ADA
Peter J. Borger
Nate had a personal dossier on every member of the Shark, nothing official, just his own notes; you don’t get ahead without sizing up the competition, and Nate was going to get ahead.
The ship was new, not Alcubierre, but fast, one of the first in-system electrostatic ram ships. Nate felt lucky having been picked for its first crew; as it was, he was the youngest member. Still, he felt he was more qualified than any of the others; it took a lot of prep and a serious focus to get to where he was on the knowledge scale by his 23rd year, but he wanted in on the belt rush, and you didn’t get there without experience in spacing. This ore freighter, the Shark, would give him that, not only in flight, but at the Beale station, where the miners took their ores to sell, and where he hoped eventually to get a position with enough pay to secure a ship and a habitat of his own.
There was only one other crew member who seemed to know as much as Nate, Ada Takahashi, an oriental woman who couldn’t have been much older than Nate, but had secured the position of chief engineer aboard the Shark. She was pretty in an odd sort of way, her olive shaped eyes made larger through perfectly round wire rims almost glowed, and her jet-black hair, almost longer than she, was gathered in a ball at the back of her head. A slender frame with little to indicate a womanly figure. Still, she had something Nate couldn’t put his finger on, not outside, not showing, but it was there. To his surprise and wonder, she didn’t seem the least bit ambitious, that worried him, and in his position as senior technical specialist, though they were often thrown together, she seemed unimpressed with Nate’s abilities and less than interested in his good looks.
Nate had attempted to socialize with this woman on several occasions with little luck; he finally got his chance when a high pressure xenon exciter for their collision laser exploded as she was changing out the weakened tube. Luckily the explosion was enclosed in the laser’s elliptical chamber. “Are you alright?” Nate asked. Ada grimaced; looking down he saw blood. There was a sizable shard of glass in her left hand. Nate removed the shard, wrapped the hand in a clean towel and helped her to the aid station. She looked at him oddly as he said, “They’ll take good care of you here.”
Later that afternoon he found her reading over a cup of sesame tea in the commissary, he asked her if she drank anything stronger and might want a beer. “I prefer my tea, Mr. Birne,” she said, “but if you want a beer, I would not be offended, and I would be more than happy to sit with you as you drink it. Please,” she pointed to the chair next to her.
“I noticed we were off the trajectory of the fuel launch; is there anything we can do to correct it?” Nate asked.
“Our trajectory is correct and must remain so; it was the fuel launchers who made the error, but my samples indicate enough natural occurring hydrogen in our path to make up the difference. Remember, we only have to accelerate for the first half of the journey, and there is sufficient thrust to keep the collection tanks full.” She went back to reading.
“What is it you’re so into reading there?”
“It is a book called ‘The Prophet’ by a man named Gibran.” She put down the pad and asked him, “Have you read much philosophy?”
“No, I tend to focus on technical materials rather that the humanities.”
“Then I would recommend a change in your studies, after all, your humanity is more important than the mechanics that surround you.”
“Mechanics are pretty important out here; I mean, our lives depend on them.”
“But if your life has no meaning, what’s the difference whether the mechanics save you or not? She asked.
Nate had to think about that one as it seemed out of character for the technical woman he knew in engineering. “Life is important,” he said, “But it’s easier if you have what you need.”
“You already have what you need, food, shelter, and a productive existence helping others of your kind.”
“I’m not where I want to be yet, it will take some time to get the funds I need to buy a ship and a habitat.”
“You plan to mine in the belt?”
“Yeah, it’s one of the best chances to make it big, and I want to be a part of it.”
“I understand mining is more physical labor than technical expertise. Have you much experience with physical labor?”
“Yes, ma’am, I put myself through tech school working in a quarry. I knew I needed to learn those techniques if I was going to be a miner.”
“It sounds like you’ve prepared well for both your position on this ship and your desire to be a belt miner.”
“Oh, I’ve got a long way to go just to get enough to pull it off, but it’s not like I don’t have a direction in my life. What are your plans?”
“I planned to be chief engineer on an ore ship named the Shark.”
“No, no, you already are chief engineer; don’t you have any goals?”
“Of course, I’m trying to determine why I exist, what I know and don’t know, and what has value or is valueless.”
Nate whistled, “That’s a lot more than most people ever consider; why would you want to know all that? I mean what would you get out of it?”
Ada looked at him oddly, “The answers to those questions, however I’m not making much progress it seems. Tell me, do you know why you exist?”
“I’m not sure why, only that I do, and I feel a need to seek the things I want.”
“Does what you want have value?” she asked.
“Yeah, getting those things will make me happier than I am now.”
“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants,” that’s what Epictetus said.
“Well, if I had all the money I might ever need, I could do anything I wanted; I wouldn’t have any wants.”
“But having accomplished your goal, what then?”
“You know you ask an awful lot of questions.”
Ada smiled, “Just curious.”
