Chapter 17

Merritt Island, Florida 2025 - 2026

"This is it, huh?" Josh frowned. "Our last night."

"No," I shook my head and we were sitting on the beach, on the sand feeling the warm Gulf wind on our faces. "I'll be back."

"I saw a guy on the television a couple months ago," Josh cleared his throat. "Trying to explain how it's gonna work."

"What? The spaceship, you mean?" I leaned into him, letting him hold me as the sun settled into the water. We'd driven all the way across Florida, just so we could watch the sun go down one more time. So the day would be a few seconds longer.

"Yeah," he chuckled. "I didn't understand none of it, except you're gonna be gone for five years, maybe more."

"It's only going to be a few months for me," I said. "It's relativity. Time goes slower the faster you go."

"Yeah, that's what the fella said," Josh nodded. "You're gonna be twenty-eight still and I'll be old."

"Twenty-nine by then," I smiled. "And you won't be old."

"I'll be forty anyway," Josh said. "Back in Harden, when I saw you that first time? I wanted to be eighteen forever."

"You look the same to me," I said, turning my face up. "I swear, Josh. I'm going to love you forever."

"When you get back..." he told me. "I'm not gonna let you go anymore. You know that, right?"

"Yeah," I said, pulling his hand to my face and kissing it. "I don't want you to let me go. I'm going to work at home, like we talked about."

"Like your mom did," Josh nodded.

"And we're going to have a baby, Josh," I laughed lightly. "I already started working on it. Our baby."

"What?" he smiled. "How?"

"You let me worry about the how," I sighed happily. "You just think about what you want. Boy or girl, brown hair, blonde..."

"Blue eyes?"

"Or brown," I nodded. "All we need is a surrogate mother to carry it, but it won't have any part that isn't me and you. I promise you that."

"You need an egg though..."

"Just the shell," I giggled. "I can put whatever I want inside it."

"Hmmm..."

"What?" I smiled at him. "What's wrong?"

"I kinda like surprises," he laughed softly.

"I can do that too," I sighed. "Just watch me."

"I love you, Jen."

"I love you too," I said. "And when I get back..."

"Yes?"

"Doctor Jennifer Sinclair," I grinned. "Don't forget, I want a proper church wedding like we promised March."

"I'm not gonna forget that," Josh sighed happily and then he was kissing me.

"What's this?" I looked at the small package and Rio shrugged. We were just a week into quarantine.

"I don't know," she said and Rio was in isolation too. "It came by courier this morning."

I'd told the girl I didn't really need her, but it had been her choice and Rio wanted to stay close to me, and I didn't mind the company. She shared my apartments in the crew's quarters and that had been good for some juicy gossip, but only a little. Most of the scientists had kept their assistants, but only because we did have a lot to do before leaving and we weren't used to any of it, really. Like who would be? Every day was new for us.

"Huh." It didn't have a name on it except mine and I opened the brown paper carefully, but it had already been screened by security anyway.

"A book?" Rio smiled.

"The Wonders of the Invisible World," I blinked at it. "An original edition."

"What's that?" Rio looked over my shoulder.

"Where'd you go to school?" I laughed. "It's written by Reverend Cotton Mather, about the work of devils and witchcraft in Salem."

"Reverend Cotton Mather, huh?" Rio shook her head. "Never heard of him."

"There's a note." Just inside the front cover was a letter and I opened it.

The book was from Mr. Fox's lawyers, part of his estate it seemed, and the old man had left it to me in his will, on condition that I take it into space with me. They'd held it until I was in quarantine. That made me smile. I was already in trouble for bringing my teddy bear and Ron's snow globe, but I guessed a book wouldn't hurt, and I liked to argue with the NASA geeks anyway. A scientific study of witchcraft by an early proponent of smallpox vaccination, that was fitting, and like everything else about Mr. Fox, it only left me with more questions than answers.

"And before I forget..." Rio was handing me the latest issue of Time magazine.

"Huh?" I laughed as she handed me a pen, looking at my face on the cover and feeling vaguely embarrassed.

"To Rio, with fond wishes ... or something," the girl actually blushed.

"For Rio, My Best Friend and Guardian Angel, with All of My Love. Jennifer Pinchbeck..." I said as I wrote. "How's that?"

"It's great," Rio beamed. "Thanks."

