“You’ll work the drones today. Easy enough. When a hauler comes in with a net of rocks your drones maneuver them into a line.”

  Shilo understood the principal and worked throughout the day till lunch. He had three drones malfunction which Steve grumbled about but after seeing the footage where Shilo saved a rock and mostly saved the malfunctioning drone seemed content enough. Steve tasked him with taking the three drones to the repair bay which was a large cargo ship retrofitted and stationed further down the line.

  The trip took him past the two crushers, by an array of sorters–tasked with classifying each rock and sending them down various lines and to the mouth of the plasma ring. The repair was stuffed full of broken equipment and faulty ships. More broken vessels remained parked alongside it. Mining was hard on equipment but this was too much. Some reliable equipment was benched.

  Shilo took note of the bay and wrote down a few serial numbers of parts. Plank complained that Shilo was on the wrong side of the service lane.

  The service tech Plank took the three drones from Shilo and gave him one drone and a sorter. Was someone sabotaging the operation? Why? How.

  Steve growled when Shilo showed up with one drone and a sorter. “I said get them replaced. I’m going have to shut a lane down.”

  Shilo said, “Plank was pretty clear that he was backed up and had no replacements. He said we could use the sorter.”

  “I’m not using a sorter here. Not until the rocks are through the crusher. Work the arm and park that sorter. I’m not running a manned operation.”

  Steve’s worry made sense. Pulling asteroids from the hauler nets was dangerous. The three drones damaged from earlier made that apparent. Although it wasn’t Shilo’s fault. Or had it been? Could he have done something different?

  With them only running one crusher the second crusher lane shut down and the drones from there unloaded the haulers but the haulers were backing up and the chatter on the radio wasn’t sounding good. The shift boss was headed to them. Shilo’s new task had him making small adjustments to the asteroids as they neared the crusher. The drones stopped well outside his reach and Shilo felt like he was doing a decent job directing the rocks to the center opening.

  Frost Bear would work outside strapped to the edge of the crusher with little more than a tank of air. Shilo told Steve he could do the same but so far Steve had kept him in a cab. He didn’t blame the Frost Bear when a rock shattered pelting the workers outside. A large chunk of rock hit his window and the Frost Bear working outside flipped him the finger. Steve called in, “You gotta keep them from rotating.”

  Shilo knew that but his air was slow to respond. He didn’t want to say that over the radio and focus on making sure the rocks coming in didn’t rotate. He was handling a large asteroid that needed him to work with along with the second arm and they were going so slow the Frost Bear working outside grabbled the asteroid and was pulling on a line to guide it in.

  Some big wig was up top was watching them and talking with Steve, seemed the shift boss was on sight. The rock buckled and the warning lights on Shilo’s dash lit up. He pulled on the controls but it wasn’t his arm malfunction. The other arm across the way had failed pushing the asteroid off center and dragging the Frost Bear working outside along with it. If the rock hit the crusher at that angle it would likely damage the crusher but worse it would that Frost Bear in.

  Shilo pulled on the control arm until his arm strained with the forces involved. But he couldn’t over power the other arm’s locked joints.

  He took a breath then opened his mouth. The cold of space he could handle but without a pressure mask on he couldn’t breath and would only have about two minutes of work before he had to find air.

  He jumped onto the asteroid and ripped the hydraulic lines apart. The breakaways worked and the broken arm released the asteroid. He jumped back to his control arm and hopped in the sorter which he had left parked there. He took a breath as the sorter’s pilot seat filled with air and his ear’s popped. Then he rammed the sorter into the asteroid and it proceeded to get tangled in the lines. The direction towards the crusher's mouth seemed right and Shilo took his chance and bailed out. The frost bear working outside was being pulled towards the crusher and Shilo jumped floating through space to grab the frost bear's arm and pull off away from the crusher.

  They floated along and Shilo scrambled to pull a second mask from the frost bears air tank. The crusher did it’s job and pulverized the asteroid along with the sorter and some of the cable. Steve rushed down and pulled them both into the hold of his small command ship where he unleashed on them.

  Shilo spent the remainder of the day on med leave with the with the frost bear, Briggs, that was working on the outside.

  “I’m not sure if I should be thanking you for saving me or throwing you out of the airlock.”

