Aardvarks to Planet X (book 1 of the hexology in seven parts)
Chapter 17: Asteroid '49ers

It was a meeting between an ageing James Conrich, and his astronomical advisor. Lord Lambington; the twenty seventh Earl of Swanwick. “You recall how I pointed out the need to exchange an equal mass, from Earth to the Moon. So minerals extracted there wouldn’t cause the Earth’s rotation to slow, and bring on the long night. Well, with the colony ships leaving our little two bodied system. The Earth may shift orbit, from mass loss. Thus causing the same problem.” The nonagenarian thought a while, and then he replied. “Well I always though the buck stops here. A man must clear up his messes.” So the great asteroid mining franchise was born, in the summer of ’49. The same year the people of Earth gave Pluto back its pride, re-elevating it to a fully-fledged planet. Conrich never lived to see the first mining ships leave.

Jake Bibbings and Ron Duffel were at each other’s throats again. Why they shipped out together, no one knows. But like the proverbial chalk and cheese, they were once more bound together for the long sleep. Before they could begin earning the money. The asteroid belt was too close for sub jumps to be accurate enough, especially with no target with enough mass to aim for. So the only way to complete the journey, was in deep sleep. Or the cold bed, as most miners referred to it.

This time Jake was ranting about the whole point of mining asteroids. “If Conrich Hadn’t got the idea of sending chunks of Earth off into the big black.” “We would end up stuck on Earth, or Mars when the sun goes pop.” Retorted Ron, “It had to be done.” “Well I still don’t like it.” “You like the money.” Jake grunted his disapproval.

They had to do all the checks; before the accelerating ram drive would kick in. When the men would be safely in their acceleration proof chambers. Chilled to one hundred and fifty below zero. Jake and Ron would never know the flash of the explosion behind them. The craft would be pushed to faster speeds, and then slowed again from the mid point. So they could stop at the other end. All by the same same process, controlled by the autopilot. They were essentially super cargo, passengers on the rented franchise. Charged to bring back home minerals and mass. Fulfilling the age-old dance of supply and demand.

The real work for them would be done two hundred and fifty million miles from Earth. “Well I still think it’s too dangerous for the money”, argued Jake. “All those nuclear bombs stowed fore and aft. You know that Conrich’s ghost is the biggest arms dealer the world has ever known.” “Yes but only because he needed them to run these drives. Besides, if his ships weren’t setting them off safely away from the Earth. Some general may get an itchy trigger finger, and we’d have a cinder to return to. The day we run out of fuel for these ships, I’ll be a happy and rich man, same as you. Now did you check the shielding? I don’t want to get a dose of gamma radiation.”

Jake read off the dial, “yes all O.K. How many minutes until we’re a safe distance from Earth?” Checking his wristwatch, Ron replied. “We’ve got about half an hour, plenty of time. Have you checked teddy?” Teddy was the nickname of the autopilot, because they would not be able to sleep through the voyage, with out Teddy to guide the ship. “Yes all circuits fully functional.” They continued back and forth, until they finally sealed themselves in the cocoon of cool liquid. Then the ship appeared to flash, as the first bomb sent ripples of force propelling the craft towards its destination.

The two had met on the Sentry risk table phase of the operation. That used Tritium powered craft, to clear all the asteroids in near earth orbit. Using rockets fitted at strategic points to the massive rocks. Miners would then judo flip them on a collision Course, to the far side of the moon. They would land safely away from any mining, on the Earth side. Even so, the world’s governments made sure Conrich had put in place safety measures. Just in case of the unlikely, but catastrophically disastrous results of a stray asteroid.

He had made use of an idea thought up during the Regan years. A network of nuclear explosion powered lasers, now circled the Earth and Moon system. He’d had to put them out so far, so not to contravene the O.S.T. and salt 2 treaties. Plus some fail-safes had been installed. He had to make it impossible for these weapons of mass destruction, to be turned on their creators. With these space rock zappers in place, men like Ron and Jake had begun the work of clearing the near skies.

Clearing the sort of menace that wiped out the dinosaurs. Their last job had been 2015TC25, and then they moved on. The ships used for that job were obsolete now, too slow for the pickings further out. So it was either go hunting for Centaurs, those free roaming astral bodies. That once pinpointed, would be hunted down like a rouge colt. Or head for the asteroid belt, where a man could stretch his legs for a while between sleeps.

Some day all this would end, and a new Trojan war would commence a sub jump away. As rival groups of miners would see who could grab the rich pickings, from the Trojan and Greek asteroids that led and followed Jupiter, like a celestial procession. And finally some distant descendants of these two miners of the stars, would vacuum up the Oort cloud, nine billion miles from home. The Earth itself would be just a pinpoint in the sky, to these intrepid decendants. Thus the Solar system would be swept clean of all, but the necessary heavenly bodies. And any simple diagram of it would finally be correct.

