Eric Zarzuela's Story

"Is everything done?"

"Of course! You've asked that already many times."

The ponytail swayed as the woman turned her head around to stare at the man positioned in front of the computer, she didn't even try to hide her disappointed look, "Are you sure? Have you checked everything twice? Or no, three times? Is there not even the smallest chance you've missed something?"

The man just grinned back at her before letting a small snigger escape, "Yes, yes! Or no! Of course I've checked everything more than once! I've checked all the data at least ten times already since you've asked me. Just take a breath and try to calm down."

Piper snorted back at him before glaring some more, "That comment was completely unnecessary. I'm calm."

Jerry just rolled his eyes at the computer screen while snickering, "Yeah... yeah... Of course."

The stare just intensified by the comment, but since the reason to her annoyance had no intension in acknowledge her irritation she turned her eyes towards the window once more. She stood like that for a while, just looking outside out on the complete emptiness of space, or well, there were stars. Endless numbers of stars staring back at her, sending a comforting feeling through her body. Because even though they were trapped here, in the middle of nowhere - if there was one point in time this statement actually was correct it must be now. Because they were in the middle of space, there was nothing here, no neighbors, no stores, no internet, no trees. Just nothing but endless darkness surrounded them, well that and the big red planet.

After the long paus she suddenly started to nod slowly, as if she had decided to agree with what he had said earlier, "Alright. If you're sure that everything is done then let's start. Call Brewer over."

"Sure."

As the tangents were being pressed down she walked over there, glancing over Jerry's shoulder to check if he did what he's been asked to do. At the same time she had a chance to look over the data for herself, not that she even had the time to check everything before the door glide open and a very grumpy looking man entered, "You called?"

"Yes," she turned towards him as she spoke, positioning herself so she would look as tall as possible, a position of power. Even though it didn't matter much since he looked like a giant next to her. "Are everyone settled down now?"

"If they've found their sleeping cabinets? Yes, they have. I think most of them are done unpacking the things they brought as well. At least it seemed like that when I checked on them."

"Good," Piper nodded slowly to herself once more as she thought over what to do next even though she already knew that. "Leighton, turn on the speakers. I have an announcement for everyone."

"Oh, it's time?"

"Yes."

To the answer Jerry started grinning once more as he turned towards the computer once more, activating the space stations communication system. As he did so Piper walked over to her work space and picked up the small earpiece, "Is it on?"

Jerry was about to fall over by sniggering as he tried to get out a simple, "Y-Yes!"

"Oh... Oh. Uhm... Hi everyone, I hope you've find your sleeping space and been able to adapt to this new environment. But at the moment I need you to stop whatever it is you're doing and gather here in the control room."

While normally people were setting up their belongings in a satisfactory way in their room, Eric was handling his own room in a different way. For one thing, there were three people in his room and everything was messy. Fortunately everyone was still clothed and the mess was more of the mechanical sort.

The room was small, white, and surprisingly tidy. What clothes he had was packed in the closet, and the books he had brought were stored neatly on the shelf. Small trinkets were kept in a box that was tucked underneath his bed, and the bed was empty except for the twenty-four year old man sprawled on the covers, humming what sounded suspiciously like an off-tune version of Eminem as he flipped through a book with planets on the cover.

The floor was, unlike the rest of the room, covered in a clear plastic tarp. Tools were scattered all over it, and seated on the tarp was another young man with similar features to the man on the bed, bent over a metallic leg belonging to a brown-haired man with a grimace on his face, although whether it was from the music or from the messing around with his prosthetic leg was difficult to guess.

"Dude, you done?" Eric asked, looking back down at his leg. Dressed in an olive-green jacket that had been pulled over a black shirt and loose brown shorts, Eric would have looked a bit as if he were posing with one leg outstretched and one pulled loosely up against his chest, leaning back against the side of his bed as he drummed his fingers lightly against the floor in accompaniment to Akira's off-tuned humming - if it weren't for the tools surrounding him and Makoto bent over his leg. "It's been over half an hour. Also, Chocolate."

Some of the joints in his right leg had been a bit creaky lately, squeaking whenever he bent his right leg or taking a few seconds to respond to his movement. Probably a bad joint connection or something. While Eric would normally deal with it himself in the form of percussive maintenance, it hadn't worked this time and so Eric had sought Makoto - and by extension Akira - out. And thus the slumber party in Eric's room had taken place.

It seemed to be coming to an end now. "I told you, not long now." Makoto muttered, not looking up from where he was staring at. Inwardly, Eric marvelled over how fast his leg had gone back to normal - only five minutes ago it had looked like a mess of wires and metal. Fingers trailing over the smooth metal with practiced motions, Makoto grabbed a screwdriver and continued to work. "I just need to screw everything back together. E... Eels. Akira?"

"Shark!" Akira replied breezily, not looking up from the book he was reading. He flipped the page, beginning on a new chapter as he continued "Shark's are edible - shark fin soup. Right Eric?"

