The Human Factor

     Before the song had ended, Jackie, who was not scheduled to arise until four hours after her husband, awoke. “Not again,” she moaned. She valued the last four hours of each day when Bill was asleep and she was awake.  Now, unable to return to her peaceful slumber, she would have a hard time tonight staying awake to enjoy her “mental health time alone” as she called it.

      “You know I need that time tonight alone,” she berated him. “You drive me crazy.”

      “Alone?” he shot back. “Ha, ha, haaaaaaa! You won’t be alone as long as you’re with me on this tub, baby.” He pretended to swing an ax and then did his best impersonation of Jack Nicholson’s diabolical grin leering through the splintered remains of a door. “Heeeeere’s Johnny!”

      “Stop it!” Bill’s antics often gave her the creeps.

      “You can run but you can’t hide. At least not until we get there.”

Launched four years earlier, Mars Expedition 1 or ME1 as it came to be known, came about when a totally different need than space exploration set a series of seemingly unrelated events into motion.  That need was water.  The events appeared to be coincidental. But those events would ultimately cause people, careers, and destinies to collide, gel, and come to fruition.

      Ty Ranter rarely woke by the same time each morning due to his job’s demands. On this particular one it was the visionphone, not music, which jangled him into a state of semi-consciousness. An anomaly among many of those who surrounded him, he was faithful to his wife. He did not even watch the cybersex, complete with holograms, that was so fashionable. However, the night before he had attended a boring perfunctory party that had kept him up until past midnight.  This made the early call most unwelcome.