Old and Bold

A 2-post collection

Challenge #02081-E257: Young Game, Old Players

The thing most deserving of both respect and fear in equally large amounts is an old man in a place where they often die young. -- Anon Guest

Oort Herding is a game for the young. The ability to weave through free-floating bodies in the depths of absolute darkness, to spot a dirty snowball before the Hungry Caterpillar does, to do the necessary gravitational kicks to cometary objects and get out of the way in the correct direction, all needs fast reflexes and quick minds.

Or, if you ask some, strategy.

They tell legends about him. The only old Oort Herder in Galactic Space. Most of the others call him 'Grampa', but they do so with ingrained respect. Because they know. They know how slow reflexes and moments of inattention can cause the regular early retirement or the euphemistic kind where they're lucky to have some remains interred somewhere. For someone to work as an Oort Herder into their forties, into their fifties... Grampa had to have an edge over anyone else who had to quit the occupation.

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Challenge #01666-D205: High Risk Employment

Beware the old ones in a profession where one dies young -- RecklessPrudence

Fast reflexes, an almost preternatural awareness of one's surroundings, instincts like a knife blade. These are the things that make a good asteroid runner. Being able to get in, snag the asteroid, and get out without causing orbital upsets in one's wake is a skill that one only has to get wrong once for a life and a career to be over.

It's a job for the young and

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