The halls had a blue tint. Most of the lights where broken and the ones that still worked couldn’t light the hall properly. Only few people where walking here and Vencel was wondering why someone would have his own office in this remote broken part of the station.
Remi was guiding the new member through the passages.“It might be a bit awkward here but you’ll get used to the surroundings. The people here won’t bother you because you work for us. However, that doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want here. As long you stay out of trouble, you’re fine.” Even though it was meant to reassure him Vencel still felt a bit uneasy being watched by the people there.
Vencel took the mining job a few months ago. The job required basic mining skills and it payed well. After a while he asked his mentor Remi for guidance to learn more about mining the precious ores in space. He was told that he could learn from another member of the corporation but that the teachings would be “quite unorthodox” as Remi put it.
“why is his office in a place like this?” Vencel asked. “Wouldn’t it be better to have his office near the other ones of the corporation?”
“He has his own little ship hangar here, likes to fiddle around with special types of ships, it’s hard to understand but he likes it. He can also meet customers here that can’t come to our corporation office because of certain… reputation issues”. Vencel could imagine what those reputation issues might be by looking at the various people walking here.
Remi stopped in front of an entrance door. The door was made of solid steel and had two markings on it. One was the green rhino, the logo of the alliance, the other one was a design that looked like it was a drawing of some kind of reptilian animal.
“Ok, here we are”
Remi, opened the door. “Let me do the talking first, he’s not very fond of new members.”
The office was dark when Vencel and Remi entered. Vencel noticed the large holoscreen on the right wall. The screen was projecting graphs and tables and Vencel presumed they where about material prices. There was a desk in the room with two small holoscreens displaying the latest news and what looked like a trade program.
“Hello Dracozna, I brought you the new student.”
The two holoscreens on the desk disappeared and Vencel could see Dracozna sitting behind the desk. Pulling two cables out of his neck
“So this is another one who wants to get rich quick? I hope he’s better than the last one you’ve brought here” Dracozna turned his head towards Vencel and looks at him from the corner of his eyes.
Remi pushes a holoslate over the desk. “Here are his numbers, he has the skills you require before you even want to look at them.”
Dracozna looked at the holoslate.
“Well what do you know, someone who actually meets the recommended requirements, that’s new.”
After a glance Dracozna entered a few commands on the holoslate.
“I’ll update this slate with new data about the last guy you’ve sent. Make sure you’re trainees can actually listen to me and do what I tell them.”
Dracozna pushes the holoslate over the desk. Remi catches the holoslate, glances over the data and shakes his head.
“Can’t you give them a little slack? They are working hard you know?”
“look, if they listen to what I say there is no problem. However, if they think they can take the risk, they will also feel the consequences. It’s not my problem most of them need to learn it the hard way.”
Remi turns of the holoslate and walks to the door. “Just teach the guy ok?”
Remi left the room. Leaving Vencel behind.
“Have a seat Vencel, you’re not leaving here soon anyways”
Dracozna points at a chair near the desk while examining the numbers on the holoscreen at the wall. Vencel sits down and looks at the holoscreen, trying to see if he could make anything useful out of it. Dracozna stands up and walks to the holoscreen.
“Do you have any idea what these numbers are?”
“No sir, I guess they are the prices of the minerals?”
After a long sigh Dracozna shakes his head and looks at Vencel.
“First of all, don’t ‘Sir’ me, I’m not some high priest, director, tribe leader or anything high status, and second, never guess, you either know it or you don’t”
Before Vencel could reply Dracozna continues: “And don’t apologize either, you know it now, don’t do it again. This is how I work. You either get it or you don’t, if you don’t get it, you take effort into learning how to do it. I don’t like people who need to have every answer spoon fed to them without actually taking any effort at all.”
A loud banging noise that came from the door made Vencel jump of his seat.
A loud "Dracozziieeeee” filled the room while Wiccan enters the room. “I’ve got you a new one.”
Wiccan walks to the desk while holding up a large metal box in his hands. Smiling from ear to ear Wiccan places the box on the desk.
The box was made of metal and had a square shape. The dents and holes in it indicated that it was already used for a long time. By the symbols and markings it looks to be of Minmatar origin. Out of the holes seeped a cold vapor damp. Vencel wondered what kind of cold product could be in the box.
"This one wasn’t easy to get, took a while to find. Makes the search more fun though”
Wiccan pulls a pack of cigarettes out of his jacket and offers Vencel a cigarette. “Want one? And if you don’t smoke, mind if I do?”
Vencel Looks at Wiccan and politely declines: “Thanx but no…. And no ,I don’t mind the smoking.”
Dracozna walks to the desk “I hope this one is cleaner than the last one. You know how hard it is to clean it when you have to keep them frozen?” Wiccan smiles:“hey that one was a rush job. Had to take care of some other business first. This one is as clean as it gets, you can put it into your collection right away. No problems.”
