Creator1

The two treads made padded, staccato’ed, mechanical thuds as it rolled over the grates of the ship, carrying a small platform on it. It was a heavy box, sitting low to the ground and accompanied with lights to avoid tripping others. The droid approached a door which opened after a brief pause, the tracks rolled forward into the room. The room contained twelve or so people, some in coveralls, some at their lockers. All of them stopped what they were doing to watch the robot drive to the center of the room.

The voices died down as the robot made its way to the center of the locker room.

K’tnk, k’tnk, k’tnk, K’tnk, K’tnk.

The droid stopped and spun it’s tracks, scanning the room, then returned to it’s original position. There was a brief static and screech from the droid. The tension was high, this group feared and dreaded this tiny box, it halted their lives. The air seemed to get thick in anticipation for what the droid had to deliver.

“Valentine, Morgan, Strauss. Report for immediate assignment.”

The room irrupted in cheers. Time seemed to slow down for Dave Valentine, he couldn’t believe he had gotten assigned with having such a small class. Not that he wasn’t prepared, he’d heard stories of others waiting upwards of a year for assignment. Time sped back up as a classmate of his patted his shoulder smiling.

‘Congrats, Dave! You did it!’

‘Yeah, I can’t wait.’ Dave nervously chuckled.

‘Well go on!’ his friend nodded. Dave was in the middle of lacing up his boot when the droid had clunked into the room.

‘All those reporting for assignment, follow me.’

Dave hurriedly got in line behind the other two who were called, one boot still untied, they marched out of the locker room and into the hallway following the thuds of the droid. After 20 feet of traveling the droid stopped and faced the line.

‘Please be seen.’  The men spread out to all be in sight of the droid. The top of the droid was black and appeared to be glass. ‘Incoming message,’ the black glass began to glow and a full sized image of Captain Bangor appeared. Captain Bangor, commander of Earth’s Satellite Outreach Program, was a not a traditional military man. He was short, he has a soft voice, but had a smart air of authority about him. He tended to resolve conflict with diplomacy rather than war, which made him a perfect choice to lead the office.

‘Ensign Strauss. You have completed your training with impressive marks. You have performed well on interviews. You will be pleased to know that your first assignment will be to assist Captain Edwards with terroristic uprising in intergalactic trading station.’

‘Thank you Captain, Bangor. I accept this mission.’

‘Good! You will do well Strauss. See logistics where orders will be awaiting with details for arrival. You are dismissed.’ Strauss bowed and moved slightly out of sight. He wanted to see where the rest of the group would get assigned. Valentine was feeling nervous, he hadn’t succeeded by any great measure in his classes, he didn’t think he had made an impression on his instructors or classmates. Bangor cleared his throat and carried on.

‘Ensign Morgan, you scored extraordinarily high in science, with additional interest out of regimented studies. The Program needs you to join a Joint Satellite scientific effort grow food in an underground mining facility on a mining colony looking to become a full Satellite state. Additionally, you are to ensure that Satellites work nicely together, some of these Satellites have been to war before, a coordinated research effort will benefit us all.’

‘I’d be honored. Sir. I accept this mission.’

‘Best of luck Morgan, this in a paramount mission. As with Strauss, see logistics.’

Like Strauss, Morgan walked just out of sight, Valentine was nervous. Captain Bangor paused for a moment, almost as if to look up who was next on the list. Whether he knew Valentine or not, he’d have never known, Bangor was incredibly personable.

‘Ensign Valentine. Says in your file that what you lacked in grade you made up for in natural curiosity. Is that true?’

‘I am a slow reader, it takes me a little longer, but I get it eventually, sir.’

‘How curious are you, Valentine?’

‘Sir?’

‘Your assignment will be to go with an expedition crew as an anthropologist. This is an old post, one of the original Satellite attempts. There is nothing there, just an old relic. You are to go there with this team and catalog anything that you find interesting. This is in the interest of researching failed posts to ensure mistakes aren’t repeated.’

Valentine could feel himself turning red as his peers snickered at him. He didn’t know how to feel about this. His colleagues were getting assigned to dangerous and groundbreaking work and here he was being sent to the far, starry, outskirts to dust of relics.

‘Valentine.’

‘Yes Captain Bangor. I- I accept this mission.’

‘See, you’re not so slow after all. You heard the others’ instructions, report to logistics. Best of luck to you Valentine.’

The life size hologram image of Captain Bangor disappeared, with Valentine standing in the same space. ‘The transmission has ended.’ The droid announced, spinning around and clunking away. He shot a look over to his peers, who were no longer giggling, but instead looked sympathetic.

‘It actually sounds like a great first mission!’ Strauss said.

‘Yeah actually, you’ll probably get promoted sooner than the rest of us because your mission is essentially a guaranteed success. ‘ Morgan added

Valentine pierced his lips, struggling to find words,

‘I accepted the mission. I don’t want to talk about it.’

The other two nodded in understanding and began heading to logistics. The two others gossiped like schoolgirls about the potential dangers and importance of their missions to one another, completely oblivious to Valentine, the invisible third wheel. Valentine pictured his mission, touching down on a desolate moon, empty buildings, spaceports, and abandoned projects. He wondered if he’d find human remains, wondering what it was like to die in one of these Satellites. He didn’t know much about his mission, but he knew that the small handful of abandoned posts were Originals.

Originals were posts which were founded by Earthlings. Valentine had remembered this in class, these posts, both the failed ones and the successful were revered to the rest of the Satellites. They were and continued to be recognized for their sacrifice. These were all people who were successful on Earth, they had the choice to stay on Earth, but chose to journey to the vast, cruel, unforgiving of space for the furtherment of humankind.

Logistics didn’t make the assignment earlier. Strauss and Morgan both had prearranged deep sleep space travel planned, they had ten days to prepare for their mission and leave. Valentine walked up to the logistician’s desk and stated his name. She handed he a bulging yellow manila envelope with ‘GLIESE J 12’.

‘What’s this? Where’s the hologram and pluggable data?’

‘You Valentine, right?’

‘Yes, I’m Valentine.’

‘Mmm, nah, this is what we have for this mission. I had to pull it from archives; they didn’t have anything on this post in central systems.’ Valentine was suspicious of this answer, but she carried on. ‘You’ll be leaving tonight after dinner. You’ll be escorted by Frank G.,  a contractor from the original Satellite Wars, he will meet you in the galley.’

‘Tonight?’

‘That’s correct, in less than 6 hours, I’d recommend you hurry.’

The others overheard and greeted Valentine, expressing condolences of his early departure. Everything was happening so quickly for Valentine, he was scared to be on his way to a forgotten post, just to be forgotten at his post. He felt thrown away and thrown away as fast as possible. Valentine joined the Earth Satellite Outreach Program to solve real problems, to expand other posts into the program, and now he was conducting archaeology and anthropology.  

Valentine quickly packed, he had virtually nothing and was able to take a nap before dinner. He wondered if the others could even conceive taking a nap after their assignments, he wouldn’t be able to. But for now, he focused on what he could control, and shut his eyes.