The Mining Colony

As I take up orbit, I wonder what their reaction would be when I contact them. I'm sure they must have sensing equipment of some sort, though I wouldn't know what type or how advanced it was. Not that I could do anything even if I wanted to, as the Phoenix was unarmed. Just then, I heard a small alarm go off. Apparently there was a ship approaching the colony.

A few minutes later I saw the ship in question. From what I could tell it was an ore carrier. Due to the distances involved, these were usually fully automated vessels. This one appeared to be no exception. I decided to wait until it had left before attempting to contact the colony.

As it happened, they contacted me. I opened the channel. On the small screen mounted directly in front of me, a man's face appeared. It was one of those faces that made it hard to determine the age of the person it belonged to. He was clean shaven and was wearing what looked like a old fashioned wide brim straw hat. I was a bit taken aback by his first words.

"Well, hello there, stranger. Bit far out in the sticks, aintcha?"

"Um, yes. I got a bit lost," I say rather lamely. I held the rather vain hope that he'd accept my answer. I saw that he hadn't when he frowned slightly.

"I'm sorry son," normally I would take offence at that, but this time it seemed I couldn't. "I can't say I quite believe you. Here, we're around," he had to pause to think for a moment, "62 light-years away from Earth. Folks just don't get lost out here."

I don't what it was, but I felt a compulsion to tell him the truth, which I did. His expression, now passive, didn't alter once, so I couldn't really tell what he was thinking. A few moments later he spoke. "Seems to me like one of those stories so far-fetched they gotta be true. Now I would invite you to join us, I can't promise you'd get a welcome from the other colonists. Your best chance of gettin' back to civilisation is to see if you can track that ore-carrier that just left. Otherwise you'd have to wait two weeks for the next one."

I thank him and sign off. "Good luck," he said. "If you ain't successful you'd be better comin' back here. I know what I said, but I'll just have to find a way to get the others to accept you."

1. I didn't rate my chances highly at locating the ore-carrier, but what other choice did I have?

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