"Yeah." Eric answered dully, closing his eyes. "Endangered though, so a lot of people are using faux shark fin. Honey - Ow fuck!" Eric winced as a familiar current ran through him, causing him to jolt and bang his back against the bed as he bit his lip to stop more pained exclamations from escaping. While Eric's prosthetics weren't too bad (shabby and old but well-used and well maintained), it definitely wasn't one of the top-of-the-line models that made reconnecting a synch. "Dammit, Makoto, warn me next time!"

"Ah, sorry! I forgot." Makoto apologised. Akira snickered, but gave Eric a pat on the shoulder as he scowled up at Akira, waiting for the tingling to fade. Straightening up with a stretch that popped the bones in his back and arms, Makoto gave Eric an apologetic smile. "Um. Some of the wires were loose; I tightened them up. I also did some maintenance. Should be alright now. Test it out?"

"Sure." Standing up, Eric did a few test stretches. "Hey, it worked!" No more squeaking sounds, and the response time was faster too. He shot a grin at Makoto, who was busy packing away his tools. "Thanks man. Also-"

He was interrupted by the speaker. Piper's voice filled the room, asking them all to meet in the central room.

"We've got a report to catch." Akira finished for him. Closing the book with a snap, he rolled off the bed, landing lightly on his feet with a grin. "C'mon, lets go! Race ya!" He grinned mischievously at the two, eyes twinkling. "First one to win gets Eric's onion soup, yeah?"

"Oh, onion soup?" Makoto asked hopefully, finishing his clean-up. Placing the rolled up tarp into his bag, he slipped it into the pouch at his side, straightening up. "i like onion soup. You're definitely not beating me in this one."

"Oh, so I'm making the prize? So glad to know that I have no say in this," Eric grumbled, slipping on his shoes. There was no heat to it, however, and there was a faint grin on his face as he asked his question, already knowing the answer. "So what does that mean if I win?"

"That you don't have to make the soup, of course!" Akira laughed, slapping Eric on the back as he made his way past him. The shorter man whirled around to smile at them, walking backwards. Eric's eyes narrowed. He had just enough time to notice that Akira had one hand on the door before the grin turned sly and Akira said "But that doesn't matter because I'm gonna win anyway!" and ran off, door banging open as the younger Kawasaki charged down the hall.

Two voices yelled after him, interrupting the peal of laughter. "Like hell you will!"

-------------

Fortunately for Eric, he made it to the control room first. Thank goodness for the maintenance - it helped that he could push both legs longer than normal thanks to them being, well, fake and not at risk of lactic acid. Unfortunately Akira had whined about losing, but one small cuff on the shoulder and a few shared jokes later and they split up, Makoto heading to his own buddies with a private smile on his face while Akira bounced towards the other pilots, chattering excitedly.

Eric, meanwhile, stuck to the back of the room. Folding his arms across his chest, he gave a few small waves or nods whenever someone he recognised entered, although he refrained from conversation. Waiting patiently, he leant against the wall, waiting to find out the purpose of why they were all called there.

It was another boring morning for Iskander during this space journey. If you are in the space, it isn't easy to distinguish a day from a night because the space ship is lit by the Sun all the time. The passangers have to use special clocks to regulate their lifestyle. Iskander also has been using such device because he wants to be alwasy on time. He has suspected that in the nearest time he will have to meet with the commander, as he was doing it previously. But he didn't know that this time will be a little different.

As always, he got up early and has started to prepare for the meeting. His room was quite big but it was arranged in a minimalist manner. White walls and a metalic floor was an ideal background for silver furniture. The furniture of course wasn't made of wood but of artificail materials and it was stuck or screwed to the floor. The bed was attached to the wall and works as a camp bed, it was easily folded and hidden in a special bay in the wall. Near the bed, a desk was placed with a small lamp and modern computer on its surface.

Iskander has put his diary into the drawer of his desk and generaly has cleaned his room. In this book he has not only entries about his every day work but also malicious opinions about the rest of the crew. They have been traveling for almost two years, so he has had enought time to get to know everyone very well. If it landed in someone else's hands, it could create a real earth quake on the plane. So it was kept in a secret.

Iskander was preparing a cup of coffee when he heard Piper speaking through the speakers. He was surprised that the commander wants to meet with the crew earlier than previously. "Has something bad happened?" Iskander thought. He has left his room feverishly and went towards the place of the meeting holding a cup of coffee in his hand. He stopped suddenly near the intersection of two corridors, one of them led to the control room, because someone flew almost before his nose. He flinched and looked at his coffee, and thought "I need to tell Piper that she should hold her pets* in a cage. They could spill coffee on my silk shirt!"

"Good morning! Have I missed something?" Iskander said when he walked into the control room.

* A friendly way of talking to someone.

His advances apparently wasn't welcomed today, too bad. But Kevin wasn't expecting anything else anyway, so he wasn't that surprised. He just shrugged it off with a smile and nodded his head in agreement, "Yeah, I guess I can entertain myself with work instead. It's not as fun, but well, you can't have it all. But you know, you're always welcome in case you change your mind. I'm not withdrawing the invitation."

By then everyone had gathered, at least it seemed like that to Piper. She was sure that she hadn't missed anyone even though people had made her lose her focus for short amounts of time. But the room was filled with people, moving around in anticipation or irritation. It could be anyone of them. Since people seemed to be bothered by her calling them over.

