_ _ _ _
You’re
on Earth, looking at a dark pink poppy, cupping it in your rather
tired, leathery hand; in a park alone, surrounded by scrappers and
the hum of distant automotives. You fly upwards to the busy skies.
Further and further you rise. Beneath you is nothing. White and blue.
Continuing
to soar, out through the atmosphere, your home planet is soon but a
dot in the background.
A
spaceship lies ahead. A turd shaped heap of junk housing a thousand
TG mining robots. They sleep in their cells – inactive, powerless.
Only two ordinators aboard, yourself and your partner, in a cell
slightly bigger, two beds, two cupboards and a shared toilet cube.
_ _ _ _
“Mate
…”
“Pretty
good, huh?” you say with a puff of white breath.
“Incredible,”
he sighs.
“And
how many …?”
“Eight.”
“Eight
dead.”
“Thirty
injured. But yeah,” he huffs, getting to his feet. Could’ve been
a lot worse.”
The
first accident had been the worst.
“Toughens
you up,” they told you.
The
sacrifice those miners had made. It sickens you to think of it.
But
you’d been happy on that day. On that day you’d been a success.
_ _ _ _
A
Melody, a pretty name and just as you’d expect she’d been young
and beautiful (or do you just remember her that way?). Her first day
on the job and she’d died in a cave-in that could have been
prevented with a little more funding.
Chocolate,
a buddy of Manny’s for almost a month. You’d been jealous in a
weird sort of way. But when his suit had malfunctioned, when you’d
witnessed the freezing and crumbling of his face … you’d told
Manny that he’d died quickly and peacefully. The expression of
horror in his eyes staring up at you, it was something you’d always
been able to, had to shake off.
Vandermeer,
Miller, Tessa, Nathan, Eli … somewhere in your subconscious you
carry stories of these people too. And explosion on Demos. A gas leak
on The Good Companion.
Captain
Worrit. Did he die or just leave? He’s there in your memories.
That’s right. He’d been the one before you. Manny’s original
partner. His mentor.
“Whatever
happened to Captain Worrit?” you feel like asking Manny. And you
will, you will ask him.
_ _ _ _
The
bomb that went off killed thirty of your colleagues. That had been
the second time, also on the moon. You’d tried to blame the
authorities, back in the bar at moon base alpha, you’d all had
plenty to say and most of it had been directed at them. Some of it at
the inevitable danger that these jobs took – even Manny hadn’t
blamed you. But you’d been tired, it was a careless mistake. A
minute too soon and it had blown away those just a hair’s breath
from safety.
