Ten minutes later…
The Calista space mining team of the Aeon/Thornbolt Corporation (113-702 Beta 2), brought the ship into the asteroid field, just outside the Oort Cloud of the solar system. Hard thumping music blared over the radio frequencies as the massive, and oddly bulbous, designed spacecraft positioned itself within a few meters of endless swath of clustered rocks.
While it might have been able to maneuver around the narrow spots in-between, allowing it to get closer and bridge the gap, the wide birth was a precaution in case its own inertia caused some problems amongst the less stationary asteroids. Once it situated itself in place, and the forward motion came to a halt, the Calista’s outer flood lights activated and illuminated the surrounding area.
“Crank it up!” A man’s voice beckoned over the communication airwaves. “Let’s rock and roll, baby!”
Along the ship’s girth-like exterior, a group of smaller crafts detached from it and floated about. Ten small mining pods came to life as they kicked on their boosters and headed out to the section of huge floating rocks in the vicinity. Each were manned by various crew members as they steered towards several locations around the asteroid field. The pods were of simple construction; smooth rounded orbs (much more spherical than the main vessel),grey in colour with only numbers painted on their hull, and multi-functional robotic limbs on each side.
Large windows on the front, seamlessly shaped with the curvature of the pods structure, revealed the pilots as they maneuvered through the field and targeted their assigned asteroid. Standing on the backs of the pods, secured to a small lip that jutted out from the back, were two space-suited crewmen, looking more like garbage men waiting for the first stop for pick up. All of them sang along to the hard pumping tune, ‘Rock You’ by Helix, as they touched down and began work on the desolate space rocks.
The two suited individuals leapt off each pod and unloaded equipment from the opening panel compartment. The robot limbs activated, four anchored into the cosmic dirt while the others began digging and scooping carefully.
“Hey Chaz?” One said, waving his hand to get the other’s attention. “I can’t get this detector to work, what am I doing wrong?”
“Newbies...” The man groaned. He weightlessly hopped over to the struggling companion and practically yanked it out of his hands. “Gimmie that will ya? Man, how many times do I have to show you these things before it sinks in?”
“Sorry...” He replied, tilting his head slightly shamefully.
“Don’t be sorry,” Chaz grumpily thwacked on his helmet. “Just stop being a damn pussy and pay attention. Fuck, dude... you want me to wipe your ass too?”
“Stop picking on the new guy, Chaz...” The Asian female pilot from the pod said. She could hear their conversation as well, all of them had open frequencies and able to converse freely. She looked comfortable inside, using the surrounding computers and levers to operate the arms. The pilots of the pods didn’t need a space suit, they could wear standard drab beige overalls or just their clothes of choice. “You were just as green as the rest of us starting out.”
“I was never this bad.” He muttered back to her.
Another voice chimed in, “No cousin, you were just as worst….”
Chaz recognized who it was and gave a slow frustrated sigh. “We weren’t talking to you Albedo.”
“That’s Captain Albedo to you, just because we’re related doesn’t mean you get to give me lip back”
“Ahh-ha! Albedo just handed it to you! You got smoked dog!” A young male pilot of another pod laughed. Though he was on another asteroid, and busy with his own team, he still managed to listen in on the others.
“Hey!” Chaz grumbled bitterly. “Nobody asked you, Mike.” He turned to look for the direction of his pod (a few asteroids away) and flipped up his middle gloved finger. “Just smoke up some more and veg out like you always do.”
The young man laughed again and said nothing back. He didn’t have to anyway, the Captain chimed in once more and ended the conversation.
“Chaz, shut up and get digging already. We’ve got a quota to meet, and if you want to get paid? You’d better start doing your job. Ok, coz?”
Looking back at the asian pilot, he saw she was grinning at him and giving him an air kiss. Chaz shook his head in disappointment. He finished showing the junior employee how to operate the scanner properly and gave a sigh back at her.
“Swear to God, Tam, I’m going to quit this job.”
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“And do what?” She snickered. Tam operated the robotic limbs and began drilling through the rock-sand surface. “You’re cursed like the rest of us, my friend. We’re space rockers for life.”
“Sucks to be you, doesn’t it?” The young new worker snickered at him.
“Shut up, Newb,” He snatched the device out of his hand and walked away with it. “Just for that, you’re the one going down in the hole.” He turned to see the young man dumbfounded by that, “See, now it sucks for you too.”
The young employee kicked the dirt in frustration, the plume floating away in the low gravity, and saw Tam wagging her finger at him.