Yes, everyone was here. She was one hundred percent sure. So after one last glance over the familiar faces she clapped her hands together to get everyone attention, "Silence."

Once those who had been speaking with one another had quieted down she let her eyes sweep over their faces once more before speaking up, "I know most of you wonder why I've gathered you all here. I know that some of you have better things to do and once I am done you can return to your other duties. But this is important and it's not bad news. It's really good news actually. I know that this is something that will cheer you all up." She did try to put on a smile for them all, but it only seemed forced and unnatural. "So... Leighton and myself are proud to announce to you all that all the data checks out. Tomorrow morning some of you will be the first humans to walk on Mars. Isn't that worth taking a break in your work to hear?"

From the background you could hear someone clear his throat to gather everyone's attention, "So who's the lucky ones? I assume I'm one of them. If not there must been some mistake."

"No, you're not landing on Mars this time Ackner. We need people to set up the facility down there before people start their researches." The man was clearly offended by Piper's statement, his behavior couldn't be described as anything but childish. A grown up man started to murmur to himself about how he had to live with so much stupidity around himself, it looked pathetic. "The ones going down there are Fisher, Farran, Liu, Wolff and [some other names]. If anyone have any objects voice them now, and give me a real good reason to why you don't agree with me."

Quentin pounded fists with Kevin with a huge friendly grin. “Kevin my boy, you’re just the spitting image of some celebrity or another.” He laughed. “Though I am concerned what’s taking the rest of the crew so long. I had to rush here from the airlock after dropping my gear off.”

He nodded a greeting to Eric, who had entered the room inconspicuously and remained close to the back of the room. The old man stood at-attention and energetic, contrasting sharply with the tired to straight-up apathetic lot that had entered the control room. His large eyes would’ve twinkled if there were any light reflecting off from Mars into the control room. As it was, the control room was pointing to the side, relative to the planet. The only lighting was the flat low-power lighting that came standard on all spacecraft.

The news was delivered. Apparently everything has been set up and checked perfectly. Fisher would pilot the entry vehicle to bring the team down to the surface, where they would set up the base using the supplies that had already been delivered years ago from previous missions. The only things the team needed to bring were flight suits, EVA suits, and whatever equipment they needed to bring to the surface.

Fisher’s equipment was Rovers and assorted mining equipment. Though he was educated as well in engineering as any astronaut, he was not a savant science specialist like most everyone around. The old man was more like a jack of all trades, where his only shining quality was his damn good piloting skills.

“Understood, Ma’am. I’ll get the MDV prepped.” Fisher began to head to the door, ready to perform his particular duties. However, he did pause near the doorframe in case there was any more news to announce.

After Piper told Jon that he had to wait until everyone else arrived he silently continued working on his arm. It didn't take that long before familiar faces filled the room, though. Some more energetic than others and some more annoyed by the fact that they had to stop doing what they were doing just to get to this room. There was even someone who made a snarky remark directed to him fixing his arm but Jon had just answered that by faintly smiling into her general direction before continuing where he left off. Whenever someone new entered the room, they swiftly greeted everyone before taking a seat or a spot to stand and wait for the announcement. And then finally the announcement followed.

It was nice to have some good news for a change, and this particular piece of good news Piper had been preparing everyone for surely didn't disappoint. The fact that the data checked out meant that there was at least one less thing to worry about. It also meant that the first people would be able to start their mission on Mars and were able to maybe even make a landing on the planet. This thought was confirmed when Pete Ackner, a scientist on this mission specialised in geology, spoke up. He basically demanded to be one of the first to go make the landing but Piper quickly shot the proposal down, which caused him to mumble things to himself in quite a childish manner. Not that Jon cared, though. Pete was supposed to be an adult for christ sake. He should just have to learn and deal with it, he guessed.

"The ones going down there are Fisher, Farran, Liu, Wolff and [some other names]. If anyone have any objects voice them now, and give me a real good reason to why you don't agree with me." Piper concluded her announcement.

Jon simply nodded. Being one of the first people to set foot on Mars was surely a huge honor. After all, they would be the people to write history. Yet, to Jon at least, it didn't feel like such a huge accomplishment. He couldn't really put his finger on it why he felt that way but he still did. This didn't mean that he was going to do a bad job, however. Jon took his work very seriously, and luckily he did because there certainly was a lot more work to follow now that the first landing was a fact.

A few moments after the announcement Jon finished fixing up his arm. It had taken him a little longer than expected but he was happy that it was in a good condition once again. After a few little tests, he would immediately start prepping for the mission he had received. But first, he had a question.

"When will we be leaving captain?" Jon curiously asked the captain to make sure how much time he had to prepare for the mission before he was supposed to be sent off to the ground.

"So do you, Helen."


She winked at Kevin. "I always look good, babe," she said, but by then he had turned his focus towards Matilda. She smiled, shaking her head. Kevin seemed to have a knack for turning his attentions where they weren't wanted. Sometimes she wasn't sure whether he did it on purpose or not.


