Chapter 10

Dr. Elizabeth Grace was not happy. Someone had leaked word of Samantha's test and she was now being visited by the main Senator who is against the Mars Mission to explain her waste of government dollars and time.

"Miss Grace, would you tell me why we should continue funding the testing for astronauts, when you are wasting it testing civilians?" Senator Moran asked, condescendingly.

"Of course, Mr. Moran." Elizabeth smiled back at him enjoying his bristling at the lack of title in his name. After all if he wasn't going to use hers, she wouldn't use his ... Then her voice became firmer. "We are testing Miss Jenkins to prove it can be done. As for the cost of her testing, it has been more than offset by the greatly increased morale on our space and moon stations, as well as the savings in research and development of the sonic washing machine, that her suggestions have given us. Suggestions for which I remind youshe has received commendations from the head of the NSAA".

"Be that as it may, she is not trained and when she fails, you will have wasted countless peoples' hours, money, and time, none of which we can afford to lose if we're going to reach our target date for Mars." Senator Moran said, smugly.

Elizabeth's eyes narrowed. "That won't happen because Miss Jenkins will pass the test. She has done exemplary so far."

"Uh-huh, and has she passed the darkness test?"

"We haven't gotten to that point yet, but I know she will."

"Is that so?'

"Yes, it is."

"Then I recommend you proceed with the test immediately and stop wasting precious tax dollars."

Elizabeth's eyes narrowed as she stared back at him. When Senator Moran gave her a fake sweet smile, she reached for her phone. "Dave, it's me. Go to phase two ... yes, that's right, Mr. Moran's instructions."

She hung up and looked back at the Senator. "The next phase is beginning as you wish. Would you like to view the test?"

"Indeed I would." Senator Moran said, thinking he'd watch the demise of the Mars mission.

Dave hung up the phone and shook his head. Then he turned to his assistant.

"What is it?" she asked curiously, with one eyebrow raised.

Dave sat silently for a moment before saying, "We're going to phase two."

"Phase two? But that isn't for another month," she protested.

Dave nodded. "I know that, and you know that, but the Senator doesn't care." Dave looked at the screen where Samantha was laying on her bunk reading a book. "Good luck, Sam," he said, and reached out and flipped a switch.

Samantha was reading in bed when the overhead light flickered, went out, came back on for a few seconds, and then went out again. After a moment of complete darkness, the emergency lights came up, casting a reddish glow about the room.

Alarmed, Samantha hurried out of bed and rushed over to the cockpit area. After turning on the screen and turning the monitor to "ship's systems," she saw that the primary power supply had failed and that the secondary system was at minimal power.

She looked around nervously and called out, "Um ... did you guys forget to pay the electric bill?"

Not getting a reply, Samantha hurriedly consulted the manual and shut down all unnecessary systems, leaving only the emergency lights on. Then she grabbed a flashlight out of a storage cabinet and went down into the cellar. Once there, she pulled out her trunk and a small backpack. She took several items out of the trunk and put them into the backpack. Then she took out what those in the control room thought was a toolbox. It too went into her backpack, although it stuck out from the top.

After she zipped up her backpack as far as it would zip, Samantha packed up the trunk and put it away again. Then she picked up her backpack and headed back up the ladder.

Five minutes later, Elizabeth and the Senator arrived at the testing control center. "How she doing?" Elizabeth asked, as she walking through the doors.

"She was surprised by the power outage, but she's handled it okay." Dave replied.

"What did she do after the main power went out?" Elizabeth asked.

"She joked about us not paying the electric bill and then consulted the computer. Then she went down into the cellar and brought up some things."

"What is she doing now?"

"Just going through the things she brought up."

"What did she bring up?"

"It looked like a flashlight, some batteries, and a tool box."

"A tool box, does she think she can fix it?" the Senator asked incredulously, before bursting out laughing. Elizabeth and several of the techs frowned. Still laughing, the Senator headed back towards the door. "You picked a good one there, Doc. Let me know when it's time for the next phase of the test. Fix it? HA! HA! HA!"

Several days later, the emergency lights went out even though Sam had gone through the emergency power conservation procedures. All nonessential systems were either turned off or turned down to the bare minimum, but the emergency lights still went out. Samantha never noticed though. She was already using wind up lanterns and flashlights to provide light, and a wind up computer for entertainment when she wasn't reading printed novels.

Elizabeth couldn't stop talking about how Samantha had surpassed everyone's expectations. "You should have seen his face!" Elizabeth laughed, as she told Robert later that night, referring to Senator Moran's visit earlier that day. He had arrived in the hopes of seeing her panic when the flashlight batteries died, leaving her in total darkness. Instead, he found her happily reading a book by a wind up lantern.