Heavy Matter

Heavy Matter

Long considered a possibility by theoretical physicists, Heavy Matter was proven real when a meteorite only 3 feet in diameter came to earth in Canada’s remote Northwest Territory with an explosion that left a crater over a half mile wide. Only a few hundred Native Americans and their Caribou herds were killed, and the strong polar jet stream kept the worst of the dust cloud in latitudes well north of Earth’s’ temperate zones. Scientists later calculated that the small meteorite, part of a thin stream of matter in an elliptical orbit around the sun reaching all the way out to the Oort Cloud, must have contained a few particles of Heavy Matter.

Fortunately for Earth, the other meteorites in the stream passed by without coming close enough to be a danger. Scientists theorized that Heavy Matter forged at the instant of the Universe’s creation had slowly accreted in the cold clouds of gas, ice and debris on the edges of interstellar space. Gravitic disturbances, collisions and the like could send bits and pieces of this primordial matter streaming sunward in highly-eccentric orbits, creating icy carbonaceous chunks that flew through the solar system, sometimes seeded with bits of the Dark Matter clumped inside. In the Earth’s past, a few of these bodies impacted the planet, leaving devastation in their wake that marked major epochs in Earth’s history.

The dangers of Heavy Matter combined with the theoretical possibility that it could be used for power generation created a boom of interest in space travel. By 2046 every industrialized nation had a major presence in space, with the most advanced building deep exploration ships and stations to track and intercept objects with the right types of eccentric orbits, and mine the Heavy Matter when it was found. In that year, a dispute over basing rights on one of Mars’ moons, Ceres, erupted into a three-way skirmish between Chinese miners, a small contingent of U.S. Marines and a unit of the Foreign Legion under contract to the European Space Agency.

In this first, fumbling battle in space, the Chinese miners habitat was accidentally breached, killing all 26 inhabitants. An explosion disrupted Ceres’ orbit and caused the asteroid moonlet to begin a severe tumble that made it almost impossible for spacecraft to match orbit and attitude well enough to land. Half the surviving men and women of the two military contingents were lost trying to get off the surface and back to their ships – some of them miscalculated their hasty jump-pack burns and missed getting close enough to be picked up. The ships did not have sufficient fuel to intercept the lost personnel and also get onto trajectories back to Earth, so the lost soldiers had to be abandoned. Although the ships took many months to reach Earth orbit, the horrifying reports of the dead, and the pitiful radio transmissions of the soldiers drifting to their deaths raced home at the speed of light.

In the wake of the Ceres incident the United Nations Space Administration (UNSA) was formed to regulate the exploitation of space in general, and Heavy Matter in particular. UNSA began to sell a limited number of mining and basing franchises to Corporations (not to governments), and development of space industry accelerated. Foundries and factories multiplied in Earth orbit and at the Lagrange points. More and more nickel-iron asteroids were brought in-system to provide raw materials for further construction, and soon very little other than personnel and low-mass supplies needed to be brought up out of Earth’s gravity well to feed the boom. But the pipeline going down into the gravity well was going full-force, with new metals & materials, pharmaceuticals and Heavy Matter going down to Earth in growing volumes. Then, Nexia Corporation won the bidding to develop asteroid XR-18736.

Bumped into an in-system orbit by some unknown disturbance in the Oort Cloud, XR-18736 was calculated to have an orbital period of over 13,000 years. Once the huge, swift-moving asteroid made its 17-year trek through the inner solar system, it wouldn’t be back for 13,000 years or more. But preliminary calculations, and the first survey, completed while the asteroid was still outside Saturn’s orbit, showed that XR-18736 was likely to have as much Heavy Matter inside it as all other finds to-date combined. To Nexia Corporation, XR-18736 was like a gift from God.

Before the Survey Team even made it back to Earth orbit, a massive cargo of equipment was on the long cold journey to the distant asteroid, followed shortly by a crack team of administrators and technicians. A hasty agreement was reached with the Miners Union, and 50 of the top Heavy Matter miners were headed for XR-18736, along with twenty of their multi-billion dollar mining trains. The trains, each consisting of 75 foot-long equipment modules, had the ability to bore straight through the loose regolith of Oort asteroids, breaking the asteroid apart with alternating sonic and microwave beams, sucking the regolith into the train and sorting and processing it to filter out the precious heavy matter particles, all the while shoring up the excavation tube walls with fast-drying plasticizer that guarded against a collapse. The miners ran their trains like orchestra conductors, expertly reading multi-sensory inputs and simulations to go for the richest concentrations of Heavy Matter, while avoiding a devastating collapse that would kill the miner and bury the precious mining train. It truly was an art.

But nobody had ever worked a find so far above the plane of the ecliptic and so distant from Earth or the major bases. The extreme angle of XR-18736 above the ecliptic meant that reaching the asteroid required protracted burns at high G for days at a time, consuming vast amounts of fuel and requiring over a month. Even with the magnitude of the find, Nexia Corporation opted to limit resupply to twice per year, with long-term contracts at high rates for almost all of the staff.

