10

Boredom ensued. Flinders ordered that the main meals of the day be eaten in the company of the whole crew, and Barrow had stipulated a number of entries for their logs each day. But the crew discovered that they all had more time than they knew what to do with.

This is why body odor became such a contentious issue. Now it is the case that Martian bodies sweat more in microgravity. Although the Investigator had a robust air filtration system, the ship’s atmosphere quickly became weighed down by an organic funk. By the third day, everyone on the ship was convinced they knew the odor’s source. Some of them eyed one another, many of them dreaded that it was their own problem.

Another irritant may have been the plastic-wrapped cat feces that gently floated about the vessel. Flinders made some attempt to collect it, but it seems that the freeze-dried diet or microgravity did not agree with the kitty’s digestion. Trim defecated with great frequency.

Such were the greatest challenges faced by the intrepid crew of the Investigator in these first few weeks. It is not wonderful, then, that they were dull.¹

They slept and ate and exercised and ate and slept. Their lives were a series of joyless bodily functions, not least of which was masturbation. Almost everyone was soon masturbating twice daily. This behavior was as joyless as their meals—but it did pass the time. Of course, they each believed they were the only member of the crew to resort to such a pastime. Greenstockings, on the other hand, from her wider experience of Martian sexuality, was perfectly aware of what they were all doing, and used it to her advantage.