{"id":2218,"date":"2021-03-07T09:11:14","date_gmt":"2021-03-07T16:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/?p=2218"},"modified":"2021-03-10T14:29:07","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T21:29:07","slug":"harvest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/2021\/03\/07\/harvest\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

prompt: Start your story with a character struggling to remember the date, because every day is like the last one.<\/em>…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

available at Reedsy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jora sat on the edge of the bed. His warm, deep-brown hand, calloused and strong, ruffled Raz\u2019s auburn hair. When Raz didn\u2019t move under the covers, he shook the larger man\u2019s shoulder. \u201cRaz, wake up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to.\u201d Raz tried to roll away from the intrusion but was held firm. Jora\u2019s slight frame hid enormous strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to; I don\u2019t want to. I just want to go home. Shift starts in an hour,\u201d Jora said. \u201cGet up so we can have breakfast together, at least.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve made it this long,\u201d Raz said. \u201cWe can see this through to the end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah, yeah. Captain Durand won\u2019t be happy with anything less than the five-year, 250 percent bonus. I just didn\u2019t think five years could feel so long. I can only do the same thing every day for so long, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven if that thing is me?\u201d Raz asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t get tired of you, no. Because every day you\u2019re a slightly different type of asshole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOuch. At least we\u2019re together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah. But if there\u2019s a mechanical reason to turn back, I\u2019m calling it. No second-guessing, no talking me out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throwing the covers off, Raz sat up on the edge of the bed. He was easily twice as massive as Jora. Muscles rippled under his olive-tan skin as he stretched. \u201cWait, is it our anniversary yet?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, that\u2019s next week.\u201d Jora kissed him between his shoulder-blades. \u201cOr is it the week after next? I don\u2019t know, it isn\u2019t today. Get dressed, I\u2019ll see you in the galley.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raz stood and stretched once more, pressing his hands against the low ceiling. \u201cSee you in ten.\u201d He rapped his fist against the ceiling once, making the metal walls of their cabin ring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breakfast consisted of one potato and one green onion from the hydroponic garden with egg-flavored protein powder reconstituted and cooked into an approximation of scrambled eggs along with a mug of strong coffee. The second-shift crew was in for a nightcap of vodka made in the still in engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lada Bird, the chief navigator, picked at her breakfast. Close-cropped black hair topped a pale pink face, currently crestfallen. \u201cMan, I wish more of the plants we started with had survived.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt least we still have the potatoes,\u201d Raz said, pointing to the bottle of vodka sitting in the middle of the mess table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ayla Durand entered, filled her mug with coffee, and added a shot of vodka to it. She was tall, having to duck through the low doorways, and had close-cropped black hair, reddish-brown skin and bright brown eyes. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be all-out today, so be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s up, Cap?\u201d asked Raz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be harvesting today,\u201d she said. \u201cDecent nebula where we can grab up some more organics along with a full resupply of hydrogen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh good,\u201d Raz said. \u201cI thought you were going to say it\u2019s my turn to clean the algae out of the CO2 scrubbers again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGood idea, Bianchi. You can top off the food generator with that before we get to the nebula.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raz groaned. \u201cOkay, okay. That\u2019s what I get for being a scientist on a science ship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a science ship, it\u2019s my ship,\u201d Ayla said, \u201cI was just dumb enough to take this gig.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAh, you love this shit, Cap.\u201d Lada raised her own mug of coffee. \u201cWho else would volunteer for a mission like this? They said support yourselves in space for five years, and you heard, \u2018Get away from everyone for five years\u2019 and signed right up!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a smattering of laughter among the crew. Jora snorted once and Raz nearly choked on his coffee. \u201cLada\u2019s got you there,\u201d Raz choked out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ayla ignored it. \u201cBashir,\u201d she said, gesturing at Jora with her mug, \u201chow\u2019s the work on the recyclers?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRecyclers are back online since yesterday at sixteen-hundred hours. I can start prepping the gas separators for harvest right away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGood, we harvest in ten hours, all hands.\u201d Without waiting for a response, she left the galley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After tossing their trays in the recycler chutes, Jora and Raz parted ways to do their work. Jora logged on to the terminal in the maintenance bay and checked the date: Thursday, 495-10-14, day 1472 of the mission, and three weeks to his anniversary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jora logged the task he was doing and the commands to lock out the controls of the gas separators in the terminal. With the muscle memory that came from four years of doing the same thing every day, he grabbed his tool belt as he walked by the workbench without looking and fastened it around his hips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jora\u2019s work for the day was simple but tedious; a thorough inspection of the gas separator, replace any worn parts, and log the results. The gas separator would pull in everything they harvested from the nebula, filtering out the large carbon molecules, the metallic elements, and then the gasses. The hydrogen would be further filtered to separate out the deuterium from the protium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For every part he replaced, he printed another, making sure they had at least two spares of every part, down to the smallest nut and bolt. The only exceptions were the large pieces, like the mounting frame and the vacuum chamber. If those failed it would require hand-welding smaller pieces from the printer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once he finished with that, he checked the supplies for the printer. They were good for iron, copper, zinc, nickel, gold, titanium, aluminium, silicon, and several types of plastics. What they were lacking was lithium. Without that, the fusion reactor would not be able to generate tritium from the deuterium, in order to run the more powerful deuterium-tritium reactions the ship relied on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRaz, do we have metallics analysis on the nebula?