What happened to my Asteroid? Section 10:

The two floated down the passageway, grabbing the handholds and correcting course on a regular rhythm.  Traveling zero G passageways is a matter of bouncing from handhold to handhold, keeping a good speed up but not going too fast, and making gentle vector corrections at every point.

“You’ve done well for yourself.”  Captain Stewart pondered “Sam is a lot of fun.”

“We work well together.” Tim was noticeably annoyed “Just where do you know Sam from?”

“The academy,” She was being coy now “It was her first year and I was doing a stint as combat operations training assistant.  She was confused and vulnerable so I helped her adjust to military life and figure out who she was.”

“Is that what you thought of me?”  Tim swung around the corner and grabbed the handle next to the lock on the lab door.

“Oh lord no!  I just thought you were the hottest fresh meat on the ship.”  She looked at him with a dirty grin “And my, oh my, was I right!”  She winked at Tim.

“Well I’m glad I made you happy.”  He punched the lock code into the console and opened the door.  He pulled the door open and gestured to the captain for her to enter.  She floated in to the lab as the lights came on at about half illumination.

“What is the lock code?”

“I’m not authorized to share that with anyone, not even you.” Tim closed the door behind him “You will have to get it from either Commander Dickerson or Captain Calhoun.”

“Very well,” She smiled “Good to see you are taking this operation seriously.”

“I’ve become a much better officer since then.”

“I never said you were a bad officer, just that you were a good romp in the rack.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”  Tim turned the hologram on to the display they had just been looking at.  “This is the latest mapping of mineral deposits.  Notice anything that catches your eye?”

“Those are awfully regular.” The captain pondered “And those geometric patterns suggest some kind of deliberate purpose.”

“I suspect those are control circuits.”

“Control circuits for what?”

“That is the question.”

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What happened to my Asteroid? Section 9:

Captain Gwendolyn Stewart was very tall at a full 2 meters in height while slender weighing in at barely 80 kilos but nonetheless was a formidable site in her full dress blues and her longer than regulation blaze red hair in a braided pony tail.  She released herself from her seat, straightened her uniform and floated toward the airlock.

“Ma’am, it is advisable to remain secured in your seat until all docking procedures are complete.”  The transport attendant tried to be as polite as possible.

“Secure this.” The captain mumbled “I have work to do.  Just get this thing docked and get this airlock pressurized.  And make sure my bags are taken to my quarters ASAP.” She barked.

“Yes Ma’am!”

The connecting tube locked in to place.  A distinct hiss of the airlock pressurizing echoed through the transport.  The airlock safety light changed from red to green.  Captain Stewart opened the door, swung inside and closed the door quickly behind her.  She then punched the outer door release and opened it, swung through it before it was completely open and slammed it shut.  She had the courtesy to press the re-lock for the door.  She straightened up her uniform and gently opened the inner station door, waited for it to fully open, and then slowly floated through it.

Tim and Sam were waiting in the middle of the reception area, nobody else was there.  They snapped a salute as the captain floated through the door.  Both were very surprised by who it was.

“Hello sweet cheeks,” Captain Stewart winked at Sam as she returned the salute “And stud muffin.”  She had a wicked grin.

Sam and Tim looked at each other in astonishment.  “You know HER?” they both said in unison.

“I’m glad to see your respect for military honors hasn’t changed.”

“We were told this was a highly important operation so we didn’t want to waste time changing in and out of dress uniforms.” Sam responded.

“Well then let’s see what you have set up so far.  Take me to the lab, and tell Commander Dickerson to meet us there.”

“Sam. I’ll take the Captain to the lab, you let the commander know and you can catch up.” Tim smiled at
Sam.

“Done.”

Sam drifted over to a communications panel as Tim led the Captain through the door.  “This way.” He gestured with a half-hearted, no make that a quarter-hearted, smile.

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What happened to my Asteroid? Section 8:

Tim punched some buttons on his console while reviewing the classified probe data “Let’s take a look at what the new scan can tell us.”  The hologram lit up with traces showing veins of gold, silver and platinum.

“Those veins are way too regular to be natural.” Sam looked at the hologram with a concerned scowl “There is a geometric pattern there, and they are running between the uranium deposits.”

“Wait a minute.”  Tim got out from behind his console and started floating around the hologram “Those aren’t deposit veins, those are circuits.”

“Circuits?  You mean like for some kind of control?”

“Exactly.  Now the question is what the blazes this thing does.”

“This is over our heads, we’re going to have to inform the commander and our new operations officer.”

“It will be the first thing we show them.  The miners are going to be launching shortly and we will have less than an hour after that to change any plans.”  Tim continued to orbit the hologram “When does our new boss get here?”

“The transport is going to arrive in about 10 minutes.”  Samantha pointed out as she studied the tracking system.  “We have to be down there to meet whoever it is.  Both Kim and the Captain are tied up with station operations right now.”

“I wonder just exactly how important this is to send an external officer to oversee it.” Tim grumbled.  “Do you think they expect us to be in dress uniforms?”

“I’m going straight there in my jumpsuit.  I’m not changing just to suck up to someone that doesn’t have confidence in our crew.”

“Fair enough, your call.”  Tim logged out of his console.  “Do you remember the combination to the door?”

“Yes“, Samantha rolled her eyes “and don’t try to tell me you don’t.”  She turned off the hologram and logged out of her console then they both floated out the door, locking it behind them.

