People of Mars (11 page)

“I’ll remember to stay
clear of you, when you’re holding sharp objects.”

His comment bewildered
her. She’d expected a contemptuous reply. She had deluded herself
she might be the one to frighten him for once.

“Why did you do
it?”

“He deserved it.”

“I mean the triggering
reason. You don’t plan to kill someone with a paper cutter.”

A slight shiver ran
along Anna’s back. Hassan’s tone was the same he’d used earlier,
when they were in the dry riverbed. He seemed even too much of an
expert on the subject. However, he wasn’t so scary now. It was as
if he understood.

“Jealousy, I guess.
I’d seen a photograph with his children … dunno, I just lost my
head.”

“And so you thought it
better to deprive your siblings of their father as well,” he said,
with evident disgust.

Her siblings. She
hadn’t thought about them that way. They were abstract characters
in a picture, the children of the worst of men. Nothing more. Only
now she realised they were her own siblings.

“I must admit it,
little Anna,” Hassan commented. “You are far worse than I thought.
The people at NASA really did have a lot of fun.”

“What d’you mean
…?”

“What? Didn’t you
understand?” He giggled.

What was he talking
about?

“
The government was pressuring them to send humans
on Mars as soon as possible. It was unacceptable that already
thirty years had passed.” He sighed, creating a pause for effect,
surely on purpose. “So they hurried up a little. They chose the
best competences, turning a blind eye to certain
flaws
. Dennis
had become a thorny guy at Houston. He was too young to be forced
into retirement and they couldn’t surely remove him from the
assignment; he was after all a global hero, after his missions on
the lunar base. Then there was Robert’s issues with drug and
alcohol, Liang’s obsessive manias, your craziness. Michelle was the
only one without any problems; she left with us just to follow her
husband.” He started tapping the steering wheel to the rhythm of a
non-existent music. “In the end you were a bit like the guinea pigs
in an experiment. Expendable. If everything went well, you’d be
paving the way for the real colonisers, starting from the
Isis
2
. On the other hand, if
you fucked up the mission, as with the
Hera
, the human loss wouldn’t have been so
serious.”

“How you can say
something like that? You’re really a bastard.”

Hassan raised an
eyebrow. He had already retorted to that insult. She was certain he
wouldn’t repeat himself. Too easy.

“
They made it clear to me, when Liang opted out and
they asked me to take his place. The whole recruiting process was
fake. They’d already chosen their guinea pigs. I should’ve been on
the
Isis
2
, if all had gone well
with the first mission. I’d been already recruited for the second
mission a long time ago.”

Dazed by that
revelation, Anna collapsed in her seat. She had always known she
had screwed up her training. She hadn’t even understood how she had
passed the psychological tests. The truth was she hadn’t passed
them at all. Her issues had been considered of little importance,
because they needed a competent exobiologist, who at the same time
was expendable. She had wondered why on earth Dennis had proposed
her in person to participate in the recruiting. She found it
impossible to believe he had done the same with everybody. He must
have known as well, but he must have been aware that it would be
the only way for him to get to Mars.

“And, if you knew, why
did you accept?”

He stopped tapping the
steering wheel and cast a smart glance at her.

“
Because I was sure there would’ve never been
an
Isis
2
, but I wanted to come
to Mars.”

Her eyes were red as
if she’d been crying for hours; she looked upset. When she saw them
entering the infirmary, she brightened up. She ignored Anna and
rushed to hug Hassan, who reciprocated the gesture with
affection.

“Thank God you’re
here.”

Anna and Robert looked
at them, speechless. They hadn’t met since the day before, but in
that moment they understood each other with a signal, as they had
always done. That reassured her. At least they were still friends.
And, now more than ever, she felt she needed at least one
friend.

Dennis was laid on a
bed, with an IV in his right arm and the oxygen administration
device on his face. And he was awake and alert. He didn’t seem at
all disturbed by seeing his wife rushing into another man’s
arms.

