Do Me A Favor: Kill Your Friends

BOOM!

The explosion was felt all through the base. The whole base reverberated like it was hit by an earthquake. The blackout hit hard.

Back in the dining room, the whole room was swallowed in darkness, only the sound of breathing and shifting chairs filling the silence. Akira, Jack, and Emma stood frozen, eyes darting around, listening.

Then, slowly, the emergency lights flickered on—deep red, casting long shadows across the walls.

“What was that?” asked Akira

Jack let out a bitter laugh. “I swear, if it’s not one thing, it’s another.”

“Where’s the backup power?”

“I don’t know.”

“It’s in the lower level,” said Emma. “But we have two backups! It should've been activated already. Was that a solar flare maybe?”

Jack moved to the wall, pressing a button on the intercom panel. The speakers crackled as he leaned in.

“This is Jack. Is everyone alright?”

Nothing.

Jack pressed again. “What’s going on? Anyone got a clue what hit us?”

A pause. Then Lien spoke over the intercom.

“This is Lien from med bay. I don’t know what that was.”

Jack sighed in relief. At least someone was talking. Emma pushed him out the way and pressed the intercom. “You still in bed?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“Alright, stay there.” Emma glanced at the others before pressing the button again. “Tucker? Martinez? Victor? Where are you guys?”

Back in the research lab, Tucker wasn’t answering because he was unconscious.

He lay on the floor, covered in black dust. His cracked goggles clung to his face, and his vision fuzzy as he slowly came to. The sound of his own ragged breathing filled his ears. That and a long high pitch sound like a broken violin.

The intercom crackled above him. “Hey! Doctor? Vic? Tucker? Where are you?”

Tucker groaned, pushing himself up on his elbows. His head throbbed. His ears were still ringing. Victor was sprawled over a tipped-over table, his jumpsuit streaked with soot. It looked like a war zone.

Tucker crawled over, shaking him. “Victor? Victor?”

A low groan. Then Victor stirred, eyes fluttering open. “Tucker?... What happened? That light…”

Tucker turned, blinking against the brightness. It was like staring at a welding torch. His eyes had to adjust, but as they did, the shape of it became clear.

It was the crystal.

Brilliant. Blinding.

It sat there in the ruined press, its green glow pulsing like a living thing.

Tucker swallowed hard. “My God…”

Victor couldn’t keep his eyes off it.. “I-I… what happened?” he asked, “Some sort of reaction?”

A rustling behind them.

Dr. Martinez was struggling to his feet, blood streaking his forehead. His breath came in ragged gasps, his body shaking. But his eyes—his eyes were locked onto the crystal with something close to worship.

“I did it…” he whispered. “I really did it…”

“How is this possible?” asked Tucker, “It wasn’t like this before.”

“Piezoelectric crystals are activated from physical stress,” said the doctor. “Then when we linked it to a circuit, it must have kicked started its consistent high output.”

“Like an engine…”

Dr. Martinez reached into his pocket, pulling on a pair of gloves with shaking hands. Carefully, reverently, he unlatched the clips securing the crystal. The piston press was in pieces. Then he lifted it from the broken press.

It sat in his hands like a fallen star, its light bathing his face in gold and green light.

Dr. Martinez smiled. “It’s… so warm.”

The entrance door slid open.

Jack, Akira, and Emma rushed inside, skidding to a stop as soon as they saw it.

Nobody spoke.

Dr. Martinez turned, still cradling the crystal. His grin widened.

“Pack your bags,” he said. “We’re going home.”

Later, after the lights were back on, Tucker and Lien talked together in the med bay.

Tucker sat beside Lien’s bed, his face lit with a grin. “It’s incredible,” Tucker said. “It’s like holding the sun in the palm of your hands.”

Lien sat in bed with her new pink jumpsuit with the Chinese flag right next to her bed. She twiddled her thumbs. “This is it.” she said, “We’re really leaving… back to our countries…”

Tucker’s smile faltered, just for a second. “Yep.”

