Chapter 15

One by one, the fighters returned to the SS Peake, recovering inside of the cargo bay rather than the alert hatches on the ship’s belly. You can’t land a cargo ship on Mars with a fighter hanging on the side. Mars frowns on it. Alan did a perfect victory roll inside the cargo bay before forcing his ship down on the deck, where the magnetic clamps grabbed the landing skids and held them tight. “That was for you Josh,” he whispered, and when Pandora heard in on the headsets, she broke down into tears. She forgot all about Joshua Rafferty, a Berserker that she came to love like a little brother. He invented the “indoor victory roll.”

The crew of the SS Peake was chaining Scarlett’s Harlot down before Alan could finish his shut down checklist. It was a good last mission. He just wished his gang was alive to share it with him.

“Thank you for everything, Captain,” said Alan’s navigator, Lt. Zamka, and he extended a gloved hand. “You moved a moon, and you asked me to help. And we did it! I still can’t believe it.”

They shook hands and Alan said, “Thank you Lieutenant. I still don’t believe it myself. It’s folks like you who made it happen. If you ever find yourself in need of work, there will always be a position open for you at Scarlett Water Systems.”

“That’s real? That’s not just a cover for the operation?”

“It’s as real as rain,” said Alan with a wink. “I should use that as a motto for the company!” Alan has never encountered rain, but it sounds nice. They got out of the cockpit as Commander See announced that the re-entry checklist had started, and everyone needed to get to their landing positions.

Alan followed behind the “chain gang” and insured all five fighters were chained down properly and was done when he got the call to be in their seats in ten minutes for re-entry. He floated to life support and tossed them his helmet and stripped off his environment suit and let it float back to the life support team. “Don’t forget these,” said the Life Support technician, who handed Alan a pair of boots as Alan zipped up his flight suit.

“Oh damn, thanks.” Alan had completely forgotten about his boots. He normally doesn’t wear boots on board, usually he wears bedroom slippers. The environment suits have built-in boots, so he didn’t need boots. He dashed back to his quarters where Pandora was waiting. She gave him a congratulatory kiss, then he helped her unfold the seats. They had themselves seated and strapped in just in time. The ship shuttered as they dipped into the atmosphere, then began shaking crazily.

“Holy crap!” shouted Pandora. “Who’s driving this thing?” She turned to Alan and said, “What’s your middle name?”

“What?” laughed Alan. What a weird time to ask that question.

“What’s your middle name? All I know is that it starts with B.”

“Why?”

“Because, I don’t know it,” said Pandora.

“We’ve been married almost nine years and you don’t know my middle name?”

“I want to know before we die, which might happen in a few minutes with this flight crew.”

Captain Scarlett took a deep breath. “Promise you won’t laugh?”

Pandora held up her middle finger. “Marine’s Honor!”

“It’s Bean.”

“What?”

“Bean.”

“Like Navy Bean?”

“Yes,” sighed Alan. “My parents were vegan hippies.”

“Alan Bean? Who’s going to believe in a spaceman named Alan Bean?” Pandora whooped with laughter.

“You said you wouldn’t laugh.”

“Marines lie.”

Pandora became quiet and clutched Alan’s arm tightly. “What’s wrong? You’ve been through worse landings than this.”

“I think I’m going to be grounded.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think?”

“I don’t know,” cried Alan. “Why are you going to be grounded? Did you piss off the admiral again?”

“Think! What have we been doing like rabbits since we hit Saturn orbit?”

“You ... you’re pregnant? We’re pregnant?”

“Yep. Looks like the ball they left for you works pretty good!” she joked about it, but she was terrified of what he was going to say. They had never talked about having children. It never entered their minds, but the moment she found out that she was pregnant, she realized she wanted the baby. The next thing she knew, she was being kissed passionately by Alan. She was panting when they broke the kiss. “So you think it’s a good idea? They’re probably going to assign me to an earth billet.”

“I love the idea, I love you, I love the baby, I love the earth and the dog we’re going to have.”

She was so relieved she could cry. She was terrified at what he was going to say when he found out. A three-year separation followed by a rocky reunion, then a high pressure mission ... she was truly scared. They held hands and kissed until they felt the skids hit the landing pad and the safety belts retracted.

As he bent over to pull on his boots, Alan’s hand brushed a pocket on the side of his seat, and he realized that was the book he had been looking for.

“What are you reading?” Pandora asked. She figured it was part of his fetish for ancient literature.

“An ancient novella called ‘The Martian Way.”

‘I was right,’ she thought. “Lemme see.”

“The story is over two hundred years old. You’ll hate it.”

“Lemme see,” she said, and she snatched the book out of his hand.

“Don’t, give it back, it’s a rare copy.”

“If it was that rare you wouldn’t have brought it to...” She flipped to the last pages and her blood ran cold at what she saw. “You based this entire plan on an ancient fable?”