Insomnia

Gabriel Alphonse paced slowly down the long half-lit habitat hall. It was his second sleepless night, and he was really beginning to think he’d made a wrong turn. In spite of having been delayed for a week in arriving, the weather had been foul enough that he was amazed they’d got in at all. Alphonse used to have it all. He may not have been a player or manager but being a Bundesliga team doctor had been one of the greatest experiences of his life. He saw not only Europe, but the world. He was at the top of his field, treating the best athletes in the world. He was paid exorbitantly, he had a beautiful flat, and the women! He smiled, what more could a half Algerian kid from Sarcelles ask for, he mused to himself. Now, he was locked in a dingy little habitat with eleven other people on a frozen hell others called Greenland. The habitat never seemed warm enough, or was it the jumpsuits? He shivered.

The meet and greet with the other crew had been awkward. Most of them had science backgrounds, and several of those that didn’t were ex-military. In the real world, he was the guy who saved the ligaments of star players, but here? Even though he knew that sport-type injuries were the far most likely injury out here, it seemed like they saw him as less serious somehow.

Perhaps, he thought, he was just imagining it, but it transported him back to the time before he was Gabriel Alphonse: elite team surgeon and was just another poor teenager in Paris. Back then, he was Algerian to many of his fellow countrymen, but oh how that changed when he stood on the sidelines during the Euros. They called him French then. It was different this time, he thought. He knew it wasn’t like that here, but that feeling of being on the outside looking in followed him.

“But I am very much, on the inside,” he muttered to himself. A pale beam of light from the midnight sun softly illuminated in the windows above him. He cursed sourly under his breath. It was hope for a new world, a new life so far beyond the prejudices, hatreds and wars of Earth. Leaving behind that control by one person over another. One people over another. It all sickened him. How many, he thought, had died in the pointless wars? The hate, ****, the stupidity of it all, it made him want to yell.

“That’s why I’m here,” he said solemnly, thinking about the future, his future on Mars.

Mars was the future, and all that was in the past. It had always fascinated him, that utopian, untouched place, free from the conflicts of Earth that he could call home. He never thought it was even a possibility until very recently. But when Green Mars Corp announced applications for the first twelve, he had the form filled out the same day. When he got away from Paris that first time and looked up into the clear night sky, he saw the cosmos like never before in his life. And he saw Mars. The Red planet twinkled above him, and he knew in his heart he belonged there. In the cold red desert in the sky. He was so close now, and he steeled himself for what was to come.

“A boring year of waiting in Greenland. You can almost touch it. You’re almost there Gabriel.”

He thought about his team and laughed to himself. It wasn’t a team at all, it was just him and Ilsa. Ilsa Kellerman was not his choice for nurse. She was competent and confident to be fair, but she was an aloof and humorless ex-German Army medic. Not exactly the demeanor and expertise were not what he would have prioritized in his assistant. She knows complex trauma, he admitted, but when would they see that on Mars? Surely nobody would survive such an injury outside the hab.

The five other men and six women of the crew made for an odd bunch in his reckoning. The Americans seemed to be running the mission, and they acted like it. They’d arrived first and started before the others even got there. Weather or not, the presumptuousness they showed about it irritated him. But the person who vexed him the most was the Canadian. Pamala Sheldon, from the Yukon, she said. Or Edmonton? He couldn’t remember. The others were experts in their fields, or hardened professionals but Miss Pamala stood out for the wrong reason: she was professionally unremarkable. He wondered if that was unfair, maybe working in mining isn’t glamourous or provable and that she is an expert at something he didn’t understand. She mentioned Uranium mining. What he knew with certainty, was that she was a very difficult person to read. Aloof, yet friendly. Approachable, yet distant.

Alphonse was still contemplating this when he heard the squeak of the heavy door to the habitation area, and Tara Dayton appeared. The slender American was wearing her usual white jumpsuit with a fleece blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

“Oh, hello Dr. Alphonse, not sleeping well?”

“Good morning, err, night, Miss Dayton. It would seem I have yet to recover from the jet lag.” Tara looked sleepy to him, like she had just woken up minutes ago.

“It can take awhile, plus with the daylight at night… it can be tough. And please, call me Tara.”

“And do call me Gabriel, Tara.”

“How are you settling in besides?”

“Oh… well. It will take some getting used to I’m sure but it’s a bright future we have here,” he said, gesturing to the unlit habitat.

