Cohesion: Chapter One

Cohesion Handbook 1.4 – Conduct within your Cohesion Partnership

1.     True cohesion is built on a foundation of mutual respect. As members of the Carl Sagan Science and Space Society, you are all experts in your respective fields, and are encouraged to address your mission partners formally, typically using their rank (if they are in the military) or “Doctor” followed by their last name, to maintain the level of respect and professionalism consistent with the efforts you both put in to be where you are now.

Doctor Ludwig Pehl couldn’t tear his eyes off the moon. Not earth’s moon, which was roughly forty light years from where he now stood, but rather, the moon of Trappist 1d. Standing on the black surface of this planet, a green sky above him, Ludwig knew there were many more marvels to behold than just this planet’s moon. There was the dim red star that was larger in this planet’s sky than Earth’s sun—and yet, that was another marvel, because you could look directly at this star without causing permanent damage to your vision. There were also the other planets in the Trappist system, which all orbited this star so closely that just by checking the low horizon, one could see a planet or two at any given time throughout the day.

But even compared to the stark black landscape, the unfamiliar constellations of stars in the sky, and all the other celestial marvels to behold, the moon of Trappist 1d stood out among the rest, as it was the first manmade moon ever created.

Their ancestors had used unmanned catch and release ships sent nearly two centuries ago to find the right composition of rocks and then carefully released them into the planet’s orbit. With a healthy dose of gravity, orbital physics, some careful guidance, and plenty of pressure, they had successfully created a moon.

The static from Ludwig’s comms suddenly became active, startling him out of his reverie.

“Doctor Ludwig, could I have another moment with you?”

The voice on his comms was Commander Thomas Cernan. He was made a commander when their colony ship landed on the planet a month ago. It was largely a ceremonial promotion—more representative of the mission’s successful forty-year journey than his actions in particular. But it was still a great honor, or at least as the Commander had joked after the ceremony, was the first such honor he’d ever gotten in his sleep. This was true, as when the timing of the message informing him of his promotion had been sent from earth meant that he had still been asleep in his hibernation chamber when the paperwork had been finished.

Ludwig was still getting used to both his pressure suit and this planet’s unfamiliar gravity, so when he turned and made his way across the uneven volcanic rock to where his Commander stood, he did so slowly.

Next to Commander Cernan stood Doctor Djawadi, who moved around the planet with more ease than Ludwig did. The Doctor greeted Ludwig with a goofy nervous smile.

“Doctor Djawadi, you’re dismissed,” Commander Cernan said.

Djawadi gave a sort of informal salute to the Commander and then walked back towards their equipment allotment to double-check inventory.

“What is your mission?” Commander Cernan asked Ludwig with a stone-faced military formality.

And it was a formality, having him repeat it like this. But it was a ritual that the Carl Sagan Science & Space Society—or CS4, had been doing for over a century. Ludwig didn’t mind the formality, he’d learned a long time ago that the proper way was the right way for a reason.

“Sir, our mission is to establish a potential site for our colony’s dual geothermal power and water reclamation facility, an essential component to the success of CS4’s mission.”

“And the future of our colony,” Commander Cernan added.

“Yes sir.”

Ludwig was surprised when a notification popped up on his pressure suit’s visor to switch to Commander Cernan’s private comms channel. He made the switch, then noticed the dark look on his Commander’s face beneath the stone-faced military demeanor. The commander didn’t speak for a few moments, adding another layer of tension to the apprehension Ludwig suddenly felt.

“Sir?”

“Infrastructure base has gone dark on us,” Commander Cernan finally said. “I’m headed over there now. Captain Merrill will be meeting me there to assess the situation. They were unable to complete their mission when they went silent on us, so—”

“We don’t have communications up,” Ludwig interrupted, his breath catching in his throat.

Commander Cernan nodded, a grim look etched on his brow. “You’ll be on your own for the next four weeks. If something goes wrong, we won’t be able to help, we won’t even know what happened until we’re back here to pick you up.”

The gravity of this settled into Ludwig’s mind.

“Should we delay?” he asked. “Doctor Djawadi and I could come with you and help figure out what’s going on with Infra. Get things back up to speed and on schedule.”

Commander Cernan was shaking his head before Ludwig finished speaking.

“Even if everything was fine with Infra, them going dark on us before getting long-range comms up puts us three weeks behind, Doctor. If we don’t get geothermal up in the next six weeks, we’ll be even further behind with essential infrastructure. More personnel are scheduled to wake from hibernation in eight weeks, and we’ve got a dropship incoming in twelve. If we can’t power the long-range rovers and get to those resupply pods before the storms destroy them, people will die.”

