A Cold Hot Hand
16 Jan 2017Tuts
*** Amarishvaru, Theodor Winnecke Settlement, StarDate 1.04.3303 ***Before my father got himself killed, he wasn't what most people would call a great role model to his 13 year old son. But that's not the same as saying he didn't teach me anything. My dad might've been a small-time con artist, crook, gambler and pathological liar, but he also taught me a lot about life. Some of the lessons were even positive in nature. One of his best pieces of advice was this - "If you're ever on a hot streak, always, ALWAYS ride that streak until you're sure it's over. How do you know when it's over? Trust me kid, you'll know."
I was worrying over nothing. Flying the Pilgrim II again came back to me as natural as breathing. Being back at the helm was the best I've felt since waking up, hands down. Still equipped for mining, I decided to look around for a likely system to make a little scratch while I pondered my next moves.
Turns out I made a good choice. It didn't take me long to find this system, which is not only considered "pristine", but was also experiencing an economic boom. All of the local agents at their outpost were clamoring for mining contractors. The only hitch - there were no mining limpets available! But after a little legwork I discovered a neighboring system that not only had them in plenty, but was also a decent extraction system in its own right (major reserves).
So for almost a week I've signed up for almost every mining contract in Amarishvaru, mining the pristine ice rings for bromelite, methanol monohydrate crystals, and lithium hydroxide. The bulk of the contracts were for those three materials. The occasional osmium contract would take me over to Tonesh system - no rings, but the third star had eight asteroid clusters - and then I'd stop off at Satcher or Kimbrough Ring to sell off the non-contract stuff and load up on mining limpets. Fly, mine, rinse, and repeat. I lasered up those ice chunks every waking moment for days, heedless of all other considerations. My reputation with the locals became friendly overnight. My bank account skyrocketed like an imperial eagle on max thrust. Last night, I cashed out my last contracts, with payouts over a million credits - each!
Then, when I woke up this morning, the mission boards were empty of all but the most mediocre trade and mercenary gigs. The station concourse was a proverbial ghost town. Just like that, the party was over. But at the end of THIS party, my credit balance had grown 500%. Dad, you were right again.
I've never mined ice before this, but there's something about it that I find soothing, something like what I imagine meditation is supposed to be like. There was one session where I dropped into the belt right on the edge of the planet's shadow. Over the next two hours I watched as the gas giant eclipsed its primary. The looming mountains of ice around me began to glow a startling, luminescent blue as the star's light faded; then they, too dimmed until my ship's spotters were the only candle in the frozen darkness. I was surrounded by eerie, tumbling phantasms, seen only as they eclipsed the glowing band of stars of our galaxy.
Time passed. Then, like magic, the ice began to phosphoresce, brilliant whites and blues. My ship and I had passed beyond the shadows to the other side.
I don't even have a word for the emotion I felt then. To know you are experiencing a fleeting moment of beauty and clarity, a poignant communion with the universe - aware that it is transitory and that, while you'll remember it as long as you live, you will never quite manage to recapture that moment again no matter how long you search for it, not ever.