Final Frontier

Chapter One

Trouble In Hellas

Thomas MacKenzie was sitting at his station in Mission Control in Houston beside his best friend and co-commander of the second Mars mission, Svetlana “Suzie” Press. The first mission had landed three months ago, and Bradbury was a sideshow for the people of the world these days. The excitement of humanity’s first steps on a new world had subsided, and they still had fifteen months to go before the end of the first mission.

These days, Mission Control was relatively empty, as usually only essential personnel were in the massive room. Because of the distance and the time delay, real-time contact was impossible. The crew of the Bradbury would send their transmissions and they would reach Earth twenty minutes later, and messages from Earth would take that long to reach Mars. So the staff inside Mission Control was relatively limited, mostly monitoring the data coming in from the crew.

Brandon Matthews, a husky British astronaut who once played rugby professionally, was walking near the landing site with fellow teammate Tamara Calton, who hailed from Florida and looked like a stereotypical beach blond from Daytona Beach. Both were geologists, and they were out today checking scientific equipment they had laid out to monitor any possible signs of seismic activity in Hellas Planitia. Eons ago, a huge meteor impact had created this massive crater, and the rings were well off on the horizon from where the landing site was.

Thomas leaned back in his chair, put his hands behind his black-haired head, and mused to his Russian colleague, “You know, we get to do something like that in a few months. With all the positive press that has been generated from the mission, President Landon will have no choice by to approve of the next mission.”

Suzie Press leaned forward, studying the images coming from Mars on her terminal and replied, “I think she will too. She didn’t support it during her tenure in your House of Representatives, and she said she’d shut it down if she was elected president during her campaign three years ago.”

“That’s true, but she’s like every politician I’ve ever known, in that she’ll be the first to wrap herself around the success and use it to try and get re-elected next year. By that time, we’ll be on our way to Mars and she won’t be able to stop us if and when she gets a second term.”

President Meredith Landon was a Democrat who had been elected to bring the excesses of the previous Republican administration under control. Avery Conners had fallen in love with the space program as a kid, and had been the one who signed off on the Mars program in his first of two terms. His vice-president, Henry Reese, had fallen victim to the other excesses of the Conners’ administration, and the huge budget deficits and bad economy had created the framework to allow the first female president in American history to rise to power at the ballot box.

“Anything wrong, Terry?” Thomas said, calling down to his dread-locked African-American friend stationed just below him. He was Cap-Com on this day, which was an archaic term from the 1960s. Basically, he was the person in charge of all communications between Mission Control and the landing site in Hellas. He also served as the press liaison to the mission on this day.

Terrence Head was shaking his head and appeared to be arguing with someone on another communications link. Terry hadn’t heard him, so Thomas got up from his station and walked over to where Terry was reading off something that had just come out of the printer.

Terry noticed Thomas hovering over him and he raised the paper up towards him, saying, “We’ve got a report about the wife of Brandon Matthews. The London Sun website reported not too long ago that Alexis Matthews has publicly accused her husband of cheating on her with one of the female crewmembers. The boys and the girls in the press room want to know if it’s true or not.”

Thomas rolled his eyes and said dismissively, “Alexis just wants her name in the papers. I don’t know why Brandon ever married her, because all she’s ever been is an attention whore.”

Terry chuckled and replied, “Tell me about it! Remember when she with us at the White House for the big ceremony to introduce the crews of the Bradbury and the Clarke? She was all over President Conners, so much so that I wondered if those two weren’t pulling a Clinton!”

Suzie interjected herself into the conversation by laughing out loud and adding, “Wouldn’t surprise me, to be honest. I’ve heard she’s been running around on him, and that someone high up in the chain of command has caught wind of it, so she decided to strike first.” She paused and removed a stray strand of strawberry red hair from her porcelain white face, then said, “Then again, you know how Brandon is!”

Terry nodded his head and replied, “Yeah, he’d flirt with any halfway decent looking woman in a skirt as long as his wife wasn’t around!” He turned to face Thomas and asked, “Speaking of wives, when does Marney get back from her tour?”

