The restaurant is a simple mom and pop place.
Good food, simple dishes but done well.
Lots of flavor and real ingredients.
Not too pricey but definitely not cheap either.
Its a small building on the corner of an intersection where the owners live upstairs and the business is on the first floor.
I’ve never been to this place before but it seems familiar enough.
Stepping through the door, I notice Uncle Lin in a corner booth and walk towards him.
He stands up and before i can get my hand out for a handshake he pulls me into a hug.
Oh yeah, he’s a hugger.
I relax and allow it, someone who considers you family doesn’t need to be chastised for treating you like family.
We make small talk as he asks about my recent activities.
I reveal some of my latest adventure, where I was almost stranded on that rock, but tell him it was just the one small hole on the outer hull, which I was able to fix with Emergency Foam and a metal plate.
No need to mention my awesome new power or the pirates.
Nothing to see here, move along.
He laughs good-heartedly at my successful survival mission and begins to talk about the industry.
Finally we’re moving away from me and hopefully towards what he wants to really talk about.
I ask about his family and what his plans for the future might be, as the appetizers arrive.
Taking a break from talking to enjoy the delicious food, we mumble and gesture the next part of the conversation.
No need to be polite, good food is meant to be enjoyed, especially with friends.
The calamari is chewy and soft in all the right ways and crunchy on the outside.
Mmmm salad with pickled veggies, don’t mind if I do.
Then a roast chicken.
Truly stellar.
This kind of food is a real treat.
I can’t even remember when I ate so well, maybe once or twice as a kid once or twice, but definitely not recently.
“Ok Uncle, I’m all buttered up.
What do you need?
Don’t worry I’ll help you, but this meal can’t just be to catch up.
Give it to me straight.” Enough small talk, tell me.
He squints one eye, looking at me in a way that feels he’s gauging me.
Then with a bite of chicken and rice he spills it.
“I’m getting out of the business.
Kids, Grandkids, Life… I am running out of time and want to experience these things more, not spend my remaining days out chasing rocks.” ahhhh ok, so what does that have to do with me?
I mumble something about the importance of family.
Then he drops the bomb!
“I’m selling the Amadeus.” just a few words, so much unsaid.
My heart rate picks up immediately.
The Amadeus is a Gulwing which uncle Lin extensively modified into one of the most efficient miners out there.
It harvests over 3 times as much as Bessie on each trip out to the field.
Amadeus is a top tier independent miner system.
Its rovers are highly efficient.
Its field refiner is top of the line.
Its engine was soupped up.
Everything about it was top shelf.
I’d secretly coveted it for years, imagining it as my own.
“And you want to sell it to me?…” feeling where he was going, I asked, slightly incredulously, slightly hopeful.
The day I’d dreamed of for years, was it here?
“Well, of course.
But.
business is business, and this is business.” he answered.
That’s not a No.
So what does he want?
Can I even afford it?
In a year definitely, no problem.
But right now I’ve only started my upward trajectory, and haven’t had a chance to save up the kind of money Amadeus would cost.
I reel in my rampaging emotions, trying to get myself under control.
Hope, fear, frustration, excitement all were competing in my head at the same time.
“The Amadeus is an amazing ship.
I just pray I can afford it.
Tell me.
What’s it gonna take to make this happen?” i can barely mouth out the words, my throat is so dry all of a sudden.
The golden ring is right there but not quite there yet.
He looks at me with piercing eyes and says “400 thousand credits” calmly and firmly.
You need to understand that a month ago I’d never be able to come up with the money.
This day would have come and gone with nothing but missed opportunity.
I’d have hemmed and hawed but never been able to make it happen.
I’m wondering if he doesn’t think I can make this happen.
Maybe this is all just a mind fuck that he’s offering it to me, knowing i can’t afford it to make us both feel better.
None of that matters because today, me, will never let this opportunity pass.
In order to show my sincerity, I reach into my bag and pull out the small ‘golf ball’ of Osmium and put it on the table.
Uncle Lin just watches in silence.
Then I pull out the fist sized lump of Palladium and put it next to the Osmium ‘golf ball’.
Uncle Lin reaches out for the ‘golf ball’, inspecting it to get some idea what I’m up to now.
Finally I pull out the black metal I’d found on the Beta Asteroid surface, the pepper sprinkles on the surface.
It’s slightly magnetic so I hold it over the silverware, which is actually stainless steel, and the fork jumps off the table onto the black metal.
Then I put the softball sized lump and fork still stuck to it next to the other lumps of metal, and sit back into my seat with a slightly proud look on my face.
Uncle Lin’s face is uncertain but not taken aback, almost amused.
Then I take out the 50k credits the pirates were kind enough to give me and put the stack on the table so the three rocks and 50k are in a line in the middle of the table between us.
“What’s all this?” he asks, knowing I’m about to try to sell me to him, and he’s enjoying the show.
“Osmium” with my finger on the ‘golf ball’ Palladium” as my hand hovers over the fist sized lump.
“Kamcite” finally with my hand over the black metal.
“I think” I add, since I haven’t actually tested it but am fairly certain that’s what it is.
These metals are not what normal miners have.
