Chapter 8

Base Selene

The third planet of the solar system, the Earth, was shining in transparent blue under the sunlight. The clouds containing water drops were peacefully floating like the feathers of a bird, like a sculpted relief along the sky. Distanced afar from man and manmade structures, they seemed to conceal all trivial emotions of life.

Base Selene was a temporary launch pad which Dragonfly put above the earth’s orbit. Onto the long cylindrical main body, the several modules which were soon to depart to Mars, were parked like grapes on its stalk. The place was similar to the gateway which NASA built for the construction of a lunar base, but compared to ISS(International Space Station) it was smaller in scale.

When the preparation for departure to Mars was complete, the command module 'Victoria' was planned to fly to the Base Selene ; and like a freight car connecting to a passenger car, it would be inter-joined one by one with modules docked at Selene. To help the procedure, two robotic arms were installed at Base Selene. The freight spaceship which departed to Mars in advance also stopped by Selene.

There was one person who supervised the place. Igor was brushing his teeth while humming his favorite song. He occasionally frowned his face since he could never get used to swallowing the toothpaste foam. Today was the day which the freight ship carrying water and food were to arrive.

A message has arrived, "Base Selene, this is RKB-11. Request to activate the docking sequencer." Igor answered, "Allowed RKB-11, come in line with Code 1135. Sequencer activating.”

The Israeli RKB is a reusable space shuttle. The shape of it was similar to a triangle wing plane. The shuttle transported freights within the boundary of earth’s low orbit. At the end of each side were attached two engines, and in the center was a port for its docking.

The pilot of the RKB said, “Nearing. 30 meters, 25 meters, 20 meters....”

Outside the Cupola window was the RKB; on its side, the letters 'RKB-11' were distinctly written. "Good job!" said Igor. RKB finished its docking at Selene. Everything went on smoothly. The pilot who walked over to Selene took off the helmet. Long and silky brown hair fell to the microgravity space. Bulky Igor approached the pilot as if swimming over.

“How are you, Igor!” The RKB pilot spoke while running her hand through her hair. She had a scar beneath the left side of her chin. Her white face was radiant and beautiful but at the same time stubborn and pale. Igor was grinning ever so broadly and held out his hand.

“Did you bring what I asked for?” Igor asked. The pilot looked towards Igor. Her blue eyes twinkled. With her gloves still on, she rubbed his beard and tapped his cheek.

She said, “You are like a kid waiting for a toy. Aren’t I enough for you?” Igor shrugged and backed his hand, “You’re not staying here long enough.” The pilot halted pulling down her zipper as she was taking off her pressure suit and said, ”Is that so?“ Igor looked at her beggingly. “No, no. So sorry, it’s my fault.” He pleaded. The pilot giggled playfully and took out a small plastic bottled filled with liquid. She handed it to Igor, “Made in Russia. 90%.”

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“Wow!!” Igor shouted in joy. “Be careful. It might burn your throat as you swallow it,” said the pilot.

Igor held the pilot’s head and started pouring kisses. Igor took her to a dark corner. The light was off at the maintenance block. Igor fixed his two feet onto the lower rail and hugged her by the waist. Soon, their heavy breath filled the confined space. They had no worry that others might hear them. Their clothes were floating in space as if dancing waltz.

Igor drank a cup of vodka and fell asleep. It was an anesthetic drugged vodka. The pilot was moving fast. She held a flash on her right hand and hurriedly searched for something at the Base Selene. Finally, in between the control pinion and the carbon dioxide remover, she had found that something. It was the A4 paper sized supervisor personal device.

As she touched the screen, the Dragonfly logo appeared followed by a message asking for iris and fingerprint recognition. It was a bio-security system requiring blood running eyes and fingers. However, the lock was released immediately. The pilot skillfully connected the monitoring tool to the D-type link and searched for the data inside.

“This is it.” : What she found from the device was the freight list which Dragonfly has sent to Mars. The pilot blinked her eyes and stared fixedly at the list full of numbers. On her pupils she had on the contact lens type scanner. Her face stiffened, 'This is really weird.'

The system monitoring device on top of the control panel started to beam out a red light. It meant that the station on Earth was sending a signal to Base Selene. They were about to forcedly remote control Base Selene. The pilot woke Igor up in a hurry, "Igor! Wake up! A calling from Earth!!" The drug was strong but lasted for a short time. It ran out of effect at just the right time. Even when Igor’s blood be tested, the anesthesia component would have been decomposed in metabolism.

"Oh, my head hurts... Did I sleep for a long time?" Igor turned on the light switch and arranged the cabin. “Selene, What happened?” An angry voice was heard from the Earth's control center. Igor answered in ease, “Nothing happened.” “The communication system and the CCTV blacked out,” said the control center. Igor replied “They are now restored.” Person in charge at the Earth’s control center lost his nerve, “Why? Why does this happen?” Igor also shouted, “It took me hours fixing all these stuff. Look who’s snapping!” Igor turned off the communication switch once again.

“Is it OK to do that?” said the pilot, looking at Igor with a curious expression. “I told you. It’s a weird place here. It’s OK,” said Igor. “What’s so weird about this place?” the pilot asked again.

Igor turned serious just for a second and looked up at the pilot. Then, he shook his head and said, “Christina, You may become dangerous if I speak.” Christina stroke Igor’s hair like stroking a pet dog. Igor put his face onto Christina’s breast.

“I need to go,” Christina pushed away Igor. “When my duty’s over, I will come to you,” said Igor.

Christina laughed, “Lol..”

Christina put on her pressure suit and helmet. She crossed over to RKB. The hatch locked. Selene’s docking port pushed RKB away as if with a power of spring. The two ships got farther away from each other at the speed of 15cm per second. Christina picked up something like a two-way radio, “I got it,. I will meet you in person and hand it over to you. Since we are not connecting via a repeater, I think we are safe. It is rather....serious. See you.”

When the distance with Base Selene became about 20meters apart, RKB operated the engine. It was a preparation to jump into Earth’s atmosphere.

Everything was confusing. In the beginning, the plan of Humanity – where Christina belonged to - was quite simple. As long as Howard Mason was alive and well, he will continue manufacturing Robotas which will be a threat to humans, so he was too dangerous a man to be kept alive. Although the company name was changed to Dragonfly from Boston Mechanics, the president and the management remained the same. Their suspicious conduct did not change either. When Hugh wanted to go under cover, she did not stop him as everyone reasonably suspected that Dragonfly was hatching a plot through its Mars Two project. However, things changed. Hugh and Christina thrust into a situation difficult to cope with.

The front part of the RKB main body’s heat-dissipating tiles glowed in red. Across Christina’s gaze, outside the observation window, plasma fire fluttered freely as if dancing. Such hysterical dance filled Christina's heads with distracting thoughts.