The Oceans of Mars Read online

  “Students please stay in line.” Susanna lowered her voice as she turned to Patricia. “How’s the class going?”

  “Good. Well sort of. You didn’t tell me your son was going to be in my class.”

  “I didn’t want to warn you.”

  “He’s not that bad. Once we got past the sleeping incident.” Patricia sighed. “He’s not my issue.”

  “That’s good to hear. I questioned whether he would be able to adjust to any of this or whether he would even try.”

  “For the record, I don’t know that he’ll ever want to be here, but I think he’ll try. Especially in my class.”

  Susanna laughed. “Would you like to eat lunch with me?”

  As the two walked into the cafeteria, Susanna corralled her children into a line while Patricia scanned the room. She didn’t see John anywhere. “That sounds good.”

  Unlike at breakfast, for lunch there were actual lines where people gathered to get food. Cooks from the kitchen were bringing food in and dishing it out at a serving table. On the far wall were two machines that a few people were opting for instead. These had a limited selection of fresher choices of cold items and a water dispenser.

  Patricia leapt in line behind Susanna who was trying to keep her children from wandering off. Once everyone had food, they took a seat at a couple of round tables.

  “How has your first day with the little ones gone?” Patricia asked, stirring the food around on her tray.

  “They’re easily managed. You said earlier that my son isn’t your issue. Who is?”

  “I only have three students and one of them is a loud mouth with an opinion about everything. He’s probably smarter than I am.” She took a small bite and tried not to grimace.

  “You’re going to have to nip that in the bud.”

  “Don’t worry, I’m working on it.”

  “What’s his name?”

  “The name he gave me was Lance Fisher. I don’t know if I trust that.”

  “No, there are definitely Fisher’s on board. His mother works in the laundry room. She’s in charge of maintenance of the bots down there. And his father is on the third janitorial staff. He also does some sort of maintenance work, but I don’t know what.”

  “Do you know everyone on the ship?”

  “Most. I studied the manifest closely.”

  Patricia took another bite, swirling the rest of her food around on the tray. Maybe if she mixed it together, it would taste better. Unable to take it any longer, she sighed. “Thank you for letting me eat lunch with you. I think I should head back to the room before they get finished eating.” Patricia stood up and grabbed her tray. “I’ll see you again.” She then walked her tray to one of the bots that was motoring around the room collecting trays from those who had finished eating. Then she left the cafeteria and headed back to her classroom. Teral was already in there. “Did you eat lunch?”

  He nodded with a slight shrug.

  “You’ve got more time to kill if you want.”

  Again he nodded with a shrug.

  Patricia took a seat at her desk and clicked the top. The three students’ names popped up. She pushed on Teral’s name first. He had only submitted one thing since they began class. And it wasn’t a completed assignment. Patricia went back to the first screen and clicked on Cubina. All three assignments were completed and perfectly done. Though her language assignment contained harshly phrased sentences filled with a hatred of her current life. Patricia went back out and clicked on Lance’s name. The three assignments were there. She clicked on the first and it was just a picture of what appeared to be a crude depiction of herself with a speaker’s bubble full of zeros and ones. She knew if she looked up what it really said it was just going to make her more upset. So Patricia went back out, choosing to ignore the assignment and just gave him an F.

  It took another ten minutes, but eventually Lance and Cubina returned to the room and took the same seats they had taken before. Cubina went back to work on more assignments. Patricia wondered how quickly she would finish the entire course load. Coming up with extra work was going to suck.

  “Welcome back. How was the food?”

  Lance scoffed. “I think the cooks need to be jettisoned into space.”

  Patricia bit her lip, trying not to laugh. “It definitely could do with some improvement. But it’s all we will have for a while so we might as well build up a tolerance for it. This afternoon I thought we could cover a bit of history.”

  “Hope you know more about history than you’ve demonstrated in any of the other core subjects.”

  “Why don’t you try completing an assignment before you criticize my teaching abilities?” Turning away from him, Patricia addressed the other two. “There are several layers to history. Especially with Earth. Martian history is pretty cut and dry. You can click on Mars if you like.”

  Cubina did, but the boys just sat back in their chairs. Under Mars, there was a pre-human history category and a post-human history category. She was the only one of the students who appeared to be interested at all in learning. Cubina clicked the screen with vigor, skimming through the content and then switching back to the next screen.

  Then there were the boys, neither of which engaged in the desk if they didn’t have to.

  “Earth, unlike Mars, has several more centuries of human history. We’re going to cover as much as possible in our time together. Especially the last century.” Patricia stopped as the door slid open. First Mate Kitty Troubalene entered the room with a tablet and an overly warm smile. “Can I help you?”

  The three students swiveled in their seats.

  “Just here to observe as we discussed yesterday.”

  Patricia forced a smile on her face as Troubalene took a seat right next to Lance.

  “Please continue.”

