Pokémon Mars

Chapter 10: Bad Guy

No-one smiled when the group met at the Hexagon Coffee shop opposite Delta Lab 1. If they weren't hungover, they were mortified or, in Eden's case, annoyed. Jin's mind was elsewhere entirely. He couldn't sleep. All he could think of was his uncle, an Orre League Champion and the Ares program's poster boy, rotting alive in his apartment.

'Is he crazy? Or is he not even that far off with his conspiracy theories...?'

Thalassa worried it was the latter. At that moment, Callerya agreed.

'It's a shambles... just letting drunks out? Letting that idiot take me out without asking any questions, just 'cause he's the leader of Team Aqua?'

'Sorry to be that guy,' Eden said, 'And no, the guards shouldn't have let you out when you were drunk, but you should've known better from the start. You bought those drinks just to talk to Buckley. It was your second day on a deadly alien planet and you weren't even watching what you were drinking. It was very good of Joshua to take responsibility, but he's not our babysitter. We're all adults. And you were sober enough to refuse to go out, but you didn't because you fancied "that idiot." The rest of you were equally stupid to follow her, but at the same time, Callerya... you didn't even think to tell us where you were going. And that guy might actually be a weirdo.'

Callerya's friends shared their suspicions with her by then. Nothing Firmino said seemed suspicious to her, but why did he take a rookie out, knowing she could come down with the bends? Would things have turned out differently if her friends hadn't followed?

'I'm sorry... I know I've said it a million times already... but I'm really sorry.'

'But what's bothering me,' Nyx said, 'Is that Courtney said there's no way Buckley isn't who he says he is, because we're DNA tested every time we enter and leave Ironville... but he wasn't, was he? They didn't even test us on the way out. Only on the way in.'

Callerya shook her head. 'Definitely not. They didn't test me – at all – because I was with him.'

Nyx felt the woman at the next table staring before she saw the eyes peeking over her book, Ironville: Mankind's Most Ambitious City. As soon as Nyx looked up, the woman averted her eyes. Thalassa stared into her iced cinnamon coffee.

'Just what have we offered ourselves up for...?'

'Well...'

Callerya crushed her reusable napkin in the six colours of Hexagon Coffee.

'We can't go home. Even if things change, that ship won't be allowed to fly again for at least three months. We'll never forgive ourselves if we just give up. We're not here to advertise the Ares program. We're here as scientists. Ares was just our way of getting here. Maybe it is impossible to terraform this shithole... but we won't know if we don't try.'

She lowered her voice and spoke Kantonian, just in case that woman was listening in.

'And even if we are going to expose some conspiracy, we can't be seen doing it.'

'I guess that's true...'

Jin rolled the remains of his black coffee around his cup.

'For all we know, the "Mars madness" is induced somehow... and I sure as hell don't want to end up like Damson. OK. Come on. There's nothing I can do to help him right now... so let's do something... anything...'

'Well,' Eden said, 'If we aren't leaving any time soon, you lot need to learn how to stay safe out there. Forget the instructor. He was about as useful as a chocolate Numel. I'll drive for now. But first, we need to prepare so we don't get the bends again.'