are several people who have been disguising their symptoms or mistaking them as the normal results of stress and isolation,” Anders admitted. “I’m not certain how far the degeneration from the Tunnel Drive is affecting us. But I don’t think we can pretend that it hasn’t been any more. We have to examine each decision we make from this point forward with the assumption that our judgment might be compromised.”

“You’re not going to try to remove me from command, are you?” She inquired, raising an eyebrow.

“I’ve had more exposure to the Tunnel Drive than you have,” he pointed out. “I had two jumps in before I joined the crew of the Seeker. My judgment is just as much in question. Have you had any symptoms?”

She shrugged. “Maybe a few dreams. I’m not certain that they’re abnormal or not.”

“Yeah, me too,” Anders admitted.

“What do you think we should do?” Captain Moon inquired.

“If any of our crew members are in fact in a more severe state than we have realized, then we should consider the possibility of requesting medical aid for them from the Yonohoans,” Anders said, his distaste of his admission plain on his expression. “Otherwise, we should consider the possibility of utilizing the Toormonda ships to complete the primary objectives of our mission while leaving a skeleton crew aboard the Seeker . Once we’ve completed the final rendezvous with the pre-launched drones, the Toormonda can return to Yonohoan space. We can decide at that point whether or not to reveal the location of Earth to the Yonohoans.”

Captain Moon nodded, sipping on her juice pouch. “Yeah, that’s a good plan,” she admitted. “It will give us an opportunity to shake down the Toormonda. Maybe we’ll be able to salvage the science mission after all. We have about three weeks before we’re seriously behind schedule. Once the R&R rotation has finished, get with the science team leaders and get them to start working on a list of goals of what we need to accomplish to shift our science objectives over to the control of the Toormonda.”

“The biggest obstacle I see is the incompatibility of our computer systems,” Anders said.

“Start working on it once you’ve got some rest of your own, Anders. I’m declaring a holiday.” She paused. “You know, I’ve been busy approving everyone else’s mix tapes and autobiographies for Project Radio Tower, but I haven’t taken the opportunity to work on my own yet. I think I’ll take a while and work on that. We all need some downtime, and it sounds relaxing.”

Anders nodded. “I am going to follow up on the situation with Sarah, and supervise the first rounds of those going over to the Toormonda. But I think that I’ll make time to do the same very soon.”

“All work and no play makes Anders a dull boy, Anders. Make certain that you do something relaxing today. In light of the evidence you brought back from the Toormonda about the effects of the Tunnel Drive on our bodies and minds, I think that it’s time to seriously worry about the stress levels aboard our ship,” Captain Moon said.

“I think you’re right,” Anders agreed. He paused, then admitted “The truth is that when you first came up with Project Radio Tower, I was a little annoyed that I’d have to help approve of the segments, but once I started, I found it rather fun. I’ll make some time to do some more of that.”

“Good man, Commander. Good man.”

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