There's a story going on here, and it's quite a good one. This young lad -- "working glass hero" -- signed on for a job on one of the new agricultural colonies. He's from a farm background back home on Earth, and figured, make a new start on a new world, onward and upward; a farm's a farm, right? And he'd have been onto a good thing, if the deal had turned out the way it was advertised. The problem is --
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When you get where you're going, and there's no way home, it turns into this. It's not a farm, it's a mining colony. It's all dark and dust, corrosive chemistry and space armour, not quite the life a farm kid would have wanted. And the mining company running this scam knows they're safe to do it, because they control the colony transmitters, there's no way to get a message out, and nowhere to run to --
Even if you can get away from the mines for a while, the planet is hostile, with bad atmosphere, massive storms and all around desolation. Now, what's a likely lad from a farm community supposed to do? The company offers a deal: do this job for five years, and you get your ticket -- onward, not home. It's passage to a new colony, the real deal, which you've actually earned with five years of hard labour. The question is, does one believe this story? Because it sounds like the carrot and stick. They promise you this to get the work out of you, but the next colony on down the line could easily be just another hellhole like this one, and it starts again ... or is that cryogen casket with your name on it merely a coffin, and you're jettisoned in the outer system, when the colonial mover ships out? Hmmm. So --
(That's Yoni for G8M, wearing Dax hair, as our hero. That's Station 3000 and the Powercargo sky tug, in the industrial site, four Michael 4 figures added, wearing the Xurge3D ATES Armour. Pretty neat ... not a bad story at all!)