“Time sure did fly by…”

Tucker studied her. Then, slowly, he reached for her hand. She didn’t pull away.

“Tell me more about it,” she said.

“It’s beautiful. A ray of light.”

“Is it strong?”

“More powerful than you can ever imagine.”

“That’s what we need.”

Tucker came in close. Lien shivered as Tucker leaned closer, his cheek brushing against her neck.

She sucked in a breath. “Then I should get dressed.”

“If you’re hurt, I could help you.”

“I think I can manage.”

“And here I thought you might’ve been hurt.”

“Not yet...”

The next moment, their mouths met in a deep, hungry kiss.

Later in the dining room, there was the biggest celebration that ever took place on the moon. Laughter filled the room, bouncing off the white dome walls. The crew sat around the circular table, tearing into their prepackaged meals, drinking what passed for beer, and relishing the rare moment of relief.

Lien, now in her pink jumpsuit, smiled as she sipped from her cup. They were going home.

Dr. Martinez was the only one missing.

Akira pulled a cigarette from his pocket and held it up. “Anyone got a light?”

“Why do you have those?” asked Jack.

“Sorry, I’ll step outside.”

“I got a lighter.” said Victor, “Let me get one!”

Victor took a cigarette and lit up. He took a long drag, exhaling with a satisfied groan before handing the lighter to Akira. “Man, I haven’t smoked in so long.” said Victor, “First thing I do when I get back is buy three packs.”

Tucker took a swig of his drink. “First thing I do is eat something fresh. No more of this prepackaged crap.”

Akira raised his glass. “You’re welcome on my fishing boat anytime.”

Victor smirked. “Cook it well done, right?”

Tucker shot him a glare. “Them’s fightin’ words where I come from, Rusky.”

The table erupted in laughter.

Emma turned to Jack. “What about you? What’s the first thing you’re doing when you get back?”

Jack hesitated. “Me?”

They all waited.

Finally, he exhaled. “I think I’m done with government work. For a lifetime. I was thinking about settling down. Marrying my girlfriend.”

Lien beamed. “Really? That’s amazing!”

“What’s amazing is that you have a girlfriend.” said Akira.

Jack shot him a look. “Actually, women find me attractive.”

Emma threw open her arms dramatically and quickly ran to fall down at his feet. She clung to his leg. “Oh yes!” she said, “I just gush whenever I see you.”

The laughter continued as she got off the floor, but Jack stayed serious. “I mean it. I’m tired of all this. I just want to move somewhere off-grid. Maybe the woods.”

Tucker, half-lost in his own thoughts, said “Living in the woods sucks fucking ass.”

Silence.

They all stared at him.

Realizing he said that a lot louder than he meant to, he quickly tried to shake it off. Tucker straightened and cleared his throat. “Mosquitoes are bad… so I hear.”

They chuckled, but something about his tone lingered.

Tucker stood up, raising his drink. “Look, tonight is one of the most important nights of our lives—hell, maybe in human history. In fifty years, some fourth grader is gonna read about us in a history book, and let me tell you, that is the highest honor known to man.”

They all laughed and toasted.

Then the room quieted as Dr. Martinez walked in. He moved slowly, his expression distant.

Tucker turned, pointing at him with a grin. “And of course, it’s all thanks to the smartest man on the moon! The man, the myth, the soon to be legend!”

The crew erupted in applause. Martinez gave a weak smile as Emma stood and handed him a beer.

“Thank you. Truly.” said Dr. Martinez, “Your diligence, patience, and hard work have made this possible. You’ve become like a second family to me.”

A pause.

“Does anyone still need to call their superiors?” he asked

Tucker quickly raised his hand. “I do.”

Martinez gestured toward the hall. “The line’s open. Best get to it.”

Tucker drained his beer and tossed it in the trash. As he left, he caught a strange look on Martinez’s face.

