Snippet...

 

Herself worked from the office today, which left it quiet enough I could think.   So, at this point, I'm 3000 4000 5000 words into this story...

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“Do you know what a mechanic is? It's somebody who fixes other people's problems for them. That's not because they won't, but because they can't.   

A mechanic is somebody who looks at problems and solutions and brings them together in the most efficient way possible. 

That problem might be a motor that won't work right. , a computer that's acting strange, or even a person who has used up too much oxygen.”

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In the Earth system, in the asteroid belt.  It’s called a belt, but it’s more like a flimsy gauze nighty.  The average distance between asteroids of any size is about a million kilometers.  That meant asteroid mining was a tight proposition, and there were a thousand miners just surviving for everyone that hit it rich.  Still, it was the wild frontier of the system and that attracted the people Earth society was squeezing out of existence.

These tales take place on Karin Main, the primary asteroid of the Karin group.  Simply called ‘Main’, the place had been mined out decades ago, but that left behind a 3-kilometer wide by 4-kilometer long rock riddled with mining bores.  It became a natural base for miners in the belt.  Cap the bores and seal any cracks.  Pump in an atmosphere. Install a couple of half-kilometer centrifuge wheels at either end and counter-rotate them to keep the gymnastics to a minimum.  Power came from fusion reactors salvaged from wrecked ships. Nothing wasted, ever; That was the belter motto.

The population on Main shifted constantly, depending on where the orbit stood.  Sometimes they were close enough to other habitations that people would travel easily between them (Easy on belter terms, where a two-week flight was considered going for a walk).  On any given day Main might have two thousand permanent residents and another five hundred visitors.

The shop was on level one, adjacent to the primary docks.  This made for a hike to housing, but it put the shop right next to their primary customers, belter’s ships.  Everyone just called it ‘The Shop’ since it was the only place like it in the belt.  It was the place you went to get things fixed.  What things?  All things.  Art’s place mostly worked on ships and their systems, but Main was just a ship in a way, even if it was really big and not really mobile. 

Art liked working odd hours and tailored his day to the coming and going of the herd.  The Herd is what he called the people passing by his shop.  Sure, the shop was open 24 hours a day, but if you wanted the man himself, it was a crap shoot. It’s not that he was anti-social, but he simply had no need for people most days.

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“What’s in it for me?” were the words over the office counter.  Being in the weightless zone, the counter was simply joined to one wall, and orienting to it was up to the people in the room.  If a person came through the primary corridor hatch, they stood a 50/50 chance of seeing the counter and the sign as they were meant to be seen.  If they came in wrong, they saw a smaller sign upside down on the counter front telling them to rotate 180 degrees.

‘What’s in it for me’ was Art’s favorite saying.  He’d thoughts of having cards made, but even flimsies cost too much.  With the sign, he merely waved at it when he wanted to make the point.

This is what Antonio Spargle saw when he entered the shop.  Of course, he was one of those who had to rotate and orient correctly after ignoring the sign outside the door.  Every compartment that had a designated up/down also had the sign, but some people just refused to understand that. It was one giveaway of a newbie from The Hole, which is what belters called Earth.

Spargle finally got himself straightened out and looked around the small office.  Beside the counter, there was a computer workstation, a coffee machine, and a small refrigerator.  He wondered why there were no chairs, but then recalled he was in the weightless section.   Spargle pushed the call bell but failed to take advantage of the hand-hold next to it.  As a result, he pushed off the bell switch and slowly tumbled across the office to end up against the far wall.  He didn’t notice the small X on the wall made from mechanic’s tape. 

A young man in technician coveralls came through the hatch from the shop itself. He fetched up against the counter in exactly the right place for his boot to hook the foot rail and stop him at the desktop.   “I see you are on the mark today, old cob!”  said the tech.

Spargle finally got pointed in the right direction and pushed off the wall, but just a bit too hard. He hit the counter chest first and managed to stop himself only by grabbing the hand bar he’d ignored before.   It was not a graceful entrance to the negotiations he’d planned.

“I would like to see Art. We have business for him” said Spargle.   The tech just stared at him for a few moments, and then slowly smiled in a way that didn’t involve the slightest particle of friendliness.  It was more the smile of a shark pondering its next meal and hearing a splash in the water.

“I’m Kwan” the tech said.  “Art is not here at this time.  Is there something I can help you with?”

“I only talk to the boss.  Have him com me when he gets in.  It needs to be today.”  Andrew said in what he called his ‘Management’ voice.  Spargle had a number of voices he could call on, from his version of ‘nice’ all the way to what he thought of as ‘intimidating’.  He numbered his voices and practiced them when no one was around.  He was using his #3 voice on the technician.

Kwan stared at the obvious newbie for a moment and then asked “Name and Com number?” which he noted on a tablet as Spargle recited it.  “Ship?” asked Kwan, and Spargle replied without thinking “The Morning Dawn” before he realized he hadn’t wanted to tell anyone that yet.  Inwardly he kicked himself, which just made him the latest in a long line of people who made kicking Spargle a hobby.  His was just the kind of personality that invited a good swift kick, even from himself.

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