The Judge

Dexter Galaver, decorated soldier, strode through the hangar, embedded comfortably in the side of an asteroid, towards his designated craft. Today was an important day, for him at least. There would always be somebody who didn’t care, but for quite a few people, today was an important day.1

He had been trained extensively for this situation, this mission. The other pilots walked slowly, glancing backwards. They shifted uncomfortably in their suits as they walked. In the cockpits, they fidgeted. They were scared.2

Dexter had no such feelings. He was confident, poised, ready. He went through all the procedures smoothly. After all, he had been through so many exercises like this before. He was one of the most highly decorated pilots in the service. A medal for saving a comrade here, completing a mission there. This and that.3

This mission, however, was larger than anything he had taken on yet. He had a military base to nuke.4

The crafts were attended by several engineers, making sure at the last minute the crafts were secure and steady. As the engineers began to file off, satisfied with the crafts, the crafts geared up, powered on, and slowly exited the hangar.5

The other pilots were scared. There were some who weren’t counting on coming back. Dexter had no such worries. He knew he would make it back. He knew he would be successful.6

His craft was heavier than normal. That’s because it wasn’t carrying a normal load. He was carrying the nuke, a ‘Judge’, they liked to call it, for the first time. He could feel the extra weight whenever he made a shift to the right or left, a turn of any kind, even just moving, he could feel his craft struggling harder than usual against itself.7

Soon after he left the hangar, he came across his first asteroid, a size 6, which is what the military liked to use to describe things as ‘enormous’. It was easily several times Dexter’s ship. He swerved to the right to avoid the asteroid, which was hurtling along at what would seem an absurd pace for such a large object. The move was harder to make than normal. But no worries, Dexter assured himself, he would adjust.8

He cruised along through the asteroid cluster going at a safe, yet efficient speed. He had been trained highly for this. He kept his eyes on the field in front of him, and yet he was distracted. Dodging left and right to avoid the swirling, hurtling asteroids, he felt an ominous weight upon his ship he had never experienced before.9

This didn’t make sense to Dexter. Hadn’t the simulations and exercises been designed for specifically this mission? Hadn’t they adjusted the weight of the ship, and the turning time, for the extra weight of the missile?10

Perhaps it was the ship. Maybe it hadn’t been properly oiled, maybe the steering was sticking. But that didn’t make sense either. The military only employed its top pilots and engineers for missions such as this. They would not have made such a mistake as this.11

Satisfied, he concluded that the only reasonable explanation for the extra weight he felt was simply built up in his own head. Nevertheless, he felt it reasonable to decrease his speed by a fair margin, to avoid any accidents or collisions.12

Yet still, it seemed harder and harder to avoid the asteroids as they were thrown, seemingly by some invisible hand, across his path. A moderately sized one he had not noticed threw itself in front of him mere seconds before he reached its position, and he nearly scraped the edge of it. Just clearing the edge of this one, he came out into what seemed an open field. Content, he let out a little chuckle of relief, and relaxed for the time being.13

At this very moment, he felt a shudder and a groan throughout his ship emanating from above his head. Quickly, he brought up the damage assessment on his main screen. The screen showed him a diagram of the ship, a long streak of red across the dorsal structure indicating that he had scraped the top of his ship. Bringing up the rear cameras, he saw too late an asteroid above him he had not seen. The ship’s computer, however, seemed content to say that the damage was minimal.14

Shaken, but not panicked, Dexter opened the radio connection to the asteroid base’s command center. He was greeted only with static. Feeling the first tinges of fear, he rechecked the ship’s diagram. He had not noticed before, but the asteroid had completely separated his radio transmitter.15

But it did not matter, he thought to himself. Certainly command would overlook such a minor error as this upon completion of the mission. He switched off his radio.16

There were no more asteroids for a while. Satisfied with this, Dexter set the ship’s speed a little faster and sat back in his seat. He cruised along in silence like this for a bit, until he began to see little specks appearing at the edge of his vision, growing steadily larger. It was a virtual wall of asteroids he could not avoid by going over, under or around. He reduced the ship’s speed slightly and sat up in his seat, ready for the maneuvering.17

As soon as he hit the field, he realized how dense the asteroids really were here. After clearing one, he encountered two more, crossing each other’s paths. Once, a pair collided right in front of him, sending little chips that spattered against his ship. One car-sized chunk that had broken off flew towards him and clipped the side of his ship.18

A little red light began blinking on his dashboard. Once more, he brought up the diagram of the ship. He froze at what he saw.19

Another little red line showed a deep gash in the ship where a fuel line used to be. Looking at his fuel indicator, he noticed that the needle was steadily falling, slowly but surely.20

There were no comforting thoughts for this situation. With his radio out and his fuel decreasing at a steady pace, there was no way he would be able to make it to the target with the rest of the pilots. He would have to stop at one of the outposts on one of the nearby asteroids. He brought up a map on the ship’s interface. The nearest station was at the edge of the asteroid cluster. He was about a quarter of the way through. He had enough fuel to make it there.21

He moved his ship to the right, in the direction of the outpost. He dodged one, two, three asteroids successfully, but it almost seemed as if the weight of the Judge had increased. It was harder than ever, and he barely cleared the third asteroid’s edge.22

He noticed the density of the asteroids increasing now. One flew directly in front of his windshield, while another soared overhead. He noticed, out of the corner of his eye, one coming straight into his path. Dexter began swerving to the left to avoid it. The throttle seemed not to move, the ship was so heavy. And yet, the ship begin to tilt to the left, bit by bit, until he was nearly at the asteroid.23

As he got closer and closer, he pulled the throttle as hard as he could to the left. And all at once, he heard a groan escape from somewhere within the bowls of the ship, and the throttle stuck in place. It would not move any more to the left. In a panic, Dexter looked at his fuel indicator. The needle was nearly on empty. The asteroid kept approaching, a silent, gyrating behemoth in front of him, and as it got closer and closer, it became clear that the ship would not clear the edge of the asteroid.24

Dexter stared in awe at the sight in front of him. As the asteroid swung around in its final revolution before Dexter and his ship collided with it, a large cavern in the asteroid opened up in front of him, and in it an open invitation to death. In the second before he collided with the chunk of rock, he thought one last time of his teary-eyed wife and daughter waving goodbye to him at the spaceport’s gates as he boarded his flight to his training camp. Dexter last thought to himself was, ‘If only the ship hadn’t been so damn heavy’.25

And so it was that The Judge, made to end the lives of thousands, ended the life of only one man.