Jupiter's Halo Book Two: The Fall

Chapter Six

Dalton Cross squeezed the base of his ration packet and watched with a sneer of disgust as the thick paste oozed it’s way out.

He lifted the packet to examine the label. It declared the contents were a high protein ‘complete’ meal with all the satisfaction and flavour of a beefsteak dinner. The word ‘indistinguishable’ was used. Dalton had once actually tasted real steak. On a diplomatic mission to Mars, in his old life, he’d been lucky enough to dine in the kitchens of a prominent family’s estate.

He looked back at the grey-brown paste and pictured the sizzling meat. Indistinguishable was not the word that surfaced in his mind.

“Are you gonna eat that or is this more of a fetish kind of thing?”

Dalton pulled his eyes from the disappointment of his meal.

“How did we end up here?”

Jin Blist, his tour partner within the Luna Special Service gave him an odd look. She’d been smiling, looking to start the usual banter that passed so easily between them. His dour response caught her off guard and she leaned in, her confusion edged with concern.

“Where’s that come from?”

Dalton dropped the packet onto the tabletop where the sludge of its contents began to gently pool like leaking chemical waste.

“You alright Dalt?” She added.

He shrugged his shoulders and glanced around the almost empty mess hall of the station. It was a bare space; a few plastic tables with uncomfortable chairs. The dispensers with their brightly coloured ration packs all containing the same inedible goop and a few faded pictures of Luna landmarks to break up the monotony of the blank walls. He sighed theatrically.

“Aren’t you sick of this? Aren’t you tired of eating this same s**t every day, wandering around this place with nothing to do but kick our heels and keep our mouths shut?”

Blist gave a half shrug, her expression mirroring her body language.

“It’s not that bad. I guess I don’t give it much thought. Better than being shot at all day though right?” She gave his shoulder a gently punch.

Dalton tried a smile but he didn’t feel it.

“Come on Dalt,” she carried on, shifting her squeaking chair awkwardly to bring her around the small table and closer to him. “This isn’t you. What’s happened? Yesterday you spent an hour playing ‘can’t get by me’ with those snooty d***s upstairs and suddenly today you’re all ‘how did we end up here?’.”

She deepened her voice in a mocking impression of him and finished the question with a deep sigh and slumping shoulders. It brought a smile to Dalton’s face, he couldn’t help it, but it still didn’t last.

Yesterday had been like any other day. They’d walked the corridors of the station, checked the various surveillance monitors set up throughout its decks and run practice drill for hostile boarding. To pass the time once they’d finished he’d bet Blist he could keep one of the research team stuck in a corridor for five full minutes without touching or speaking to them. It was a familiar game; they were prohibited from interacting with the scientists onboard. No speaking, no touching. But they weren’t forbidden from, for example, walking towards one of them as they made their way through the station and feigning stepping the same direction again and again as they tried to pass, essentially leaving them in a silent stalemate where each person repeatedly tried to step forward just to find the other had ‘accidentally’ moved into their path.

It was a game Dalton excelled at, although his previous record only reached three minutes twenty-eight seconds. He’d enjoyed that, seeing the fat woman grow ever more red and angry as he apologetically danced in front of her to block her progress. She’d been his first target yesterday too, but when he’d tried she’d screamed at him and barged past without stopping.

After another four attempts with members of the crew and another scientist, he’d been forced to admit defeat. Blist had teased him about it for the rest of their shift.

That was yesterday when everything was just as it was. Today was different. He’d woken before his alarm, with a feeling of tedium pervading his every thought. He tried to shake it as he washed and dressed. He’d dismantled and cleaned his equipment and weapons to occupy his mind, but again and again, his thoughts swung back to the pointlessness of their posting.

“Don’t you ever wonder why we’re here?” He asked, looking seriously at his partner.

“You mean philosophically or geographically?”

“You know exactly what I mean.” He replied more sharply than he’d intended. “Nearly forty-four months we’ve been here. Forty-four! Two full years on assignment and we don’t even know what we’re here to protect. Doesn’t that bug you?”

Blist shrugged again, ever the pragmatic soul. Dalton shook his head at her lack of curiosity.