Instead of beaming with his usual positive glow, Tucker could sense that something was off. This man just saved the world. Yet he looked like he just put down his dog.

“You okay?”

Martinez blinked, snapping out of it. Then he grabbed the remote. “Yeah! In fact, turn on a game! Time to relax!”

Tucker paused for a moment, but let it go.

Tucker rocked back and forth in his chair, waiting for the connection in the communications room. The door was open, and he could hear the crew laughing down the hall.

Then the monitor flickered.

A familiar voice came through the static. “This is General Henson of the United States. Is this Tucker Matlock?”

Tucker spun back around, sitting up straight. “Yes, sir. I have some great news to report, sir.”

Henson’s face remained expressionless. “Are you alone?”

“Yes.”

“Lock the door.”

A cold chill ran down Tucker’s spine. The facility housed up to 40 people comfortably, but with there only being seven of them there, privacy was in abundance. He never had to do that before.

Slowly, he stood and slid the door shut. Pressed the security button. The light above the door switched from green to red.

He sat back down.

“What is your official report on the situation?” asked the General.

Tucker cleared his throat. “Sir, we here at Mammoth Bunker have done something extraordinary.” a grin grew on Tucker’s face. “As of eleven-hundred hours today, Dr. Martinez’s piezoelectric project successfully developed a crystal with an extremely high electrical output. These mechanical batteries can be grown in a month and could solve our energy crisis.”

“Hmmm…And you’ve seen this yourself?”

“Yes, sir. You should see this thing, it’s—”

“What about the notes? The lab?”

Tucker scratched his head nervously.

“Well… there was an accident. The crystal generated so much power, it did a number on our systems. The central operating system is malfunctioning, and we’re on reserve power. All the hard copy files in the lab were destroyed. Right now, all that remains is the crystal itself until we can fix the main computer.”

Tucker took a breath. “Sir, in light of our success, I’m requesting leave.”

The Gen stroked his beard. Tucker waited for his response like a runner waiting for the sound of the gun.

“Negative.”

“W-What?” The word hit Tucker like a pound of bricks. Clearly he heard it wrong. “What did you say?”

Henson’s voice stayed level. “Negative. We have intel that another nation may attempt to intercept or destroy any ship we send up.”

Tucker’s stomach sank. Why would they do that? It makes no sense. They have the solution to everyone’s problems.

Henson continued. “We are aware of the current situation, and unfortunately, there has been some… dispute over who gets to study the power source first.”

There it was. Just politics. The world is dying and they have a shot to fix it. And they’re stalling because of their ego. Why did it always turn out like this?

“So… what now?”

“We are unable to retrieve you without proper leverage.” The General’s voice grew cold, “You have a new mission: acquire complete control of the base by any means necessary. Once we secure the crystal, the other countries will have no choice but to let us extract it. At that point, we’ll retrieve you.”

Tucker was stunned. Control of the base? Him? How? He worked at this job to stay AWAY from conflict. Now he was being thrusted into a high stakes mission?

“I… I’m not a soldier, sir.” Tucker begged. “Isn’t there some other—”

“I don’t need to explain to you what failure in this mission would mean for our country.”

“Sir, I don’t think the others—”

“We have reason to believe they all have similar orders. If you don’t do this, there’s a good chance you will be killed in the crossfire. Refusal of this order is an automatic court martial.”

Tucker’s hands clenched into fists. His pulse pounded in his ears.

This can’t be real.

One minute everything’s fine, better than fine! Next thing he knows, he has to commit a coup to prevent him from going to jail or worse!

Henson’s voice came through one last time. “Keep communications to a minimum. Godspeed.”

The screen went dark.

The United States Space Force seal appeared, followed by the slow, quiet hum of the national anthem.

Tucker stared at the screen, unmoving. His thoughts were motionless, frozen with shock. He can’t do it. He can’t kill someone, let alone hurt the people he’s grown so close with.

He reached forward and turned off the screen.

Then he sat there, staring into nothing.