These are very rare and trace amounts are already difficult for small independent miners to source.
The refiners don’t give it back.
The field refiners on the ships which we carry out to the asteroid belt are not massive industrial refineries.
The field refiner on miners ships are just glorified smelters.
They usually just get rid of the junk, so you aren’t hauling silica and regolith back and leave the heavy metals and extra heavies to sell to the industrial refineries.
They don’t extract these trace elements, it’s just not what they are designed to do.
These trace metals are in the alloy one brings to market, but not separated, that’s what the industrial refineries are for.
He knows, just me having these means I’ve found an angle, some way to either find these valuable Extra Heavies or to refine them on my own.
Just me setting these in front of him is a conundrum.
It’s also an opening salvo, so he knows I’m not the same inexperienced kid from years ago.
I’ve gotta shake him up enough to see ‘new’ me and not just ‘token offer’ the ship to me.
I want him to actually sell it to me.
Badly!
Then as my hand hovers over that cash i just simply say “50 thousand” His smirk says I haven’t lost it yet, but it’s not a done deal yet either.
“Just under a hundred K here, I’m estimating 92 thousand.
A little more than 20%, I can add the difference to add up to a smooth 100k by tomorrow, once the refinery credits my account for the ore I just dropped off” “A hundred grand.
How cute.
But you’re 300,000 short.
Even selling Bessie you’re still short.” challenging me to get it done, he says.
I hold up two fingers, dramatically, for 5 or 6 seconds before saying “two months, paid in full.” The look on my face is completely serious, sincerity.
I hope it sells.
I hope he’s buying.
This is my dream ship.
My body is already claiming it in my soul.
Say yes!
Say yes!
“Hahahah oh my boy” he laughs.
At least it’s not the laughing at me version and he seems to be laughing with me.
Say yes!
Say yes… He thinks.
He looks at me.
He looks at the rocks.
He thinks some more.
I understand this is a hard decision for him.
I want to make it easy, but this is the best i’ve got, right now.
Sure 2 months is a big stretch, but I can definitely do it.
But damn it’s a lot of money in a very short time.
Drinking my after meal coffee to settle my nerves doesn’t work.
I’m just more wound up now.
Say yes!
Anything to distract myself from the fact I have no control over his decision.
I can only make my best pitch and hope.
“This isn’t what I thought would happen.
I figured you would offer 10% or 15% down and 5 years pay off, which wasn’t going to work.
Then I’d have to sell it to someone else.
BUT.
I have always seen you as the next generation and guided you like one of my own.
I do want to sell it to you.
Seeing this much of a deposit is a good sign.
The thing is: Amadeus can bring back more than this on a single trip, clearing 160,000 to 170,000 credits a trip before expenses.” Smoke is almost coming out his ears, he’s thinking so hard.
It’s tough doing business with friends.
He obviously wants to do it but has to protect himself.
Desperately trying to think of a way to sweeten the deal, I blurt out “how about half left in one month and the second half a month later?
So, 150k more in a month then another 150k after the second trip out and back.” He keeps thinking and playing with the ‘golf ball’ of Osmium, glancing at the others, while rolling it in his hand like a lonely Baodin Ball.
Sighing, he finally acquiesces.
The tension in his body dissolves, his shoulders relax, and I know I’ve won.
“Ok 100k down, 150k in a month, and 150k in 2 months.
Damn, never thought I’d let someone take her away from me before she’s paid in full.
Do NOT make me regret this.
If you miss either of these 150k payments or you are a day late, it’s all gone: the deposit, the ship, and Bessie.” Woah, this is serious.
I’d never risk Bessie, the ship my parents left my sister and I… But I’ve always dreamed of someday owning the Amadeus, and it will burn me for life if I don’t go for this.
Besides, it’s very possible with Bessie and Amadeus together, I can clear over 200k per run out and back.
That’s enough to make the payment and live off of at the same time.
The math works, barely, but it works.
2 months of hard, back breaking work and the Amadeus is mine!
I quickly reach out my hand to him, to shake on it, before he can change his mind.
As if afraid it’s all a dream or a prank.
But this is no prank.
This ship will be mine!
Smiling genuinely, he reaches out to shake my hand.
It’s done.
“We will have to write up the contract and register it so there are no ambiguities or loopholes.
This part will be by the books” Nodding, I respond “no problem, it’s for the best that way.
Oh and I need your help getting rid of these metals.
I need a good mineral broker.” He laughs and waves his hand, indicating it’s nothing.
Yes!
Now I can’t wait to go check out the Amadeus and explore every inch of it.
That’s my new ship.
Happy days.
Now I’ve gotta convince Lillian, my sister, that it’s the right thing to do.
She is also a 50% owner of Bessie; the business is both of ours.
The one thing our parents left us.
It shouldn’t be a problem though, right?
As we shake on the deal and agree to meet up the next day for signing documents, he says “ill pay for lunch today.
You probably won’t have much spare money for the next few months.
Heh heh” chuckling good heartedly.
He’s not wrong.
If I were a normal miner that is.
I am no longer a normal miner!
“Oh, and do you know any Mercs?” I’m gonna need another set of hands, bare minimum, so why not someone able to fight a bit as well.