Soon people settled, and Piper was finally allowed to make her announcement. At first Helen hadn't thought much about what the subject of the meeting would be, having for the most part assumed that Piper wanted to get some of the ground rules down. After the actual words had been spoken, however, she felt a grin growing across her face. It faltered momentarily when Ackner butted in, but the next piece of information put it right back.


She was going to Mars.


Of course this shouldn't have come as a huge surprise given their mission, but Helen allowed herself a squeak of excitement all the same. She was a woman focuses on the now, and for the past two years she had let her work be her calling. A small part of her had been excited about where they were headed of course, but she hadn't considered what that meant until very recently. Consciously, not until the words came out of Piper's mouth.

"Awesome," she said. She felt as though she ought to say more, but the moment soon passed, and Jon posed the only other question she could think of. She was satisfied with that, however, glancing to see Matilda leaving out the corner of her eye. One day she would find out what that woman's deal was, but given that she hadn't managed it so far, it was very possible she needed some kind of psychology degree before she could understand.

For now, she turned back to the captain and listened for further instructions.

Oh great, just as she had finished her announcement people started leaving right away. Well, those who wasn’t allowed to go down to the surface left anyway. The other ones was kind enough to stay, at least for a little while. Like Fisher, he seemed eager to leave the room as well. But she could understand why, he had important things to do now.

"When will we be leaving captain?"

There it was, the reason why she wanted those who were about to travel to stay right here, and the reason she wanted them to gather in here. Because how was she supposed to answer questions and have a discussion with them if they weren’t here with her? No, and this way she had everyone’s attention as well. So no one could miss the information.

Once again she tried to use her facial muscles to form a smile, she needed to seem friendly and approachable at least some times, “You will be leaving tomorrow, or well, fifteen hours from now. Nine o’clock. So I want every one of you to be finished at least half an hour before that. You need to prep all your things and be ready to just take them with you down to the surface. And don’t forget to rest so you’re alert tomorrow!” Was there anything more she needed to say? No, she couldn’t think of anything. She probably covered it all. It felt like that anyway. “Is there anything else you need to know? If not, you are all free to leave.”

Even if this didn’t concern him Kevin had still stayed behind to listen to what else that could been added, he was happy for every one of them. It was probably exciting news, well Helen sure was happy anyway. He couldn’t help but smile at her reaction. It sure was fun to see someone who displayed what they truly felt. But Matilda was right in what she had said earlier, he needed to head over to his part of the space station. There was probably much to be done there, like unpacking. How exciting! This would be fun, the time of the century, something he would remember on his death bed. Surely.

But before that he needed to do something else, so he headed over to Helen and lightly bumped his elbow against her arm, “How great is this?! I’m so happy for you, too bad I’m not allowed to join you. I would like to, but I will probably never head down to the surface, why would I? There is nothing I could do to help,” It wasn’t meant to sound like he was sad, but somehow it did. He could hear it himself as he said it, so he finished it all with a laugh and added, “Just picture me down there! There is too many things that are more exciting than working down there, like getting lost on Mars. Who else in the world would be able to boast about having such a bad sense of direction that they got lost on a whole other planet? No one! That would be awesome. Such a great way to start a conversation.”

"Alright, I guess that was all the questions then. In that case I will get back to my other duties and so should you," Piper gave those who were left a small nod before walking past Fisher and the others as she passed through the door. Yes, there were other things she needed to do. Like making a round to inspect that everyone was settled down and happy with what they had been provided. If something was missing, which it shouldn't because no one had complained? But well, you never knew. Perhaps they had been expecting something more and what they got wasn't reaching those expectations?

Now when she thought about it she should probably get a notebook to be able to write down complaints. There could be a chance that some equipment could been stacked in the wrong place, there's always a chance. You never know before you check it yourself. She should probably check if everything on the station works as it should as well, it had been empty for a while. Yes, she should notify the computer guys about that. And she probably need Perry here as well to have another set of eyes so she wouldn't miss anything. While they were working they could probably go over some of assignments they had as well, plan ahead. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea.

But firstly something to write down notes on. Good thing she knew where to find it, and the rest of the evening passed by as it should. Well, she almost forgot about dinner but thankfully she did bring Perry with her and he reminded her of how important it was to actually eat. But other than that they checked most things on the station, doors lock mechanism and some alarms, lights in rooms where no one was and other stuff like that. Everything seemed to work like it should and Piper was pleased.

And so far no one had complained about anything, she hadn't been able to ask everyone yet because well time went by fast. And as the hours went on she had to put the notepad down in the end and say goodbye to Perry because both of them were tired by now. So once in between the sheets it didn't take long before she passed out by exhaustion.

The time passed peacefully, at least inside her cabin. She had no idea that somewhere inside the station people was arguing, and not in polite manners. No people or at least one was screaming at the other one. But early in the morning when her alarm went off she was greeted with silence once she left her room. First thing to be done was exercising, as all other days. It was extremely important.

Once that was done she was ready to make herself presentable. By then she was ready to meet and greet everyone that was supposed to leave them for the time being. She was actually rather excited to send them off, yes, this would be a great day. She was looking forward to it.