  Patricia looked at Cubina and then at Teral. Neither were facing her. The only student who was facing forward was Lance. She locked eyes with him. “Alright. We were talking about the last century of Earth. Please engage the picture of Earth on your desks.” She waited for the students to do so. Troubalene activated the desk in front of her as well. Great, she had another student who was going to pretend to listen and only partially do the assignments. “The last century of human existence on Earth was one of trials and tribulations that those who resided on Mars probably know little about.”

  “Such as?” Lance asked in a slightly sarcastic tone. It was hidden well enough that Patricia was sure Troubalene didn’t notice.

  “Please engage the icon for the 21st century.” She waited for the students to do so. On their screen a barrage of images began to appear. There was a parade of different world leaders across the top of the screen that spanned the century. Across the bottom of the desk were specific events and the years they took place. “When you see the War of Water, give it a click.” They all four clicked around the same time. The desks sprang to life. There were thermal images of Earth from the beginning of the war until the end. “You’ll see that the temperature of the planet rose significantly within just a short period of time. You’ll also see on those images that the amount of water was scarce from the start of the war and near non-existent at the end.”

  “Where did the images come from?” Lance swiped his desk so that the thermal scans disappeared.

  “A couple months ago, I worked with Capena to hack the satellites in orbit that were still functional.”

  “You? You helped hack the satellite?”

  Patricia tried very hard to not retaliate. She needed to silence him. But slowly her eyes wandered over to Troubalene who was watching Patricia passively. “I was a part of the team that did the work. So yes, I did help to hack the satellite. Images were taken during the war for strategic patterns.”

  “And the sides of the war?”

  Patricia shook her head. “There were none. At first the countries were aligned with themselves. Then the governments dissolved and anarchy ensued as the population dropped off little by litt
le. The truth is, the only thing that kept Earth alive long enough for people to make it to Mars was all the deaths. If the population had remained drastically high, then the water would have been depleted that much faster and Earth would have faded away without Mars ever knowing. War actually saved the people of Earth.”

  “So you’re saying war is good.”

  Patricia looked Lance in the eye, unblinking. “In certain cases, it is necessary.” She turned to Cubina. She was interacting with the desk, moving into the assignment already. “You all should be well aware of the evils and necessity of war having just experienced one first hand not that long ago.” Teral and Cubina looked up at her. Lance crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Maybe we should talk about that. Does anyone have any thoughts?”

  Cubina raised her hand. Patricia gave her an encouraging nod. “We shouldn’t have engaged in such behavior, reducing the society of Capena to that of the people of Ares.”

  Patricia almost laughed. “And when Ares declared war, how was Capena supposed to act?”

  “With dignity and intelligence. We should have risen above the occasion to end it before it began.”

  “You’re a naïve little girl,” Lance said.

  “Lance, let’s try to refrain from name calling,” Patricia said.

  Lance rolled his eyes. “She clearly is unable to comprehend the complexities of explosive devices.”

  “And what are you trying to imply?” Cubina asked.

  “Ares had the means to level Capena. If we hadn’t acted in the manner in which we did, there would be no Capena and you certainly would have been dead.”

  “And what makes you think you wouldn’t have been the same?”

  “I have the foresight to have had a contingency plan if ever such a circumstance should have presented itself.”

  “Yes, because I’m sure you would be able to outrun those explosive devices.”

  Patricia cleared her throat. “Both are fair points to bring up. Perhaps Teral would like to weigh in on this matter.”

  Teral looked up with a startled face. He looked as though he was shocked she could see him. With a small shake of his head, he looked down again.

  Patricia glanced at Troubalene. She was taking some notes on her tablet while intermittently clicking random items on the desk before her. Turning back to Teral, Patricia said, “You must have an opinion.” He still refused to answer. “Suit yourself. Given that we are the class of older students and that it is the first day, I think we should call it a day a bit early. But before we do, assignments must be given.” She paused for any groans. There were none. “I would like a five thousand word essay all about your new home. You can write about any part of the ship. These essays will be put in your record and reviewed later so, yes, they do have to be completed.” She stared at Lance.

  “I don’t know what you mean. I have done every assignment you have asked of me.”

  Patricia tried not to laugh. “I will be using these to help determine my recommendation for your future assignments. If any of you want to disregard this assignment, fine, but remember I can easily appoint you to work in some place that you’ll absolutely loathe for years. I highly recommend giving this assignment a bit of thought.” She clapped her hands together. “The rest of the day is yours. Be back here bright and early tomorrow morning.”

  “You were serious?” Lance asked. “Have you run out of things to teach us already?”

  Troubalene stood up. “I think I’ve seen all I need to see for the day as well. Students, if you could gather your things and head out. Feel free to enjoy yourselves on floor two or head to your rooms. Try not to get into too much trouble.”

  Lance stood up last with a smirk. “Someone’s in trouble.” Then he left the room. The door slid shut behind the students.