As the two shipmates slept, a clock counted down. An alarm would bring them back to the land of the living. But other alarms were going off. If only they had been awake. But then they may have been in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Jake woke first. With a start, he burst through the protective film, and coughed up fluid. Then he began to retch, as he rose from his metal crypt. The sound hit him before his eyes could focus, and dropping him self over the side, Jake tried to make sense of his surroundings. One of the red lights on the panel was blinking, as the Claxton bore into his head like a hangover. He pressed the response button, and was relieved to be free of the hideous noise.

Behind him Ron was still going through the wakening process. “What’s that horrible sound? I thought I was back in Denver, when my apartment caught fire.” “You’ll wish you were”, came the terse response. “What’s happening anyway?” Ron joined his partner at the control panel. “Number three hold’s been breached. It must have been a micro grain, or integrity would be compromised. Well I’ll suit up, and see what damage has been done.” “That’s the rockets unit. I hope we’ve not lost them, or it’ll be just the hold. And we can’t make enough on that alone.” Ron cursed, now fully sobered from sleep.

Half an hour later came the news he had hoped for. “Just a breach. We’ve lost air from that unit, but a patch will sort that. And we can make up the loss at Vesta’s drop station. No loss of rockets, but one of the proximity sensors is fried.” It could be worst, they would just have to keep a better eye out. A proximity sensor would stop a suited fellow from unexpected visitors, in the shape of the one that made this unwanted hole. “We’ll just have to rely on the ship’s unit, and relay the signal through comms. I wonder why Teddy missed this one?” Then Ron went to prepare breakfast for them both.

It would be half a day to the drop station. So with the patch applied and stomachs full, they rechecked the systems and did their daily exercises. Got to keep those muscles in trim, or they would never cut it back on Earth. The Quarters were adequate, but cramped. Not like the passenger ships they were designing, for trips to Europa. Where a sub jump, would take you to the only other world in the system to harbour life. Great donuts made of Mallomite. Like a train looped back on itself, so the front end joined the back. Spinning on spokes round the central hub, where the crew and engine resided. Or the colony ships. Where the population of that artificial world, lived on the inner surface of the tube. And the sky was as green as under your feet. They corkscrewed their way to the stars, utilising jump engines never to return. They were mankind’s future.

“Coming up on Vesta” hollered Ron, and they suited up. “This is asteroid mining ship Delta B Charlie.” Jake intoned, when the base came into range. “We need some air for our number three hold.” “Come on down”, came the reply. With the ship in a stable orbit they left it in the capable hands of Teddy, and descended the wire. Emerging from the inner door of the air lock, Jake and Ron were greeted by the smiling face of someone all too glad of company. “Hello boys, so you need some supplies?” Ron interceded, “we hit one of your rocks and lost a hold full of air. Here’s my I.D.“, and he held up a card.

The way stations set up on the big four: Ceres, Vesta, Pallas and Hygiea, were a godsend for any space farer. But the company still wanted paying for the service, and this would come out of their profits for the trip. “Not the best way to make an arrival”, the official called from another room. He pulled a trolley full of tanks back, a feat that would have been impossible in a greater gravity than this. “Still there’s worst things that can happen in space. A hole in the visor can be very nasty, or suit heater going down. That happened just last week, took them half a day to thaw the corpse out. So are you going for anything in particular?” “No just the usual net and scoop for the hold, and a bunch of rockets for some big ones. What’s up for grabs?” The clerk scratched his chin and pondered. “Well Juno went last month, along with Davida and Psyche. But I think Intermnia is still out there, amongst others.” They thanked him. When the empty tanks had been returned, the two men set course for their first target.

The spectrum analyser read out its replaceings, and Jake grinned as he handed the sheet to Ron. “It’s an M type.” A metal rich asteroid could really boost their profits, so Ron broke out the rocket boosters. Meanwhile Jake guided the ship on to a parallel course, with their prize rock. “Got an analysis of booster position yet?” Came the call over the radio. The parameters were spooling up the screen in front of Jakes eyes. The computer worked out the most efficient method of flipping this multi ton mine of wealth, on a course for target Moon. A beep, and he had the necessary data. “O.K. I’ve got the figures. I’m transmitting them now.”

Outside the protective skin of their craft, his partner moved from one fast moving object to another. Ron just experienced the appearance of stillness. The metal rope played out, as Ron took his cage full of rockets propelled by a small jet. Then he landed with a dull thud on his new world. He always imagined planting a flag at these moments, but turned at once to position his equipment.

