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A Matter of Time. Sci- fi by Scott Sutherland a.k.a
A MATTER OF TIME
========================
Once upon a parsec, there was a small world, resident in an
undistinguished solar system in one of the more remote and
undesirable corners of known space. The only activity of any
consequence that went on there was a small Tritium ore mining
station. The men that were stationed there were basically the
dregs of the interstellar talent pool. If you were under-
qualified, undertrained, inept or just plain incorrigible,
chances are that kind of person would fit in nicely with the
other denizens of that small barren rock.
Of course the word eventually spread throughout the galaxy
about the shoddiness of the mining operation. It was generally
assumed that one day something would go wrong, more than likely
with their nuclear reactor that provided the mine with it's
power. If that blew up there would be nothing left but a moderate
sized hole where the mining base had been. Every spaceman worth
his salt agreed it was just a matter of time before the whole
place blew.
One of the problems, albeit not the biggest one the miners
had was that of entertainment. When you're that far away and
isolated, keeping the men happy tends to take on larger pro-
portions. The main snag was that it was next to impossible
to attract any entertainers into coming that far away, also
considering the fact that everyone knew it was just a matter of
time before the rector blew up. Well, there was one group of
entertainers that would make the trip. They were a troupe of
mimes. These mimes, being hard up for work, and not really that
good at miming anyways, made the trip to the mining base three or
four times a year.
Well, as everybody predicted, one day the reactor started to
shudder and burp. The whole colony started to shake and heave.
All the miners knew that this was the big one and prepared to
kiss their collective asses goodbye. Of course, fate would have
it that this event took place during one of the visits by the
mime troupe. The mimes proceeded to pucker up for their rear
ends with the rest of the miners. Then with a final belch, the
reactor blew, taking miner, mime and a large chunk of real estate
up in a huge mushroom cloud.
This would normally be the end of the story, except that
a small interstellar freighter happened to travelling close
enough to the mining base to detect it's demise. After much
debate, the freighter changed it's course for the mine.
The freighter dispatched a shuttle to the planet's
surface, to survey the damage and check for survivors. It was
obvious upon landing that no-one could have survived the blast.
All that remained of the mining station was a huge crater and
various sundry debris thrown aside by the explosion. One of
the crewman remarked that it was inevitable that the station
would blow up. The other crewman sighed and then noticed a
small fragment of cloth on the ground. He bent over, picked it
up and noticed that it appeared to be piece of clothing. He
recognized it as a piece from a mimes costume, having been in
a particularly seedy bar on his last shore leave and had seen
a mediocre mime show. As he tossed it away in the wind, the
other crewman asked him what it was.
"Well, it was just a tatter of mime", he said as they
departed.
May 6, 1990
Written by
Scott Sutherland
11 Lawlor Ave. Toronto
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