* * *
Inside the massive loading bay of the Calista, the pods were bringing in the sizeable chunks of asteroids one by one. The round underside of the ship had opened up and had a large enough hole for the pod and the rocks to pass through. The loading crew used robotic arms to clasp on to the rocks being brought in. The arms were wirelessly controlled by the crew’s gloves, which were grey and bulky on their hands. The spacesuits they wore while in the landing/loading bay, weren’t as well advanced as the gloves. These suits were a mix-match of other kinds and were well-worn from extended use. The gravity boots kept them anchored to the deck, and were just as beat up as the rest of the outfit.
The space helmets the wore, with their wraparound clear plexiglass, were scratched, smudged, and in need of replacing. But, when your asteroid mining, the floating debris and dust in a Zero-G environment tends to make contact from every angle. Everyone one on the Calista knows it can be dangerous and dirty work, and that safety is a top of priority (especially when working in hostile environment as deep space). Albedo does his best to ensure all of his crew have fully functioning equipment, even if he has to rebuild, replace, and hobble together some sort of crude replacement until they get back to the Saturn Facility.
“Hey! Crank up the tunes will ya?” One of the suited workers communicated to the other.
“They’re playing shit out there,” The woman worker replied. “How about we find something more for us in here?”
“Whatever,” he shrugged at her, “Just give me something I can work with.”
She nodded and tapped on her arm panel device. She scrolled on the names as they appeared, and then pressed on one that looked like a good selection. The song belted out over their headsets and the built-in speakers along the wall of the loading bay. Everyone cheered over the choice of the Stevie Ray Vaughn song, The House is a Rockin’.
The robotic arms took the large space boulder and placed it beyond the laser energy barrier separating the storage area and grinding section. The workers there were protected from being sucked out or exposed, the arms passed through the faint blue barrier without exposing them to the ravages of space. The group were dancing as they worked, rigging the rocks for storage, and moving others over to the grinder team to prep the material.
“Christ, man,” The pod pilot stated over their comms as the music blared. “What’s with you guys and all this classic music? Why don’t you play something of this century?”
“It sucks!” The robot armed operator shouted back. “They don’t make music like this any more, Milo.”
The man laughed back at his response and shrugged. He backed his pod out of the hole and made way for the next one to come in. The group continued to work and rock on as they kept a steady flow happening.
* * *
Captain Albedo could hear the music resonating throughout the ship as he walked through the narrow corridors. The metal of this vessel was like a big conductor for anything loud enough to generate sound within its bulky interior. One wouldn’t think it by the sheer thickness of the girders and walls, but for whatever reason, it just managed act like a conduit. Not so much outside in the vacuum of space. The Calista, for all its rustic and industrial motif charm, was a marvel of current technologies. The engines were faster, the shielding were stronger (to combat micro-meteorites and space dust), and the energy barriers were the latest Earth Core United had to offer.
This made their jobs so much easier than before. The time of floating about in spacesuits, linking tethers to anchor them in place, and having to waste air supplies every time they opened up the under section, was no longer necessary. This new era of mining and exploration was just what they needed to turn a bigger profit. He could well imagine people in the previous centuries mocking this very technology. Maybe thinking it was too “science fiction-fantasy” for any of this to be possible.
He had read many of those books, explaining the implausibly of such fantastical engineering and science, but if those authors and readers of that particular time had seen the progress of his generation, they might have had their minds blown by the radical discoveries that came in such a short time. People always tend to forget that what might be considered fantasy or impossible science in their time, won’t be as set in stone in the future.
“Christ, I can hear the other bastard’s music now…”
Albedo stepped out of the elevator as it reached his floor, and headed to the bridge. The thumping tunes were intermingling, one from the lower decks, and the other from the bridge, as their speakers where busy with the pods working away out in space—and their music selection dominating the communications.
The bridge door slid open and Albedo saw his flight crew bopping away to the tunes. He shook his head.
“Someone please turn it down a tad.”
The two pilots looked back and grinned. They nodded in response and dialled it back a bit. He got into his swivel command chair and let out a long sigh.
“There was a time I loved to listen to this stuff while working.”
“So,” the woman pilot glanced back at him. “Why don’t you now?’
“Because I’m older.” He exhaled in frustration. “All I want now is peace and quiet.”
“I doubt you chose the right career, boss.” The other pilot laughed while checking the console’s computer readings. “Loud is all we do here.”
“Ain’t that the truth…” Albedo groaned. “Ain’t the truth…”
Grace came up behind Albedo, which startled him slightly (he didn’t know she was even there), and patted the head rest of his seat.
“Just be glad our guys are working away like little busy bees. Maybe we can get a good haul and take a much needed break in a few months time.”
Albedo glanced over his shoulder to her and nodded. It had been some considerable time since they had such a long holiday. The job takes a toll on the crew being out here in space for so long. Despite the ships being faster, with travel times cut in half, the job still requires a lot of months or years to get done.