| |
It was a strange feeling, to say the least. It was both exciting and terrifying at the same time. Or so Casey Smith thought. He didn’t feel like he was trapped in the Metaverse. He felt like he was an actor in a Hollywood picture. Only this wasn’t make-believe. It was real. That is, it was as real as the Metaverse could get, and thus far, he’d seen plenty of people die in the Metaverse. The only thing that baffled him was why he hadn’t died yet, even after being shot by Wyatt Earp himself three times in the chest.
“Yours is not to ask,” Casey whispered to himself, as he grabbed hold of a ladder wrung that was attached to the sidewall of the spacecraft. “Yours is to do or die.”
He wished he hadn’t thought of that old Shakespearean saying, but he couldn’t control what popped into his AI-controlled head. Jack was just a foot or two ahead of him. Casey eyed the technical sergeant as the big man attached his carabiner to the metal ladder rung. Doing exactly what he was told, Casey also proceeded to hook up his carabiner to the metal ladder wrung. As he did so, he felt his blood speeding through his veins and his heart pounding in his chest. He could not rid himself of the image of the man in the movie who helplessly floated out into oblivion.
But when Jack let go of the ladder so that he could utilize weightlessness to his advantage and literally fly up to the top of the craft where the cockpit was located, Casey felt he had no choice but to take the technical sergeant’s lead. Letting go of the ladder rung, Casey jumped and shot up into space right on the heels of his fellow crewmember. But at the same time, he made sure to hold onto the tether for dear life. It was his lifeline, his only hope for living. It didn’t matter if he wasn’t truly alive inside a metaverse. It was still his life-like reality. Fear of dying and how he would die was still a reality too, even if death itself might be an impossibility.
When he arrived at the cockpit, Jack reached out and took hold of yet another ladder rung mounted to the side of the bubble-shaped room. Casey was also quick to grab hold of one of the ladder rungs. It came as a relief to take hold of it. He felt far safer holding on than he did letting go.
Coming to the broken hatch, Jack gazed at the extent of the damage for a long beat before reaching out and touching anything with his gloved hand. Or so Casey observed. The big man looked over one shoulder and then the other. He opened and closed the door, and opened it again. He then pulled out the cordless electric hammer drill and began pounding at the damaged hinge. When he was satisfied with his work, he stored the hammer drill back in his pocket and pulled out his screw gun.
While he began drilling at the damaged hinge like a dentist drilling the crap out of a tooth, Casey observed the readout on his face shield. He still had plenty of oxygen and there was nothing of substance to read on his feed other than some sports scores back on earth. He stared out at the big red planet getting bigger all the time and he wondered what life would be like once they got there. He also wondered if they would discover some kind of life form on Mars. He was aware that water existed on the planet, and that it had once been covered in forest, so clearly there could have been a civilization there at one time.
Shit, he thought to himself, maybe we actually came from Mars. Maybe we had no choice but to go to earth to survive as a species. Maybe we fucked the place up like we’re fucking up earth right now.
Sixteen billion people vying for breathing space on earth is no longer sustainable. That’s why they were going to Mars in the first place. It wasn’t a scientific mission to see if they could terraform the place successfully, so much as to seek out much-needed new real estate.
When Casey refocused on the job Jack was doing, he saw the sergeant place the screw gun back in the satchel. Taking hold of the hatch, he opened and closed it several times before finally, closing it for good.
“Mission accomplished,” Casey said into his transmitter. It was a question to which he knew the answer.
Jack stood. Casey could see his satisfied grin through his face shield.
“If I don’t say so myself,” Jack said, “I do good work.” Then, “Let’s go home.”
That’s when Jack pulled on his tether and discovered he was no longer attached to the spacecraft.