THE TITAN EXPERIMENT

CHAPTER 20 - Fallout (Ariel Fairhaven)

Ariel Fairhaven was the senior doctor on duty aboard the U.S.S. Fortitude when the medics brought the shark attack victims into the Medical Bay. That was three days ago. The pilot of the catamaran speedboat knew where to go. In route, he hailed the bridge and alerted Admiral Marianna Brackston of their rapid approach. Brackston was the second woman in U.S. history to command a Goliath-class aircraft carrier. The pilot had swung the twin-hulled catamaran around to the stern boat launch where the emergency response team took them aboard. The gory scene reminded Ariel of the wartime horrors she had encountered during the border war with Mexico. The three-year war ended with a resounding victory for the United States, but during that time, Ariel saw her share of severed limbs and violent deaths.

After the war, the U.S. government created a ten-mile-wide demilitarized zone, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico all the way to the Pacific Ocean. In reality, it was an occupation zone for U.S. troops under the pretense of curbing Mexican aggression. Some cities, like Tijuana, that fell inside that territory remained inhabited, but under supervision. As a result, the U.S.S. Fortitude had become an unrelenting fixture in the Sea of Cortez, and Ariel didn't see it going anywhere soon. That was despite protests that America was the true bad guy in the war. Some thought the U.S. had fallen away from the land of the free and the home of the brave, turning into the evil empire. But that was not for Ariel to decide. She was not a political activist. She was a doctor, and she made her mark here with the good of each patient.

But recently, beside the shark attacks, her work here had been uneventful, filled with health and wellness checkups. She worked first shift and her daily routine included an escort to the Medical Bay via golf cart.

Ariel smiled at the cart's driver with a slight arch to her brow. She clutched the roof of the tiny vehicle as Lieutenant Zeke Maxwell drove along the designated pathway leading to the ship's stern. He grinned like a possum as he steered around obstacles and flew through alleyways between the gray structures. One day, he told her his name, Zeke, meant shooting star in Arabic. It suited him well with the short-cropped sandy hair and the passionate manner in which he carried himself.

In Ariel's opinion, Zeke had the best job in the Navy. He seemed to think so, too. Either that, or he really enjoyed chauffeuring her around. Probably the latter, she supposed. Because thinking of it, she didn't remember him smiling the other day when he transported Admiral Woodrow Jax to the bridge. That was after the senior ranking officer had checked in on a pair of high priority patients. Officially, the four-star admiral was visiting the mega-carrier to monitor moral, but he seemed more interested in the shark attack victims.

The thought of Zeke and his golf cart amused Ariel, but more than anything else, she was grateful for the taxi service on this floating island slash military base. The Fortitude was seven times larger than the old aircraft carriers dating back to the early millennium. Powered by a nuclear fusion reactor and a multitude of the latest hydro engines, the giant vessel moved as fast as any other ship at the sea. But it could also anchor down like a permanent fixture.

Zeke stopped at the entrance to the Medical Bay with the wide grin still on his face. "Be back at 1700 hours sharp to pick you up."

"Thank you, Lieutenant," Ariel said as she rose from the cart. She couldn't help but smile back. "I appreciate your promptness."

"Wouldn't have it any other way, Dr. Fairhaven." With his foot on the gas, he sped off, waving a hand in the air as a jovial goodbye.

Ariel turned from his shrinking figure and approached the auto doors, her smile fading as her thoughts returned to her patients. As she walked, brilliant sunlight baked the miniature city-like structures with the morning's heat. The passage opened and closed behind her. The exterior's utilitarian gray changed to a clean white interior. The temperature dropped to a cool seventy-two degrees, and the sterile odor of a hospital hit her, a drastic difference from the ocean spray smell outside.