Page 12 of Full Speed to a Crash Landing

“There’s no way you and I both will clear out the wreckage of theRoundabout,” I say. “Impossible. A matter of mass; there’s too much of that broken ship down there for us.”

“Other scavengers may eventually come.”

“Maybe. But what’s the point in hauling up every scrap?Nah, there’s a good chance some of that ship is going to stay on that planet.”

“Probably.”

“And look at it. I’m not a geologist, but that planet out there? It’s a baby. The volcanos and thin crust and the earthquakes...it’s a planet that’s still growing, not yet fully formed. Give it a few million years, and the tectonic plates will settle. Gravity will pull in an atmosphere. Little algae and stuff will grow, then proper plants. Maybe dinosaurs. Another few million, and this planet could host sapient life. We’re looking at the beginning of a whole world.”

Rian’s gaze shifts to the window.

“And there’s carbonglass down there,” I continue. “Alloy metals that last. I don’t know how this stuff works, but the right conditions...what if the ship just gets buried and preserved? And in millions and millions of years, whatever life this planet fosters includes archaeologists. And they dig down in just the right spot and they find theRoundabout.”

“I suppose it’s possible, if unlikely.”

That’s basically the mantra of my life, but I don’t bother telling him that. Instead, I say, “That’s what I think about. Space is so mind-bogglingly big. Utterly incomprehensible.But we leave our shit everywhere. Ghost ships in the void. Crashes on protoplanets. The litter we jettison. And sometimes, I run into it. It’s always our stuff. Never anything from another species.”

“There are other species, though,” Rian says.

“Yeah, but not sapient.” We’ve found whole planets with life, flora and fauna. Nothing ever talks back to us.

Nothing ever builds spaceships.

“Maybe that planet down there doesn’t even develop life,” Rian says. “Most of them don’t.”

That’s true. But maybe it will. And maybe there will be someone like me, millions and millions of years from now, who finds something from us, who will know that even if the universe is silent, it wasn’t always.

5

Igotta be careful. Rian? He’s a distraction. So much so that I almost wonder if that was his intent. He didn’t really ask any of the questions I thought he would; he didn’t even come close. After he leaves, I go over everything he said, everything I said, and the dots don’t connect.

There’s an angle here, but I can’t see it yet.

So, I go to the med bay.

Nandina’s not there when I arrive, but judging from how quickly she pops up, she was close. Or they got some cams watching me when I leave the room. Either’s a possibility.

“Are you feeling ill?” she asks.

“Just came for my stuff.”

Her eyes widen slightly.

“My suit,” I clarify.

“You want your suit?”

“Yes. I’ll keep it in my room.” It’s been enough time on the chargers that the tanks should be full again, but even if they aren’t there are recharger ports in the bunk room.

“I can leave it in the locker; it’s not a problem.”

“I’d rather have it with me.” I purposefully bought a suit that was more mobile than some of the ship-specific suits. Between the thincraft material and the jaxon jets, my suit’s worth almost as much as my ship. Not that I think anyone on theHalifaxwould pilfer parts.

I just would rather have it with me.

“Of course you can have it,” Nandina says, opening up the med bay door and heading to the storage locker. “But...”

Why. The question she won’t ask. Why am I trying to get a spacesuit in my bunk room.

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