Helena stared down at her plate with an annoyed look on her face. Asian meat stew with rice. Again! She sighed heavily and put a small bite of the stew in her mouth. There wasn’t really anything wrong with the stew, or with any of the other dishes they served. They tasted surprisingly good for being freeze-dried food. But just the thought that this freeze-dried food and the few dishes available on Mars were the only food she would eat for the rest of her life, made her nauseous. So, this was her future? A gray and meaningless existence!
She looked up at her husband who was sitting at the opposite side of the table. No worries there anyway, she thought, and watched with disgust as he happily ate his food like there were no worries in the world. The worries that Sven had exposed to her the first night on the space elevator was totally blown away. He was now completely absorbed in his assignments as engineer and could sit day in, day out, reading about his future tasks on Mars. And not only that, he constantly wanted to discuss these things with her, as if he thought she felt the same enthusiasm as he did.
But she really didn’t! She couldn’t stand his tedious chatter, and finally her patience had run out and she had screamed at him that she couldn’t care less about his boring tasks! How could he even think that she would be interested in something so pointless!?
She remembered how Sven had just looked at her with a perplexed expression on his face, and of course, she immediately apologized for her outburst. It wouldn’t surprise her if Sven only thought the outburst was just due to her usual hormonal instability at the end of the month? But that wasn’t the case! Her feelings for him had changed.
She could barely admit it to herself, but she had begun to feel contempt for her husband. Everything he did irritated her. How he talked, how he moved his body and how he ate his food. She was ashamed of her feelings and she did everything she could to hide them. But it was difficult, and she felt exhausted by constantly trying to behave as usual and be friendly to him.
But he should still feel that something was wrong, she thought, and looked with disgust at how he scraped up the last food on the plate with his fork. Above all, he should notice that she avoided everything that had to do with intimacy. She couldn’t tolerate that he touched her, and she always pretended to fall asleep at once every night to avoid him making any approaches. He had obviously muttered a lot over it, but at the same time it didn’t seem to bother him too much. He seemed mostly carefree and he rarely worried about anything for more than a few hours.
Sure, it was perhaps this personality trait that once made her fall in love with him in the first place, the fact that he always could see the everything from the bright side. But no matter how she tried, she couldn’t regain that feeling again. His easygoing manner made her only annoyed, it became a confirmation to her that he was a shallow person who didn’t have the ability to understand the serious aspects of life.
She sighed again and looked at Erik who was sitting next to her. He was almost lying over the table, resting his head against his forearm while poking in his food with his fork.
"Erik, sit up!" she whispered firmly.
He didn’t answer, but slowly raised himself in an upright position and stared angrily at her.
"Stop acting like a three-year-old and sit upright when you are among people… And where is your sister by the way? She should have been here a long time ago. Lunch time is almost over."
"There she is," he said in an indolent tone while pointing at the left entrance where Anna just came in with her note pad pressed against her chest.
Helena was just about to call at her to hurry up, when she was interrupted by some sort of commotion at the other side of the room. It sounded like chairs were overturned and she heard someone shouting, "Knock it off, Emma!" And suddenly she saw Emma Harrison jumping up on one of the tables, bashing hard on a tray with a spoon while shouting, "Listen up everybody! Can I get your attention! Can you please listen to me!"
What’s the matter? Helena thought and stood up to see better. Has Emma gone completely crazy?
Emma was standing on one of the tables while the captain of the ship, Nwake, tried to persuade her to come down. However, Emma seemed to totally ignore him, and after a while he reluctantly moved away to a corner of the room and then he just stood there with his arms crossed. His eyes where almost black and it looked like he was trying to nail Emma to the table with his gaze. Helena wondered what it was that could make the otherwise cheerful man react in this way.
Suddenly he turned around and left the room with confident steps and it seemed like his absence inserted some sort of courage in Emma because she immediately started talking with a loud voice.
"Can you please be quiet! I have something important to say… Can I get your attention please!"
