Scarlet Steel

The space elevator single handedly propelled Earth into an solar empire. Resources were scarce on earth at that time. The investment was colossal, but quickly paid for itself. Entirely removing the need for fuel and refined metal opened the way to a permanent base on the moon, and soon after, other planets in the Solar System. - An Incomplete History of Space Travel

Tera plugs the drone into her laptop, and it has no problem standing up. Walking, on the other hand, looks way harder. It steps awkwardly, with one leg at a time, slowly moving across the table.

“Yeah, you’re probably going to need your AI friend to write a movement program.” Her voice sounds strained. “This is a little rough.” She switches from trying to move, to just testing each individual joint.

“Are you controlling it directly?”

“Mm-hmm.” She nods. “It’s a lot to keep track of. Everything seems to be working though.” The drone curls up its legs, leaving it just a compact puck. Tera leans back and closes her eyes for a moment. “Hey, do you want get dinner before you have to leave?” She glances at the clock on the wall. “Or a midnight snack?”

“Sure! I’ve eaten basically nothing but food bars for the past month. Also I need to restock before we go.”

“Sure, we can stop by. Come on, I know a good burger place.”

“What do we do about my basket?”

“I can just ship it.” She grabs a box, and we move everything I purchased into it, gently setting the drone on top before closing it. “What’s your last name?”

“Miller.”

“Scarlet Miller.” She mumbles and writes my name on top of the box. “Logistics will make sure it arrives before your departure.” She hefts the box and sets it on a small platform in the corner. With a simple press of a button, the platform sinks into the floor, and reappears a minute later without the box.

“Things are so easy here!” I half-complain. “It took two months to recover an engine block! And you can just send things wherever you want automatically?”

“That’s the price of things being free, I suppose.” Both of us start towards the street, and I follow her lead.

“That’s true.” I admit. “It would have taken a lifetime to earn enough to build Hoppy if I had to work at the recycling plant. Hauling stuff a few miles is a small price to pay.”

“Hoppy?” She half laughs, half asks.

“I was seven.” I wave her off.

“What, are you going to name your drone Spidey?”

“It would be funny.” I admit. “Yeah, I’ll do it.”

Her laugh is way cuter than mine. She doesn’t snort or cackle like I do.

The streetlights are dim, not enough to make it hard to see, but still substantially darker. People are still everywhere, but it’s a little less cramped than when we first arrived.

Tera leads me into a nearby shop, a small diner with a few booths already filled. She takes an unoccupied one, and I sit in front of her, picking up a menu already on the table.

I spend a few seconds skimming what’s available before making yet another embarrassing revelation.

“I have no idea what most of these are.”

“Really?” She asks.

“We had a food place. Just the one, and I only ate there a few times. I’ll just get whatever you get.”

“You can’t go wrong with something simple.” She raises her hand to flag down a worker, who makes their way over. 

“You’re late.” The waiter notes.

“I got busy.” Tera shrugs and holds up her pinky and ring fingers. “Two of the usual, please.”

“On it.” They walk away, and we jump back into our conversion.

“So you come here often?” I ask.

“Most days after work. They’re good, cheap enough, and on the way to my apartment.”

“Uh-huh.” I glance at the street through the window, watching the people pass by. “What’s it like living here?”

“Normal?” She asks. “How do I even answer that?”

“I don’t know.” I shrug. “Most of my time was spent in the junkyard, school up to a point,  home talking to Mom, or trading with whatever spacies happened to be in orbit. What do you do here?”

“I wake up, go to work, and then I go home?” She shrugs. “I really don’t do much. I just work on projects, relax, sometimes I go to the park, and occasionally hang out with friends. I don’t do anything real.”

“You really helped me.” Apparently that's the best I can do to reassure her.

She rolls her eyes, but it does get a smile out of her.

“That’s not what I mean. I just feel trapped on this station, you know? I’m just stuck here doing the same things every day. Ah, I don’t mean to just complain all day. What’s life on the ship like?”

“Work. 14 hours a day minimum, mostly spent in the simulator or working out. And when I was prepping Hoppy for our first mission, I was working close to 20 for a week straight. I love it though, the simulator is great.”

“Maybe I’m glad I’m stuck here.” She laughs.

“I think it’s not normal. The rest of the group just hangs out, I’m just still trying to get up to speed.”

“Uh-huh. I-”

We’re interrupted by the waiter placing two plates in front of us. We each get a simple meal, fries and some kind of meat on a bun. It’s been a while since I’ve had meat, and I take a big bite.

“Oh!” I force myself to swallow. “It’s scrap chops on a bun!”

“It’s what?” She pauses, midway towards taking a bite of her own.

“You know, scrap chops?” I get only a blank look in response. “You grill them?”

Her composure breaks into laughter. 

“What the hell are scrap chops?” She barely manages to get her words out.

“You know! Scrap chops! Everyone eats them! They're good!” My explanations only make her laugh harder. “Look, I’m sure you can buy some here. We’ll pick some up, go find a grill, mash some potatoes, and I’ll show you.”

“Sure, sure.” She wipes a tear out of her eye. “Tell you what. You come back to this station, and I’ll try your weird metal food.”

“It’s not literally made of scrap! It does taste a little like iron though.” I admit.

Her composure shatters once again.

“I’ll show you.” I warn her. “When we come back through, you’re going to eat some. And I’m going to look like an idiot if you don’t like it.”

“Sounds like a good time.” Once again, she can barely get control of her laughter. “I’m counting on it. Give me a call when you do.”

“I will.” I add another person to the list of people I've promised I’ll survive for, and dig into my food.

