L1 Or Bust: Cislunar Series, #3

By D.W. Patterson

L1 Or Bust: A Short Story

 

There's a place for everyone, and everyone better know his place, at least aboard a spacecraft.

 

I felt like that too, until something seemed to be going wrong on the mission to save the first fuel depot built at the Earth-Moon system's L1 point. There was a problem, a total systems failure kind of problem, and the Commander and his First Officer seemed to not be making any progress solving it.

 

And if they didn't solve it soon, the mission would be lost. And that meant, I would be lost in space along with them. As the company's head engineer, I thought I could help if given the chance.

 

Problem was, the commander didn't want my help.

 

But I couldn't just sit there.

 

L1 Or Bust is set in the future (2040s) and is a short story in the Remembered Earth Universe: Cislunar Series.

 

The Remembered Earth Universe contains, as of this writing, 3 novellas and 9 short stories in two series, Cislunar and Lunar. More stories planned.

 

Cislunar Series suggested reading order:

 

US Tugs: A Short Story

Prototype: A Short Story

L1 Or Bust: A Short Story

Guidance Box: A Short Story

Air Brakes: A Short Story

View Point: A Short Story

Space Truck: A Short Story

Dark Side: A Novella

 

Hard Science Fiction – Old School.

Human-Generated-Content.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Future Chron Publishing
• Release date: Jun 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223289708

Book preview

Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten but they start a winning game.

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

TO THE READER

In this story (and most of my stories) I know I am using the antiquated dating system, A.D. I blame this on the book Daybreak – 2250 A.D. by Andre Norton, which I read sometime in elementary school (and of which I recently bought an old paperback copy). So, I was imprinted early with that dating system and think it sounds cooler than B.C.E. No social, political or any other kind of statement is meant.

Chapter 1

Date: 2042 AD

The ride up was worse than I remembered. Of course, I hadn't been up here in ten years and maybe it was my memory rather than the ride. Anyway, it wasn't really a problem for me, though I heard someone behind me hit the bag.

Oh well, that's just a difference in physiology, nothing to be ashamed of, although I have to say that I've always been proud of my iron stomach. Silly, but a guy's got to be proud of something, I guess.

The trip to LEO (Low-Earth-Orbit) had been going on for eight decades but never got old for those of us experiencing it. At T-minus-thirty seconds, one can hear the