Your Name:
	Your E-Mail Address:
	Subject:
	Message: : Chapter 2 : When work ended that day, Owen dutifully trudged to AdminCore with Tanya. : AdminCore was the warren-like complex of offices, meeting rooms, and : archives that comprised the Marathon's bureaucratic heart. It didn't : surprise him that they kept the place spic-and-span. No dented gray metal, : flickering lights, or unworked rock left over from Deimos. Instead, : pristine corridors of glass and steel, sometimes decorated with rows of : hydroponic plants gleaming green in the steady light. : "Tanya?" : "Yeah?" : Owen breathed in and hoped that what he was about to say wouldn't sound too : awkward. : "I appreciate you looking out for me. But… why?" : Because it had to be pity, right? Owen had been a nonentity in school and : being a cadet didn't change anything. : "Why do you think?" : He hadn't expected her to respond with a question. Should he give an honest : answer? : "Because you think it'll hurt group cohesion for cadets to openly mock : each other?" : "Well, that is true, and that is something I want to avoid. But maybe I : also think life on the Marathon could be a little better. A little more : flexible." : "Really? Aren't we all going to be on the paradise of Tau Ceti in a few : years?" : Her shoulders drew up. "Careful with sarcasm in Morale Department, okay? : I've got a lot riding on this." : Owen hesitated, and then nodded. : He put one foot in front of the other until they reached Morale Department. : The front door stayed stubbornly shut when Tanya pressed the entry button, : and she made a face. : "Someone needs to check the automated systems. This sort of thing's been : happening all over," she said. : "Ask Durandal about it?" : "He's not reporting any problems, but maybe it wouldn't hurt to have one : of the AI techs look into his systems." : Tanya pressed it again and the door slid open. A computer in the metallic : blue main office directed them to a leftward corridor which led them to a : smaller teal room sporting rows of terminals with one big terminal on the : wall. The big one's screen was currently set to the Marathon logo. : Owen looked around as he took a seat at the nearest terminal. There were a : dozen people already there, all cadets like him. It figured; no way would : they let someone as inexperienced as him into Morale Department proper. He : was in some kind of junior version. : "Good morning, volunteers!" Director Adam announced as he strode in : before the big terminal, aglow with all the optimism that came from : refusing to think. "I know that most of you are new here, and what's : more, most of you are here because of sub-optimal DREAMS scores. With the : exception of Tanya, of course." : Tanya nodded in acknowledgement. : "Success here will open new doors. And failure will have : consequences." : Adam paused, as if to let that sink in. Usually, it'd scare Owen a bit. : Because it wasn't just the deletion of creds and the revocation of : privileges. It was also the slow accumulation of demerits that eventually : meant no one trusted you with anything and you ended up one of the old : screw-ups doing menial work until they died. : But maybe there was some honesty in that path. It sure didn't scare Nyx. : So why did it scare him? : "Now, I'm pleased to announce that we'll have the honor of being the : first BOBs outside Morale Department proper to view a new colony update! : Turn your eyes to the terminal." : He stepped to the side as the lights dimmed. The Marathon logo on the big : terminal disappeared, replaced with a vista of the colony, built on a moon : somewhat smaller than Earth orbiting the super-Earth of Tau Ceti e. : Owen clenched his teeth. He hated looking at the place. It's not that the : colony was especially terrible. It was just a sprawl of prefab metal : structures surrounding a power plant with some big farms around the : perimeter. : What he hated was seeing the moon itself: those vast steppes of springy blue : grass; the great wind-sculpted stones, whose patches of lush azure ferns : hinted at the life within the rock; the endless gray-blue skies lit up by : the pale sun when not covered by churning storm clouds; the broad river : and the tons of free-flowing water. : He hated it because he'd almost certainly never see it in-person. : The film was another light propaganda piece telling everyone how great things : were going down there. Crop yields were up 20%, the fusion plant's output : was steady, and a new soil treatment plant had just been set up. The : camera focused on the most photogenic colonists, the lot of them sporting : grins that made Owen want to break some teeth. Talk about the Colony : Triathlon being a great success, and a short interview with its winner, : Lieutenant Marcus Smith. : Sol-born folks usually had given names and family names since they still had : families. But the whole thing still had the whiff of pretension to Owen. : "Lieutenant Marcus is actually en route to the Marathon to share what : he's learned with our own security team," Adam said in a brief : interruption. : Since triathlon skills are just so essential on a spaceship, Owen thought to : himself. : Then came the hard part, the one even harder than seeing the moon: the : promises. : The camera switched to an elderly man in a scientist's blue coveralls, Dr. : Tsegaye according to the caption. He smiled and began to speak, his voice : dropping in volume as the translator changed his English—the kind spoken : on Earth 300 plus years ago—into the version spoken on the Marathon. : "We are so grateful to the crew of the Marathon," he said. : "You made this possible by caring for us when we were in cryostasis, : and we have not forgotten this. That's why we're working hard to find out : ways for you to safely join us down here. This colony is for all humans: : those of us born on Earth and Mars and taken here, and those of you who : were born on the Marathon. I am confident we will find a way within the : next decade." : Because that was catch for this whole colonization deal. The moonside : colonists were all Sol-born, and a combo of stasis and cybernetics had : preserved their comparatively gravity-toughened bodies and active immune : systems all through the 300-year journey. : Meanwhile, the born-on-boards—the BOBs—had gotten more fragile with each : passing generation. Growing up in low gravity didn't do much good for bone : structure. Infancies spent in clean rooms wrecked the immune system. : Exposure to cosmic rays played havoc with genetics. : If Owen ever set foot on the colony, the moon's gravity (slightly lighter : than Earth's) would kill him. Not right away, but it would. It'd be the : same with Nyx, Tanya, and everyone else he knew. And even though : scientists talked about cybernetics and gene therapy, no one with a half a : brain believed they'd figure it out within their lifetimes. : Anger burned inside. He looked at some of the others in the room to see their : reactions. No read on Tanya, her face set in her usual look of placid : confidence. The rest stared at the screen. So damned typical of the BOBs; : everyone coasting along in their comfortable little prisons, not knowing : how badly they'd been cheated. : "Exciting news, no?" Adam said. : Owen had gotten so caught up in his anger that the video had ended without : him noticing. : Tanya tapped away at her terminal, probably responding to some very important : email. The rest of the volunteers either made noncommittal : "yeahs" or "uh huhs" or stayed silent. : What would Nyx do? She'd have some smart remark to cut through all the : bullshit, then she'd learn back with her lips twisted into a glorious : smirk that upended everything the Marathon stood for. : He wasn't quick or sharp like her. But he knew his way around an argument. : Maybe that was enough. : Adam droned on. "As we speak, we're making history. Obviously, it's : vital that the entire crew realize this." : Well, if no one else was going to say anything, Owen would. He raised his : hand. : "Yes, Owen?" : Adam had taken the bait. Tanya shot him a warning glance, which he ignored. : Owen started. "Speaking of history, does anyone ever think back to how : things were in Sol? I seem to remember reading that the gravity difference : made it impossible for people born on space stations or in the outer moons : to safely set foot on Earth." : Adam blinked in surprise. "This isn't a history seminar, Owen." : "No, but history's always relevant. Don't you think it's weird that even : with all the UESC's resources, they never found a way to help space-born : people overcome this challenge?" : Tanya shifted in her seat, and then turned her attention back to her : terminal. Adam, on the other hand, looked as if someone had told him : Founder's Day had been canceled. : "Owen! That's an inexcusable attitude to take. These scientists are : working themselves to the bone—" : Heat flushed Owen's cheeks and he stood up. : "Oh yeah, a few dozen scientists with barely any resources can figure : out in a decade what an entire solar system failed to figure out for : centuries!" : Adam didn't say anything right away. His mouth clamped shut, red slowly : creeping into his cheeks as he was finally forced to confront a genuine : emotion. : "Owen, I'm warning you! The rest of you, I want you to take Owen as an : example of failure. One day, we'll be off the Marathon. Down on the : colony, we'll have real homes of our own. We'll have gardens, fresh air, : and space. All that requires is our cooperation and dedication. Which, I'm : sad to say, you're not seeing here." : "Sure, Adam," Owen practically shouting now. "Do any of you : think the colony's going to end up any different from Earth or Mars? : Because it sounds like we're all going down there to live large, and we : already know how that'll turn out." : It felt as if some great weight, the accumulation of each humiliating : assignment and each forced smile over the course of twenty years, had : lifted from Owen's shoulders. : Maybe it'd lift from the other BOBs, too. : "Whatever," one of the other cadets, a reedy guy with unkempt blond : hair, said. "There's a ton of room down there. We're doing our part : so we can get more, later." : "I'm sure we'll come up with technologies to avoid those mistakes," : another cadet said. : And it spread, from one cadet to another. Not the anger against the system : he'd hoped to provoke but anger against him. Because he was weird. Because : he liked being alone, because he hated playing their game, because he saw : through the happy lies. : Adam smiled. It wasn't even the gloating smile of the villain triumphant; : rather, the smug, beneficent smile of someone who truly believed he'd done : good. : Defeated, Owen sank back into her seat and wondered just how badly he'd : screwed himself over. : ********* : The Marathon's leisure opportunities were limited at best: non-mandatory : exercises, reading, watching movies, playing games, access to gardens and : recreation decks. But you needed crew creds to do any of them. : Crew creds that Owen no longer had. : Thus, in the time-honored manner of cred-less BOBs, he loitered around the : Conurb 5 Ringway. Nyx kept him company. : "Man, wish I'd been there to see you go off." : "Don't think the rest of the cadets were impressed." : Actually, Owen wasn't sure he was impressed. All he'd really done was : complain and maybe give Tanya—who'd only ever helped him—a hard time. : But Nyx seemed to like it. : "Those assholes don't know anything that some admin didn't regurgitate. : See? All those weird old books you read came in handy." : Owen blushed. Nyx was always supportive but not