BAD DAY A SHORT STORY SET ABOARD THE EARTH-FORCE SPACE STATION REGENESIS IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD, 2794 BY P.J. HANNOLA FOREWORD This short story is my first “official” foray into the world of creative writing. The story, by lack of anything better, is called Bad Day. It is intended to be a part of a larger story involving the space station ReGenesis (a name, you’ll find my characters loathe almost as much as I do) and some of the characters of this story, namely General Nolan and Professor Hart. I have had the urge to write something, to see if I could create something out of nothing, for a long while, although the need didn’t really crystallize until sometime during the year 2007. The basic idea for the story of Hart and Nolan came to me early in 2008, and I would very much like to say I’ve been “developing” the story inside my head ever since. It is damn near impossible to say how true that is, but I do know, I have been thinking about these guys a lot. I am not going to set myself any deadlines or anything, but I do have a very strong feeling now, that I will get to tell the whole story at some point in the future. At this point, I’d like to thank (by online nicks, as I’m not sure if I’m allowed to use people’s real names) Decie, Irene and Mymmel^ for their help. In Riihimäki, on the 11th of October, 2008 P.J. Hannola (It starts now.) From the journal of J. Kirkyard, Lieutenant General onboard the Earth Station ReGenesis, July 2794: "... I was asked to preside over the hearings about the incident in the cantina on July 5th. The head of extra-terrestrial scientific research onboard ReGenesis, a professor Daniel Hart was assaulted by one of the senior technicians, a man named Bynum, after what seemed to be your basic drunken argument. However, when the blood tests came back, Hart's result indicated only a very mild intoxication, probably caused by no more than two or three drinks. The reasons for his rather drunken manner will hopefully be made more clear during the hearing I already mentioned. The reason it has to be me and not General Nolan is of course the publicized close relationship between him and Hart. The general feels (and rightly so) that his judgment in this matter might be impaired. ..." Thom Bynum was, on the whole, having rather a bad day. Mankind as a whole was having a pretty crappy millennium, too. Knowing this helped, because as his dad had always reminded Thom, each man had to do his part. There were only two things in his life on this station Thom liked. One of them was his job and being denied this had started the day badly enough. The paper had used long, fancy words, but it all boiled down to the same thing. Thom had failed his 4-monthly physical checkup and as a result was suspended from his job. The doctor's advice was that if Thom wanted to keep doing the first thing he likes, he'd have to drop the second, the drink. Thom had spent a royal amount of time at both the cafeteria and the gym, but neither indulgence had done much to help with the empty feeling in his guts. And so he had ended up at the Cantina Grosso, the great blind eye in the sky, the best (not to mention only) place to drink until even the artificial gravity wouldn't help you lie on the floor without falling down. At least with a cool drink in his hand he could think clearly. General Nolan's day wasn't much better. He had already spent all morning trying to cheer up Daniel, who seemed to have decided to tie his own self-worth entirely to the progress he made with Baker's latest set of alien substance samples. Nolan had always considered Daniel to be one of the most brilliant scientists, not to mention one of the most succesful, heading ALL of the alien research on ReGenesis station. In Daniel's mind, however, none of that really seemed to matter. He had been borderline depressed for as long as Nolan could remember, with very low self-esteem. Nolan had always tried extra-hard at being a friend to Daniel, partly because he seemed to be the only one, but mainly because he genuinely liked the guy. What he didn't like so much was the days like today, when he had to pull with both arms to keep Danny from sinking into one of his pits of self-loathing. This time it was about work. Danny hadn't made any progress into the mysterious alien mesh goo that Baker had scraped from Baker-only-knows-where. "Danny, if you don't want to talk to me, that's fine" yelled Nolan at the door bearing the name of his friend "but you are gonna get dressed right now and come down to Cantina Grosso with me for a drink. " Grudgingly, Daniel obliged. Thom Bynum saw the pair of them arrive at the bar some minutes later. He watched Nolan and Hart (in that specific order, for Hart was greatly lagging behind) make their way to the bar from behind his fifth or sixth tall glass of the day, in all honesty he had already lost count. Shaking his head to sober up a little, Thom decided to keep an eye on the pair of them. Professor Daniel Hart was probably having the worst day of all. For the third time