Nova asked.

April said.

Paws asked.

“Well they're protecting their dig sites after all,” Aero said. “Can't blame them for being defensive of their profit margins.”

The Wraith fleet settled into orbit around the Red Giant Lucre. Fifty klicks away orbited the Fortune Divers' mining barge Black Opal, which Nova called Queen Bee for some reason. With Remmy Kaga, their site director, reaching out, Sinn agreed to a meeting with the Fortune Divers leaders for negotiations and took Myles with him.

Jake asked.

“There's no point,” Aero said. “At best we'd salvage about a million credits worth of mining equipment we can't use.”

Paws asked.

“You're thinking too small Paws,” Aero said. “Sinn and Myles will negotiate with them for a bigger prize soon.”

Paws asked.

“Not that,” Aero said, “We aren't taking anythi–”

Jake asked.

“Yes, as I was saying,” Aero said, “the most valuable things in this system are currently our nav data and mineral deposits which the Fortune Divers were mining. With our accidental encounter, we now hold all those mining profits hostage.”

Jake asked.

“At a minimum? A share of their expected mining profits,” Aero said. “Their org has only been here about two weeks, and so most of the resources here are free for the taking. If we release that data and sink that barge, they'll lose far more than they'd have to give us.”

Jake said.

“That's not all Jake,” Aero said. “I'm not sure how open they are to negotiations, but I think Myles will convince them to give us much more.”

Paws asked.

“They will,” Aero said. “I think Nova and Jake proved that their security branch is… lacking.”

Several chuckles reached Aero's ear.

Nova said,

“Not really,” Aero said. “Go ahead and dive into the next gate.”

Paws said. Without another word, his Viper spun toward the next unmapped gate and shot off.

April asked.

Aside from waiting? Aero thought. “Just hoping that Sinn and Myles return with good news.”

Myles stepped off the Phantasm's transfer shuttle following Sinn's egress into the Black Opal's empty docking bay. Meeting them in the docking bay stood Remmy Kaga, wearing a clean suit in his org's white and yellow colors.

“Nice to meet you in person,” Remmy said with a bow, “though this still virtual, isn't it? Please, come with me to our conference room.”

Unlike most industrial ships, the walls surfaces of the Black Opal shone with bright lights and lacked the dust and grime often seen in mining vessels. Polished floors and decorative lighting in a hangar, and conference room too? The Fortune Divers invested more into this ship than necessary, Myles thought. At least thirty million I'd say.

Sinn's eyes likewise scanned their surroundings, though his gaze resembled a child in a toy store. “This is nicer than I expected for a mining barge. The ship must be pretty new,” Sinn said.

“It is,” Remmy said. “Its construction finished just before we discovered this system. We were lucky enough that she's paid for herself already.”

“Sounds like your org lives up to its name,” Myles said. Two weeks of mining and they've already made thirty million? That's impressive. Was he feigning divestment of the ship's value? Or was that an unintended slip by someone who normally doesn't negotiate?

“We try, the conference room is this way.” Remmy led the two down a sterile corridor past several armed members of a security team.

“Do we really not need our own guards?” Sinn whispered. “I could've asked Legius to come along too.”

“They won't kill our personality containers Sinn. With the Phantasm fifty klicks away, they have no choice but to talk.”

“Too bad,” he said. “I would've enjoyed watching our marines make a mess of things.”

“Here we are,” Remmy announced. The door slid open to reveal a marble table surrounded by six leather chairs and wood-paneled walls. Scenes from endless Parallax Gate locales scrolled by on a wall-sized display panel at the table's head and Sinn's eyes screamed, 'I want one.'

Thirty-five million if the other rooms are like this…

“Please have a seat, Harold, our chief executive, will join us by video comm.”

As if on cue, the display buzzed to life, and an imposing figure appeared, seated cross-legged on a leather cushioned throne. His apparent office was even more ornate than the Opal's conference room. the man said.

“Exactly,” Sinn said. “I'm Sinn Omon, leader of the Temple Wraiths, and this is Myles Samson, executive officer and chief negotiator.”

Myles nodded towards the display. Are they trying to show off their wealth? We already have enough negotiating advantages as is.

Harold said.

Sinn glanced to Myles and gave a quick nod.

“Before that, Sir Harold, let me share with you my understanding of the situation,” Myles said. “Please interrupt me, either of you, if I'm incorrect in any way.”

