Creator1

Michael woke from his sleep and prepared to get ready for his day.

He stumbled out of his one person bunk, taking four steps over to his sink flicking on the bright white light that lined his mirror.

It was a small, tidy space, roughly a hundred square feet. It was enough for him to keep his bed, clothes, a few personal effects and some privacy.

After brushing his teeth, he got dressed in his coveralls and walked over to a small slit of his window. All he saw was blackness with speckles of twinkling white pinpoints dotted across the sky. He felt a slight rumbling then watched as a transport ship streaked across the endless blackness of space.

Michael made his way to the galley to have breakfast. As he walked through the well lit hallways, he was greeted by friendly good mornings and smiles. Michael attempted to reciprocate this feeling but had trouble doing so. He gathered his food at the galley being served up bacon, dehydrated eggs, chalky, freeze-dried pieces of apple, and some water infused with necessary vitamins and minerals. He plopped down at a table sitting with two others in similar coveralls.

The two looked up at his and nodded.

‘New day.’ said one of them, ‘new day.’ Michael responded.

the third looked at Michael’s plate, ‘you know they irradiate that meat, Mike?’ he offered.

‘At least we get meat.’ Michael grunted, the third gentleman bugged his eyes out in disagreement and when on eating his cube of bread like substance.

‘It’s almost torturous that they’d feed us these damn things.’ Michael said holding up a freeze dried apple slice. ‘Teasing us with thing we will never taste or even see again.’ the others remained silent.

A woman approached the table, she was well manicured and dressed much more respectable. She had a small badge on her left shoulder which donned her picture. Her name on the badge was blacked out, the men knew her. She was a supervisor of sorts, she ensured that the men took their vitamins and medication, she was always friendly, but there was a hidden rage behind those soft eyes and winning smile.

‘I trust everyone had a productive rest!’ She beamed. The men didn’t answer.

‘It you’re having trouble regulating your sleep or your mind, please reach out to me. Also, take these.’ She placed two pills on each of their trays.

She remained, waiting for them to take their pills.

The first man smiled and took them on command, followed by the second one, more reluctant. Everyone’s attention diverted to Michael who hesitated.

‘I’m not sure I need these.’ Michael finally said. The tension at the table skyrocketed. The woman smirked, no doubt an effort to disguise her desire to strike Michael and force him to take the medication.

‘Engineer Michael.’ The woman softly stated, ‘You know that we are looking out for the safety of all. We wouldn’t want those tendencies that got you sent here to come out.’ Michael was starting to breath slightly faster.

‘You can take these now, or we can maybe warm you up a bit? Or perhaps you need some time to cool down.’ She smiled devilishly.

Michael took his pills and washed them down with the water.

‘Thank you Michael. All three of you are to report to engineering as soon as you finish eating and before the engineering call.’ she said as she left.

As soon as the woman was out of sight, Michael looked at the other two. ‘I’m going to use the bathroom and head over to work detail.’ They nodded and he left to dump his tray.

Michael rushed to the bathroom and went into a private stall. He immediately jammed his fingers down his throat, choking, coughing, drooling like a savage ape. He finally induced vomiting. Someone else had entered the bathroom.

‘Hey guy, you need to report to sick call! Things like that spread fast in this outpost!’ He shouted before being followed out by the whoosh of the door opening then slamming shut.

Michael was stuck on Outpost M2-2495, a shipping outpost for the American outpost on Mars. M2 meaning the second stopping point to the Martian colony, 2495 being the year it was commissioned and staffed. He was a member of Earth originally, but had been convicted of crimes on Earth. Michael had gotten into an altercation with a member of the interplanetary trading coalition.

These were very wealthy and powerful individuals who controlled much commerce. They saw these outposts as a way to further enrich themselves and expand their domain over more than just their planet. This individual had once run the facility where Michael and his daughter had worked. There were several health and safety violations in the factory, for years the workers tried to form a union, with prominent members suffering accidents in the facility, to and from work, and more nefarious disappearances.

Michael’s daughter was roughly 18 when she got involved in unionization efforts. Shortly after this, while working on the floor, Michael saw his daughter working aloft, when a safety railing broke and she fell to her death, falling into a vat of molten metal.

Michael remembers this day vividly. He was called into the manager’s office. The manager, who was directly responsible for the unsafe conditions in the facility sympathized with Michael.

‘Luckily, she died quickly, surely she felt no pain.’ The manager said, with a somewhat cheery tone.

‘She fell into lava.’ He growled.

‘Well, it was more of a nickel alloy that we are going to be using for internal coatings for shuttle electronics.’ The manager retorted with a smile.

‘I can see that this is a difficult time for you right now.’ the manager continued, ‘Tell you what, I will give you the next 5 days off with pay, hopefully you can take some time to relax and mourn.’ There was a long silence.

‘We have been demanding you fix the rails or give us harnesses.’ Michael muttered.

‘We’ve already looked at the railing, and it’s adequate, even our safety manager says so. This is very sad, but ultimately this was a freak accident, we are doing everything we can to prevent this from happening.’ The manager argued.

Michael sat in silent rage, still processing the death of his only family a few moments earlier.

‘Michael, I’m really truly sorry for your loss.’ said the manager showing some signs of emotion, frowning even. ‘Let me escort you out, okay?’

The two began walking downstairs and entered the floor of the facility. Normally bustling with clanking of metal, welders, shouting was abnormally silent. All the workers watched as Michael and the manager entered the floor to walk to the exit. Machines were still whirling and going, but the workers have stopped, solemnly watching the two walk.

‘Hey Michael’ said one more time. Michael stopped walking to turn and face the manager, they were stopped next to a machine pressing molten metal into square panels, the heat was blistering, but he was used to it.

As the machine listed up, you could see the glowing red metal sheets with the company logo in the middle, the conveyor belt moved the panels down, replacing them with molten blobs ready to be pressed. Michael squinted loosely at the heat, the manager closed his eyes and put his hand up to shield himself from the heat.

‘Take care of yourself, and we’ll see you next week.’ He smiled.

The machine lifted again, whoosh the panels went, blobs came in again.

Michael grabbed the manager by the hair, the press lifted revealing the panels. He thrust the managers head to the machine and pressed his face against the panel. He heard the sizzling of his skin and the blood curdling screams the manager left out.

The factory erupted in cheers, screams, and commotion. Security personnel and robots were dispatched within seconds apprehending Michael to the ground. The Manager rolled off the panels to the ground clutching his face screaming.

‘See you in a week!’ Michael screamed, the factory roared in acceptance while the security forced began detaining workers at gun point.

He sat in front of the toilet, staring at the dissolving pills in a small pool of vomit, remembering that smell, those noises, and how much the manager’s face looked like his vomit does now.

He knew he had to get to work, as he sat up, he noticed that his vomit rose out of the toilet slowly, then plopped back down into the toilet, briefly, he felt lighter too. After several seconds, he thought perhaps it was a figment of his imagination and began towards his work detail. He didn’t know it yet, but this was Michael’s last work detail aboard Outpost

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