“She’s due in this afternoon, but she’ll be performing at the Laugh Planet in downtown Houston. Once she’s done with that, we’re taking some time off to head to the Gold Coast of Australia for a vacation.” Thomas said.

“Good for you two, Tommy! You really need one, with all the yeoman’s work you’ve pulled here! Gotta get one before you and the rest of the Clarke crew head out at the end of the year.” Terry said as he patted his friend on the back.

Suzie turned to the big screen to see what was going on, and noticed that the two astronauts walking in the view of the camera were suddenly collapsing. “Something’s happening! Brandon and Tamara are in trouble!”

Thomas and Terry raced up to her station and plugged in their ear buds to the audio output. They began to hear the desperate cries of two people who had suffered some sort of attack.

“Can’t…breathe! Can’t move…my legs! Tami! What?” said Matthews before collapsing face first into the red regolith in front of the camera. Tamara fell in the background, and a chill raced down the spine of Thomas.

“Terry! Get on the horn to Sakagi and ask him what’s up with those two! Damn the time delay! For all we know, they could be dead!” Thomas cried out, and Terry raced to his console and sent out a message to the base.

An hour later, the worst had been realized. Thomas, Suzie, and Terry, as well as the rest of the Mission Control crew, were stunned by the news. Matthews and Calton had been poisoned by a nerve toxin mixed up in one of the labs inside the habitation dome. It had been time released into their oxygen tanks, and had been placed there by a Russian cosmonaut, Nadia Trezskina. Trezskina had committed suicide with an overdose of drugs she had smuggled out from the infirmary, which had been easy for her because she was the crew physician. From the suicide note that mission commander Hoshida Sakagi had found in the Russian’s quarters, she had killed them out of jealousy, because Matthews had dumped her for the blond Floridian.

Thomas sat down beside his redhead Russian friend at their console and remarked, “Son of a bitch! Alexis was right! The question now is: what do we do about this?”

“Contact Bruce and let him know what’s happened.” Thomas said, regretting the meeting he’d have to have with Bruce Donnelley, who was in charge of the overall Mars mission. “Then contact the White House. After that, set up a press conference. We’ll be there to announce what’s happened.”

Terry nodded his head and walked away to do just that. Thomas put his hands in his face and said an explicative, which moved his Russian friend to put a hand on his shoulder.

“It’s not your fault, Tommy. How could you have known something like that would happen?” Suzie said.

“I know, Suzie. But Bruce will bitch at me for not stopping them, no matter how impossible it would have been. He’s only interested in keeping his job, and if he can find a fall guy for this, he’ll do so. I’ll be damned if it’ll be me though!”

The pressroom at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Space Center was crowded with reporters from all over the world. The news had somehow leaked, as it had a habit of doing. Thomas suspected it probably came from the White House, as the Landon administration wasn’t exactly fond of NASA. The reporters who had gotten the leak were all abuzz to get at what had happened.

Thomas, being in charge of Mission Control when the incident happened, took it upon himself to conduct the press conference. “I will take questions after I read an opening statement. Earlier this afternoon, three members of the Bradbury crew died.” Loud sighs and cries filled the room, and it indicated that not everyone in the room had gotten the leak. “Two died of toxic poisoning and one from a suicide. Brandon Matthews and Tamara Calton were killed when a time release capsule inside their oxygen tanks let out what we believe was a nerve toxin, which appears to have asphyxiated them. The kind of toxin is not known at this point, but we have found evidence that it was concocted in the medical facility at the habitation dome, and, from the suicide note she left, we firmly believe that Dr. Nadia Trezskina had managed to make it somehow and found a way to put it inside the tanks.

“According to the note, she claims she was having an affair with Matthews, and became jealous when his attentions moved to Calton. We have started an investigation and are questioning all members of the crew to find out what happened and why measures were not taken to stop this from happening. Any questions?”

Hands shot up into the air as reporters clamored to be the first selected. He picked Keely Sears, a Latina reporter he knew very well from her work with the Houston Chronicle. “Astronaut MacKenzie, what will happen to the crew of the Bradbury? Will they come home early, or will they stay and complete their schedule?”