Harold said.

“To begin, your organization has lost over two million in credit damages thanks to the loss of your local Wasp squadron after they attacked our gate diver. Our side lost five hundred thousand since our pilot sacrificed a surveyor radar while defending her ship. Since the Wraiths clearly won that engagement, we should be entitled to compensation for our lost equipment at a minimum. Do you agree?”

Harold nodded,

“You're right. As of now, we can destroy your mining barge on a whim, which would cost your org at least twenty-five million credits to replace. In addition, the untapped resources in this system value over two hundred million in profits before it goes public, which you'd lose if we sold the data to a better-armed mining org.”

Harold raised an eyebrow.

“The time remaining for nav data privacy reveals you've been here for two weeks,” Myles said, “and Remmy let slip that you've reclaimed the value of this luxurious mining barge within that time. As systems simply don't run out of rare resources that quickly, you were in a position to make six to eight times that before the system data is revealed.”

Harold shot Remmy a disapproving glare.

Looks like my guess was right, Myles thought. “While our org never intended to hold your ship or resources hostage, we aren't an org to ignore a profitable situation. You might say this was a fortunate encounter for us.”

Sinn snorted while Remmy shuddered.

On the view screen, Harold simply nodded. Harold said.

“Not one this valuable,” Myles responded. “Statistically, only one in fifteen systems have this density of mineral ores, so whoever named this system was quite the prophet. You can expect to lose about five million in gate diving ships before finding another like it. I suspect this system contains the large majority of the potential value your org is mining at this moment. At this moment, your org stands to lose forty-five million credits in value.”

Harold said.

“You don't care for the nav data?” Sinn asked. “That's a lot of credits on the table.”

“There's no way we can guarantee you don't release the nav data,” Remmy said. “The value of in system resources is moot.”

“But there is, Mister Remmy,” Myles said. “Give us a share of your org's overall profits. Maybe fifteen percent or so? Then we'd have a vested interest in the privacy of Lucre.”

Remmy stood from his seat and struck the table. “That's insane!”

“In exchange,” Myles continued, “we will leave the Black Opal to you without a scratch, properly train your interceptor pilots to defend the gates, and provide your freighters with an escort at no additional charge.”

“Huh?”

“So what do you think Harold?” Sinn asked. “Are you interested in a business alliance with the Temple Wraiths?”

Harold's chuckle evolved into full blown laughter. The roar poured through the speakers and echoed within the conference room. Shaking, he said,

Sinn grinned and clapped his hands together. “We look forward to working with you as well,” he said.

While most students hated Monday morning classes, especially when scheduled at eight-thirty, Mark's favorite class took place at that time. Though not strictly a class, the aerospace engineering seminar series discussed the many recent developments and issues in space travel and off-world industrial expansion.

Ivan, on the other hand, nodded off in the seat beside him. “Don't bother waking me if I fall asleep,” he said.

“I suggest you sleep earlier Sunday nights, the presentation hasn't even started yet,” Mark said. “You're missing out if you sleep through these.”

Ivan yawned. “I know, but working through all those contract details with the Fortune Divers took a while. After that, I had to read through all those org membership applications. Ever since you made a mess of the Suns at Elaris, I had to spend way more time picking at applicants. Half of them don't even understand what lawless space is.”

“So they want to be in a famous org, but don't understand what we do?”

“Yeah,” Ivan sighed. “Twelve applications yesterday, and I outright rejected eight.”

“If you need a hand, let me know,” Mark said.

“Sure,” Ivan nodded. “There are a lot of things to look at, so I definitely need help.”

“Oh, and I'm stabbing you with a pen if you fall asleep.”

“Wait, what?” Ivan jerked awake in his seat.

“Good, you're awake now.”

“Alright, its time to get started,” Dr. Patel, the seminar coordinator, proclaimed. The aging professor teetered to the lectern before the lecture hall, then began his introduction of the week's speaker.

“Today's speaker is Dr. Nick Orsina, an alumnus of our own department. He graduated with honors back in fifty-six and has since gone on to work at several major players in the industry including Chmela Aerospace and Rennaich Systems. He returned to earn his doctorate with the department and more recently, he became a founding member of Eos Industrial, which develops drones for asteroid mineral surveys. His time here has left a strong impression on everyone he's worked with, and students would do well to heed any advice he gives. Without further ado, his presentation is on one of his greatest contributions to the field. It is titled 'Laser-based approaches to rapid composition determination of main belt asteroids'.”

