By Eric Choi
Published in Life Beyond Us: An Original Anthology of SF Stories and Science Essays edited by Julie Nováková, Lucas K. Law and Susan Forest, Laksa Media Groups, ISBN 978–1‑988140–60‑5, 2023, pp.32–50.
SOCRATES Mission Operations Center
Aspen Hill, Maryland
7 hours and 36 minutes to start of EDL (entry, descent, and landing)
So it came to this. The hardest day of Ted Berenson’s professional life.
Rows of headset-wearing engineers stared at their monitors, placards atop the consoles designating their function. A large screen displayed the trajectory of the SOCRATES lander as it approached Mars. The room was eerily quiet.
Berenson’s phone vibrated.
No change in Emily’s condition, said the message from his husband. Love you.
He put down the phone and wiped his sweaty palms on his trousers. Berenson was the MOM, the mission operations manager. The maternal sounding acronym was ironic, because aboard SOCRATES was a poison pill – a command load that would divert the lander from its nominal destination of Sinai Planum and send it skipping off the Martian atmosphere towards a cold death in deep space.
“You don’t need to be here,” said Dr. Ana Esparza, the principal investigator of the SOCRATES mission. Dark circles under her eyes testified to the years she had devoted to what might be a doomed mission.
“Yes, I do.” The intensity of Berenson’s expression seemed to surprise Esparza. “Bill is at the hospital. There’s nothing I can do there. I need to be here.”
Esparza nodded. She looked at the UTC clock above the screen. “27 minutes to AOS,” she said, referring to acquisition of signal, the time when the ground station in Dongara would establish contact with SOCRATES for the last time. “We need a decision now. What the hell is taking them?”
Berenson’s phone vibrated again. This time, the message was from Dr. Janet Trinh, the planetary protection officer at NASA Headquarters in nearby Washington, DC.
Don’t give up, it said. Don’t lose hope. This is not over.