“Copy.”
Owen tapped his helmet twice for luck, once by his ear, once on front. Old habits.
He stepped out the airlock and began a 35 meter space walk alongside the ship. Their multigenerational ship, Horizon, was the only home Owen ever knew. He served as a mechanic, just like his father and grandfather before him.
“Range now 20 meters,” he reported. Special job today. Ship’s mainframe needed a reboot, and he was assigned to manually check the old analog fuel readings as part of reset. Only happened once every 50 years.
“Range 0.05 meters. Permission to proceed?”
“Copy, mechanic 7-4. You are go to proceed.”
“Commencing reading.” Owen pried open the old gauge panel. Not a spot on it despite its age. Just two small, neat scratches along the inside — probably from other times there were resets.
He squinted at the fuel gauges. Horizon was still at least 200 Earth years away from the new colony, but the levels here showed reserves for half that. Not nearly enough to make it.
“Command, what were last known readings?” he asked.
“Last known readings, fuel mass lifespan remaining 368.6 Earth years. Projection for this reset 318.4 years remaining.”
Nowhere near what Owen was seeing.
“Mechanic 7-4, report current readings.”
Deep breath. Owen tapped his helmet twice.
“Projections correct, Command. No change.” A lie was better than the truth.
His eyes lingered on the inside scratches. He made a third neat scratch and resealed the panel.
Owen turned back. Quick job. He would be able to make it home early for dinner.
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