The queue slowly moved forward towards the airlock which would take them into the space elevator. There were not many similarities between the space elevator that took them up from Earth's surface and the one that would now bring them down to Mars, Sven thought. This elevator was the total opposite compared to the one on Earth. When they built this elevator, it was functionality that mattered, and nothing else.
The elevator consisted of one single big room. There were no tables and chairs, and therefore they would have to sit on the floor during descent. The elevator was maybe one-fifth the size of the elevator on Earth, and over the last few days they had been sending it up and down four times to unload all the goods from the ship. Now it was finally their turn, and then they would send the spaceship off to a higher orbit to allow the next ship to dock at the space elevator.
Sven glanced at his wife, who was walking beside him. She looked worried, holding her a small bag tightly pressed to her chest. The Velcro tape floor that prevented them from floating away in weightlessness created a somewhat strange wobbly gait that Helena seemed to have great difficulty mastering. He stretched out his hand to grab her bag as he said, "Do you want me to carry it for you sweetheart?"
Helena jerked and quickly turned her body away from him so he couldn’t reach the bag.
"No, it’s not necessary. I can manage, and you already have to carry both your own and our children's bags."
She opened her mouth as if to say something more, but then she closed her mouth again and just stared straight ahead with angry eyes. Sven held back the impulse to continue the discussion as he knew she would only be upset in one way or another. It felt like she deliberately misunderstood everything he said these days. Just as good to keep quiet, he thought, and turned forward again.
Soon they would pass through the airlock and leave the small world that had been their home for the past seven months. He was relieved to finally get to leave the ship and get his feet back on solid ground again. But he wasn’t so sure that Helena felt the same? It wouldn’t surprise him if she saw the spaceship as some sort of symbol that represented the last link to Earth. Or maybe she didn’t think like that at all? What did he know these days? He really had no idea what was going on in her head since the disaster happened.
Although she was officially recovered after her breakdown, she was no longer the same person. Those who didn’t knew her well didn’t probably notice any difference in her behavior, but he did. She could make great effort to try to be as normal as possible when she was around the children, and sure, that was a good thing. It certainly showed that she had some sense left. But when he was alone with her, she was a totally different person. As soon as he got close to her, she pulled away, and if he happened to touch her, so she backed away in a way he could only interpret as pure disgust from her side. She didn't even try to hide her disgust for him, and she seemed to have decided to only speak to him if absolutely necessary.
He had repeatedly tried to convince her to talk about their relationship. But she had refused. As soon as he mentioned something that had to do with their marriage, he got short-cut answers back like "it's as it is" or "there's nothing to talk about". If they had been on Earth and life had been as usual, he would have ended the marriage, or at least threatened to do so. But that possibility didn’t exist anymore. None of them could go anywhere. They were stuck with each other whether they wanted to or not.
Further down the queue he saw Anna walking together with the ship's great celebrity, Emma Harrison. He had noticed that Anna approached Emma as soon as she saw her, and Emma didn’t seem to mind Anna's company. They were chit-chatting and both looked happy and relaxed. Sven thought it perhaps was a bit strange that Emma wanted to spend that much time with a twelve-year-old girl, but at the same time he saw that Anna seemed happy in her company, so he let them be. Helena, on the other hand, wasn’t fond of their friendship, and he noticed that she now was glancing in their direction with an irritated look on her face.
Suddenly she shouted, "Anna, come over here!"
Sven saw how Anna jerked when she heard her mother's voice and she slowly turned around. Helena repeated what she just said, but Anna just shook her head and turned back to Emma. However, Sven saw how Emma bent forward and whispered something in Anna's ear and after a few seconds, she reluctantly wandered off to them.
"What do you want?" she said with a grumpy voice as she arrived.
"I would prefer that you are with your family now that we are arriving at our new home." she said sourly. "And you have plenty of peers around your age here on the ship, why do you have to hang out with that woman all the time?"
Before Anna could answer Sven said, "Don’t be so harsh, Helena. Emma seems like a sensible person, don’t you think?"
Helena ignored his comment and said to Anna.
"Don’t you think I know that you’re sneaking out every night to meet her. It’s sick! Do you see me hanging out with little kids at night? Not!? Well, it’s because it’s not normal!"
Anna looked like she was going to cry at any time, and Sven felt compelled to try to calm down the situation. He put his hand on Helena's arm while saying, "Take it easy Helena! We don’t need to discuss this right now. People can hear us. Can’t it wait until we have arrived?"
"Don’t you touch me!" she yelled and quickly pulled back her arm. "I’m her mother and you can’t tell me what to do! Do you understand! How can you think that it’s okay for our daughter to socialize with that woman?"
She quickly turned to Anna again and said, "This idiocy is over! You are not allowed to see her anymore, do you understand?!"
Anna's eyes filled with tears and she opened and closed her mouth in some sort of attempt to answer her mother. Sven met Anna’s eyes and shook his head discreetly as he pulled her to him and gave her a quick hug.
"Come on, Anna. You heard what your mother said. Let’s not talk about this right now. We can discuss it later… By the way, why don’t you try to find your little brother, it’s soon our turn to go through the airlock."
Helena had turned away from them, and Sven quickly whispered something to Anna. Anna started smiling and quickly began to wipe away the tears from her eyes. Then she started to look around and suddenly she shouted:
"There he is!" She pointed at some kids standing together further back in the que.
"Good!" Sven said. "Why don’t you go and get him?"
As soon as Anna had disappeared out of hearing range, Helena said without looking at Sven, "I saw that! Don’t you ever do that again! I will never allow that you turn my children against me... Never!"
Sven didn’t answer and when the children returned, they all moved forward in silence and as they passed through the airlock, Sven discreetly wiped something out of his eyes and then said with an overly cheerful voice:
"Okay kids, let’s see if we can find a good spot where we can sit."