On the way back from the Shubin Mining outpost to my Cutlass, I became aware of a radar contact. The contact was not far from my ship. It was just above the ground, I was not sure if it was a ground vehicle or a spaceship. I do not know why, but my interest was aroused. I steered the Cyclone through the night, directly to the contact. As I got closer, I saw that it was a Prospector working on a rock with the mining laser.

I found that exciting, I had never seen anything like this up close. I drove closer to take a closer look. Suddenly there was a loud beat. The rock, the Prospector was working on, exploded. Big chunks flew in all directions. And I always thought mining was a boring job.

The Prospector repositioned itself, the laser beam changed. Three rotating lasers hit one of the chunks. Small pieces of rock were transported with a tractor beam to the Prospector. That was a great spectacle.

As the boulder was dismantled, the Prospector worked on the next one. Now she used again the powerful, single and strongly focused laser beam. The energy and power was literally felt. The air vibrated, a rumble was heard. The adrenaline rose in me, I was almost excited. I drove closer. Shakes were felt, the rock began to glow, I thought that was really cool. And suddenly everything turned and then everything went black.

When I opened my eyes again, the world seemed to stand upside down. No, I was upside down. The cyclone lay upside down and burned. I struggled out of the seat. There had probably been another explosion and I was too close. It looked like, that I flew through the air, the Prospector was far  away. The cyclone was scrap. Luckily I was unhurt.

My Cutlass was 3 km away. I set off on foot. Then the Prospector returned. I tried contact it, but without any success. Instead, she started to work on a rock right in front of me. I feared another explosion and took cover. The rock hissed and crashed. Dust and small stones flew away. The noise was deafening. Then it was quiet. The Prospector flew away.

She had stopped the work. The rock was still glowing. When I stood in front of it, I could feel the energy and the warmth. I wondered if mining would be something for me.

I went the last bit back to my Cutlass. Luckily I had turned on the light. So I had a good orientation in the dark of the night.
I flew straight to Port Olisar to report the loss of Cyclone’s to the insurance company.