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Part II
9
Gwen
Mars-One Colony,
March 3th, 2042
As the light of Gwen's tiny compression and decompression compartment went green, Gwen removed her helmet and took off her surface suit. One of the many discomforts of her small private apartment on the outskirts of the Mars-One colony.
Gwen hated this cold and inhospitable planet. The idea that she soon would be leaving for a dangerous mission on Earth filled her with excitement. Just the idea of breathing the outside air again made Gwen's heart jump in anticipation.
For the first few years, Gwen had lived with her parents in one of the multi-family apartments in the main dome. While the dome had its comforts, the living arrangements had allowed for very little privacy. Gwen had later been given the opportunity to join the military as a trainee truth agent and, in doing so, got to move to her own private apartment. Gwen had at first been very happy about her newly gained independence and most of all, the privacy of having a one-person apartment.
But how that sentiment changed after the realization that the military-apartment-complex both didn't come with an engineering crew to take care of maintenance task, and that much of the maintenance had to be done from the outside of the building. Today the water recycling system had failed again, for the third time this month. And nothing defined the way that Gwen felt about the almost seven years spent on Mars-One better than the taste and smell of diluted urine. As Gwen turned on the tap, a mild urine smell came from the water. Then after running a bit the smell subsided. Gwen took a small cup, filled it with water and took a sip. Great. The water tastes like water again, or at least like what water tasted like on Mars-One.
Only two more weeks! Two more weeks before she would get her very own ultra-pod for a multi-year mission to Earth. Mother had been right. The Earth had started to digress into anarchy, the masses had already started a call for the aristocracy to return, for them to return and bring a new order. The call had started to gain momentum. Still a small and disorganized group, the New Order movement needed guidance and help, and that was where Gwen and her classmates would come in.
Gwen looked at her Osmium-wool training suit. Was she ready for the trip? Were any of them really ready for a 2g trip? Gravity on Mars was low compared to Earth, and while the Osmium-wool suit that Gwen and her class had been training with for over a year weighted twice as much as Gwen herself already, during the trip with the ultra-pod Gwen would weigh over five times as much as she weighed on Mars. Twice as much as she would weigh on Earth. Was she really ready for all of this after all this time in the low gravity of Mars?
Suddenly doubt came over Gwen. Mars was a horrible place to live. Not as bad as it had been when they had first arrived, no, the early days had been truly horrid. Mars-One had never been built to house even half the people that had fled from Earth after New Zion had started hunting down the aristocracy.
Living circumstances improved over the years, but nothing could change the fact that Mars was a most inhospitable planet for human life. But then again, Mars-One was peaceful. No war. No crime. Earth at this time was a planet at war with itself. Violence, war, crime, and a total lack of order. Was she ready for all of that? Was she ready for the trip there?
Fifteen hours of acceleration at a little over two g followed by another fifteen hours of deceleration. These ultra-pods were amazingly advanced space technology. Earth factions had nothing even close. But thirty hours at two g wasn't exactly a walk in the park for someone who had been living in Mars gravity for over half a decade.
As Gwen was contemplating what lay ahead, her doorbell rang.
"Come in Dad!"
As the round access door opened, Gwen's dad came out of the access tube that was about one and a half metres high, about thirty centimetres lower than Gwen's dad, so dad had been crouching for the 200 metres walk through the tube system from the training-center-dome to her apartment.
"Dad, you look troubled, what's up?"
"We are worried about you, my darling. Mom sent me to tell you she can get you out of the mission. New rumors about talks between some of the major Earth factions. You know I don't follow up on Earth politics darling, but your mother does and if she is worried, I get worried."
"Dad, please, I really don't need this right now!"
"I know you don't darling. Please don't shoot the messenger. You know your mom."
Gwen's dad looked at the dossier map he had been carrying than looked up at Gwen then back at the map.
"I have to be honest with you Gwen, I knew before I came here you weren't going to heed your mother's warnings. I know you too well for that my dear. There is another reason I had to come and see you. Your granddad."
"Granddad?" Gwen looked at the old family portrait on her wall.
"No Gwen, not 'that' granddad. I am talking about your real granddad. My biological father. You do know about the rumors, don't you?"
"Please, dad, sure I know about the rumors. I've lived those rumors. You know perfectly well the rumors are the reason I've been having quite a hard time with some of my classmates. I've told you that dad. I told you that they used to tease me with those rumors."
Gwen's Dad reached his right arm out to Gwen with the dossier map in his hand.
"Please, Gwen! This is all the material I've gathered over the years. I truly believe my father may still be alive. And I don't buy that he is behind what the rumors ascribe to him. But if my intel is right, he is out there somewhere and in a lot of trouble."
"Are you serious, Dad. Your father disappeared when you were only a toddler."
"Please, Gwen, I know you have your mission, but if there is any room, just look at the files darling. Maybe I'm just an old fool grasping at straws, but I really do believe that things add up and that your grandfather might still be alive today. If he is, and if the intel I gathered is only half correct, he will have first-hand knowledge about Quantum Slicing. So if you don't want to look at it for my sake, at least please have a look at it from a military perspective. I know mission control doesn't buy into my data, I've tried them, but if you find my dad and get him to see our side, I'm pretty sure there could even be a promotion in it for you darling."
"You did what? You went to mission control before you came to me? Dad!"
Gwen's dad eyes looked at the floor. Then Gwen suddenly realized how things felt from Dad's perspective. Yes, she had been on edge a whole lot when she was living with her parents and words were said, mostly by her. Words that she wished could be unsaid. To her father, leaving the comforts of the main dome to live here on the outskirts of the colony had felt like he had lost her as a daughter. Gwen understood that now. 'How could I have been so heartless? Why didn't I tell them it is this freezing planet that is driving me bonkers?' Gwen thought.
"Dad…. Sorry…. I love you, daddy. If granddad is alive I will do everything to find him for you. I promise."
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