Ludwig's Deposit, HIP 75862 3 C - 3308-08-02 17:57 GST
Maria Gonzales Matsui was coming towards the end of her last patrol of Ludwig's Deposit extraction settlement. She'd just finished inspecting the container stacks and smaller structures on the far side of landing pad two, and was now walking the perimeter of the pad on the way to storage warehouse. Her pace was brisk but she was taking care to walk lightly. Even after a year working and living on this little moon, HIP 75862 3 C, she still wasn't used to the lower gravity of under 0.1g, and still occasionally took embarrassingly high bounding steps. Her childhood on a high gravity colony world had given her a strong physique. She was short and slim, but probably was the strongest guard at the settlement. The year in the lower gravity hadn't weakened her yet, in part, due to the gruelling training schedule that the security chief, Charles Thompson, insisted upon.
It was dark out. The light mounted over her left shoulder did little to dispel the darkness beyond the perimeter lampposts. This was another thing that Maria found difficult to get used to: nights on this moon could be long, often many standard days long. Still, it was better than her previous home and she was glad of the second chance at life, out here on the frontier of human inhabited space. The path bent to the left to lead to the mining platforms, partially illuminated by their plasma arcs. She left the illuminated path and followed the outer wall of the storage warehouse towards the elevator platform that was the entrance to the settlement's subterranean vehicle bay. She had just passed the corner of the storage building and was about to climb the ramp up to the vehicle bay elevator controls, when she noticed a figure close storage crate 3. Her suit sensors indicated that he was an independent pilot.
"Hold up there Commander. I just have to scan you real quick", Maria said.
Maria stowed her rapid fire laser carbine and detached a hand scanner from her belt. The figure stood up and turned to face her. In the beam of her light, the stranger looked imposing. He was twenty five centimeters taller than her and well built. Worse still, he was wearing combat armour under a poncho. A plasma rifle was stowed on his back behind his right shoulder and a plasma pistol was holstered on his right hip. She was seriously outgunned and if things got ugly she would be in a lot of trouble. She doubted that she'd last long enough for the antipersonnel turret that was sixty meters behind the stranger to activate and provide assistance.
"You Pilot's Federation types are always busy.", Maria said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. "Strictly legal work, right?"
"I do deliveries and collection of small items. Valuable stuff and stuff people want to be sure gets to where they want it to be.", the stranger replied.
While that statement was, in all probability, absolutely true, Maria noted that it didn't really answer her question. The scan completed. The stranger had no outstanding bounties and no contraband. The only thing that she detected, other than the seriously heavy duty weaponry and armoured suit, was a data drive that the scanner indicated as personal documents owned by Yuri Burke, one of the two researchers at the settlement. However, supplementary data transmitted by the drive casing indicated that the drive was in transit to a new owner and the stranger was identified as the contracted courier. Everything appeared legal. Maria relaxed a little: there was no need for things to get violent.
"Everything checks out, commander. Have a good day.", she said.
The stranger made a lazy salute, turned, and started bounding past the extraction research building towards landing pad one. Maria watched him for a few seconds and then started walking towards the long building on the opposite edge of the settlement that housed the Security office, the operations center, and, most importantly, the habitation block. Maria was a little tired and more than a little hungry. Some good chimichangas would go down well, she thought. She picked up her pace. A few minutes later she entered the habitation block an her helmet folded up and stowed into her backpack once she pushed her way through the atmosphere retaining force field at the entrance. She walked through the locker room, past the showers and toilets, and around the sleeping modules, affectionately nicknamed the coffins. Alba and Thomas were sitting on high stools at the breakfast bar. Alba had a dirty plate in front of her, residue from the curry sauce that she liked to eat smeared over it. Thomas turned around on his stool to face her. Thomas was half way through a bowl of noodles.
"Hey! About time! I fried some chimichangas for you. They're probably still warm. What kept you?"
"My hero! I am starving!"
Maria scooped the three crispy chimichangas onto a plastic tray from the cooling hot plate at the cooking station, grabbed a knife and fork, brought them over to where the others were sitting.
"I was held up scanning some independent pilot. He looked suspicious, but turned out to doing a courier pickup of a data drive owned by Yuri."
"What's that about?", Thomas asked.
"It's probably related to his off hours research project.". Alba replied.
Maria and Thomas looked at her blankly.
Alba took a deep breath.
"Do you remember those fossils we found three weeks ago?", Alba said.
"The creepy squished cat sized spider-like things.", Maria responded.