“Well, it drives me bloody crazy. It should drive you crazy too.” He threw his hands up, catching the table edge and sending his discarded lunch sliding across the top spilling more of its unpleasant contents. “I mean, what’s the point of us being here? What are we even doing? Huh? Huh?”

Blist leaned back slightly from his tirade but gave no answer.

“I’ll tell you what we’re doing, bloody nothing, that’s what!”

He cast his eyes down, seeing the miserable excuse for food he’d been forced to swallow down for such an unbearable amount of time and felt a kick of anger. He slammed his hand down, crushing the thin packet and ejecting the sludge within at speed to splash across the edge of the table and onto the floor. He noticed one or two of the few other faces in the mess turn at his outburst, but they quickly turned back again. No one wanted to attract the attention of an angry armed man.

Commander Finsa had told them the station crew had been made aware of their presence, but in line with standard Command protocol, their unit details remained undisclosed. The LSS was not a branch of the military Command liked to advertise, although Dalton knew from the way people stared and the general wide berth each member of the team received, that the crew had their suspicions.

“Listen Dalt,” Blist said quietly, leaning forward again and resting an arm over his shoulder. “You’re a good man, I love you like a sexless husband and you know I trust you with my life.” She squeezed him gently and gave his arm a shake. “But right now, right at this moment you’re being a bit of a f*****g whiny baby. If and when we need to know, we’ll know.”

Dalton breathed deep and rolled his head to look at her with sardonic eyes. She beamed in response and he felt foolish for his outburst and frustration.

“Now,” She continued, looking over to where his ration packet dripped slowly onto the floor. “If you think I’m cleaning up that mess you are sorely mistaken chum.”

She laughed and Dalton felt some of the tension bleed out of him as he joined her. He got up from his chair and looked around for something to wipe up the sludge that had pooled on the floor. It looked like someone had been very sick.

“Don’t you ever just wish something would happen?” He said, turning back to Blist.

Before she could answer a hand slapped down on his shoulder. He turned in response, his reflexes conditioned to react to an attack and his hands came up automatically to break the hold and throw his would-be assailant to the ground. He stopped short as the familiar face of Commander Finsa filled his vision.

“Something wrong with your rations Cross?” She asked, looking past him to the mess he’d made of the mess.

“No commander,” he started awkwardly. “I slipped and it fell is all.”

Behind him, he could feel the heat of Blist’s stare burning into his back. She would be loving his discomfort and he just knew she’d spend the rest of the cycle reminding him how he was caught out like a naughty schoolboy.

“Hmmm, clumsiness isn’t something I tend to encourage. Concentration issues perhaps?” She gave him a questioning look. “If all this downtime is clouding your thoughts, may I suggest a few station laps? I would say five times round should be enough to bring you some clarity.”

Dalton fought the urge to groan. It was not a suggestion. He nodded and turned back to the task of cleaning, seeing the smirk clear on Blist’s face.

“And your I think it would be beneficial if you went along to help… motivate him Blist.” The smirk disappeared and Dalton winced as he saw the daggers in his partner’s eyes.

Early on into their assignment Elba and Diagno had taken to racing a circuit around and through the station. Most of the space was empty or unused by the small complement of crew so there was plenty of room to run in. The route started at the foot of the link stair to the substation, travelled up into the secondary section, around the main corridors in a weaving pattern and then up again into each level of the primary section before finishing at the top of the link stair that reached the bridge deck. The entire route was just short of six kilometres from start to finish. Dalton had run it plenty of times, they all had. Elba still held the fastest record at just over twenty-one minutes, with Trishan a few seconds behind, but Dalton had always found he couldn’t break the twenty-five-minute mark. He wasn’t likely to better that today.

“Try to beat your best time Cross.” Finsa made the comment as if reading his thoughts.

“I always do Commander.” He replied and again he saw the flash of anger in Blist’s eyes.

“And in future, I’d be a little more careful what you wish for.” He heard Finsa add as she left them to their new workout.

“Or who’s around to hear it.” He muttered as he bent to clean his discarded meal from the floor.