“It is, and it’ll only get brighter Gabriel. I’m glad to have the chance to talk to you and greet you properly. I was very excited to read your resume, you came very well recommended and let me just say I am delighted to have you here.” She brushed his shoulder with her slender hand lightly.

“I couldn’t imagine missing this for anything.”

“I bet not,” she said, smiling warmly. “So many people on Earth have dreamed for generations to be in our shoes.”

“A good crew we have here,” he said, keeping the conversation going.

“Indeed they are. We’ve hired some of the best professionals in their fields from around the world. Scientists, fighter pilots, and of course, an elite team doctor,” she said, smiling proudly. “How was your flight in? I heard it was bumpy?”

“It was, frankly, terrifying Tara. It was fine right up until approach. Mister Alain said it had to do with the high altitude we were at most of the flight, but we descended right into a storm.”

“You’re lucky Eric and Li had the controls. Did they tell you about the New Mexico incident?”

“Hrm, no,” he said, raising his eyebrows.

“They are humble, are our pilots. Something went wrong in their last training flight, but they managed to get the sick bird down intact. Some of the best piloting our trainer Bill has ever seen,” she gushed. She clearly didn’t seem too worried about the incident, or she was putting on a very brave face.

“That’s… I’m glad to hear they know their craft.”

“Yes, they’re the best in the buisness. Soon they’ll be the best pilots on Mars,” she added with exuberance.

“What went wrong?”

“Well,” she began, taking a deep breath, “we think it was sabotage Gabriel. A hack.”

“What?”

“It’s true. There was no system problem, the investigation found no mechanical faults. It would seem a program was installed on the auto pilot to shut down key systems in such a way as to mimic an accidental power failure.”

He looked at her, not disguising the horror on his face. Dayton seemed remarkably relaxed about it.

“What… Who would do this,” he stammered.

“We believe it was SpaceY. They’ve been our primary competition for some time now, and this, we think, was their attempt to delay the project. It will not work, Gabriel.”

“The damage was not severe?”

“Oh, the ship was a total write off, it was amazing those two got their sick bird on the ground. The whole frame was distorted by the impact, it was amazing they walked away from it. It was the trainer though, designed only for Earth’s atmosphere, and their training was done. It may delay the follow-up missions by a few months, but that’s OK.

“I see,” he said, not disguising his apprehension.

“I understand Gabriel. It’s a mess, but listen, we’re going to do this, it’s going to succeed,” she said, placing her hand on his shoulder.

“Yes. We will succeed,” he said, “a new world awaits us.” Dayton smiled warmly and nodded.

“Yes, yes there is, all for us. Listen though, Gabriel, I’d like you to keep your ears open for any… disloyalties.”

“Dis… disloyalties,” he said, hesitating. “Are you… do you means spies?”

“A spy would be very disloyal. But anything else that seems, out of place. We need to keep ourselves safe. We’re going farther and higher than any humans have. We’ll be a long way from home.”

“As a doctor…” he began before Dayton cut him off.

“I understand completely, I’d never ask you to break confidentiality! This is about safety and just keeping an ear out,” she said, waving her hand dismissively, as if to ward off the spies.

“I… understand Tara,” he said, and she smiled.

“I knew you would.” She leaned in and hugged Alphonse tightly. Her soft, braless breasts pressed up against him. She lingered for a time before breaking the embrace.

“I’ll head back to bed I think, thank you for the little chat, Gabriel, and welcome.” She turned and walked back to the living quarters, her footsteps ringing hollow on the metal floors. Alphonse watched her walk, his eyes falling to the graceful wiggle of her arse. If he was trapped, he reflected with a smile, at least he was trapped with beautiful women. There are worse ways to spend five isolated years, and after that, there’ll surely be a parade of tourists and new settlers through the colony.

He remembered the times he had as team doctor, it was when most of his go-to highlight were from. The fame and position had been wild, and the parties! He laughed remembering his first time at one of those parties. He had been shocked, scandalized even. Not so anymore. He’d done almost everything and almost everyone. He wanted to experience everything he could in life, and he did, or at least so far, he gave it a good try.

“Helps they don’t **** test the doctor,” he chuckled. He already missed cocaine, and K? Magical. He laughed to himself.

“Maybe it’s for the best I’m leaving all that behind. It was getting a bit too good.” He walked slowly back to his room, intent on sleeping this time.