Shoshone Station: The Galactic Consortium season 2

Episode Six: Africa #10

The trucks that Jake would drive for the Consortium were huge affairs. They stood three times his own height, and a ladder was needed to get into the cab. Luckily for Jake, who was still struggling with the climate, the cabs were not only climate controlled but could be hermetically sealed. There were two bucket seats at the front and a small cabin behind, complete with sleeping nooks, toilet, and a kitchenette.

They were powered by giant electric motors designed to give the trucks a huge amount of torque so they could haul a great deal of material and churn through just about any terrain. Unlike combustion engines, the electric motors did not require any air to operate, and with the cab sealed, they could be operated in low or no atmosphere. In fact, identical trucks were being used on the surface of Mars.

"Just imagine," Chatura had said earlier, "if we got our Level 1 space certification, we could be on Mars driving these things."

"Thanks, but I'll pass," Abioya had responded. "This is enough for right now."

Jake agreed, even though it was, as the economic workers, had said, "not rocket science." They had yet to actually get inside a real truck, but they spent most of their day in the simulators. The controls were intuitive, and the driving was the easy part of Jake's day.

The hard part was simply being in Africa, being so far from home. Being surrounded by strange faces and strange languages.

Then there was the size of the base. He knew where his own bunker was. He could usually find the mess hall. Otherwise, he was lost. He got a wicked sunburn the first day and then made it worse by wandering for almost fifteen minutes looking for the medical facilities. He'd been on the edge of heatstroke by the time he found it.

He would do his laundry and shopping whenever one of his bunkmates were going, rather than admit that he was afraid of getting lost trying to find his way around. He spent most of his evenings either in his own cubicle or in the smaller lounge that was at the front of their bunker.

He felt a strong kinship with his two bunkmates. Abioya was the oldest in his family and had a single mom. Like Jake, he worried about the family finances and how his mother would take care of the younger siblings. He talked about how it would be to go home the first time, flush with cash. How it would feel to be able to contribute to the family for the first time.

Chatura's family was intact and well-off. His father did something in data, whatever that meant. He didn't share the concerns about his family or money. But he was young, around Jake's age. And this was his first time far from home. And he, too, was in a very strange place. He'd grown up in space, on a space station. He grew up where everyone spoke Consortium and shared a common culture. The newness around them intimidated him as it did Jake.

So, Abioya took the lead. He was a local, though not so much of the local as Jake had originally thought. He looked up a map of Africa online and saw just how far Abioya had come to be part of this. Still he knew the local language, and he knew the local customs. If he hadn't, he probably would've still taken the lead. He was outgoing and friendly and didn't seem intimidated by anything.

By their third evening on the base, he talked them into skipping the mess hall and taking a tram into town. He turned a small share of his credits into local currency, and they all went to a restaurant. Jake was a little nervous, having only heard that Africa could be dangerous what with terrorists and warlords. Abioya laughed that off and assured him such dangers were far away. Indeed, the restaurant was filled with friendly faces and delicious fare.