Life of a Miner – Chapter 05 – Scuttled

Chapter 5 – Scuttled

“Clean up those lines and we’ll head in. It looks like you have a nest of those lizards you’ve been telling us about,” Big Pete said to Priloe.

Priloe looked down at the ore he was working on and chuckled. The pile looked exactly like a Blue Lagarto nest back on Grünholz, with lizard tails sticking out at odd angles. Many shovel trails had scattered the rock out away from the main pile. “Roger that, Pete. I’m on it,” he crisply said into his comm, like Pete had trained him. He wasn’t sure why people found Pete difficult to work with. Having spent the last six stans with bullies, Pete was a breeze. Sure, he could get testy, but all you really needed to do was listen. Pete always told you what you needed, if not always with an abundance of words.

For twenty minutes, Priloe dressed the pile that sat atop the Co-Op rock. This particular pile belonged to the Licht family. Pete had been pulling ore from it all morning, feeding the refinery and stacking iron ingots in a new, secure storage building. According to Pete, he and the not-so-friendly Dave Muir had constructed the building while Silver sailed to Léger Nuage for supplies.

“What do you do with all of those ingots?” Priloe asked when he was satisfied the pile was to the standard Pete had shown him.

“Generally, they get sold. It’s more labor for us to fire the ore into ingots, but it allows us to remove the impurities and reduces shipping costs. Most of the expense of iron is extracting it from its natural resting place – in this case – an asteroid. A close second is moving iron to its destination. Around here, an ingot is sixty percent purer than ore. That means we’re leaving a lot of material behind when we ship it,” Pete explained patiently.

“Seems like you need a lot of money to get started as a miner,” Priloe said, sighing. Naively, he’d hoped this was a possible future for him.

“Owning and operating a claim is expensive,” Pete agreed. Priloe knew it was the end of the conversation. He’d yet to figure out what exactly caused Big Pete to get chatty. There was a fine line in there somewhere.

He joined Pete as they both bounded across the top of the station to the central shaft leading to the heart of the emerging station. According to Silver, eight months ago this asteroid had been sitting in a completely different place in the belt, minding its own business. Liam and Nick had come along and pushed it into an optimal position right between their claims. He found it hard to reconcile his knowledge of asteroids with the spacious, bright white common room he entered. It had a perfectly flat floor and an ambient temperature of twenty degrees.

“Perfect timing,” Silver announced as he and Pete entered the room.

Priloe’s internal warning systems had been firing as they walked down the hallway and now he knew why. The common room was filled with the bustle of visitors.

“Riloe, I have a new friend.” Milenette ran up to him, dragging a girl about her age giggling along behind. “Her name is Wilma.”

Priloe was surprised that, for once, his AI didn’t show a correction for Milenette’s poor pronunciation. “I see that,” Priloe answered as the two girls continued on. As he scanned the room, he found two boys about his age, both looking intently at him. Internally, he knew a first meeting was critical. No matter what, he could not afford to show weakness.

“Come on over,” Silver said, catching Priloe’s eye. “Meet our closest neighbors and friends, the Licht’s.”

“Get over here, boys.” A woman, who Priloe hadn’t met and who was best described as matronly, was clearly not to be trifled with. The twin boys she had motioned to dropped any pretense of independence and hustled to her side.

Priloe approached the foursome with his hand out, doing his best not to acknowledge the tension caused by the boy’s mother. “Hi, I’m Priloe.”

“Ulran.” The first boy shook his hand.

“I’m Merley. The better looking one,” Merley replied.

“Glad to meet you,” Priloe answered, not able to tell a difference between them.

“And, I’m Annalise,” the matronly woman replied. “Food’s on the table. Let’s eat while it’s warm.”

Priloe looked over to the large, central table, filled with bowls of steaming noodles and a red sauce. He’d missed the prepared meals from Celina’s Diner, as the Hoffens were a strictly meal-bar-only family. The fact was, anything was an improvement over living on the streets.

“So, is it really true? Were you living in the air circulation vents of Léger Nuage?” Merley asked.

“Merley!” Annalise corrected, scandalized.

“What? It’s awesome. I just wanted to know what it was like,” he said.

Priloe looked from Annalise to Merley. Apparently, it was a touchy subject. For him, it had been about survival and he felt nothing but relief. “Vents are dusty. And really, we spent more time in an abandoned podball court than anywhere.”

“Merley and I started excavation on the podball court here,” Ulran said. “Big Pete said it was okay as long as we used Liam and Nick’s plans for excavation. He’s even letting us take a standard laborer’s share of the iron once it gets delivered.”

“Wow. That sounds like a lot of money,” Priloe answered.

