Chet Eubanks is Employee of the Year

Chapter Eleven

Chet read and reread the contract. After a long spell of silence, he cleared his throat and returned the paper to his packet. Every few minutes, he glanced back at Mr. Pharaoh's window, but the man's head become a permanent obstruction.

Chet listened for the engine but heard nothing. He pressed his hand against the bulkhead and felt for vibrations. He felt nothing.

An hour passed. Chet felt bored.

Just as he decided to give his contract another read, Mr. Pharaoh piped up. "We're approaching the moon," he said.

"Can I come see it?"

"I think it would be better if you stayed buckled in. For safety."

Chet let a moment of silence pass before he asked, "Can you describe it to me?"

"It's large and round, and... other than that, I'd say it looks like the moon, but there's more detail."

The explanation left Chet unsatisfied. "What about the Mare Tranquillitatis? Can you see that? Are there any signs of the lunar landings?"

Mr. Pharaoh frowned. "I don't have time for these sorts of questions."

Chet closed his eyes and imagined the long, dark sea of dust and rock. He imagined that he could see the Ranger 8 crash site and footprints from the Apollo 11 mission. He wished he could send a snapshot to his grandpa.

"Still doesn't prove anything," his grandpa would respond.

The weight in Chet's gut seemed to shift.

"And the transport is coming into view."

Chet's heart ached to see it.

Another minute passed before Mr. Pharaoh added, "You should probably come and take a quick look. It would be good if you had some sense of where you're going to spend your next three to four years."

"Really?" Chet asked.

"Hurry. We'll be landing soon."

Chet rushed to the window.

The shuttle had already started to pass beneath the transport. The hull stretched over them like a cloudy gray sky, complete with shapes, pits, and shadows. Instead of puffs and plumes, the expanse consisted of angles, planes, and dark openings. They were moving too fast for Chet to focus on any single detail, but some structures were too prominent to ignore. Of these, the messy grid of interconnected pipes seemed the most curious.

The shuttle slowed as it drifted closer to the transport hull. For a moment, Chet felt too light for his feet. He grabbed the back of Mr. Pharaoh's chair, but the sensation passed. The strip of plating above the shuttle turned smooth and began to recede into the hull.

"Go sit down," said Mr. Pharaoh. "We're landing."

"Yeah," Chet said. He shifted toward his chair, but as he started to move, a surge of gravity yanked him off balance. Chet fell. He landed on his left side. The Access Token spilled from his hand and bounced across the floor. It disappeared into a gap along the perimeter.

"Are you alright? I did warn you," said Mr. Pharaoh. "Once you move inside another ship's gravity field, things can get heavy until your ship's computer has time to adjust. What's wrong?"

Chet scrambled to the gap where his Access Token had vanished. He could see nothing through the narrow opening. Chet crammed his pinky finger inside and fished around for the metal square.

"What are you doing?" Mr. Pharaoh asked. "You have no idea what could be down there."

"My Access Token fell," Chet admitted. "It was an accident."

"Well, I'm glad it wasn't on purpose. Can you reach it?"

Chet couldn't. He shook his head.

"This is a problem. Are you sure you can't reach it?"

Chet shook his head. "It's just empty down there."

"We'll report it as lost and try to get you another, but your access will be limited in the meanwhile." Mr. Pharaoh paused. "Greatly limited."

"Will I be able to board without it?" Chet asked. His voice trembled.

"We're using the cargo hangar. Security shouldn't care. If anyone asks, you're here to unload cargo. Let's hope it won't take long to get you another Access Token."

"OK...," Chet said. Both the problem and solution made him uneasy. "Well, isn't there a panel we could open somewhere that would give us access?"

"Do you want to be the one stuck with the bill if we manage to break something while figuring out how to take the shuttle apart? We can't afford those kinds of mistakes. We're in this for the future of the company. Any mistake that costs money is a mistake we need to avoid."

Chet abandoned his Access Token and glanced through the window on the way to his seat. "Oh, we landed," he noted.

"While you were fiddling about, yes."

The hatch hissed and glided open.

"Get your things. We're going straight to work, and we'll have to do this fast before anyone stops to ask us any questions."

"OK," Chet said. Chet shoved his underwear and toothbrush inside his packet and followed Mr. Pharaoh toward the hatch.

His heart pounded as he anticipated his first alien encounter.

Greetings from South Dakota! Chet had always imagined himself saying. He supposed his actual first words would be, I'm just here to unload, which would have less emotional impact when people read his memoirs.

Mr. Pharaoh exited the shuttle.

Chet took a deep breath and followed.