Marrow

The trip back to the ship was a silent one. 

Bartek's pace was heavy and sluggish, the weight of what had just happened was beginning to settle in. 

"Did we do the right thing?" I asked, but I already knew the answer.

"No, there is no such thing as the right thing out here." Bartek snorted.

As we exited the building, my suit's clock informed me that it was 4:30PM. The surface of the moon was dark, the nearest orbiting sun's light was just about to be snuffed out over the horizon. 

We retraced our steps returning back to the ship and got there without an issue. 

Inside the ship was the other co-worker, the one we now know as Pierrette.

She said nothing, but I saw her begin to type something on her keypad inlaid onto her arm. 

"Pierrette: Where is the body?"

I read the message and reread it once more. It was like I was reading a foreign language; my brain was refusing to understand it. 

"We left him there; this moon is his grave." Bartek spoke up, I was glad he did. 

 She looked at us, I could sense her judging us as if we were idiots through her body language. 

"Why don't you speak?" I asked, surprising myself for doing so.

She redirected her visor over to me; I felt a little embarrassed over my straight forwardness for asking the question. 

She began to type again.

"Pierrette: I am mute." Is all that she wrote.

"Pierrette: Any more questions?" She asked.

I looked over at Bartek, and he shook his head; I did the same. 

"Pierrette: Our profit will be deducted, and for the total scrap that we've collected on the planet my scanner reads that we now have 94 credits worth of scrap."

"94?" Bartek sounded confused, we had lost the big bolt with the saving attempt to Oscar so all we had managed to bring back was the clown horn and the antique magnifying glass. They should only add up to 74 credits total. 

"Pierrette: You seem confused, I had managed to salvage this object worth 20 scrap." 

She pointed to massive chunk of machinery that was stowed away on one side of the ship. It looked like an engine.

"V-type Engine." Bartek said, he must've scanned it. 

I looked up at the main controls were and checked for the mission's total quota. It read 130 credits, meaning we were 36 credits away from completing it.

It dawned on me if we hadn't thrown the big bolt to Oscar, we would've completed quota. 

But, I didn't say anything to Bartek; he must know better than me the weight of that decision that he had made. 

"Pierrette: We're leaving, get ready for launch."

Pierrette walked over to the main controls and pushed the lever. The port doors behind us closed and the ship began to automatically leave the moon.

Suddenly, a display appeared on the middle of my visor; It practically forcing me to read it. 

"Body not recovered, profit deducted -20%." 

The red hue of the message made my eyes burn. 

We all sat quietly as we waited for the ship to reach orbit. 

---

"Ozker was a good man, albeit an annoyance whenever he opened his mouth." Bartek held up a hydration packet, he was taking small sips from it and grimacing whenever he did; they tasted terrible.

Bartek and I were holding a short memorial in Oscar's memory, Pierrette was in her top bunk cot with her blinds closed.

She hadn't said anything else through the text channel after the we had arrived to the ship.

"He was my junior in our old job as porters at Halden, he and I worked closely on night shifts." Bartek continued, he had his mask off; his eyes were old and grey, the same color as his closely shaved buzz cut. 

"May he rest in peace, out here amongst the stars." Bartek smiled grimly. 

"I-I didn't know Oscar that well." I began my eulogy. 

"But he had a great sense of humor; it made it easy talking to him." 

"We worked some shifts together; he was a good co-worker." 

"May he rest in peace." I finished and took a sip of my hydration packet as well. 

"To Oscar."

"To Oscar." 

Bartek and I raised our packets and spilled a little into the waste chute within the ship. 

I couldn't believe that within our first mission, one of us was already dead. 

"We should launch soon, if we can make quota within the next moon- we can spend the next few days before the deadline to visit 22-Persius."

"That is a good idea, I can make contact with Oscar's family from there." 

From what I understood, we were in an old, chartered part of the Keton quarter of the galaxy. The ship could sail at roughly 600,000 kilometers per hour. It would take us a day to get to 22-Persius, and a day to get back to the company's residing moon. 

I went over to the terminal, Pierrette hadn't said anything yet about our plan and neither could I see they were moving around in their cot from what I could tell. 

This was my first time using the terminal, so I was prompted the questionnaire. 

"What is your favorite animal?"

Animal? There weren't very much animals on 12-Freedom, other than the occasional sewer rat that would escape from piping or the wayward seagulls that'd perch on the facilities roof. 

"I don't know." I typed in.

It accepted my answer and moved onto the next one.

"What is your role on the ship?" 

Role? We're supposed to have roles? I don't remember seeing that being mentioned on the training manual. 

"Co-worker." 

It was satisfied with my answer, and it opened up to the main menu. There were multiple options present, but I saw one read 'Moons'. 

Accessing it, a list of destinations was present for us to go to. 22-Persius wasn't listed on there as a default, but I assumed that. I typed it in onto the bar. 

"Destination unknown." 

What? This ship didn't know where 22-Persius was? How was that possible, it's one the major planets out here. 

I typed it in again, but it reread the same message. 

"Bartek, come here maybe you know how to do this." I asked him and he came over to the terminal. 

I guided him through the menu and got him to the Moons section, he typed in a few potential local planets to test if the ship knew where they were too. 

"99-Gideon." 

"Destination unknown."

"10-Brood."

"Destination unknown."

"89-Victory." 

"Destination unknown."

The morbid realization dawned onto me that this ship would only sail to the preset moons listed onto its default setting. I felt my blood run cold, were we really stuck out here until our contract ended? I don't remember seeing that on the fine print.

"Pierrette: Stop trying, it won't send us anywhere else." 

Pierrette opened up her blinds, she had her mask off.

She looked roughly about my age plus a few years, her black hair was cut short and neatly wrapped into a small bun behind her head. She had a long scar that split into two deep grooves starting up from her chin and ending close to her left eye and nose. 

She jumped down from her cot and walked over to us; her eyes were on the terminal. 

She accessed the moons section and sifted through the presets.

She pointed to one, it was the next moon down on the list.

"220-Assurance." She wrote into the terminal; it accepted the destination, asking whether or not we would like to travel there.

"Confirm or Deny?"

"Confirm."