Dusters, ONE

Aidyn stepped out of his office and called for Dinah, then went back to his deak. She had been working on the second prototype sweeper in the large hall next door, but was already heading to Aidyn’s office because several custom hydraulic parts were not to spec and weren’t fitting right. The robo-assemblers (RAs) were baffled, so she shut them down with a slap, on the way out.

Dinah opened the office door unannounced and tried to start churning out the current problems she was dealing with.

“We have the go.” Aidyn said loudly, cutting her off before she even started.

“What go?” she asked and pushed the door closed behind her.

“The go to begin operations, immediately.” He was beaming, standing next to his desk, leaning, propped up with one hand flat on the shiny finish.

His big, now slightly balding head gleaned in the overhead lights. Dinah had known Aidyn for over fifteen years and he had helped her get to her current position, overseeing engineering and construction.

“Immediately?” she said, with a wince.

Dinah knew full well that the first sweeper was barely operational and the second was nowhere near ready.

“Yes, immediately, as..in..now!” he said and slapped the desk top.

“No, impossible. We are no..” she was almost yelling now when she was distracted by the office door opening behind her. As she turned, she noted Aidyn’s eyes widening.

There stood Geoff Welhaven, a broad smile on his face. “How ssoon Aidyn?” the fat squat man spewed as he entered the room and took off his coat. Geoff sank into a chair near the door and looked down at his COM, reading something probably much more important than this conversation.

COM’s were the standard for “Communications Over all Media”. They proactively tie into any communications channel they possibly can; and keep the owner updated on any information they choose and some they don’t. COMs are outlawed on Earth, because of the viral nature of their operation. Developed in Unified Korea, they made life easier off world, by taking advantage of any nearby satellite or telescope that sends or receives any data. The COM piggybacks on data transfers by infusing its garbage information into the data stream.

Before Aidyn could speak, Dinah said “Four months.” Geoff looked up with a grimace.

“Whay?” he said, and then he looked past Dinah, leaning to his left and smirked. “How soon Aidyn??”

Aidyn stepped forward past her and went towards the chair Geoff slumped in. “We have Welhaven One ready now and Welhaven Two is well on its way.” he lied.

As Dinah stepped up to retort, Aidyn waved his hand behind his back signaling her to shut up. She stopped for a moment and thought about it.

“Pick your fights, but in this case I can let Aidyn make himself a liar to his new boss.” she thought. She mumbled the words “new boss” out loud in the process. “Those COM units are illegal, you know?” she said.

Geoff replied, “There iss no fuckn’ law out here sweetie.” with the hiss of a snake.

She stomped past Aidyn and the mass in the chair as she left the room, fighting the urge to say more. She didn't shut the door and ignored the voices trailing off behind her.


Their construction rig “Chaffee” was in orbit around Mars and trailing the Martian moon Phobos. This allowed them to get towed along with the moon and not have to worry about a sustained orbital system, just some basic stabilization systems. The Chaffee had been used for the deep space communications beacon network construction five years earlier.

Chafee was one of three construction rigs established by the US with names to commemorate the Astronauts of the Apollo 1 launch-pad fire that took the lives of Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee, and Ed White in January 1967. Rigs Grissom and White had already been decommissioned and recycled.

A very large derrick for ship building, the Chaffee was a one of a kind. It had a force field system that held the atmosphere in place and allowed a much smaller habitable area to be required during the process of construction. It saved a ton of money because a whole hanger didn’t have to be pressurized with life support.

Much of the work on Welhaven One was actually complete and it was moored alongside the Chaffee, but Two was having major problems. They hadn’t even pressure tested it, even though the hull was complete.

The original ship design was completed three years earlier, back on earth. Dinah had been the lead engineer on the conceptual designs, but was now only one of two original teammates on site to see the construction through. She and Aidyn had been close on the project, but never more than co-workers. He was married and surprisingly honest to his wife.

Dinah was an average height, slender woman and had shiny dark brown tresses that reached just past her shoulders. She was nearly unremarkable to look at, cute, but completely remarkable to talk to. Her work in superconductivity had made the entire project viable, if not probable. Aidyn owed her a whole lot and he knew it.

He was her assistant back when the design was first coming together and had stuck to her side as much as possible, but when the investors came calling, they didn’t want to talk to Dinah; they wanted a man to deal with. Aidyn fit the bill as the tall handsome “talking head”, and she let him be that. He knew the project well enough to cope and she would rather spend the time on the work anyway.