  “Well Mrs. Meyer that class went very well.”

  Patricia tried to find sarcasm in what Troubalene said, but there was none or at least not any that she could find. “You can call me Patricia and I was worried it was a complete disaster.” Patricia laughed nervously.

  “Of course not. For future reference, you might want to control Lance.”

  The smile on Patricia’s face grew wider. “So it’s not just me? He really is an annoying little shit.”

  “Well I wouldn’t have put it quite so colorfully, but yes. He’s always been that way.” Troubalene sat her tablet down on the desk. “Has he done any of the assignments so far?”

  Patricia smirked. “Oh yeah. He’s done them.” She pulled up the assignments on her own desk and clicked on Lance’s name to show Troubalene.

  Troubalene clicked each of the assignments and read his responses. “He has done this since his early education. A very bright, gifted young man who has failed every single grade.”

  “He’s failed every grade?” Patricia looked at the assignments. She understood the teachers’ reasoning, but not why Lance didn’t put in the effort.

  “Do you have an idea where to place these students already?”

  Patricia nodded. “After hearing them speak, I have an idea where Lance and Cubina might enjoy spending the remaining years, but Teral is a bit of a problem.”

  “Cubina could work in any department on this ship and get along fine with them all. Lance could be a bit of challenge since his people skills are beyond our control. He’s intelligent with a real gift for programming. Just would be better suited in a job where he could work alone. As for Teral, I do see your predicament.”

  Patricia was confused. “Do you stalk everyone on board?”

  “My captain has challenged me to know my crew as well as he does. I am doing my best.”

  “Well you’re doing better than I ever would have.”

  “Thank you. You only have a few months to decide on a recommendation for Teral. Take it very seriously.”

  “Maybe I should speak to his mother. I’m having trouble getting him to open up and he’s not even attempted any of the assignments. I can’t help him if he won’t let me.”

  “His father will understand and trust your judgement on the matter. He won’t be biased, I promise.”

  “I’m sorry.” Patricia cocked her head to the side. “Who’s his father?”

  Troubalene, however, didn’t appear to hear her. She picked up her tablet. “I need to get going. Keep Lance in line and find a proper placement for Teral.” Then she opened the door and left.

  Patricia sat down at the desk, thinking. It was going to be a long journey. One that had barely begun.

  3

  Outbreak

  Patricia was stirring her dinner around her plate, happy that she had made it through her first week of classes. At the next table were a family with two little children under the age of eight. They were eating happily and talking about their first week with enthusiasm. The younger sister offered her father what was left of her bread. No reason. Just to be nice, Patricia supposed.

  When she couldn’t take the taste any longer, she stood up and disposed of her tray then headed out into the hall. The final classes for the day had all let out already. The only people in the hall on the third floor were there for food.

  She got into the nearest elevator and headed to floor six. When the doors opened again, John was standing just beyond in the hall.

  “There you are. I waited for you at dinner.”

  He shook his head. “Sorry. I was tending to a few technical problems.”

  “It’s okay. I can go back up with you if you want to get something.”

  John shook his head. “I’m not that hungry. Perhaps it would be better to just get into the room.”

  She looked him over a minute. He was holding something back. Then it hit her. She knew exactly what he was hiding. “You heard from them today, didn’t you?”

  John glanced over his shoulder nervously. “Keep your voice down until we’re in the room.”

  She pushed passed him. Anxiously skipping through the hall. Then, just as she reached her door, someone else came from the o
pposite direction. The captain approached her. “How have the classes gone this week?” he asked in a half interested tone.

  Patricia looked over her shoulder to see John dragging his feet through the hall. She wasn’t going to get his assistance in avoiding the captain. So she turned back around with a smile. “Very well. The three students are responding in a positive manner.”

  “I speak with Troubalene often.”

  “Okay so one of them responds well and the other two are thorns in my side.”

  “I only ask for honesty from my crew.” He touched his door. “And compliance.” Then he entered his room and the door slid shut behind him.

  Patricia sighed in relief. She turned to John who had just then made it to her side. “Thanks for your help. I saw you taking your time.”

  He put his hand on the door with a shrug. “I work with that man all day long. The least you could do is hold a five second conversation with him while I lackadaisically walk through the hall to our room.”

  “If you’re trying to be funny, don’t.” She motioned for him to enter the room when she noticed two more people coming through the hall. “Teral. Susanna. What brings you to this level?”

  “We live here,” Susanna said with a smile. “I haven’t seen you in a few days.”

  “No. I’ve been having the students take an earlier lunch and in the afternoon that gives us more time to visit the different stations on the ship. I need to see how they interact with current members of each team.”

  “That makes sense. Any thoughts on my son yet?”

  Patricia glanced at Teral. “Not yet, but I’m sure something will come to mind when the time comes.” She then looked Susanna in the eye. “Who are you married to?”