Dead Space
"Drawing Toward Silence"
The Line
The other day, I was sharing a beer with Vancil and he started talking about how he felt guilty about the mining operation. Altman help me, I swear he was about to start crying. He told me, over and over, that we shouldn't be here, that we would be punished eternally for every bootprint left upon this planet's surface. Downer talk. He didn't drink very much after that, but I eventually got him to calm down.
He's got a family back on Mars, you see, and the recycling tax they've got on the oxygen has been forcing a lot of people to pick up and move elsewhere. They usually have no choice but to wedge themselves beneath one of Earth's sprawls and work their way out of obscurity and into mediocrity. "You don't want that for your family," I told him. "And if someone catches us, we won't even be the ones to be fined or punished. The CEC will be taking the heat for this one."
Vancil nodded for a good long moment. "Yeah," he said and sniffed back tears. "Sometimes I wonder if it'll be different this time."
"I don't see why it would be."
"We don't see," he corrected, and clumsily pushed himself up out of his seat. "Famous last words." He left the bar. The next day he logged one of his sick days; not sure if it was on account of the drink or if the operation truly bothered him that much. But, the day after that, he showed up, business as usual.
We didn't talk about what he'd said. I tend to think he's just been dwelling on his family lately. He misses them, and his boy's asthma ensured that they wouldn't be able to make the move out here. Space travel doesn't agree with the kid, he says. He gets real panicky real easy. Vancil says this a lot, and sometimes I wonder why.
—
Got called off the line early today. Apparently, the surveyor finally made the trip out to our site and gave the foreman the good news: the mineral makeup along the line wasn't as solid as they'd thought. Less explosives, less drilling, and less workers would be needed, and we'd be finishing our point of fracture (POF) a week and a half ahead of schedule. Everybody cheered, hoping the other sites along the line could hear us.
Makes no nevermind to me; we get paid either way. As long as that cork gets popped without crumbling or getting hitched on a mineral deposit, we're right as rain. Ah! That's something I miss well enough. Haven't been beneath a good downpour in ages.
I'll see if Vancil is up for a movie tonight. I'm not very anxious to lead him back to the bar any time soon.
—
We must be way ahead of schedule because the team at our POF was already setting up the anchor for the gravity tether. Wasn't a complicated job, since we already had the hole drilled for it. Lots of lifting, pushing, and heave-hoing. We got it locked down and powered before noon, and I hear the other sites are only days away from doing the same thing.
Things are going so smoothly, I hear we've already gotten surveyor certification to call down a planet cracker from the CEC. Don't know if they've done it or not, but if they have, we could be off this rock within the next month or so, provided the pop goes well.
Spotted Vancil smiling today. Now that the job's almost done, we're all seeing credit signs dancing around our heads. And if the mineral yield is as high as the surveyors say, we'll all get a pretty hefty commission if it's above forty-five percent. None of us will have to work one of these dead planets for a good long time.
—
Vancil and I watched a cheesy drama film last night, something starring Peng. It didn't really have a plot, but they did take any chance they could to get her on screen in some way or another. We got a good laugh out of it, pointing out the weird contradictions and plotholes bigger than the ones we we're digging outside. It was fun, combined with the knowledge that we'd all be leaving soon, it was the really good kind.
I think that's what really calmed the guy down. Sometimes you lose sight of the reasons you go to planets like Aegis Seven in the first place. It all gets lost between monotony and several million tons of rock. He was going to see his family again, and he'd do it with a pocketful of hard-won cash. It must have been like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for the first time.
Me? I live for this job. It's all the exploration I'd ever want without joining the military, taking a bullet from some lowlife seditionist in the process. Cracking open a planet: there's a certain high to it all. It's a beautiful sight.
Vancil left after the movie, and I think he left happy. Just as I was falling asleep, Estrella stopped by, a bottle of champagne tucked under her arm. She insisted that we have sex before she told me the good news, so I obliged, feigning impatience the entire time. When we were finished, she popped the cork on the bottle and poured us a couple of glasses.
She'd just overheard one of our foremen talking to his superiors. The planet cracker was already en route to Aegis Seven. "Oh, and it gets better," she said. "The Ishimura herself is gonna be the one to crack this bastard."