Escaping My Shadows

A New Eden

"Hey Larry," a low-level grunt in the Federated Mining receiving office says as he puts down the communication handset.

Larry, another low-level grunt takes a final swallow of his coffee, or at least what someone told him is coffee. He remembers when he was at the boss' birthday celebration and had real coffee. He's not really sure what to call this stuff. As he puts the cup down he says, "What is it, Darryl?"

"Just received a heads up from traffic control. Said that someone just came through the jump gate with a big load of ore, will be heading our way. Probably ten hours out."

"Good. Haven't had much business for a couple of days. Who is it?"

"They say it's a rep from someone named 'Dave Walker'. Walker? Wait ...." Darryl quickly types in the name to see what pops up.

"Whew. I knew that name sounded familiar. He was wanted for all sorts of stuff. Earth Gov and others were really hot to get their hands on him?"

Larry whistles. "Oh, yeah. I remember. Psy Corps was really after him, big reward and everything. Course, after that big dustup between Psy Corps and Earth Fleet what Psy Corps wants doesn't mean much anymore."

"That's right. Man, what a mess. And that thing with that battleship or cruiser, whatever. I read they threw a bunch of Psy Corp officials into special cells and threw away the keys. Well, anyway, traffic control said it's on its way. They told traffic control it's a huge load, so I'll alert the dock and refining. Not sure how we'll handle it."

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"Cargo ship Star Miner to Federated Mining receiving, do you read, over."

Larry forces himself to swallow that last bitter drop before putting his cup down. After belching he reaches over to push the button on his console.

"Federated Mining to Star Miner. Read you. What can I do for you?"

"We have a load of compressed metal, ore, and precious metals and stones for you."

"Understood and welcome to Amia system. You the one repping for Dave Walker?"

"Yes, it is for his registered claims. Will transmit beacon registration info when you are ready."

"Hold on for a sec." Larry readies the system to receive the transmission. "Okay, ready to receive. Transmit when ready."

He watches the machine-readable data stream across the screen. It takes less than a second for the system to confirm the data.

"Okay. You are confirmed. How much do you have?"

"Quite a bit actually. Somewhere on the order of seventy or eighty thousand tons, give or take."

"Whew," Larry whistles. "That's going to be difficult to offload. Our docks might not be able to handle that. How come so much at one time?"

"Well, we don't like making small trips. Expenses can add up pretty quickly. But don't worry. It's all modularized. We can unload individual modules as fast as you can handle it. We brought our own cargo handlers, so all you need to do is point and we can put the modules right were you want."

"Wow, that's great." Larry looks at his screen to locate the Star Miner. He sees a very large signature that must be the cargo carrier. There are two smaller signatures near it.

"Star Miner, I notice you have two ships in your vicinity,"

"Yes, they are our escorts. With a cargo this large we didn't want to tempt anyone."

"Understood. We'll send you over to Ore Receiving Four. Transmitting transponder info, please move toward it. One of our tugs will meet you and discuss how to position your ship."