in a week, he hadn't had the energy to get up in the morning and go to his lab. He knew he should've at least checked in, he knew his budget could face serious cuts if word got out he didn't do his job anymore, he knew it all. Even so, he still couldn't quite bring himself to do the right thing. Last night he had lain in bed for hours, waiting for sleep and thinking about ending his life. It all came back to being too much of a coward to actually go through with it, no matter how much he knew it would uncomplicate the lifes of others. As for others, there was Nolan now. Hart's best friend since as far back as he remembered, Nolan was also one of the better reasons to stay alive. And yeah, it was good to know that at least one person might genuinely want him to stay around. The slightly annoying high tones of the electronic doorbell brought Hart back to earth (well, figuratively at least) and right after Nolan's gruff voice telling him to get dressed and come to the Cantina. Hart swung his legs over the edge of his bunk (it was a normal bed, or as normal as things could get up here, but if this was "quarters" instead of an apartment, then a bed was by necessity a bunk) and replied to Nolan: "Okay, okay, I'm coming." Hart didn't feel like talking, true, but luckily Nolan had already mastered the skill of keeping drinks coming and waiting for the right time. Hart found a semi-clean suit of clothes and joined his friend. Thom had been watching them for half an hour, when suddenly it looked like the general had received an urgent message of some sort, for he stepped up and left the room, barely speaking two words to Hart, who seemed even more apathetic than he had been walking in to the bar. Thom considered himself a man of action, and if this wasn't a golden opportunity to score some extra points, he didn't know what was. He wasn't sure how exactly things might work out, but everyone called Hart a professor, and that was a couple of steps above a doctor, surely. Thom started walking towards the bar. Hart was left alone again. He knew Nolan had an actual job to do, although he had (once again) secretly hoped he would rank above it. Now that he was getting tipsy, there was definitely no going to the lab anymore, so Hart emptied his glass and turned around to leave. Before he could take two steps however, he bumped into a man. The man was taller than Hart, but since he didn't recognize him, Hart tried to sidestep him muttering something like "scuseme". He wasn't in a mood to prolong any human contact with a complete stranger. This tactic usually worked in situations like this. In this case it didn't. The stranger put his hand on Hart's shoulder and said: "Professor, I'd like a word with you." Hart cursed in his mind, but stood on the same spot and silently forced himself to look into the bloodshot eyes of technician Thom Bynum, who continued after a short pause: "If it's okay with you. " The little twerp still didn't answer, who the hell did he think he was. "Excuse me, Pro-fes-sor, I'm talking to you." Hart thought to himself: "I don't even know this person and I'm sure I haven't done anything to him. Who the hell does he think he is, talking to me like this?" Out loud he started: "Listen, buddy.. . " at which point Bynum interjected: "No, you listen, what the hell is it with you high-ups in this place, all treating us real workers like shit. I'm so fucking fed up with you lot." Before Hart could even begin to comprehend the implications of this outburst, stars exploded in his eyes. Thom Bynum had hit him in the head with a hard right hook. Hart reeled, but stayed on his feet. He had always considered himself a pacifist, and so the only thought that seemed to fill his head next was to stay completely still and wait out whatever was going to happen next. The bartender of the Cantina Grosso hadn't seen the whole exchange leading up to the assault, but he had seen enough. "HEY! Stop that! You got exactly ten seconds to leave this place before I call station security!" Thom raised both his hands up into the air to indicate non-aggression and immediately after this delivered a hard punch straight into Daniel Hart's stomach knocking out his wind. Hart collapsed on the floor and Bynum was tackled by one of the other patrons in the bar. From the journal of J. Kirkyard, Lieutenant General onboard the Earth Station ReGenesis, August 2794: "The technician, Bynum was court-martialed last week. He was found guilty of assault and dishonorably discharged from service. He was also sentenced to 36 months in jail. General Nolan pulled some strings and the hearings were carried out sans Professor Hart, who, if I might add, seems to have shut himself into his lab ever since he was released from the infirmary. It must have been something related to drinking habits, although, in all fairness, this is all speculation on my part. He didn't seem to have done anything particularly wrong, so I am happy to consider this matter settled on my part, even though I would have been curious to hear his side of the story. "