Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
I look around at my competition. Freya was right about the size of the others. Everybody on this parade ground is much larger than I am, even many of the other women. I tell myself it’s not about size. It’s about everything, and I am everything.
I line up for the testing people to register myself. I’m feeling good about all of this. I can do this. I’m talented at things. Sure, I haven’t done any higher education and I don’t have obvious skills, but I’ve proven myself as a farmer, and that’s a whole set of things I know. Plus, I’m female, and we’re notorious for being good at populating places.
The registration person looks me up and down as I get to them. I am ready to give my name and show my ID like the others in front of me have. But I don’t even get that far.
“How tall are you?”
“5′5,” I lie. I’m more like 5′4, but if they can’t be bothered measuring me, I’m not going to go out of my way to be overly revealing.
The guy looks me up and down again and shakes his head.
“Rejected,” he says. “Return to your home.”
“Why?”
“There’s a minimum 5′8 height requirement for women,” he says.
“Why? Wouldn’t small people be more efficient on a spaceship?”
“It’s about seating and bedding and the way the ship’s interior is constructed. G-forces are evenly distributed along certain body lengths in certain ways. Short people don’t fit the gravity chairs. Thank you for your interest in the Alheim Mission.”
Just like that, my dream of being an intrepid explorer is dashed.
Or is it?
They just got done telling us that real explorers go not just where nobody has gone before, but where others tell them not to go.
He’s just told me not to get on the ship.
Seems like he actually really wants me on the ship.
I don’t think the short-people-get-squished thing is valid anyway. It’s a few inches. How much can it really matter? I bet it’s fine.
Nobody physically escorts me from the selection area. They just assume I’ll leave. Like the old adage says, when you assume, you make an ass out of you, and a space traveler out of me.
I slide out of the selection area and walk into one of the service doors, where the people who are carrying stuff back and forth to the ship seem to be based. If anybody notices me doing this, they don’t say anything. I’m sure a lot of people are seeing me, but at times like these, when you walk around as if you own the place, people think you do.
Once I get into the service area, I find overalls for people to wear while loading cargo. They also have hairnets, and little plastic covers for shoes. And masks.
Nobody is currently watching any of this stuff.
I put all those things on, and move toward the sounds of things that are being, well, moved.
“Get that crate,” a supervisor says, snapping his fingers at me impatiently.
I go and pick up a box, and I carry it up into the ship. It’s massive.
There are so many places to hide, I am completely spoiled for them. I decide to avoid the bunk areas. People will go into those and set up for takeoff. I also don’t want to go too deep into the storage areas, because those will be high traffic, and could be rearranged or worse, move during liftoff. I’m not sneaking onto this ship to be crushed by a crate of powdered milk or similar.
I find an office, and I decide to tuck myself away underneath the desk. I don’t know who the office is for, but it’s not very large, which makes me think it’s probably for someone lower in the hierarchy. The desk is molded to the floor and the wall, because the last thing you want in a spaceship is stuff that moves around a lot. Even the chair is designed to slot forward and back, but not be pulled out too far. The design creates a nook that is perfect for someone my size to tuck away in. They thought I was too small? Hmph. We’ll see about that now.
Takeoff is tomorrow at dawn. Which means I’m going to be quite hungry by then. Fortunately, there’s a bathroom attached to this office, so I won’t be in a completely dire state. I tuck myself in and close my eyes…
I wake up to the feeling of a giant squishing me into the floor at full strength. We are taking off, and every part of my body is protesting at the incredible forces required to launch a machine of this size off the face of a planet. I would like to move into a more comfortable position, but that is pretty much impossible. I have to stay where I am until the pressure comes off as suddenly as it seemed to come on.