Earth: Satellite

A voice cut through his reverie… "Hey, Shale, napping on the job?"

"Sorry boss." Shale quickly replied. "I was just-"

"I know, she's a beauty isn't she? Hasn't been a single newbie out here who hasn't done the same thing once or twice. Just remember that every breath we take on a space walk costs NASA thousands of dollars, ok?"

"Right boss, we've got a job to do." Shale pulled the line on his belt that led to the tool he needed and went to work on the satellite he was supposed to fix. The whole mission had been spur of the moment, the government had called NASA ordering an emergency update to a satellite that wasn't even supposed to exist. The satellite technician who typically went on these jobs was away, and Shale had been shoved into the shuttle at the last moment, going on his first space flight, five years earlier than he was scheduled to. The government had briefed him on exactly what was to be done, down to every last turn of a screw. He turned on the audio-feed and followed the instructions. Even with his extensive training in space technology, he hadn't the slightest clue what his adjustments were doing to the satellite. All he knew was that his future could very well hinge on this one mission: Do it right, and he'd be sitting on one big paycheck. Make the slightest mistake, and he may lose the career he'd always dreamed of.

"Nervous, Shale?"

"Nah, Pete, I'm fine." Shale replied.

"Your vitals were getting a little shaky."

"Thanks for the heads up, boss."

Shale would be out here-floating in space with nothing but a thin cable tethering him to the shuttle to keep him from drifting off into a timeless exile-for the next four hours. He couldn't rush any aspect of the procedure, because he could not risk overdoing any minute movement, which could possibly damage very delicate equipment. Pete chattered on almost the entire time, about his previous space missions, about his little girl back home, about a lot of things, but Shale tuned him out. Newbie or not, he wasn't going to lose focus on the task at hand… Not for silly small talk, anyway.