“It is. Although out here, about the only thing to spend credits on is IP,” Ulran said.

“IP?” Priloe asked. As he did, his AI flashed up the definition – Intellectual Property, referring to patterns for replicator parts, music, vids, et. al. The Licht boys waited, anticipating the AI’s intervention.

“We’re building an ore-sled,” Ulran said. “Dad gave us an old frame. We’re buying the IP for the parts as we make credits. Some of our iron went to Léger Nuage with Silver, so we actually got enough to replicate the top thruster.”

“How much more do you have to go?” Priloe asked.

“We won’t replicate anything until we can do it all. And we don’t have any way to make armored glass,” Ulran said.

“Well, there’s one way,” Merley said and leaned into the table so as not to be overheard by the adults.

Priloe couldn’t help but follow suit and leaned in to hear what the more talkative twin had to say.

“What?” Priloe asked, playing the straight man.

“We could salvage it,” Merley said.

Ulran glared at his brother. “We talked about it. Dad said we weren’t to go over there.”

“That was before Loose Nuts kicked Oberrhein’s butts,” Merley said.

“I don’t think that’s the way he’d see it.”

“Well, don’t go asking him. I’d rather ask for forgiveness than permission on this. And, you’d rather have your sled working, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes. Don’t be a tewaddle,” Ulran said and made a grab for sensitive skin on his brother’s chest. The move was countered and the two became entwined in a wrestling match on the floor.

“Boys, knock it off,” Annalise warned from the other end of the table. “Pete would like to get Priloe some sled hours in today, picking up material from home.”

“Sweet!” Merley popped up from atop his brother. “Which sled Pete?”

“Take the big one. You’ve a lot of material to pick up,” he said.

“Roger that,” Merley said. Priloe smiled. He recognized the snappy reply that Pete preferred. “Let’s grab bars and roll. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

“Take it nice and slow, boys,” Pete said. “No accidents today.”

“Am I really sailing that?” Priloe asked as they approached the largest sled in a line of seven in the adjacent docking bay to where Sterra’s Gift sat.

“First, for something this small, we call it flying. I’m not sure why – we just do. Second, you sailed Sterra’s Gift and this is a gazillion times smaller than she is,” Merley said. “I know what Pete said. But let me take the stick first. I want to show you what I was talking about, okay?”

“Yeah, sure. Of course,” Priloe agreed, knowing he had little choice in the matter.

The boys easily fit in the front of the extended cab which was designed to carry six full-sized spacers. Merley sat behind the controls and pulled the harness over his shoulders.

“Strap in,” Ulran warned as he urged Priloe into the center seat between him and his brother.

Priloe had only managed to grab the straps when Merley launched the sled from the docking bay, taking off at what felt like reckless speed. “If they think you’re flying, you’ll get an earful for this.” He chuckled as he sped away from the rock.

“Where are we going?” Priloe asked.

“You’ll see,” Merley answered as they gained speed.

“Take it easy on the fuel,” Ulran warned.

“That Oberrhein claim had fuel on the ground.”

“Wouldn’t that be stealing?” Ulran asked.

“Not if it’s abandoned.” Merley replied.

“How would you know if it’s abandoned?” Ulran asked.

“How long has it been sitting there?” Priloe asked.

“Months,” Merley and Ulran answered at the same time.

“Why?” Merley added.

“Oh. On Nannandry, if you left something sitting out for even a few minutes, someone would take it. I guess we just always assumed that was the case. I suppose things are different out here,” he said.

“Not really,” Merley said. “We wouldn’t leave our fuel unguarded.”

They continued to fly through the asteroids, winding along a path that Priloe knew he’d never be able to replicate without the help of an AI.

“Why aren’t we seeing any people?” Priloe asked, after they’d been flying for twenty minutes.

“He’s avoiding active claims,” Ulran said. “People get jumpy if you fly over their claims without asking permission.”

“There it is,” Merley said, slowing their approach to a large asteroid. On the ground lay a ship, similar in size to Sterra’s Gift.

“Why would they leave a ship behind?” Priloe asked the obvious.

“It’s been scuttled,” Ulran said. “When Oberrhein left, they didn’t have enough hands to sail it out and didn’t want anyone else taking it.”

“Did you see that?” Priloe asked, pointing at the bow of the ship.

“What?” Merley reoriented the sled.

“No, don’t line up on it. Maybe it wasn’t anything, but if it was, they’ll know we saw ’em,” Priloe said.

“Good thinking.”

“But they’ll know we saw ’em if we take off now,” Ulran added.

“I’m not sure what I saw. But I say we bluff our way through. We came out here to take a look and get some fuel. So let’s do just that,” Priloe said. “Set down next to the fuel depot.”