"Where are you going after this?" I asked her, looking very carefully through my book, which was over three hundred years old and in frightfully wonderful condition.

"Um ... Paris," Rio smiled. "And then ... I don't know. I have some offers. Some public relations stuff out in California maybe."

"Well, if you need a reference..." I grinned.

"And if you need a personal assistant when you get back, find me. Okay? Seriously," Rio said. "It's going to be a circus. Interviews, speeches, they'll name schools after you..."

"Hmmm..." I thought about that, and then I thought about Josh and me and who we'd trust to carry our baby, and then I thought about...

"What?" Rio smiled nervously under my clear blue gaze.

"I'll give you a job, right after you see Paris," I nodded. "Have you ever been to Utah?"

"Utah?" Rio gave me a little smile. "No ... Why?"

"How'd you like to baby sit my fiancé until I get back?" I asked her. "I need someone I can trust to keep him out of trouble."

"Uh..." Rio blinked at me. "We had sex."

"I know. We had a lot of sex, all three of us. I was there, remember?" I laughed at her. "So I won't mind if you have more sex."

"Oh," Rio blinked at me, her skin shone like a dusky rose as she thought about the many times Josh and I had invited her into our bed over the last few weeks.

"It's up to you, but if you want ... Get Josh on the phone, I'll talk to him right now," I said. "I can pay you. Um, how much do you make, anyway?"

"You're setting us up, aren't you?" Rio sucked her top lip.

"What?" I rolled my eyes. "I just..."

"In case you don't come back," she said softly.

"I'll be back," I said, but I should have guessed she'd see through me.

Rio had been my shadow for a year, privy to all my secrets, and I knew she'd been working for Mr. Fox. Rio had been his little bird, but no more. We were free of him, the both of us now, and I'd never held it against her. I'd been his little bird as well.

"Right," she nodded and we just looked at each other for a minute.

"We both love you, Jen," Rio swallowed hard. "I'll ... Yeah, I'll get Josh on the phone for you."

"Good," I agreed and I was happy.

I knew she liked Josh a lot, and he liked Rio. They'd gotten along wonderfully together and I loved the both of them. It was perfect and even if the worst things happened; if I came back to find them married with kids, or if I didn't come back at all, I'd at least know they were happy. That was more important to me than anything. And they'd wait, the both of them, that was the best part. People like Josh and Rio, you could trust them with more than just your life. You could trust them with your heart.

"Hey, busy?" Major Fuller tapped the table I was sitting at, downstairs in one of the empty conference rooms.

"Hi, Allen," I smiled and stretched a little. "Just writing some, uh..." I looked at a paper in front of me, " ... Third graders. They sent me a good luck card."

"Yeah, I spent a couple hours last night answering mail," Allen grinned. "Some kids in Des Moines named a piglet after me."

"Heh. So, what's up?" I asked, leaning back in my chair.

"I, uh, I heard something this morning, um ... Something concerning you," Allen said and he looked a little nervous, which wasn't like the good Major at all.

"And?" I tilted my head.

"The stuff for your lab, some bio stuff..." he frowned and finally sat down. "Look, I'll just say it. I heard you were bringing some diseases or viruses, or something."

"Who'd you hear that from?" I asked him softly.

"I just ... heard it, okay?"

"Yeah, we are," I nodded. "Nobody needs to know about it."

"You're the doctor, right? Okay, so you know what you're doing, but we have to know," Allen was looking into my eyes. "Me and the other drivers, it's our mission too. We have a right to know."

"Did you bring it up with the Flight Director?" I asked, knowing he hadn't.

"Flight?" Allen shook his head. "This is us, Jen. We're the crew, okay? He's not going up."

"We're carrying some samples, yeah," I nodded. "I'm going to be doing some tests, that's all."

"There's no test you can do on Challenger, that they can't do on ISS," Allen said and we both knew he was right. "You want to tell me the real reason?"

"No," I said. "I don't."

"What?" he smiled and blinked at me, clearly not expecting that answer.

"I can't," I sighed. "Okay? Once we finish our survey of Pelham, before we enter hyperspace for the trip home, all the samples will be destroyed. I promise you that much."

"I don't understand," he narrowed his eyes. "You're bringing biological samples twenty-three light years away ... to destroy them?"

"You could say that," I cleared my throat.

