The Janitor

The Janitor

Rim Station Three was the last stop for humans heading out into the blackness of space. It's orbit is roughly the same distance from the sun as Pluto, three point six billion miles give or take. When you left Sol system there was no turning back, it was your destination or bust.

There were four such stations on the outer edge, each one being tasked with performing last minute maintenance, systems checks and escorting passengers off the colony ships that suddenly had cold feet. Lucky that's never happened, after all they had nothing left to go back to having sold everything to travel to a new world.

Rim Station had a crew of one hundred split into three groups each on a standard six month tour with only a handful on an twelve month tour with six month overlaps. Those people were deemed more essential to the normal operation of the station, in other words they ran the station.

Two ships were scheduled in this week, the Carmet and the London. The Carmet was the companies supply and replacement crew ship and she was already ten days late. The London was a colony ship with two thousand people and a hundred million tons of supplies on board heading to a new life on another world. She was due in five days which meant the Carmet had to be gone before the London arrived.

With the Carmet finally on approach to the station the docking bridge slowly extended outward to receive her. When the two meet the docking clamps took hold securing the ship to the docking bridge. It was another hour before the hatch opened and the replacement crew started down the bridgeway.

"All personnel not on duty report to level three for supply transfer." A voice said over the intercom.

This was standard procedure, the transfer of supplies to the station was an important part of life out here, without them there would be no station. Only those new crew members arriving did not have to help, this time around. They had to be in-processed given their bunk numbers and examined by the stations doctors first and that took time.

It took six hours to transfer all the new supplies over and three more to get the empty cargo containers secured back onto the Carmet. With that done the returning crew members began their out-processing then slowly made their way onto the ship. They still had to wait another twenty hours before the ship could head back to earth, but that was the easy part.

By the time the Carmet departed the new crew had already been given their duty shifts and their escorts were showing them their duties. The station commander, Helen Henderson was escorting her replacement towards the command center when she stopped and smiled at an elderly man pushing a mop and bucket down the hall.

"George," She turned to the woman next to her. "This is Martha Picanill my replacement." He greeted her and shook her hand.

"George Phelps here is our resident fix-it-all man. What we don't know we ask him. We couldn't keep the lights on without him."

"Don't believe a word she tells you." He said smiling. "I'm just the janitor here, she's got lots of kids here to keep this place running." The intercom crackled to life.

"George, they really need you in the cargo area." A male voice said. George looked up.

"Keep your pants on! I'm on my way!" He shook his head. "Dang kid needs to learn patients... and how to use a mop. Nice to meet you Miss Picanill." He started back down the hall pushing the bucket and whistling. They watched him till he rounded the corner.

"Why do we need a janitor?" Martha asked.

"Like I said, George isn't really the janitor. He's a retired engineer he just likes to act like one." They headed towards the command center.

"Retired? Then why take a tour out here?"

"Who knows. Some people just love space more than dirt."

Helen and Martha entered the command center a few minutes later when they saw the colony ship London on the screen. It was early by three days and they were not ready for it.

"When did she call in Jeff?" Helen asked.

"Just a few minutes ago." The man in front of her said. "They departed early but no one radioed to let us know." The London was ten times the size of the station yet still had the ability to dock for passenger transfer. It was easier and cheaper than shuttling them over.

"This is a first."

"Docking crews reports ready to receive in ten minutes ma'am." He told her.

"Did they report and issues or needed repairs?"

"Nothing."

"Okay people let the crew know we have an early inbound..." An alarm interrupted her.

"She just blew a maneuvering thruster! She's loosing control drifting towards us."

"Sound the alarm, brace for impact. All personnel to their emergency stations, and seal the hatches." Helen ordered calmly. The collision alarm sounded. All the emergency doors and hatches started to close.

They watched the ship slowly start to spin as the crew of the London tried to get her working thrusters pointing towards the station in order to prevent them from hitting but she wasn't moving fast enough. The behemoth slowly drift towards the station.