As if you didn’t already have our attention, Helena thought and smiled and then lifted up Erik in her arms so he could see better. Emma's request had effect though and soon it was completely silent. Helena didn’t really know what to think about this spectacle, but there was something in Emma's gaze that made her worried and she unconsciously tightened her grip around Erik.
"This is what I know so far," Emma said and looked anxiously around the room before she continued. "I just heard some terrible news that I think everyone here on the ship immediately need to hear. However, Nwake and the rest of the crew think that this information should be withheld from you, but I do not agree with them as the news affects us all in a terrible way."
Emma worriedly looked towards the door that Nwake just left through before she continued. She was talking so fast that she almost stumbled over the words.
"I have found out that Earth is facing a very serious disaster. I know it sounds completely insane, but the Earth will within twenty-four hours be hit by a six-kilometer-large comet and all communication with our dear home planet will be interrupted, perhaps forever. It’s impossible to predict what will happen after that, but one thing is sure… billions of people will die. We will be left on our own and we have to survive without ever being able to get any help from Earth again..."
Suddenly a male voice interrupted Emma.
"Emma, cut it out! Is this some kind of bad joke or what?"
Helena felt an ice-cold feeling spreading through her body. Yes, what is Emma doing? This was totally insane! She couldn’t see who was talking and suddenly the person continued.
"We all know that it has been decades since we succeeded in mapping out all potential threats to the Earth, and that we also have the capacity to avert any threats with lasers, mirrors or hydrogen bombs. Therefore, it’s very unlikely that a comet suddenly would appear out of nowhere. It sounds absurd to me! So, what’s really the point with this ridiculous chatter Emma?"
"It’s no joke, George. I just got this information from the captain and of course he should be the one who informs you about the situation, but he refuses, so you get it from me instead. Captain Nwake wants to keep all of you unaware of what is about to happen, just because he doesn’t want to lose control of the so-called situation on this ship. But I think you all have the right to know what is…"
"There she is!"
Nwake rushed into the room with two men just behind him.
"Shut her up, right away!" he screamed.
The men rushed towards Emma and before Emma had a chance to react, one of them had dragged her off the table and they both disappeared down on the floor out of sight of Helena. Helena could hardly make sense of what she saw. She felt dizzy and from somewhere far, far away, she heard Emma shouting.
"Let me go! Let me go! You are a fucking idiot Nwake! Tell him to release me right now!"
Nwake ignored Emma's screams and went with firm steps to the middle of the dining room and jumped up on the table. He looked around the room for a second and then held up his hands in the air in an attempt to calm the upset voices.
"Calm down! Calm down, please! I’ll tell you what I know, but you have to be quiet!"
Almost instantly, everyone fell silent. All that was heard was the sound of Emma trying to talk through the hand that was held over her mouth. Nwake turned to Emma and said, "Will you shut up, or shall I immediately lock you up in a room?"
Helena couldn’t see Emma on the floor, but she probably gave Nwake some kind of affirmative answer as the intense murmur silenced. Then Nwake turned around and continued.
"I’m sorry to say so, but Emma told the truth. In about twenty-four hours the Earth will be hit by a comet and there is nothing we can do to stop it. The disaster is inevitable."
A slight murmur spread over the room.
"I haven’t received any more information, but one thing is sure, our contact with the Earth will be interrupted and it will probably never be restored."
Suddenly the room was in chaos. People started screaming and crying and Nwake had to shout as hard as he could to be able to overcome the noise.
"I know it’s hard to take in this horrible news, but please keep calm and I’m sure that we all will find a way to handle the situation in the best way possible..."
Helena felt dizzy and nauseous. Everything was suddenly unreal and dreamlike. She just stood there petrified and hugged Erik, unable to properly comprehend Nwake's words. There must be an explanation to all this, she thought and looked around the room. There was total chaos around her, people were screaming and crying everywhere she looked. She didn’t really know how to react. It felt like she was an actor in a movie scene and that she had forgot the simple instructions she was told to do.
