Launch Day

Not yet clear enough of mind to radio headquarters with any logical assessment of mission status, Spay processes O'Neill's revelation and all the questions and comments of his colleagues that follow. He feels pretty helpless.

He couldn’t wait to get back in space, into another mission. The thought he always keeps to himself suddenly surfaces to the forefront of his mind:

there is not a human on earth I would not betray to get into space.

It was always a more figurative idea, that helped keep his drive and ambition strong, not let the noise of life and people distract him from his goals, his purpose. But now...the thought suddenly has new meaning.

"O'Neil. Why the hell should we go through with this mission at all!? I mean, what's in it for us, for humanity?"

Can you give us a little more other than saying it could be catastrophic or unatural? I mean if you're asking for sacrifices, we have a right to know. We will keep it to ourselves of course.

This was all getting crazier by the minute. Ava wasn't sure which she felt more. Anger or fear?

O'Neil shakes his head. "I wish I could. The unnatural doesn't obey the laws of physics or reality. Trying to understand it runs the risk of warping your brain and body. Thanks for not looking to closely into that," he says this last part to Dr. Turner with a small smile. "What I can say is anything unnatural is dangerous by its very existence. It's like radioactive isotopes."

"So we should draw straws or what?" Dierdre asks incredulously.

"Seems appropriate." Her comment drips with sarcasm and a sense of disbelief. Boy, did she rue the day she joined this expedition.

"Or we can just leave. Fabricate some malfunction, come up with some excuse. It's up to you. Just know that you'll be leaving a dangerous weapon in orbit if you do."

"Look." interjects Spay, primarily addressing rest of the team beside O'Neil.

"I know I'm the officer responsible for calling this mission. But this is all beyond any of our pay grades, including mine. I'm not about to make a decision for all of us here. We'll have to agree on what to do."

The magnitude of the situation is beginning to settle in to Spay's mind.

"But I just gotta say. If we abort now, we won't know if any of this is for real. And we won't be able to talk about it back home. We'll just have to go on about our business like it never happened."

"What if O'Neil is not just someone who has lost his mind...how do you get out here anyway...in space...if you are completely off your rocker? What if we end up making the choice here that seems safe but really is the worst thing we could ever do, for us...for all of humanity. I mean what the hell are we really talking about here?"

Belton returned from stowing the MMU. Hearing Spay, he chuckles. "This is the mission. We finish it. I'll take the MMU out, as planned. Y'all... just make sure my wife is taken care of. Don't tell her what happened, or what this was actually about. Just make sure she doesn't have CIA spooks following her or anything, because after this shit I wouldn't put it past our government to freeze her bank accounts due to "fraud" and stage an accidental gas leak at the house. Check on my folks too, yeah?"

"Well that is the question, isn't it?" Dierdre says to Spay. Selfishly relieved that Belton has offered himself up, she nods in agreement.

"We are pawns and of no worth obviously. It's a noble thing you are doing nevertheless, Luke." She figures the least she can do is address him by his first name now. "We will do what we can for your family," she adds, her voice devoid of any emotion. At this point she feels almost dead herself and merely going through the motions.

Dirk starts to feel anger from the direction of this conversation and will speak to the rest of the crew while completely ignoring O'Neil.

"I have no doubt that this thing actually exists, there's a reason that O'Neil and the other Bozo were thrown on this last minute. But if we abort now, it will be pretty obvious that we refused to follow through with the mission. I got to tell you though, I'm not convinced we need to destroy this thing, and I'm sure as shit not volunteering to be the sacrificial lamb. Lets go take a look and just fix the damn thing if we can so that we can keep our careers in tact. I don't know about y'all, but I have no intention of making this my last flight."

"That "other bozo" was Bruce Weintraub. Put some fucking respect on his name. Kid got chewed up and shit out by the government, least we can do is not piss in the casket," Belton snaps, then composes himself and shakes his head. "They don't want it fixed. That was a cover story. They want it decommed."

"Says the man we’ve known for only 48 hours! I don’t know where you went to SERE school Luke, but I find it highly suspicious that the our agency would send us up here to destroy a valuable asset, and we’re suppose to just take the word of this guy!"

Dirk gestures to O’Neil and looks him in the eye.

"Even more suspicious that the one guy to coo-berate the story is now in a body bag"

"So, you don't want to listen to the person in charge via their billet because you just met them? We've done that shit our entire careers in the military. Now you have an issue with it?" Belton scoffs.

Looking at McMillan, O'Neil says, "Your agency didn't. Mine did. We are using yours to complete a very important job and the less people know, the better. There's only Woolrich and I left. There's nothing suspicious about Weintraub's death. It is a tragedy and I wish he were still here. But this was the risk we both took to take this satellite out. The question is will you let his sacrifice be in vain?"

Dirk feels his frustration boiling over.

To Luke:

"Not when that person tells you to abandon your primary mission for his own, especially for some other shadow agency's motives!"

To O'Neil:

"And which agency do you actually represent? FSB? VAJA? Mossad?

Dirk doesn't really expect an answer. Dirk stands there breathing a moment, calming his heart rate. Then he'll gesture to the rest of the group.

"Am I the only one concerned that we might be talking about treason? Doc...? Michael...? My vote is to proceed to the satellite to examine it, radio in with what we found, and await more direct instruction."

Dierdre ignores the drama and shrugs.

"I don't want to be around when you get that instruction. Sure, go ahead and take a look at it."

"Is it treason, or did things just go wrong? And how would anyone prove one or the other? It isn't like this can see a court. They'd have to pony up the evidence to make their case. Never happening."

Belton shrugs, and suddenly seems tired in a way sleep won't help.

"Besides... O'Neil is the only one who knows anything about this sat. It all hinges on him, and all we have to do is say we didn't know and stick to the story. Easy right? It was above our clearance, why would we know anything? That makes O'Neil the fallguy, the one who did his own thing. (No offense, man.) If I go out with him to fix it, and it all comes crashing down -- maybe literally -- who says otherwise?"

"It sounds like we are at least in agreement that we rendezvous with the satellite as planned as opposed to aborting the mission now. If we examine it, radio in with what we found, and await more direct instruction, like McMillan said, at this point it will be interesting to see what instructions we from Woolrich. Really, what the fuck is this all about!? I mean what are we up against?"