“JSS Agatha”

Author’s Note: This is a Take Ten to Write story and has not been proofread for errors. If I feel inspired or if there’s interest in the story, I’ll post a revised, edited, and extended version at a later date. Happy reading!

Prompt: “Someone uses a magnifying glass to figure out what’s wrong with some gears.” — suggested by Mary

She groaned. The pressure was becoming too much. The vacuum of space was pulling at her sides, trying to rip her apart.

Of course she was built to withstand these extremes, but she was getting old. She didn’t have the new technology that all those youngsters had. She still ran on a series of complicated gears that had to be thoroughly examined every year.

Recently, she felt as though those examinations were becoming more frequent. Perhaps they didn’t feel like she was worth fixing up anymore. Maybe they were going to retire her.

She didn’t want to be retired. She loved her work, no matter how stressful it was. Those long hours of travel and occasional batterings against others and the stray asteroids were brutal, but she loved it. She loved every single part of her job; she didn’t know what she’d do if she was forced to retire to become a tourist attraction.

Footsteps echoed inside her belly. She restrained herself from rolling her eyes–that is, if she had any eyes. They were doing yet another examination of her gears. She was sure that they were carrying around their little magnifying glass on the end of a stick to probe her inner workings. They would surely find something wrong and then hem and haw about whether it was worth the cost to fix her up.

She believed that she was worth it. She only hoped that they thought the same.

Final Comments: I have no idea how space physics works… But I’d assume that spaceships are extremely complex!

Overall Rating: 🙂