Back on the starship... with me:
Mel told me later that once the crew had
been transferred off the space station, she had led them to the nearest
cafeteria and told them they could safely remove their helmets. As they did so
she said to them,
“The captain sends his compliments and
regrets that he could not be here to greet you himself at this time. He wishes
to assure you that he will join us and welcome you aboard once he has safely
steered the ship clear of the space station and set the ship on a course back
to Mars. Meanwhile, feel free to help yourselves to any food or refreshments
you wish and welcome aboard our ship.”
Apparently I entered the room very soon
after that, and when I did I walked straight into a huge bear that wrapped its
arms around me, hoisted me off the ground, and did a little jig before
releasing me and letting me drop to the deck. It then extended its right paw,
grabbed my right hand, and spoke in a booming voice from high above:
“You are called Drew, yes?”
“I am called many things and a lot of them
are not very nice, but I am mostly called Drew.”
He quickly released my hand and took one
pace backward, and then gave me an appraising look as he raised his hands to
rest on his hips while he looked me up and down—mostly down; the bloke was a
giant. A smile grew very quickly across his hairy countenance as his right paw
flew towards me and playfully tapped me on the shoulder (it felt like being hit
by a pile driver) then he grabbed my right hand in his viselike grip once more and
wrenched it up and down again, which at least kept me upright from the playful
tap to my shoulder.
“So, you are Drew!”
“Yes, I am.”
It would take at least a week for my body to
recover from his greeting so far. The dark side of my mind was looking forward
to introducing him to Nick, however. Once he released my hand and the blood
started circulating through it again, I was introduced to the rest of the space
station crew. They seemed quite normal compared to their leader, but then, who
wouldn’t? Vladimir first introduced his wife, Yelena, to me. She seemed nice
and was surprisingly diminutive beside her giant spouse, but then everyone
looked diminutive beside Vladimir. Then Vladimir introduced me to Boris and
Natasha Strezkeyen. (I kid you not—those were their names! It took all my
willpower to keep a straight face.)
Although I didn’t
react, they must have read my mind, because Boris said,
“Yes, like the two evil cartoon characters,
but we are nowhere near as evil.”
I laughed and warmly shook his hand before
Vladimir directed my attention to a Chinese couple, Yogi and May-tee Yee.
Instead of shaking my hand, they bowed deeply before me as Yogi spoke.
“We are most honored to meet you, Drew. We
are all very thankful to you for risking your lives to save ours.”
Not to be outdone, I bowed deeply right back
at them and replied,
“It is our very great pleasure.”
Now that the social niceties had been
dispensed with, we each grabbed refreshments, sat down at a table, and began
getting to know each other. We chatted amiably for a while about many general
topics—our training, our pasts, our roles on our very different missions, and
of course the destruction of our home planet. I found all of the ISS crew to be
highly intelligent, witty, and very entertaining conversationalists and I was
totally enjoying the moment. In the end, it was Boris who steered the
conversation back to practical matters. He glanced around the room then looked
up at the ceiling, and then he looked at me.
“So, Drew, tell us: where the hell did you
get this ship? Mankind sure as hell didn’t build it.”
“We found it parked with four others in the
hangar of a deserted city built inside a large mountain on Mars.”
“You found a deserted underground city? Who
built it?” Vladimir interjected.
“Martians,” I replied. “At least they were
Martians when they built it. They obviously expected to live there a very long
time or they wouldn’t have built it on as grand a scale as they did, and maybe
they did live there for a very long time; there’s no way of knowing.”
“How big is this city?” Boris asked.
“Your crew and our crew could live on the
same level and very rarely would we bump into each other, even if we traveled
around a great deal. In total, there are eleven levels,” I replied.
“My God. And it is all functional?” Natasha
enquired.
“Yes! Dick and Courtney got the power
switched on and the city is fully functional. You don’t need a space suit to
move around inside the city. What we’re wearing now is all that is necessary.”
“So, the six of us won’t crowd you out then,”
Vladimir said with a smile.
“Six hundred of you wouldn’t crowd us out.
We wouldn’t have even had to bring an extra starship.”
“That city is going to feel like a palace
for us after the tin can you pulled us out of,” Vladimir responded. He then
glanced up and around the room. “In fact, this ship feels like a palace after
the tin can you pulled us out of.”
We chatted on for a few more hours and
answered many questions about Mars, the city, and how long it would take to get
there. By the end of those few hours, I had to admit that I was growing quite
fond of them all. I then glanced at my watch and saw what time it was.
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