June 2, 2035
Earth Departure Plus 49 Days
14:28 Universal Time
Arrow Biology Laboratory
“That’s what an extremophile looks like up close and personal,” Amanda Lynn was saying, pointing to the shapeless blobs on the display screen.
Virginia Gonzalez peered at the screen. “Like amoebas,” she murmured.
“Sort of.”
Arrow’s minuscule biology lab was barely large enough for the two of them. Gonzalez, tall and leggy, was wearing gym shorts and an oversized sweatshirt. The shorter, stockier Lynn was in mission-standard sky blue coveralls. They sat side by side on foldable stools that looked flimsy, but were perfectly adequate in the ship’s one-third gravity.
Lynn pointed to the screen, “I picked that one out of a lake in Antarctica that’s been covered with ice for several million years. It’s called a psychrophile.”
“Amazing to think it could survive that long and under such cold conditions. Most of the extremophiles I’ve heard of are near volcanic vents on the ocean floor or someplace really hot.”
“This one thrives in the cold. Little bugger’s filled with natural antifreeze: temperatures below freezing don’t bother it at all.”
Her eyes riveted to the screen, Gonzalez asked, “You expect to find something like that on Mars?”
“Hope so,” Lynn replied. “The amino acids and other biomarkers the Chinese found were in the ice of the permafrost underground.”
Before Gonzalez could ask another question, Lynn pointed to the screen and explained, “This kind of bacterium is a methanogen. It excretes methane as a waste product of its metabolism. The earliest satellites we placed in orbit around Mars detected whiffs of methane, but the latest ones haven’t found any trace of the bug farts—”
“Bug farts?”
Lynn’s normally dour face broke into a bright smile. “Yep. Bug farts.”
She clicked the remote in her hand and the screen went dark.
Gonzalez got to her feet and stretched. “So you’ll be working with Catherine and Hi once we get to Mars.”
Nodding, Amanda said, “They do the digging, I examine what they’ve brought up.”
“Hi will do the digging,” Virginia said, a slight smile on her lips. “He won’t let Catherine get her hands dirty.”
“I don’t care who does the digging as long as they bring me their results.”
“It doesn’t bother you that Hi’s a chauvinist? The way he hovers around Catherine. He thinks she’s a little porcelain doll.”
Amanda shrugged. “Most men are bigger and stronger than most women. I don’t mind letting Hi do the muscle work.”
She flashed back to a memory of growing up in Detroit, how her brothers would walk with her, protect her on their way through the bad neighborhoods they had to get through to reach school. That’s what men are built for, Amanda thought. Some of them are born rapists, some born protectors.
Virginia interrupted her thoughts. “Do you think Catherine and Hi have made it yet?”
Amanda shook her head. “If they have, they’ve been awfully quiet about it.”
Giggling, Virginia said, “Maybe they put gags in their mouths.”
“That’s kinky!”
“What about Mikhail?” Virginia pursued. “I know he’s married, but he looks so lonely.”
“You getting the hots, girl?”
Her smile turning sly, Virginia replied, “Just looking over the field.”
“If I got excited over any of them, it’d be Ted. He’s cute, and I bet he’d be fun.”
“He’s married, too.”
“Yeah. What about Bee?”
“Also married,” Virginia said, with a theatrical sigh.
“Yeah, but I hear his marriage is on the rocks.”
“Maybe. But he’s such an iceberg,” Virginia said.
“You try to melt him down a little?”
“No!” But then Virginia’s expression turned thoughtful and she said softly, “I wonder if you could, though.”
Amanda shook her head. “It wouldn’t work.”
“You mean you wouldn’t try it?”
“Look at me. Short and squat. And black, to boot. Now you, you’re tall and slim and good-looking.”
“And Hispanic.”
“What’s that got to do with it?”
Suddenly tired of this subject, Virginia said, “Enough fantasizing. I’m not going after any of these guys. We have a job to do, and screwing around will make everything too complicated.”
Amanda nodded agreement. “You’re right. We’re dedicated scientists, not those female acrobats from the latest porno simulations.”
“Acrobats?”
“If you’d seen some of the positions they take, then you’d know why I call them ‘acrobats’.”
“You’ve seen them?”
“A few,” Amanda said, almost defensively. “But I didn’t bring any of those vids aboard the ship with me.”
“I wonder if Mikhail has. Or Hi?” Virginia mused.
“Ted might,” Amanda said. “But not Bee.”
Virginia laughed. “That’s right. Bee will maintain proper discipline, just like it says in the mission manual. And so will we, dammit.”
“Yeah, sure. And only four hundred and forty-two days to go.”