“Who, Flynn?” Morrison replied, checking several packets, deciding which one he wanted. “He’s okay. Sure, he prefers his own company, but once you get to know him, he’s actually a good guy.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” Aki replied. “He seems a very angry man.”
“Look, I know the guy can sometimes be an asshole, but try to cut him some slack, eh?” Morrison replied. “He’s going through the same emotions as the rest of us. He had a wife and daughter in Chicago you know, so he’s hurting the same as us. He’s dealing with it in a different way and maybe it’s making him a little prickly and antisocial, but let’s not vilify the guy for it.”
“I guess so.” I conceded.
“There are six of us in a confined space in a bad situation.” Morrison continued. “It’s inevitable that tensions will run high and small irritations become amplified out of all proportion.”
“It’s true.” Karpov nodded in agreement, tearing open his food packet. “I read that even one of my heroes, the Cosmonaut Valery Ryumin, once wrote that ‘All the conditions necessary for murder are met if you shut two men in a cabin measuring 18 feet by 20 and leave them together for two months’ and he was twice decorated as a Hero of the Soviet Union.”
“Let’s just try not to pile all our frustration and anger onto the shoulders of one individual.” Morrison added. “While Flynn might not be the most charismatic guy on the station, he’s not the antichrist either.”
Day Twenty-One
“Hey Max. What are you up to?” I jumped, startled by the sudden voice. I looked up to find Aki hanging upside down just above me. I was at the end of the cylindrical interior of the Leonardo storage module next to the Tranquillity node. Aki had pulled herself through the hatch above me headfirst, so she floated there upside down from my perspective. “Sorry to startle you.” She smiled sheepishly, reaching for a handhold, pulling her knees in and spinning herself around so that she was the same way up as me.
“It’s okay.” I replied, remembering a couple of days earlier when I had accidentally surprised Natalya when she had been gazing out of the cupola. She had screamed in fright when I’d touched her shoulder. “I know it’s easy to creep up on someone when you don’t have footsteps.”
“What are you looking for?” She asked, glancing at the opened white storage bags around me.
“Karpov asked me to carry out an itinerary of our supplies.” I replied. “I’m nearly finished, thank God.”
“How’s it looking?”
“Not too bad.” I said. “Flynn was right. If we ration it all carefully, we should have enough food for at least a year. We might all feel pretty hungry, at least until we get used to eating less, but we should be okay, particularly if we can supplement it with vegetables from the hydroponics experiment.”
“Well, I guess I’ve always wanted to lose two or three pounds.” Aki smiled brightly. I returned her smile.
“That’s one way to look at it.” I couldn’t help but admire her upbeat optimistic attitude, but for my part, I really wasn’t looking forward to a rumbling stomach for a year. I chided myself, wondering how many millions of people on the planet below would swap places with me for a year.
Day Twenty-Six
“How’s the food Chuck?” I asked Flynn as I entered Zvezda. It was coming up to lunchtime and it was just the two of us. Flynn hadn’t been any less withdrawn the last few days, but after what Morrison had said, I had decided to try and make more of an effort with the surly American. He glanced up from the galley table and chewed thoughtfully for a moment.
“Awful.” He replied finally.
“I know what you mean.” I agreed, opening the storage locker above the galley table and pulling out a packet for myself. “Kind of like having a microwave dinner every time, but in awkward packaging.”
“Not the quality of food you might expect from ‘the most expensive and exclusive holiday money can buy’?” Flynn replied. I winced, recognising the quote. Some tabloid hack had misquoted me when I had first announced that I was to travel up to the station. The article had been most uncomplimentary, painting a picture of me as a spoilt playboy with nothing better to spend my millions on than my own fleeting flights of fancy. I studied the American. Flynn had obviously read the article and made his own mind up long before we had met.
“I remember reading that article.” I smiled wryly, sitting down opposite Flynn. “The press and that paper in particular have always taken a dim view of my enjoyment of my fortune, criticising me for spending so much money for my own gratification. Strangely there’s never any mention of the millions I donated to charity every year. Even the money I spent to come here went towards the cost of the International Space Station programme, which saved the tax payer millions. I guess what I’m trying to say, Chuck, is don’t believe everything you read.” Flynn shrugged his shoulders, snorted derisively and discarded his lunch packaging before pulling himself past me and out of the hatch connecting Zvezda to the next module.
“Well, I tried.” I muttered to myself before continuing with my own lunch.
Day Thirty
I had been peddling for nearly an hour and my legs were starting to ache. I had the Destiny lab to myself for the moment. An exercise bike was set up in the middle of the module, so I had decided to get some exercise. The muscles in my thighs were starting to burn so I began to slow down.
“It’s the pain barrier! Fight through it!” Aki emerged into the Destiny lab and pulled herself towards me. I put on one final burst for show before stopping to catch my breath.
“I don’t often see you on this machine.” She remarked.
“Flynn’s usually in here, but he’s working in the Columbus module today, so I thought I’d make the most of it and get some exercise on the bike without him glaring at me from start to finish.”
“So, what’s the deal with you and Flynn?” Aki dropped her voice, checking to ensure we were alone.
“You tell me.” I shrugged. “He seems strangely immune to my charm, wit and general charisma.”
“Impossible.” Aki exclaimed with mock surprise.
“I know!” I smiled. “Seriously though, we definitely seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot. Maybe he doesn’t like tourists…”
“Well, you can rest assured that he’s in the minority.” Aki replied. “The rest of us think you’re a good guy. Particularly one of our cosmonauts who certainly seems to have taken a shine to you…” She added with a hint of mischief on her face.
“I really hope you’re not talking about Karpov.” I grinned.
“You know exactly who I’m talking about.” Aki replied. “And don’t think I haven’t spotted you shamelessly flirting with her either. This is a small station you know!” I felt my face flush, causing her to smile.
“How are you coping?” I asked Aki, trying to change the subject.
“I’m just trying not to think about it.” She said sadly. “I try to focus on my experiments, but sometimes I find myself wondering what the point is. Do you think this is the end of everything?”
“I don’t think so.” I said after a moment, slowly shaking my head. “I think people will survive. Maybe not many and it will probably be brutally hard, but people will survive. There will be nuclear shelters which withstood the onslaught and people in countries that weren’t hit directly. No doubt the radiation will kill a lot of survivors. Without clean food and water and medical supplies dwindling, maybe other diseases will take a terrible toll, but surely not enough to wipe out every last human being.” I moved over to one of the windows and gazed down at the Earth below us, a dark smudge covering most of the landmasses in the northern hemisphere.