Gallimaufry

To the Stars

This story could have started at any point along Tobias' life and made about as much sense as starting as he paused in front of the door to the meeting room. He had been down this hallway twice before, formally. The first time he had been full of hope, excitement and nerves as he prepared to argue for a spot on the next exploratory mission out into the stars.

 The second time he had been returning from that mission, broken and scarred both inside and out, feeling the weight of the world weigh down on him as he explained why only two people had survived that trip and walked through all the lessons they had learned on that disastrous mission. That was a long time ago, and he had stopped paying attention to the announcements of found planets, Survivable Earth Condition number whatever they were at. Some of the missions were successful, some of them were just never spoken about again.

He had thought that he was at a place in his life where the Global Government had given up on paying attention to him. When you were a biologist that specialized in terraforming planets, in a species that had taken an interest to maintaining healthy sustainable populations on the planets they lived on, it was a hard thing to do. But he had devoted a great deal of his time to returning the Earth, or SEC001, to its prehuman state, and with the progress he made travelling from one toxic spot to another, they had been happy to leave him to it.

Until today.

Tobias sighed and looked down at the folder, labeled simply as SEC235, that he hadn't bothered to read in the hours since he had been flown back into Geneva to meet with the powers that be. He knew what the colour of the folder meant, just as surely as the number on the front of it. Black for unverifiable inhabitance, SEC for... well, a planet they wanted humans to look at.

"Doctor Savandel," the speaker beside in front of him chimed his name before the two large glass doors opened, turning from the fogged opaque that had prevented him seeing inside to a clear glass. He took a deep breath and shifted to straighten his shoulders, before walking into the room and approaching the small standing height desk that faced off a long table of government officials.

It was only then, feeling his adrenaline kick into high gear, that he realized that he wanted to be chosen for this mission. With a shiver, he glanced at the politicians and military leaders of the ruling body of their planet and colonies throughout the galaxy and readied himself to face their scrutiny.

**** 

"Why do they let the pointy-heads run this mission?" Anik asked casually, pulling her sunglasses down over her eyes as she glanced to the man beside her, who was sitting behind the steering wheel of their vehicle, watching the tall, lanky scholarly type walk down the stairway towards them. That was, as far as they knew, their mission commander, the guy at least looked like he had been outside, though his slightly unkempt appearance, hair scattered all over the place and slightly dipped shoulders told her that he was more of a thinker than an actor.

Her partner let out a noise that Anik could only describe as a 'tsk' of disapproval, glancing to her for a moment, then shaking his head, " You heard what happened on the SEC173 mission."

Anik offered a shrug and slid one hand to rest on her rifle reflexively, frowning, "Okay, Ervins. So one General decides that he wants to set up his own military strong hold and goes pyscho on everyone, and suddenly we don't trust the army at all to run anything. We're relegated to security experts. Most of the workers on these missions are trades from the military. How many of the SECs have disappeared because too many thinkers ran them into danger?"

Ervins chuckled at that, shaking his head, "That's a gross over simplification of what happened on that mission. You're not... wrong, but really, my point was two pronged. That's Dr. Savandel."

Her reply was cut off as the man opened the door and climbed into the back seat of their cruiser, sighing softly as he glanced towards them. Anik couldn't picture this man as being one of two survivors that made it back from a failed mission. No one seemed to ever make it back from failed missions, yet this scattered, tired looking scientist had.

"Sir." Anik said softly as she caught his eyes in the rear view mirror. The man offered her a tight smile and inclined his head, putting his folder down on the seat beside him and pulling his safety harness across him as Ervins pulled the cruiser away from the sidewalk and up into cruising altitude.

" I suppose you already know that the Governing Council has selected me for the mission" Savandel said thoughtfully, offering a careful shrug. " I have been given your files, and I understand that you expect that you've been approved for it, but no one is, yet."

Anik tensed then, narrowing her eyes and forcing out as pleasant a response as she could manage. "No one?"

Savandel nodded. "Not even me. I acceptance hinges on the acceptance of my head of security and tactics and everyone else's acceptance depends on her scrutiny."

"So... where are we going now, sir?" Ervins said carefully, giving Anik a hard glance, before glancing into the rear view to look at their tentative commander.

"The address should be uploaded into your navigation system." Savandel shook his head, offering a shrug. "I perhaps could have said that better, but Waimarie always said that soldiers liked things blunt."

"Why are we going into the centre of a northern conservation zone?" Ervins asked incredulously, looking at the navigation screen and hitting accept onto it, letting the cruiser take over the flight for the time being. He looked at Anik then shifted his seat to look at the scientist.

Savandel shrugged again, " To find Waimarie. She's the only person I trust to go on a mission like this."

Anik shook her head and slid her sunglasses up from her eyes, turning to look between the two of them, "Waimarie... as in the Staff Sergeant that got you back to Earth, Waimarie? Waimarie Chey?"

"I would like to think that we got each other back to SEC001, but yes. She was promoted to a Commander rank before being put on inactive duty." Savandel said slowly, watching them thoughtfully. "I don't think she'll be very welcoming. But I won't go without her."

"Major. She'd be a Major now..." Ervins corrected, wincing and turning his seat around again, rubbing the back of his neck in the way he did when he was worried about something, "Rumour is that she stopped taking her serum, you know. She was one of the first test subjects for the extended life trials. I heard when she disappeared into the wilderness, she didn't take any with her... she could be aged out by now."

"They used to call that dead, you know." Savandel murmured idly, before picking up the folder and opening it, starting to leaf through the information on the imbedded tablet.

Anik shook her head and settled back into her seat, stretching out and closing her eyes to try and get some sleep on the long journey across the planet, to find someone who may not even be alive anymore.