Free Chewing Rocks by Alan Black

lumpers in the warehouse, right? All we could do was exchange time for pay and not much pay for that matter. Not no more, ever! Now we’ve got a mining ship to work. Some of these mining ships can earn us more in two months than we would have made in a year of wrangling boxes.”
    Franklin nodded. “That’s a fact. I saw a pay stub from the last trip made by ship number 10187. Those two miners made more in a five month trip than all four of us combined for a year. If they can do it, so can we.”
    Hunter did not look convinced, “Yeah, but none of us are exogeologists. What we know is how to take this box from here and put it there. How are we supposed to know which asteroid to mine?”
    Franklin said, “Shut up, Hunter. You really don’t know what you are talking about. Man, haven’t you ever heard of computers?”
    McNally said, “Yeah, that guy who works as Queene’s assistant got us all set up. He told me that we have all of the charted stuff loaded in the computer and the program is set to scan asteroids once we get close and calculate which ones are most profitable. Then we just do step-by-step what it says in the manual. I say we owe Queene big time. She could have fired us and shipped us back to Earth, stone cold broke and stone cold sober.”
    Franklin nodded, “Not to mention, it got us off Ceres so things could cool down. I don’t like it when the local law is breathing down my neck.”
    Hunter said, “Okay, but why did she have to dock us a month’s pay? I got bills to pay. My ex is expecting her child support checks on time.”
    McNally said, “Jeez, Hunter, quit your whining! Shut up and think, would ya? She had to dock us pay and get us off Ceres. If you think we had the local law breathing down our necks, don’t you think they were coming down doubly hard on Queene Mines? They brought us up from Earth, they sign our paychecks, so they are responsible for us. That Sheriff Bob was probably pushing Queene Mines for punitive damages or something. That guy who works for boss-lady Queene said if they didn’t do something, then the whole company could get jammed up. She didn’t have any other choice but to do what she did.”
    Hunter whined, “Yeah, I heard him, but I didn’t do anything to the Whyte girl. The video on the net proved I didn’t do nothing.”
    McNally said, “Hunter, you need to shut up when you don’t know what you are talking about. This is your last warning and the last time I am going to explain this to you. Queene did us a favor there too. None of us was going to get laid for a long time after that vid came out of us getting our clocks cleaned by one skinny girl. If we are gone for four or six months it will give everyone time to forget about that.” He thought for a moment and then continued, “You know, Hunter, we just might find a better way to shut your pretty little mouth, if you keep yapping like some fancy-schmancy, long haired, hair-brained, poofy-tailed lapdog.”
    Franklin winced and shifted uncomfortably, “I don’t think that I am going to want to get a blowie for a while. That Whyte girl crushed my huevos but good. The medbox got the boys back in working order, but I sure don’t feel like putting them to work, you know?”
    McNally nodded and rubbed a hand across his face. “Queene did right by us. Whyte blindsided us and that ain’t right. Our computer has her course dead on for us to follow wherever she jumped. We just have to use the engines in normal space for a while to clear the asteroid belt before we can jump to follow her. Then we can take care of that tail out here where no one will ever know. After that we can take whatever claim she is working on and then go back to Ceres as rich men.” Franklin said, “Yep, that is another thing we owe Queene for; that guy of hers laid in Whyte’s course for us. Without it we wouldn’t have a clue where she went. I just hope that the boys are up to working when we catch up to Whyte.” He rubbed his