Asteroid 1998-RQ13

A Short Story by Kenneth Brown

Major Johnson watched the three interns enter the room. He analyzed their abilities as they entered. He always tried to pick which would fail out, which might die in space, and which had the ability, stamina, and grit to succeed in asteroid mining.

This group looked about average. He named them as they entered. Oh, not their real names. He didn’t care about that. He knew they all had rich, powerful, and politically connected fathers, mothers, uncles, or someone he wanted to ignore. His only question was, could they do the job and not kill themselves or him?

The first boy, Cowboy, his newly assigned nickname, wore jeans, boots and a cowboy hat. Family out west might have some mining experience in the family, but this boy looked too clean and civilized to be a miner.

Boy number two earned the nickname Ivy League Boy, strutting into the room with the ‘I come from money and you can’t touch me look.’ The college sophomore wore a business suit and a power tie. Major Johnson wondered if Ivy League Boy would be the one to drop out or die. He looked like he tried to grow a beard, turned it into a goatee, and failed on both counts. Really, a power tie to an internship on mining asteroids?

Which will fail out or which will die? Will they take Major Johnson with them?