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Inside the pressurized cabin, when he shut off his music, he heard nothing save the array of clicks, beeps, and inarticulate gurgles of the machines and computers that ran his ship. When he took this job, he had feared he would be lonely. But in truth  there was peace in the silence. He could be at one with the cosmos, fulfilled and alone—well, almost. Taking his eyes off the emerging view ahead, he glanced down at the affectionate and easy-going bundle of brown fur in the chair beside him.

“Now take a look at that, Chess, my girl. Isn’t she a gorgeous sight?” he asked his four-legged friend Chester as he gazed in the direction of a giant asteroid, about the size of nine football fields, being towed majestically in front of him by three Consortium space tugs.

The pitted outline of the asteroid, shaped over eons by the relentless battering of cosmic rays and solar winds, loomed through the darkness, towed in procession and lit by the luminescence of the moon on one side and the blue radiance of planet Earth on the other.

“Someone’s going to make a killing from that, huh?” he remarked to himself, then stood and rubbed Chester’s trim coat. Chester nuzzled against him, licked his face, and then ate the treats that he fed her. Hunter, tall and muscular, with green eyes and short light-brown hair, found he was a little too lanky for the cockpit flight seat and liked to get up to stretch every so often. In contrast, Chester fit the ergonomic seating perfectly.

Hunter smiled softly. She wasn’t the original Chester; in fact, officially she was Chester IV, but after his first love, his childhood dog Chester, had passed away, he’d found it easier to bear the loneliness of space with a pooch by his side. Plus, she was an instant connection to his sister Teagan, who had loved the original Chester too. A dog just made his day better—and gave him someone to talk to other than the AI, however empathetic and friendly the AI attempted to be.

Hunter adjusted his seat to get a better view. Rays of sunlight bounced unevenly off the coarse reddish-grey of the chipped and pock-marked rock, enhancing its otherworldly appearance as it was hauled along on a tether, like an ancient passenger liner emerging ceremoniously from the calm, unbounded horizon of the ocean. Likely a leftover from the formation of our solar system some 4.6 billion years ago, the asteroid was an eerie visitor from another cosmic realm, or even another dimension.

Hunter tore open a retortable plastic pouch of his favorite freeze-dried spicy shrimp and tossed one of the delicious bites into his mouth while scanning the dashboard for anything unusual. Then he settled back to enjoy the show. A rock this size was a prized possession, loaded with minerals that could easily make someone a billionaire. Some of the rogue corporations would definitely hear of this one and might be tempted to hijack it. Hunter smiled to himself. They were welcome to try. There was nothing his colleagues from the mercantile protection force could not handle.

“Ain’t that right, girl?” he asked the ship.

“I don’t understand your enquiry, Hunter,” the AI replied. He rolled his eyes and shrugged. Much as they tried to be friendly, the AI creeped him out on some days and he couldn’t understand why the one on his ship felt like it needed to reply to everything that came out of his mouth. He vowed to adjust the settings again.

Hunter commanded the Space Sweeper III, a vehicle for retrieving orbiting space junk and debris. It seemed like a boring job, but it was one in which he took great delight. Pilots willing to do this job were also in high demand because few wanted to ride solo in space for lengthy periods.

“Chester, you know, I think that I have the best job in the world,” he said.

“According to research, dogs—” the AI interjected.

“Sweep, my dear friend, if you tell me one more time about how dogs do not fully understand the intricacies of human speech, I will turn you off.”

“It would be rather difficult to pilot this ship without me,” she said.

“I would enjoy that better than hearing you yapping away all the time. Besides, I think there’s a way to turn off  your speech capabilities,” he said.

The spaceship went quiet; the silence reminded Hunter of how long it had been since he'd called his family. He had to admit that he was bad at staying in touch. His mind drifted to his sister, Teagan. He was filled with remorse as he remembered the pain that his sister had gone through, her feelings of abandonment and loneliness, and the grief that she must have endured in her darkest moments all alone in a lunar jail.

In happier days, they had been inseparable. They laughed and shared secrets with each other. But after she had been thrown into prison on the moon, it felt like a chasm stretched between them -- no matter how hard he tried to comfort her from afar, it was utterly inadequate.

Even though she was eventually released, the thought of her suffering without him made him sad. She did have Julian, that artist guy, and he could tell she loved Julian, however unreliable he was. But Hunter still couldn't help but wonder if she blamed him for not trying harder to find a way to get her out faster. He felt guilty for not having enough courage and confidence to be there when she needed him most.
 
Chester made a small whimpering noise, as if to remind him that he had a ship to run. Space Sweeper III was part of a multinational team called "STARFIRE" the name adopted by the "Space Debris Tracking and Removal Force" that cleaned up space junk, particularly in low-earth orbit, but also in the outer atmosphere and around the Moon. Despite long periods alone, Hunter kept in touch with friends and could pick up most of his relationships easily when he returned to base on the orbiting Epona space habitat, and even when he was able to visit back home on Earth. 

The asteroid was near the end of its long journey and would soon be parked at the ElleWon space station, ready to be stripped of its riches by a team of robotic miners, who would use the resources they found for construction of more space habitats orbiting the Earth. It was a highly profitable business for the Space Consortium of miners and multi-billionaires who had invested in space after the economic collapse known as the Great Unravelling.

Hunter settled into his seat and turned up the receiver in his ear. They would be at ElleWon soon. He had to be vigilant. Hunter looked over at where Earth shone wispy blue in the distance and gave it a deferential nod.

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