Scattered applause echoed through the hall as the speaker walked to the lectern.

“Thanks for the introduction Amir,” Dr. Orsina said. “As mentioned, my talk today will be on laser-based composition determination for asteroids. However, I like to begin my talks with a quick history lesson on how we got here as an industry.

“As most of you know, modern-day asteroid mining became possible in the world when, when the US Congress passed the bill H.R. 2262, under the Obama administration back in twenty-fifteen. At the time, the commercialization of space remained in its infancy, with private sector companies such as SpaceX and Orbital Sciences starting to provide alternatives to government funded launch platforms. But, the new law gave a legal basis for off-planet mining to occur and enabled the formation of several prospective mining corporations.

“To put things nicely, the methods they used back then were crude, with technology dating back to the nineteen-sixties and the dawn of human spaceflight. At the time, their most cost effective method for resource extraction required displacement of asteroids into near-earth orbits.”

Chuckles arose from around the room.

“Yes, we laugh now,” the speaker said, “but the members of Dr. Patel's generation can attest to the panic caused back in twenty-thirty-six, when a displaced asteroid entered a re-entry trajectory to Earth. The incident consumed half of the world's nuclear weapon stockpiles, as both the United States and Russian Federation cooperated to essentially vaporize the looming threat. Before mining corporations had a chance to extract any metals from the two already captured asteroids, public opinion forced them to send those asteroids on a direct flight into the sun. As we know, no one at the time had the ability to remotely mine, refine, and return material from asteroids, and those corporations promptly failed.

“About a decade later, technology finally enabled humanity to extract resources from space. Advances in launch platform capacity, generator energy density, three-dimensional printing, and automation allowed the next generation of asteroid miners to extract and refine metals in zero-g before returning their refined output to earth. These second generation miners dug at the most attractive asteroid they could find, refined the extracted ores, and sent them back to Earth. In doing so, they promptly caused the value of their product metals to crash and bankrupted themselves. Anyone notice a pattern here?”

You're making it pretty obvious, Mark thought. Not a bad introduction though.

“That brings us to the problem we tried to solve – how do we identify which asteroids contain those specific elements actually worth mining?

“For nearly twenty years, the space mining industry used robotic probes which drilled into an asteroid's surface to determine their composition and assess their value. This approach had several issues. First, the drill bits wore down quickly and demanded constant replacement. Next, analysis of solid state matter required the sample to either be sent off-site or locally converted to solution or ionic state for elemental analysis. None of these are cost effective, and as a result, only the most valued metals were given attention.

“That is where the laser-based approach comes in. By using a high-energy laser to vaporize a cross-section of the desired asteroid, we can sample its contents without wear and tear on a drill bit. Also, since the sample is already vaporized, several spectroscopic methods are available which can easily detect elemental signatures down to the parts per billion.”

Dr. Orsina proceeded to detail the many technical issues he and his coworkers encountered while designing and implementing his new methods. The issues ranged from designing a power source with appropriate energy density to creating automated algorithms for preventing steam explosions caused by in-asteroid ice pockets. Throughout the talk, he scattered advice for students collected through his years of industrial experience. Before they realized it, the presentation ended with cascading applause.

As the filed out of the lecture hall, Mark noticed Ivan in deep thought. “Something on your mind Ivan?” he asked.

“Nothing important. It's just that, now that I think about it,” Ivan said, “the mining mechanics in Parallax make no sense. How is a laser supposed to help you collect minerals? Wouldn't it just send your resources flying everywhere? If you're unlucky, it might even blow the whole asteroid to pieces.”

“Wait,” Mark said. “You pilot a manned fighter in game, but it never occurred to you that mechanics in a VR game might be unrealistic?”

“How is piloting a spaceship unrealistic?”

“The US air force already deploys interceptor drones in active service,” Mark said. “Remotely piloted fighters don't cost lives when shot down and the pilots won't black out when performing high-g maneuvers. The things can even travel to their deployment area on autopilot while the human pilot works a different craft. If people weren't afraid of possible AI uprisings, even the weapons systems would be automated by now. Why would a future, more advanced human civilization, stick the pilots back inside the fighters?”

Ivan sat in silent contemplation for a few seconds before realizing the game developers' intentions. With epiphany written across his face, he said, “Because it's cool.”