But then she suddenly understood. Nwake made up everything! Yes, that’s how it is! He’s trying to fool us! He wants to control us with his bizarre lies!
She had to do something! She had to stop this foolishness! She stared at Nwake and felt an uncontrollable anger grow within her, and eventually it became too much for her.
I have to stop him before this gets out of hand, she thought, and dropped Erik to the floor while she screamed at Nwake.
"Handle the situation!? What sort of situation are you talking about!?"
She forced herself forward, pushing the people in front of her to the sides while screaming so hard that the saliva sprayed from her mouth.
"This is not a situation! What the hell are you talking about Nwake!? First you talk about a disaster that may exterminate mankind and then you drivel about some fucking situation that could be solved in some way!"
Her voice sounded different. It was like someone else was screaming. As if an evil entity had taken over her body. But she didn’t care. She had to do something about this spectacle and continued aggressively pushing away people in front of her while roaring, "Move away, move away!"
Helena reached the table and instantly grabbed Nwake's legs, so he lost his balance and fell with a crash to the floor. Immediately she threw herself over him and tried to grab his throat.
"Nwake, you fucking asshole! she shouted. "Why the hell are you lying to us!?"
I have to silence him, she thought, and tried to reach after his throat again. Even though Nwake's strong arms constantly pushed her away, she eventually managed to get hold of his throat and drilled her nails into it, she then teared as hard as she could.
Nwake screamed something in a language she didn’t understand, and she immediately tried to reach after his throat again, hoping to get a better grip this time. But suddenly someone lifted her straight up into the air and pulled her backwards. Then she heard Sven shouting in her ear, "What are you doing Helena? Have you gone completely mad? You’re hurting him! Stop waving your arms, please... Stay still!"
"Let me go, let me go!" she cried and kicked wildly with her legs to get out of his grip.
But he didn’t release her, instead he continued to pull her backwards, away from Nwake. He’s on their side, she thought furiously. I should have known! He has been on their side all this time! She tried to turn around against her husband in the hope of pushing her fingers into his eyes, but it was difficult to reach them as he was moving his head all the time.
Suddenly she was lying on the floor with Sven over her. He pressed himself against her with all of his body weight while she heard his disgusting voice whispering in her ear, "It’s okay my darling. It’s okay… I’m here. Try to calm down."
But she wasn’t going to calm down. No one would tell her what to do! She tried to get loose, but he just pushed himself harder against her. It was impossible to move. She made one more half-hearted attempt, but it was pointless, she was stuck.
Suddenly all energy left her body. It’s meaningless to fight, she thought. What’s the point when Earth will soon be gone forever? There will be nothing left to long for and dream about …
Her earlier violent breathing calmed down and she quietly observed what happened around her. She heard distant shouts, crying and screaming, and saw how people confused were running around the room. And everything seemed to move in a strange jerky way, as if time was slowing down.
Surprised, she noticed how two men dragged Emma away. How strange, she wondered, isn’t she on their side? Sven continued to speak soothingly in her ear, but she no longer understood his words. Nothing mattered any longer and she tried to ignore his pointless waffle. Instead, she concentrated on trying to understand what had happened. And suddenly she realized how it was.
Everything must be some form of misunderstanding on her part. Nwake's chatter couldn’t possibly be true? None of this could be true? It was totally preposterous, like an absurd dream... Yes, that’s how it must be! I’m dreaming! It wouldn’t surprise me if I’m lying in my bed back on Earth right now. If I just concentrate hard enough, I will soon wake up and everything will be normal again...
She closed her eyes and focused on waking up, and suddenly she felt an overwhelming fatigue taking over her body, and slowly, slowly, all the sounds around her faded away and she was enveloped in a liberating silence and a soft calming darkness. Yes, so it must be, she thought, while her consciousness slowly let go of reality, it’s just an evil dream, it’s just an evil dream…