As promised, here is the (short) 2nd chapter early. Thanks midnighsky0612 and Stripesicles222 for being the first reviewers (they let you have your mobile phone during a chemistry test?)

Chapter 2

The Couple in the Spaceship

It has been said 'In space no one can hear you scream.' So what? No one can hear you laugh, cry, fart or sing bawdy sea shanties either.

It looked a little bit like a mini submarine and a lot like a Winnebago with a weight problem. But to the people who made use of the machine, it was simply the Space Exploration Vehicle (SEV). There was a docking port on each side of the small ship and two manipulator arms on its nose beneath the cockpit windows that when extended, looked like the pincers of a small shrimp. In spite of its odd looks, to Lieutenant Jarred Kinderman the SEV was the ultimate sports utility vehicle; responsive and manoeuvrable with wicked acceleration. These attributes were vitally important when working in high Earth orbit. In the past, the greatest threats to people in space were solar radiation and the possibility of a micro meteorite punching a hole in a ship, habitat or space suit. The situation was very different now thanks to the years of bombardment from the asteroid cloud orbiting the sun.

It was not only the Earth that had taken a pounding over time, for without an atmosphere to give some protection the Moon had been turned into (if you will pardon the expression) Swiss cheese. This meant Earth no longer had one natural satellite, but millions made from bits of asteroid and bits of Moon; not to mention the non-natural pieces of satellite and remnants of space station. As an Astronaut, Lieutenant Kinderman was of course highly trained with lightning reflexes, but no human could ever hope to react fast enough to save the ship if a deadly chunk of something should trip the proximity alarm.

To this end, the SEV collision avoidance system was completely automatic and controlled by the ships computer. If the proximity alarm sounded, anyone in the ship would have less than a second to brace themselves before an emergency firing of the hypergolic fuelled rocket engine moved the SEV out of harms way with all speed. Lieutenant Kinderman had never experienced such a manoeuvre, but Major Luis Dias like to tell everyone about the time it happened to him, along with a graphic description of the resulting bruises.

"Have you got that last capsule yet?"

"Don't hassle me woman; I'm getting there."

The berating voice came from Kindermans wife as she waited somewhat impatiently for him to complete his task, while she sat at the controls of the Main Drive section of the Mars Transfer vehicle.

"If you'd let me take the SEV out, we would be done by now" Ruth smugly declared.

"Yeah well you did it last time; it was my turn."

"Hmmm, I suppose you would never improve as an SEV pilot, if I didn't let you have a go occasionally" Ruth Kinderman smirked.

"One of these days Alice..." Jarred smiled.

The Downy Woodpecker of Intense Concentration picked at a loose thread on Lieutenant Kinderman's T-shirt collar as he moved the last supply capsule slowly into position and with a bump, a whir and a hiss; the module was drawn in and sealed onto the airlock.

"Confirm second stage of capture; we have a hard dock."

He had done this manoeuvre so many times over the last fifteen years that in spite of his wife's playful putdowns, he honestly believed he could have retrieved the supply unit blindfolded, although he was not about to attempt such a feat. With the completion of this final external task, it was now time to rejoin his small ship with the MTV so the long trip home could begin. The SEV looked quite odd with a bulbous capsule attached to the ports on each side behind the flight deck and some pilots even referred to it as the Dumbo Configuration. With his latest task now complete, Kinderman set the navigation computer on a course back to the Earth/Sun Lagrange point known as L2 where Ruth waited with the MTV and thirty four other supply capsules bound for Mars.

"Have you got the pod manifests downloaded yet?" Ruth asked.

"Just a sec" Jarred replied as he continued work on the computer.

With the navcom set, he brought the engine up to 5% thrust so as not to over stress the side docking ports. Satisfied the seals would hold, Jarred changed the monitor screen and interfaced with the cargo capsules onboard systems.

"I'm sending the manifests now" he broadcast to the MTV as he sent the information Ruth had requested.

Jarred continued monitoring the SEV acceleration for a few minutes until Ruth's voice on the ship to ship communicator broke his concentration.

"Have you looked at the list you sent me dear?"

"Not yet" Jarred admitted, as he type the command to change screens again.

"Your last load, added to what we've already got on the MTV, gives us almost everything needed to commence construction of a second Mars colony" Ruth noted.

Ideas about the possibilities filled Jarred's head as he scanned the list in front of him while his wife filled in the gaps.

"We've got three stocked surface habitats, four robotic diggers, two excavators, two... no three additive builders and two parts printers. Not to mention several months of supplies for a crew of four along with closed system life support" Ruth noted.

"If April Dias can get council permission on this, the only thing left to do would be to finalise the site before we get back to Mars" Jarred smiled, almost laughing.

"I'm prepping a message to her now" Ruth replied.

It took almost a full day for the SEV to get back to L2 and another few hours to transfer the collected capsules to the main body of the MTV, but all the Kindermans efforts eventually fell into place and they were able to fire up the four 500 watt VASIMR main engines and begin the return journey to Mars. As the ship began to increase its velocity, a pen Ruth had left hanging near the bridge computer, began to float slowly towards the rear of the cabin until it lightly tapped Jarred on the head. He slipped the pen into his top left pocket and himself into the empty seat next to his wife who was still pouring over the thirty six manifests on the screen in front of her. Acceleration was slow but consistent and would continue for a few weeks; if there were no problems with the nuclear power source. Jarred did not expect any trouble but he still kept a close eye on the reactors output. All in all the MTV was in pretty good shape for a twenty seven year old space tug.

Just in case anyone was wondering, my list of 'The Birds of Emotion and Circumstance' currently stands at eight, but seems to grow every few chapters.

Next chapter in about a week, bye for now