Pokémon Mars

Chapter 3: The Journey

Although the ship's lights and ceiling displays simulated night and day, time quickly became muddled with only the void and seemingly stationary sun to go by. Mercury was already running out of novel new things to photograph. The views looked intermittently different to the few like Jin who knew every star, planet and asteroid, but other than the shrinking planet behind them, they looked exactly the same to others.

The group of friends slept in shifts so there was always someone to watch the Pokémon. They needed constant attention after the stressful launch. Not that all of the people actually slept. Thalassa couldn't. Nor could Mercury or Nyx. Eden and Joshua slept comfortably. Jin and Callerya slept too much. Though they spent as much time as possible together – eating, battling, watching movies, attending concerts and walking in the park – to ensure they weren't deprived of human contact, they slowly developed their own individual routines.

Joshua jogged off to the gym before Nessie and the kids woke up. He was a successful quarterback until he retired to pursue geobiology. The need to stay fit was still in his blood. He often saw Nyx there. At that time, when the ceilings simulated dawn and most people were in their cabins even if they couldn't sleep, they trained separately and in silence. The Pokémon who wanted to use the gym were disciplined. They, too, trained in silence.

Once he left the gym, Joshua took the kids and water-dwelling Pokémon to the pool. Nyx jogged around the ship with the restless Pokémon. Then she joined an astrobiologist from Hoenn, Betty Birch, in the lab she reserved for her team of three. They aspired to find proof of prior life on Mars. So if anyone could detect people living beyond the Ares settlements, it would be them and the underground labs they communicated with around the planet. They appreciated any extra help. Their team shrank along with the interest in prior life as new life arrived.

Every simulated morning when Mercury woke up – or gave up on sleep – he took a photo out of his cabin's porthole. He was fortunate to be in an outer cabin that actually had a window. The photos all looked the same to him, but the weekly compilations were popular on Rotogram. Then he took the calmed Pokémon from Nyx, fed them breakfast and walked them back to the storage room, where he swapped them for the Pokémon that enjoyed listening to the cover band he played in with Eden and Jin. They often opened for the ship's official band, but became the headliners when two members of that official band proclaimed that they wanted to go home and locked themselves in their cabins. No-one minded. Eden's father was a member of a popular boy band, Euphoria. He sounded just like him.

Sometimes, however, Eden was too busy to practice or play. There was always something for every engineer on the ship to repair. He took dexterous Pokémon to help and quiet, calm ones to watch, just so they were around other Pokémon and people. Sometimes his friends and Pokémon in their care joined him. All astronauts selected by the Ares program were educated in basic engineering, but whether it was out of genuine interest or fear, they wanted to learn more. Callerya was admittedly bored already. She could only listen to the same band so many times. Jin got lucky in the casino, but she only lost money. So she spent her free time listening to Eden talk through his engineering work and reading the books he recommended when he was busy.

Everyone avoided that engineer who creeped Nyx out. Though his name was Abram Oak, it was obvious that he was actually the illegitimate child of Blue Oak's daughter in-law and the equally illegitimate son of Ardos, the mastermind originally behind Cipher. This was his 16th Ares flight. His permanent address was in Ironville. Upon landing on Earth, he got back on the ship as soon as the Ares program was legally allowed to let him. He was known for his patience and tenacity, never showing the slightest hint of madness or restlessness. In fact, he showed no emotion at all. Even when an exterior puncture required he and Eden to perform a spacewalk to fix it, Eden was terrified, but Abram was perfectly calm. Eden had only positive things to say about him when they returned. It was his patience and composure that kept Eden calm enough to do anything at all.