“Very much so.” Kalico stared anxiously off to the west, seeing nothing but a riot of low treetops, and here and there in the distance, a forlorn root ball shoved up in the air.

Lara had pulled out a hand lens from her belt pouch and was studying the rock she’d picked up. “Wow. I’d love to get this under the scope. Bet I’d see shocked quartz. And there’s some really unique mineralization.” She stared around at the exposed stone, all mixed as it was with basalt and some kind of rock Kalico had never seen before.

Lara pointed. “That stuff? See how vitreous it is? Any takers that we’re seeing some of the asteroid? I’m going to get a sample of that.” The woman started forward.

“Not yet. Stay close. Wait until we’re better armed.” Kalico accessed her com. “Step? You there?”

“Roger that, Corporate. We’re about five minutes out and closing on your signal.”

“See you soon.”

Michaela was squinting in Capella’s hot light, fingers shoved into her back pockets, wind playing with her short hair. “So, how does this work? You’re paying these people to make this pad, to put up a solar charger, and buying guns. That’s a lot of SDRs. I get it that Port Authority is not part of The Corporation, but you’re the Board-appointed Supervisor.”

“The short version of a long story is that it was to my advantage to sign Port Authority over to the people who lived there. They’d been on their own for too long and were not going back under Corporate control. I took my people, who’d arrived on Turalon, and we went south to the outcrop where Corporate Mine was established. And yes, we had some trouble back in the beginning. Had to work out who was going to stay, who was going to go. But in the process, my people started to get rich. Really rich. And eventually—whenever that might be—they’re going to ship back to Solar System as incredibly wealthy individuals. Had seventeen who took a chance on Ashanti. If they arrive alive, believe me, they’re going to make one hell of a splash.”

Kalico cocked a provocative eyebrow, adding, “It would amuse the hell out of me to watch the Boardmembers trying to figure out what to do with these people showing up out of the blue with bullion and jewels worth a couple billion in SDRs. Just serving out contract on Donovan entitles a person to a pretty nice package when it comes to housing, food, and travel. The Board’s not going to have the first clue about what to do with a hard-rock miner showing up with all that plunder.”

“Will they just seize it? Declare it Corporate property?”