THE TITAN EXPERIMENT

CHAPTER 28 - Door Number Two (Phoenix)

With a jaw like granite, Phoenix pulled back the middle chair and lowered into the seat, propping his elbow on the table. His teeth ground with the building tension in the small room. As he glared at the screen, he drew in a deep breath and exhaled, his nostrils flaring out. He had never had a problem with the admiral before. He had multiple encounters with him. Jax had performed his evaluations over the years each time he received a promotion. His most recent jump to the rank of commander had been no different, but there was something on his superior's face that unsettled him. Something that made Phoenix want to take his chances in the desert. But backing down was not in his blood. Instead of giving in, he maintained his poise, his eyes gazing at the screen in a silent standoff.

The sound of the other chairs squeaking across the floor broke his stare with the admiral. Rounded rubber feet skidded, vibrated, and jostled into position. One leg caught friction hard and chirped, ear piercing in the tight quarters. Phoenix had a brief memory of being in high school again, but this gathering felt much darker, everyone's mood weighted down by the haughty face on the screen.

Luna sat down next to him on his righthand with Callisto sitting a chair over beside her. Dr. Fairhaven nestled into a seat to his left. Phoenix took a moment to observe everyone's expressions and body languages. Every face was tight and serious, eyes pinched and lips pressed into thin lines. But it wasn't until everyone took their places that he noticed the empty seat between the doctor and himself.

Nova's chair.

Dr. Fairhaven glanced down at the void between them and then looked at him with recognition on her solemn lips and understanding in her eyes. So far, she was the only one who showed concern for his condition and the loss he suffered with Nova.

Maybe she pitied him. Maybe not.

It didn't matter.

Phoenix blinked, exhaling a long-controlled breath. The space between the doctor and himself felt like a gulf as wide as the Sea of Cortez.

"That's right, Commander Drake," Admiral Jax said from his vantage point on the video screen. "Ms. Kailani should have been here today, but unfortunately, she couldn't be with us."

The silence behind the admiral's last word permeated the room like an invisible fog. The air around Phoenix swirled, threatening to suck him into a vortex of dizziness and confusion. He gritted his teeth, resisting the gravity of what he knew was a clear-cut reality. Nova was dead. The realization was so final, so resolute, so loud and clear, and more than anything else, so out of his control. There was nothing he could do to bring her back, but one thing he knew, he would not cry again. He refused to give into his emotions. He might not even feel again. Might never love again, and what difference did that make?

Phoenix sensed something gliding over him, like the dryness of the parched desert outside. The old Phoenix was returning. The man he was before he met Nova. Before love clouded his judgement. Turned him soft. The man that received the Silver Star and blasted the enemy out of the air in combat. The resilient man. Hardened. Resolute and determined.

"Why are we here, Admiral?" he said with a gravelly edge to his voice, like the sound scraped over his vocal cords on the way out. He stared intently, unyielding, waiting for an answer.

"Isn't it obvious?" A wicked grin curled at the corners of Admiral Jax's lips.

"Maybe from your point of view. But you kidnapped us and had your robot soldiers take us to this lifeless desert." Phoenix gazed around the room, at the walls, the door behind them, and then at each person sitting at the table. They all had a look on their face that said, go for it, get some answers.

"No one knows we're here." Phoenix huffed, anger stewing around the edge of his words. It was a statement, not a question. "You could've asked us. Let us choose for ourselves. We might've said yes to your plans if we'd known what we were getting into." He drove his fist into the tabletop, rattling the surface beneath his hand. "I can't believe this."

"You better believe it, or else you'll be in for a nightmare far worse than you could ever imagine."

"Why didn't you tell us what you wanted?"

"Not that simple, Commander Drake."

"Why. Are. We. Here?"

The Admiral mimicked a rocket blasting off with his hand, a thunderous noise erupting from his lips. "There's one thing you all have in common. The dream of being accepted by NASA. A journey to the moon, Mars, and beyond. We're assembling an elite group of adventurers for a top-secret mission."

"This is a strange way of being accepted by NASA. The last time I checked, they didn't have any sites outside the United States."

"Oh, this definitely is not a NASA sanctioned mission. And I'm afraid you will never realize your aspirations of going to Mars as an astronaut."

Phoenix flinched, felt like withdrawing into a shell. The admiral's words cut deep, like someone dropped a ten-thousand-pound weight on his chest. The realization of a shattered dream.

"You must have known this, Commander. NASA only accepts candidates that are operating at full capacity. And you... look at you," he chuckled, "you're missing an arm. You'd never be able to fly a spaceship anywhere, let alone to Mars."

"That's it, I'm out of here." Phoenix bolted to his feet, the chair sliding backwards across the floor. He glared at the screen. Why was the admiral belittling him like this? Rubbing salt on the wound. It made little sense. None of this made sense, and he would not stand for it. "I'd rather die in the desert than take this."

"Sit down, Commander."

Phoenix didn't budge.

"That's an order."

Phoenix stood his ground for a few more tense seconds, bristling at the admiral's command, but slowly and gradually, all the years he had served in the Navy, all his training, it all came back to him like it was second nature. And he sat down.

"The truth is," the admiral continued with a grunt of satisfaction, "there's more bad news. Your days as a Navy pilot have ended."

Phoenix knew all this to be true. He knew it the moment he awoke in the medical bay, but he didn't want to accept it. He still didn't. Then something clicked in his mind. Understanding. He now understood why Admiral Jax was treating them this way. He remembered his time in boot camp when he joined the military. The admiral was breaking them down, trying to crush their spirits in order to remold and rebuild them for another purpose. That way, he'd have full control over them. That way, they'd be more likely to accomplish whatever he wanted them to do. It was basic training all over again. At least the mental part of it, anyway.

"Commander," the Admiral said, "you have only one choice to remain in the Navy. Only one choice of realizing your dream of venturing into space. It's not Mars. But at least it's space. Your medical discharge orders await nothing more than my thumbprint authorization. One touch of my thumb and you'll be a park ranger in Yellowstone. If you can survive the Atacama Desert."

The door clicked behind them and opened on its own. Their heads swiveled around, glimpsing the cracked ground outside and rays of the morning sunlight.

"All of you have a choice." Admiral Jax paused for effect. His gaze wandered from Phoenix to Dr. Fairhaven, and then over to Callisto and Luna. "Volunteer," he emphasized the word and drew it out with a sneer, "as subjects in our project and do something that only a few people have ever come close to achieving. Or you can take your chances in the desert."

"Not much of a choice to me," Luna said.

The Admiral pursed his lips and shrugged. "No different from back in Tijuana. Play the hand you're dealt or fold." He bared his teeth and snarled. "Walk out the door behind you and maybe you'll survive a few days. Or..."

On the back wall next to the screen, an outline of a doorway appeared, a crack at first, and then the passage opened to a dark hallway. A shaft of light from the morning sun illuminated a small section of the floor leading into the unknown.

"Or what?" Callisto asked.

"Fulfill your dreams, learn everything you need to know about your participation in the project. Boldly go..." The Admiral's words trailed off.

"This is absurd," Dr. Fairhaven said.

"Boldly go where?" Phoenix said.

"Walk through door number two, Commander, and you'll find out."