usually impressed. Above : them, images of dark clouds covered the skylight. Audio played the sound : of heavy rain splashing on the ground. It was either "Rainy Day : Tokyo" or "Mombasa Afternoon Deluge"; Owen wasn't quite : sure. : "What really gets me," Owen said, "is that the only reason : we're here is because more than 300 years ago, the UESC—which might not : even exist anymore—decided that it'd be a great idea to send humans to Tau : Ceti. And thus, we're stuck for our entire lives on this glorified : moonlet." : "Guess that's a pretty raw deal," Nyx said. : They leaned against the walls near the entry to a narrow access tunnel. It : was almost 1500 hours, so the Ringway was pretty quiet. Computers still : watched, but Owen knew the algorithm; he and Nyx could avoid attention so : long as they moved every ten minutes or so. And talk with their faces away : from the camera so that it didn't read their lips. There weren't any : microphones on the Ringway, so far as he knew. : Of course, sooner or later he'd have to go back to Cast Iron Cozy where his : peers waited to scold him again. : "It is a raw deal. I just wish I wasn't the only one who recognized : that." : "Hmm." Nyx's expression turned thoughtful. "Think maybe it's : time to commandeer the ship and fly back to Sol? We could be space pirates : or something!" : "I like that. We could make Adam walk the plank." : "Come again?" : "It's a thing from old pirate stories. Where they'd make someone walk a : plank off the ship to get rid of them." : "Hm, I like it." : "Anyway, all this talk about building the future is just that: : talk." : "Right, the 'future'. We trashed Earth, we trashed Mars, we trashed : Titan and all the other miscellaneous moons, but hey, I'm sure we'll get : it right this time. Just had a thought: if it were up to you, what would : you do about it? If you had the power?" Nyx asked. : "Hell if I know," Owen said, but he thought about it a moment. : "I can deal with living in space for the rest of my life. Since we'll : probably ruin the environment even faster if all us BOBs set foot there, : it's probably best for us to stay on-board. : "I just wish they were honest about it and work on ways to make life on : the Marathon a little better. On Tau Ceti too. Make things bearable and : sustainable. Which is what our ancestors should've done with Earth in the : first place." : "No argument here," Nyx said. "So what are you gonna do now : that you can't afford to do anything?" : "I'm almost done with East of Eden." : Nyx blinked. "Started on what?" : "A novel from the 20th century." : "Oh yeah, that sounds up your alley. You know, I tried reading one of : those old books. Washington Square I think. Forget who wrote it." : "Henry James. What did you think?" : Nyx looked a bit guilty all of a sudden. "Didn't finish it. Had a hard : time wrapping my head around all the family stuff, you know?" : "Gets easier the more you read, but it is a conceptual leap from what : we're used to." : "I mean, just tying yourself to another person your whole life and : having kids the old-fashioned way… hard to understand. I could see myself : going for a five- or maybe ten-year marriage contract. But beyond that? : Seems nuts." : "What if they were the right person?" Owen asked. : And he didn't want to say it because he knew it was stupid, but sometimes he : dreamed of spending his life with Nyx. Because seeing her defiant eyes was : the only thing that made him feel free. : "Guess I could spend my life with the right person," Nyx said, : after thinking about it a bit. "There are two couples in my hab that : have been together for more than thirty years. It's kinda cute. Anyway, : what's this book about? Family stuff?" : His heartbeat slowed as she changed the subject to something safe. But part : of him wished she hadn't. : "Yeah, and also how life back then was deeply unfair." : "Worse than this?" : As much as he liked Nyx, it sometimes bothered him how little she knew about : anything that wasn't part of the world in front of her. : "Much, much worse. Honestly, it's enough to almost make you feel : grateful to be on the Marathon." : But he didn't read old novels to gawk at misery or feel better about his : present state. He did it because they were set on the living world of : Earth, not the sterile world in which he existed. : "Okay, if your book makes this place look good, you need do something : else," Nyx said. "You've been kicked out of high society, so I : say it's time for go all out." : "How do you mean?" : "I'm playing at an underground party tomorrow. I've been going nuts : playing 'social' music, so I need to play something a little bit : anti-social. And I'd love for you to see me." : Owen nodded, already mulling it over. "That is pretty tempting. But it : probably means even worse trouble for me." : "How much more trouble can you get?" : "And I'm still not convinced Leela doesn't know about these underground : parties. My theory is she allows underground parties as kind of a release : valve, and only sends in security if the noise starts bothering : people." : "That means Leela practically wants us to go. You know, get it out of : our systems or something," Nyx said. : Which maybe was why nothing ever changed. That even by rebelling, Owen was : playing into the system. : Fuck you, brain, Owen thought. : "You know what?" Owen said. "I'll go." : "What changed your mind?" Nyx asked. : "I'm never going to fit in here so I might as well go all out, like you : said." : Nyx smiled and rubbed her hands together. "That's what I wanted to hear! : Okay, let me tell you how we'll do this…"
	If you'd like to include a link to another page with your message, please provide both the URL address and the title of the page:
	Optional Link URL:
	Optional Link Title:
	If necessary, enter your password below:
	Password: