Gurminder

“Why couldn’t you pick on someone else!” he shouted at her. “If you thought your last trip with me didn’t end well for you, this one is going to be a lot worse. You’re pack’s back there. I didn’t touch it”

He pointed behind the passenger seat where it has been stowed.

It was like the whole planet had it in for him. This mission was insane, Mina seemed hot for him and then immediately kicked him out of bed, and this newer girl was like a bad oxygen line, always kinking up when it was the worst possible time.

He glanced over at Tory, who had hopped off the seat and was now rummaging through her pack, smiling and adding a “yes!” when she found the food packs she was searching for.

She then plunked herself back in the passenger seat, ripped off the top of the pack and began to eat. The aroma floated across the cockpit. Wow, that did smell good.

Gurminder turned back to her, not giving an inch though, and turned his face turn into a sneer.

“How the hell did you find me again?”

Tory frowned, shrugged.

“I didn’t mean to get back on your rig,” she told him, and added more while she ate and made noises of ecstasy as she did. “It was an accident, just like the first time. How was I to know this was your rig. It was dark.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

 She stuck out her tongue at him. Whatever she was eating had made it turn purple.

“I didn’t want to come with you,” she said. “I just want to go home and I thought this transport might help me get there. If I’d known it was yours – again – I’d probably have set it on fire or something.”

“You would set a metal vehicle on fire? How? Especially in an atmosphere that doesn’t have any oxygen.”

“What about the fact it has external has oxygen tanks?” she shot back, not holding back the smirk. “And you use hydrogen fuel cells, right? Boom!”

Gurminder rolled his eyes and turned back around to face forward. He certainly wanted to be angry with her, but he was glad she had gotten out of The Hole. He didn’t trust the Rus with a newer girl as their hostage. And he didn’t want to fight with her. Not with what this mission was going to entail.  Finally, it occurred to him to wonder how a young Earther knew anything about setting up that kind of a bomb.

“So where are we going?” Tory asked.

“You don’t want to know,” he told her.

“Oh? Is that why I didn’t just ask? You should just tell me. I’ll find out eventually, you know, when you get wherever you are going and stat doing whatever you are there to do. Wouldn’t it be better for me not to find out then.”

He could feel a headache coming on. Kids weren’t supposed to be that good at arguing. He certainly hadn’t been at her age.

Gurminder rubbed his temples and closed his eyes. Maybe some Meditation might help? No, not with her sitting right beside him. Finally, he gave in, let out a deep sigh and told her. There was nothing she could do about it anyways.

“I supposed you’re going to find out anyway, so there’s no point in hiding it now. The rig’s programmed to head to the Elysium Planitia Nuclear Cracking Station.”

“What?” Tory asked, “Why? Wait. That’s where they store the bombs they’re using to thicken the atmosphere.”

He turned and narrowed his eyes at her. Again, how did she know so much?

“Oh come on, don’t look surprised,” she told him. “I was forced fed just about everything Marcorp is doing to terraform Mars in minute detail, first on the ship here and then again in CU school. Not that it mattered, the air here won’t ever be thick enough for me to breath. Not in my lifetime, anyway. I mean it’s going to be hundreds of years, right?”

Gurminder nodded. That would be his best guess.

She was silent for a moment. And then, blurted out her next exclamation.

“Why are we going to a nuclear bomb station?! What could you possibly be doing there?”

“Stealing one of the bombs,” he offered with a tight grin.

He glanced over to her, and did feel a twinge of satisfaction as she rolled that thought around inside her head. Steal a nuke? She had to be trying to have that make sense to her. He nodded while the rig bumped along down the road to that actual theft, planned anyway.

“Why would you want to steal a nuclear bomb?” she said slowly, both horrified and fascinated by the idea. “Why would anyone?”