CHAPTER 16

“Once again, Brooke. I want to get another reading.”

Brooke took a deep breath then mounted the treadmill again. “I don’t understand, doc. I thought all these electrodes you have hooked up to me took all my vitals already.”

“Just do it once more, then I’ll let you go.”

“Ugh. Okay, one last time.” She began jogging with the machine at a pace she had always been comfortable with. As she pounded out the steps, the doctor reached over and spun up the speed. “Hey!”

“I don’t think you’re pushing yourself hard enough. It’s only a mile. Let’s see if you can make it.”

“Okay, but if I fly off this thing, you’re going to owe me big time.”

She had already found the faster pace a challenge to keep up. She glanced at the setting and recognized it was higher than she had ever run before. I can’t do this. No way. “I’m going to fall.”

The doctor never took his eyes from the machine readings. “Keep trying. Concentrate on each step. See how far you go.”

She turned her attention to her feet, pounding away. Watching the moving track below her for an instant affected her balance, and she wobbled but managed to straighten out in time. Concentrate, I have to concentrate.

Her mind turned to the mechanics of what she was doing. The lifting and stretching forward of each leg. The planting and pressing off of each foot. She imagined them like the pistons of an engine, pumping up and down. They just needed more gas or in her case, more blood feeding the necessary oxygen and nutrients to the cells in her muscles. As she imagined this process, her steps steadied and her stride lengthened. When the bell sounded the mile mark had passed, she found herself in full flight on the machine. Grasping the handles, she slowed down with the belt below her then stepped off. Her breathing, though heavy, didn’t hurt in her lungs. “How’d I do?”

The doctor paused to mark down a few notations on his comp pad and then looked up at her, smiling. “A personal best. You shaved almost twenty seconds off your best time.”

“Twenty seconds. Really? That’s amazing. Are you sure?”

“Sure as I’m standing here. I don’t know why, but your state of health is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before with returning astronauts. Your bone mass is normal, your conditioning stronger than ever. Jesse and the others suffered massive bone and muscle loss. It will take all of them years to rebuild it. You’ve even put on fifteen pounds, though it doesn’t show. In fact, you’re the first astronaut to ever return from an extended mission having gained weight. What’s your secret?”

She chuckled. “Come on, doc. It’s simple. I’m a woman. We are the stronger sex, you know.”

“Hmm. Well, laugh all you want. I’m going to need to get to the bottom of this, and I’m afraid that means more testing. Now I promised you could go, but I’m going to expect you back. I’ll send you a schedule once I’ve decided how we’re going to proceed.”

The elation of beating her time faded quickly at the thought of more testing. Is there something wrong with me? “Okay, doc. I want to get back to researching the stuff we brought from Mars.”

After cleaning up, she made for her office in the lab. When she walked in, she was surprised to find a man sitting at her desk, accessing her computer. “Who the hell are you?”

The fellow spun in the chair to face her. “Good day, Lieutenant Jones. My apologies, I waited as long as I could before starting. It’s just you took so long in returning, I couldn’t wait anymore. My name’s Terry Bradford. I’m with the Drumdat Corporation. I’ve been assigned to download any and all files regarding the life forms returned from Mars. Once I’ve wiped your computer clean, you can have it back.”

“What? Wiped it clean? Are you nuts?”

Before she could say another word, Frank, her team leader, arrived and pulled her out of the office. “Brooke, come with me please. Let the man do his job.”

She yanked her arm free from his grasp. “Are you crazy? The guy says he’s going to wipe the memory from my computer. You can’t allow them to do that.”

“I can, and I will. I’ve got a court order sitting on my desk that says all things recovered from Mars and all data relating to it are rightfully owned by Drumdat. There’s nothing we can do about it.”

“We can fight it. Appeal to the Supreme Court. This is important to the country. They can’t do this.”

“The order is from the Supreme Court. Brooke, you knew when you went that Drumdat had funded the Mars trip and that they were entitled to what we brought back.”

She knew it. But it still pissed her off. Aiming a well-placed kick at the nearest garbage can, she gave it a boot halfway across the room. “Fine. They can have it. It’s just that I want to be part of the team that unlocks their genetic code. See if they can help mankind in any way. If Drumdat does that, they’ll make billions in profits selling it to us.”

Her boss righted the garbage can. “Relax. They’re nothing but methanogens anyways. It will take years to unlock that weird genetic code of theirs, if not decades. The only thing we proved so far is they weren’t harmful to human life, or any Earth life, for that matter. Their biological makeup is so different, I doubt they could interact within anything on this planet. Let Drumdat spend the time and money trying to figure them out. The good news is, when it comes to alien life forms, it appears they cannot contaminate us, nor we them. The unlimited combinations on the configuration of life make such a possibility a distinct reality. Let’s hope that’s a constant across the universe. It means we can go anywhere without fear of dying from some alien disease.”

She allowed a smile to cross her lips as she calmed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. And who knows. If Drumdat can develop something worthwhile, then it won’t have all been for nothing.”

“With Drumdat involved, nothing is for nothing. You can be sure of that.”