Chapter 20

…[ MATIVO ]…

The shuttle ride to USK Mining Colony was scheduled to take us approximately five minutes. There were eight of us in the shuttle. Just eight. Out of over hundred crew, made up of mostly scientists, only six had expressed the interest to visit a space mining colony. Especially one as advanced as USK was trouted out to be. Technically, it was five. One of them was a physician, which had been mandatory considering the trip was somewhat of an Exploratory outing. Given the choice, it looked like the physician might have chosen not to come on the trip. I couldn’t blame him at all, I was uncomfortable with the whole thing myself.

There was of course, yours truly, me. And Jacy. Then Paul the physician, Mũthiani the Chief Operations Officer, and four others I couldn’t remember. After all, I was busy worrying about what they could be planning for us when we arrive. Jacy was busy piloting the shuttle. I just didn’t get it. For someone who had comfortably cruised at 1c she seemed awfully focused for the speed we were cruising at. It should have been a walk in the park for her.

“Can’t you give us a taste of travelling at the speed of light?” Mũthiani asked from behind Jacy.

“It is inadvisable to travel at such speeds with these shuttles.” Her answer even sounded too formal for her. “Or the ship.” She added after a moment of consideration.

“Easy for you to say. You have already traveled at the speed of light.” Mũthiani sounded disappointed. It had me wondering, had he come on the trip in the hopes that Jacy would be going at the speed of light again?

“Give it a rest.” Someone from the back of the shuttle said. “The shuttle she used back then has been decommissioned for the rest of the expedition. That should tell you enough.”

“Yeah. As a relic. The only known human made craft to attain that speed. They just want it for the museums.”

The conversations died down after that. I could tell it wasn’t because they thought he made sense, more that they thought arguing with him was pointless. How had he made it to the Chief of Operations Office? Maybe we needed an audit for our selection program.

But those thoughts disappeared as we finally made it to the colony. Jacy brought us at a slow approach to our given landing point. On one of the many asteroids part of the USK Mining Colony.

The colony was made up of close to over hundred asteroids, all clustered together. They were beilived to be made of similar compositions. The mineral of import on the cluster the Mining Colony was at, I didn’t know. But of all those asteroids, only around thirty had permanent mining stations. The others got temporary stations as need arose. The asteroids in the cluster were close enough to each other that one could see their neighbors as specks of light; sometimes even as formless pebbles floating away in space. It meant mining on them somewhat economically feasible. When one could easily move personnel and equipment from one asteroid to the next. Others had tried mining at the Asteroid Belt, but the prices of the mined minerals quickly dropped turning most of those ventures into huge financial losses. Very few had remained profitable, and I only knew of Union Space Industries. Maybe the others were too small to register.

The Union had mining headquarters at a station on Ceres, but when we had arrived at the Asteroid Belt and informed them, they had asked us to come to one of the mining stations. It seemed the person we would be meeting was on that station currently. And so we had come to the station. To me, it looked more station than asteroid. There was human made infrastructure surrounding the irregular asteroid so much that it gave it a cuboid appearance. The infrastructure was most definitely made of steel, I mean what else could it be? The structure framework allowed peeks to the asteroid covered underneath. Only a small potion was left exposed at one edge of the cube; making it look like a cancerous tumor growing on the infrastructure. There was nothing that looked like it could be crew quarters, or whatever they were called for a mining station. It led me to assume that those would be found deep within the asteroid itself. The structure looked pretty much imbedded deep into the asteroid. It was safe to assume that it was one of the permanent stations.

I didn’t see where we would be landing. On the exchanges we had had since me accepting the invite, we had discussed on where the shuttle would land. I had wanted somewhere most definitely on the asteroid itself. I didn’t want to be responsible for any structural damage when my shuttle proved too much for their equipment to handle. They had been against that, claiming that they would have to spend too much time in their suits. Not a pleasant experience for them. I didn’t see how that was of any concern to me, but Jacy had talked me out of replying with that. After much discussion we had agreed to land where they showed us.

As I watched the asteroid, lights came on on one part of the station. It looked sturdy enough. The lights illuminated something akin to a helicopter landing pad on a roof. Only this one had an ‘S’ instead of an ‘H’ in the middle. ‘LAND HERE’ would have been more appropriate if you asked me. The ‘S’ looked new too, so they must have prepared it just for us. Either there were no bad intentions, or they wanted us to feel welcomed before they did us in.

Jacy brought us down smoothly like the expert she was. Everyone was silent already, looking around at the visible parts of the station. We could already make out silhouettes of people at work on the station.

“Okay people. Check your suits, we are moving out in two.” I said as I completely closed my helmet and checked that everything was working as it should. As the two-minute mark approached, everyone gave the all clear and the shuttle was slowly depressurized and the doors were opened. I needed a more reliable Gravity Device to stop having to depressurize the shuttles every time we were in hostile environments.