Even full mouths can’t keep us from talking for long. Between every bite we continue our conversation. When the bill comes, the waiter holds out a small device. Tera reaches out to pay, but I manage to slip my hand in front of her at the last moment. She ends up pressing on the back of my hand, left stunned for just a moment, before quickly pulling back. 

“I- uh- alright.” She stammers and stares out the window. “You- you can pay.”

“Don’t feel bad, I don’t have much to spend it on.” I reassure her and stand up. “Want to go to the store?”

“Sure.” She tentatively nods and clears her throat before climbing out of the booth.

The waiter smiles and shakes his head at us.

“You two have fun.” He says before walking away.

“So! Where’s the nearest store? I really need a few month’s worth of food bars.”

“There’s a bulk store near the bays.” She’s recovered a little bit. I really hope I didn’t upset her too much.

“Perfect! Lead the way.” I gesture forward, and she turns around and starts exactly opposite of my suggestion. “Right.” I fall in next to her.

Our conversation is a little more forced at the beginning, but smooths out quickly as we walk. We have to take the monorail back towards the ship, but this late there aren’t many people. We get a car mostly to ourselves, with just a few half-asleep people riding with us. I’m sure to keep my voice down. I’m amazed they don’t have the same technology to cancel out the sound of other people speaking installed on the trains.

We get off at a simple stop. A set of double doors sit against the far wall, and an array of large garage doors open. Large cranes extend, loading cargo onto the flat sections of the monorail before retracting. 

“This it it?” I ask.

“Mm-hmm.”

“It looks more like a factory.”

“It kind of is.” She agrees. “I worked here part time during school. You wouldn’t believe how much food a ship needs. And half of them are traders planning on selling to outposts.”

“We had ships come in to drop off food pretty regularly. Even our small town had ships that rivaled scrap drops.”

“What, are scrap drops a drink? The morning dew off rusty metal?”

“No! It’s a dry planet to avoid the metal rusting too badly. We don’t have dew, don’t be ridiculous.”

“Right, how could I be so foolish.” 

We walk through the door into a quiet lobby. A number of desks sit along the walls. Most of them are full, with people poking at screens, or plugged in with selections streaming past them. My eyes keep on being drawn to a holographic form at one of the desks.

“I-” Wait, is that Elara? It is! Her, Juno, and Exa are all at a single station. I can see them talking, but only Exa’s voice is reaching my ears. “Hey! Exa!” I call.

She turns around in surprise, and Juno and Elara’s voices become clear, only to halt a moment later as they turn around as well.

“What are you doing here?” Juno asks.

“I was going to pick up bars.” I make my way over, although when I check over my shoulder, Tera is hanging back a little. “You can join!” I reassure her. “Nobody’s going to bite.”

She steps forward, joining the small circle.

“You must be Tera?” Juno asks. “Exa mentioned you.” She holds out her hand.

“And you’re Juno?” Tera guesses and takes her hand.

“I am indeed.” She nods and turns her attention back to me. “I already picked up bars for you.”

“How many?” I ask. “I really don’t want to run out again. I’ll store boxes in my room if I have to.”

“Six month’s worth for you, plus additional for mid-op meals and to share between us.”

“Cool, thank you.” Hopefully that should be enough.

Juno and Elara both turn back to the screen to keep working, but Exa keeps her attention on us.

“You going to stay out? Or are you coming back to the ship?” She asks.

“I guess I probably should if I want to work tomorrow.” It’s so late I’m going to be exhausted anyway, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t get as much rest as I can. I turn back to Tera. “Sorry, I think I’ll have to go.”

“You’re fine. I’m going to hate work tomorrow too. Oh, uh, before you go…” She reaches into a pocket, pulls out a scrap of paper and a drafting pencil, writes a few numbers on it, and hands it to me. “Text me before you leave?”

“Yeah! Sure! I’ll send a message when I wake up.”

“Cool.” She shoots a thumbs up before turning around and walking out the door.

“So, did you have a nice date?” Exa asks.

“Date? That wasn’t a date. All we did was build a drone and then go out to dinner and go shopping and… Oh God that was a date! I wore overalls to a date! I didn’t even do my hair! I thought she was embarrassed when I paid for her, not because our hands touched! I scramble for my phone and the sheet of paper. “What do I say?” I desperately ask.

Exa just laughs. 

“I need help!” I beg.

“You don’t need to say anything.” She says. “You can just talk to her in the morning.”

“But what if she wrote down her number wrong?” I quickly hit the numbers on the paper, and am left with a blank screen.

Hey, this is Scarlet. Just making sure- I just wanted to-I had a really good time-If you want to hang out before I leave-

My first sentence is fine, I hit send before I can overthink things further.

My phone vibrates a moment later, replying with only a thumbs up.

“What does that mean?” I show Exa the screen.

“It means you need to go to bed. How many hours have you been up?”

“I don’t know.” I admit.

“Come on Kid, your head will be clearer in the morning. I’ll walk you home.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” I admit, take one step towards the door, and then freeze. “What if she’s still out there?”

“She’s not.” Exa reassures me. “She made it onto the monorail just before the doors closed.”

“How do you know?”

“Janus is good at his job.” She steps out, and sure enough, the platform is mostly empty. It’s just a few minutes before the next monorail arrives, and just a few stops later, we find ourselves walking back towards the ship.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep.” I complain.

“Sure you will.”

The walk back to the ship passes in the blink of an eye, and I find myself in my bed. The moment my eyes close, all my stress washes away, and I fade into sleep.

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