Some time had passed since the last encounter with the crew inside Skylab 014 Genesis, nothing spectacular had happened since then. The ground station had been set up properly and people had even traveled down there for research finally. Piper was pleased. Everything was going according to plan. Well, almost everything. At the moment, she was sitting in front of her computer and having some extremely annoying troubles with it.

She had tried to contact Earth at least ten times but there was no connection to be found. She couldn't even send a typed message back to them to boast about their success. It was so annoying, after another failed attempt she just gave up. She let out an irritated sigh and leaned her forehead against her palms. As she did so the doors glided open and someone else entered the control room.

"What are you doing? Sleeping?" Jerry smiled at her, not in a friendly or flirtatious way. It was more like a smile you made when you found yourself funny and was just waiting for the others to laugh as well. But Piper did not laugh. She just glared at him.

"We're having problems. I can't create a connection with earth, there is something wrong."

"What? Really?" Suddenly Jerry was intrigued, or terrified, Piper couldn't read his expressions, "Let me take a look."

Piper stood up to let Jerry sit down on the chair, because well... she had no clue what to do. And she hoped that Jerry if anyone would be able to fix their problem. If he wasn't able to do it... she had no clue what to do if that was the case. She would have to consult someone. Perry probably. Or someone else. But Jerry would be able to fix it! She was sure of it.

"I'm leaving it to you, I'm sure you will be able to fix it. If not, let me know, we need to fix this issue fast. We can't let the others know and worry for nothing." Jerry just nodded as an answer to her statements, too focused on the problems at hand to waste any more time talking with her.

Since he was so concentrated Piper decided that it was probably for the best to leave him alone. If it was her who was busy working she would want to be left alone as well. So she walked out of the control room but the doors had just closed behind her as another problem appeared before her. Or well, another human being. A stressed one at that. Piper knew that something was wrong when she saw Diana rushing up to her but she couldn't keep from sighing, because she was already stressed and tired from the connection failure.

"Commander! P-Piper! Some-some-", Diana was breathing heavily, so heavily that Piper couldn't hear what she was trying to say once she had stopped in front of her.

"What? Talk properly."

Diana took a couple of deep breathes and collected herself, "Rana is missing."

Well, guess he hadn't been chosen for the first ship out afterall. It was to be expected, since Eric was merely a cook, but he still felt a little disappointment. Eh, there's always next time.

After the meeting was over, Eric hung back a little, chatting with his friends for a short time and reassuring each other that maybe, just maybe, they could go for it next time - although that only held true for Akira, who was a pilot and therefore useful on voyages. Then they split up - Eric walked briskly towards the kitchen, cracking his knuckles with a grin.

The away team were the first team into space for this voyage, heading out into the unknown for the first time after all was said and done. There wouldn't be a good chef on this ship if there wasn't a celebratory feast waiting for them when they came back. Eric was pretty sure that the head chef Marcus was already planning out the dishes with the other cooks.

Lets see what the head chef has to say...

---------------------------

"Oi, Zarzuela!"

"Hmm?" Eric hummed absently, shaking the wok over the fire expertedly. One, two, three, four, five - he added a bit more soya sauce to the fried rice before shaking the wok a couple more times, the smell of frying rice and eggs fragrantly wafting out of the pan and mixing with the other smells around him. "What is it, head chef?" He asked loudly, over the bustle.

"You're nearly done with the fried rice, right?" The head chef, a gloriously mustached middle-aged man with the muscles of a four-star wrestler in his prime, asked. When Eric nodded in affirmative, The head chef grinned and produced a tray of food - chicken soup noodles. "Once you're done give this to Rana. She's been sick in her room the past two days - we've been placing food outside her door, its your turn." He looked seriously at Eric, a worried look in his eyes. "Will you do it?"

"Sure." With a flick of his wrist, Eric plated the freshly fried rice onto a large plate and turned around, nodding his head. He shot a rare grin at Marcus. "You can count on me, Mr Flint."

"Excellent!" The man boomed, clapping a large hand on Eric's back with enough force to make an unaware man stagger. Eric, being an aware man, merely winced and hunched his shoulders a little, back stinging from the blow. "Oops, sorry." Marcus apologised, seeing the pained expression on Eric's face, rubbing a soothing hand down Eric's back in apology. "Now hurry up and wash your hands - hygeine! If she doesn't answer the door, just leave the tray outside!"

"Yes, sir!" hands washed, Eric clutched both sides of the tray and made his way towards the rooms. Within minutes he was at Rana's room, knocking on the door with a sharp rat-a-tat-tat. "Rana?" He called, waiting outside with the tray balanced on one hand. "You awake?"

No answer.

Eric knocked again. "Room service has arrived with an order of chicken noodle soup, please open the door!"

Still nothing.

After five minutes standing outside Eric shrugged and placed the tray down, a little way outside the door. She must have been asleep. "I've placed the tray down outside the door, make sure not to step on it," he said to the closed door, pulling out a pen and a small notebook. Quickly, he scribbled down a couple of instructions and ripped out the paper, placing it underneath the bowl to prevent it from flying away. "Not that you can here me anyway..." he muttered to himself, slipping the pen and notebook back in his pocket.

