{"id":855,"date":"2021-06-06T19:58:23","date_gmt":"2021-06-06T19:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=855"},"modified":"2021-06-06T19:58:26","modified_gmt":"2021-06-06T19:58:26","slug":"changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/changed\/855\/","title":{"rendered":"Changed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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March 2016 \u2013 Houston, Texas:<\/strong> Mark and Scott Kelly are identical twins, both are captains in the US Navy, and both spent time on the International Space Station. Scott spent nearly a year orbiting the Earth, returning in March 2016. On his return, they compared his DNA to his twin\u2019s. During his flight it modified so much they were no longer considered identical twins. He had changed.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

August 2031 \u2013 Orbit around Phobos, the innermost moon of Mars.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHouston, this is Safe Return. We\u2019ve made a successful entry into Mars lunar orbit and are about to deploy the lander modules. All systems are nominal,\u201d Captain Bob \u201cTick\u201d Timer said, looking into the camera on the comms console. Not waiting for a reply because of the 12.72-minute transmission delay each way, he floated down from the command module to the crew quarters, pulled himself through the hatch and beamed an enormous smile at his crewmates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHey Tick, how\u2019d it feel to be the first disk-jockey to broadcast from Mars?\u201d Alan Schwartz said to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt feeeeels good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDah dah-dah dah-dah dah,\u201d responded the five crew members in an homage to the James Brown classic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay, knock it off,\u201d laughed Tick. \u201cwe\u2019ve got work to do. Alan, you\u2019re in PL1 with Celestine and Tony. I\u2019ll take PL2 with Christine and Alicia. Y\u2019all ready for this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAye, captain,\u201d the crew chorused. They headed for the EVA lockers and donned their suits, then one by one, entered the two ventral airlocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The landers, PL1 and PL2, were little more than a cabin and a cargo hold perched on top of a giant engine. They got the crew to the surface of Phobos and back safely and efficiently and nothing more. Once landed, the crew were to break out the prefabricated base and assemble it, ready for the second ship, which carried the crew that would construct the Mars lander on the surface of Phobos and take a flight into history. Tick envied them, but he made his own history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trip down was uneventful, with PL2 landing just minutes before its twin. As agreed, Tick waited until the automated lander settled on its struts before opening the hatch to look out across Phobos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is PL2,\u201d he said, thumbing his mike through his EVA suit. \u201cCan I have your status? Over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He waited a few seconds, but there was nothing but static.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPL2, do you copy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More static. Then the door of the other lander flew from its hinges and a tall, black, glistening figure burst through and spread its giant leathery wings. Tick gasped in horror as the figure bounded away from the lander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet\u2019s get out of here,\u201d he shouted, slamming the hatch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They left Phobos after they sent the video of the encounter back to Houston. Afterwards, NASA and the NSA put a lid on the entire event. Tick understood, but he knew what he saw, and he knew what he felt. Changes were coming to him, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 2016 \u2013 Houston, Texas: Mark and Scott Kelly are identical twins, both are captains in the US Navy, and both spent time on the International Space Station. Scott spent nearly a year orbiting the Earth, returning in March 2016. On his return, they compared his DNA to his twin\u2019s. During his flight it modified […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A new SciFi #flashfiction from #swanseawriters\n\n\"Changed\" by Martyn R Winters","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[379,490],"tags":[494],"class_list":["post-855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-379","category-june-2021-afterwards","tag-changed"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sbrNJE-changed","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":857,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions\/857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}