<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #80BFFF"><span style="font-size: 150%; line-height: 116%;">Peter Halvardson</span><br/><span style="font-size: 120%; line-height: 116%;">'The Viking'</span></span></div><br/><br/><div style="text-align: justify;">Peter had put her bag down, when her question came out of nowhere. Pranks? Sandra should expect a lot, but pranks where the last thing to fear. He just wanted to tell her, when he saw Ralph, the quarter master in the row of miners waiting for food. He glared at Peter's company and so did the people right and left of him. The news were spreading. A big guy left the row and walked over to them. The Viking made a step forward, blocking the way to the girl. Peter was a big guy, but compared to this one - it was like a pick-up truck compared to a semi. The neck muscles were two big ropes as thick as the thighs of Sandra and the biceps was ripping apart the shirt.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">"Bull?"</span><br/><br/><span style="color: #80FF00">"Get out of my way, Viking. She..."</span><br/><br/>Peter kept his position. Not even lowering his eyes.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">"No. Go back to the others. I am the one responsible for her. Tell the others too. She is mine and if anyone messes with her, I will be mightily pissed. You folks don't want me pissed."</span><br/><br/>The big guy closed his fist, the size of Sandra's head, but turned around and walked off. Peter turned back to Sandra. Her body language told him that she had been ready to fight, although clearly intimidated by the mere size of the guy. Even a full kick would have probably only made Bull laugh.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">"Relax. Now you shouldn't fear pranks anymore. But be careful where you walk in the dark."</span><br/><br/>He put his hand on her back and five minutes later they were sitting at their table with two piles of brownish meal on a tin plate. Peter saw the look of Sandra and he laughed.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">"It tastes worser than it looks. The only reason people eat it are the missing alternatives. You get the real stuff only on the market. And that costs."</span><br/><br/>It was a test, a first little morsel of information to judge her reaction. He expected a certain reaction, but in the moment he was just trying to find out, what he was up to with her. It wasn't the first time they were after him. But this time was different and he knew it.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">"So you are still in your first two years of probation? You haven't signed the fifteen year package yet? Don't sign it, Sandra. Someone like you won't survive it."</span><br/><br/>He referred to the first two years of a miner's worklife, when you were tested on strength and durability. Those managing to survive got a contract for another fifteen years. Of course Sandra would never work as a miner. But Peter had reasons to ask.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">"When I had been eightteen I had the choice to go into the powerball league or to make big bucks as a miner. I had been good in powerball, but you know 90% of the players go down every year with career-ending injuries. I thought mining would be safer. Well, I was wrong. I'm 35 now, but my face doesn't look like it. The grey hair I got on Ramala-12, when I got caught in a collapsed mine shaft. They needed four days to get me out. The next day I realised that I had grey strains in my hair. But you will get a taste of this life the next weeks. It will change you, Sandra. You will learn how weak your body is, how the lack of communication kills your brain, how you can't motivate yourself to anything anymore. You won't be the same when you leave Sirius-238. None of us is..."</span><br/><br/>He looked empty-eyed into the room, apparently not seeing how more and more people were looking Sandra up. They finished eating and Peter took her bag and led her around the rest of the floor.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">"Showers. Not divided by gender. But don't worry, after a shift of work no man cares about sex anymore. Not even when he has to look at some tasty young ass like yours. The gym. As you see only a ring and some weights. With dust on them. The casino. Gambling and drinking. Hospital. An old doc with an alcohol problem. Better don't get injured. No police. This is a contained planet. Only one way in and out. The shuttle. Entering a shuttle only by biometric ID. We have a ten man security miliz here. I am one member. But don't get too enthusiastic about us. Bull is another member. No weapons on the planet. Theoretically. Ok, that's it. You have seen all. I bring you to your room. What's the number?"</span></div>