01: Monday, July 6, 2043, 1400 hours CST: Colleen
Zachary Carson looked at the final crew roster in some confusion. He had been chosen for the first colony mission to Mars, and his other eleven crewmates were all women. He turned to the analysis page of the report to figure out how that could have happened, since the initial pool of astronauts from all member countries had consisted of 52 men and 48 women, and the first cut left a remaining 42 candidates that had consisted of 24 men and 18 women.
Zach was a handsome, nice, and enthusiastic man, but so were most astronauts. He thought of his looks as somewhat apple pie all-American, with blond hair and grayish blue eyes. At 6'1" tall, he was quite tall for an astronaut. At 35, he was on the old side for an astronaut, but his expertise would be critical if some disease cropped up that nobody had ever seen once they landed on Mars. His specialty was in subtle forms of radiation poisoning, the leading danger faced by humans in their bid to settle the red planet. Mars had no magnetic field, so it was far more subject to cosmic rays at its surface than Earth was.
The story the analysis page told was this. Their crew would be the first founders of the Mars colony: Mars Colony Mission One. Everybody who wasn't overly risk-averse wanted to be on this crew. As such, an abundance of talent was collected in the original 100. Given the candidates were chosen from the best Earth had to offer, the selection factors were all equal until the process got way down the list of desirable attributes to the interesting minor factor of faster population growth. All other more relevant factors being equally handled, the ability to personally pop out a baby rose in importance. Thus, eleven super-qualified women and one super-qualified man had been selected.
Zach was overjoyed that he had been included as one of the twelve. He thought he'd had a good chance, being the most experienced and accomplished doctor among the candidates. Still, he was shocked there would be no other men, at least not for the first two years. Romantic and sexual relationships were important to people. He was worried about a lot of tension among his crewmates. He was hopeful, especially given the odds, that one out of the eleven would be interested in a long term relationship with him. He could even be non-monogamous if a responsible opportunity to do so arose, but now he was just having a nasty fantasy. Women were not generally interested in sharing.
The thoughtful blond doctor hoped the other ten would not somehow take their frustration out on him. Hell hath no fury, and all that. He feared the unknown of how it all was going to work. He expected that as the mission plan intended, his crewmates, perhaps all eleven, would choose artificial insemination once they reached the red planet and settled down. Per this plan, they were bringing a wide variety of carefully shielded genetic material, mostly sperm, but also some eggs. It was the year 2043 after all, not the dark ages. Artificial insemination was almost as reliable as the real thing these days.
This would get weird, Zach feared. He had been looking forward to getting to know and date the female contingent of his crewmates in his imagined mixed community of approximately six and six. Now what? He didn't want any hurt feelings among the crew for any of the myriad sources of friction this could become. He decided to talk to Colonel Colleen Bruno, their mission commander, about it.
Colonel Bruno ushered him into her office. "I knew you'd show up soon," she said, and smiled. Colonel Bruno was eight inches shorter at 5'5" and a decade younger than Zach at age 23. Like the handsome doctor, she had blonde hair and blue eyes, though her blonde hair was straight and cut short, and her eyes were a deeper blue. She tilted her head slightly down at him today and had a mischievous look in her eyes, as if she were seeing him in a whole new light. Even so, she had a compelling, decisive presence that brooked no defiance. She had been a prodigy who graduated university at the age of 14 and was flying fighter jets by the time she was 18 years old. She had become a major at age 20, and now, she was an Air Force Colonel that had been chosen to command Mars Colony Mission One with everyone's utter confidence. That was how good she was.
Colonel Bruno continued, "As you can imagine, three of our newly selected crewmates have already been to see me this morning. I expect to see the last crewmate who's on base, Ayana, before the end of the day, though I haven't heard from her yet."
Zach interjected, "If you don't, you should seek her out. She may be especially uncomfortable since we're such close colleagues. I know I am. I don't want my friendships disrupted by this unprecedented situation."
"Listen to me, Zach," Colonel Bruno, Colleen, confided, coming around her desk and standing over him, maybe a head taller than the much taller doctor, seated as he was. Unbidden, he noticed that the Colonel's very scrumptious tits he had professionally ignored since he had known her were now exactly at mouth height. He quickly looked up into her face. She was giving him that mischevious look. It was disconcerting. She had gone from friendly and understanding but businesslike in every encounter he'd ever had with her to this "fuck me" look now. There was nothing inappropriate about the look. He was going crazy. That must be it.
The young, radiant Colonel reached out and touched Zach on the arm. "You are a sweet man, a caring man. That's one of the qualities that makes you such a great doctor. If you don't mind me saying, you're the only man I've met where I've remarked to myself, 'That man should be a father,' on several occasions. I'm happy with our crew selection, including you." Colleen was smiling radiantly and almost blushing, Zach saw. He knew this was a fairly standard pep talk from his commanding officer other then the unusual subject, and that look of hers, jeez. It was making his dick swell in his pants. Already this was being a little awkward for both of them. She was avoiding the important subject.
Colleen continued. "I've discussed it one-on-one with three of our crewmates, and it's a universal sentiment so far, and I expect it to continue to be."
"That's flattering, of course," Zach remarked with attempted cool. "I'm still concerned about our entire crew with potentially so many unhappy circumstances. The situation is far from ideal."
Colleen continued, "All you need be concerned with, aside from your medical duties, is this: our crew and our new community will be happy and satisfied if you do everything in your power to assist our crewmates in fulfilling their intentions to create and nurture mentally and physically healthy families on our new home planet. Our crew, including you, is smart, capable, ambitious, and professional. Let me manage any jealousy or unhappiness that might arise among us."
Zach thought a moment. What was Colleen, pardon, Colonel Bruno, trying to suggest? "I'm quite confident we have the means to artificially inseminate everyone, multiple times if desired, once we reach Mars."
"Don't worry," Colleen chuckled, her eyes twinkling, "I'm confident of both your and Ayana's medical skills. But may I be candid?"
