In the year 2374 humanity has expanded well into the solar system. The expansion has come with trials and tribulations but through it all humans have persevered. Humanity is ruled by the rich and powerful in the form of the corporatocracy known as the Trade Alliance. However, your average joe rarely if ever will try to comprehend the totality of the world that they find themselves in. To them it doesn’t matter if they are on Mars, Titan or a space colony as long as they can provide for themselves and their families.

Jason Smith is someone that is unconcerned with the politics, sciences or scope of humanities achievements. His number one concern is going to work to get enough money to pay bills and hopefully have enough for a drink or two on the weekends. Jason and his twin sister Wynn were one of the many orphans that grew up on the Celestial Bridge Centauri; one of three artificial ring superstructures that encircles the Earth and is home to billions of people. Luckily Jason had Kevin Smith, his older adopted brother, to watch his back and had enough street smarts to keep them out of the gangs, an illicit trade. Kevin got them through the worst of childhood and always made sure to keep them on the straight and narrow.

Jason, like most Bridgers, was ethnically diverse to the point where it would be hard pressed to find a lineage that he was not related to. He was nineteen years old though people would always think he was much younger due to his baby face and slender frame. He had tan skin and short cut black hair. His eyes were a dark brown that looked black in low light. His job required him to maintain a shaved face but it would always grow out to a five o’clock shadow by noon.

Jason worked at the starport which was the largest source of income for the majority of people that lived in the relay. While the starport was pressurized Jason would frequently have to work in depressurized docks and hangers. He was wearing his special engineer spacesuit which was designed with safety, practicality and dexterity at the forefront. The suit was tight fitting with thin lightweight alloyed titanium plates and padding over the chest, shins, and forearms. His suit also had a standard power exoskeleton which gave him increased strength and was connected directly into his Sensory Augmentation. The suit was hi-vis greenish yellow with orange tassels which was not flattering on his thin frame. Lastly, his prized possession, a tool bag, was strung around his shoulder with everything he needed to do his job and stay alive.

Jason was just starting his shift in the Trevser Starport as one of the several thousand Zero Gravity Warp Engine Engineers. He always thought it sounded like a fancy title for something that meant little more than hightech grease monkey for the routine inspection performed on all vessels after 20,000 light seconds were traveled. He was one of many fresh faced graduates from the Starport Trade School and was amongst the top of his class. Legally he was an adult since he was sixteen and had it not been for Kevin he would have never had the opportunity to study at such a prestigious school. Jason was exceptional at his job but still little more than a face in the crowd in the sea of other workers who were also starting their shifts.

The Trevser Starport was the largest and busiest civilian Starport in the solar system. It extends for miles out from the Sol Relay Station in what looked like a half crescent moon with docks that can transport even the largest ships directly to the Orbital Elevator to take them to Earth's surface below. The Sol Relay Station itself was home to millions of humans that lived and worked in the relatively unsafe environment with the exception of very few.

Jason was walking down one of the long service hallways which was full of his fellow engineers as they also trudged along the narrow poorly lit corridor. There wasn't really any talking, at least none that was verbal. Only the echoes of feet pattering along the metal floor and the occasional muttering could be heard. Everyone communicated with their Sensory Augmentation which could be done with a thought almost like telepathy. The helmet and visor muffled the sound so it was just more convenient once they had their suits on. He was in the middle of an annoying conversation with his sister which threatened to sour his mood.

“No I am not washing them, you can do it when you get home!” Jason said through Sensory Augmentation while on a call with his sister. “You had all the time to do it before you left.”

“You know I had to leave in a hurry thanks to my partner. I won't be home until tomorrow night at the earliest. Can you just do it please?” Wynn responded with a long whine.

“I don’t want to carry yo’ stank socks down to the locker.” Jason responded.

Jason and Wynn’s minds were directly connected to their own Sensory Augmentation Grade-5 which Kevin bought for them as birthday gifts. The upgrade from their previous Grade-2 was immediately apparent as Jason could see his entire itinerary, check his contact list, and various other applications without a physical or holographic interface. The technology revolutionized how humans communicated and interacted with the world around them.

“Everytime I get home I have to clean up your messes. I am just asking you to do this one thing.” Wynn said. “Are you so afraid of girls you can’t even wash one’s clothing?”

“Just because I don’t want to wash my sister’s clothes does not mean I am afraid of girls!” Jason rebutted.

“Sure it doesn’t.” Wynn said and Jason could hear the grin on her face.

“Damn. Fine when I leave work I will take your clothing to the locker.” Jason conceded. “One condition, when you are on the way back, pick up the Roast Banke bars.”

“Fine. But if you keep eating those things you are going to get fat.”

“I could stand to gain a few pounds, maybe people will stop thinking I am a kid.” Jason admitted while patting his flat stomach.

