18:07 ships time. Room M10 on the ‘Terra Twin’ was occupied by one striking personality. Jamie Chung was 6 feet tall with long coal black hair and large green almond shaped eyes. Never one to slack on physical fitness, she took pride in her physique. She had been stretching for about seven minutes now. Her one-piece body stocking was just damp enough to coat her with a slight chill. As she finished stretching and prepared to start her salmon ladder routine, Murray’s’ voice came over the ship intercom, leaving her in a cold sweat and a disgustingly hot temper. She was a stickler for schedules. Deciding she would bide her time and revenge this interruption on Jeff later, she dropped from the bars to the practice mat and stomped to her quarters to shower and change.
18:07 ships time. Russell Carlin was happy, he was also hot, cramped, and very busy, deep within the bowels of his asteroid hopper, Terra Nova. He had been out for hours changing all the H2 fittings for new ones where his pocket tester showed metal fatigue and cracking. He liked working alone. Holding the tester in his mouth and working the couple seals with both hands, he continued his work. He was faster at this job and all other hopper maintenance than any two other men in the country were, and he had the bonuses to prove it too. Half the ore hoppers in the system carried two modifications introduced by him when he was two years in service and twenty years old. At 6’5” and 260 lbs, his size as well as his red hair warned people of provoking the big miner. Oddly enough, he had never fought anyone in his life. At the sound of Murray’s voice disrupting his solitude, he smiled and slid out of the service hatch. Somehow, he really wanted to get some coffee before this meeting started.
At 18:18 ships time, the crew of “Terra Twin” sat at the conference table in the ships common room. It was a modest enough space. Each crewman had their own tasks that rotated each week to maintain it. On one wall,, there was the cooking station. There was a large glass stovetop, blender,food processor, hydration station, fridge, and microwave. On the other, there was a large sectional pantry and numerous cabinets for dishes and cutlery. The back wall was occupied by a large double sink and waste processor. Centered in the room was a table in the shape of a large teardrop. The commander sat at the tapered end with his men lining the sides. Two ten-foot rectangular benches ran parallel to the long sides and a small triangle seat supported the commander. When the meeting was over Jeff knew these would retract and fit perfectly in their niches in the floor. Everything about this ship was designed to save space.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!
The commander began: “I’d like to say that this is going to be as easy as falling off your g-bed but it might not be. Terra and the other United Worlds are interested in our whatchamacallit here. He pressed a button and a hologram appeared in the center of the table. They want us to stay here until a research ship can arrive.” A collective groan issued from both sides of the table. Jeff ignored this. He knew that two months waiting for a ship from Venus to take over watching the “Unidentified Object” as Terra’s scientists were calling it, would be straining to the nerves of the whole crew. They had already in space for three months. “While we’re here, they want us to learn as much as we can about it and record the data. Chung and Ennett?” The two sat up straight, patiently waiting their command. “I need both our cameras on slow speed, and maximum illumination to scan the surface as we orbit. If you can’t get good detail, we can turn on the infrared and ultraviolet beacons and you can change to those films.
“Should we tight focus or wide angle our lenses for faster coverage?” asked Chung as she toweled her hair dry. Jeff swallowed. He could hear the displeasure in her voice at his interruption to her routine.
“Use wide angle unless you see something interesting and unique, telephoto the highlights, Jamie. Send telemetry through Murray to Charon, Ennett.”
“Roger that.” Ennett replied.
Jeff turned and addressed his mining crew. “Russel that thing is fair sized and metal covered, from what we can gather from the radar image. Take Nova and Cotta, three and two are in for maintenance. Start close to its center and deploy on courses 180 degrees apart, when you meet again north and south return by east and west and depart the surface together for the Twin. Get samples and thermal readings. Operate your cutters slowly and ring charge it, it may be hollow. Take Shawn with you in number four, Chuck and Owen will take number one.”
“Alright” said Russell and continued, “What do you think we’ll find boss?”
“The scientists in the core think it could be a wandering asteroid. But it’s not moving now which puts their theory in the flusher.” He paused to shake his head and added, “The Argus should be out here in about fifty five to fifty eight days, then its three months paid vacation for us, okay.” Moods around the table lifted considerably. “I’ll be in control if any questions come up later, call in and ask, use proper voice command procedure though, because the computer is feeding directly to Terra”.