Astronomicon: Icarus

7 - One Million Asteroids

"Final deceleration complete," Felix announced.

"Iolo, you're up," said Captain Taylor. "Find us a nice juicy one to mine. Make it a good one this time, we don't have time to mess around with mediocre asteroids this trip."

"Scanning now, Captain. This isn't a precise science, Captain," replied Iolo, flicking switches on the centre console of the control room, "The problem these days is that the outer rocks have all been mined out. Anything worthwhile now is well within the cloud."

"What happens when they've all been mined?" asked Felix.

"All? Have you any idea how large the Trojan cloud is?" laughed Captain Taylor.

"Not really," replied Felix. "I know it's pretty big."

"There are at least a million asteroids in there in excess of a kilometre in diameter. Some of them are tens of kilometres or more in diameter. No one knows how many asteroids there are measuring hundreds of metres across, but safe to say more than we can mine in a lifetime. And don't forget there's the Greek cloud too. That's roughly as large. We're not going to run out anytime soon."

"I've found a couple of likely candidates, Captain," announced Iolo.

"That was fast. Are you using your psychic powers again?" chuckled Captain Taylor. "Show me what you've got."

Iolo tapped at the keyboard on the console for a moment and then looked up at the large display screen suspended above the console, just as the display changed to show a view deep into the asteroid cloud with two large asteroids highlighted in green.

"The larger of the two is probably our best bet but we need to get closer to see for sure."

"What's the range on that one?" asked Captain Taylor.

"Twelve hundred kilometres. The smaller one is another four hundred kilometres further on."

"Okay, let's check out the big one first, but keep scanning for more on the way. You never know what might show up."

"Yes, sir," replied Iolo.

"Felix, time to show us what you can do. Get us to that target and find us a safe holding position no more than a kilometre from it. Remember, the trick is to avoid contact with anything out here."

"No problem, sir," replied Felix confidently and set off back to the cockpit.

- - -

"Path matched and stable, sir," announced Felix over the intercom. "According to the AHD system, we should be safe for at least twenty minutes."

"Good, that should give you long enough to work your magic, Iolo."

"Already scanning it now, sir. Looks like a good one."

"Worth mining?"

"It's got a high content level of platinum, mostly near its core. Assuming we can get to it, that's got to be worthwhile."

Captain Taylor smiled to himself as he pulled down the microphone clipped above the centre console. He squeezed the button and announced, "Hugo, Dmitry, suit up now. Felix is about to bring the ship around ready to deploy."

"I'll go down and help them get a mining rig ready in the bay airlock," said Iolo.

"Good. Suit up yourself too. With the luck we've had lately, I'd appreciate your supervision for the job."

"Yes, sir," replied Iolo, heading across the control room to the hatch down to the next deck.

Captain Taylor replaced the microphone on its magnetic clip and then joined Felix in the cockpit. There was only the one seat in the cramped space, so Captain Taylor had to make do with crouching beside him.