He loosened his tie and kicked off his black leather shoes. Sitting on the doormat of his apartment door, he could only sigh and leaned back on his hands.

“Why have I continued to let myself be bound by these chains?”

Realising that he still has that report to submit, he picked himself up and walked inside, leaving the door open, the entrance to his home protected only by a single layer of steel awning. Deciding that he needed some fresh air, he drew away the curtains and slid open the balcony doors.

A large crow sat perched on the rails, staring at him blankly in the face.

“It’s you again.” he said to the crow.

“And I suppose I am unwelcome here?”

“You leave no marks after you’re gone, and I’m satisfied with that much alone.”

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Trails of steam escaped from the stainless steel mug that Bob held in his hand. Three of us were sharing a small round table at Hercules’ Bunk, a small-time coffee shop on board the Hercules. They serve probably the best scones you can find around Martian orbital sector. Tuck drew a long breath before slumping back on his chair.

“That’s some heavy shit you got goin’ there,”

“Yeah. Sorry to say, Chief, but this whole deal about your talking crystals does get a wee bit hard to believe,”

“Look, guys. You’re the only ones I can trust, you gotta believe me!”

“Well, Bob said it all right, as for me, I still can’t believe it,”

“It’s not like we don’t trust you. But if you do need us to get you through this shit, then hell, we’ll give you an arm and a leg for it!”

“Yeah. I mean, you did that for us dincha? You took us in when nobody on Perseus wanted to hire us.”

“Well, I didn’t think I could convince you so easily. But I really do need your help this time. Thanks for sticking with me.”

“Hey, don’t sweat it, Chief.”

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It was not easy for me to try to understand what happened. It’s been quite a while since I had that dream. Since we had to power down the entire unit, Perseus’ warpgates will cease operations until the Injectors are up and running again. The staff who were assigned there have been scattered everywhere. Most of the management staff got transfered to other nearby stations, like Hercules or Hector.

As for the rest of us technical staff, a few were stationed elsewhere, but the rest, including my crew and I have been put on indefinite unpaid leave. With no steady income at hand, I had to look for jobs on other stations. Pablo got a friend to take me in, so instead of Chief, I am now just foreman in a warpgate hangar bay at Hector, a station orbiting Deimos.

*[Deimos is one of the martian moons]

A few days after the Injection Chamber incident, I poured over news reports trying to investigate what really happened that day. Media claims that Perseus’ failure was due to a sudden power surge, but for us who actually went there, we knew that wasn’t the case. There was absolutely no mention of the Injection Chamber, nor the blue crystal.

The media got muffled. There hasn’t been anymore reports on it ever since. It’s been two months. I thought I had forgotten all about it and went on with my normal life.

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“I’ve isolated the power from the main injections unit. This sector should only receive enough power for life-support systems. Give me some juice, Bob.”

“Copy that, Chief.”

“Oh yeah. Tuck, can you bring the biometer here? I left it at the EVAM. Get over here when you’re done on that side too, Bob.”

“Roger. Hey, don’t forget to send power back to the tanks.”

Fortunately the life-support systems didn’t suffer much damage. Still, I couldn’t take the risk of breathing in here. Not until I’ve confirmed that everything’s normal. I could hear Tuck coming in from the chute. He’d be surprised to see this. Gravity has come back on. I took a few more steps to inspect the large chunks of crystal. The fine crystalline hairs crumbled to dust under each footstep. Just then, Tuck’s head popped out from the chute.

“Whew, I never thought I’d go up a garba-whoa,”

I knew it. The way his eyes went all glassy and the gaping mouth was so hilarious I had to bite my tongue just to get a grip. I asked Tuck to sample the air for toxicity. If it’s safe enough I would very much like to take off my helmet. I rested my hands on the shiny blue surface of one of the crystal spikes. A slight tingle ran through my fingers. I continued to inspect the blue obelisks with a piece of metal I found on the floor. Hmm, can’t scratch it with steel, that explains the major bursts, alright. The finer hairs probably crumbled under my weight. Geez, you’re not telling me to go on a no-meat diet are ya?

“Matter of fact, you could lose a bit of that fat.”

“Who said that?”

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I had to do a zig-zag maneuver to get to the injector core. I really hate working when emergency protocols are running. All the flashing red lights and warning buzzers really put me on edge, I had to put my HUD on mute. Thankfully the communicator works on a separate module.

“Chief, do you read me?”

“I read you, Bob. What is it?”

“I just reached the Ion Drive’s main power channels. Ready to cut off juice on your mark.”

“Good, stay there on standby. Get the power readings from each channel. Take note of any abnormalities and get back to me if you get anything. Over and out.”

Hmm, nothing yet from Tuck. He must be getting there. I soon reached my destination, the Protoplasma Injection Chamber. I knew some of its old parts needed replacement, it’s just that this time, the brass decided to give the manufacturing contract to a new company on Mars. I have a feeling that it’s one of their bloody cronies. The last batch of parts came from a Swedish manufacturer, who has been our regular supplier for the past 3 years, so it was never hard for me to trust in the quality of their builds. This new company claims to give superior quality for a lower price.

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