The New Girl

Elizabeth Davis was ****. She looked at her wrist mounted O2 sensor read 0%. She tried to breathe but it felt like there was no air in what she was breathing. Gasping. Head spinning. Falling. Faces surrounded her. They were blue, and lifeless, yet they were begging her to help them.

“Fuck,” she screamed out, waking up. She tore at her blankets and grabbed at her throat, trying desperately to breath. The air around her was working fine, and as the panic subsided, she realized she was caked in sweat. She laid back down in the bed and pulled the blankets back over her, and she sobbed quietly.

Davis soon pulled herself together, and realizing sleep wasn’t going to happen, slid out of her bed and dressed. The white and grey suit she had been given was too small and fit uncomfortably, but the recovery crew had found the sweater she had on the SpaceY vessel and given it back to her. She pulled it on, and hugged herself to try to get warm before stepping out of her room

She didn’t expect anyone would be awake at 0300Hrs in the cold habitat. The long hallway with its bare aluminum walls echoed to her footsteps. When she got to the kitchen, she found it deserted as expected, and she started to make a cup of tea. The hot drink made her feel calm, or at least calmer, most days.

As Davis looked around her in the mostly dark kitchen, the bleak thoughts that had tortured her awake most nights came to her. Why was she alive and all the others dead? She remembered the pleading voice of her boyfriend Stephen when he told the SpaceY CEO that they’d all die if he didn’t ask for help. A tear rolled down her cheek.

A polite, female voiced cough behind Davis alerted her to the presence of another person. She cursed and spun around.

“Shit I… hey Min, how… how are ya?”

“Sorry Liz,” apologized Min Li, who was standing in the doorway of the kitchen. “I tried to warn you without surprising you.”

“It’s um, it’s fine, sorry, I just, it’s not your fault,” stuttered Davis, who was shaking all over.

“Not sleeping again,” Li asked sympathetically. She walked over to the kettle and started making herself a cup of tea too.

“Naw, it’s… I guess I’m not used to this place yet,” Davis said, not wanting to admit how bad the nights had been.

“I understand, Liz,” Li said, patting her softly on the shoulder blade.

“Min I um,” Davis began before stopping herself.

“Li. Call me Li, hun, everyone does,” said responded with a warm smile, and sat down at the little kitchen table across from Davis.

“Oh I’m sorry I..”

“Don’t sweat it Liz, seriously,” Li said quickly, interrupting Davis in the process. “I don’t care to be honest but everyone calls me Li.”

“Even Eric,” Davis asked, happy to have the subject move away from herself. Li giggled.

“I don’t think he’s EVER called me Min actually!”

“That’s funny,” Davis said. “Why are you up so early anyway?”

“Oh it’s just the job,” Li responded, gesturing at the kitchen, “with Eric doing supply flights with the drones, I found it’s easier if I start early and get prepped for the day.”

“That makes sense, what’s on the menu,” Davis asked.

“Ah yes, well I just took out some frozen tofu and I’m gonna stir-fry it like back home,” Li explained, “first I need to get some veggies from the growers thought. There’s some gaps in my pantry.”

“What are we missing? I can go get it from the growing area if you like,” Davis offered.

“Noooo no no, don’t do that,” exclaimed Li. “I need bok choi and some sugar snap peas but Lyndon will lose his shit if you go collect em without him knowing!”

“He seems like an asshole,” the young Scot laughed.

“He is an asshole,” Li responded, “but a useful asshole.”

“Just like the real thing then eh,” Davis added, and the two women laughed heartily. They finished their cups of tea and went to work on breakfast. Like most days, it would be oatmeal and some dried fruits with tea.

“Bloody hell I could go for some coffee,” Davis said as they worked.

“I thought you Brits were tea drinkers,” Li retorted.

“Traditionally yes, but I picked up the habit years ago,” she said.

“That’s a shame because there isn’t any. We have some in the ration packs that we send on the rover expeditions for now, but those are the privilege of the explorers,” Li explained. “It’s shit coffee anyways. The guys say they love it because they love to tell each other how much they love and miss coffee but like, it’s powdered crap.”

