Write a page from a travelogue of a space adventurer.
Dear Diary.
Cletus and me were playing zap-the-cleaner today and I got banished from the rec room for three shifts. What’s a kid supposed to do for fun around here? I mean, we go to class during the sun shift and we sleep during the second space exposure and that leaves a whole shift with nothing to do.
I read the earthside stories from before the great travel. They go one and on about the majesty of space and the way it makes you understand your insignificance in the sweep and scope of infinity. I done that too, but it don’t take but about half an hour. That’s like only one sixteenth of a shift! That’s right, I know my numbers. Fat lot of good that does when you got nothing to do.
Maybe we shouldn’ta played zap the cleaner, but it is the only thing which means something when you play. See the cleaner drones were made earthside a whole long time ago and they have this self repair thing about which works mostly, but not all the way. Anyway they repair the parts of themselves what keep them cleaning, but there is this kind of energy leak on ‘em that if you touch one it shocks you so bad your hair stands up and you can’t breath for like three breaths. So me and Cletus, we play a kind of tag ball with the cleaners zipping around and if you don’t pay super attention to where you are,
He got himself a new synth-plate in his head and they say the hair will grow back eventually. Maybe we’ll get attacked by space pirates who fly flaming asteroid destroyer ships. They could take me prisoner and raise me as a pirate. I’d make a good pirate… boy-howdie, space travel is boring. I bet I could get Drucilla to play Zap the cleaner with me tomorrow…
-Brihack