"Oh." Allen sat back nodding his head slowly, trying to reason it out and he'd get there.

"Just forget about it, okay?" I told him. "Once we're out of here and on our way, I'll be able to brief everyone."

"Nielson's in on this?" Allen asked and I nodded.

"He's aware of it."

"Okay." The Major smacked his lips and shrugged, but he wasn't happy. "It's your lab, Jen."

"Yeah, it's my lab," I agreed.

Major Fuller stood up and left without another word and I watched him, frowning to myself. Someone had let it slip and that was bad news, maybe. Most people, the general public, would believe we were carrying innocuous biological material for testing. NASA had been doing it for years, the Russians too, and it wasn't very far-fetched. Some people would know better though, like Allen and the rest of the crew, and they did have a right to know some of it. But not until we were on our way. This was too soon.

"Did Major Fuller talk to you yet?" I asked Nielson, bringing him to my apartment. Rio knew the look on my face and left to give us some privacy. I wasn't going to enjoy this very much.

"Allen?" the surgeon shook his head. "Not today, why?"

"He will," I gestured to a chair. "I need to brief you on something."

"Oh, this sounds good," Arthur sighed.

"We're bringing several hot samples of viral material," I said. "It's in containment right now, in the lab. It's what I've been working on and before we launch it'll be loaded onto Icarus."

"What material exactly?" Nielson stared at me.

"Right now it's just some A-Strain Influenza and smallpox," I said. "We're going to modify those, uh ... significantly, to better suit our purposes."

"What purposes?" he swallowed hard and I shrugged. "Why?"

"We're going to an alien planet and we have two nine millimeter pistols and a flare gun," I said. "What if they're not friendly?"

"Jennifer..." he smiled. "You can't be serious."

"It wasn't up to me," I said. "But I am serious. In the event that we contact an alien species, an intelligent species, which may pose significant threat to Earth..."

"You're going to attack them with the deadliest organisms we have?" Nielson stood up quickly. "That's insane!"

"It's all we have," I shrugged. "Before releasing the virus, we'll have to make every attempt to get DNA from the ... aliens. Some genetic material to assess vulnerability. I'll be able to do some additional, but limited modification to the virus if we need to."

"We're not going halfway across the damn galaxy to declare war on another planet." Nielson walked around my living room. "You don't even know if it would work. Hell, it probably wouldn't work. They aren't going to be human, whatever we find."

"No, but they will be carbon based organisms. They will share certain similarities and so they may be susceptible," I said. "And, Arthur, the reality is that there won't be anyone there. You know it and I know it. We'll find some bacteria probably, that's all."

"This is the craziest goddamn thing I ever heard of," Nielson shook his head. "Why didn't you say no? You're supposed to be the xenobiologist. Are you going to kill your first discovery?"

"I'm not going to kill anything," I blinked at him. "Whoever got this job had to accept all of it. This part as well. We don't have any big nuclear bombs. No death rays. The most efficient weapon we have at our disposal is a virus."

"Okay, so say we run into a planet full of Nazi's..." Nielson licked his lips. "Who decides if we're going to use this virus? You?"

"I brief the command crew twenty-four hours before we come out of hyperspace," I said. "It's a military decision. I don't want it."

"Oh, and so you're not going to be responsible? Just following orders?" Nielson sighed. "You're the expert, Doctor. You'll be making the decision and you know it."

"I'll brief everyone and we'll put it to a vote then," I said. "I didn't ask for this, okay?"

"This is just great," Nielson sat down again. "Whose brilliant fucking idea was this?"

"I don't know," I shrugged. "Probably ... It doesn't matter, we don't have a choice. It's Executive Order 26-0116 and the President signed it."

"Too much Hollywood," the man looked at me. "You know what, Jen? I don't care if they're Nazi's. I'm not going to unleash smallpox on a defenseless planet."

"I understand," I licked my lips. "But it doesn't change the fact that we have no idea what we'll find."

"What's the delivery system?" Nielson asked and I didn't say anything for a moment and he jerked upright suddenly. "You can't be serious..."

"We're the primary delivery system, failing any other feasible method," I said. "I ... I'll deliver it, if it comes to that. I've already decided."

We were quiet and this wasn't what we wanted. No sane person would.

"There's not going to be anyone there," Nielson finally said and it was a prayer, but in all likelihood an accurate one.