“For the best then,” Davis answered with a nod, “I hate powdered coffee.”

“Right,” Li laughed, “it’s like, be coffee for go away!”

“Yes! Exactly this,” Davis riffed. They had just finished getting the oatmeal ready to be served when Davis heard footsteps approaching.

“Hello everyone,” Pamala Sheldon said, striding into the kitchen looking chipper. She and Li started chatting and Davis excused herself to go to the lavatory. When she returned, she could hear the two of them speaking in hushed tones.

“Yeah, he wanted me to look into everything before the move,” Sheldon was telling Li when she noticed Davis return. “Oh hey, so I have some news for both of you.”

“News you say,” Davis responded with curiosity. She liked Sheldon, the brunette was clearly very dedicated to the mission, especially mining, and as such they shared a lot of interests.

“Yes, good for one of you and for the other? Not so much,” Sheldon said, with a laugh before turning to Davis. “I talked to Tara last night, and with Hermann injured, she wants you to come with me on my next mining run.”

“Actual mining, really? That’s amazing,” gushed Davis. She’d been living in the world of fear-of-missing-out since she joined the Green Mars team and heard second-hand about the mining operations.

“I’m looking forward to having you along Liz. Li here,” Sheldon said, indicating to Li, “has had some excellent things to say about your work and I’m sure it’ll only get better when we’re working together.”

Davis felt liberated yet also felt back for Li being stuck in the kitchen still. The poor thing was the most experienced astronaut on the station if no all of Mars.

“Oh and I got you some Mining coveralls,” Sheldon added, handing her a bundle of blood-red clothes.

“You mean I get my spare jumpsuit back,” laughed Li, “sweet.”

“And I lose mine,” sighed Sheldon dramatically, “but hey, at least we’re closer to the same size than you and Li,” she added with a laugh.

“What’s the plan for you two,” Li asked Sheldon.

“Well today, I think we’ll have something to eat then head out in the small rover to check out the two mine sites and get Miss Davis here acquainted. Sound good Liz?”

“It sounds fantastic,” bubbled Davis, and Sheldon smiled.

“What will I do without my kitchen assistant,” Li asked rhetorically with a somber face.

“You need to get Eric on it Li. Men who cook are sexy, get him to cook for ya,” giggled Sheldon. Li laughed.

“That… is a great plan,” Li said with a laugh.

Sheldon and Davis ate their plates of oatmeal and headed on their assigned mission. On the way by they stopped into the shower room so Davis could change.

“No privacy around her eh,” she asked pointedly, feeling Sheldon’s eyes on her mostly-naked body.

“Nope,” Sheldon said, still apparently taking in the view. “We’ve seen everyone on the station naked tons of times by now. It’s just... how it is around here.”

“I thought it was odd there was no men’s and women’s,” Davis confessed. "That must cause some… drama?”

“Some,” Sheldon admitted with a wry chuckle. “It’s not been exactly a hardship in my experience though.”

“That Sam, was it? Hayden. That must have been alright,” Davis pointed out suggestively.

“Hah, yeah he’s a looker, isn’t he,” chuckled Sheldon while Davis stepped into her red jumpsuit.

“This fits so much better,” she sighed happily when she zipped it up.

“Red’s your colour babe,” Sheldon grinned, and the two miners headed out to the airlock.

Davis felt her anxiety rising as she dressed. The last time she’d even worn a suit was after the SpaceY rocket rescue, and as the clear, domed helmet buckled onto the neck collar, she could almost feel a panic attack welling up.

“Hey hun, you got this,” Sheldon’s said over the suit radio. She looked into Davis’ eyes and made a breathing hand gesture. Davis concentrated on the rising and falling of her chest, and the anxiety started to pass. It reactivated briefly when she heard the hiss of the airlock venting, but the notifications that her suit pressure was holding and O2 at 100% came through, she calmed once again.

