Will Work For Air

by Howie Amourscow

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The problem, Gregor thought, wasn’t how to get to Mars. The problem was how to get back to Earth.

He saw that now. This was Matti’s idea, and like all of Matti’s ideas, it was a bad one. He shouldn’t have told Matti about Moonage Daydream: if he hadn’t told Matti, he’d still be talking about it and not stuck up here without enough credit to go home. He didn’t even have enough to breathe tomorrow, much less pay a fare. Not even a luggage berth.

Another problem caused by Matti and booze, just like his second wife. “This is just like Jenny,” he said aloud.

“What’s just like who?” said a husky voice over his shoulder. Hope had an Elvis smile, or maybe just a tic. “I got us a ride,” she said.

“I’m not getting frozen,” Gregor said. “Freezing is for peas.” Matti shot him a dirty look.

“Psh,” Hope said. “As if. Cryo makes me look like a Gorey debutante. You’re willing to work for air, right?”

Matti gave a noncommittal shrug. “Sure,” Gregor said, “what’s the gig?”

“Stevedores,” Hope said with a half-smile.

Prequels

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Sequels

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Comments

Average Reader Rating: 5.0 stars out of 5

  1. Will Work For Air

    Howie Amourscow's Buddy Icon Howie Amourscow

    Posted 5 months ago

    Although robot freight handlers continue to make inroads, three objections still remain. First, despite great strides, robot manipulators lack fine tuning. Second, even with nanoscale processors, robot emulation of intuition still lags. Third, while the ILA is willing to overlook nonunion labor if it’s human, nothing starts a strike like a ‘bot doing a human’s job.
    Accordingly, humans are irreplaceable on yachts and cruise ships, where robots handle heavy containers and humans load luggage and breakables.

  2. Will Work For Air

    Denubis' Buddy Icon Denubis

    Posted 5 months ago

    Excellent.

  3. Will Work For Air

    White Hat's Buddy Icon White Hat

    Posted 5 months ago

    5.0 out of 5 stars

    Is it cheating to use comments to expand the information content of a ficlet?

  4. Will Work For Air

    Howie Amourscow's Buddy Icon Howie Amourscow

    Posted 5 months ago

    Not necessarily. Thus far, the side-comments in this series are more like annotations: the ficlet would still read the same (for better or worse) even without the commentary. In my own mind, they’re a bit like the episode prologues in the anime series Outlaw Star, but that’s just me.

  5. Will Work For Air

    THX 0477's Buddy Icon THX 0477

    Posted 5 months ago

    5.0 out of 5 stars

    I liked the ‘Elvis smile’ comment, a little more detail about our husky voiced femme practicale. And I think the comments are funny, like the tangential asides old people throw in while telling a long story.
    LoA

  6. Will Work For Air

    Tad Winslow's Buddy Icon Tad Winslow

    Posted 4 months ago

    5.0 out of 5 stars

    the gestures of the characters were great.

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