“Oh… sorry I have to go, we just got a call. Talk to you later, love you!” Wynn said hurriedly.

“Be safe, love you too.”

The call ended and Jason quickly moved to play music that only he could hear. A glint shined in his eyes as he scrolled through his various social media accounts on screens only he could see. He had walked down this corridor shoulder-to-shoulder with his fellow engineers so many times he barely needed to pay attention to where he was going. He already committed the route to memory and until he got to his dock, which was a twenty minute walk from where he was, he had nothing but free time.

The time seemed to fly by before he arrived at the gate to his dock and he broke away from the throng. Inside was the massive star ship known as the NV Aurora Star Lily. It was a massive cargo ship which had just arrived a few hours prior. The inside of the bay was still warm and slightly electrified by the hum of warp engine spooling down. The ship was occupying the largest enclosed repair dock in the starport which is usually only used in emergency time sensitive repairs such as a warp core breach, not a 20000 light second inspections. However, the vessel is owned by the Tesfaye Trust which was a Titan based mega-corporation. The trust rented out the dock to expedite the inspection process.

The NV Aurora Star Lily was a C-5700 Star Cruiser, the largest ship Jason ever had to work on, the massive vessel barely fit in the twenty-five hundred meter dock. He already knew he would be working on the vessel from his briefings throughout the prior week but the sheer size could not be explained by diagrams and techdata. He was dumbstruck by the magnitude of what exactly he was looking at and a smile danced across his face. It was always a dream of his to work on starships since he was a little kid and now he had the opportunity to work on one of the largest and most expensive civilian vessels in the Trade Alliance.

“Hey, newbie, get a move on!” A voice message from one of the other engineers rang.

Jason quickly realized he had been standing in the middle of the doorway with his mouth open like an idiot. He secured his tool bag strap across his shoulder as he marched further inside the dock. His Sensory Augmentation connected to the Dock AI which pulled up a map of the dock, images and the location of his team members and all relevant techdata for his assignment that day. Everything stored away into neat tabs along the bottom of his vision so as to not interfere with sight. As soon as he connected to the Dock AI he was also connected into his team's group chat.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“That is why I am saying you need to watch the rest of the season at least. It is a slow start but the payoff is amazing.” Eric, one of the senior members of the team, said on the chat continuing a previous conversation.

“You keep saying that but you are like a thousand episodes in! A show shouldn’t take two seasons to finally get good.” Claude said in response.

“It just needed a little bit of set up but after the season finale everything starts making sense.” Eric responded. “Trust me I don’t want to spoil anything but there is a reason that Lucy went to the vice captain instead of Jewels and when Steve finds out! Dude you just have to finish the season.”

“I am not going to lie bro I don’t think I am.” Claude said with a sigh. “It just ain't for me.”

“Hey guys,” Jason said in the chat. “Yall talking about Cerebellum again?”

“Yeah, tell me you watched it, new guy.” Eric said.

“Only because my sister watches it every time she is off shift.” Jason admitted. “It’s not bad but those first two and a half seasons are rough.”

“Your sister, the police officer?” Claude said in an accusatory tone.

“Look, just because his sister is an auti and the show is about an auti doesn’t mean it isn’t good.” Eric rebutted.

“It sounds like a bias review to me… and-and Jason said two and a half seasons before it gets good!” Claude said, putting an emphasis on the half part of his statement. “So I would have to watch a full season and a half before I would even enjoy any of it. Sounds more like the sunk cost fallacy. You guys are just brainwashed because you had to sit through damn near fifty episodes of garbage.”

“It’s better than that cooking show you and Milie are always watching.” Eric said with a slight tick to his words.

“It’s really not though.” Milie added to the conversation for the first time. “At least with our show there is, I don't know; entertainment.”

Jason finally made it to his team which were congregated around the forward most portside landing gear which was the size of a small building. Jason walked up and looked at the massive structure with amazement. The gearing and servos of just this one gear was larger than the last five ships he worked on. He once again checked his tool bag strap as he gawked at the ship that he was most likely going to spend the rest of his week aboard.

As he finally joined the group their team lead Roger Elingston drove up on a lift vehicle. The small vehicle was pretty much just a slow moving railed platform with no seats. The lift was just large enough for the team to stand on with their tools and equipment. There were no physical controls and instead it was controlled through Roger’s sensory augmentation.

Jason looked over his team, each member of they dressed comparably to him with their form being largely obscured by the hi-vis engineer space suit and exoskeleton brace. They were even comparable in height and build which was purposeful since smaller people like them could fit into smaller spaces and they were considered the rat crew. Which meant they were called when things were tight. The main discernment between them was the color of their hi-vis tassels which the team color coordinated; Jason had orange, Eric had green, Roger standard yellow, Milie pink and Claude blue.