"Yeah, and I agree with you that they were creepy. Well it turns out they were true form fossils, that is, actual preserved tissue from the creatures. First investigations indicated lots of high quality nucleic acids, and decently preserved cell structures. They were prime material for xeno-science research. Yuri had requested to be transferred to the biosciences division to be part of the team that researched them."
"But he's a geologist!", Thomas interrupted.
"He's a genius polymath, is what he is.", Alba continued, "He mostly does geology work here, but his chemistry knowledge is extensive, and he's a decent programmer and data analyst. All of that would be useful on that xeno-science project."
"Too bad he's a rude asshole!", Thomas said.
"Hey! Have a bit of respect. He's the reason we got bonuses for the past two quarters. He's the guy finding the high yield zirconium deposits.", said Alba.
"You have something to do with that, too", Maria said.
"Don't get me wrong. I am good at my job, but we wouldn't be getting the yields we do on the zirconium or the cryolite we extraction without Yuri. Anyhow, the Central Council denied the transfer. They said he was needed here. He got upset and threatened to go work for a rival faction. Legal got involved and threatened to invoke the non-compete clause in his contract. In a rage, he threatened to poison their families."
"Like I said, an asshole!", Thomas interjected. Alba rolled her eyes.
"Anyhow, cooler heads stepped in and a compromise was found. He would get credit as the scientist that found the fossils on any research papers published. In addition, we'd all get a bonus if any commercial breakthroughs came out of the find. And lastly, he was allowed to do his own research on the remaining cast fossils and the Central Council would provide some resources for that. That seemed to satisfy him. He has been working on his own little private project after his shifts, since then."
"What resources are the Central Council sending?", asked Thomas.
"Extra californium, for starters. He has being using the neutron imager on the fossil a lot, as everything else we have has difficulty penetrating the high metallic content of the local rock, especially the zirconium. It's lower resolution that electron or muon imaging would normally give, but the people he's collaborating with really have devised a good protocol. He's getting some good data."
"Who are they?", Maria asked.
"Some university, or something. I didn't ask. I assume it is a group that the Central Council set him up with.", Alba replied, "Anyhow, he's happy, busy, gets his daily work done, and since this project of his started, he keeps out of my daily business. Win, win!"
"What about 'show some respect'?", Thomas said.
"Don't get me wrong: he's not easy to work with. But I still respect him, and my credit balance definitely does.", Alba replied, "Few researchers out here have his depth of knowledge."
"Where did he learn all that?", Thomas asked.
"I can't say for sure, but if I had to guess, somewhere in The Empire. He slips into an Imperial accent when he's tired or stressed.", Alba said.
"What's he doing here?"
"Beats me, but I am not complaining.", said Alba.
"The frontier is a good place for second chances at life.", Maria interjected, "If you do your job well, and people can tolerate your quirks, it doesn't matter what type of life you had before. Lot's of people here are running from something, but we do our jobs, try not to get on each others nerves, and nobody cares too much what our previous lives were like."
There was a brief awkward silence and then Alba stood up.
"And on that philosophical, and slightly scary note, I will leave you. I need to get back to work and monitor the mineral extractors for a few more hours today. Neither of you two are mass murders are you?", Alba asked with a chuckle.
Thomas and Maria laughed.
"We'll kill you last.", Thomas said jokingly.
Alba chuckled, took her plate to the recycling station, and then left.
Thomas checked his hand terminal and frowned.
"Ah frak!", he said, "The guy you scanned was one of my delivery guys. He's going to up his prices five percent. Risk premium, he says."
"How was I supposed to know.", Maria replied, "He wasn't one of the normal guys, and besides, you said the delivery was tomorrow."
"It was supposed to be tomorrow, but this guy came a day earlier because Yuri had an urgent delivery. I should never have hooked him up with any of my couriers."
"Was the stuff delivered?"
"Yeah, yeah. Your drugs will be in the normal place once I retrieve them from cargo storage."
"They're not drugs. They're medication for my migraines."
"Well a lot of people would consider that cocktail of beta blockers, muscle relaxants, and opioids, pretty recreational. I'm surprised you function at all."
"I take them in very low doses. It is the only thing that keeps the migraines away."
"Aren't you afraid that Thompson will find out about your drug use?"
"Yeah, but I can't function otherwise. Besides, he's okay with performance enhancers, and these are performance enhancers for me. Aren't you afraid that he will find out about your little black market?"
"No. He already knows."
"What?", Maria said, with a note of panic in her voice.
"He's a customer"
"What does he buy?"
"Weapons! Like you said, many people here are running from a past life, and judging by the weapons he buys, his is damned scary."