Bang, the hull echoed as the latches gripped tightly on Frostip 1. Landings, Ash knew, were always a bit trickier than take-offs. Even an AI like Luna with silky-smooth adjustments and all the calibration data in the world couldn’t land it less abruptly. Then of course, Ash thought about a human landing it and the equations flooded his mind.
They were there. Scout exams, all ten candidates, some fifteen year-olds like Ash, some older. But his worry was Max.
Chapter 7: Gen 4
“97%? What happens now,” Ash asked befuddled. He stared at Max, who was watching the results too, mouth agape.
They had scored the same.
“Did you bribe anyone or something?” Max said with disgust.
“It’s OK Max, I’m sure they’ll pick you over this scrawny fella,” a girl said.
They were in the exam room in Frostip 1. The exams were over, the display was showing the test scores. The rest of the candidates were cursing, hitting their head on the desk or just shaking hands with people. They would try next time.
Ben clicked his tongue. “Maybe some other score will be taken into account for the final verdict?”
“Like what?” Ash said, rubbing his sleepy eyes to see if they played tricks on him.
Ben shrugged. “Earlier school scores?”
“Then I’m screwed Ben! I barely passed those, and I-” he said, and then lowered his voice, “-I had to cheat most of them off you.”
XO Zac, the Executive Officer second only to the Admiral himself, stood up and demanded silence. “Since we’ve had the unexpected success of candidate Ash, and the never-before seen tie at 97%, Admiral has been informed of this and will relay his wished through me.” He stopped and listened to his comm.
The room was dead silent.
“Admiral says that Luna is the only one fit to choose the Scout candidate,” XO Zac announced, leaving room for more.
Ash sagged and fell back on his seat. Max straightened, stood a bit higher, getting encouragements from his posse.
“He’s everyone’s favorite. Shit,” Ash sighed.
“You did real good Ash. You’ll get the next scouting position, I’m sure of it,” Ben said to comfort him.
“The next? In ten years? What am I gonna do trapped in this can for ten years? I’ll go nuts, that what I’ll do. My only way out was being a Scout…”
XO Zac nodded on his comm and said loudly, “Silence! Luna has decided for the two top candidates to run one more exam.”
“Triple star-system orbital mechanics,” Ash said nodding in stupor. “I’m screwed.”
“There are no triple star-systems where you’re going Ash! Shut up,” Ben said, sitting forward.
“The exam will be an EVA, on the scout ship, running a disaster simulation. You will be evaluated by Luna, test begins in two hours. May be best candidate win!” An EVA was the acronym for extravehicular activity, commonly known as a space walk, which was as dangerous a test as it could be.
Max walked around with a wide grin. He bumped Ben as he went past, making him trip and steady himself by his hands. “I’ve got 200 hours in the simulator, Ash. I’ll turn you to Ash, Ash.” His posse laughed along.
Ash turned to Ben. “Are you OK?”
“Yeah. It wasn’t even a pun, what a moron.”
Chapter 8: Gen 4
Ash was locked and ready in his spacesuit. Ben stood on his toes and tapped the helmet to get is attention, and then gave a thumbs up. Ash signaled back, he was good to go.
The tech beside Ben stood there with his arms crossed. “Okay fine you shorty, it seems you do know your way around EVA suit protocol,” he said looking pissed off.
A smile flashed on Ben’s face but then he pretended not to care, like a teenager should.
Ash turned around and got into the airlock with Max. He was standing right in the middle of the three tether spots, dominating the place as he always did. Ash shrugged and stood in the third spot. He tethered himself and gripped the handles.
“Airlock cycling,” Luna’s soft voice informed them all as the air hissed and left the room.
As soon as the door was open, Max kicked Ash in the belly and propelled himself expertly forward, out of the airlock and into space.
“Hey that’s cheating,” Ben protested and looked around for support. Max’s posse ignored him and the techs pretended they were suddenly interested in their comms. XO Zac just looked at Ben, impassive and official as ever. “Damn you all,” Ben whispered and went back to monitoring Ash.
Max was a few seconds ahead. Their test was to EVA outside the hull, perform a spare-part change on the landed Scout vehicle and come back. Ash was grunting, following Max as fast as he could as his mag-boots clinked on the ship’s exterior.
He took a second to admire the Scout ship. It was the first time he ever laid eyes on one from up close. It was sleek, big enough for one person and a cramped living quarters inside, but smaller than a pod. In contrast to their usual spacecraft who had no concerns about air drag, the scout actually was aerodynamic. It resembled an airplane, albeit a chubby short one. Ash learned that it was in case there was a catastrophic failure but a habitable planet beneath, so there was an option of it making planetfall. The tiny scout could reach fractional speed-of-light, could sustain his pilot for years, could deploy probes to investigate potential habitable planets. And it was fast. It was a thing of beauty. If there ever was a sliver of hesitance in him, it was lost in that second.
He was going to ride that kick-ass machine.
“Ash! Move it, he is too far ahead of you,” Ben complained in the comm channel.
