Astronomicon: Icarus

2 - New Recruits

"Okay, you'll do," announced Captain Jason Taylor, pointing at the last of three hopefuls lined up at his temporary desk in the recruitment hall of Callisto station.

The recruitment hall was one of the less well looked-after parts of the station. One deck above the main docking ring, it was a lower-ceilinged chamber about twenty metres square. The walls were grubby and scuffed, the lighting inadequate due to a number of light fittings in need of replacement, and there were no portholes to show the spectacular views across Callisto that were a feature of many other parts of the space station. The ventilation system seemed to be overdue for some substantial maintenance as the air in the room was stuffy and a little too humid.

A short line of trestle tables, spaced a couple of metres apart, formed makeshift interviewing points. Most of the tables were clear now, with their queue of job applicants long since gone. Captain Taylor was one of only three captains still working their way through the queue of out-of-work and often desperate applicants. Being out of work up to a billion kilometres from Earth could quickly become a serious problem.

Captain Taylor was the thirty-nine-year-old owner of the Icarus, a medium-sized asteroid mining vessel working the Trojan asteroid cloud in Jupiter's orbit. His shaggy blonde hair looked like it had once been neat, but was now long overdue for a cut. He did not think of himself as having a beard, but it had been over a week since he last had time or inclination to shave.

He was sturdily built and noticeably overweight too, his gut rolling slightly over the belt on his grey trousers in a way that annoyed him and made him self-conscious, but not enough to persuade him to actually do anything about it.

Booking a table in the recruitment hall was becoming a regular thing for him. It seemed recently that every trip out into the Trojan cloud meant recruiting some replacement crew members. The work was hard and crew members these days just did not seem tough enough to cope with the working conditions, danger and physical stress involved in asteroid mining operations. So far his crew had never suffered any fatalities but there had been quite a few injuries over the past year.

The Icarus was equipped for twelve crew, but he rarely ran it with more than seven. Less crew meant fewer ways to split the revenue and that worked out better for all involved. After a run of unlucky expeditions, Captain Taylor was behind on his ship repayments and if the loan company repossessed his vessel that would put an end to his career and sole source of income.

It had been a hard month, much like the previous three. The competition was becoming fierce as the price of almost all ores had reduced markedly over the last year. Restricted trade with Earth had affected the markets badly. He had to cram in another two expeditions before the end of the month or he would lose his ship for sure. 

Icarus' return to Callisto station this time had seen both his pilot and the cook leave the ship. Pilots were easy to replace. Most of the men lining up in the recruitment hall had either piloting experience, mining experience or some sort of engineering or electronic skills. Those were the kinds of skills that people headed into space with. Cooks were a different matter. Very few people left Earth with the aim of becoming a cook onboard a small mining vessel with a half-a-dozen crew. The experience was poor and the promotion prospects even worse.

His two new recruits waited expectantly with their bags as Captain Taylor gathered together his stuff from the top of the trestle table and turned to lead them to the docking ring where the Icarus was moored. His new pilot was a tall, thin man with blue eyes and a square jaw. His name was Felix Heinz. He was forty-two years old and had worked until quite recently as a shuttle pilot, ferrying passengers between the various Jovian stations.

His work record appeared to be sturdy and his licences were up-to-date. If anything he was actually overqualified for the job, but Captain Taylor was aware that the recent reduction in flights to Earth had caused dozens of pilots to be laid off. Anyway, when flying in the Trojans you could never be too skilled.

The new cook was a much less clean-cut character. His identification stated he was forty-six but he certainly looked older than that. Captain Taylor would have estimated that he was at least in his late fifties. His name was Ishaan Joshi and he had the darkest brown eyes Captain Taylor had ever seen, giving the impression that his pupils were enormous. His black hair was thinning and untidy and he wore a single-piece, plain brown robe, tied at the waist and hanging down to his shins, more like a monk's habit than a coat. Beneath that he wore baggy brown trousers and heavily worn work boots. 

His work record was extensive and he had already been employed by several of Captain Taylor's acquaintances on other vessels working out of Callisto station. There were several reasons to be suspicious of him, not least because he appeared to rarely do more than a single expedition on each vessel that employed him, but with no other candidates for the job, he was going to have to do.

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