Garry Stemper
“It’s always hard to take the first step”, he thought, leaving the airlock in a suit with magnetic soles. He looked back, watching the departure of the ship that had brought him here, to this cliff of stone.
The “Quarry Reef” mining station is about to crumble into dust from a collision with a large asteroid. All hope for salvation is directed only at the brave man who is willing to land on an asteroid and set an explosive charge. It will be a one-way road.
And this brave man was found: Garry Stemper, one of the best CMS miners. For ten years he worked tirelessly so that his daughter could have a future without endless and exhausting mining shifts. She was the reason he kept on going, overcoming the difficulties in his path.
The distance to the optimal charge location was about a hundred meters — just a few minutes away, but those few minutes seemed like an eternity to Garry. Ten meters before the target, the suit’s thermal regulation system failed. Whistling from the heat, Garry planted the explosives. It took one minute. Finally, the timer started, but the temperature inside the suit still continued to rise. Garry looked at the vast sky for the last time and fell — happy, but endlessly tired.
He thought he was talking to his daughter. She asked him to come home, but he said he couldn’t, that he’d have to stay on that damn rock forever for her. And he pressed the detonator switch, whispering: “My dear daughter, my baby girl! Be happy!“
A few days later, the central hub of the system.
— Name?
— Grace Stemper.
— Occupation?
— Geological exploration and asteroid mining.
— We were expecting you. Your father died saving the “Quarry Reef”. He will be granted the title of Federation hero. You and the crew of the ship that transported Garry to the asteroid will be given commemorative signs.