Don headed down a hallway to
a launch meeting when he ran into Charlie, “Pod 22 is this way,
Charlie. Restricted access.”
“Not if you have one of
these here badges, sucka.” Charlie said with a smirk.
“Who'd you take the badge
from? You gotta give it back.”
“I ain't gotta give shit
back to nobody.”
“Somebody is gonna report
you.”
“Don, slow the truck down.
They gave me the badge. I'm supposed to be here.”
“You're a courier here on
this cluster.”
“Not anymore, I'm a
lumberjack, jack.”
“How's that possible?”
“You don't remember the
last two rockets blowing up? Some dude named Harrison is out.
Threatening to kill himself if they made him get on the rocket.”
“So they agreed to let you
swap places.”
“Since you and I been
talking I figured out you're right. Imagining myself here, same shit
everyday. I'm with you, Don. Let's get the fuck outta here.”
“Why would they take you?
Why would they think you know how to do the job?”
“Told them I worked with
you on Earth for a few years. Even told 'em I ain't afraid of
heights, which I totally am.”
“You don't know how to do
this job.”
“I've run a hedge trimmer
before.”
“We don't use hedge
trimmers, Charlie.”
“You'll train me, I ain't
scared. Except for heights. You know, fuck that.”
“No one contacted me,
asked me anything.”
“I might have signed some
screens for you. We're good.”
“Listen, Shit Show. I
gotta get to Alpha Centauri. Once we're there, you are welcome to get
yourself killed pretending to do my job. Until we get there, you are
a fucking ghost. Got me?”
“Don, I'm a dependable
person who...”
“Yes or no?”
“Yes.”
“We go into the meeting
and you talk to no one.”
“I got nothing to say.”
“You're so full of shit.”
They both walked into Pod 22
as the meeting started.
An American woman of Indian
descent addressed the sixty people seated, “I'm Saanvi Patel and
it's my job to ensure you all have a successful flight to Alpha
Centauri a. We understand that what took place with the other two
rockets is a tragedy and we are sad to have lost our brothers and
sisters in space exploration. As you all know, time lines are not
flexible. This cluster isn't designed to provide oxygen to 60 extra
people for a prolonged time. You're simply stopping here briefly on
your way to your final destination. We're going over the rockets a
second time to ensure no repeat failures. Everything appears to be in
great shape. We have changed the manifest a little bit. Before we had
administrators, military and the terraformers mixed with both
manifests. To make things a little less complicated, we'll be putting
all administrators and military personnel on Rocket A and all
terraformers on Rocket B.
“Rocket B's a piece of
shit,” Charlie whispered to Don.
“Shhh.”
“Why did I let you talk me
into this shit?”
“Shut the fuck up.”
Saanvi Patel turned her
attention to Don and Charlie, “Was there a question about the new
manifests.”
“Rocket B...,” Charlie
belted out.
Don quickly cut him off,
“Love it. Love Rocket B.”
“The take offs are the
same, the flight path is side by side, the landings are the same.
You'll be fine. Now let's talk about the cryogenic freezing you are
all going to experience.”
“She didn't say, 'I
promise.'” Charlie whispered as quiet as he could.
“There are no promises,”
Don whispered back, “Even once we're off the rockets. Anything
goes.”
“I'm scared, Don.”
“Just shut up.”
The meeting went on and on.
It covered every kind of emergency. Up to fifteen passengers were to
be woken up early before landing. Their job would be to follow any
instructions the computer would alert them to follow. For the most
part, enjoy the experience of being the first humans to land on an
earth like planet light years from home.
Don looked around as Miss
Patel spoke. In one corner of the room was a service or maintenance
robot. He noticed that periodically the robots head would turn toward
his direction, then back to the front. The first few times, he
thought he was over thinking the robots behavior. Finally on the
fifth time, Don gave the robot the middle finger and it's head
snapped back to the forward position.
“Middle finger?” Charlie
shook his head, “I'm the one that's supposed to behave?”
“I hate robots,” Don
replied.
“You're giving the finger
to a robot? I think you got a screw loose your self, Don.”
“If you were in my shoes,
you'd hate robots too.”
After the meeting was over,
Charlie walked over to some of the other lumberjacks, “Fellas, I'm
Charlie.”
“Charlie, I'm RJ. How do
you know Don?”
“Worked for him back on
Earth. Few years.”
“Really? Cause I was on
his crew and he never mentioned you.”
“I was a little bit of the
prodigal son. Falling out and came back later in life. Here I am.”
“You took Harrison's spot.
You weren't on the original manifest.”
“Doesn't mean I'm not
telling you the truth.”
Another lumberjack walked
over, “Hey Charlie, I'm Chance. The boys are having an argument and
you get to be the swing vote.”
“You're name really is
Chance and you're a lumberjack.”
“Don't be that guy,
Charlie. I just met you and I got a pretty extensive shit list. The
question is simple, what do you prefer bull rope or regular hand
line?”
“Honestly?”
“Yeah, man.”
“Neither.”
“What?”
“Yeah, I don't rope shit.
Especially now where we're going there's no OSHA.”
“That's not a swing vote.”
“Boys boys, I don't use a
rope. Never have, never will. I appreciate including me in your
statistics, but I don't really fit in a category. Nope, don't like
'em. Catch you dudes laterz.”
Chance walked over by Don,
“Don, this kid you vouched for doesn't know a thing about our
industry.”
“He's a moron, once we get
on Centauri a, I'll figure out how bad of a shit show he really is.
Might end up a permanent ground guy.”
“We've got robots for that
shit.”
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