The Mars Decision - Chapter 1

Boring
The crew module smelled of reheated coffee, recycled air, and a whiff of perfume.
Nobody commented on the perfume as it was prohibited, but nobody seemed to care.
Elena Reyes floated near the ECLSS console, running the morning water-quality check for the third time that week. The numbers were green—always green—but she liked the ritual.
Across the module, Marcus Chen was strapped into the Lambert station, quietly updating the long-range navigation plot. He hadn’t spoken in almost an hour. That was normal.
Sofia Chen (no relation) drifted past, half in her EVA suit, using duct tape to secure the flap on her thigh pocket.
Liam Patel laughed from the linguistics corner, where he was tweaking the universal translator matrix again. “You’d look stylish. Very post-apocalyptic chic.”
Raj Singh floated over with two fresh pouches of electrolyte gel. “Drink. You’re all dehydrated, and you don’t even know it.”
Elena took one without looking up. “Thanks, Raj. You’re the only reason we’re not all dead of scurvy.”
Raj grinned. “Someone has to keep you lot alive long enough to get to Mars.”
Routine. Boring. Comforting.
Elena, bored out of her mind, yawned deeply and glanced out the single port, and saw a very faint, steady point of light that she was certain wasn't there yesterday. She dismisses it as a distant star or debris. Probably imagining things, she thinks to herself.
It would turn out her imagination hadn’t been big enough
They were four months outbound. The big burns were behind them. The next milestone was Mars orbit insertion in another four months.
Everything changed at 14:37 ship time.

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