Call Me Moss – 14 – The Miner

Though I had been flush with credits, there is a saying: Easy Come, Hey Did You Just Scan My Tablet?

One hacked bank account and one big shrug of the shoulders from the Bank of Zaonce later (“Did you quadruple authenticate your account information?”), and I was back looking for some kind of work. But I was sick of running jobs for other people. Used to be that I could make my own way in the galaxy with just a mining laser and an empty cargo hold.

So, feeling nostalgic, I went to the outfitters at Piaget Orbital and started shopping around for equipment.

Things had changed since I’d been a part-time miner last.

“Abrasion blasters? Displacement Missiles? Seismic Charge Launchers? What the hell is all this?”

Reese looked at me as if considering sending me to a retirement home. “Seriously? You don’t know how to work any of this?”

I quickly recovered. “Of course I do! It’s just back in my day they had different names.”

“Uh huh.”

“Shut up.”

I admit I had heard of core mining, and it did sound like fun. Dropping charges into asteroids and cracking them open like a walnut with a big satisfying boom. So I got the Back Bacon Express a Seismic Charge Launcher and an Abrasion Blaster, loaded up with limpets, and set off for the ring of the nearby gas giant. I remember they had a deposit of Low-Temperature Diamonds in the outer ring that not many had heard of.

Once I got there, I was disappointed to learn the asteroids weren’t as rich as I remembered. I’d used nearly all my limpets and the results were poor to say the least. What’s more, I couldn’t for the life of me find any asteroids with cores in them.

Reese heard my frustrations over the comms while she kept my ship protected in the ship launched fighter. “Did you use your Pulse Wave Analyzer?”

“My what?”

“You don’t have one, do you?”

“Of course I do…. on a completely unrelated note, I need to go back to the station and get more limpets.”

One trip to the station and back and I was trying again.

Okay, now I was able to see which rocks were likely candidates. Some glowed bright with untapped resources. But still, none had cores, and I couldn’t seem to get at the deposits I found.

“You have Displacement missiles, right?” said Reese over the comms.

I growled. “I just remembered I need to pay off my tab back at the bar on the station.”

One trip to the station and back…

“Ha! There we go! Nice big mineral chunk, come to papa…”

I lowered the cargo ram.

Refinery required.

“Let me guess,” said Reese, “You left the stove on in your apartment?”

“No one likes a smartass,” I said. “But yes.”

This time I decided to read up on some GalNet exclusive reports on mining advancements since 3304 before leaving the station again.