I stayed in the middle of the group as we moved out. Jacy just shook her head at my actions. Our welcoming team of three was clear off the landing pad, at what seemed to be the start of rails leading to the airlock they had come from. Their suits didn’t look that different from ours. Skin-suit technology was already spreading. The only differences were the colors. Theirs was a pure white, with only the visor being a reflective gold, and the gloves and boots a black color. We slowly made our way to them, switching to gliding just above the surface of the asteroid when we left the shuttles gravity field. As we made contact with them, they started for the airlock and we were forced to follow them. Damn our suspicions, we had refused to share communication channels and were unable to communicate with the suits on. Very funny indeed, they could have been leading us to our slaughter. I didn’t think being able to communicate would change that if they so wanted to.

Inside the airlock, the door closed and the airlock was pressurized. Mũthiani went to open his helmet but stopped when he realized no one else was. After a few seconds of inaction, the middle figure from the Union side opened their helmet, quickly followed by the others. I was so surprised by what, or who I saw, to realize that my crew was waiting for me to open my helmet before they could. Jacy nudged me, bringing me back to the matters at hand. Their hesitance was counterproductive, shouldn’t they open their helmets first just in case the air itself had been poisoned for us?

I opened my helmet slowly, quickly followed by the others. The door behind the Union group opened then, revealing two other people waiting. We outnumbered them I noticed, incase things went south. Though only by three. I cursed myself for the first thing that came out of my mouth.

“What are you doing here?”

“Is that the first thing you say to someone after not seeing them for so many years?”

“It hasn’t been that long.”

“Seven years isn’t long enough for you?”

“Okay, maybe it has been a tad bit longer than I thought.”

“Are we going to talk in the airlock the whole time or do you want to come in?”

“We want to come in.” Mũthiani quickly answered before I could form a response.

“Sylvia…” I trailed off as she glided out of the airlock and into the station proper. The Union group followed her, and so did my crew. Except for Jacy.

“You know her?”

“We went to school together.”

“School?”

“University.”

We followed the others, a short distance behind them. It looked like we were being taken to the offices of the station. At least I hoped so. I wanted to get the meeting with the Union person done as fast as I could. And true enough, after a few minutes of gliding along the corridors, we arrived at what looked like a lounge to an office. It was big enough to fit around fifty people, maybe around hundred if they were packed in tight.

“We were planning to give you a tour of the station before showing you to your quarters. Unless you are tired and you would prefer to rest first—”

“The tour first.” Some of the crew chorused.

“Okay then. I’ll be taking Mativo. The others will show you around and to your quarters.” The other Union employees started guiding the others in the tour of the station until only me, Jacy and Sylvia were left. She must be high ranked to be calling the shots here. I thought of asking for who was in charge, but decided a tour wasn’t a bad idea. It wasn’t that I didn’t think she could be in charge, I knew I was meeting a Sotiris here and she clearly wasn’t one. I would know, after all we were in school together for four years.

“She stays with me.” I said after noticing her staring at Jacy imploringly.

“Your advisor?” Sylvia asked.

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“She is not my advisor.”

“I advise you, you just don’t listen.”

“Tell me of one time you advised me and I didn’t listen to you?”

“Can you recall anytime I ever advised you?”

“No!” I answered after thinking about it. “See, you don’t advise me.”

“I do.” Jacy insisted. “You just don’t see it as advise.”

“Okay then. Shall we?” She began moving to the left hallway, effectively ending our conversation. “I will be starting with the Cargo Hold, it’s the closest this way. We will finish at the quarters, that’s where I will leave you. The Mess is also in that area if you feel hungry.”

“We came prepared in that department. Enough food to last us more than two weeks.” I told her as we followed her.

“Oh. I see.” She was disappointed, I could tell that much.

“We didn’t know what kind of reception we would get.” Jacy tried to assuage her.

“You were invited—”

“Someone was being a bit paranoid. Besides, this is space. Anywhere we go, we always go prepared for the worst. The expedition has taught us as much.”

“Hey! Aren’t you being a little too loose in the lips?” I asked her in whisper.

“It’s called sharing. They are showing us around their station.” She whispered back. And continued loudly, “What foods do you have on offer?”

The conversation continued throughout the tour, mostly between the two of them. I could never find much of anything to say to her; most of the things I thought of felt stupid to say out loud. Or that she already knew.

The cargo Hold was half full with processed minerals waiting to be ferried to Ceres, where they would then embark on their journey to Earth with the rest of the minerals Union mined at the Asteroid Belt. Then the processing plant, where not only local but ore from nearby asteroids was processed. After that, we went to the actual mining areas. We met some of the others there, and still left them there. I didn’t think I needed to tell the Union people to be careful, my crew were smart enough to figure out how the equipment worked; maybe build one of their own from just hearing the basic explanation of its working. But I didn’t think that was what they would be doing.

