Pokémon Mars

Chapter 34: The Poem

With Joshua gone, his team needed a new leader. Eden seemed like the logical choice because he was such an experienced astronaut and a calm, rational man. He insisted he wasn't the man for the job. Although he was an outstanding engineer, he knew only the basics of the sciences involved in their work. He suggested Jin instead.

Of course, there was fear attached to that title. It wasn't impossible that Rudolph's hit men killed Joshua because he was the Team Leader. Jin took it on regardless.

'But can I have one of the Beldum? Just in case I get attacked out there... I don't have any Pokémon that can survive.'

Thalassa nodded. 'Of course you can. But... I don't really know who you're going to battle to train it... we'd battle you, of course, but our Pokémon are too strong...'

'I'll find a way.'

'You're really brave, Jin...'

Sitting on the floor of the Pokémon pen, Callerya wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her chin on her knees.

'I never thought I'd be the one telling you that, but I just want to go home... this project is pointless anyway...'

'It can't be.'

Jin shook his head. 'Joshua didn't believe it was. He had years of experience as a geobiologist and he thought it was possible. He thought all of it was possible. Everything from introducing a proper ecosystem to terraforming. And I know you're about to say he just wanted to believe it – but he believed all that before he came here. Before we knew Ares was a load of shit. We have to do it. Not for the Ares program or even "expanding the horizons of humans and Pokémon." We have to do it for Joshua.'

'But... but there's nothing to do, Jin... it's impossible... and pointless... and Joshua's gone... we don't even have his expertise anymore...'

'Listen up, you lot. We can't go home. We can't even expose the Ares program right now. We don't know enough. There are two kinds of people in the universe – people who want things to change so no-one else suffers like they did, and people who either don't care, or think everyone should have to endure whatever they did. And I know we're all the former. However we decide to move forward, whether it's exposing Ares or trying to improve life on Mars, we can't just give up and allow this shit to go on as it is. Feeling sorry for ourselves will get us nowhere. Joshua was the best Team Leader we could've asked for, but he wasn't the only reason we got this far. The clue's there in "team." We're a team. We're friends. We're scientists – damn good ones. And we're not alone.'

When Jin turned to address their friends from Team Magma and Team Aqua, Koray and Julien stood to attention in the Team Magma pose.

'We're here for you, my darlings!'

Firmino and Epsilon smiled.

'We've got your back.'

'I felt just like you guys when my mom died,' Firmino added, 'I was ready to give up and work at Wail-Mart, but I knew my mom wanted me to take over Team Aqua – no matter how pointless it seemed. And yeah, I hate my job. I desperately want to go home. I think the Ares program should end. But I'm not going home any time soon. The program ain't ending. I'm stuck here. My mom didn't unblock the sewer for fun and neither do I. We sure as hell don't do it for Ares. We do it for the good people and Pokémon of Mars who didn't ask to be conned by Rudolph's regime.'

'You heard the man!' Jin said, 'For the good people and Pokémon of Mars! Because we're all stuck here until something changes! So let's get on it. Thalassa! Our personally invited star physicist! You get back on those calculations about restarting the core of Mars!'