Wednesday, October 1, 2048, 10 a.m.
The recycled air in this space station gets to me. At first being weightless is a blast, but I hate cramped quarters. However, the job pays well and as John Lennon sang, “Money… that’s what I want.” Well, prior to The Beatles, The Sonics and then, The Kingsman covered it. After The Beatles, it was The Flying Lizards, and even more recently Cavity Ghost. Anyway, that song is about how wanting money keeps generating money, because people need money, and like everyone else, that’s what I want.
My contract is for five days. So, no big deal—five days I can handle. The space station view of Earth is intense, and I get kudos amongst friends and Gloria for seeing first hand this hollow four-chamber container, or whatever it is, they found in a static position beyond the moon’s dark side. It’s the size of a yacht. No one can say how long it’s been there, but regardless, they discovered it five years ago. Container, by the way, is not its official designation. That’s what I call it, because it has four chambers and a central hallway and nothing else inside. Well, it’s my working theory.
It’s called Artifact One. One, because it’s the first discovered artifact alien to Earth. I bet someone thought they could keep this thing’s discovery a secret. Good luck. Social media showed the shuttle-tug moving Artifact to the station’s Canadarm grip. Then that arm placing it gently to the umbilical hall that is the bridge between it and this space station gerbil maze.
Its induced gravity means the station has an exercise and sleep area free of bone and muscle decline. Scientists call it a godsend. I’m not suggesting that anyone thinks it came from some sort of god. This space station is still run by scientists, not evangelicals, thank god—no pun intended.
Artifact has remained inert and silent, so the media has had no new story to get excited about. And so the statement that it’s a strange asteroid has remained.
Also, it can’t be brought to Earth. The closer it moves to Earth’s atmosphere, the greater it repels like a magnet of opposite polarity. And so, it has remained up here, an orbiting enigma.
I arrived yesterday, and as soon as I floated from the shuttle and through the arrival hatch, my uncle was here to greet and brief me. Right to business—no partying on a space station. Which is why I’m glad my stay here won’t be long.
The recycled air in this space station gets to me. At first being weightless is a blast, but I hate cramped quarters. However, the job pays well and as John Lennon sang, “Money… that’s what I want.” Well, prior to The Beatles, The Sonics and then, The Kingsman covered it. After The Beatles, it was The Flying Lizards, and even more recently Cavity Ghost. Anyway, that song is about how wanting money keeps generating money, because people need money, and like everyone else, that’s what I want.
My contract is for five days. So, no big deal—five days I can handle. The space station view of Earth is intense, and I get kudos amongst friends and Gloria for seeing first hand this hollow four-chamber container, or whatever it is, they found in a static position beyond the moon’s dark side. It’s the size of a yacht. No one can say how long it’s been there, but regardless, they discovered it five years ago. Container, by the way, is not its official designation. That’s what I call it, because it has four chambers and a central hallway and nothing else inside. Well, it’s my working theory.
It’s called Artifact One. One, because it’s the first discovered artifact alien to Earth. I bet someone thought they could keep this thing’s discovery a secret. Good luck. Social media showed the shuttle-tug moving Artifact to the station’s Canadarm grip. Then that arm placing it gently to the umbilical hall that is the bridge between it and this space station gerbil maze.
Its induced gravity means the station has an exercise and sleep area free of bone and muscle decline. Scientists call it a godsend. I’m not suggesting that anyone thinks it came from some sort of god. This space station is still run by scientists, not evangelicals, thank god—no pun intended.
Artifact has remained inert and silent, so the media has had no new story to get excited about. And so the statement that it’s a strange asteroid has remained.
Also, it can’t be brought to Earth. The closer it moves to Earth’s atmosphere, the greater it repels like a magnet of opposite polarity. And so, it has remained up here, an orbiting enigma.
I arrived yesterday, and as soon as I floated from the shuttle and through the arrival hatch, my uncle was here to greet and brief me. Right to business—no partying on a space station. Which is why I’m glad my stay here won’t be long.