WRITING SAMPLE FROM MOONCRASH

Memoir of Lunar Miner

Nat Taylor

Project Axiom in the 1980s.  It was a time when a legion of astronauts captured the hearts of the world, flashing gleaming smiles before closing the cockpit hatch and thundering into space. Dozens of rockets a day turned every face on Earth skyward, but no one could see what was in the dark cargo compartments below. My fellow miners and I were strapped to benches, surrounded by our rattling equipment that we would use to stab at the heart of the moon.  There was no celebrity for us, just dirty, difficult and exceedingly dangerous work. 

In those early days there was no pressurized dome.  We tunneled in space suits, aware that even a minor accident would result in certain death.  The pressure cracked many of the guys.  At night I could hear them crying in the dark, and the smell of bootleg liquor would circulate through our barracks. But by day we were hard as nails, and for every miner that died we would hit back at the moon that killed them, cutting deeper and deeper into it with a vengeance.

The astronauts got all the glory, but it was they guys like us, working and dying in the most remote tombs ever, that made Project Axiom happen.