The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, JanFeb 2023 by Sheree Renée Thomas

Author:Sheree Renée Thomas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science fiction, Fantasy fiction, Short fiction, Magazine
Publisher: Spilogale, Inc.
Published: 2023-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

• • •

After we’d talked it through—my brain was running out of my ears, taking half the details with it—and cleared the dishes, everyone got ready to bunk down. Strange and Alicia shared a bed, I noted; the others slept solo. “You’re welcome to stay here,” Alicia said to me, “if you like. No spare beds, but we can fold out the couch.”

I eyed the couch. Even as it was, it looked a lot more comfortable than where I’d been staying, and what little stuff I owned would be just about as safe without me there. And it had gotten quite late. “I’ll take that offer,” I said.

We worked together to turn the couch into a bed. The sheets were crisp and white, and the pillow was soft and smooth. I pressed my face into it. It smelled heavenly.

Alicia noticed me fondling the linens. “So, what brought you to Titan? You’re not from here, by your accent.”

“I’m from Dione, originally. My parents kicked me out when I was fourteen.”

“I’m sorry.”

I shook my head. “I can’t blame ’em. I was…a difficult child. But my Uncle Stanford took me in. And when he passed, a year later, his inheritance bought me a ticket to Titan. He insisted, before he died. Go where the money is, he said.”

“And Titan is where the money is,” she agreed.

Titan is the industrial capital of the Saturn League, maybe even the whole System. Lakes and seas of ethane, methane, propane, and all the other -anes are just sitting around on the surface, ready to be slurped up and refined into fuels, lubricants, plastics, and explosives. There’s hundreds of times more of the stuff than there is on Earth, and you don’t even have to drill for it. Add to that the factories that sprang up to turn those raw materials into profitable products and you’ve got a huge source of wealth…and a huge need for labor. If you have a strong back and a decent brain and can make your way to Titan, you can be set for life.

At least, that’s what everyone off Titan says. But when you get there, you find it’s not that simple.

I signed on as a refinery floor trainee, freezing my nose off despite the heated oxygen mask. No vac suits on Titan; the atmosphere isn’t breathable, but it isn’t exactly poisonous and it’s thicker than Earth’s. And under the dome, where that air is warmed from an instantly deadly 180 degrees below zero to a barely survivable 40 below, you can get by with just an oxygen mask and cold-weather gear. Which you have to pay for.

Trainees’ transport to Titan is paid for. But if you wash out of the program—which, they don’t tell you until after you get there, more than half do—you have to pay your employer back for the ticket.

I was one of the washouts. And if my uncle hadn’t left me the money for my transport, I would have wound up indentured like most of the others.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.