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“That’s the spirit!” Kurt turns to Steve with his patented I-told-you-so expression. Steve looks unimpressed. Steve is a worrier, as well as a warrior. He’s also the oldest member of the crew, at forty years of age. Kurt is about thirty-five. I’m twenty-three, which makes me both the baby of the crew and the only girl aboard. Before I hooked up with these two, I was in real trouble. They got me off the streets of space and they gave me a roof over my head. For that, I owe them pretty much everything I have to give.
We’ve been on this particular voyage of exploration for a good ten months now, and for most all of it I’ve been relaxing in my cabin. Space travel used to be something dangerous that only highly trained astronauts and occasionally Russian dogs could do. Now anybody with an ass on which to sit can be a spacefarer. There are literally millions of humans spread all across the known universe. It’d be a stretch to say we’ve become a dominant species, because most alien species are far more dominant than any human ever could be. We’ve become the glitter of the universe. There’s not really all that much of us, but somehow we are absolutely everywhere.
“I’m looking forward to it. This is payday,” I point out.
“Yes!” Kurt claps his hands. “This is payday. See, Steve. She gets it.”
“It’ll be twenty months before you see us again, maybe a little less if we can get a faster ship to return with. At the minimum, you’ll be here for a year and a half.” Steve looks over at Kurt. “That’s too long. We need to find another resident to keep her company.”
“It’s sweet that you care, but I’m prepared to watch TV for as long as it takes to become incredibly rich,” I assure him.
This is the perfect job for someone who likes to sit inside all day glued to a screen. I was born for this role. I don’t have much interest in science, or fighting, or you know, planets. But I have a lot of interest in being paid through the nose to sit in a room for a few months.
“You remember how the food processor works? You have to keep the panels above the cabin clear so that they can draw atmosphere in. If they get clogged, you’ll have some problems.”
“Trust me, Kurt. If there’s one thing I know, it’s how to get food.”
He laughs. I laugh. Steve does not laugh.
“Kurt, can I speak with you, please?” He is still looking concerned.
“Sure,” Kurt says, cheerful as ever. He’s used to Steve’s concern. It doesn’t affect him anymore, if it ever did.
They retire to the bridge to discuss whatever it is Steve wants to discuss. I put my ear to the door because I want to know what’s going on. In space, juicy gossip is almost as important as air to sustaining a healthy organism, if that organism is me.
Thanks to the construction of the ship and my talent for being able to distinguish almost any kind of language, I can hear Kurt and Steve arguing through the bulkhead.
“We can’t be entirely sure that the planet is truly uninhabited. The scans weren’t conclusive.”
“They were conclusive enough. We don’t have any other residents. She’s it. Put the cabin down. Put her in it, and let’s get out of here. I want this one registered quickly. There are resources clustered here you don’t see in hundreds of galaxies. This has the potential to be new Earth. This is it, Steve. This is what we’ve dreamed of finding since we started this business together. This is what you and I have worked for.”
“I know. I know, but…”
They’re both very excited—though Steve won’t admit it.
Exploration is not as easy as it sounds. It’s not just a matter of finding somewhere to land and then raking in the dough. Most planets suck. Hardly any of them have inhabitable atmospheres, and those that do are often one-trick ponies. There’s a lot of carbon, magnesium, and lithium in the universe, along with hydrogen and helium, which are so common as to barely be worth a mention. This planet has copper in large quantities, along with neodymium and a bunch of other miums. I have never seen Kurt so excited before. There’s a little squeak in his voice from time to time, which is frankly adorable.
I take a few steps back from the bridge doors as I hear them coming back again.
“Alright. So. We are good to go,” Captain Kurt announces with his biggest, broadest, least generally trustworthy smile.
“We should leave her some additional weaponry. And some hunting supplies, and…” Steve is making a list on his fingers.
“Stock her up with everything you can think of,” Kurt tells Steve. “But do it quickly. We need to get out of here before anybody else follows us. I’m sure we picked up a few coasters on the way out here. I want to be heading back before they work out where we went, you hear me?”
