Tymber Dalton - Love at First Bight

To my best buddy, Chuck, who helped make me the space geek I am today. Who told us those years of watching the original Star Trek and Doctor Who and playing RPGs would never pay off?

From the Earth Almanac, Copyright 2668:

While similar in appearance to the primitive automobiles and trucks originally developed in the twentieth century, modern ground vehicles share a lineage with their early counterparts and little else.

Todays modern, lightweight polymers mean vehicle weight is a fraction of the old metal vehicles, with a thousand times the strength and durability. And the newest generation of Solectric hybrid fission engines are clean, which drastically reduced carbon emissions in the world upon their initial introduction in the year 2284. Within fifty years, greenhouse gas levels had dropped to levels not seen before the original historic Industrial Revolution period

With the graduation ceremony over, an underwhelming sense of completion washed over her.

Done. Eight long years of classes and training and practice and

Oh, Hades. Done.

Now what?

Emilia Hypatias best friend, Donna, slid her hand-held reader over the coffee shop table toward her, and pointed to a highlighted advertisement.

What about that, Emi?

Emi took the reader and studied the ad her friend had notated.

Adventure! Training! Excellent Pay!

Were looking for a few good menand especially womento train for the DSM Corps. New missions leaving as soon as six weeks.

Trained medical professionals earn substantial bonuses. Five year tenure required.

Emi sat back. Five years is a long time.

Excellent pay and substantial bonuses would buy you your own place, Doctor Hypatia. Set you up for life. You know the Deep Space Mission Corps makes millionaires out of people. Emi snorted, pushing the reader back across to Donna. Yeah, if you survive.

They havent lost a crew in over ten years. I saw it on the news the other night. Donna paused. It would get you far away from Dagbert.

Daniel.

Whatever.

That would be nice. Ever since the night three weeks earlier when she caught him screwing one of her chem lab classmates, Emi had been dodging his attempts to get back together with her.

Later that night, Emi looked up the ad on her reader, noted the code, and requested an information packet. Couldnt hurt to check into it, right? Not like she had any family. Her mother and father had died ten years earlier in 2659, when a meteor slammed into their research station on the moon, near Mare Serenitatis. A totally preventable freak accident for which the government compensated her and provided a complete paid college education.

Now she was a trained healer, with holistic, medical, and surgical rankings, not to mention the empath training and minor in psych. She could probably name her price and have her pick of the juiciest job appointments.

Yet she wanted more.

The information packet was in Emis email the next morning. She browsed it, interested. Safety wasnt guaranteed, of course, but unless it was a hell of a lot riskier than they let on, they were honest that it wasnt a sure-fire return trip home. Those who did return home, however, would be set for over ten million bucks and a pick of future assignments within the DSMC, on or off-Earth, as desired. As an Alpha-ranked healer, shed earn an additional five mil bonus.

They had a one oclock interview slot available.

Why in Hades not? She took it.

The DSMC complex sat on a wind-scoured desert plain minutes outside of New Phoenix, grouped with several other military services sharing the gigantic, sprawling dry dock facility. It was the DSMCs main compound, where ships were brought for extensive retrofits before being sent to the orbiting docking hubs to leave Earth.

The receptionist looked up Emis appointment information and directed her to the correct building. After twenty minutes of playing twenty questions with a lab assistant, Emi was ushered into a small interview room and took a seat in front of a large desk. A few minutes later, an older man joined her.

Sorry to keep you waiting, Dr. Hypatia. He shook her hand.

Im Dr. Louis Graymard, the personnel acquisitions supervisor.

Emi is fine.

All right. He sat and consulted his hand-held console. Youre twenty-six. You just graduated?

Yes.

Graduate Alpha Healer Ranking, very nice. We dont get enough of those. Psych minor, empath training. Thats a bonus. He looked at her. Why are you interested in one of our positions? You could have your pick of jobs here.

She shrugged. Why not the truth? I have no family. I have no boyfriend. Ive got a couple of degrees and a dwindling government settlement for the death of my parents. So why not?

You realize its a five year contractual commitment? Theres no getting out there in deep space and saying, Sorry, I want to go home now.

I have no home to go to. I have to be out of the school dorms by the end of next month anyway.

He nodded and noted something in his console. You went through the information packet we sent? She had, and thats where her questions started. Lets cut the bullshit. What exactly is meant by crew will be expected to mutually care for each other? Are we talking doing each others laundry, or doing each other?

Graymard laughed. Very perceptive. The second. No force will ever be allowed, of course. Our crews are fitted with compatibility chips.

Which tells me bubkis.

It means they cant force you, you cant force them. Likewise, you wont find it comfortable to let themsuffer, as it were. Or them you. It also insures fidelity amongst the crew to prevent straying.

They are removed upon returning from the mission.

I dont want to spend five years stuck with some ugly-ass jerks.

Oh, it doesnt work like that. If you dont find a compatible crew, you arent assigned. Its no fun for anyone if itswell, not fun. At least they couldnt cheat on her.

I wont sleep with a girl.

You wouldnt be asked to do that, then. Emi sat back in her chair. I get to pick the crew I work with?

Absolutely. Of course, there are the usual precautions. Everyone is screened for health concerns, and the compatibility chips also take care of the birth control issue.

She thought about it. Shed looked through all the paperwork and contracts last night, had nothing here on Earth, wanted to get as far away from Daniel as possible. Why not try something new? Sow some wild oats. She could settle down later.

All right, Im game. Whats the next step?

Well take you first for a complete physical, including a brain scan, that takes a couple of hours. Then well introduce you to the crews.

I wont commit to anything until I find a crew I like.

You wont be signing anything unless or until you find a compatible crew. Contingent upon passing the scans and other evaluations, of course. If you didnt find a compatible crew and still wanted to be kept in consideration, we could offer you an on-Earth position until youre matched with a suitable crew.

So I dont lose, is what youre saying? He laughed. No, youre actually the one with the upper hand.

Graymard escorted her to another building, talking as they walked. Were assembling four-person crews right now, we call them four-packs. It would be you and three men. She hoped her knees wouldnt buckle. Three men? No one else, no other women to, eh, help out?