(10.22.09) Outside

At least I get to be outside.

Her eyes scanned for her crew mates, but her face shield restricted her field of view. The playful chatter of her coworkers hummed faintly within her suit as she kept the volume to a minimum. Some chose to download music into their suits, but she preferred the quiet wheeze of her ventilator and the emptiness in between. She liked to sense the wild and powerful nature of space.

As she glanced at her newly stained suit, she ruefully imagined her peers. Their freshly shined boots were probably clacking their way down metal halls. Clad in crisp gray suits, other members of her cohort reviewed protocols and reports, convinced that work in a crowded station management office would lead them to a more prestigious position in the station operations. While she hoped they enjoyed their jobs, she would not trade her livelihood for anything. The oil stains that now blotted her khaki space suit were badges of honor.

How many people can say that they have wandered an asteroid field looking for garbage?

She had joined the Space Restoration Corps to gain more space experience with spacewalks and spacefields. It didn't hurt that she was assigned to a crew on the outer rim, an area known as the "High Desert". Although the region was split by a central jetway, few planets were inhabited. The vast emptiness of these planets yielded ample opportunities for exploration. Occasionally, they were given a "terra assignment" and descended through the atmosphere. More often than not, however, they worked in orbital fields, attempting to restore planet orbits to their original condition prior to the Great Expansion. And so, here she was collecting trash from behind asteroids, picking debris out of rock crevices.

Deliberately navigating a boulder, she encountered yet another food replicator. The coils that powered these appliances were volatile and frequently exploded when the device was dismantled improperly. Inexperienced engineers preferred to illegally discard the broken unit and install a new system. Using the buttons at the wrist of her suit, she summoned the tow shuttle. After placing a transponder on the offending object, she moved away.

She was slightly jealous of her crew mates who were certified pilots and spent the day cruising through the fields in the tow shuttles collecting large objects. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew wandered the asteroid field, pulling gravity trash sacks behind them. Smaller debris could be collected and contained within these sacks. Once they were full, the tow shuttles transported them to the central garbage coordinates for a more accurate beam-out to the recycling center. Larger objects were transported directly to the coordinates because their gravitational force could compromise the integrity of the force field in the sack.

Her envy of the shuttle crew increased when she encountered a swamp of glass shards. Not only was refuse illicitly disposed of in this asteroid orbit, young fighter pilot hopefuls often visited isolated asteroid fields and used both the debris and the rocks for target practice. This only complicated the garbage removal process. Glass fragments were particularly dangerous as they could easily puncture the sturdy fabric of her spacesuit. Protocol demanded that they work in pairs when collecting glass shards. Raising the volume on her comlink, she called for assistance. Within five minutes, he was at her side. Meticulously, they ushered the glass into their gravity sacks. With every particle that entered her sack, she grew a little bit frustrated. Although she understood the need to cull the field of foreign objects, she sensed the futility of their mission. What was to stop future pilots and ships from entering the field to replenish the waste they collected?

What was that?

She look more closely at the rock in front of her before signaling to him. "I think I found a jerwik". There it was, peering at her from its burrow, barely moving. Once again she issued a call, alerting the crew to the presence of this rare species. Khaki suits began approaching their location. Tanus sabani, commonly referred to as a jerwik, was a rare species found primarily in asteroid fields and comets. They were noted for their ability to store needed oxygen for years. Jerwiks were also severly impacted by increased human activity within asteroid fields. They often burrowed within garbage, which led to fatal encounters with exploding replicator coils and other contaminants. She had hoped to see a jerwik in the High Desert, but the chances of finding this elusive creature were slim.

"Don't touch it". She stopped him from moving forward. Jerwiks vented their oxygen stores when distressed. Such a loss could result in the death of the animal if they could not replenish their oxygen within the hour. As the crew hovered around the jerwik, soft comments of awe resounded on the comlink. The jerwik was clearly becoming comfortable with the presence of the crew, because it moved so they could glimpse its turquoise underbelly. With a flash, so brief she would have thought she imagined it except for the collective gasp that echoed over the comlink, the jerwik opened its eyes and they gazed into its ruby depths for an instant. Then it was gone, retreating into its burrow.

As the crew dispersed, the mood was somber yet joyful.

This is why we are here. For him, to protect him, to enjoy him.

And we get to be outside.

(Welcome to my first attempt at both science fiction and short stories in years. I was intrigued by the idea of telling my story at NCC as if I were part of a crew in the distant future, working in space. Obviously, my grasp of some of the scientific aspects of this story, particularly the physics, is shaky. Hopefully it isn't as inane as gravity inducing nanoparticles and you can forgive my fudging. )