4. A capsule of civilization

"Space debris, huh...", Razinsky said as the voice in the speakers died out.
Singer nodded, "Yeah, hell of a blow..."
Razinsky looked thoughtful but didn't speak. He shrugged, picked up his towel and headed for the showers.

Singer carefully folded the end of his pants before tucking them into the boots. He tightened the straps and pushed the flap in place with a click. Shrapnel safe or not, you wouldn't want to run many miles in boots like this. Still, the navy's allright he thought. His second cousin was in the Destin army back home and had told him about the packs and survival gear they had to carry around through the mountains. Sleeping in tents or in the open, sometimes digging caves in the snow. Nothing like that here, he thought. At the end of the day you go home, even if home in this case was a ship orbiting a distant moon, somewhere in the cluster.

All across the room, people were rummaging through footlockers and checking equipment, while getting ready for the mission ahead. The usual jokes and laughter had a nervous edge to them. 'Apprehension of suspect' could mean almost anything at a remote location like this.
'The federal laws are just like gravity', one of the instructors had told them way back in the academy; 'they get weaker the further you get from the source'.
People out here had their own laws and most of the time authorities looked the other way. The death penalty, abandoned by the Federation forty years ago, was not uncommon in the cluster, even though it was filed as accidents in the records. After all, mining is a dangerous business and things happen.

A small capsule of civilization was what the Armitage represented out here in the vast darkness; a small campfire in a looming dark forest where you could hear the wolves howl in the distance. There was no backup out here. Should anything go wrong the closest navy vessel could be days or weeks away. On the other hand you always knew they would turn up eventually and that's all you needed to keep going. Hope and faith lasts a long way. That's why they never left anyone behind; ever.