Lieutenant Colonel Parker Timothy Olstead
It’s been eighteen hours since the space shuttle lost central power. And the backup backup fuel cell has also since cashed out. Of course it did. In hindsight, he thinks he knew it would. Maybe part of him even hoped for it. The chance to be valiant on the high seas. To go down with the ship.
No, that’s a lie. He couldn’t have wanted such a thing. He’s not the sort of man who would want such a thing. Never has been.
What he wants is love and safety and comfort. Just like every other person on Earth or beyond who is not a historical sea captain. He wants familiarity and family. To feel known. To be alive and home.
In the past, when he imagined a full system failure, he’d pictured the space shuttle getting colder and colder in the dark. He imagined his eyelashes freezing, and his fellow astronauts huddling together for warmth. But of course, when he thought about it rationally, he always knew this was not the case. Instead, the Krona Ark III has become a sauna—a tiny airtight canister filled with three moving, breathing, sweating humans. Together they create a terrible heat.
He was right about his colleagues huddling together though. In the dark, he can hear the Swedes fucking. He can’t tell if they are in their bunk or simply at the other end of the main cabin. In the dark and stagnant air, all sounds push together. He tries to remember if he noticed anything romantic between Edvard and Annika before the launch. He would like to know if they were already lovers or if the approach of death has made them so.
He grasps on to the console that contains his squid tanks and listens to the creatures moving, though he cannot see them. He considers masturbating. The Swedes are on to something here, he thinks, though it isn’t a final sexual release he wants. It’s a connection. An understanding, even brief and fleeting. He considers pulling his prized Nordic squid from its tank and holding it to his chest. But he doesn’t want to frighten the squid—doesn’t want it to know it should be frightened. So instead he stays perfectly still, breathes slow, and thinks of his own body taking shape a second time in the lab in Michigan.