“As far as I know at the moment, Ms. Sears, they’ll stick to the mission plans, as the deaths were not caused by an accident or anything else mission related. We’re still discussing what to do with the bodies, so I can’t answer that question at the moment. They will still launch in fifteen months’ time to return back home. Next question?”

Leah Hamrick of the Miami Herald was recognized and asked, “Has there been any response from the White House, and will this jeopardize the Clarke mission that you will be leading when it launches in December?”

“No, we’ve not officially heard from the president, although we did inform the White House immediately when we found out what had happened. I’ll refer you to their press secretary for any statement from them. As for the possibility of jeopardizing the next mission, I can’t answer that at this time, but I honestly don’t see how it would. Up until now, the mission has been a complete success, with only the dust storm of a couple of months ago as the only blight.”

The reporters shelled him with more questions for roughly a half-hour, then Head signaled MacKenzie and he ended the news conference. Head and Press went back to Mission Control, while he went back to his office to face the coming wrath of the Mars mission director.

A knock came on the door, and his secretary, Sonja Hernandez, stepped inside. “Sir, Bruce Donnelley is here to see you!”

Donnelley, as luck would have it, had just gotten back into Houston when the murder-suicide happened, and the expression on his face was of someone who was thunderstruck. “Tommy, how the hell did this happen? You damn well know the president’s going to want our asses for this!”

“Your guess is as good as mine, Bruce. I said we should monitor the crew 24/7, but we just had to listen to those who said the crew needed their privacy!”

“What was I supposed to do? The shrinks said it would be counterproductive to constantly have them on camera! Granted, the psychiatrists really messed up with this one, because we should have caught something like this…”

“Dammit Bruce, how the hell do you ‘catch’ something like this? They’re human beings, not robots! They have the same fears and emotions as any average Joe and Jill walking in downtown Houston or Dallas, for Pete’s sake!” Thomas snapped at his boss.

Bruce sighed and said, “You’re probably right about this, but you know that the president will want a scapegoat, and Dr. Trezskina won’t be good enough for her! Wanna step up and take the fall?”

Bruce had meant it jokingly, but Thomas walked up and got in the face of his boss. “You try to make me the fall guy in all of this and I’ll go to the media so fast about it that it’ll make your head spin! Why don’t you get some balls and just tell the media that stuff happens and that we did everything we knew how to stop this! They won’t believe it, but the truth will be out there and we can go about our business with clean hands.”

Bruce laughed sarcastically and said, “You think it’s easy like that, Thomas? Bah! They want blood and they’ll get it anyway they want it. I don’t want to make you the scapegoat in all of this, nor anyone else! But the White House will want to have someone to hang out to dry and they don’t have to be limited to just one scapegoat!”

Thomas walked around his desk and sat back down in his chair. Bruce sat himself down in a chair in front of the desk and both men sat in silence for a while. “Clarke’s going up in December if I have to have the President kidnapped so she can’t cut the program before the launch!” Bruce said spiritlessly.

“You’re forgetting something? Congress! It’s back under Democratic control, and they’re looking to slash some of the budget so they can send the money to programs that’ll get them elected again. So it’s less for space and more for social programs!”

Bruce laughed bitterly, “You know, we could feed far more people with the hydroponics on board both missions than the United States government could! It’s been a tremendous success on Bradbury, and the early crops on Clarke and coming along nicely.”

“Good. We’ll need them. Whatever I have to do to help keep the mission afloat, Bruce, just let me know. That goes for Suzie, Terry, and the rest.”

“I know, Thomas. I’ll try to set up a meeting with the president ASAP. I figure Congress will want in on the action as well, so expect an invitation or a subpoena from one or more committees in the near future!” Bruce said.

Thomas replied, “Ah yes! I’m sure plenty of Representatives and Senators are already licking their chops to get at us! Well, so be it!!”