The airlock door opened, and Davis looked out at a world she’d barely even seen yet had come to live on. The dusty, red panorama was like nothing she’d ever seen before. As far as the eye could see was the rolling dunes of red sand, rough, rocky foothills and above it all the dark sky. She felt elated, euphoric even, yet a tear rolled down her face.

“You OK Liz,” asked Sheldon, who had turned to face her.

“Yes I’m fine, it’s all so much that I…” Davis said before she trailed off, still in awe of what was before her.

“I understand, take your time hun. It’s just a scouting mission for you so we can take it slow OK,” she explained softly. Davis nodded in response.

“It’s incredible Pam,” she breathed.

“I forgot you hadn’t really been outside since you landed and… everything,” said Sheldon. “Like I knew, but kinda forgot the effect it has you know?”

“I’ve never thought that rock and dust could be so beautiful,” Davis breathed. “I wish Stephen could have seen it.”

“Was he your man,” Sheldon asked as the two started to walk to their rover.

“Yes, we were uh, close,” Davis said. The two got into the rover and, with the door sealed behind them, took off their helmets. It was small, much smaller than the exploration rover. Davis sat down in the seat next to the driver’s and sized up the vehicle. Inside, it was no larger than an Earth minivan. When Sheldon hit a button by the dashboard, the screens lit up with a ‘bing bong’ sound effect.

“This is the rover. It’s a little small, and because there’s no airlock, we gotta purge the whole thing to get in and out, but it does the job. Let’s go,” Sheldon said, punching coordinates into the screen as she spoke. The rover lurched roughly forward and then smoothed to a steady driving pace.

Davis sat silently for the first hour of the trip, watching the scenery passing by in breathless awe. She truly, perhaps for the first time, felt like she was on Mars.

“How’d you get into the program,” Sheldon asked after a while.

“The SpaceY program? I heard about it on the website the CEO runs. Advertising everywhere, ya know? I um, I applied because I always wanted to be an astronaut and thought this was how,” Davis explained.

“Did you apply to us too or just SpaceY,” Sheldon inquired. Davis felt nervous at the question, like she was leading her to something.

“All of them. SpaceY first but after I’d applied to them I didn’t think they’d take me so I applied to all of them expecting to stay where I was,” Davis said. Sheldon nodded and didn’t ask a follow-up question.

“I didn’t want to stay in the Scottish oil fields longer than I had to,” continued Davis. “I love Scotland, but Aberdeen? Flying to oil platforms every other week? Not for me.”

“Transferred from oil to minerals,” Sheldon asked, raising her eyebrow a touch.

“Naw, not really, from oil to water. They wanted me to be looking for water here,” Davis said then stopped herself. She felt like she was divulging too much, like she had to remain loyal to the company that almost killed her.

“Did you have starting sites,” asked Sheldon, her voice light, but cutting to the crux of the issue.

“I um…” Davis trailed off. She felt like a traitor but in this moment, she was realizing her future lay on Green Mars, not with SpaceY. “Yes, I can show you the sites we mapped. I haven’t seen them in person though you understand.”

“I’d love to see them,” Sheldon said, smiling very warmly. “Finding water has proven more difficult that I anticipated.”

“Is that a problem or…” asked Davis.

“No we have the hydro vaporators going but I want a well. Tara, particularly, wants a well,” Sheldon explained, her voice changing noticeably with the mention of the mission commander.

“She seems… friendly,” Davis said, looking for information. Try as she might, not one member of the crew had actually divulged to Davis what they thought about Miss Dayton.

“Oh she’s friendly all right,” Sheldon said with a harsh laugh.

“What’s that mean,” Davis asked, eyebrow raised.

“Oh well, for starters I’m pretty sure Carson is fucking her,” Sheldon said, “plus I heard Li says she ate her out after they met for the hiring interview.”

“Oh my God so it’s true,” gasped Davis.

“What’s true,” asked Sheldon, a confused smile on her face.

“That, that, the mission,” Davis began, feeling suddenly super awkward. She could feel herself blush as she spoke. “We called this mission the Fleetwood Mars Corporation.”

