Doug Olsen
Текст песни The Mass-Driver Engineer

I'm a mass-driver engineer
On course through the vacuum ocean of space
A freighter captain in the high frontier,
Running three months out of Ceres
Three months out of Ceres

My ship is a hauling lady and slow
Acceleration takes time
A little thrust and we're under way
Heading out from the asteroid mines

The engine's ten kilometers long
A spear of coils and solar arrays
Our reaction mass is rock and slag,
Out here we don't throw nothing away

I'm a mass-driver engineer
On course through the vacuum ocean of space
A freighter captain in the high frontier,
Running three months out of Ceres
Three months out of Ceres

Casting off from Port O'Neil
Bound for an L5 colony
With a load of chemicals to supply
Their industrial economy

Hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen
The asteroids process plenty
We're the only close source beyond old Earth,
'Cause the Moon, it hasn't any

I'm a mass-driver engineer
On course through the vacuum ocean of space
A freighter captain in the high frontier,
Running three months out of Ceres
Three months out of Ceres

Velocity changes completed and true,
We're approaching cargo target
Then the payload's dropped and on its own
Falling into L5 orbit

Do a job well done and we're going home
Come about, turn her tail to the sun
I've got three months' leave before I'm gone
On another L5 colony run

I'm a mass-driver engineer
On course through the vacuum ocean of space
A freighter captain in the high frontier,
Running three months out of Ceres
Three months out of Ceres
A freighter captain in the high frontier,
Running three months out of Ceres