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What happened to my Asteroid? Section 7:

The station itself was on the sun side of the belt with all of the observation windows pointed away from the sun and the back side covered with solar panels to get full solar power.  The station design is a large cylindrical central core filled with cargo holds, research labs, docking bays, and the station command facilities.  The central core is surrounded by 3 rotating rings:  One large ring in the center with operating machinery, labs, the hydroponics facilities, and other things that need gravity to function properly.  Two smaller rings at either end, rotating in the opposite direction, contained the living quarters and meeting rooms.  The station was small for a space station with the outer decks of the large ring not even achieving full earth normal gravity and the habitat rings barely making half earth normal.  The station was also a hybrid between a space station and an interplanetary vessel, the reason being that it was designed for asteroid mining and therefore would have to move at times and stay stationary at others.  The forward habitat ring was for military quarters, VIP quarters and meeting rooms, most of which had forward observation ports.  The aft habitat ring was for the mining personnel, segregated in sections by organizations that were operating on the station.

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What happened to my Asteroid? Section 6:

The lights in Lab 4 lit to full bright.  The computer consoles sprang to life.  The hiss of the cleansing air flow rang around the empty room.  The lab was a cubic compartment in the zero G section in the middle of the space station.  Unlike most of the labs on the station, this one had a forward observation window that was the wall opposite the door.  The center of the lab is a large open area used by the holographic display.  Computers and test equipment line the other walls and two of the walls had sleeping bunks, opposite each other, next to the wall with the door.  The lab is large for the station at 9 meters across, making it a premium space reserved for the highest priority jobs.

Tim and Sam opened the door and drifted into the lab.

“Get the holographic display fired up, I’ll get the door and look up the classified scan information.  We need to be fully up and running when our new operations officer gets here.” Tim declared.

“Agreed.  If somebody is sending an outside officer to run this operation we have got some serious problems and we need to make it at least look like we know what we are doing.” Sam concurred.

The holographic display lit up.  The asteroid appeared in the middle of the room with all of the mineral markers and the mining rights boundaries as well.  The pair worked frantically at their consoles looking at measurements of all sorts, and closely monitoring the station position relative to the asteroid.  The asteroid itself could just barely be seen out the observation window, along with a cloud of other asteroids around it. 

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What happened to my Asteroid? Section 5:

Tim leaned back in his chair and looked at the commander skeptically “So when do WE get that information and what do you want us to do with it?”

“You will get all of the information we have when you get set up in Lab 4.” The commander switched off the hologram “and you will get all of the information we get from all of the expeditions and probes as we get it.”

Samantha leaned back in her chair just as Tim leaned forward.  “So what are we looking for?”

“The patterns.”  The commander sat down and looked thoughtfully at Tim “The signs.  Some kind of indication of what this labeling might mean.”  She looked at Samantha “If we are right then somebody is going to come looking for this.  They might be monitoring it.”  She looks to Tim “They might even be on their way as far as we know.”  She leaned back in her chair “We need to have some kind of idea who they are.”

“So what is the crown jewel that leads you to that conclusion?” Sam inquired

“We found indications of carbon.”

“Carbon?” Tim blurted out.

“Carbon.  A lot of it.”

Tim and Samantha stand up as Sam said “We’ll get set up in Lab 4 right away.  Who else will be working with us?”

“Nobody.  In fact, you should just plan on calling it your quarters until this operation is completed.  And don’t talk to anybody but me, Captain Calhoun, or the Operations Officer about anything you find.”

“Lab 4 as our quarters?”  Samantha did not look happy.

“I hate sleeping in zero G.  It is fine to work in, but I like some kind of reference when sleeping.” Tim groaned.

“Well, you have each other, make your own gravity.” Commander Dickerson chuckled “We put in a couple of command staff sized racks to give you a little extra space.”

“Oh Goodie… thanks for the consideration.” Tim was decidedly unhappy.

“We thought it was the least that we could do.”

“That about sums it up.” Sam added.

“Right yourself, sailor!” Commander Dickerson got very serious and very stern “This is a serious situation and a very serious problem.” She barked “You will do your duty and you will stay with it no matter what!”  She glared at both of them “Is that understood?”

“Ma’am, yes Ma’am” both Tim and Samantha barked out in unison.

“Good!  Back to the mission…” She shifted back to an even tone.

“Alright, who is the Operations Officer this time?” Sam was curious.

“We don’t know yet.  There is a transport that will be here about 1400 with whoever it is on it.”

“That doesn’t sound good.” Tim grimaced.

“Tell me about it.” Kim groaned.

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What happened to my Asteroid? Section 4:

The room empties except for the guards and the three officers.  “Gentlemen” Commander Dickerson addressed the guards “Please guard the outside of the doors for this meeting.”

The guards exit the room and closed the door behind them.

“Alright Kim, cut the bullshit.  What is this all about?” Tim was determined.

“That asteroid is not natural.  It is not a natural shape, it is not in a natural place and it isn’t behaving in a natural pattern.”

“So you are sending the miners in to…?” Tim looked expectantly.

“Break up the outer shell so you can see what is hidden in the core!” Samantha finished the thought with a sinister smile.

“Bingo!” The commander exclaimed.

“Then what do you need us to do?” Sam was curious.

Kim stood up and walked to center of the table on the side opposite Tim and Samantha.  The translucent hologram allowed her to point to various features all around the hologram so all of them could see.

“I’ll turn off the rights boundaries since they are irrelevant.” The commander punched some buttons.

The boundary lines disappeared leaving only the color coded mineral deposit markers and the outer surface of the asteroid.

“Focus on the uranium deposits, they are not random but we don’t know what they mean.  They are close to the surface and detectable from the furthest distance.”

“Looks like there is some kind of geometric pattern of yttrium deposits around some of them.” Tim rolled the hologram around to get a straight on view of some of the sites.

“You’re not showing us something…” Sam looked at Kim with a determined scowl.

“This is all of the information we are giving to the companies.  It is from the preliminary scouting scans so they probably already have it.  We sent a secondary probe, a military probe, with deeper scanning capability when it became obvious it was artificial and we have kept that information closely guarded for a reason.”

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