Or it could be we were being lured in. Dangling the promise of the mining equipment and hook us on something else. They had talked about a lot of things. Jacy even going so far as to ask how I was in university. Thankfully, Sylvia and I had only interacted mostly during the first year, so she didn’t have a lot to say on that front. Except I always appeared busy, planning ahead. And now she knew why. If only she knew that everything that I had planned during my university years, I had tried and they had all failed.

We finally made it to the quarters three hours later. The food they had was subpar to the one we had, I had learnt. The washroom was inside the quarters. A small square thing, with barely enough room to stretch out. Jacy was next to me; and apparently all the others were in the area. She apologized for not having a more luxurious quarters available. The station only had the one, and it was occupied. I didn’t mind.

As she took her leave from us, I stopped her, “When am I meeting the Sotiris person?”

She turned to me then looking confused, “You have.”

“I have?”

“Yes.”

“Who?”

“Me.”

“You?”

“Yes.”

“But you are not Sotiris.”

“I am.” That had me confused.

“When did you marry into the family?” I asked the only possible reason I could come up with.

“I didn’t.”

“But… I don’t remember your last name being Sotiris.” That was not something I would have forgotten so easily.

“I never used my last name in school.”

“So, you are S. K. Sotiris?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. I see.” I really tried to keep myself in control. “You tried to buy me out of my own company.”

“Oh, yes.” At least she had the decency to look embarrassed.

…[ JACY ]…

Things had taken a pretty interesting turn since they made it to the mining station. Jacy was prepared for a lot of things for when they arrived at the station, but she was not prepared for Sylvia. And apparently, neither was Mativo.

Sylvia looked nothing like a Sotiris. For one, she was clearly of mixed heritage, African and European. All the known Sotiris family members were European. Then there was the height; the Sotiris’ were tall, all of them, men and women, were above one meter eighty. Sylvia was short compared to them, a centimeter or two shorter than Mativo. You didn’t get the feel you were looking at a Sotiris when you looked at Sylvia.

It was plain for all to see that there was or had been something between the two of them. And Jacy was dying to figure out what. Mativo had talked about his past on a few occasions, offering glimpses into periods of his life where Mativo hadn’t been the kind of person she knew. His relationships then had been the weirdest thing Jacy had heard. She sometimes thought that Mativo might be exaggerating those stories. But here was someone to shed light into the past. To help her discern truth from fabrication.

Mativo had once told her that he had been in six relationships but only two he knew about while they were active. When she asked about the other four, he claimed that he learnt he had been in them after they were over.

Sylvia was not the kind of person she thought Mativo would keep around. She was nice, alright. But she was also loud. Like her normal talking voice was always above everyone else’s. If she talked, you heard her. And she talked, a lot. All she needed was a little encouragement and she could talk non-stop. If Mativo stayed around someone like that for long, he would spend the rest of the day suffering from headaches. So, how the two came to know each other was a mystery Jacy was determined to solve.

She had asked Sylvia herself, hoping for a long answer. But Sylvia only gave her a few short sentences before she moved on to another topic. There was more to it than she had said, and she was careful enough not to say it. She at least understood Mativo somewhat. That meant Mativo would be the one to tell her. Then she could get the full story from Sylvia.

They had been at the USK Mining Colony for the last few days. Ever since Mativo had learnt that the person he had come to meet was Sylvia, his interest in the meeting had waned. They had spent those days visiting the different stations under the USK Mining Colony. With Sylvia and one or two of her employees. They had unofficially become the first people not under Mativo’s employment to be ferried by the shuttles.

“How fast can she fly?”

“1c, but they won’t let us go that fast.” Mũthiani was still hung up on that.

“Wait, 1c as in the speed of light?” Sylvia asked in amazement, staring at the controls displayed in front her. “Wow! You are telling me this shuttle can move from Earth to Neptune in six hours?”

Little questions like those were asked all throughout the numerous trips they made within the Mining Colony. Mativo maintained his silent self, which could be easily regarded as him being guarded in the presence of a potential financial rival. But Jacy knew that most of it had to do with the fact that he didn’t know how to deal with Sylvia.

She had been reluctant to agree with Mativo at first, but it had slowly become clear Sylvia wanted something big from them. And given what she had tried to do before, Mativo had every right to be scared. But that didn’t bother Jacy. Sylvia, she could handle.

But the meeting couldn’t be avoided for long, and four days in, Sylvia notified them that the meeting would be held the following day. Mativo spent the rest of the day in a contemplative mood. For her, the meeting couldn’t come fast enough.

