Main belt; two year job between Mars and Jupiter/ part 2

Main belt; two year job between Mars and Jupiter/ part 2

fiction
edward w pritchard

The boss, who is a thinking computer is a real SOB. The new guy, Paulie Nusome got killed Saturday by a stray rock. He was working overtime to make some extra money for the new baby back in Georgia, back on earth and was hit square in the chest by a very small asteroid. Our boss, Ghe gave us all of an hour  Monday morning for the service and incineration.

It's an unsettling way to go, being struck by an asteroid but it's a risk we all take. Ghe the artificial intelligence unit has no feelings. All of us, true including itself, in his philosophy, are just cogs in the machine sent here between Mars and Jupiter by the corporation to make money for the stockholders.

I think Paulie might have been looking for precious metals when he was killed. That's the good thing about having Ghe for a boss; artificial intelligence are easy to fool. It's illegal to "pan" for precious metals in space without a permit but lots of guys do it. It's dangerous work obviously because of stray asteroids.

I'll miss Paulie, he was a good crew member and a friend. The good news is his replacement is a woman, more a girl, a twenty two year old recent graduate of space engineering school from New York University. Most of the women up here have spent too much time in Jupiter's gravity zone. It makes them thick and chunky. A new girl will be nice. After her 90 day trial she will outrank Ghe, although she won't be the boss.
end part 2