Hassan moved away from
Michelle and walked closer to him.

“Commander,” he said,
tongue in cheek. “How do you feel?”

“I’ve had better
days.” Dennis cracked a smile, which was soon broken by a coughing
fit.

“Now we shall try to
put you back in order, okay?” The physician turned to look at the
rest of the crewmates, one by one.

Robert couldn’t stay
still. He kept on moving his arms, now to scratch his cheeks, then
to tidy his hair, his gaze fixed on an imprecise point on the
opposite wall.

Michelle appeared
exhausted, unstable on her legs. She was ghostly. Tears had started
rolling down her face again.

“Rob, please,” Hassan
said. “Take her to the meeting room and make her lie down.”

“No, I wanna stay,”
she protested weakly.

“Listen to me.” His
tone was gentle, persuasive. “Get some rest. You can’t all stay
here. Anna will help me.”

Hearing her name, Anna
posed a questioning look to him.

“I need you to assist
me during the pleural drainage.” It wasn’t a request, but anyway
she was the only one actually able to do that right now. She was
aware of that.

She emitted a sigh and
nodded.

Ten minutes later,
they were alone with Dennis who, out of the three of them, seemed
to be in the best mood.

“I’ve administered a
local anaesthetic. You won’t feel a thing.”

The commander raised a
thumb and smiled at Hassan.

The pleural fluid
started going through the cannula and dripping into the sack. The
reddish colour confirmed their fears. There was blood in it. The
sight of it made Anna flinch, and she tried to look elsewhere. She
felt her anguish increase. She swallowed and resolved to
concentrate on what she was doing, but her mind wandered. She found
herself imaging Dennis’s sensations, as he tried to inhale air into
his lungs, but couldn’t. Without realising it, she had started
hyperventilating.

The touch of Hassan’s
hand on her arm forced her out of her thoughts. His grave look
induced her to regain control.

After the drainage,
the respiratory rhythm and the partial pressure of oxygen in his
blood shown by the display improved remarkably. The patient was now
calmer.

Without saying a word,
Hassan took a medical scanner and passed it over the commander’s
chest, letting an image appear on the main screen of the
infirmary.

“How the fuck is it
possible?” he murmured, incredulous.

Two evident dark
masses, with a diameter of a couple of centimetres, were on the
right and left lung respectively. A third one was on the cardiac
wall. When he extended the analysis to the rest of the body, other
masses showed on the liver and the intestines, while most of the
lymph nodes turned out to be swollen.

It was obvious he would never last until the
launch of the
Isis 2
.

That was the first
thought crossing Anna’s mind again. As she turned her gaze to
Dennis and saw he was smiling at her, trustful, she couldn’t help
but feel shame.

The increase in
aggressiveness in less than a week was something inexplicable. In
the room beside the one where Dennis was resting, Hassan was
comparing the new scans with the previous ones.

“Something must have
happened,” he commented under his breath. “Here in the station.
Perhaps a problem with the building’s shielding. Dennis’s immune
system was the most compromised, therefore he would be the first to
show the symptoms.”

“You saying we’ll all
get cancer?!” Robert exclaimed a bit too loudly.

“Rob,” Anna reproached
him, signalling with her head toward Michelle. It wasn’t the moment
to express such kind of comments, not in front of her.

“I want you to suspend
all activity; tomorrow we’ll check the radiation levels in each
room. And I want to see you all.”

“I see you’re already
getting accustomed with your new role of commander,” Robert
commented again, but now Anna elbowed him. All he did then was to
push her forcefully away.

“How long before he
dies?” Michelle’s quiet, resigned tone brought the silence
again.

Hassan just shook his
head.

Not long.

“Christ, we’ll all die
on this fucking planet!” Robert appeared out of control again.

“Stop it now,” Anna
shouted. She was sick and tired of listening to him.

