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Part 4 is here.


Finally! I get to do what I came for - prospect for iridium.

After dropping the three Bonded Couriers off at Heinlein and seeing them safely unsuited; I headed in to the central hub to find a billet for the night. There are hostels; as well as pilots' quarters at the 3M offices but I decided to splurge and get a hotel room at the Raffles. Yes; it's 'Heinlein Base'; so 3M named the hotel after R.A.H.'s famous lunar hotel in The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. Slightly humourous; since Raffles in the book was a dive.
Raffles at Heinlein is most definitely not a dive. It's a solid three-star or low four; with a couple excellent restaurants and well-appointed rooms. The price was high but worth it, since I'll be living out of my cockpit for long days to come.

After setting up in my room; I changed, showered and despite being bone-tired from lack of sleep; headed down to one of the hotel's restaurants, the Oddysey Cafe. I was pleasantly surprised to find Amanda Patterson - one of the BC's I'd just shuttled over - there. She saw me; invited me over. We spent a pleasant dinner chatting together. After saying goodnight; I retired for about a year of much-needed sleep.

Next morning (early afternoon actually); I saw to the kitting-out of the Weasle for prospecting duty. I spoke to the pad crews and had them extend the pad's retractable loading dock out to the ship's airlock so I wouldn't have to suit up (an expensive but very helpful option); then spent the next few hours taking out passenger seats, hammocks and storage; then loading in extra survey and mineral testing gear.
Finally; after deciding that everything was ready; I placed a call to the BC's office, got hold of Amanda and met her for an early dinner. A couple of hours later; I was suited up, in vacuum and climbing into the Weasle for my first prospecting run of the trip.

For all its sleek looks; the Delta Glider III is a general utility spaceplane; not a fighter or sportscraft.
Of course; no-one ever bothered to tell me that.
After powering up; I gained clearance for departure for Heinlein Pad Control, and gently lifted off.

For about 20 meters, that is.

Heinlein doesn't have an Intersolar office; so they're not about to enforce Company procedure. Once the wingtips cleared; I rolled her over sideways and hit the mains and hover engines simultaneously; blasting away from the base in a manoeuver Lunar pilots like to call the 'Daisy Cutter'.
Heh heh - just gotta love a craft that does what you tell it!

The Daisy Cutter - departing Heinlein Base.

Now to head for iridium - the problem is finding it.
Company eggheads had located several likely sites and included them in my mission profile. Though I'm by no means restricted to only looking in those spots; they're a good enough starting point. Locking the first site into the nav; I roll her level and power out of the crater in a northerly direction. In a few minutes; I'm at orbital speed; 50km. up. Two hours after that; I'm settling down to the maria of the first target site.

Down at target site 1.


First impressions are not promising. It's just after lunar dawn; so it's still very dark. (Won't get light for about another week.) This is a very old crater about 10Km. across; the result of some ancient heavy impact. It doesn't show much indication of being an iridium-rich area; but there are a couple of promising spots I'd like to check out. I power the Weasle down to standby, then suit up and cycle myself out the airlock to check the area out in person.
In short; it's a bummer. I start heading for the area of bright rock I'd seen on my descent. I got about 100m then went up to my chest in dust - a sinkhole.

Sinkhole. Up to my chest in moon dust.

The whole area's submerged in at least a foot of the stuff. In the light lunar gravity it's not dangerous to wade through; but it is tiring. After about half an hour of slogging I reached the spot I was going for - about the only non-sunken rock for a few kilometers. I clambered up into a smallish crater, take a few samples and tested them out.
Checking for iridium in a small crater.

Bad news. There's traces of iridium here; but only traces. Not nearly enough to justify even a pilot hole. So it's safe to say this area's a bust - but I'm not about to give up just yet. Part of the crater wall has a crater of its own where a smaller meteor bullseyed it - I'll check that area out as well.

A possible location to check out.

It turned out to be a lot farther away than I thought - almost 3 kilometers; and 5 from the Weasle. Judging distance by eye on the Moon is patently impossible without a laser rangefinder. Unless there's something you can judge scale by; from even a short distance away a rock could be ten meters or a hundred - there's no way to tell. I got caught by that; and wound up slogging much farther than I expected. Wading through dust the entire time. I got there to find a big old dustbowl; no trace of iridium, not even a half-decent view to make the labour worthwhile. Panting, sweating, bitching and getting low on oxygen, I turn back for the ship. After another forty-five minutes of wondering why I'd ever been stupid enough to get a job as a prospector; I climbed wearily back into the Weasle, powered up, peeled the suit off and lay down for a long nap.
Back to the ship. Times like this I wonder: Why the Hell didn't they put a ladder in the nose of this thing?!


When I woke up; I clipped fresh charges into the suit; set the depleted ones to charge, then headed out again. Unlikely or not; I didn't get good by not being thorough.

I stayed in the area for two more days. Two wasted, useless days with not so much as a single yellow-white iridium kernel for my trouble.

Well; that's par for the course. If you can't accept failure you'll never make it as a prospector - for every successful strike there's 20 dry runs - and that's taking knowledge, preparation and intel into account. Lots more places to search; time to get to it.

Heading for the next target.


Part 6 is here.

fantastic yet again staiduk...love it