There, job done. Rana wasn't awake, and therefore she could take the food from outside once she woke up, since Eric wasn't able to enter the room and place it somewhere people weren't likely to step on. Back to cooking. Striding away with his hands in his pocket, Eric made his way back to the kitchen, unaware that the room inside had been empty for a long time.

(One hour later, the tray had been taken and placed back in the dish disposal area. By who - a passerby who had stepped on the soup, someone who thought they were doing a kind deed, Rana herself, or someone else - nobody knows.)

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Finishing touches complete, Eric and the other chefs stood back to admire the feast spread out before them with pride in their eyes in the bowels of the kitchen. It was an epic banquet fit for conquerors - conquerors of space! Or at least one very tiny insignificant portion of space anyway. And just in time for the crew to come back. The group of people discretely high-fived each other with proud grins, then turned and waited for the main guests to arrive.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Eric shifted uncomfortably, crossing his arms. So.... he glanced around at the other chefs, who's cheer were also starting to wear off and be replaced in confusion, boredom and worry. Nobody really wanted to be the first to announce it. Should we... go-

"Gather in the control room." Piper's voice echoed through the speakers, sounding incredibly serious and not at all celebratory for someone who had just came back from their first trip in space. "This applies to everyone."

Well shit. Something went wrong after all.

Mass confusion broke out in the kitchen. "Wha-" "Are you serious we spent all this time cooking-" "Oh no did something go wrong-"

"SILENCE!" The deep baritone of the head chef rang around the kitchen, drawing everyone's attention to Marcus. He clapped his hands, mustache twitching as he spoke. "Alright, lets pack up the food. We can reheat it later." He said briskly. "Something must have gone wrong for the captain to ask us to head up. But that does not mean we have wasted our time - on the contrary, good food is necessary when times are bad, as they lift the soul. Nothing like a good bowl of hot soup when you are sick, am I right?"

The others made various noises of agreement.

"It is the same now. In bad times, good food can lift the spirits!" Marcus nodded gravely, mustache twitching in a way that meant he was smiling underneath all that facial hair. "Now, let us go. We must not keep the captain waiting. Am I clear?"

"YES, CHEF FLINT!"

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Eric was one of the last to enter the room. While the other chefs milled around the centre, spreading out and about, Eric chose to stay at the back as usual, keeping an eye on everyone who entered. Once Piper had arrived and took center stage, Eric crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall, one eyebrow raised as he waited for her to speak, chewing nervously on the inside of his cheek.

Hope this meeting isn't to proclaim our voyage is over thanks to unforeseen circumstances....

"Are you sure that she's not just in her room?"

Helen almost immediately rolled her eyes at that. Piper's lack of social know-how was grating at the best of times, but it was clear someone like Diana wouldn't just make something like this up. Hiding aboard this place was impossible, even in one's own room. That said, it begged the question as to where she could possibly be.

"I've knocked on her door multiple times but she hasn't answered once. I have not seen her in two days. Yes, I know that it's not much! But this place is cramped, it's impossible not to run into the same person several times a day! At first I thought that perhaps she was sick and rested in her bed. But then... well, today I went to Kevin to ask him if Rana had reported her sickness to him and he told me no. He hadn't seen her at all either! I know something is wrong!"

"I agree, that doesn't sound like her at all. She'd at the very least told Diana if she was sick," Helen said. Granted, she didn't know Rana very well, but she had made her observations in an innocent and not creepy way, and felt she had her personality pegged down pretty accurately.

"Since you've checked the communal parts of station already I guess all that's left to do is look inside her room. She's probably there but if not three people are better than two, we have a greater chance of finding anything useful if we look together."

Helen nodded and followed the other two to Rana's room, where they commenced the futile attempt at making contact with anyone inside. In the end she felt it was not only Piper's right, but her duty as commanding officer to have the door opened, and so didn't try to stop her from doing so. The empty room, however, felt a bit like a punch in the gut, as Helen felt the worry surface properly for the first time. She didn't even notice that Diana was searching furiously for something specific before Piper pointed it out.

"It's a small pink book. She told me that it was for documenting her research and such but I... accidently glanced over her shoulder when she was writing inside it and it was definitively a diary."

Making a conscious effort to pull herself together, Helen also helped in searching for the diary. It was indeed possible that it could have given them some insight into her whereabouts– even if it was just telling them that she'd been hiding out with some guy in a different cabin. "Accidentally glanced, yeah," she said. The joke made her feel a little more like herself again, even as she swallowed the disappointment of not finding the book.

In the end she agreed that consulting the rest of the crew could be the best course of action. As they walked to the control room, however, a thought occurred: "There's no way she could be on the surface, right?" She looked at the other two. "We couldn't have somehow... Left her there?"

---

"Gather in the control room, this applies to everyone."
Andreev looked up from his lab equipment and frowned– his hand paused mid-air holding a pipette. It had been a while since the last gathering– one which he still remembered vividly given the news Piper had delivered. He wondered what she could possibly want with them this time. Perhaps another base was to be established? It was hard to tell.