The day of the meeting found four people sequestered in Sylvia’s office: Jacy, Mativo, Sylvia and Antony, Sylvia’s legal adviser. Sylvia claimed that she had planned to hold the meeting between just her and Mativo. But after it became clear that Jacy would attend, she had decided to have a witness too. It wasn’t meant to be anything official, but better safe than sorry.

“You invited me, and here I am. Let’s hear it,” Mativo said as they settled down on the chairs. They should have held the meeting in the shuttle, everything was better there. Especially the gravity. Jacy thought.

“You have seen around some of the mining stations in this colony. What do you think?”

“You have got a nice thing going. Pretty neat.”

“Are you interested?”

“You are asking me if I need a mining establishment?”

“No. I’m asking you if you are interested in my mining services?” She held up a hand to stop Mativo from arguing back. “Let’s not pretend you don’t need them. We both know you do.”

“I could easily create my own—”

“It would take you time and lots of money to get to the level mine are.”

The back and forth continued between them as each argued the merits of their opinions. But they soon came to some sort of agreement.

“What are you proposing?” Mativo finally asked Sylvia.

“Partnership.”

“Partnership?”

“Partnership. You offer transportation services; I offer mining services.”

“Down the line, one or both of us could gain the capability to perform the other’s services.”

“I know by that time, you will have discovered something new we can both help each other at.”

“You want to leech on me.” The idea didn’t seem to be bothering Mativo. It was more like he wanted both of them to know who was who.

“I’m not going to fool myself into thinking I have what it takes to discover the things you can.” She settled back in her chair, making it look like gravity was only working for her. “But I know you are going to discover more than you can handle, and you will need someone to help you.”

“I could just decide not to discover too much.”

“Then I will take over the reins and see how far I can take it.”

“A threat.” Mativo laughed then. “I either keep discovering new resources for us to exploit or you take over everything.”

“Not everything.”

There was silence as Mativo seemed to be thinking through what they had talked about. Then, “We still have to talk with the families.”

“Mine will have no issues.”

“Because you gain a lot from this. It is not the same for me.”

“It is. If we had been in partnership, you would have punctured through Enceladus like a hot needle to a balloon filled with air.”

“I don’t think that was a nice analogy. Besides, I think you are going red.”

“Not right now. But in a decade? Yes.”

She hadn’t even hesitated as she admitted that. Another silence stretched between them. Jacy felt like she had been brought here to support Mativo emotionally. It didn’t bother her at all. The more she gleaned into their interactions, the more she could understand them. And the meeting was a perfect environment, a business meeting where their personal feelings couldn’t be allowed to interfere.

“There is something else.” Sylvia started hesitantly before gathering herself. “I want to be on the next ship out.”

“There will be lots of expeditions after we make it back. All you have to do is buy a ticket.”

“I’m not talking about the ones around the Solar System.” Sylvia was a little annoyed with what she perceived as Mativo thinking her a fool. “We both know you are soon going out of the Solar System. Anyone who knows you knows that. I want to be on that expedition.”

“Does everyone know what my plans are now?” Mativo asked, turning to her. Jacy made a show of innocence before replying,

“No. I think only the six of us on the ship knew before you announced your intentions.” When she thought back to that day, she amended her statement. “Less than six, some of the others didn’t know.”

“Back on Earth, I would estimate a few hundred. Mostly your close family and friends.” Sylvia said. She was thoughtful for a while before she continued. “And maybe those they might have talked about it with.”

“Okay. So, you want to buy a ticket for that expedition?” Mativo asked, bringing the conversation back on point. And Sylvia surprised them with her answer.

“No. As part of the crew.”

“Heee.” Mativo made an indistinct sound. Jacy just laughed.

“I was planning to try and join without you knowing.” And she continued to offer more surprises.

“I would have still known it’s you.”

“Yes.” Sylvia conceded. “But not as a Sotiris who tried to buy your company from you.”

“I see…”

“I would appreciate it if you don’t tell people who I am.”

“There are those who already know you.” Jacy reminded her. The crew they had come with here would definitely remember her. Especially considering how she and Mativo had interacted the first time meeting each other.

“I will be joining as someone else.” But she didn’t elaborate how she would do that.

“Wait, I haven’t agreed to this yet.” Mativo tried to argue.

“I wasn’t asking for permission. I was letting you know so you don’t say you were blindsided.”

“It’s my ship, I should get to decide who goes and who doesn’t.”

“So, you are going to choose the crew based on who they are?”

“If who they are affects the mission, then yes.”

“So, all I have to do is prove that who I am will not affect the mission?”

“Seriously? I—”

“Look at it this way. I will try my best to be on that crew same as anyone who will know about it will do. You are left with two options. One, you can knowingly know who I am when I am part of the crew, or you can always be wondering which one of your crew is me.”

He soon gave up and let them start up a conversation of their own, adding comments and answering questions as it was required of him. He looked like he couldn’t wait to get back on the ship.