The tassels served the purpose of telling who was who at a glance and were placed around the ship on control panels when an engineer was working in a specific area. This told other engineers and mechanics that maybe they shouldn’t close that engine bay and turn it on for a thrust check as someone was inside. If someone went missing the tassel would help give the team a general location to look as well. Many spaces inside of ships block outside signals so tracking systems can easily lose someone.

“Alright everyone load up we are going to…” Roger paused as he presumably looked over his schedule for the day with his augmentation. “Aft fuel bay section D-30 looks like.”

“What, they got us crawling fuel bays again?” Claude complained as he threw his hands up in the air. “All of this ship and we are going to be stuck in dark cramped fuel bays!”

“It won’t be that bad.” Jason said with more excitement than he intended as he practically ran to the lift. “The fuel bays on a C-5700 are three stories tall and have walkways inside.”

“Yeah, yeah. Nothing would be worse than that PK-140, right Eric.” Claude said and although no one could see he’s face through his visor they all heard his smirk.

Eric visibly tensed up from embarrassment. “We promised to never talk about that.”

The group followed behind Jason as they continued to talk about the time Eric got stuck inside of the engine bay of the PK-140. The experience happened before Jason joined the team but he had heard about it several times. Everyone climbed into the small lift vehicle with Jason in the front next to Roger. He leaned forward even more excited now that he would be able to actually explore the massive vessel. It didn’t matter that he would be most likely spending all of his shifts for the next week in one maybe two of the massive fuel bays.

Roger slammed on brakes which threw everyone to the ground as they reached the end of the NV Aurora Star Lily where the main entrance to the fuel bay was. Jason was the first one to look up to see the reason why Roger stopped without warning. The rest of the team cursed and groaned. There was a group of armed men chasing someone from the ship. Jason couldn’t get a good look before the sound of a distant explosion rocked the entire facility. The sound of twisting metal followed by air rushing into a death silence proceeded.

Roger screamed in the group chat. “Everyone turn on your magnets.”

A second explosion set off, this one much closer though Jason couldn’t tell from where as he was suddenly flung from the lift and crashed hard into the underside of the NV Aurora Star Lily. He could hear his team scream his name as he drifted in and out of consciousness. Another explosion rocked him as he drifted out into space with thousands of tons of debris bodies and shrapnel.

He wakes up seeing that he has drifted into the unrecoverable zone with the dock being several miles away. He tries to remember what happened and why he is flying through space. The headache makes it difficult to focus. All he can piece together is the fact that he walked into the dock, got on the transport and then, just loud explosions and darkness. Panic sets in as he twists and turns looking for his emergency GPS but can’t find it or his tool bag.

Then he sees something that looks impossible, a woman drifting in space in a beautiful silk gown. She had skin darker than the void of space and long sister locks adorned with jewels and gold. She was only visible in the backdrop of space thanks to the glowing golden tattoos all over her body. Light emanated around her head in a glowing halo making the figure stand out all the more in the black void all around them. Even more surprising she was alive and apparently unperturbed by the vacuum of space. She floated listlessly in the void and seemed to be in shock as she panickly looked around.

Jason blinked a few times thinking he was going crazy or this was a dream. He would welcome it just being a dream after all. As things stood he was going to die drifting endlessly in space. He was sure he was already an unrecoverable so when his air ran out he would suffocate and no one would even look for his body. Tears streamed down his face as he couldn’t even call for help he was out of range for his communication or rather communication was down. He turned from the glowing woman and looked back at the dock. The NV Aurora Star Lily floated halfway out with large sections destroyed and being lost to the void.

He then looked back to the woman who seemed to be looking at him now. Her gaze was piercing as if she were looking through him. She then did something that defied everything Jason knew about physics, other than obviously being alive in space and not experiencing a gruesome death. The woman changed trajectory now instead of floating away she moved directly towards him. Once she was within a few feet from him Jason noticed that the woman was see through. She flickered like a badly rendered projection.

“Human?” The woman spoke and to Jason's surprise he could hear her, not through the sensory augmentation but with his ears as if they were talking in a pressurized room. “Are you human?”

Jason was in shock, he was definitely hallucinating. There was no way a woman would be floating through space and speaking to him in a vacuum. He ran through the possibilities of what could actually be happening, was he having a psychotic break, was this a dream, was he actually unconscious? Jason couldn’t tell if he was going crazy and he was kind of perturbed that his mind decided to drum up his fantasy girl instead of a way to save himself.

The woman then reached out her hand as she closed the last few feet between them. Her hand effortlessly passed through Jason’s helmet as if it were not there. Jason could feel her warm fingers touch his wet face.

“Do you want to live?” The woman asked.

Jason’s mind raced but not fast enough for him to scream an answer. “Yes!”

The woman looked at him with a warm and reassuring smile. “So do I. So let's survive together.”