chin as he looked around, thinking to himself if he missed anything that he should tell Jesse. Remembering nothing else, he turned back.
“There is one tradition here that I really like. The first night that you’re here you have to go stargazing. You see, without any cities nearby, the entire sky stay almost as bright at night as during the day. Here on the rim, we have a completely different view of the heavens that anywhere else in inhabited space. That is one reason why Dr. Mojave has an observatory out here. We will go get some grub, and then tinker about in the shop. But when it gets dark, we will take a truck out into the desert a bit and do a bit of stargazing.”
Jesse was very excited. He missed looking out of viewports aboard the Uriah and seeing stars twinkling out in all directions of the nether. The world that his boot camp had been on had massive cities dotting the surface that threw up light pollution so that no one could see a single star at night. With that treat in mind, he ate quickly and shadowed Arron while performing his absolute best to fix up a truck that was in the shop with engine troubles.
That was the truck that they used to drive out into the desert. Mr. Fitch made a comment saying they could justify their jaunt into the desert as a test drive of the newly fixed truck. Jesse was overjoyed as he grabbed a couple canteens and jumped into the truck.
His good mood was crushed when they left the compound and ran into a perimeter patrol. The patrol had six troopers in it, including two that he had started boot camp with. The sergeant of the patrol recognized Mr. Fix-it and stopped him for a friendly chat, while the fresh troopers stood off and kept glancing at Jesse. When the wind shifted, Jesse could hear some of the conversation.
“That guy over there failed out of boot camp because he couldn’t read. Why would the New Order let somebody in like that?”
A chittering of mean spirited laughter came next and Jesse felt ashamed. It had never occurred to him that there was anything wrong with his level of education. Onboard the Uriah, everybody was educated to a point where they could perform their duties and no more. It was considered a waste of time for people to stay in a classroom when their labor was needed to mine or fix the station or a myriad of other jobs that had to be completed to keep the station livable.
Arron’s conversation with the sergeant ended and he put the truck back in drive. After a few minutes he noticed that Jesse wasn’t saying anything and looked over to see that the look of joy had been completely replaced by one of barely restrained sorrow.
“What happened to you?”
“The troopers were making fun of me. I went to boot camp the first time with two of them and failed out because I couldn’t read very well.”
“Son, those egg heads are just that. They don’t know any better and take their upbringing for granted. You’re worth ten of them. Don’t worry about your past Jesse; you’ve got a bright future ahead of you. They probably won’t rise much above base patrol, at least not with their attitude.”
Jesse knew that Arron was just trying to make him feel better, but some of it rang true. He had already managed to leave Uriah, where he didn’t have any kind of future. The New Order had already benefitted him by giving him some formal education.
“Don’t worry about them Jesse. Here, this is as good a spot as any.”
Arron stopped the vehicle and they both got out. The view was breath taking. From horizon to horizon, stars filled the sky. With his naked eyes, Jesse saw star clusters, other planets in the system, and outshining everything else was a gas nebula. Jesse couldn’t help but drop his jaw at the view.
“I said its tradition for every newbie to come out here their first night, but I come out as often as I can.”
“I can see why, the view here is better than what I had on Uriah. What is that?” Jesse pointed up at the gas nebula.
“That is what Dr. Mojave refers to as the ‘Shards of the Abyss’. It’s a gas nebula that is very close to this system, galactically of course. It’s a couple light years away, basically in our backyard. That is why I requested to be posted here Jesse, I love looking up at these stars. No sounds but a little wind with this view every night.”
The two of them didn’t talk much after that; they just stared at the stars for hours. Jesse had actually nodded off in the bed of the truck and awoke in the maintenance shop; Arron had driven him back after finding him asleep, but left him in the back of the truck.
As a result of his chosen bunk, Jesse awoke with a stiff neck. Mr. Fix-it was nowhere to be found, so Jesse got up and sauntered over to the mess hall, still rubbing his neck. Once there, he saw the troopers that had made fun of him the night before. Deciding to be proactive, he walked over to where they were sitting.