“Fleetwood… What,” a very confused looking Sheldon asked.

“You know the band, Fleetwood Mac, how they were all sleeping together,” Davis explained, “that’s where the joke came from. It’s dumb, forget I said anything.”

“Don’t be embarrassed,” Sheldon exclaimed quickly, “I just don’t get pop culture that’s all. That’s hilarious though. What did you hear?”

“Hehe all kinds of stuff. One of the guys, Trevor, insisted someone was making porn,” Davis said. She realized in that instant she couldn’t remember what Trevor looked like anymore, but she tried to brush that sad thought aside.

“That’s definitely bullshit,” Sheldon said confidently. “Like, I can’t see how that’d happen. Probably AI or like, parody porn or something right?”

“Yeah, probably right,” Davis lied. She trusted Trevor’s judgment on it but didn’t want to argue.

“What else though Liz? What did ya hear? Any juicy stuff,” pressed Sheldon, who sounded excited.

“I heard, and it’s only what I heard you understand,” she said, afraid of accidently insulting the pretty Canadian, “that um, that the CEO of Green Mars makes all new employees suck him off to get on the mission.” Sheldon laughed.

“OK that’s hilarious. I don’t even know what he looks like!”

“You’re not… offended or anything are you,” Davis asked hesitatingly.

“No of course not. Sex isn’t something to be ashamed of, and I didn’t have to blow anyone to get here but like… I would have if I got the job,” admitted Sheldon, blushing slightly.

“Oh there was one wild one there’s a cult leader on the mission too,” Davis added offhand.

“That’s just Hans,” exclaimed Sheldon with a giggle.

“I didn’t mean to insult your,” started Davis before Sheldon stopped her.

“Damn girl, shit I’m not insulted chill. He’s called himself a cult leader before, I doubt anyone is getting insulted by SpaceY calling him one,” Sheldon said, placing more scorn into the world ‘SpaceY’ than Davis liked.

“They said that he was like, a sex cultist who wants to make Mars into a hedonism paradise,” she continued.

“Yup, that’s Hans alight,” smirked Sheldon. “What else tell me more!”

Davis thought it was pretty funny that the rumor mill on her mission was so wrong (according to Sheldon anyways) and yet also so funny. She wracked her brain trying to think of another good rumor.

“Oh right,” she began, “OK so the CEO smuggled on a bunch of ****.”

“What?! That’s wild, really,” bubbled Sheldon.

“Ya so his baggage was overweight, but they didn’t do shit cus he’s the CEO right,” Davis said quickly, caught up in the gossip, “then halfway through the voyage, the medic finds him passed out on the treadmill. He was high as fuck!”

“That’s fucking wild,” Sheldon said, shaking her head.

“Yeah then they tried to wake him, and he started ranting about spies,” Davis continued but, unexpectedly, Sheldon cut her off.

“What about spies,” she demanded, her voice not longer containing any levity.

“He was just high and crazy, Davis said, trying to backtrack. “Ranting. You probably saw what he posted online before we left right?

“Yeah sure but what did he say about spies,” Sheldon pressed. Davis thought this sudden paranoia was strange. Strange and alarming.

“Just that he had them everywhere and mentioned there was one here is all. He was probably lying I dunno. When he got high, he’d just talk and talk you know…” Davis said but trailed off seeing Sheldon’s stony face.

“Don’t worry about it Liz, it’s just ranting you’re right,” Sheldon said without emotion after a long silence. Davis nodded and said nothing.

The rest of the trip was awkward. They conversed, they discussed tricks of the trade, water well locations, and all manner of shop talk, but they didn’t mention SpaceY again. Davis was impressed by the mining sites and was excited to learn how to use the equipment that Sheldon showed her, but at the end of the trip, she felt afraid and conflicted.

What was the line between loyalty, disloyalty and opportunity Davis wondered to herself on the quiet drive back. The SpaceY mission was completely ruined, that much was obvious, but what would happen if they showed up with a new mission? Who does she even work for? Then another, more alarming thought crept into her mind.

Who do I belong to?