“
He’s not mad at us,” Hassan stepped in, with
sarcasm. “He’s just missing the oxycodone he didn’t succeed in
finding in the medicine closet this morning. Am I right,
Brother
?”

The other man kicked
the wall, making the two women start. Then he went out, without
adding another word.

“I’m going to see
him,” Michelle murmured, referring to her husband, and walked to
the opposite door.

“It’ll be a mess, as
soon as the guys in Houston know,” Anna commented, after the other
woman left the room. “They’ll wonder why you didn’t disclose
it.”

“I’ll claim
doctor-patient confidentiality,” Hassan replied, as he resumed
looking at the scans. He didn’t appear troubled about it. “Dennis
is the only non-irreplaceable crew member. They’ll say we four can
go on until the next launch window.”

The thought that she
might have to spend at least another thousand days on Mars worried
Anna; especially now that she had entertained the idea of returning
to Earth. Most probably, they would send the return spacecraft, but
with orders to use it only to send back samples. Station Alpha
wouldn’t part with her, if no other exobiologist arrived to take
her place.

“We could always
finish off an irreplaceable member.” He was speaking again with
that icy, inexpressive tone. He turned to look her in the eye.
“That way they’ll be forced to send a new crew. Or they’ll have to
declare that the mission failed and bring all us back.”

“Only you could come
out with such a petty thing …” As she commented, Anna marvelled as
she realised she had actually come to the same terrible conclusion.
A surge of hatred against Hassan invaded her. That man, just like
her father, always succeeded in letting her darker side emerge, and
that disquieted her through and through.

He sneered, as if he
could read her mind.

Feeling humiliated,
Anna opted once more for escape.

“You can’t be
serious,” Michelle complained, devoid of any energy. She was sat
beside her husband’s bed in the infirmary. She was holding his
hand. Her eyes were swollen. She’d been weeping again and it was
now evident she was forcing herself to appear calm in front of him,
but she was not succeeding.

Dennis, instead, was
tranquil, as if what was happening to him wasn’t his business
anymore. In a sense it was so. There wasn’t anything more to do.
Struggling was useless. He was dying. Although Hassan had carefully
avoided using the word, its heavy meaning had been more than
obvious between the lines of what he had said concerning his health
condition. What really grieved him was what he was supposed to
expect in the coming days.

“I won’t get better,
you know.”

Michelle nodded
hesitantly. She kept on playing with her wedding ring, making it
rotate with her thumb.

“
But I can’t complain,” Dennis continued. “I’ve had
an incredible life. And now I’m on Mars …
on Mars!
I never would have believed it could
happen.”

He paused, to judge
his wife’s reaction; she was listening to him, but keeping her eyes
down all the time. Perhaps she was doing so to avoid crying
again.

“And I’m living all
this with you, the woman I love with all my heart. I couldn’t have
desired more.”

Michelle raised a
smile and finally looked at his face again.

“We still have so much
to do here …” she said, but then stopped.

“I know. And I know
you will all make out just fine.” A coughing fit made Dennis’s
voice fail. His wife resumed weeping.

“No, please.” He sat
up with difficulty, so he could reach out and touch her face. “You
must be strong.” Their gazes met.

“I’ve got everything
in my life. I wished I had more time, but time is something we
can’t control. I’m sorry to leave you, but at least I know you
won’t be alone.”

She placed her hands
on his.

“This is the last
favour I ask you,” he whispered.

6

She pushes a fallen
lock of hair from her eyes, but it falls back again. She’s waiting
for an answer. I open my mouth to speak, but the adrenaline
paralyses me and little more than a hiss comes out of it.

“I’m Melissa,” the
girl continues, tilting her head to the opposite side.

“Anna,” I’m finally
able to say. “My name is Anna.”

Melissa’s mouth opens
in a smile.

“Are you the one
coming from that distant place?” She moves closer and sits down in
front of me.

I guess I haven’t
recovered from the surprise yet. It’s absurd. What I’m afraid of?
It’s a child.