"Now, We Can Relax" (Gemini)

= Chapter 6: Now, We Can Relax = Roger had asked for everyone to gather around the air lock again the following day. “So… I have good news, and I have bad news…” He started. “Unfortunately, Neil was stabbed yesterday. His cut was too deep to be treated… He bled to death by the time he was found. The good news is; we have also prevented an attempt on the lives of those of us remaining. Amanda here,” he gestured to her – she was inside the air lock. “She was planning on burning this station up. Not destroying it, just enough to make our lives miserable. Enough so that we would die slowly from starvation, thirst, lack of oxygen, you name it… But the Green Room is safe, the fuel spill is cleaned up. We live to fight another day…” Roger turned to the control panel. He looked at Neil’s corpse on the air lock floor, then at Amanda who had a look of disgust on her face. “I may be going to hell now… But I’ll be meeting the rest of you there later…” She closed her eyes and took slow breaths.

“Neil, may the stars take care of you. Safe flight, my friend. As for you, Amanda. May the stars burn you to ashes. Crash and burn, you devil.” Roger pulled down the lever, ejecting her into the vacuum of space.

Roger turned around, gazing upon all the survivors. He noticed Wells and Rosie holding hands – For once, Wells was happy, and was not speaking out against Roger. “I know the past three days have been hard on all of you… But there are only eight of us left now. The sacrifices, are over. Sonia, Wells, Rosie, Byron, Kristina, Nadia, Bertie, and Me of course. We’re still alive. We can start again up here. The water generator is still working. The Green Room is still active. We have enough food resources to last us up to two months now… But fear not! For in that time, we can build something new. With these,” Roger produced two packets of flower seeds from his pockets.

“I don’t get it. What can we do with those?” Kristina was hopeful, yet confused, “We can grow plants. Plants which grow fruit, and veg. My wife works… or, worked… at an orchard. This packet here can grow into plants which grow berries. And this one here can grow into plants which grow peppers. Fresh fruit and veg! We don’t need to return to Earth, people. There’s a lot of space on the deck. We can take down a few of the wall tiles, build a small orchard, and grow food! So, who’s with me. Hey?” Roger threw his hands up in optimism.

Kristina stepped forward, “Roger… Those seed packets… They were from your wife. She gave them to you as a souvenir from her. You should keep them.” But Roger disagreed, still smiling however, “My wife would want me to live. She would want me to help others. I get it, I’ve done bad things rather recently… But sacrificed the few to save the many… We can’t dwell on the past. What’s done is done. All that we can do now is… Well, survive. I’m up for growing these peppers and berries. Doesn’t anybody else want to live?” He held up the packets once again.

“I am,” Byron stepped forward, “I can work the water generator. Might as well assist with the food as well. Count me in, Rog’.” He nodded at him appreciatively, “Anybody else?”

Still interlocking hands, Wells and Rosie stepped forward as well. “We’re in too. We’ve got oxygen, we’ve got water, and most importantly, we’ve got each other.” He looked at Rosie and affectionately smiled at her, “That’s everything I need… Except food,” he turned back to Roger, “So, we’re in!” Again, Roger nodded appreciatively, “I’m glad to see we have a truce now, Wells.”

Nadia was the next to step forward, “I still don’t really like you, Rog’. But I’m starting to. I see you have a heart underneath your cold-blooded emotionless armour which you call skin. I’m in as well.” Kristina followed immediately after, “All in. Or no one at all, I say.” Roger nodded appreciatively yet again, at the both of them. Everyone now turned to face the last undecided members – Bertie and Sonia. They had only stalled because they were both thinking about the 25% of humans left on Earth. Their radio transmission to Art had been kept a secret from the others. “Alright…” Bertie nodded, “I’m in,” he stepped forward to join the rest of the group. Sonia thought hard, “I…” She looked slightly saddened…

…Her expression then lit up – She realised everything and everyone she needed was right in front of her. The life she had lived for 43 years was now over, a new one was about to blossom in its’ wake. A new life up in space. A chance which was even more slimmer than the apocalypse itself happening. “I… I’m in!” Sonia’s face lit up, as she joined with all the others. They all cheered and clapped. “To great things!” Roger held the seed packets up in the air.

One week later

“I can’t believe it’s actually working,” Roger was impressed by the fact that his plants were actually growing. “I told you your wife was still with you…” Sonia smiled at him, as they shared a friendly hug. “At long last, Sonia. Now, we can relax. All the hard work, all the sacrifices. They’re all over. Now we get to grow fresh vegetables!”

“I call dibs on the red pepper though,” Rosie and Wells admired the plants. “Aw come on, red’s my favourite colour,” Wells joked with her. “I’m just kidding, it’s all yours’ babe!” They shared an affectionate hug.

Byron watched all the hugs happening on the monitor in the coms room. He looked down at a photo of his son, then back up at the monitor. Despite all the wonderful people he had befriended on the station with him, he’d never felt so alone in his entire life…

“Alright everyone, gather around!” Roger had also built a small table for the crew to eat at. “Remember, two berries each!” He handed the berries out in a pot, giving each person a pepper as well. “Now, before we eat, we must remember those who lost their lives for us to get here.” He bowed his head respectfully, followed by the others.

