"GET UP MAGGOT!""Yes.. Sir.."
When Isabelle read "physical evaluation and training" in the email she thought it meant something along the lines of some light strength training and evaluation, not with some kind of h.e.l.lscape that would not look out of the normal in a doc.u.mentary on the training of US special forces. For the last 5 days, she had been constantly shouted at by people bustling with muscles wearing sungla.s.ses at all times of the day and told to suddenly go on a 20 kilometre run in the middle of the night, or do push ups until she pa.s.sed out because she accidentally spoke danish.
"RUN LIKE YOU MEAN IT MAGGOT!"
"Yes… SIR!"
"I can"t hear you MAGGOT!"
"YES SIR!"
The day she had arrived she and approximately 500 other people had been split up into groups of 50, then they were driven out of town, to meet their new instructors.
"The Artemis collective expects physically abled people that can handle tough situations and act under pressure! While all you people might be smart with your PhD"s and fancy education, it is your job to a.s.sess if you"re fit to handle and act under pressure! From this point on y"all will address me and my colleagues with "sir followed by yes followed by sir!" and obey our every instruction! Failure to do so will result in termination from this job evaluation! You are all free to leave at any point! Most of you pathetic PhD people will properly do so, but we are here to find the best!". With those words, her week of h.e.l.l started. After a day only 10 of the other candidates remained, then a day later 7, and finally 5 days after the "physical evaluation and training" started, she was the only one reaming, and now received the full attention of her 3 instructors while doing an endless amount of pushups.
"WHAT THE f.u.c.k KIND OF COUNTRY IS DENMARK!?"
"SOUND LIKE SOME SORT OF b.i.t.c.h a.s.s COUNTRY OF SOFTIES!"
"ANSWER THE QUESTION, MAGGOT!!"
"A…. Country… In the north!... Part… Of….. Europe! SIR!"
"AND A b.i.t.c.h a.s.s NERD LIKE YOU CAME OUT OF THAT s.h.i.tTY a.s.s COUNTRY!?"
"SIR... Yes SIR!"
"WHY THE h.e.l.l ARE YOU THE LAST ONE REMAINING HERE MAGGOT!? SOME KIND OF b.i.t.c.h a.s.s DANE? THIS WHOLE d.a.m.n THING IS A FAILURE!"
"Sir! I don"t know when to quit SIR!"
Isabelle really didn"t know when to quit. There were multiple times she wanted to quit, cry, break down mentally or a mix of all 3. After a week she was seemingly done with the evaluation out of nowhere and driven back to the New York branch office, where for the first time since signing on, Isabelle met what looked to be an actual employee of the collective who welcomed her and 9 others.
"Welcome to the Artemis collective. Ever since each and one of you sent in your applications we here at the collective have been looking closely. After the first round of selection, it was determined to test each successful applicant, to see if they could handle the stress and pressure of an emergency situation. Most applicants could not, but the 10 of you could. From this moment the Artemis collective extends a warm welcome, a.s.suming it is still what you wish, and will take all of you into a one year long training period, where after you will be deployed to manage the new Site 4 and 5 moonbases, training starts in a month at the 5th branch office at Cape Canaveral. We hope to see you all there."
With those words, the executive left the group of youths, which all took a few seconds to realize what had just happened.
"That means we"re hired?"
"I think it does... Right?"
"f.u.c.k YEAH!"
"Whoooo!"
----- 3 years later -----
"Confirm docking detachment."
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Speaking out the words she had trained so much that it almost did register to her, Isabelle spent the brief time she had until a response sounded over the radio by looking out into the empty void of s.p.a.ce. Separated by the vacuum of s.p.a.ce only by a few centimetres of armoured gla.s.s, she couldn"t quite calm down and Isabelle once more wondered why she had chosen to work in s.p.a.ce.
[Artemis-Delta 2-2 docking detachment confirmed. 90 seconds until minimum separation distance, please submit a request for fusion reactor ignition. Delta 2-2 please acknowledge.]
As the vaguely human sounding AI responded Isabelle unbuckled herself from the pilot"s seating while finishing up the last of the communications she needed to do before she could let the flight computer take over.
"This is Delta 2-2 I acknowledge, 80 seconds to the minimum separation distance. Requesting permission to light primary propulsion and make for SFR output echo."
[Request granted, make for small fusion reactor output echo. Artemis chariot #13 signing off.]
(Artemis chariot number 13. That was the craft that carried me to the moon for the second time, because nothing ever happened to s.p.a.cecraft going to the moon being numbered 13!)
Being slightly superst.i.tious about the entire affair Isabelle took a last look out at the truly ma.s.sive relay station which had taken her a good part of the way out to the moon. While the Artemis 2 SSTO could go all the way out to the moon and back, it wasn"t very efficient nor could it transport a lot of goods (like food or extremely heavy water) at the same time. The solution to that issue was to place large stations in orbit of earth and the moon to haul out personal and equipment, bringing back helium-3.
