Rocks
22 Oct 2019Zebulon
I was pottering around "Sheila's Wheels" when a call came through from Gaspard. "How's your bank balance looking these days?"To be honest I can't complain but running four ships even with the assistance of the Fatherhood is not something you do on the cheap. I wiped my hands on the rag and shook my head. "Okay, what do you need or what are you up to?" I heard him laugh over the channel. "Listen, you know all the fuss about Void Opals and all the mining frenzy that's been going on after the shipyards said they'd start releasing Expedition Class carriers onto the public market?" I nodded and muttered "uhu...?" "Well I was thinking we could get in on that gig. You've done enough surface digging and are a dab hand at collections "on the move" as it were...." I interrupted his flow, "Gaspy, you know what its like in ring fields and asteroids! Its a bloody nightmare. What are we going to use anyway that's near suitable?" He went quiet and after a long pause he said "There's the Nostromo's Revenge, you're old Keelback." Still unsure if this was a statement or a question, I went into a long tirade about the maintenance of mining equipment and the dangers of refineries as well as the ever present threat of robbery, the statistics on pilots sucking vacuum because they got greedy and careless and of the countless fights and murders over alleged double dealing. "No, not interested." Another long pause and then he says, "Have you ever seen a void opal?"
So now I find myself along with Albard Rexinova at the refit shop having parted with a good few credits and the "Nostromo's Revenge" all gussied up for her initial mining run. "We're not going far. Not out of system. There's a job going for some water, lets start with that first. I know a good spot." Albard looked crestfallen. "What? No void opals?" I glared at him. "No, basics first. You know there will be combat and the Revenge handles like a cow in season. I need you to be on your game with the turrets if trouble does turn up. She's stripped to the minimum just to accommodate those damned collection drones, which I have never used and I don't bloody trust them. They go "boom" a lot and I don't want that happening in the hold!" Albard shrugged. "Okay, I get it, it's your boat and you have to be sure."
I regretted not having called up some of my former crew mates who I knew had gone off on the Void Opal rush. Casper Jansen would know. That big Swede could squeeze the minerals out of the rocks with his bare hands and he had been a mining contractor for the Imperials a long time ago. That would have to wait for another day. So we got up into the Revenge and headed out into the wilds of B'Titus to go and collect water. Not the most exciting way to start a lucrative mining career but it would pay for the initial purchase of all this crap that was now hanging off my ship in the hope that we would go "rock hunting" as Gaspy puts it. Void Opals. I swear they'll drive me mad.