"When will Gerry be coming home?"
"Your brother is a very important man now, you have to understand that Marilyn."
"Yes I know, but I miss him a lot."
"His job on Woden will probably take about a year and a half to complete before he has any time off to come see us."
There was a discontent sigh that came from Marilyn as she got up from the kitchen table. It was almost 10:00 and she had to make it to her linguistics class that her brother had been sending money to pay for. The Cross family was doing fine financially, but not as good as they could be with two aspiring children looking to work in the field of space exploration and pioneering.
Marilyn opened the door to her university hoping to make it to class in time, she was running a bit late. In her mind she was thinking of how she would cajole the professor into not penalizing her for her tardiness. There was just one more corner to turn before she would be in eyesight of the door to her room, however a man had yelled her name as she came ten feet away. "Hey Marilyn, can I have a word with you?" she turned around to reveal that the stern, manly voice was that of the dean. She was unsure of why, she didn't object though.
The dean escorted Marilyn into his office and seated her in a comfortable, velvety chair in which she nervously sat. The dean moved around the desk and sat in his big head-honcho chair. "Marilyn, I called you in her to let you know that you've been assiduously working on your linguistics course at a very alarming rate! I've consulted some education experts and analysts; they were quite impressed with your work. I'm proud to say that you've been rated in the top ten in the whole country and are eligible for early graduation."
Marilyn didn't know what to say, she pressed her hand over her mouth in blissful shock and the grin on the dean's face grew to her reaction. "You've also been reviewed by some interplanetary work forces. They've commented on your perspicacity and knowledge and you have some job openings that you can pursue immediately after graduation!" This was more than Marilyn could handle. She was pleased beyond belief and she shot up from her chair and squeezed the dean in an epic hug. There was nothing else for Marilyn to do then fill out the paperwork and get everything ready for her graduation!
Over the next few days, Marilyn had time to pick out some jobs that had been offered to her. She had to choose between a job on Planet Mimir, a two-year tour aboard a spacecraft, or several other menial jobs on remote planets that didn't sound appealing at all. Marilyn thought about her brother Gerry, and how he only had a year to work until he transported to Mimir, therefore if she took the job there so she could see her brother much sooner than her parents. She was jubilant with her decision, and her parents were overly proud and presented her with a large sum of money for her to survive in case of emergency. (But more of a graduation gift than anything.)
She walked around the space launch site with another hour left to kill. No one else seemed to make eye contact with her, and her futile attempts at interacting with passers by got more humiliating with each try. This wasn't how it was going to be on Mimir was it? Marilyn was befuddled at the churlish behaviour of the few people she met in this short time period. So she thought she might as well go off on some exploring by herself. Her first adventure was the biggest ship in the area, the Stardust! It was so massive, she'd easily kill two hours looking around in there!
And in she went, through two large airlock compartment doors which led to the main corridor of the ship. Inside were many doors that sprung off into tunnels that lead into rooms. Maybe two hours wasn't that much after all, this was a huge ship. "What if I get lost?" spoke her thoughts, but it mattered not as she still continued on her journey through the ship.
After about an hour and a half, she decided to quell her quest because it had seemed that she was going in a big circle always leading back to the main section of the ship. She went off to what she thought was the exit many times before landing herself into the docking bay where there were six EDS ships awaiting deployment in space. Marilyn was staring at there mechanical marvels not hesitating to look inside.
There were so many buttons that Marilyn felt sick when looking at the main control board of the ship. She had to look away before temptation took over and had her push some sort of self destruct button or other. It was such a cozy little vessel, and she had to stop her thinking for a moment when the entire ship's intercom blared, "There has been a schedule change, all departing shuttles are leaving in T minus 5 minutes."
Marilyn was trapped! It was bad enough she couldn't find a way out of the Stardust, but now she couldn't even find the exit to the mini EDS craft. She frantically tried to run to the exit but she found herself facing a board with writing in black marker. It read the current destination of the vessel, which was Woden. Marilyn thought this as a blessing in disguise, and quickly changed her plans and thought if she stowed away on the ship, she'd get to pay Gerry a surprise visit! But if she was caught, how big of a fine would she have to pay? Would Gerry's sent home income be enough to pay for it? Perhaps it could just be dismissed as Gerry was a leader in the Woden expedition. Maybe he could vouch for her! Her thoughts like a hundred moths trapped in a lampshade until a final explosion propelled her into making her final move; to lock herself in a small closet next to her. Inside there was a bottle of an unknown liquid. She scooched the object aside and made herself comfortable. It was going to be a long trip to Woden.
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