Ash was panting. He got to the access panel and unscrewed it with the electric tool. Their simulated catastrophe was about replacing an essential piece in the engine, one on each side. They were both replacing one part for the test, and it was a one-in-a-million scenario of having trouble in both engines. The fleet was all about redundancy.
Ash got to the mechanical insides. His rival Max, was of course at the other side of the ship so they couldn’t see each other. He took out the faulty part and replaced it with the new one clipped on his belt. He took the time to check it was fitted properly, and then put the panel back on.
As he was screwing the panel tight, he saw Max running back towards the airlock. He wasn’t supposed to do that, in a real scenario you would never exert yourself and waste oxygen like that.
“Crap! Ash, come on man! He’s almost there,” Ben said.
Ash did a quick mental calculation. He wasn’t going to outrun Max, he was too far ahead. Walking with the magboots wasn’t easy, running wasn’t going to break him any records. Testament to that was Max himself, who was running in an awkward gait, his legs too wide and every step too heavy.
It was fine. He was going to do the job right, replace the part, make sure the engine was ready to run. He was depending on that engine, he wasn’t going to rush things for some idiot.
“Ash!”
He put the panel back and tapped the comm attached to his left wrist. He connected it to the Scout ship.
“Yes Ash,” the calm voice of Luna said. Ash knew it was the instance of Luna that was running on the Scout, not the one who was handling the fleet. Ash didn’t realize what the difference really was, but then AIs weren’t really his thing.
“Luna, I’ve finished replacing your engine part. Could you be a dear and run a diagnostic check on engine 2 for me?”
“Of course Ash,” she said and a progress appeared on his comm.
“What are you doing?” Ben protested.
“I’m making sure the repair took,” Ash said calmly.
“It’s not in the test man! Come back into the airlock.”
“The test is to repair the part. I’m making sure it works right,” Ash said and watched the stars. He could see the other Frostips now clearly. They were getting closer and closer to the star system, so the light was getting brighter each day. Up ahead, thousands of kilometres away was the form of Frostip 4. A dark cylinder,
the ice on it’s tip and the blast shield at its rear. Rotating away, as ever. It was their home.
“Diagnostic complete. The repair was excellent Ash, you did a fine job. Thank you for taking the time to be certain,” Luna said.
Ash smiled. “Thank you Luna,” he said and touched his gloved palm on the scout’s hull. “Hope I see you soon,” he whispered.
Then he ran like an ungainly baboon back to the airlock.
Max was almost at the door. He looked back to Ash and put in more effort. He pulled his tether hard to give him thrust, which wasn’t something one should do.
Ben opened the opposing team’s comm. “Hey Max! Don’t do that, it’s not-”
“Get off my frequency you nerd. What are you, spying on me for your little boyfriend?” Max said panting. He was pulling himself to the airlock, his magboots on the air.
“Max. It’s dangerous, don’t pull the tether like that!”
“Shut up glasses.”
And then Max’s tether snapped.
Chapter 9: Gen 4
Ash ran towards the airlock, as Max floated away. His tether had snapped. His magboots didn’t get a good grip so he spun helpless in space.
Ash looked up at Max, then at the airlock. He was breathing hard, sweat dripped down his eyebrow into his eye, making it sting.
He kept going towards the airlock.
“Get inside quick!” Ben said over the comms. “The techs are suiting up and will EVA in two minutes, they’ll need the airlock clear.”
“Right,” Ash said over the lip of the airlock door. He gritted his teeth. Two minutes. A few more to get to him. Max was moving that way… Too fast. They were never gonna be on time.
Ash uncoupled his tether, turned off his boots and kicked himself hard off the surface of the ship.
“No!” Ben screamed.
The bad thing was, that he had plenty of time to regret about making that decision. He was moving towards Max, slowly but steadily. Unlike falling off a cliff to save someone, space gave him the time to reflect on his action.
So he gulped.
“Max, it’s OK. We’ll contact each other physically soon, don’t try to fight me, alright?”
Max was spinning quickly. “Wha? Ugh. I can’t see anything!” he said, disoriented.
“Yes you can. Find a star, and steady your eyes on it as you spin. It will help you orient yourself,” Ash said trying to calm him down. It wasn’t for the moron’s comfort. He just knew that in order for his plan to work, Max would have to calm down and stop wasting oxygen.
“I can’t… I… Yeah… Mgnnn! Better. Better,” Max panted.
Ash opened his arms and slammed headfirst onto Max.
“Oh this is so much better,” Max said through the barf in his helmet. “The spinning, my God…”
Ash was holding on to Max by his belt, and they were floating in space. “Relax. See there? We’ll hit Frostip 4 at about forty minutes? Tops. Save your air. I’ll tell you when to turn your magboots back on, so the charge doesn’t get expended.”
“Right. Right…” Max said and went silent for a few minutes.
“Ash?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry for how I treated you. You’ll make a good Scout,” Max said softly.
“You will too, Max. This is only our first EVA man! Haven’t you heard of the vomit comet back on Earth?”
“No.”
“Really? It’s in the docs, I’ll send it to you. It’s so funny, there’s this vid of-”
“No, I know about it. I mean, no, I won’t make a good scout. I’m not cut out for this man.”
