to help?”
“No. Just have patience and stay in your quarters for now. Odyssey is in a precautionary shutdown. But don’t worry, it’s all just a part of the normal protocols.”
“Sounds like a quarantine to me,” Theo said.
“Just a necessary precaution,” Doctor Starling said. “These are very exciting times. You should be proud. Very.”
Listening to his father, Theo realized the skeletal bones he had discovered had already become an afterthought.
Theo asked, “What about the bones? What are they from?”
“We need more reference points,” Doctor Starling answered.
“Meaning what?” Theo asked.
“We need more bones to be able to develop an accurate skeletal model.”
“Are they sending another shuttle?”
“Soon.”
“Will you be on it?”
“Yes,” Doctor Starling said.
“So we won’t see each other back at the Ark,” Theo said.
“Not for a while,” Doctor Starling said. “But I will stay in constant contact. Okay?”
“Are you disappointed?”
“About?”
“Not being here on Odyssey,” Theo said.
“A long time ago I accepted the crazy cards that life deals us,” Doctor Starling said, “and you and your brother should too.”
“But are you disappointed?”
“Why would I be disappointed?”
“Because it wasn’t you who made the discovery,” Theo said.
“You have made me really proud. And at least we kept the discovery in the family,” Doctor Starling said.
Theo let a small smile crease his lips as he said, “If you were here, would you be going down to the surface of the planet?”
“Don’t worry about that planet,” Doctor Starling answered. “It’s not going anywhere and take care of your brother, okay?”
“Of course,” Theo said.
“And I’ll be posting a Communication entry very shortly for the community. This is history in the making. It really is and you are a vital part of it. You understand?”
“Of course,” Theo said.
“Good. God speed.”
They were finished speaking and Theo went back to thinking about the events of the day: how could something so small and so alien be so important to his father?
CHAPTER 6
POINT OF NO RETURN
It was a sleepless night for many aboard Odyssey.
The crew knew that Odyssey had over-stayed its welcome above the brown planet of GidX7. The shuttle had a rendezvous with the Ark, about three weeks from their current location. The point of no return was only four hours away.
If they didn’t start their journey back home to the Ark, the countdown to death would begin. Such a countdown always existed when they left the Ark, since there was only so much water and food and argon that could be stored aboard the shuttle.
Where Odyssey and the Starling brothers went next was totally out of their control. Just like a toy marionette, Theo and Ravi would be forced to dance when their strings were pulled. Currently, it was the Yin-Yang Twins and Captain Barton who held the strings that could make the entire crew of Odyssey dance, flop or even twirl about.
Resting on his bed, Theo sipped some of his daily ration of water with his Communication Device next to him.
In the early hours of day sixty-nine, Odyssey reached the point of no return and Captain Barton announced to all the residents that the shuttle had begun all necessary protocols to return to the Ark. His decision was based largely upon protocol and the fact that the primary function of this mission had been achieved. That primary function was to mine and secure enough argon, zinc and ore from the asteroid belt and then get back to the Ark as originally scheduled.
It was an extremely difficult decision, complicated only by the need to survive and the precautionary measures in place to not infect the entire Furman Corporation on three Arks, four smaller landing shuttles and the colonies on Mars and the Moon.
The alien microbe’s motive and intent wasn’t entirely known nor understood and Captain Barton knew his greatest priority was keep the ship and the