The deep radar pod drifted a hundred meters from the Astra, having been moved into position by the previous shift. The three jetted over to it and took up their stations.

“First target,” Tenn announced when everyone was ready. He gave a set of vectors, and Seth and Ivan scrambled to line up the equipment. The asteroid, an unimpressive rock in a nondescript area of the belt, hadn’t been tagged with a beacon, so was considered a virgin. After scanning it, they would fly over in a two-man scooter and attach a beacon—to broadcast either the rock’s failure as a source of riches, or its status as a staked claim. A message to the central registry would obviate any temptation by other mining ships to replace the beacon with one of their own. In the modern era, any group known to have attempted such tactics would be blacklisted so thoroughly that they’d never be able to use public toilets, let alone conduct business outside atmosphere again.

Once given the target, the A.I. was able to maintain a lock on the asteroid. A confirmation request flashed on Ivan’s console and he entered an affirmative.

The deep radar pod emitted a series of pulses and listened for the echoes. By varying the frequency and pulse lengths, it built up a picture of the interior of the asteroid. The densities of different materials would indicate the probable composition, then sample drillings would confirm any flagged masses. The deep radar was nowhere near infallible, but it saved a lot of time by ruling out the total duds and indicating good candidates for sampling.

Ivan was tasked with ensuring that the pod didn’t drift during the analysis. The possibility was remote, given the presence of the A.I., but if it did happen it would invalidate an entire day’s run. Seth monitored the results for each scan, and ordered a follow-up if required. This latter job was as much art as science, and no one would trust it to an A.I.

* * *

The scanning run complete and their shift over, the three headed back to the Astra. Four hours in a space suit was about as much as a person could handle. Beyond that, many people started to experience increasing itchiness. No physiological reason for it had ever been found; it just seemed to be one of those things.

In the shower, Ivan cringed as Seth did his back-cracking thing again. Sarcasm didn’t help, and anyway Seth didn’t seem to be doing it just to bug people. Ivan flexed his arm a couple of times. His old elbow injury bothered him occasionally, but at least it didn’t make noises when he moved.

Raul, Will, and Aspasia entered the showers, looking as if they’d just finished a marathon.

“Bad day?” Seth said to them.

“Core samples,” Aspasia replied. “Aiello had us drilling Rock 4, just in case the deep radar scans were off.”

“And?”