He managed to get out of the office in time to get to the airport to pick up his wife. Marney MacKenzie was a stand-up comic who was quite successful, even though her dream of a sitcom hadn’t come yet. She had recently shot an HBO special that was to be aired a few days before Clarke launched on its way to Mars, and her career looked to finally be taking off to where she wanted it to go.

His wife was a big woman, tall, with broad shoulders and a plus sized frame. The media sneered that she wasn’t the type of wife that an American astronaut should have, and many of NASA’s bureaucrats felt the same way. None of them had the balls to say it to him to his face, but he managed to hear about it anyway. He didn’t care, because he dearly loved his wife, and Marney felt the same way.

They embraced and kissed, having not seen each other for several weeks. “Sorry about what happened to Brandon and Tami, Tommy! I was stunned when I found out!” Marney said.

“I know, babe. It means a lot to me. Look, let’s head back to the house and get some rest. I really could use some right about now!” He picked up her bags and they walked out to the convertible, and he drove her home with the top down.

They didn’t get much rest, as she tackled him as soon as they got into the bedroom. Their lovemaking went deep into the night, finally subsiding when she collapsed in a heap onto him after her last orgasm. Marney slid to his side, and he cuddled with her as she kissed him on the lips again.

“Man, I’ve waited so long to do that again!” she said dreamily. Then her face fell, and she said, “It won’t be too long before I won’t be able to do it again for almost three years.”

“That might not come to pass, if the president has her way.” Thomas replied.

“No! Don’t think like that! This mission means so much to you, and I don’t want anything to get in the way of it!” Marney said, reassuring him of her support.

He kissed her again and said, “I wish you were going with me, babe!”

She laughed and said, “You expect me to get on the space shuttle with this body?”, pinching some of the fat on her belly.

He smiled and said, “You know I think you’re the sexiest woman walking the planet, don’t you? I think I did a damn good job of showing it just now!”

She laughed and kissed him again, then said, “Well, you might think I have a sexy body, but I have a tough time accepting it. Besides, I’ve always been better at comedy than astronautics. Anyway, I know you’ve always had a thing for Suzie!” She elbowed him and mocked him with a fake bout of jealousy.

He laughed out loud and said, “Yeah, liked she’d go for me anyway! She’s more likely to go for you!”

“Well, she is bisexual, and I do admit that she’s hot, but I don’t swing that way! Besides, you’re more than enough to satisfy me!” To prove it, she kissed him again and their lovemaking began all over again.

The next morning, Suzie remarked, “So she must have kept you up pretty late last night?” Thomas had the coffee mug almost to his lips when she made the crack, and it was a sheer miracle that he didn’t spill any of the hot liquid onto himself.

“Yeah, you could say that! She thinks that once we’re on the mission, you and me will have a fling!”

Suzie laughed out loud, “Well, you are cute, but I tend to prefer women in the sack. Of course, as far as the public knows, I dig the men. Well, I do dig men, but I love the women more!” She smiled and playfully threw a pillow at him.

He caught it with his free hand and tossed it onto the couch, and they shared a laugh before getting down to the more sober business. “Anything from the White House?” he asked.

“According to them, the president is still considering all her options, which means she’s mulling over what she’ll have to do to mollify the public when she cuts the mission. It doesn’t matter that the ship’s ready to go, because she’ll cancel it anyway.”

Before Thomas could answer, the phone rang. It was Bruce Donnelley. “Pack your bags, Thomas. Tell Suzie and Terry to do so as well. The Head Bitch in Charge wants to have a chat, and Congress will be calling you three as well as some others before a select committee they are forming.”

“Oh boy! They’re really wanting to grill us?” Thomas replied.

“Yep, and it’s not going to be a fun barbecue! Get here tomorrow afternoon at the latest, because the president wants to see us day after tomorrow.”

“Gotcha, Bruce. See you soon!” He hung up the phone and Suzie said, “Let me guess: the American version of the Spanish Inquisition is awaiting us?”

“Yep, except we won’t be entertained by Michael Palin, Terry Jones or Terry Gilliam. Better let Terry know so he can tell his wife and kids.” They sighed as they left his office.