Turned out that the ‘orange’ was a scientist as well. Or an engineer. Let me start again. The guy we subdued was an experimental engineer. His specialty was the adaption and integration of tech and systems from previous high-tech ages. Or so he claimed. The weird part was that he seemed oddly collected for his current circumstances. The moment we had taken out the pirates… is that the right word? Criminals? Racketeers? The moment we had taken them out, he had simply knelt down with his hands up and told us he surrendered and that his name was Dr. Asami Soto and said specialty. Right now he was tied up on the opposite side of the cave and was very quiet.

Additionally some of the stuff that he was saying about previous high-tech ages didn’t make much sense to me. But then again I hadn’t been able to get out much… of the mining system which was, as everybody kept telling me, the ass-end of nowhere.

I decided that at some point I needed to learn more about the history of this universe. It seemed that there was so much lore here and I just never had the time or opportunity to actually look into it. Well, to be fair, I had just sat around on the station for a few days with not that much to do. But somehow looking into the history and lore of the universe hadn’t even registered on my radar. So now I sat here and the guy’s speciality seemed to make sense to the mercs but not to me.

The mercs had reported to captain Ishi that the cave was taken. Ishi in turn had taken position over the asteroid in his cruiser and ordered the two frigates to patrol the asteroid field in a varying pattern. The problem was that sensors were impacted but all of those rocks. So they needed to keep circling to get more readings. And to make it more difficult to predict which areas would be covered and thus usable as approach vectors they kept the courses somewhat random.

Ishi also gave green light to Irene and her shuttle. She had the two Greys and Nirazera with her. The former to get started studying the ship, the latter so “she could lay eyes on the thing she invested so much money in”. I could not really fault her for that. Had I been in her position, I think I would have demanded to see it before investing. Although that hadn’t been possible. Anyway, I got her point and didn’t begrudge her coming to the claim with the others.

There was also something I needed to give those pirate guys some kudos for. They actually went ahead and set up a generator and work lights in the cavern which is something we never actually did because we had no real option to start working on getting into the ship. Now that we had two professionals coming in, we would have needed to do that but thanks to our not-friends the whole place was actually well lit.

This was something that had totally slipped my mind when we left the station. I had been so desperate to get back to the asteroid and secure it, that I didn’t even think about how we would get to work on the ship. So yay for hostile occupation of your claim as long as it made future working conditions more stable.

While Irene brought the shuttle in I got started laying out a mining plan in my head and drawing up the necessary diagrams in my HUD and saving them. The cave entrance was big enough to bring the shuttle in and it widened considerably into the aforementioned cavern. But the floor was all uneven and jagged. But according to my 16 points in the asteroid mining skill, it would take relatively little work to get it flattened out so that a shuttle could land there.

In general though I thought it was a bad idea to have the shuttle sitting in a place that had only one exit but it made it safer from enemies outside and facilitated boarding and unboarding. So I checked with captain Ishi and when he gave his okay, I grabbed the assault shuttle pilot and my Sorren and Drak companion and we flew over to our old mining claim to get the supplies I needed to make it happen.

Malcolm: Irene, can you hold the shuttle for about 3 hours?

Irene: Why? What’s going on?

Malcolm: Nothing really. I am just to the point where I considered putting a landing area into the cave which would make everything easier.

Irene: Honestly, if I have to tide our two Gastarin Orivels over for another 3 hours, I am not sure that they won’t put on a space suit and try to exit the shuttle to come down there?

Malcolm: Huh? Is it that cramped up there?

Nirazera: It seems our glorious CEO still has not really grasped the concept of both the opportunities a relic presents and the personality of Greys.

Malcolm: What do you mean?

Nirazera: Greys are enthusiastic and uber curious. They are smart as hell and often socially awkward so you might not generally notice this but if they have the opportunity to study something, to learn something, to improve and tinker with things they are hard to hold back from it. They get lost in the project. As for the relic? You found a ship from a civilization that has been long dead. But a lot of our modern technology is actually based on things people discovered in the relics. That means this provides an opportunity that hasn’t been there for several lifetime researchers. Now put those things together.

Malcolm: So you are saying the guys are going crazy up there and can’t wait to get started and you might not be able to rein them in?

Irene: Pretty much. Especially as they are this close and then we tell them they have to wait for another 3 hours.

Fuck me. Yeah, I hadn’t seen it from that perspective. But then again, three hours should not make that much of a difference. Time for an executive decision.

Malcolm: Tell them to cool their jets. If they can’t wait another 3 hours without causing a big tohuwabohu they can fly back home in the next outgoing ship. Thanks to our RD friends we found an experimental engineer specialised in relic stuff already working on the ship. He might as well continue if they don’t behave up there. I am on my way to get the mining stuff and will have a “landing pad” ready for you in… 2.5 hours from now.

Irene: I’ll tell them but you better make it up to me. Dealing with those 2 doesn’t get easier.

Ygglog: It will make you stronger.

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There used to be an expression in chats I read about. When you “work” online you have to spend time familiarizing yourself with pop culture and when I do it, I get lost in it and spend days or weeks on deep dives into these things. That expression used to be popular in the late 2010s and early 2020s. “Smh” was the expression and stood for “shaking my head”. If there was ever an appropriate moment to use it it was after Ygglog’s last comment. But the expression was no longer used and I had no desire to explain it, so instead I let the chat die right there.

Ralgau, our four legged friend and I picked up the mining supplies from the old claim site, which was thoroughly searched and looked kinda trashed but the mining gear was still in good condition. Then we flew back to the cave and we got to work. I did the drilling, Ygglog set the mining bags and did the ‘kaboom’ and then Ralgau and he got to work clearing the rocks and moving them out of the way. It would have been cool to be able to stick all that stuff into the processor but that was not an option right now. Maybe we would do it later. I actually thought the idea of clearing out more of the space and moving the claim camp in here would make sense. Although that led to the problem that the containers to store the ore would be outside and that made ferrying the material tedious.