  Shilo wasn’t sure himself. The job was turning out to be more than he’d expected. He sat in a small break room back at the repair bay where the coffee might be grease and watched as the gunk service tech worked on repairing a drone. He did it by stripping the three drones that Shilo had brought in and repurposing the parts. Shilo sketched out notes. It seemed like a bunch of excessive work and the drones didn’t seem that uncommon.

  Brigg’s turned the breakroom hologram display on turned it to a channel that consisted of some boxing. Brigg’s took position inside the display and matched the steps and swings of the contenders until he broke from the fight’s pattern blocking a punch from the opponent. He swung his fist through the display landing a punch square to the chin. “I’ll know which it is if my pay is doxed. Are ya going sit there taking notes or do you want a go a round?”

  “Look’s like you’d pummel me for sure and I like my face as it is. I don’t watch much but isn’t that Spencer?” Shilo was talking about the frost bear fighter that Brigg’s was replacing in the display.

  “Yah. He’s the best. Works on the other shift. He should have blocked and countered like I did. I’m not pro I just know Spencer’s moves.”

  “Seems like better than him.”

  “Come on. We are doing nothing for the rest of the shift. Too much liability and with the equipment down to only one lane the others on the crew will cover. Easy day but it will cost us and the company.”

  “I’m not stepping into the ring with you.”

  “Hologram only. For you. I get you’re a lightweight.”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Shilo was over six feet and wasn’t a twigg but he wasn’t going to argue his weight class with an alien that earned the name frost bear. It was an apt name for the species, thick fur, thick hide, and towered over Shilo with the bulk of muscle to match. Shilo slipped his notebook away and took position across the room facing the frost bear.

  Brigg’s stepped back and replaced the fight of Spencer’s with an empty ring. The hologram filled with a copy of both of them and the referee stepped out to start the fight. Brigg’s destroyed Shilo with a flurry of attacks and the fight ended quickly.

  “Come on. I know you have some fight in you. You moved faster when you dashed out into the vacuum of space to save my hide.”

  The hologram restarted and this time Shilo blocked the punches, he lasted three rounds and scored a few hits himself. The continued until shift change at which point Steve entered the breakroom mid round. He growled for the fight to continue when Shilo stepped away.

  Shilo stepped back into the ring and blocked a few punches and dodged a dozen before landing a right hook. Briggs countered into a flurry of attacks that Shilo couldn’t dodge enough. The final punch sent his hologram flying through the air and the ref called it.

  Steve clapped his hand. “Almost as good as the real thing. Scrappy bit of training and I think you could take Briggs. But the company doesn’t pay employees to train during shift. See you at the gym, Briggs and we will go over your form. As for you, Mr Zander, got some bad news, we going let you go. No, No. I’m not going into it. I’m giving you both compensation for hazard pay and the company pay’s out for a weeks work. I expect you to show up tomorrow and that will be your second and last day.”

  “Sorry to disappoint you. I was expecting to work longer than a couple shifts.”

  “Same as I was. And hell. I’m not disappointed. You saved Briggs here and the crusher. The loss of the sorter hurts not going lie. But no I’m letting you go because the boss man says. Seems your paperwork is a touch out of sort. Usually we’d pay to weed that out but seems there is some large cut offs going around.”

  Briggs snorted. “Guess I don’t have to toss the human out the airlock. You’re a fair man Steve.”

  The next day had Shilo work a couple hours on a crusher arm. Enough to pass two asteroid’s through. The second lane was still closed, now because on top of being short drones the crusher that had a damaged arm was still out of commission. After Shilo was done running the arm he took a slight break to check the control systems of the decommissioned crusher. The whole command setup for the crusher was made with knock off parts. He’d done his research last night looking up the part numbers and company logos that the crew should be using. Between that research and his previous experience he knew the crusher’s, malfunction was from bad repair work.

  After lunch break, Shilo worked in the repair bay collecting the few repaired drones and other equipment that Plank had ready for the crew.

  Plank scowled as Shilo questioned his work or the quality of parts used. Plank settled on the response of, “It’s the parts I have on hand,” like that excused that he’d replaced a version six power modulator from a drone with a version five sorter thruster modulator.

  “I guess they are functionally equivalent.”

  Shilo shrugged that off but at least he didn’t see any black market knock off parts on the repairs just some third party or cheaper replacements. So who had repaired the crusher arm with a black market parts? He’d asked to see the repair log and Plank had chased him out of the shop.

