Free Shepherd Moon: Omegaverse: Volume 1 by G.R. Cooper

work he could find in Pune, but the risk was tangible; it touched his life. He couldn’t afford to have the computer, pay for the game subscription or spend the time necessary in game unless it more than paid for itself. And there were no guarantees that it would. But it had.
    At first, he’d had wonderful luck. He chose mining missions offered via the game through mission control. He found vein after vein of rare and wondrous minerals. He’d even found the blueprints for a torpedo on a small moon. He’d made a small fortune in game credits and been able to transfer them into the bank account he had, for the first time in his life, been able to open. He’d begun to dream of being able to save up enough to buy his own ship; selling his ore on the open market would increase his profits over the fixed price the system paid for missions.
    But rent wasn’t free. Electricity wasn’t free. Food wasn’t free. The money he’d been able to save was constantly siphoned. He hadn’t had enough luck in the game to replace it. Now it was running out. In three days he had to be able to renew his game subscription with money or game credits he didn’t now have.
     
    As Phani’s ship made its way to the next mining spot, he pushed back from the table, stood, and walked past his bedroll to the hot plate sitting on the floor. He squatted and began making a meal. Rain beat on the open slats of his one window, an evening breeze pushing through into the stale air of his room. The monsoon would last another month. He wondered where he would be then; if he would last as long as the rains. Would he be washed out of the city like so much flotsam into the Mutha river. Was that his destiny, to become as one with the river whose name he shared? He shrugged, began to eat, if there was a karmic balance to be repaid, so be it. Maybe he could find a job in the Hinjawadi IT park. He never had before, but maybe this time would be different.
    Phani finished eating, cleaned, and returned to his seat. His ship had reached the waypoint and stopped. A new rock was on his screen, slowly rotating.
    He swapped the navigation overlay with his assaying toolset and began a scan. He got a hit. Nickel-iron alloy in mineable quantities. Kamacite; between five and ten percent nickel, the rest iron. In order to fulfill the mission parameters, he had to come back with a minimum amount of ore, with more valuable ore giving a better bonus. He pulled up the latest commodities quotes. Nickel wouldn’t get him much of a bonus, but a full hold of kamacite bearing rock would give him the reward proposed by the mission. Not enough to pay his subscription, though. He’d be sitting at this computer for the next three days just to break even at this rate.
    Phani released his ship’s mining drone, a small craft that moved onto or near the rock and extracted the ore. Once its hopper was full it would return to the ship and dump the kamacite into the ship's hold; making trips until the hold was full or the vein ran dry.
    As he watched the drone operate, he once again thought of how much better his life would be with a dedicated mining ship of his own. He’d be able to outfit it with drones that were better able to cut the valuable ore from the worthless rock. As it was, he’d be lucky to get a few percent of kamacite, which was mostly iron, from this load. And, if he was rich, he’d be able to refine the ore here, on the ship, and drop the tailings back into the planetary ring. If he was rich.
    Instead, he’d been spending all of his available character points on his mining skills, the cumulative effect of which was to gain him a few percent increase in his ore returns. That helped, but not enough. He needed his own ship. His own mining operation.
    He well knew, however, that having his own ship would not solve all of his problems. Without going through the mission control, he’d have to plot his own course; find his own strikes. He’d have to pay for his own fuel. Pay