Wiccan takes a cigarette, throws it in the air and catches it with his mouth. While lighting the cigarette Wiccan continues:“By the way, how’s my stuff? Is it processed yet?”
Dracozna opens a drawer from the desk, pulls out a holoslate and hands it over to Wiccan.
“It’s almost done, you’ll have the minerals in a few days. The reprocessing plant is working overtime here and I had to take care of a few workers who started questioning my sources”
Wiccan takes a look at the numbers on the holoslate and smiles. “Always fun doing business with ya dracoz. Makes creating a profit more fun.”
As he turns off the holoslate he turns to Vencel again. “Hi, haven’t seen you before, I’m Wiccan” Vencel shakes his hand and tries to politely introduce himself
“I’m Vencel, I’m a student of Dracozna” Wiccan replies with a big smile “Really? Well then you’d better listen to him really good. I’ll be seeing you in the belts”
Vencel felt a shiver after he saw the smile on wiccans face. After Wiccan left the room Vencel and Dracozna both sit down.
“before you’re asking about Wiccan I’ll explain beforehand: Wiccan and I have a business relationship based on mutual benefits. He has skills that are useful for me and I have skills that are useful for him. I don’t care about someones reputation, race, status, religion or whatever makes someone believe he is more entitled to have everything. In the end it’s what you do that counts.”
Vencel had heard rumors about Wiccan’s connection with the green rhino alliance. Actually seeing him talking with a member of the Bendebeukers-corporation made him wonder if the rumors might be true. At any rate he figured he shouldn’t think about it anymore, he came here to learn more about mining. “So how will you teach me to become a better miner?”
A holoscreen on the desk turned on. On the screen there was an agenda with dates marked ’training’. “this is the training i’ll give you. Next week you’ll be here a few days learning the theory. In the meantime you can read Halada’s teachings, it’s the basis of my training. Most of what you’ll need to know is in his writings so don’t bother me with questions you can answer yourself”
Dracozna handed over a brain implant to Vencel. “This implant will improve your learning skill, I’m scheduling an operation for next Tuesday so they can plug it into your skull.”
The next holoscreen that appeared showed the asteroids that Vencel was familiar with. Next to every asteroid was a table with materials.“Every asteroid you see here has materials that are worth ISK. Some materials are worth more than others and not every asteroid contains the same amount of materials. What is important is to know which roid is the most profitable to mine at the right time. Right now I will teach you on how to figure this out for yourself.”
The training session took a few hours but Vencel could see what knowledge he needs to acquire. Most of the things that Dracozna taught him where the places to look for information about material pricing, where the asteroid could be found and how to get the best refining yield. He even got a few tips on which mining vessels are the best to mine with.
After trying to learn so much in so little time Vencel became tired. Dracozna turns off the holoscreens on the desk. “Lucky for you I don’t have more time today so we will stop here.” Vencel relaxed. The session drained him of a lot of energy but he felt more at ease than when he came here a few hours ago. He considered reading Halada’s teaching before his next lesson would start
Vencel thanked Dracozna, picked up the implant and headed for the door. “Wait! One more thing before you leave…..”
Vencel stops at the door confused. He didn’t forget his implant, was already scheduled for another meeting so he figured it probably is very important. Turning around he asks:“What is it? did i forget something?” “No. it’s just a warning from my side.”
Dracozna picks up the box that Wiccan left behind. “I don’t allow stupid losses. Don’t be too confident in your skills just because you know how to mine. When you go out there, it may be tempting to jettison a cargo container in space so you can haul it later with an industrial ship.”
After a brief moment Dracozna continued in a stern voice:“I’m only giving this warning once: Don’t do that… Ever…”
Vencel wondered what he meant by that. Jetcan mining, as it is called, was an easy way to mine quick when you where using a mining vessel that could mine more than it could store the retrieved ore.
“What happens if I do that?”
Dracozna stood up, turned off the holoscreen on the wall, taking the light the only lights visible showing Dracozna and the box in his hands. “If I find you jetcan mining I will have you shot down. I don’t care if you have a jumpclone or not, you will get shot.”
Vencel got confused, a few hours of talking about mining, formulas and asteroids, he never thought Dracozna would actually shoot anyone because of jetcan mining. “Aren’t you exaggerating?”
Shortly after the question the wall behind the holoscreen opened up. A cold breeze came from the wall and when the wall was down Vencel was shocked when he could see what was behind it.
There was large cooling fridge with a transparent wall in front of it. In the fridge there where dozens of frozen heads. Heads of miners. Vencel knew a few of them from basic mining training.
“Don’t tell me these are…” Vencel couldn’t say more words when he saw Dracozna walking to the fridge while opening the box. After the box was opened Vencel could see the frozen head that was inside it. Dracozna placed it in the fridge next to the other ones.
“Yes, they also thought I was exaggerating.”