NOVEL NEXT Chapter 122: Fatalism
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Vincent: If we're doing it, we're doing it together. I'll feed you, you'll do the thing, and your Ma is conducting a big push for white Martian teeth.
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Sol 507 FY 26, 16:00 Mars Time, Bonestell Crater Colony, Hab Layer, 9.32.002.B
Marie sat wrapped in a thin blanket, spoon resting in a bowl of turnip-and-vat-beef stew that smelled like overcooked protein, but sweet and goopy. The taste was nothing. Her tongue wasn't registering much of anything except texture—not the right texture.
The fever hovered around 101.3. Low enough that she was lucid, high enough that time was doing strange things. Her skin prickled and ached at once. It wasn't even the flu anymore. She just wasn't sweating enough to work out this hard.
The new muscle definition wasn't really a positive—it just meant she was losing weight and fluid. Besides, muscles weren't supposed to hurt like this all the time.
She hoped she was over the flu anyway.
One is meant to recover for weeks after being sick, she knew. But there was just not enough time.
She scrolled idly through stream feeds on the wall, the Q-Link floating interface hovering a few inches from her head where she lay in the reclining cot. Most were noise. Faces she didn't care about, talking about things that didn't matter. Then—
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Gordon.
He looked tired. Thinner, maybe. Maybe he was just walking with a bit more of a slump than he used to. Karen was next to him, chatting, laughing, dragging the stream along like she always did when Gordon got distracted.
Nothing flirtatious.
No stolen glances. No lingering touches. Nothing you could point to and say they're sleeping together.
But Marie felt the cold sink deeper into her spine anyway.
I wouldn't know if they were, would I?
The thought wasn't angry. Just tired. Like her.
She clicked away from the stream. The emptiness that followed was somehow worse.
Maybe I should step back. See if he can find happiness some other way. Some easier way.
She looked at the hateful exoskeleton, waiting for her curled up like a dead spider. Waiting to put her through another day of hell.
I don't know if I can do this, she realized.
[16:02] Marie: How are you holding up?
[16:03] Gordon: It's been rough, Marie. What did you want me to say?
[16:05] Marie: . . . I deserved that. What about the 28th, could we try to talk?
[16:06] Gordon: Hiram's doing this big party for Thanksgiving. Thursday-Friday.
[16:10] Gordon: I could talk to you now.
[16:12] Marie: I need to know something first. Please. I should know soon.
He didn't respond. She stared at the portable, eyes welling up.
And got back in the suit.