This is a Test

Ch. 11 - Ghost Power

The men's jaws dropped; the women's eyes bulged. Dante was the first to blow a gasket. "Go back to work? There's an apocalyptic pandemic going on!"

Any excuse to slack off...

"We need to do something. Why the fuck would we just go back to work?"

Because this is a test...

"I am saying our best option," Cashe stated, "is to continue on as we have been doing."

Lia raised a hand less for permission and more to hush the others. "You don't believe it is real."

Cashe shrugged. "I am saying it doesn't matter if it is or is not."

"What about our families or friends?" Miranda asked with defiance. "Loved ones who we would miss, or who miss us. People we care for."

"I understand all that. I do. I just don't know how we can do anything for them."

"But it's not a priority to you, is it?" she continued. You don't have anyone waiting on you, but some of us do."

Odd... "Does anyone here have children?"

Everyone shook their heads, Roger included, until he laughed and changed his response. "Yeah, probably."

Cashe looked at him and considered both the statement and the man. "Okay, that's 'no' all around. Any spouses? Siblings, parents, pets? Anoptica implied that I was an ideal candidate because I didn't have any family members that were dependent on me. Should I guess that is somewhat the same for the rest of us? Anyone waiting for your returns?"

"I gave my plants to a member of my gardening co-op to take care of while I said I was on sabbatical." Karina said.

So that's also a 'no.'

Miranda ceased gnawing on her thumbnail to offer, "I have parents in Alexandria. I haven't seen them for years, but love them dearly."

The rest provided similar lists, all emphasizing that besides distant progenitors or beloved besties, they were basically on their own. Cashe sighed. "What I am saying is that the logical course of action is to continue doing our jobs to the best of our abilities."

"How soon before Anoptica picks us up?' Roger asked, arms crossed before him.

Cashe shook his head and looked to Lia. "I haven't seen anything that indicates that they plan to do so. Have we received any messages?"

"No," she said, "but we are working off radio transmissions, so it is only when we can get a signal to receive or transmit. The internet is not reliable."

Cashe remembered from his training that Anoptica said ham radio would be a back-up way to transmit from Mars. He thought that only meant talking. "So are we able to contact the head office?"

Lia opened her mouth to speak, but Dante piped up first. "Lia was lucky to be able to do a moon bounce. That's where signals are ricochet off the Moon and back down to Earth." Dante ran a hand down the front of his shirt a few times to wipe away imaginary dust. "I used to do ham radio. It's a great way to talk to people around the world."

Dante continued to explain how he would send his voice out all over the planet in hopes that some poor sap would find it and listen by accident. The technology was of no interest to Cashe. He was more concerned how angry their benefactors would be. Technically, the way Dante had worded it, saying 'the Moon' and "Earth' could be seen as a perspective from Mars, if he had not specified which of Mars' two moons he meant, and that 'down to Earth' was slang for being on the planet's surface.

Roger seemed to follow some of what was said. "So, if we send a message to ask them to get us the hell out of here, how soon before they get back to us?" Lia shrugged with her palms facing the ceiling. "Well, then, we need to get ourselves the hell out of here."