  The only other thing Shilo could do for the day was run the plasma ring as it devoured materiel and produced processed metals. At this point in the process the task was automated and it was only a matter of watching the system readings. The primary operator gave him a quick laydown. Occasionally time outside was required which wasn’t bad for the plasma to run correctly there were energy fields. The ring had an additional shield layer and provided for an atmosphere which was the second time ever in Shilo’s life that he was in space but in a breathable atmosphere. He appreciated it over running around with a small breathing mask over his face.

  Even with the operation down to a single lane and running on a shoestring budget for maintenance the asteroid mining should be making an enormous profit. If the money wasn’t going towards new equipment or offsetting the system's fuel cost like the mining permit required then someone was pocketing some serious credits.

  He collected his credits and as the transaction processed, shook Steve’s hand. “Thanks for the job. Not going to lie to you this was hard work. Stay safe and don’t let Plank use any black market gear.”

  “Plank would never. He’s been my service tech for a decade.”

  “Well someone has. Do your own shift inspections. Sowbu tech shouldn’t break down like that.”

  Steve pulled thoughtfully at the white fur around his neck. “Stay safe as well. Know that you’re welcome back if you pay to get your licenses. So I can’t find a way to get the company to invest. It’s going to get hard to recruit if this season continues.”

  Shilo started towards the door where his ship waited; now he could add another quarter of a tank to it. Or did he take Steve's consideration up and invest all of his credits on a racket of a licensing system?

  “Wait up. Briggs wanted you to stop by the ring. Whatever you do, don't step into the ring with a frost bear. You might be scrappy but take a shot like that in the ring and you’ll be a doormat.” Steve had a small card with hand scribbled time on it. The other side had the gym's logo and address. Station lower decks supply house fourteen.

  Shilo arrived at supply house fourteen with time to spare. He’d figured correctly that the event was unsanctioned and that betting would be prevalent. He noted that Steve was on the roster along with Spencer. They were different weight classes which gave Shilo pause. Spencer was bigger than Steve.

  A gunk walked towards the open lift where a sign marked the area reserved for box seating. The gunk was wearing a cheap suit meant to look expensive–but Shilo knew the authentic suits had better stitching on the elbows and would be tailored to fit. He carried a duffle with the asteroid mining companies logo on it that looked significantly emptied. Shilo had watched as one of the gym's employees had counted out a hefty sum of credit bricks. The transaction had been done discreetly. Shilo was trying to remember where he’d seen the gunk before.

  The evening's fight went well enough. Briggs had found him in the crowd between bouts. Spencer lost his fight and too Shilo he didn’t look any bigger than Steve but that could have been tricks on his eyes. The man in the cheap suit angrily made his way out of the box area. Shilo pointed to the man. “Who’s that?” he yelled to Briggs over the crowd protesting the fight.

  “That looks to be Victor. Foreman of the mine.”

  “The one watching over us when the crusher malfunctioned?”

  “Talking with Steve? I think so. Wasn’t watching but that looked like his ride and I don’t know who else would come out.”

  “Is Steve here? I need to talk with him in private.”

  Briggs tracked Steve down and arranged for a meeting in the gym office.

  Shilo waited in the office until the crowd had dwindled. Briggs looked around until Shilo and Steve waved him off. Once they were alone, Steve said, “This is unusual so it better be good and you better not be asking for a job back.”

  “I’m not.” Shilo hesitated before knocking a jar of pens off the table. “I get pissed off when corporate shills risk people’s life. Worse when it’s avoidable. I think Victor is skimming off the top and based on how he’s betting here it’s to pay off gambling debt.”

  “Sounds like you're sour about losing your job.”

  Shilo nodded. “I get how it could look that way. But someone replaced those control modules in the crusher. And the work isn’t in the maintenance logs. If you vouch for Plank then who else would have access, the time to swap the controller, and the motive.”

  “Victor’s not dumb.”

  “Then why is the repair shop running like it is? I know you want to keep your head down. When I started this little gig to work the asteroid mining I only wanted to lower fuel prices. I figured it was something simple like the mine wasn’t producing. I didn’t expect to find blatantly criminal activity sabotaging the operation.” Shilo picked up the pen holder but not all the scattered pens. “Just look into it. For your own safety. I’d guess the mine's troubles started shortly after Spencer lost a fight, about six months ago. Do your own thinking.” He set the pen holder back on the table and with that Shilo left as Steve stared at the floor.