When the ship hit, the station shook to the core, a long groan and tearing sound could be heard and felt rumbling through the station as it slid along the outer hull. Everyone looked up and around listening, then it stopped.

"Damage report?"

"Nothing yet, systems are acting up." Then the lights flickered and went out. Emergency lighting along the floor and ceiling edge came on. She leaned over Jeff's shoulder.

"One of the power conduits outside is damaged. I can't tell where but we lost main power, life support is on emergency power. Not much else except intercoms and emergency lighting."

"Get the repair crews into their suits and get them outside. Have then start near the docking bridge I'm betting that's were the damage is." Jeff shook his head.

"All emergency doors are sealed. No power to open them. She did more than take down main power." Helen cussed under her breath.

"Use the overrides and force the doors if they have too, we only have ten hours of emergency power and the clock is ticking." Then they heard music over the intercom. Helen looked up then at Jeff.

"Is that who I think it is?" Martha asked.

"Frank Sinatra." Jeff told her. "Fly me to the moon."

"Command, there's a break in the main power conduit running to the docking bridge." It was George. "External power cable got ripped out blowing apart and taking the main breaker with it. What a mess."

"George? How did you get outside so fast?" Jeff asked.

"Practice! You should try it some times. Give me a minute and I'll have the power switched to the secondary conduit then you can get the repair teams to finish up. You'll have to reset the primary systems once I switch this over. Tell the power room to be ready."

"Let the power room know." She told Jeff. He quickly relayed the message. "How bad is it George?" Helen asked.

"Ripped a fifty foot long gouge in the outer hull of the station. Luckily they missed the docking bridge. Three or four days work and the station will be as good as new." They heard him hiss. "I told them to put bumpers out here but Nooo..." The lights came back on and so did the screen. They could see George turning towards the colony ship. Behind him was the long gouge it tore into the hull.

He put his back against the station then placed his legs on the London and grunted. A moment later it started to move away from the station.

"That's it, get off my station you lumbering cow!" He grabbed his line looking at the London as it slowly floated away.

"Super 'old' Man." Jeff mumbled. "Ain't physics grand." He finished. The song finished changing to Come fly with me.

"London's got an aft thruster that's going to need replacing along with a little cosmetic work. At least a weeks work once they get a new thruster. She could make it back to earth for repairs if you don't think we can handle the job here." Helen shook her head smiling.

"Thanks George. You really are a life saver, now get back inside will you!" She turned to the rest of the command crew just as the song ended. "Get the repair crews outside, I want a full damage report as soon as possible. Get the docking pods to maneuver that ship to the docking bridge. And let the London's captain know I want to meet in two hours with a full report." She left with Martha heading towards the airlocks.

George was putting his suit back in the storage locker when they arrived. The repair crews were already suited up and heading towards the airlock thanking George as they past. Helen took him in her arms hugging him.

"Nice work George."

"Just do' in my job." He reached over taking the mop and bucket then started past her. She stopped him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"One question George." Martha asked. "What did you mean when you said, 'I told them to put bumpers out here!' Told who?"

"The company when we built these stations. They didn't think my bumpers were needed so they took them out of the plans to save money. Idiots!"

"Your bumpers? You helped build the stations?" Helen asked.

"Designed and built... along with three thousand other's." He shrugged.

"When you get off shift come see us." Martha told him. "We want to know more about your bumpers and if we can retrofit the station with them." He smiled.

"Hell, piece of cake. Even the engineers here can do it. I'll bring up the designs and list of materials needed when I stop by." A young man in his mid twenties came up to them.

"Excuse me Mr. Phelps, sir. But could I barrow that mop and bucket... please?" They stared at the young man for a moment.

"Do you know how to use this?" George asked.

"Yes sir." George passed him the handle. The young man excused himself then headed off down the hall. George shook his head in amazement at the new found respect.

"Excuse me while I make sure that kid knows how to use that." He smiled winked at them then left.

"Janitor my ass." Martha said. They both laughed then headed back to the Command Center.