\u201d he asked over the intercom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot much showing,\u201d Raz said. \u201cThere may be some further in, but the outer envelope is pretty soupy; blocks the scanners. We won\u2019t know more until we get in there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re running low on lithium. If we don\u2019t find some soon, we\u2019ll have to go back.\u201d Jora smiled. \u201cNot that I\u2019d complain about that. We get the four-year bonus anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen let\u2019s hope we find some.\u201d Ayla did not sound amused. \u201cWe\u2019re getting that five-year bonus even if you all have to get out and push.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They all gathered on the bridge as the ship dropped out of super-C. The nebula shone in front of them, hinting at the stars in its midst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDeploy the catch-net and set a course into the nebula.\u201d Ayla stood by her seat; her eyes fixed on the spectacle in front of her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNever gets old, does it?\u201d asked Lada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jora watched for as long as he could, up to the moment the charged net began to flicker. It was dragging in material, and he would need to stand by the gas separator. The next two hours were slow, the numbers on the separator slowly rising. He keyed the intercom. \u201cAside from hydrogen, everything is still in trace amounts. And it looks like we\u2019re slowing down?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEntering a void,\u201d Ayla said. There was a murmur of voices over the intercom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s going on?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaintain orbit here. Get up here, Bashir. I need an engineer\u2019s assessment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn my way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jora entered the bridge and looked out the viewport. A small, bright star sat at the middle of an empty expanse. \u201cIt\u2019s a star.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raz tapped him on the shoulder and pointed at the terminal monitor. In the view from the telescope a disk appeared around the star, with a few bands swept clear. \u201cThere\u2019s everything there, up through transuranic elements. We\u2019re in the remnants of a supernova, and the birth of new star system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNice. So, what did you need engineering for, Captain?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of everything we might need out there, but it\u2019s not gas and molecular dust.\u201d She leaned on the edge of her chair. \u201cDo you think we can harvest from there?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll have to do some calculation, see what we have on hand, and get back to you.\u201d Jora read through the numbers on the monitor. \u201cThe net as is won\u2019t hold up, but that doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not telling me to pack it up and go home?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo. Like you said, everything we need is right there. I\u2019m an engineer, and I haven\u2019t had a good challenge in years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou have twenty-four hours to come up with a plan, or a damn good explanation of why it can\u2019t be done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, Captain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After poring over the numbers for four hours straight, Jora sighed. \u201cThis isn\u2019t working.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEat something,\u201d Raz said, pushing a tray in front of him. \u201cMight help clear your head.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThanks.\u201d Jora ate the bland soup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe talk me through it? What\u2019s the biggest problem?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe shields. Even if I rig something up that can handle the junk out there, the shields aren\u2019t meant to take that kind of a beating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIsn\u2019t this ship rated for planetary take-off and re-entry? How do the shields\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRaz, you\u2019re a genius!\u201d Jora pulled up the images from the earlier scans. \u201cThese empty bands here\u2026 those are planets, or at least on their way to being planets. Captain, I think I have it!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ayla raised her head from where she had been resting on the mess table. \u201cWe land on one of the planets?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot likely.\u201d Jora began drawing diagrams on the terminal. \u201cThey\u2019re probably still molten. What we need to look for is a narrow, partially cleared ring. There\u2019ll be a large asteroid or planetoid starting to clear its neighborhood, but still small enough to not maintain the heat of the impacts. We hang on the back side of it, use it as a shield while we dig into from there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRisks?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSomething big hits it and it splashes us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s easy enough,\u201d Raz said. \u201cWe scan all the likely candidates and find the one with no large objects on an intercept course. For a couple hours, anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy only a couple hours?\u201d Ayla asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are millions of objects out there, all colliding and interacting. It\u2019s going to be chaotic for the next billion years or so.\u201d Raz stood. \u201cI\u2019m heading to the lab to find our candidates and build an orbital probability model.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ayla turned to Jora. \u201cWill a couple hours be long enough to get what we need?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAssuming the asteroid has it, sure.\u201d Jora finished his soup and converted the rear cargo bay into a mining platform while Raz hunted for a suitable target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With their target selected and course laid in, Lada maneuvered in behind the asteroid, matching its speed. While the ship turned its belly to the rock, Jora checked his vac suit and entered the airlock to the rear cargo bay. He had emptied it of everything except the loader arm on which he had attached a makeshift digger and evacuated all the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m ready,\u201d Jora said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBird, bring our belly right up to that thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jora opened the rear loading door and watched the surface of the asteroid draw closer. He extended the arm to its maximum reach. \u201cFive more meters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFive meters, creeping in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEasy, Lada.