?It’s stenciled on the back of your shorts.?He smiled apologetically. ?We also found your ID tag. It was so

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mangled the computer could hardly read it, but we got that much off it. Unfortunately, most of your personal medical info was scrambled. I had to guess a lot.?

Ripley rolled her shoulders forward experimentally, let her head roll from side to side. ?Feels like you did a pretty good job. Thanks.?

To his immense surprise he found that he was slightly embarrassed. ?Hey, any jerk can slap on an armpack.?

She grinned. ?I don’t think so. It takes a specially qualified jerk.?

The work crew was being as careful as possible with the hulk of the EEV as they eased it onto hastily raised blocks. The old crane groaned with the effort. There hadn’t been much call for its use since the mine had been shut down, and temporary reactivation for the purpose of manipulating the emergency vehicle had been a touchy process. But the machinery was responding adequately. Cables sang as the craft was gently lowered.

It had attracted its share of stares when it had first been hauled inside the complex. Ripley drew rather more as she and Clemens approached. She did a much better job of pretending not to notice than the prisoners did of trying not to look.

?Just what kind of place is this work prison??she asked her guide as they started up a ramp toward the battered lifeship.

Clemens stayed close. ?Used to be a mine cum refinery. Mostly platinum-group minerals. Naturally the raw ore was refined on the spot. Much cheaper than shipping it offworld for processing elsewhere. I understand there was a considerable rise in the price of platinum about the time the ore body here was located. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been worth the Company’s while to go to the expense of setting 36

up a facility this size this far from any point of consumption. It was a rich lode, highly concentrated.?

?And now??She had stopped outside the EEV and was inspecting the damaged hull.

?WeylandYutani’s got it on hold. Interstellar commodities trading isn’t exactly my specialty and I don’t know that anybody here gets their jollies from following the relevant rises and falls in raw materials prices. I think I heard that a drop in the price of the refined metal was accompanied by less need for the stuff.

?So most of the equipment here’s been mothballed. Not worth the expense of moving it, not worth enough as salvage. There’s still ore in the ground and if the price goes up I’m sure the Company would reopen. That means we’d probably get moved. Wouldn’t do to have felons associating with nice, moral miners. Not that anybody would mind being shifted off this rock. The change would be sweet and it’s pretty hard to conceive of anyplace else being worse.