Once the location data was transferred, it was a relatively simple job. He followed the directions on its panel to place the rocket, and angle it correctly. After which it’s auto function kicked in, and a drill attached it to the surface. It seemed to quiver, as minor adjustments were made independent of any human intervention. Ron was essentially a mule he mused, and he lifted the next load. At least the weight was low, even if the mass took a trained operator to shift. In two hours and exhausted from his labours, Ron took the empty cage back to the ship.

“Want a cup of coffee?” Jake asked. Then they went to the cramped, gravity rich part of their craft. “So where’s next?” Ron enquired. He was sipping the hot black liquid that served for coffee. At least it stayed in the cup. “Well Eunomia is near according to Teddy’s maps, and I haven’t received a claim notice on it. But even so, there are a number of un-named’s near it. Are you going to finish that biscuit?” And he popped the last Borbon in his mouth.

The journey took a while. A circuit of the belt out here was a fair distance. So they set the alarms, and rechecked the proximity sensors. Jake had replaced the failed unit, so there were no spares left. Then they settled down for a long night.

Fully awake and checking the maps Ron cursed. “Some ones got Eunomia, but there’s a few un-named ones. A couple of S types, some C types and one M.” Looking over his shoulder Jake smiled. “We might as well finish the rockets off here, rather than blast of more bombs.” They might not get quite as much profit, but this was certainly a less risky proposition. And the M type they had already bagged meant the mission would be still on target. “O.K. let’s get that one first.” Ron pointed out the small M in the top left corner of the screen.

With the precious M type safely on its way, Ron came over Jakes helmet radio. “Do you want to get some claim beacons down, while you’re out there?” “No I don’t think I should. Not on my own anyway.” Expecting an argument Ron took a deep breath. But before he could reply Jake cut in. “Check your proximity sensor you moron. I’ve just seen the flash of a retro blast. We’ll be fighting over the best asteroids.”

With a gasp Ron saw his partner was right, had Ron got a premonition this might happen? He sprang into action, plotting the richest pickings for the ten remaining rocket sets. In seconds he had the hit list. While Jake dragged all their markers from their storage unit, Ron manoeuvred the ship in to position.

Strictly speaking this sort of action didn’t follow the code of mining. But the letter of the law said once a beacon was up and running, you had a month to mine its recipient. And they were not going to be driven away by some latecomers to the party. So by the time the new arrivals were awake enough to hail them, Ron was putting out the penultimate beacon. He had swapped with Jake, when the other man got tired. “Hey you guys, no fair we’ve just come a quarter of the way round the disc for those.” “Well you should have got here earlier. Finders keepers.” Jake barked back from the control room.

Then he switched coms to Ron. “Ready for the last one, those guys are spitting feathers.” “Sure.” And they off they sped to a Carbonaceous rich rock, that would finish their rockets off. By the time Ron was back on board, Jake had noted down the last security code from the computer. In the case of a dispute, he was not planning to lose out. “I bet those guys are sick as parrots” Jake laughed, as he turned to his partner. “Still there’s plenty of C type’s out there.” Then they went for a well-deserved supper.

Over the next week Ron and Jake took turns setting up the rockets. While their neighbour’s craft moved about with purpose, trying to make a decent profit from the fields remaining asteroids. “Do you think we should fill the hold here, or move on? Those guys must be pretty mad at us”, Ron asked over breakfast. “Well there’s a good trail of smaller rocks some distance behind us.” Came the reply from behind a cheep novel. “Why don’t we just drift off and leave them to it.” So with a glance back at the only humans within a million miles, they set off on the Tritium rockets for the next stage of their mission. As they neared the potentially deadly cloud of debris, Ron and Jake suited up. If any thing breached the hull, they needed to be prepared. The front of the craft seemed to move away from the back, as a web like cage unfolded.

This was the main cargo hold. Where aerodynamics mean little, such a space came into its own. Only the mass inside it really mattered. Next a vast net of fine Mallomite mesh was stretched out on extendable poles. Tiny specks seemed to dance about on it, as the dust of space was gathered up. Finally sensors detected enough force between the drag of the net, and the forward thrust of the rocket. Then automatically controlled motors started up, and the full load was dragged into the ungainly belly of the ship. Inside the control room, Jake and Ron were tired from concentration. So they staggered off to their bunks, and flopped down. Meanwhile Teddy turned the craft towards home.

After a final meal, they began the pre sleep checks. “This will be my last one”, Jake announced from his control desk.” “You always say that”, came the yawned reply. “This time I mean it. I’ve got enough to retire in style.” And with that they settled down for the long sleep home.