Manna-1 — Day 12

Genre: Science Fiction / Psychological Thriller 

Premise: (No spoilers on this one! You'll just have to read the post.) ;)

Plot / ACT I: It is the early days of Mars colonization. 2,500 intrepid souls live on the surface of Mars, building the first tiny human settlement, brick by brick. They are the first wave of people to inhabit the red planet, and theirs is a one-way trip. Without any spaceships or other means to get off the planet, and with limited resources, these brave pioneers will live out the remainder of their lives on Mars. Their job is to build shelter and pave the way for others. There are no farmers or ranchers, and they have no means of self-sufficiency. As a result, the Mars colonists rely upon two annual shipments of supplies from Earth to survive and continue their work. Each shipment is laden with enough food, medicine and raw materials for 2,500 people to survive on Mars for six months. The two shipments are Mars' one and only lifeline, and the spaceships that make the run are affectionately known as Manna-1 and Manna-2.

In some ways, the 10-person crews of the Manna ships are the bravest of all the Mars colonists. After the 6-month space trek, the Manna ships drop their precious cargo from space down to the surface of Mars. The crew then take a small (crash)-lander escape pod down to the surface themselves and and join the colonists as new settlers. The Manna ships are programmed to return to orbit with Earth on autopilot, where they will be refitted for the next run with new material and another 10 person crew.  

The crew of Manna-1 have been traveling for almost 6 months through space. They are one week out from their final destination of Mars when they receive inconceivable news via automated distress beacons on the moon: the Earth has been destroyed, stripped clean of all life by a massive, rogue solar flair. The last remnants of Mankind are the Manna crew and the 2,500 Mars colonists, who are now collectively doomed to starve to death when this last shipment of supplies runs out in 6 months.

The crew is paralyzed by a deep despair when they realize that their own deaths and Mankind's extinction are now imminent certainties. Four days out from Mars they gather to eat breakfast together in silence. When finally one of the crew members breaks the silence, it is to share a terrible observation, and an inconceivable moral choice: If the Manna crew completes its mission, delivers its supplies, and joins the colonists on the surface, their deaths and Mankind's extinction are certain. But if the 10-person crew does NOT deliver the supplies, and instead keeps them for themselves and parks their spaceship above orbit of Mars, they may actually have a shot at survival. The food and medicines they carry have been hardened for deep space travel. They have no effective expiration date. He then shares the terrible math: the food that would only last 6 months for a colony of 2,500 could feed a crew of 10 for 125 years.

125 years and ten people—five women and five men. Enough time, and maybe enough people, to give survival of the species a very distant shot. The choice is almost impossible for the Manna-1 crew to face: Let the last 2,500 human beings starve to death a few miles beneath the engorged belly of their supply-laden cargo ship—but live. OR, drop the supplies and join their friends, families and colleagues on the surface below and accept certain death and extinction.