Challenge #01666-D205: High Risk Employment

Beware the old ones in a profession where one dies young -- RecklessPrudence

Fast reflexes, an almost preternatural awareness of one's surroundings, instincts like a knife blade. These are the things that make a good asteroid runner. Being able to get in, snag the asteroid, and get out without causing orbital upsets in one's wake is a skill that one only has to get wrong once for a life and a career to be over.

It's a job for the young and the fast. For those with twitch reflexes and the kind of peripheral vision that the phrase "eyes in the back of their head" was invented for.

And then there's Old Barnaby.

He's been an asteroid runner for thirty years, far longer than most others have been alive. Asteroid running is a high-stakes, high pay, and high mortality occupation. A statistical outlier like Old Barnaby is one that gets everyone's notice. He stands out at the rec room where all the young ones gather. A man twice, sometimes three times their age, knocking down the usual heart-stopper fare that, though ill-advised, is allowed for asteroid runners because they usually die young.

Noobs ask him if he's a Lucker.

Old Barnaby makes them buy him a beer before he answers, "Nope. Been tested 'n' all. Not a scrap of the Luck Gene, me. What I do have is math."

And that's when Old Barnaby stops talking until the noob buys him a Depth Charge Burger[1] to go with the beer. Once past the first three bites, he says, "Back when I was doing my learning, I managed to absorb orbital physics. Branded into my brain. Only thing that stuck, really." Another two bites. "So all I do is take the numbers from my scanners and take the rock that's the least trouble. Just like playing pick-up sticks or Jenga. You don't go for the ones that're gonna make the whole thing fall over. So to speak."

Old Barnaby ruined the Galactic phrase, "There are no old asteroid runners." And changed it to, "There are young and bold asteroid runners, there are old and cautious asteroid runners. There are no old and bold asteroid runners." Which is much more to say, but still a concise lesson in doing one's job properly.

[1]: Beans and Chili are involved. And way too much cheese.

[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / klss]

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