Ludwig tensed up completely at this information. If they were in this situation, it wasn’t just because plans were going wrong, but because the backup plans of those backup plans were failing too. This was not a good situation to be in. There would be no rescue for a colony in collapse. Even if it was likely that the colonies on the other Trappist planets were further along than they were, none of them would be interplanetary at this point.

No, as was often the case in humankind’s endeavors in space, there was no rescue if something went wrong. They all knew colony collapse was a possibility—but to be this close to it happening to them within the first year of humans arriving on this planet? It was unthinkable.

“I know we sometimes get trite quoting the words of Apollo, but Doctor—in this particular instance it’s true: ‘failure is not an option.’”

Ludwig nodded. “Understood, Commander.”

“Do I need to remind you about the importance of your cohesion?”

Ludwig shook his head.

“I know I don’t with you,” the Commander sighed. “But I should warn you, Doctor Djawadi’s last cohesion partner reported a few issues. Nothing serious, certainly nothing worth disciplining under normal circumstances. But he can be just a bit lax with the little things. I’d give you specifics if I were worried—but, well, just keep an eye on him.”

“Yes sir,” Ludwig tried to hide his disappointment. This was an important mission; the last thing he wanted to do was babysit another rulebreaker. Who knows though, maybe the issues with his last cohesion were due to a lax partner?

Cohesion wasn’t an easy thing. It was a practice established in CS4’s early history nearly two hundred and fifty years ago. Every mission was broken up into key objectives that were assigned to two members of CS4. Those two mission partners would be together for four straight weeks, tackling their objective together, before being assigned a new objective, and often a new companion.

The challenge of Cohesion though was the culture that had sprung up around it. The rules that had been established over the past two centuries were made with the hope of strengthening the partnership of the Cohesion, maximizing their chances of mission success, and the safety of each other in potentially hazardous scenarios. It was the buddy system, but standardized with a robust rule book and generations of tradition on top of that.

Obeying the rules of Cohesion wasn’t always easy, especially when so many of them seemed so arbitrary. But Ludwig had seen firsthand the importance of following the rules—the rules keep you safe. Take, for example, the rule of making sure your Cohesion partner was always within your line of sight. Back in the Cohesion Training Center on Earth’s moon, that rule often felt arbitrary when surrounded by other people, all with the same goals as your own. But now that they were on an exoplanet, where their Cohesion would be hundreds of kilometers away from the next nearest Cohesion? It just made sense. There were many other rules they were expected to be obedient with, but some of the others were keeping a strict schedule, eating together, exercising together, and planning together each day before retiring at the same time.

If Ludwig needed to be extra strict with the rules to set a standard and to keep Djawadi on mission, so be it. He’d been told by senior officers in the past that he was often given cohesion partners that were a little lax in the hopes of them benefiting from his example. At first, he’d resented that, wishing he’d been given the opportunity for a cohesion partner that could potentially lead to a true cohesion, one where they’d have a lot of success together, not where there was constant tension and disagreement. But as he’d grown in his career, he’d realized what a great responsibility was placed on him, and the privilege that came with being a trusted officer in the CS4. If being a little hard on Djawadi meant success on their mission, then Ludwig planned to do so.

Commander Cernan took a deep breath, then switched to the general comms channel so Djawadi could hear too. “Gentlemen,” he said, then pointed at the ground. “In four weeks, I want you both standing here having completed your mission, waiting to be picked up for reassignment.”

“Yes sir.” They both replied in unison.

“Stay alive and do not fail. That’s an order,” he finished.

Commander Cernan’s words were still weighing on them long after the sight of the rover he drove off in was no longer visible on the horizon.

“You both looked like you were having a pretty serious conversation,” Doctor Djawadi said. “Anything I need to be worried about?”

Ludwig nodded, “The commander was just relaying to me the importance of our mission and sticking to the rules of cohesion.”

Doctor Djawadi paused for a moment, looking up at Ludwig as if wondering why he mentioned the rules. Ludwig could understand the reasoning behind the look. Both of them were senior scientists on the mission, both of similar enough rank that neither was considered “in charge”, so it was a bit strange to mention the rules as if Djawadi was some junior partner in their cohesion. But Djawadi finally smiled and nodded, then gestured at the equipment. “Shall we get started then?”

Surprised by the cheerfulness in Djawadi’s voice, Ludwig nodded and grabbed a few cases of materials. Maybe the problems with Djawadi had been more of an issue with his last partner, “Let’s do it.”