But then again, it would not be my decision to make. I did not plan on sticking around the claim. I thought of leaving it with Krn and Mrk. In the end those guys were actually the mining force and the only ones who really had a passion for it and wanted to do it long term.

We managed to clear the landing area in record time and after two and a half hours I gave Irene the go-ahead to bring the shuttle in. There was some cursing in the chat as the Greys had kept nagging her about landing sooner. When they finally stepped out of the shuttle in their vac suites their eyes were shining and you could feel a nervous vibration all about them.

“Extraordinary mister Solo. Absolutely extraordinary!” First said while manipulating some contraption that I assumed was a scanning device. It reminded me of the ones they had in that ancient television show Star Trek. The one with the bald captain. What were they called again?

Second had a much less subdued reaction to being in close proximity to the relic. He immediately raced towards it. I mean as much as you can race in space without gravity and his body composition.

“Caref…” I called out over com but it was already too late and he banged head first into the shield which flared and clearly showed the outline. Which got me tendering about something.

“First. The ship sits on solid rock, right?”

“You would know better than me mister Solo.” Then he manipulated some buttons on his scanning thingamabob. “Although yes, you are right.”

“So the shield has not penetrated that rock. How about we mine a tunnel under it and then we can get inside the shield.”

“I see what you are suggesting. It won’t work.”

I waited for him to speak further but he didn’t, instead he was all absorbed in his data collection. Opisthos had made it back to his feet and must have heard my exchange with his brother.

“All the information we have on the relic’s shields suggest that they do not penetrate solid matter. However as soon as this matter is removed, the shield is established in its place.”

“How does that work?” Irene asked, confused.

“Think of it like water. Imagine the ship is surrounded by a bubble of water. While there is solid matter, there is no water. As soon as you remove the matter, the water flows into it and establishes the part of the bubble that was before impossible.”

“A crude and completely wrong analogy.” First chimed in.

“It is merely to explain the concept.” the other grey replied, annoyed.

“What you suggest implies that the shield is filled with something. It is not. Anything inside the shield is no different from the gases outside the shield. Although I notice that the radiation inside seems to be different.”

“It was merely to explain what happens when one removes the matter and the shield establishes there.”

“That should be self-explanatory.”

I rolled my eyes at these guys. Unbelievable.

“Stop quarreling. Second, thank you for the explanation as incorrect as it may have been, it allowed me to get a better idea.”

He gave a satisfied look to his brother. I heard a sniff over the com. I figured it was condescending. I mean it must be hard to deal with such underdeveloped intellects as we had.

“Actually, the water explanation is not as wrong as it seems at first look.” this voice was coming out of nowhere.

“What? How can this be anything but wrong?”

Irene: Who is this on the com?

Malcolm: No clue… wait, fuck… that’s our orange friend.

Irene: The what now?

Malcolm: The fucking scientist that the RD guys had messing about here.

I went to fetch him. If he was willing to chip in, then we might as well toss all the brain power together.

“Doctor Soto. It seems like you are eager to contribute. I am of the mind to let you but before that I need to know why you were working with Red Dawn.”

He scoffed. “I was not working with them. I was working for them.”

“Okay and why were you working FOR them?”

“Because they had leverage over me and used it.”

I rolled my eyes. Why would people not simply answer with the whole freaking story?

“Come on doc. Either share and we share with you or you don’t and then you keep sitting there until we can take you back to the station and let the authorities sort it out.”

“Fine.” he said in an exasperated tone. “I was in debt to some people that financed some research of mine. Red Dawn apparently bought that debt and then called it in and made me work for them.”

That sounded like the guys I had run up against. They didn’t just ask. For some reason they always felt compelled to force people. Not sure what that was about. Tiny-something-syndrome? Getting off on it? Idiots. You catch more flies with honey as they say.

“I see. And now? They still hold your debt, don’t they?”

“Yes they do. But I could be of assistance to you.”

“And in return?”

“You provide protection until we leave space that Red Dawn has an influence in.”

“What do you mean we?”

“You don’t seem like the guy that just wants to get into the ship to chop the tech up and sell it. You want the ship. You were able to pull together a good merc contract on short notice and you are running a corporation. So I think you have enough pull to make that happen. I want to study the relic and leave this void cursed system and it’s pirates behind.”

It was interesting. First Nirazera and then him. And Nicola too for that matter. They all seemed to think that I had more going for me than I really did. It was interesting. But then again a few days ago I set foot into this universe in a rusty space mining ship with no clue what I was doing. I guess I had done decently well for myself. But there was also RD I was dealing with, I had a guy working with me on the claim that had betrayed me to them and I was not in the mood to saddle myself with another.

“I can promise you protection right now. Everything after I get into the ship will be decided at that time. That’s the only off I can make you.”

“Then I am expecting at least 10k and a trip out of this system.”

“Okay, I can agree to that. Payment after we have access to the ship though. And when Red Dawn tries to get in touch with you, you let me know.”

Malcolm: I just struck a deal with the guy. Would you keep an eye on him as well. I don’t want to get stabbed in the back by yet another person.

Irene: Do you think that is a good idea?

Malcolm: No. But the more brains work on this, the faster it might all go.

Ralgau: No worries, we are keeping an eye on him.

Nirazera: Let us girls handle it. We have nothing else to do but be chaperones anyway.

Irene: Good point.

Malcolm: Good point. You got it.

I unshackled the guy and led him to our other two scientists.