A Declaration of Honor

Dust kicked up from the Martian surface. The granules were like little specks of red powder. Dr. Tiana Monson stopped her work on the botanical garden which she had constructed with her boyfriend, Dr. Gelman Shepman on the planet. She was about five eleven and he was six foot four. Her features looked like coffee and he appeared the color of cashews.

They looked at each other. They moved from one end of the space capsule to the end. It was rather wide given the vastness of the terrain. Still, more dust. It wasn’t a lot, just enough to remind them that no matter how much they vacuumed, the traces still lingered.

The whirring came from a machine they were familiar with. At this time, it seemed like an unlikely visitor. It was a rather large white drone with a fairly large box in tow.

After it dropped the box, it flew back out of the range of the capsule, into outer space.

The couple hailed one of the rovers to haul the cumbersome box into their living space. It just fit through the side hatch.

“What hell?” Shepman asked. He looked down at the box which bore only one sticker that read Space Bar. That was the private organization that had launched them out of the confines of the Earth.

“Did you expect any deliveries?” Tiana asked evenly.

“Why, is there something out there?”

He looked at his watch and ran through the various messages. He looked at radio transmissions, if a video had covered why they were receiving this package. Nothing.

“Try it again,” commanded Tiana. He troubleshooted once again to no avail.

Tiana then snatched a tool that punctured the box and she shredded it open like a cereal box with a prize. Except she could only see parts.

“Parts?” Shepman queried.

“The parts we don’t need—”

Maybe if you dig just a bit further.”

Tiana agreed. “Well, there’s a pack of tools and instructions to assemble. But why would SB send us all of this knowing that we already have these two machines already in production with the laser printer. I can’t understand it?”

“Did you dig deep enough?”

“You just saw me pull out the guts of this box, with no help by the way.” She smirked and rearranged the contents.

“Pardon me, babe,” Shepman replied. “Look, I’ll take these parts and use them as backup in case the original breaks down or malfunctions.”

“Okay, okay. That’s getting us somewhere.”

The box’s contents laid out on the floor like a piñata had burst open with mechanical pieces instead of candy. Lined in a row, Tiana and Shepman took care in classifying each and every component like the scientists they were. Tiana was the medical doctor and Shepman was the chemist. They both worked to name every single piece. Shepman looked at his girlfriend. Her diligence, her care was palpable to him.

She looked at Shepman. As they continued to notate and classify the various elements of the box, Tiana looked up at Shepman. His intent, his mind focused on getting the work done right motivated her. She smiled. They were just about finished.

“Did you check everything in the box?” Tiana questioned. Shepman moved over to the container.

“Of course I did.” Shepman then placed his hand on a smaller box. Cameras in the receiving area zoomed in to see his reaction. Tiana walked over and took the small box from his grasp. She dropped to one knee.

“You are the prize,” she said with distinction, a declaration of honor. She opened the small box and Shepman observed the platinum band was designed to fit perfectly on his finger.

“I will of course marry you. You don’t even have to ask,” he mentioned. “I Love you.” They embraced.

The Space Bar personnel on earth viewed this all from the spacious control room and cheered with delight. The billionaire author, founder, and CEO Mille Cobbs smiled.

“The wedding and honeymoon are all on me…once you get back to this blue rock, of course.”

“Roger that!” they both shouted. They then clicked off the monitor and found their personal quarters and slow danced the rest of the evening.