Without really meaning to, Andreev had spent a lot of time locked up in his lab and as such had missed out on a lot of socialisation with the rest of the crew. It wasn't like him, but one of the theories he had been reading about was too interesting too ignore, and now that they had actual soil to test, well, he was over the moon. Pun unintended. Still, he put the equipment aside as quickly as he could, making sure that it could be picked up again just as quickly when he came back.

Soon he was on his way to the control room, where he met the rest with a quiet smile. He could sense the tension from the moment he came in– quite certain that whatever Piper wanted to tell them, it wasn't good.

"We couldn't have somehow... Left her there?"

Piper suddenly felt a chill go down her spine, it was a justified question. But could it be true? Had they somehow forgotten about someone down on the surface? Just the thought made Piper's stress levels rise through the roof. If they, no if she had screwed up so badly she would surely be kicked of this mission. Well, at least she would be degraded. Perry would take her place instead. That would be disastrous for her career. She would never be able to get another job. Perhaps at a supermarket if she was lucky. But she would go down in history as the one leading the mission were they abandoned another crew member on Mars. Oh my God, the humiliation. She would never be able to show her face outside again.

"Lorenzo, you must know? Were you on the last trip miss Farran was on?"

Diana only shook her head before adding, "No, I wasn't assigned to that one."

Piper's heart sank even deeper, it felt like it had landed inside her stomach by now. The pulse was raising, she could hear the heart beats inside her ears. It was drumming so fast and so loudly it felt like everyone around her could hear it as well. Without saying anything more she hurried away towards the control room.

The scene that greeted her was however not what she was expecting, she had assigned Jerry to the communication problem but instead of working he was flirting with another technician instead. She couldn't do anything else than sigh in frustration.

"How about this, you and me, tomorrow night? I can ask one of my chef friends if he can make something a little nicer than usual? Doesn't that sound sweet?"

The woman named Mia leaned forward to show of her cleavage a little more while giggling, "Oh? Like a date?"

You could clearly see that the response was unexpected, but Jerry soon cracked up in a huge smile, "Y-Yeah!"

"Sure, why not? It could be fun."

Piper cleared her throat to make the two disgusting "love birds" notice her presence and stop with the nonsense. And they almost jumped out of their seats and if Piper wasn't mistaken she was almost certain that she could see a hint of a blush on their cheeks.

She walked up to them and looked down at the computer, "Have you fixed the problem?"

"No, not yet but we have almost pin pointed the reason why. Just a moment more and we will know." Mia nodded in agreement and Piper silently looked of in the distant with a frustrated face. She pressed her lips together to not let anything inappropriate come out. But this was so stressful, she just wanted to scream and shout at everyone at this point. But that wouldn't help anything.

It was pleasing to see everyone gather so quickly, at least something good happened today. But now when everyone was gathered Piper had to tell them about the disappearance of Rana even though she wanted to keep it a secret. She wanted to dig a huge hole and just burry the whole thing inside that. The deepest hole in history so no one ever would be able to figure it out. But that wasn't right, she had to ask them about clues. Or anything. She clutched at straws at this point.

"I have some bad news and I need your help..." She paused and her gaze was all over the room by now, it felt like she was about to pass out because of the situation, but she just had to swallow her pride and get it over with. So she took a couple of deep breathes and leaned against the table before continuing, "Something terrible has happened. One of us has gone missing, Rana Farran hasn't been seen the last couple of days. I've already looked inside her room and she's not there either. So... I need your help. Please, if you know anything help us figure out what has happened."

A silence fell over the three women after Helen had voiced her worry. While the thought itself was unspeakable (after all they were more careful than that– this wasn't like leaving a costumer behind in the store, it was an alien planet) it wasn't entirely unthinkable. Even a person not believing in the concept of Murphy's Law had to agree that mistakes could happen– lethal ones too. If, on the other hand, they had indeed left her down there, Helen would never forgive herself. Or the people responsible, for that matter.

"Lorenzo, you must know? Were you on the last trip miss Farran was on?"

"No, I wasn't assigned to that one."

"I don't think I was either. Christ, Helen shook her head. "What a mess."

She gave Diana a reassuring pat on the shoulder as they entered the control room, only barely noticing Piper's reprimand a pair of technicians that Helen had seen around, but didn't know very well personally. She was mid eye roll when the captain's words hit home. Something was wrong, other than Rana's disappearance. But before she could inquire what that was, the crew arrived. She kept her eyes on Piper though, even as attention turned to the room.

---

"Something terrible has happened. One of us has gone missing, Rana Farran hasn't been seen the last couple of days. I've already looked inside her room and she's not there either. So... I need your help. Please, if you know anything help us figure out what has happened."

Andreev frowned, but said little. He and Rana had little in common, and though he considered her enough of an acquaintance to say hello to her, their relationship didn't really go beyond that. Still, someone going missing was worrying to say the least.

"If I might ask," he put his hand up slightly, then lowered it. Sometimes he felt like he was still in school. "What was the last mission she was on? Perhaps someone here was with her, and so might remember something now that did not seem so important at the time?"