\u201d Ayla\u2019s voice was tense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jora watched the arm get closer to the surface. \u201cThree meters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThree meters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne meter.\u201d Jora retracted the arm before it impacted the surface. \u201cHold it here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHolding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEasy, Lada.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDigging now.\u201d With slow, deliberate movements he began digging into the surface of the asteroid. As the scoop moved closer to the deck of the cargo bay, the artificial gravity overcame that of the asteroid, enabling him to dump the scoop and go for another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lights from the cargo bay reflected off the fresh scar, winking with what could be ice or metals. He pulled in the second scoop and dumped it when he heard popping noises over the radio in his helmet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow are we looking, Bashir?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLooking good, Captain. Raz, are you getting readings from the sensors in the cargo hold?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m getting it. Looks like \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBashir, you need to hurry. We\u2019re getting pelted out here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight. I\u2019ll just keep digging until you pull us away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He pulled in the third scoop and felt the ship vibrate beneath him. The surface of the asteroid pulled away from the open door. \u201cWhat\u2019s happening?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re creating a gravity well, and everything loose on the surface is rolling in between us and the asteroid,\u201d Raz said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cQuick guess on how much lithium we have?\u201d Jora asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve pulled in eighteen kilos of material,\u201d Raz said, \u201cso my guess would be four or five hundred grams. It\u2019s a motherlode.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need at least twice that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt looks like you found the sweet spot,\u201d Ayla said. \u201cWe can keep going or try again later on another rock.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re right about the sweet spot.\u201d Jora looked at the piles between himself and the open cargo door. \u201cHow much time can you give me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve tracked an incoming asteroid, off-plane, bigger than this one. Looks like a collision course. Forty minutes, max.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can do it,\u201d Jora said. \u201cGet me back down there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lights went red, and the impact alarm sounded over the radio. \u201cEveryone in their vac suit. Bird, I\u2019ll take the controls while you suit up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The asteroid approached the open door again, much faster than it had the first time. Jora winced, expecting an impact. Instead, the ship stopped closer than it had been before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving as fast as he could, Jora pulled scoop after scoop out of the asteroid. As it was mostly just a collection of dust and rocks held together by gravity it was easy going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFive minutes to impact, collision course verified. Close it up, Bashir.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another vibration shook the ship. This time, Jora could hear it as a low thump; the sound waves carried up through his bones. He tried to pull in the scoop, but something in the asteroid had shifted, wedging it in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCome on! Get back here!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re running out of time, Bashir. Close it up!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe arm is stuck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ship pulled away from the asteroid, only to have the stuck loader arm jerk the two of them together. \u201cWe need to get out of here!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to dump the arm.\u201d Jora stepped away from the controls and pulled the pins that held the front of the arm to the cargo bay floor. The rear pins were jammed, the mounting plate pulling hard against them. \u201cI need you to give me a little slack. Ten centimeters, even.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying!\u201d Lada\u2019s voice was panicked. \u201cWe\u2019re jammed on something underneath.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLada, lift the nose, just a hair.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUh, o\u2013 okay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As soon as the plate relaxed against the pins, Jora pulled them both and the ship began to separate from the asteroid, the loader arm falling into it, now a permanent part of it. \u201cGo! We\u2019re clear!\u201d He closed the cargo bay door and collapsed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGet us out of here, Bird.\u201d The relief in Ayla\u2019s voice was obvious. \u201cBashir, I\u2019m going to need some exterior work from you. We got dinged pretty hard there. Showing hull damage in section B-9.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSure thing. Let me clean the dust off my suit and get my vac welder. We\u2019ll have to leave the cargo bay in vacuum until we get the alkalis sorted and stored in oil. Don\u2019t want to start a fire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cWe can worry about that after you get some sleep. We\u2019re not leaving until we\u2019ve all rested. But Bashir,\u201d she asked, \u201cdid we lose my loader arm?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCan you build me a new one?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe,\u201d he said, \u201cprobably. But if we start running low on materials again, it\u2019s someone else\u2019s turn to do the mining. I don\u2019t think my heart can take that again, and I want to be alive to collect that five-year bonus.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

prompt: Start your story with a character struggling to remember the date, because every day is like the last one.… available at Reedsy Jora sat on the edge of the bed. His warm, deep-brown hand, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[208],"tags":[222,210,228,209],"class_list":["post-2218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trunk-stories","tag-adventure","tag-fiction","tag-science-fiction","tag-short-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sxT7i-harvest","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2218"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2221,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218\/revisions\/2221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}