Working for years farther from Home than any human had been before, driven at a frantic pace by the Corporation, cracks began to show in the tight-knit group working on XR-18736. And perhaps God laughed somewhere, because there were other things inside the asteroid besides Heavy Matter. The only question is whether humans brought it with them, or whether it was already inside the asteroid, waiting out the slow turn of eons for something to free it.

This is where our story begins.





The Crew


Rock Harrigan – 42, Mine foreman and former Marine, Rock is so stocky and over-muscled that he looks like some kind of squat troll. He is the only Miner on XR- 18736 who isn’t with the Miners Union, because he works on a direct contract with Nexia Corporation to oversee Heavy Matter extraction. Rock’s personality and uncompromising drive are the most powerful controlling factors in Heavy Matter production at the base, and if things work out, he will return to Earth in another year with a bankroll that will easily put all four of his daughters through college. Only Roos Undervoort is considered to be more of an artist with a mining train than Rock, and all the miners consider it to be a near thing.

Zhu Zhao – 29, Base doctor, Chinese, female, extremely attractive. As the newest member of the admin team Zhu is still trying to find her place and learn all the ins and outs of the base, all while dealing with being on her first deep space contract. Since her arrival the mostly-male miners have had a spat of minor injuries that require her attention, and it is starting to wear on her nerves. Zhu is a very talented doctor who stands to make a lot of money – if she can handle the conditions. (name pronunciation: SHOO sow).

Aleksi Shurbakov – 44, Aleksi is the bases’ Head of Security, formerly posted to the Russian LaGrange base and fired after series of grisly murders that he wasn’t allowed to solve. Formally designated as ‘Marshal’ by the UNSA and required to wear the badge, but prefers to go by ‘Aleksi’. To someone who hasn’t spent much time on base, Aleksi doesn’t seem to do anything, but those who really know the base inside and out can see Aleksi’s subtle influence in almost every aspect of operations that has to do with the safety of the miners and support staff on base. His close friends call him Aleksi Grigoriovich. (name pronunciation: al-LEK-see SHORE-buh-kov)

Charlie Speyer – 36, Base Psychological Officer, universally disliked (he cultivates this), nicknamed “Happy Charlie” because he has the ability to prescribe Zolofram (serious happy-time pills). One of the smartest people on the base, Charlie holds Masters Degrees in Group Psychology and Chemistry. Charlie’s contract includes generous bonuses if the Heavy Matter output meets Nexia Corporation targets. He is torn between care for the miner’s mental health, and the aggressive production demands of the Corporation.

Riley Adams – 27, As Technical Operations Manager (TechOPS), Riley maintains and administers the bases’ main computer and network (‘Base Main’ or ‘B1’). Corporate paid to have Riley fitted with a cybernetic implant allowing him to wirelessly interface with B1 at all times. The implant is intra-cranial, with a small lead coming out of a stent behind his right ear that connects to a transmitter and interface unit generally clipped to his belt. Nicknamed ‘B2’, Riley has a serious lack of social skills, but when an emergency pops, everyone goes to him first.



Roos Undervoort – 25, The youngest person on the base, Roos grew up in large Afrikaaner family in South Africa. As a boy he spent almost as much time in mines as he did in school. At 17 Roos was the youngest man ever to join the Miner’s Union, working on an asteroid stripping project in high earth orbit the summer after he graduated Secondary School. Roos is rated as the top Heavy Matter miner in the Union, and Nexia Corporation overlooks his serious alcohol and behavioral problems because of his awesome production. Nicknamed ‘Stork’ because of his lanky height and thin frame. There are 20 trains that must run full-time (usually 1 or 2 down for maintenance), and 50 miners to run them. The workload is immense, and the miners often work 4 days of consecutive 16-hour shifts, followed by 1 day off. Under this pressure, Roos’ alcohol consumption and rowdiness are reaching new highs. (name pronunciation: RUSE UN-ter-vort)

Jules Petain – 52, of French/Algerian descent, Jules spent the first twenty years of his life in the Foreign Legion, including several actions in earth orbit, and eventually in the Ceres incident. Jules now holds the contract with Nexia Corporation to operate a leisure establishment on the base. He takes a very flexible view of the rules that are supposed to apply to his establishment, and gets away with it due to solid long-term relationships with Aleksi and Rock, and knowing where to draw the line. Jules is short, heavyset and bald on top with a fringe of white hair – but he has proven an unpleasant surprise to miners who got out of hand at the bar. Once they regain consciousness they generally behave themselves afterwards. (name pronunciation: JOOLZ puh-TOHN)

Crystal Mounds – 31, A platinum blonde with a physique that has been surgically-enhanced to a ridiculous degree, Crystal is under a long-term contract with Nexia as ‘Personnel Entertainment Coordinator’.