The inside of Belt Station Epsilon Tau 7813 was a reflection of what I had seen from the outside. Narrow corridors and junk everywhere. Either I had docked at the backdoor or public opinion did not matter to these people. A mix of red and yellow lights lit the brown walls and floor of the corridor. Everything looked… run down. Like really.

I decided to use another nifty technological advance that I had run across in my research. I tapped my wrist and a translucent interface showed up above it. I selected an option that projected a minimap in the upper right corner of my visual field and then checked the box that would show the route to my currently active mission.

Yeah yeah, I know, lazy. Bite me! I had no clue where I was or where I was going and I decided to make my life a little easier.

Following the route my HUD showed me I made it to Foreman Len-dren’s office. I knocked and the door promptly popped open and a gruff “Enter” greeted me. I rolled my eyes, swung the door open and entered.

The foreman's office had either seen better days or was designed with the same eye for comfort as my ship. Four walls, a chair and a table behind which Len-dren sat.

His beady eyes looked me up and down as I entered and then locked with mine expectantly. I had spent enough time as a cop to know that look. It was the one that my former police captain gave me whenever I entered his office and had done something to displease him.

“Uhm… Miner Solo as ordered… Sir.”

He nodded towards the empty chair. “Have a seat.”

“So, WA12ZL96. Solo, hm?” He paused a moment. “Strange name if you ask me but I guess you won’t.”

He barked a high pitched laugh. When I didn’t join him a frown slid over his face just to be replaced straight after by another blank expression.

“Well then, business. Your quota as amended by the council has been fulfilled. And in great time I might add. Not sure why you were not putting in a similar effort before but I guess once you had an incentive you got to it. The thing is, with that mindset you could have easily bought out your contract all on your own in relatively short order. But then the council stepped in. Bunch of nonsense in my opinion. Would you know why they decided to cut your requirements? I have never seen something like that and I don’t know if I like it. Sets a bad example.”

I was not sure what to reply to that so I rather remained silent. Not sure what my character had done before I took control or what the backstory of that interaction was. He stared at me and I stared at him, the silence dragging on. At some point I let out a breath and decided I’ll be the better person: “Honestly, I have no clue as to what the council did or why. I never met them so I could not say anything about their motivations.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

After a moment he continued: “As your ship is payed off you can consider it your property.”

The center of my vision was suddenly filled with a system message:

Certificate of Ownership

Civilian Mining Vessel Type “Digger”

I-Tag: 3VW217AU4FM011666

You can change your ship’s identification tag once. It will then be registered by that name. Any further changes of I-Tags are not allowed. Please be advised that flying under a stolen or false identification tag is a crime in Federation space.

“Going forward you can continue mining or do whatever else you want to do. If you decide to do the former I must inform you that we can’t keep giving you the preferential rate reserved for company or contract miners. Your new rate will be 0.4 ICU per unit of Endrite. If you decide for the latter I hope you will not make any trouble on this station. Any questions?”

Great. In the middle of nowhere and getting fucked over by a greedy foreman that doesn’t like that I got out of my contract early. FML.

“Uhm, I guess. Is there a way to get more information about station services?”

He sighed. “Why was this not uploaded to your net when you first arrived in this system?”

Lucky for me I had already decided on a story when he was rambling about not becoming a trouble maker.

“No idea. I have a hard time remembering anything from that time. Honestly, it seems that my memory starts with sitting in a ship in an asteroid belt.”

Yeah, not exactly a lie. Not exactly the truth either. Something I had picked up during my time gaming. When dealing with NPCs that has apparently met your character before it was good to feign amnesia. That way you had an out when you said the wrong thing.

He harrumphed then touched a few buttons on the screen that was inlaid in his table and I received another system message:

Belt Station Systems Access Received

I decided against opening it right now and instead get this meeting over with and then check out what this station had to offer.

“Anything else?”

“What’s a good place here to grab something to eat and a drink?”

“I suggest the ‘Rambler’ for miners. Not too expensive, decent food and drink. If you want to go classy then hit the ‘Tower’. Only RealBeef in the system but you better bring the credits.”

“Thanks.”

“Mm-hmm.” He gave me another stern look. “Stay out of trouble on this station! Oh, and before I forget: Since your contract with the company is at an end and you are now a free captain, we can no longer provide protection services for free. You might not have noticed while you were under contract but there are unsavory elements out there, that would not hesitate to take advantage of a young entrepreneur. If you want to buy the security services package, you can find information in the system.”

I nodded while rolling my eyes. Add extortion to the list of fun things I was encountering here.

“Now get out and let me get back to work.”