A New Assignment

I got transferred to the Delta Six-Nine system.

Specifically, I was assigned

to the Sigma Epsilon Thirty Three moon base,

which was a bit of a letdown.

I mean, it’s a nice little base.

Well-populated, with all the amenities.

Frequent ration drop-offs.

You can get tons of exports from Jupiter Nine.

The moon itself is rich in natural resources.

The weather is pretty decent;

you only need to worry about acid showers

a few months out of the year.

But I don’t know.

It just feels like getting assigned to a giant mall.

It’s such an old base;

I can’t imagine being able to discover anything significant.

I heard it’s one big giant boys’ club at the top.

I’m probably not going to be able to advance

out of the small lab where I’m being transferred.

I guess I just hoped for something more.

I originally requested Theta One as my first choice.

I hardly told anyone because they’d tell me

I was nuts.

My stepfather would have tried to stop it, for sure.

I’ve heard they never send women there,

but no one knows why.

There’s no formal base.

We’ve sent people to explore,

but they’ve never come back,

and we’ve lost contact with them.

I know they’ve sent expeditions

just to find out what happened to the previous expeditions.

And maybe it’s a suicide mission,

but I want to know

I want to know what’s there.

I want to see things no one else has ever seen.

I want to name the animals and the flowers

and be the first to gaze at the stars in its night sky,

standing alone in a forest or a desert or tundra,

whatever they have there.

But I was never considered the best and brightest of anything,

and I guess I never will be.

So I’m going to Sigma Epsilon Thirty Three,

to my mother’s delight.

“They have the best spas in the galaxy there!” she squealed.

She promises to visit once a month.

“Sure Mom,” I said. “That would be great.”