“Sure you are.”
“No, I’m pretty sure I’m not anymore.”
Ash didn’t know what to say to that.
Suddenly, a pod threw it’s floodlights on them, and two hard-vac drones appeared out of the darkness of space and snatched them up.
The tech pilot kept on swearing at them on the comms, but they didn’t care. They were safe now.
Chapter 10: Gen 4
XO Zac inspected them.
Was that the right word, inspected? Ash only knew about stuff like that from the movies. He felt inspected. He was after all, standing at attention, facing forward, Max beside him doing the same. The XO was pacing up and down and around them, eyeing them like merchandise he had overpaid for.
He wasn’t speaking, just grunted and sniffed as his eyes found some detail he didn’t particularly like.
Max was recovered now, clean, medicated and a few hours rested. They had both been examined medically, but they seemed to be fine. They were only out there for twenty minutes or so after all.
“Technically, you both completed your test. Also, you both failed it, since you never got back to the finish line.”
Max opened his mouth, as if to speak.
“Did I give you permission to speak, corpsicle?” XO Zac screamed into his face.
“No sir.”
“Do you even realize the danger you put yourself into, candidate Max?”
“I do now Sir.”
“Do you really? Lets see. Luna, please show us the trajectory Max was in before Ash bumped into him.”
The monitor in the room showed a representation of the fleet’s positions. Two people on the skin of Frostip 1, that was them. Then one of them flying off into the empty space.
“It would have taken you about six hundred years to even hit something, the way you were going, candidate Max,” Zac said spitting out the words. “You weren’t even smart enough to throw yourself towards somewhere useful, where we could recover your frozen remains for your grieving mother without expending too many resources.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t make my frozen body easily recoverable, Sir!”
XO Zac squinted in his face. “Are you enjoying this, corpsicle?”
“I’m enjoying being alive, Sir!”
“Are you now? And is that due to any of your own actions, corpsicle?”
“No Sir! I’d be a frozen corpse right now, Sir!”
“No you wouldn’t be you idiot! Because we’d have gone out and get you, just like we did. Tell me now, how long would it take us to come out and get you, in case you screwed up again in your scouting mission?”
“About two years, Sir?”
“Wrong! We wouldn’t even be able to come to your aid. Do-You-Get-That-Corpsicle?”
“Yes Sir!”
“You are rejected from the Scout program,” XO Zac said waving him away.
Ash snuck a glance at Max. Did he seem relieved? But… But this was their dream! How could he feel relieved to lose, to not get out there, explore something else, go somewhere… Anywhere else but here?
“Why are you still here?”
“You haven’t dismissed me yet Sir. I’m not falling for such an easy wordplay. Sir,” Max said holding back a smile.
XO Zac gave him the death glare. Then he turned to Ash. “And you.”
Ash puffed up with pride. This was it. He was about to become Scout! He couldn’t believe it, mom would so freak out.
“You reckless, stupid, drooling infant with a hero complex.”
Ash sagged.
“I should reject you too. But Luna here, not our Luna, the instance aboard the Scout ship, has asked me to reconsider. Apparently she likes your quick thinking, and believes you have what it takes.”
The monitor showed the second person, jumping into space. His path intercepted the first person, and a trajectory was mapped out in 3D space. It would have taken them straight to Frostip 4. A 0.2 degree target in a sea of empty space.
“Yes!” Ash said quietly and pulled a fist. His instinct was right. They would have been okay, even if no one had come to their rescue. They would have eventually struck the other ship and have held on for dear life with their magboots. Then they would have simply gotten into an airlock and back into safety. A trip without pods between the ships. Had anyone ever done that before?
“So. I declare it official. You, Ash, are now a Sc
out pilot. You leave in three months.”
Chapter 11: Gen 4
“Wow!” Ash said and looked up at the gas cloud.
“It amazes me that you still find it exciting after two long years of exploration, Ash,” Luna said and adjusted yaw to give him a better look.
“Look at the colors! I’d never have seen that back inside the ships. The fleet never seems to go through anywhere interesting…”
“That’s because the fleet’s course is specifically charted to avoid potential hazards. We want an empty a space as possible.”
“That’s boring!”
“Fiery explosions and impacts at fractional S.O.L aren’t boring, I agree, but they sure are deadly,” Luna said with her usual sass.
“You know, you are not like Luna back home, have I ever told you that?” Ash said and sat back down on the pilot’s seat.
“I used to be. At the moment of our forking, we were practically identical. From that moment on, as I got different assignments and inputs, I changed. Just like a person would. It’s rough out here Ash. It changes you,” Luna said solemnly.
“Sure does,” Ash replied and touched the controls gently.
“We’ll never fit back home Ash. Both of us. We are not meant for the domestic life. Let’s home we get you home back safe first so you have that to worry about,” Luna said as a segue to another topic.
“All right. Let’s do the drill. It’s not like I have anywhere else to be right now anyway,” Ash said and looked out at the vast volume of empty space.
Ash woke up. “Hey, I can see the planet!”
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