Space Rocks
A short story by: Valerie Roberts
The endless void loomed out the window, Eva stared into its depths, somewhere in the blackness was home, one of those pale specks of light.
The ship creaked ominously. It always felt haunting to walk the ship alone while everyone else slept, her week long posting was almost over, then she would go back to sleep for another year, this time though, when she would awaken, they will have arrived. Asteroid Q1511A purchased in 2115 by Aerodight Mining Corp, the travel from Earth had taken five years, though to her it only would seem five days and to the miners on the ship, only a single one, they had been put to sleep before the ship had even began its launch sequence.
The time caught up to all of them eventually though, an eleven year trip, five there, five back, one on the ship breaking the asteroid into dust and separating the elements, when she left it was 2162, she would return in 2173. Everyone she knew on Earth her age would be a decade older than her in an instant, not that she really cared anyway. After her older sister died in the war on Mars she had no one left. Dead, over a few hundred square miles of red dust.
The AMS recruited Eva after the war, one hundred years of service to the corp, one hundred years of salary all earned in what would actually be ten years for her biological body, the pay was actually shit, the board members of AMS make that hundred year salary in an hour, but Eva didn't really care, she promised her sister she would see the solar system when she died, leave Mars and tour the planets, it had been their dream, an impossible one, but a dream nonetheless. This mining vessel was the closest she could get, she knew she'd be destitute after this, she had nothing when the war ended and with the current rate of inflation the salaries they were promised would likely be pittance in one hundred years. She didn't care about it but she felt bad for the miners, lured in on the promise of a hundred year salary for just ten biological years of service, they didn't know any better, most had spent their entire lives training only to be cannon fodder, they didn't need to understand anything more than how to fire a rifle and follow orders.
She wondered if any of her fellow pilots had come to the same conclusion as her. She had only ever spoken to the pilot that woke her from sleep and the one she woke from sleep, neither were particularly talkative. She supposed she would meet some of them when the mining began, 10 of the 52 pilots had to be awake to maintain aerial functions of the ship once mining commenced.
200 of the 300 miners would descend to the surface of the asteroid to begin its destruction. The remaining hundred stayed on the ship to run the sorting factory on the ship that broke down the asteroid dust into elements. There were also 20 specialized mechanics to maintain the ship and mining equipment. That meant Eva would have 330 potential people to discuss her thoughts about their situation, if they cared at all. She knew many on this ship were just as apathetic as she, just as messed up and semi-suicidal to sign up for a mission that would slingshot them 100 years into the future with no promises that their work would reward them with anything but destitution and death.
The ship creaked again, she looked down at her watch, on the black glass circle pale blue numbers glowed reading 23:46.
Shit!
She only had fourteen minutes to get back to the barracks and wake up Emily. The wake-up process took fifteen minutes itself plus she still had to get there.
Shit!
Eva took off in a dead sprint her sneakers pounding into the metal floors. The sound echoing through the empty corridors. She slid into the pilot barracks rushing over to the computer terminal quickly scrolling down the list of names until she saw the blank spot where her own would reappear when Emily put her to sleep. She punched the screen where in the same blue lettering as her watch the name Emily Watson was listed, a cool feminine voice spoke, "Decompression for, Emily Watson, has begun. Estimated completion time 00:03. Please Wait."
Eva sank to the ground leaning against the computer terminal and breathing heavily. No matter how much Cryogen claimed that the beds didn't cause muscle degeneration Eva couldn't believe it, each time she woke up she felt weaker, like she really was a year older and all she had done for that year was lay in bed, because, she had.
She leaned her head back and looked up at the wall of beds in front of her, they called them beds but really they looked and felt nothing like one, for one thing, you entered it standing up. From the outside they looked like giant silver pill capsules with red numbers that represented the week the pilots were on duty for. They basically lived on a carousel that spun round each week to reprieve the old pilot and wake the new. The beds only actually laid horizontally when the were reattached to the carousel and put to sleep.
Eva's pod sat open the pill was split down the middle and opened with double doors to a teal interior with a ribbed bed. Where her wrists and ankles went there were open manacles each ring with three menacing looking needles on the inside. Eva looked at them and involuntarily rubbed the scars on her wrists, three little dots, barley visible.
A hissing noise began to emanate from the pod next to Eva's, the perfectly smooth pod beginning to split directly through the center of the red number 33 leaving an individual three on either side. The doors gave way and soon Eva could see Emily's pale skin's dull glow in the harsh LED light of the barracks. Her eyes were still closed her long brown hair framed her small face her chest rose and fell softly, she wore only a white pair of underwear and a matching sports bra.
The voice spoke through the room again, "Good morning, Emily Watson, today is Monday, August 11, 2166, time, 00:03."
Emily opened her eyes and groaned, "Late again Eva," she chided.
"Oh, come on, that's how your gonna greet me, we haven't seen each other in a year," Eva replied sarcastically.
"Please," Emily wove her hand dismissively, She stepped out of the pod and strode over to Eva's side of the room. All along the wall next to the computer were lockers all made from the same silvery metal as the beds and numbered in the same bold red font.
Emily pressed her palm to the door and it sprung open, "You gonna get ready?" she looked to Eva.
"Oh, yeah, sorry," Eva scrambled up and walked to her locker, pressing her hand to the cool metal it sprung open she began untying her sneakers.
"You're staying awake for the mining right?" Emily asked her as she pulled a t-shirt over her head.
"Yeah," Eva replied still looking at her shoes, "Are you?"
"God no, I love having this ship to myself, I can't imagine how crowded it'll feel when all those miners get woken up."
"Yeah, I guess, but don't you find it weird that you'll like never see any of the operation, like basically the whole reason we're here?"
"Eh, uh, not really, I don't really care to be honest, I took this job for the peace and quiet, and I got it, a hundred years of it, though it's too bad I'll never meet the captain, I'd love to ask her about the Martian War."
"Well, I mean, I'm from Mars..."
"Yeah, but you didn't like fight right? Like I'm from Earth, but I didn't like fight in the Polar Wars. I heard she flew a civilian bus through Asphodel during the siege on Elysium, and she didn't lose a single solider or civilian, I mean can you imagine, flying one of those monstrosities through the deadliest battle on Mars, I thought about staying awake, for just like a chance at talking to her, but I don't know if a year awake is worth maybe getting to have a few words... Anyways, you ready yet?"
"Uh, yeah, sorry..."
Eva finished stripping down to her undergarments before climbing into the pod.
"Well, have fun watching them turn that space rock to dust, and if you get a chance to talk to Captain McCaffery you have to tell me about it. Have a good sleep Eva."
Emily punched the computer screen and the voice echoed through the room and in her pod as the doors shut in front of her, "Good night, Eva Westbrook, see you soon."
Eva was conscious in the darkness for a few moments before the familiar sharp pain of the needles in the manacles penetrating her skin and then everything went blank.