"Okay, initiate descend protocol alpha. Destination: Site 4 personal dock 1, allocate power to onboard AI and confirm output power levels….. And a green light, whew... That"s that then."
While piloting a s.p.a.cecraft might seem hard, the reality was that the onboard flight computer usually took care of most of the complicated manoeuvres. While Isabelle was a pilot and had received training to fly the Artemis 3, such a thing would only happen in extreme emergencies.
(After all, the collective would rather take control of the craft remotely than let me fly it and risk their multi billion dollar marvel…)
While Isabelle really wanted to fly an Artemis 3 all the way out to the moon and back, she fully well knew that the collective wouldn"t let a brand new pilot attempt such a thing.
(Plus, it would most likely be extremely boring now that I think about it.)
With her usual constant stream of nonsensical thoughts, Isabelle closed up and left the c.o.c.kpit and entered the crew compartment.
"We"ve detached from the Chariot, navcom is gonna take us all the way down to site 4 over the next 20 hours."
"Did you triple check the navcom and account for SAS heading lock?"
Immediately after reporting to the rest of the crew, Isabelle was. .h.i.t with questions, something she had expected.
"Of course~ SAS lock is disengaged and I checked all the numbers on my personal terminal"
"Hahah~ Good then, I"m just a bit nervous I guess."
Answering confidently she managed to calm down the other pilot that was part of her crew.
(There"s definitely no way you"re nervus Tom, being an air force vet with a body like you were a marine, seriously looking like that you seem like the type of person that would announce his presence by shouting "I am here!" or something….)
Feeling her sight wander after she was given a few overly enthusiastic pats on the back by Tom, Isabelle found herself looking at Max who looked like he was sick
"What about you Max? How is s.p.a.ce treating your second time around?"
"Not too good to be honest, but I promise not to puke in my helmet again."
(As expected, the one taking microgravity the hardest is the oldest among us... With his reclining hairline and large stomach, Max reminds me of my own dad.)
"That"s good then. Last time you really scared us all."
Showing the same kind of smile Max himself did about a year ago just after puking out his most recent freeze dried meal, Isabelle seemed to have reminded Max of something as he started tapping around on his tablet like he needed to show her something.
"Anything interesting?"
"Yeah, very much so. Come here and see."
Waving over Isabelle, Max eagerly showed her a scientific report with an expression like an old man wanting to show a random person pa.s.sing by pictures of his grandchildren.
"What is it? More asteroids?"
"Exactly! According to Artemis themselves the area around site 4 and 5 are going to be hit with a shower of meteors from the Kuiper belt, and they"ve accepted my idea of retrieving some for scientific study."
Showing an excited smile unlike people his age normally did, Max also managed to catch Isabelle"s interest in the subject.
(Objects from the Kuiper belt!? The largest and so far most secretive part of the solar system about 200 times larger than the asteroid belt that is said to contain the last secrets of our star system, and some of them are just coincidentally falling to the moon near us? This is great news that I definitely will use to brag-)
"Miss Isabelle?"
"Ah sorry Max, so you said we"re getting showers with material from the Kuiper belt? That is really exciting news, but are we sure it"s from that area of s.p.a.ce, and not just some rocks from the asteroid belt."
"Yeah that"s what so amazing about it, remember that extrasolar object that was spotted a few years ago?"
"What about it?... Don"t tell me!-"
"Exactly. That object must have disturbed some Kuiper objects, or even better hit one of the larger ones!"
"That"s amazing news!"
(At worst Kuiper objects and if we"re really lucky extrasolar objects!? This is going to be an amazing trip! I am definitely bragging.)
As if her family and friends were not tired enough of her constant bragging after being the first dane who set foot on the moon, now she would have a chance to bring home objects from what was said to be the last unknown part of the solar system, Isabelle was definitely never going to shut up about that when she got home.
"Could you two keep it down a bit? I want to get some sleep in before my shift."
"Ah sorry Tom, of course. Wake me up before the powered descent, that really scares the s.h.i.t out of me."
"Sure! Ah, Helen took the top bunk after taking some sleeping medicine."
"Yeah I heard, she still can"t handle s.p.a.ce travel huh?"
"I"m pretty sure you"re the only one that has no issue with it, Isabelle… Anyway I"m going to sleep too, will you go looking for meteors with me?"
"Sure, goodnight Tom, Max too."
"Night."
"Goodnight."
Saying goodnight to Max and Tom, Isabelle took a quick peek at h.e.l.len to make sure she was doing okay before also wrapping herself in her sleeping back as she tried to get some sleep before they arrived on their second trip to the moon.