[ CW ] Write a story that lives and dies in a ten seconds time span

“ He ’ s about to pass my Hauler. What would happen if I press ‘ release ’ when he does? ” 
 
 Jim thought asteroid mining would be more exciting than this. Instead he was stuck in his pod, guiding Haulers across his sector of asteroid 2273 DG. This particular asteroid is supposed to yield tons of iron and cobalt and the operation was well on its way. Jim ’ s supervisor, Aaron Davies, wasn ’ t a bad sort, Jim just didn ’ t like how arrogant he sounded. 
 
 “ I ’ m the super Jim, just keep hauling and you ’ ll get your pay mehmehmeh.. ” Jim mockingly imitated their last exchange, pinching his nose to replicate the super ’ s squeaky voice. 
 
 The immaculately white Haulers kept swarming the drilling points like an army of metal worker ants. They scooped up all of the material that either floated up, or was still on the surface of the asteroid, using their own army of small Seekers. Think small automatically propelled silvery grabbers. The operator then would guide the full Hauler back to the loading docks surrounding the asteroid where they would dump the contents of the Hauler and guide it back to the drilling point. The operators themselves were in their own red pods, constantly in motion to keep up with the asteroid ’ s minor rotation. The supervisors, in their yellow pods, systematically zipped up and down those lines checking for half-filled Haulers or otherwise slacking miner personnel. 
 
 The cherry red release button beckoned Jim, blinking its backlight as if it was trying to say “ hit me and you can go back to the barracks, play another round of low-grav Ping-Pong ”. 
 
 Aaron ’ s pod had just started to make his way back from one of the docks when the scenery suddenly changed, and with it Jim ’ s attitude. The distant star was lighting up the edge of the asteroid, highlighting the army of Haulers and casting elongated shadows of the docks surrounding 2273 DG. The dust the drillers cast up created the illusion of a misty sunset, all in a comforting hue of crimson. 
 
 It was beautiful. 
 
 So beautiful in fact that Jim completely missed his mark to conspire against his supervisor and lost the desire to fight the tedium of mining. This was why he joined the mining expedition. He adjusted his NASA cap and successfully guided his Hauler into the loading dock. 