“We remember Seth. We remember Gus. We remember Julian…” He noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Turning to face the window, Roger noticed a bright purple flare launched up from the Earth. “Sonia!” He drew her attention to it. “Bertie! With me! Coms room now!” She rushed off with Bertie following behind her.

Bertie tested several frequencies, “This is Space Station Gemini calling Earth. We have seen your flare. Please respond. Over.” The familiar sound of static returned once again. He looked back at Sonia. “Keep trying,” She tapped him.

“Repeat, this is Space Station Gemini calling the Earth. Is there anyone receiving me? Over.” The static was oppressive. “Professor, it’s not worth it. Sure, there might’ve been a flare, but how do we know whoever launched it even has a radio with them?” He put the microphone back down again as Sonia stepped back, looking up at the monitors.

“Canada…” She noticed that one of the monitors revealed the station was currently passing over Canada. “I recognise the shape! See, just down there, that’s North America, and directly beneath is, it’s Canada!” She sounded excited, which confused Bertie.

“Bert, don’t you get it? When we spoke to Art, we were hovering over the other side of the world. That means there are people ''all across'' the globe! The world won’t end! So long as there’s people in MEDC countries, they can still rebuild!” She continued to watch as the Station passed over the country beneath.

“What are you saying, Prof? Are you suggesting that we should go back to Earth? After everything that’s happened?” Bertie clearly wasn’t willing to go back down now.

“No, not at all,” Sonia was quick to defend herself. “We wait. We bide our time up here. If we see a well-lit city, or an active area, or even a huge tyre fire, we go back down. We go where we know there’s civilisation. We can help rebuild. Those sacrifices won’t have been for nothing after all! They really would have bought us the necessary time!” Sonia had once again become the hopelessly optimistic one…

''Ten weeks later 20th April 2026 ''

Sonia had called for a meeting on-deck. “Thank you all for gathering here. I have two rather important things to tell you. Firstly, our emergency food stash is now only at half capacity. We have done well to preserve resources. This is mostly thanks to the plants which we have successfully grown up here,” She nodded to the plants growing their new food source.

“However, there is one large problem which we have overlooked all this time – Fuel… If we can’t keep the Gemini running, we will lose power. We’ll lose thrusters, the water generator will stop working, as will the ventilation system. The station will simply drift around in space. Now, there is a possibility we may drift back to Earth, and come crashing down back to our planet. Though there is also a chance that we may drift off in the opposite direction, and aimlessly float around in space…” Everyone appeared to be unnerved upon hearing this.

Wells raised his hand, “But we’ve got fuel. We’ve got enough fuel to last us for a long time. Don’t we have something like nine or ten barrels?” He couldn’t see the problem.

“We only have five, Wells. Over the past eight months we’ve used up four barrels, and Amanda wasted one of them. By my calculations, we can only power the station for, at most, another seven or eight months. We could just about make it to Christmas Day, or maybe even New Year if we’re lucky.” Sonia tried to give the rest of the crew the silver-lining to their seemingly hopeless situation.

“Just as everything was going right as well…” Byron sounded furious. “We were planning on surviving up here! On riding out whatever the heck happened back down there! Now we’re going to die, up here?”

Sonia looked at Bertie, their expressions revealed to everyone they were hiding something. She then turned back to the rest of the crew, “Bertie and I… We made contact with Earth, a couple of months ago… A man named Art. He revealed to us only 25% of the population is still alive. But given how it’s been two months since then, that figure has very likely decreased…”

Everyone looked at each other, confusingly. “Why didn’t you tell us this before?” Nadia spoke out. “We didn’t want to upset any of you… Because 25% is not a big number, at all… The chances of your loved ones still being alive are even less than that. I’m sorry.” She stepped back, and looked out the window – to admire the Earth once again.

“You’re sorry?” Rosie felt betrayed as well. “How could you hide something like that from us? Life is too short for secrets, Professor!” She broke away from Wells and stepped forward, “Our families were dying down there, and you didn’t even have the courtesy to inform us of what the survival rate was? Screw you!” She aggressively pointed at Sonia with a stiff finger, before marching out of the deck.

“Rosie! Wait…” Wells tried to stop her. “Thanks Sonia,” he sarcastically murmured to her before going after his new love.

“Anybody else?” Despite how bad Sonia felt for covering up the truth, she wasn’t prepared to face anymore of her friends turning against her. “Byron? Nadia? Roger? Anything more to add? How about you Kristina?” She confronted the crew, but no one said anything.

Below deck, Wells and Rosie had headed towards the escape pod. “Come on, come on!” Wells tried everything to open it. “Dammit!” He slammed his fists against the panel. “Byron must’ve entered the override code… Only he can access it,” he informed Rosie. “Well… What do we do?” She asked him in a kafuffle.