Defying Mars (The Saving Mars Series) - By Cidney Swanson Page 0,5
a final adjustment, and lifted the visor protecting his eyes. “Don’t fret yourself, kid,” replied Crusty. “No offense taken for the heated words. You’re a lot like your ma. I used to add a dose of coolant to anything she said.”
She ignored the unwelcome comparison to her mother. “Anything wrong down here?” she asked.
“Not anymore,” replied Crusty. “Got to thinking about my list of repairs. Might as well start in on it, I figured. Work my way up from the ship’s belly.”
Jess nodded solemnly, containing her eager approval.
“Time for a rest now, I reckon,” Crusty continued. “Must be about breakfast by now. Or dinner. Hard to tell ‘em apart with no sun rising and setting each day.”
The pair made their way back to the rations room, where Crusty walked straight to his potted plants.
“How’s your orchid doing?” she asked, determined to prove herself his friend.
“Hmmph,” he grunted. “Reckon it misses Wallace.”
Jess smiled, uncertain if Crusty was joking or serious. Beside the flower sat a small algae pot from her mother’s household algae-pot program. Jess felt a rush of homesickness. Reaching out to touch the pot that held the small green plant, she asked, “And how’s the algae?”
The question elicited another grunt. “It’ll survive.”
Jess stared at the emerald growth, the tiny leaves moist and fragile in appearance.
“Made a slight change to the feed,” murmured Crusty. “Don’t know if your ma’ll be happy or start throwin’ stuff at me.”
Jess waited for Crusty to elaborate. When he remained silent, she prodded. “What do you mean ‘a slight change’?”
“Came out of a conversation I had with Wallace. I got to thinking about the gastro-intestinal die-off that made early settlers on Mars Colonial get sick. Got to thinking it maybe had to do with the low count of probiotics on the plant leaves. They was growin’ ‘em pretty sterile back then.” Crusty shrugged. “So I asked Wallace to harvest me some of whatever he had growin’ on his kale and cabbage out in the greenhouse and we inoculated the algae with a nice dose.”
“Huh,” said Jessamyn, nodding. It sounded like a good idea, but she wasn’t sure how her mom would respond, either.
“Seems to have survived,” said Crusty. “What don’t kill you makes you stronger, they say.”
The smile on Jessamyn’s lips faded, and she felt the knife-twist pain of losing Ethan. No, it had not killed her, the loss of her brother. But she didn’t think it had made her stronger. She felt brittle as factory glass when she thought of Ethan. That is not a sensation you can afford to indulge, she told herself. She would not be brittle. She would be strong. If she wanted to save her brother, she had to be.
“I sent a letter to Mei Lo,” Jess said aloud.
“Did you now?” asked Crusty. “’Bout your little rescue plan?”
Jess nodded. “I think she’ll listen to me. She’ll want my brother to finish what he started, don’t you think?”
Crusty scratched his chin. “Reckon that might be your best line of argument, right there. The Secretary and everyone else on the board knows that was a job only Ethan could manage.”
Jess felt her heart swell with pride for her brother’s abilities.
“Course, they could use the lasers as another reason to keep you from takin’ a ship back up again. Considering what happened to the Dawn and all.”
“I got through the lasers once,” said Jess. “I can get through again.”
“I’m glad the darned things only fire at what’s trying to leave the planet and not what’s trying to get home.”
Crusty sighed and stepped back from the plants to pop his drink packet and ration wrapper in the recycle-mech. “Reckon I oughta head up to the bridge and see about these fuel burns you been makin’. Don’t want to be stuck doing some Jess-style landing come touchdown.” Crusty chuckled to himself and strolled out of the rations room toward the bridge.
“Jess-style?” she called after him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Think on it a spell. It’ll come to you,” Crusty called back.
He must have heard about the landing which had gotten her grounded six weeks prior to the raiding mission. She’d disobeyed a direct order to abandon her malfunctioning hopcraft and made an unconventional horizontal landing minus her thrust engines.
As if she’d consider putting the Galleon through that. The suggestion was preposterous. Which Crusty knew all too well. Smiling, she realized it had been an uncharacteristic attempt at humor, at camaraderie. Crusty must be feeling sorry for her. She’d have to guard against moroseness in his