“Yes. It’s an option,” Audrey answered me. “They leave it open to workers as this golden carrot to keep us happily working away. Just having the option available boosts morale here, which helps with productivity in the processing plant, which helps their bottom line and costs them nothing.” Audrey rolled her eyes, and that told me exactly what she thought of this idea. “Every once in a while some asshat on this side takes the test, but no one has ever passed. I hear they’ve made it even harder here than it is on Earth or any of the colonies.”

“Doesn’t matter. I can pass whatever’s on that test. I know I can.” I’ve been studying my whole life. I’d done homeschooling for most of it, but my mom and Jorge made sure that my education wasn’t lacking anything. If I could take the test, I’d pass it.

Audrey turned to Tyler. “What’s her schedule?”

“She’s off every Tuesday,” he said it with a knowing lilt that made it sound impossible.

“What am I missing?”

“They give the mining qualification test every third Thursday at oh-ten hundred hours,” Tyler said. “Smack dab in your first two-hour shift out there.”

Son of a space bat. “Right.” Because that would be too easy.

“Even if the timing worked out, they made the test impossible to pass.” Ahiga looked grim. “I took it the last time I was here, on a lark, and I failed. Miserably. It’s got some musical component to it that makes no sense. And if you somehow manage to pass, you have to get the approval of Carl Millander, and there’s no chance he’ll approve you.”

“That old man hates everyone,” Tyler said. “Spends all his spare time drinking in the bar, gambling away the salary SpaceTech pays him to make sure the miners don’t die out there. Losing nearly every pilot that he’s trained has hardened him.”

“Of course it has. Do you realize how many of those idiots have died mining?” Audrey glared at me. “I didn’t put you through the torture of nanos just to watch you commit suicide.”

“Is it more suicidal than the job they assigned me?” Because I honestly wasn’t sure which was worse.

“A few years ago, I’d have said no,” Tyler said. “Mining was much better odds. Used to have about a hundred or two hundred miners here at a time. A good year maybe half would make it through all five runs. A good chunk would drop from the program. The rest… So far this year, only two people have hit the five-runs mark. And there’ve been how many?” Tyler looked at Audrey and she shrugged. “At least fifty. Maybe even seventy-five. A handful or so dropped out. The rest died.”