Chapter 2

“We’re approaching the solar system’s circumstellar disc,” said Cal. “Not a very dense one. Makes the Kuiper Belt look crowded.”

“You only say that because you’re dying for a chance to live out one of those implausible movie scenes where they’re almost bombarded with asteroids and the pilot has to save the day.” Cool action sequences, yes. Remotely accurate, not as far as Jude had seen.

Cal was quick to retort, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure you do.”

“I was making a note that there’s probably not going to be much worth the hassle of mining in the C.D.”

“Maybe if there was yttrium,” said Jude. “Last bulletin said management is especially eager for new sources of it.”

Cal shrugged. “That’s your department. I just fly the ship and run endless internal systems scans.”

Technically, he was correct, but in reality, they’d each learned a fair bit of each other’s jobs. It made their lives smoother that way. In any event, making determinations about where Alston would mine was above either of their pay grades. Their role was to fly around the sector and run scans, with the occasional collecting of samples if a site looking promising.

Jude looked at the visual feed. “That is a pretty pathetic C.D. I only see one rock.” Usually circumstellar discs were a bit more interesting, so he was mildly disappointed by this one. “Let’s see, my scanners are showing dust.”

“Same. Boring old dust.”

“Well, we can always hope for polar bears on the planet.” Not that Jude was especially keen to encounter any kind of vicious predator, really. The space suits were hell to run in, and he’d never been very fast to begin with, so he didn’t like his odds. Sure, they had firearms for such scenarios, but his accuracy scores left something to be desired.

“Or penguins,” said Cal. “Less likely to gobble us down for dinner.”

“But I was going to get us a nice bearskin rug.” Jude barely managed to keep a straight face as he made the comment. He couldn’t think of anything less out of place in the ship than a bearskin rug and anyway, he really didn’t want to use his gun.

“With your firearms scores? I think the bear would be more likely to use your skin as a rug.”

“Thank you for that charming mental picture, Cal. You really know how to brighten a man’s day.”

“You’re the one threatening innocent polar bears. Though, can you even call them polar bears if they don’t live near a pole?”

“If we discover them, we can call them whatever we want.” At least, Jude was pretty sure that was how naming a new species worked.

“Bodecker’s Bear has a nice ring to it,” said Cal. “Entering this pathetic excuse for a circumstellar disc.”

Alliteration was well and good, but Jude objected to Bodecker’s Bear on principle. “If we co-discover a species, it can’t just be named after you.”

“Bodecker and Vickery’s Bear doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.”

“Who says your name would be first?”

“It would be, since I’d see the bear before you,” Cal said, matter-of-fact as you please.

“Oh really?”

“Sure. You’re the one who has to scan for minerals when we’re out there. Once we’ve landed, my job is done and I’m free to make zoological finds.”

He was right, the bastard. Jude scowled and went back to his scans.

“Your silence concedes the point.” Cal didn’t bother keeping the delight out of his voice.

“I still won’t let you take all the credit.”

“You want in on the fifteen minutes of fame, huh?”

Shit. Jude hadn’t thought about that part, and now he didn’t have any desire to claim zoological discoveries. Fame of any kind was the exact opposite of what he wanted. “On second thought, I’ll let you take credit for any bears, and keep all the kudos for mineral finds to myself. That’s where the bonuses are.”

“Wait just a damn second. Those bonuses are supposed to be split with the navigator.”

Good. Cal was annoyed, and thus dropped the fame angle.

Jude countered, “The navigator gets a share of the bonus ifhe helps find the mineral stash, which he can’t be doing if he’s off looking for bears.”

“Fine, fine. We’ll share credit and bonuses for everything. Not that I agree with the bonus structure to begin with. It’s all down to blind luck since we don’t get to choose our sector.”

“I think the official line is that it encourages us to be thorough.” Alston didn’t want anyone getting lazy due to boredom and routine, a problem which had been known to arise from time to time.