People were awfully quiet, apparently no one knew anything? This wasn't looking good for Piper. It wasn't looking good for anyone at this point. Everyone's in trouble if she has to tell these news to those back at earth. Oh, god what a mess... Piper was just about to sit down and bury her face behind her hands when someone finally spoke up, waking her up from her trance.

"If I might ask, what was the last mission she was on? Perhaps someone here was with her, and so might remember something now that did not seem so important at the time?"

"Oh, right, I can check that..." Piper turned around towards the computer and started checking the logs, "It was--"

She never had a chance to finish that sentence because Jerry suddenly interrupted her, "I've found the cause to the connection problem. It's rather important to do something about it immediately."

She was a bit offended by the interruption and the fact that he told the other ones about the connection failure, it was supposed to be a secret! But she ignored that and directed her attention towards him, "Alright, what's the reason behind the problem?"

"The antenna, it seems something has hit it or anything like that. It doesn't need to be something like that but I've located the problem to the antenna so it must be fixed from the outside. If we don't fix it soon we don't know if it will fall off and drift away. Something like that, yeah..."

Piper couldn't put her finger on it but Jerry seemed to be a bit distressed, but the reason he did tell her was distressing indeed. She could understand why he was a bit fragmented at the moment, "Alright, does anyone feel like taking a stroll outside with me and fix the antenna? I need someone who knows what they're doing."

More problems. Of course there were more problems. She wasn't entirely sure exactly what it was, but connectivity problems on a spaceship could hardly be a good thing. Luckily, Helen didn't have time to overthink it before a solution was suggested: she was on the verge of panic mode from stress and unable to shake the feeling that they had just seen the symptoms of the disease so far. She shook her head, forcing herself to take a step back from the situation while Piper talked to the technician. All this worrying wasn't like her, and it certainly wouldn't help anyone. She was brought back by Piper asking for a volunteer to fix the antenna.

"I'll do it," she said. "I've got some experience with the antennas, and I'm definitely used to working outside compared to a lot of the others."

She considered it, and added, "At least, I'm able to fix rudimentary damage. Worst case scenario, I'll get a closer look and come back with a report so someone else can whip up a replacement."

"Do we have the right equipment for that?" Andreev asked nervously from behind her. The poor guy knew even less about electrics than she did, but even he knew that the look on Piper's face bore ill news.

"Should do," Helen shrugged. "We're a good crew, kid. We'll improvise."

"It just seems like too much of a coincidence, do you not think?" Andreev looked around the room, his slight Russian accent more apparent now that he was nervous. "The disappearance of a crewmember, and now problems with connection? It seems, if you'll forgive the paranoia, premeditated."

Helen shook her head. "Captain, will you please tell him that sometimes shit just happens?" She didn't feel as though she was in the position to argue with another crewmember, even if it was someone she knew well. Piper was supposed to be in charge of them, she'd have to deal with the morale problems.

"I'll do it, I've got some experience with the antennas, and I'm definitely used to working outside compared to a lot of the others."

"Great! Let's get this done as soon as possible, put on the safety gear and your spacesuit. I will accompany you because safety protocols tells us that no one is allowed to fix things alone. And I believe I will be able to help you even though many here may disagree."

Piper wanted to get started right now, she wanted this thing fixed now. The sooner they fixed it the sooner they could figure out what had happened to Rana. Perhaps she had tried contacting them and because of the antenna troubles they hadn't been able to receive it? That was a horrifying thought. She needed to fix this as soon as possible. But apparently people still had questions, and Piper wasn't in the mood to answer them. The great thing was that she didn't have to Helen did that instead.

"It just seems like too much of a coincidence, do you not think? The disappearance of a crewmember, and now problems with connection? It seems, if you'll forgive the paranoia, premeditated."

True, but it couldn't be connected. Why would Rana mess with the antenna? Or was it someone else who had done it? No. That's just stupid. Of course, no one could have done that. They would be able to see that in the computer's records, that one of the air locks had been opened. No. That's crazy. It must have been some sort of space crap that hit it like Jerry said.

"Captain, will you please tell him that sometimes shit just happens?"

"That's correct, Liu. At the moment, it's too early to assume some sort of connection between the two Mister Nicanor. But once we've taken a look at the antenna we'll know for sure if this is sabotage or not. Even though it's too soon to jump to conclusions we can't rule out anything yet either. But things happen and they don't have to be related to each other. I don't believe this will reassure you but I hope it will help a little."

She gave Andreev a small nod in the end of her speech and let go of his eye contact, instead she gazed out towards everyone else and clapped her hands. "Alright, Liu and myself will head outside and check what's wrong. Everyone else can return to what you were doing before. Hopefully we'll be able to fix it and if I have any news to share with you I will let you know."

Before anyone else was able to ask anything else she hurried outside to prepare herself for the mission. She knew that it was a bad thing but she couldn't help but feel a little bit excited, it was not her first spacewalk. And she did always enjoy it, it was just an overwhelming thing to be able to do.

Once she was done dressing up for the mission she was waiting for Helen by the airlock.