Shoshone Station: The Galactic Consortium season 2

Episode Two: To Be or Not To Be #3

"How was work?" Grandma asked as Fox came up to his gate. Their housing unit looked ridiculous for the time being, a single fenced-in collection of four onion domes in an otherwise empty space, surrounded by a fence. In time the court will be filled, he reminded himself.

Kellii was trying to decide if he wanted to stay, working under Fox. The sign, he told Fox, was if he moved down here. His dad would happily set him up, but it would be more permanent than his current quarters and he and his wife hadn't decided if they wanted to stay.

A professional couple had stopped by yesterday to look at space. He was a physicist and she was an anthropology professor. She had some Sioux blood. Not much, but enough to claim membership in the tribe and emigrate to the Shoshone collective. Despite that they had little in common with the rest of the immigrants and were perhaps looking for a separate space. Fox wasn't sure what to feel about that but they'd seemed like a nice couple. And the point was, people were slowly interested in moving into the court and in time it would be a community of sorts.

For now though, it didn't just look odd, sounds traveled oddly across the mostly empty space. The last of Emma's clients had just retrieved their child and she was in their backyard, picking up toys. Tanner was "helping" taking the toys out of the box almost as fast as she could put them in. She moved him away from the box with an exasperated air.

Grandma was in the patio kitchen and the smell of chili permeated the air while she kneaded dough at the table. Fox's stomach rumbled. There were bad things about sharing space with his family, like a lack of privacy. But Grandma's walking tacos with authentic fry bread more than made up for them.

Ray was talking consortium to someone in his room. Fox scrunched his brow and looked inside. It was a holographic display, showing various objects or scenes. Ray dutifully spoke the words that went with each seen. He noticed Fox and shut off the program. "Homework," he said. "Gotta learn the language."

"Gotta?" Fox joked. "Maybe you should learn English while you're at it. How's it going?"

"Not bad," he said with a shrug.

"Tell him about your test scores," Grandma prompted. "And you both come out here. Supper's almost ready."

Fox turned back towards the patio. He let Grandma kiss his cheek. "How was work?" she asked.

"Not bad," he replied. "Test scores?"

Ray slumped into a seat next to Fox. Emma came over and deposited Tanner in another before heading into the bathroom to clean up.

"Yeah, didn't do too bad," Ray said. "Tech. Nothing fancy, but good enough."

"Imagine if you hadn't burnt so many brain cells with all those drugs."

Ray shrugged that off too. "Yeah, they say the damage isn't permanent. And their tank shit helps."

"The meditation, too, I hope," Fox said.

"Yeah, that too."

"It's important that you are invested," Fox lectured. "It works, but like AA back on the surface, they can't break the addiction if you don't work the program."

"Yes, father," Ray groused.

"He knows," Grandma said, setting plates in front of them.

"Besides, I won't be able to get anything in space," Ray said. "So I got to get over the withdrawals here."

"Definitely going to space?"

"Yeah, hope so," Ray said. "I mean if I got to serve my time anyway, space is where to be, ain't it. I got pass basic education and take my certification. I talked to that guy's cousin via the system this morning. If I pass space certification, he'll let me on his crew."

"See that you do," Fox commanded and then set to eating. "It's wonderful," he said to Grandma, forgetting his day and Ray for awhile.

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