“Good morning troopers, have a nice patrol last night?”
His query was met with silence as they pretended to ignore him.
“Do you have a problem with me?” he continued.
“Go away grease monkey.”
“Fine, just remember that I’m the guy who fixes your shit.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Nope, just a reminder that karma’s a bitch.”
“Whatever Dumbo, get out of here.”
Jesse got a tray and went through the chow line. When he had finished gathering his breakfast he took a look around and noticed one person who wasn’t in fatigues sitting alone. So he walked over and introduced himself. To his surprise, the man had a warm smile and named himself as Dr. Mojave.
“Mr. Fix-it told me about your observatory up on the mountain. We were looking at the gas nebula last night. It reminded me a bit like home.”
“So you have an interest in the stars? That is good, not many fresh troopers have any time for stargazing.”
“I was born and lived on a mining station until I joined the New Order military recently.”
“Ahh, you are space born; that is a rarity.”
Jesse’s ears perked up, he didn’t consider himself a rarity seeing as how his entire family had been space born. The talk from the previous night had put him down about his upbringing, but now, this Dr. Mojave was telling him that he was special.
“Why don’t you come up to the observatory tonight? I might have something for you to fix. You can take a long look through the telescope while you’re up there.”
“That would be great.”
Dr. Mojave finished his breakfast, nodded to Jesse, and left the mess hall. Jesse was excited again, as if being the butt of the previous night’s scorn had never happened at all. In short order, he finished his breakfast and left too.
A short walk brought him back to the maintenance warehouse, where he found Mr. Fix-it.
“I see you followed your nose to breakfast; good, because we’ve got a long list of broken equipment to get through today.”
“I met Dr. Mojave at breakfast this morning; he invited me out to his observatory tonight to look through his telescope at the nebula.”
Arron nodded and smiled, “Well you better get to work then.”
Jesse nodded and the two of them began to organize their tools needed for the day. After unclogging an air intake on one of the falcons, Arron sent Jesse around with a long handled coal shovel to clear sand build up away from the buildings that made up the base.
“If we stay on top of it and do a little each day, then it is not too much effort. But, if we get a sandstorm or don’t keep the dunes at bay, then it takes a lot more effort to keep the ECU’s clear.”
So Jesse went around to each building, clearing sand away from each air conditioner. It was hard, hot work, but he made good progress. Until he saw the trooper walking by with a group. Once he was spotted the offending trooper starting talking loud enough for Jesse to easily hear.
“They’ve got the retard doing easy work again.”
Jesse had had enough.
“What the hell is your problem?”
“I wasn’t talking to you, moron.”
“You’re talking about me.”
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“So, what are you going to do about it? You don’t belong here, or in the New Order military.”
“I am needed just as much as you are, probably more.”
The trooper scoffed, “How the hell you figure that?”
“How many mechanics are on this base? Two. Now how many gun-toters are here? A shit load more than two. Now, I don’t know what grudge you’ve got against me, but it’s fucking stupid, we’re on the same side.”
The trooper reddened and didn’t have a comeback for that one. The other troopers were looking at him and back to Jesse.
“Let’s go, we’ve got better things to do that stand here in the desert sun.”
The group of troopers moved on. Jesse resumed his work, wondering if he was going to have trouble from that trooper. After another hour, the sand had been cleared from every building on the base and Jesse headed back to the maintenance shop. Mr. Fitch noticed him walk in.
“You clear all the sand?”
“Yep, I had a talk with that trooper too. I think we’re good.”
“Well, the base commander has a dim view of troopers fighting each other.”
“I don’t want to fight him, but I don’t want him to continue calling me an idiot either.”
“Well, we’ve got another truck to fix, and then you can go up to Dr. Mojave.”
The two of them worked all afternoon on another truck. Jesse started to notice that clogged air intakes and carburetors were the prime trouble makers on this dry, desert world. In the case of this truck, dust and sand had made their way through the