Orphans of Apollo - S2 E12
September 2056
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Previously: the crew makes their way to the hab where Joanna examines Brant more thoroughly with its medical equipment. She finds his wrist broken and requiring support, preventing him from wearing an EVA suit. Tensions rise between Lana and Pieter over whether Brant’s accident could have been avoided.
“You guys look like you’re settling in,” called Lana as she came to the top of the stairs.
Aiden, Zawadi and Pieter were each preparing pre-packaged meals.
“It’s not the Hilton, but I guess it will do,” said Pieter. “How is Brant?”
“Could be worse. He has a broken wrist, but it’s a clean break. It will need to be in a cast for six weeks. The medical computer has already produced one we can print. The only problem is—”
“He won’t be able to wear a suit,” said Pieter.
It took a tremendous effort to suppress the look of annoyance on her face. Even then, she wasn’t sure if she had been successful. “Yes,” replied Lana calmly. “He will still have relatively good use of his fingers, but there is no way he will be able to put a glove on over the cast and he needs that support while his wrist heals.”
They looked at each other, silently contemplating what this meant for the mission.
“You know there might be a way to modify the cast,” said Aiden. “I’ll go and take a look,” he headed downstairs, taking scoops from his meal package as he went.
“Your stuff is in your room, Lana,” said Zawadi. “Want me to make you some lunch?”
“I’m good, thanks. I’ll come and get some in a minute.”
Lana gently closed the door of her room behind her, then flopped onto her bed. Don’t fall asleep, she willed herself.
The room was narrow and long, being one of the middle bedrooms, which took up almost half the upstairs floor space. There was a single bed to the left of the door. The curved far wall followed the circular contours of the hab’s exterior. Against it was just enough room for a small desk. Zawadi had carefully placed Lana’s small bag of personal items on the bed.
She picked up her tablet from the top of the bag and immediately saw there was a message from Christian Larsson. From the top of the screen, Lana saw that the communication delay was currently set at seven minutes. During their stay it would gradually increase to twenty minutes and then back to five minutes. This simulated the typical delay in sending signals between the Earth and Mars, as the planets moved relative to each other. A return trip to the moon by comparison was around two and a half seconds, short enough that real-time conversations were possible, if somewhat annoying. Although it was a “Lunar” analogue, this delay added some extra realism for deep space missions.
Lana opened the message. Larsson was back in his office and looked less worried than he had when they had spoken just after the landing. She played the message.
“Hi Lana. Hell of a first day. The docs have reviewed the medical data sent back by Joanna. They agree Brant has no concussion or underlying head injury. His wrist will need to be immobilised while it heals. As mentioned before, you will have to adapt the mission plan to take account of this. When you have had a think about this from your end send up your suggestions to mission control and we will review them. Also Lana, I just wanted to say while we are speaking privately, well done. You held your nerve and were calm under pressure. You can see from what happened to Brant the results of acting without fully thinking through the situation. That is why I chose you to lead the first expedition. Hear from you soon.”
I froze. I wasn’t considering my options. I didn’t know the right thing to do. Sometimes you have to act quickly and it could have been worse if Brant hadn’t done what he did. Can they not see that?
Another message came through, this was from Lana’s parents. She opened it. They were sitting with Logan at the kitchen table.
“Hi Lana,” her mother started, “we are so proud of you. We heard there had been a minor accident with the landing, but you are all ok.”
Her father continued, “We really are proud of you darling. Leading the first expedition, even Logan is proud of you.” He visibly elbowed Logan.
“Yeah really proud sis. You just make sure you don’t break any of the equipment before I get there with my crew.”
“Logan!” her mum said in exasperation.
“Just saying.”
“Anyway,” her mum continued, “we just wanted to send you a short message to say hi. We know you are going to be busy, so no hurry, but it would be nice to hear from you.” The message ended.
She tossed the tablet down on the bed beside her and stared at the wall opposite. Mulling over the day’s events so far.
Pieter is the only one who can see me for what I am, a fraud. I shouldn’t be in charge of this expedition. He should be. The landing played over and over in her mind, and she lost track of time.
A soft knock at the door snapped her out of the daydream.
“Am I interrupting?” said Aiden.
“No,” Lana smiled.
“You looked like you were away with the fairies.”
“Yeah, I guess I was.”
“Can I come in?”
“Sure.”
Aiden closed the door softly behind him and walked over to the window. He looked out at the barren white expanse.
“I’m not going to lecture you,” he said, still looking out of the window. “I’m sure Larsson has done that already, and probably your parents.”
He turned to face her. “Whatever Pieter has said to you, don’t let it bother you. There is a reason you are in command and not him.”
Lana let out a sigh. “Really?”
“We were not going to get pulled over in that gust. I could see the angle we were at from the instruments. It was also subsiding. You were spot on. If Brant had waited and cut the cords during the lull, he would not have fallen off. Sure, if we had waited there all day we probably would have been pulled over but I hardly think you would have waited that long.”
“No, just until that gust had subsided.”
“Exactly. All I am going to say is, believe in yourself the way the rest of us believe in you.”
Lana got up from the bed and walked over to Aiden. They both felt the intense desire to embrace each other. Aiden pulled her in close and she rested her head on his shoulder. She inhaled deeply, smelling his neck, an intense warm feeling filling her insides. Aiden fought as hard as he could not to kiss her. In the end, he relented and kissed her gently on the top of the head. After a moment, she pulled herself away from him.
“So, the real reason I came here is I might have some good news for you.”
“Ok?”
“I think I can repurpose one of the spare gloves to make a mitten that Brant will be able to wear. It won’t be the same, but it might give him enough functionality.”
“How?”
“I think I can 3D print a mitten that will be big enough for Brant to put his hand into with the cast. I’ll cut the attachment ring off one of the spare gloves and use it so it can be clipped onto a suit just the same as a normal glove. I can put a hook or some other utensil on the outside of it to give him some limited functionality.”
“Yes,” said Lana excitedly. “It won’t be the same, but that should give him the functionality to complete most of the EVA tasks he needs to.”
“Exactly. We’ll still need to go through the program and adapt it, but I think it will only require minor changes.”
“You talk to Brant and discuss it with him. I’m sure he won’t have any objections. We can discuss it as a crew later.”
“Yes ma’am,” he said with a smile.
“And Aiden.” He paused as he was about to open the door. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
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I hope you enjoyed the latest episode of Orphans of Apollo. We are back on schedule this week, but only just. I picked up some virus somewhere last week so spent the day I normally spend writing in bed. Hence, not much of an update this week.
Thanks for reading,
Alex