Six weeks had passed and now they were ready, strapped into a skimmer ready to go. Cot looked at the group. They had surprised him during training but it still didn’t feel right. This whole mission should be handled by US Special Forces, not a bunch of highly educated well-meaning civilians. There was a sense of unease to Cot. The approval for the mission was to easy, why did no-one try to stop this? Cot thought back to the meeting he had managed to arrange with Governor Mead in secret. The two had met when Mead had visited the US base covertly a few weeks ago. Cot could tell that Mead was uneasy about the mission as well, but it felt like he was being manipulated into accepting it. It had seen weird to Cot at first that Mead was so well read up on the mission, he had barely blinked when Cot revealed news about the secret listening station. Yet for all of Mead’s knowledge he seemed to lack control of the situation. Something was going on that neither man could stop.
Rachel looked over the crew of the skimmer. She had been pleased that they were already so quickly, not too much time wasted in training. She was sure that theses would be the right people for her to achieve the objectives that she needed too. She looked at all of them, dressed in their space suits ready to be launched out of the skimmer bay. She couldn’t help but smile at the nervous faces that were starring back at her. Everything would be fine, Rachel was sure about that.
Katlyne knew this wasn’t right. She knew that this had to be wrong. These were not the right people for the mission. She had tried to raise her concerns with Cot some weeks ago, but he had dismissed her. Telling her that there was no way they would pass training so not to worry about it. But they had passed and now they were sat ready to leave. She went over the upcoming mission in her mind. She kept thinking about all the things that were about to happen, the different possibilities for how this mission could go down, there was a chance they could get away with it. But only a slight chance.
Connor tried to close his eyes and focus. He wanted to sleep. It was the best way to get through being strapped into a skimmer. Connor hated to fly and avoided it wherever possible. He could feel his heart beating faster and faster. He could feel the bag of chemicals that was his body getting fuller of every chemical he didn’t want going around his system right now. He tried to concentrate, to make the panic subside and let the calm set in. But he couldn’t. Everything seemed wrong and right now he had too.
Daniel looked around the skimmer. Something wasn’t right and he couldn’t quite figure it out. This whole situation was weird and he wasn’t sure that this wasn’t still some sort of surreal dream. Daniel kept hoping that he would wake up soon, drawl running down his cheek, back in his dorm room at MIT, computer flickering with the data he had captured from the night before. Daniel knew though that this wasn’t a dream. He felt a jolt as the skimmer set off. Gently at first the skimmer started to move forward. Daniel felt the shudder and the skimmer lifted off of the surface. Daniel pushed his head round as best he could in the suit and strapped into his seat. He could see the US base slowly moving out of the window. The fine red dust being kicked up by the skimmers jet like engines. He looked on with sadness in his eyes, not able to shake the feeling that this whole thing was a mistake. One thought kept going over and over in his mind, would he see the base again. Daniel fiddled inside his space suit trying to adjust himself, searching for comfort. The whole space suit felt like it was designed for someone twice his size. No matter what he felt about the mission, they were on their way.