It has been a struggle to get this written but I hope its the start of a lot more chapters to come before the New Year.
Claire - The actual word count of this chapter is 1328. (Thats text excluding headers, description etc)
Enjoy.
In the blackness of space a tiny spot was visible, spinning fast like a jenny without thread. The coloured lights of the space station were barely visible against the reflecting glare of the sun on its metallic exterior. A couple of astronauts stood together chatting and looking out into the universe.
“Look at it! Space! It’s the most beautiful place. There may be beauty in abundance back on Earth but its nothing like this.”
Ian King stood upon the gantry inside the small observation tower and looked out. To his left the giant globe of the Earth shone brightly, ahead of him he could see deep into light years of the cosmos. Kerry Spooner stood next to him listening as he spoke. She held a container of milk in her hand. She raised it to her lips and took a sip as he continued. A small droplet slowly formed at the end of one of her lips and she gently drew it into her mouth with her tongue.
“Look at that beautiful constellation, Perseus.”
Ian’s face beamed with enjoyment.
“Which one?” she asked looking vaguely around at dark space.
“There see that collection of stars?” he waved his outstretched hand, finger pointing, in what seemed like a random, aimless way.
“Yes.” Kerry lied and continued to drink.
“In Greek mythology Perseus was a hero, a great hero in fact. He was the first of the great Greek heroes, according to the legends. He’s the man who killed Medusa.”
There was a pause.
“She was the woman with the snakes for hair, turned people to stone? How’d he do it?” asked Kerry taking another drink.
“He cut her head off… Wack!” He drew his hand down hard into his other, a loud echoing slap rang around, “and then he gave it as a gift to Athena.”
“A gift!” she recoiled slightly at the thought.
“Yes, a votive deposit.”
Kerry fell silent not fully understanding what he was saying. She looked at him, he stared with awe. The light that shone from the Earth glimmered in his eyes; he was trance like in state. His demeanour was often unusual at best but tonight he seemed to be miles away, his head up in the stars as usual but with an oddness that was even too weird for him.
“What is a votive deposit?” she gingerly asked.
“It’s something that is given or left as a sacred item, used for ritual or prayer.”
“I see,” she said, “So it’s like leaving a penny in a wishing well?”
“Yes,” he said shocked at her sudden understanding, “That’s spot on Kerry. Your intellect surprises me so often.” He looked away from her to look back out of the window.
“Oh… be quiet! You are silly sometimes you know that?”
He stayed standing their silent.
“I’ll leave you for now. I’ve got a few things down in the laboratory to sort out before I turn in for the night.”
Without a reaction Ian continued to stare, unresponsive and silent. Kerry turned and slowly climbed down the stairs and disappeared.
Ian raised his hand and pressed it against the cold domed glass that protected him from the vacuum of space, “God, you are so beautiful.”
Kerry walked down the long space station corridor into the laboratory. Jimmy Allen, the chief scientist. He sat carefully on a tall stool next to a huge desk upon which lay instruments of all kinds, he was leaning forward and looking into an electronic microscope. Unaware of Kerry she stood and looked at him for a moment. He was a very mysterious man, Kerry had found herself training and working along side him during her entire time with the space agency and was in awe of him and his ability. His abilities with chemistry, physics and biology were amazing. He’d got the brains of ten men she thought. He could have been a doctor or a surgeon earning hundreds of thousands a year but he had never been interested in that and had selfishly followed his first passion, astronomy and space. He was a lover of everything celestial, metaphysical and philosophical. Together they had sat for many hours and discussed the greatness of the universe, the absurdity of existence and the insignificance of life on Earth as but a mere speck of dust existing in an infinite cosmos.
She placed her glass down gently and let out a small cough to draw his attention. He looked up at her and smiled.
“Hey there, how are you?” he said with the sincerity that made her wish other men in her life had spoken to her so caringly.
“I’m fine thanks,” she spoke quietly.
“It’ll soon be time…” he said.
She paused, “time for what?” she asked. Dreaming for the answer to be ‘For us to become husband and wife’ but she knew that would never be the case. She almost made herself laugh every time she thought about it and him. They were the best of friends, they worked well together and hard as colleagues and that was something that she would not want to ruin or change. But the idea of being with a guy like him was appealing to her, but she assumed it must be appealing to all women too.
“Time to go home again,”
“Aaaah of course. Yes not long now. It’s been a great mission though but it’s gone so quickly. Six months sounds like such a long time but when you are enjoying it so much…
“… time flies,” he interrupted, “I know, it’s a shit isn’t it?”
His swearing made her laugh, “It is,” she replied, “What are you doing there?”
“Well… I’m just checking on this experiment. I’ve been trying to introduce DNA into a bacteria which is known to target human cell tissue. I’m hoping that instead of attacking the cell and killing it I can engineer it to attack cells that are negative such as Cancer cells then it can destroy just those and leave the healthy cells alone.”
“That sounds like such great work better than the stuff I get to do.”
“Now, now,” he said, “that’s not true. You know you do valuable work. Your discoveries and research are for the benefit of the space agency and all of your colleagues and you know it. Those new gravity boots that you helped are revolutionary, isn’t it true that people can wear those now instead of having a complete artificial gravity system fitted to every space craft. That is such a great cost saving to the space agency and also helps private space travel to become more affordable, which is not to be sniffed at.”
“yeah…. I guess… but I’m still not saving lives….” She moaned.
“Yes but you are changing lives and bettering them, that is a great thing. If someone is ill and you can cure them it’s a good thing…. Do you agree…?”
“Yes of course…”
“And if someone has a low quality of life and you improve that, that’s a good thing too…. Yeah?”
“Yeah it is I suppose.”
“There is no suppose about it. We are both doing what we can to make life better for everyone. So don’t put down your achievements. You have made a difference in this universe and that is a very important thing. Don’t ever forget it.”
“Thanks, you always know what to say to make me feel better.” She said.
“I’m just calling it like I see it, nothing more. I’ll be finished in a while if you want to we can go and have a drink with Ian and the captain. A little treat! What d’you say?”
“Well I dunno, I don’t drink much…”
“Well have a coffee….” He interrupted again.
“OK then.”
“Great, can you go and tell the others for me and I’ll meet you in the mess in about thirty minutes.”
“Yeah, if I can pull Ian away from the Observation gantry for long enough,”
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