<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 gave a chuckle at her comment about the place. So far she had only seen the more pleasant parts of the planet. The rest would not be better by any means.<br/><span style="color: #FF8000"><br/>"It couldn't be any nicer. We call it the Last Resort. Not because it is so lovely, but because for most of us it is the last place to work before retirement. But not for you as it looks. You are looking awfully young, kid. If I judge by my looks and my real age, then you must be something around sixteen, but I guess that would be a little bit too young. How old are you, kid?"</span><br/><br/>The Viking was curious if she would be annoyed by him calling her kid. She was no kid, she was a good-looking young woman, even in those unfitting clothes and the messy hair. He could only imagine how she looked like under those overalls, but he would know it soon enough anyway. He reached over and grabbed her big travel bag and lifted it on his shoulders, as if it was weighing nothing at all.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">"Don't be pissed and don't believe I do it, believing you are too weak to carry it on your own. I know you are a lot tougher than you look, otherwise you wouldn't be here,"</span> that was a nice sentence with a double-meaning, she may believe he meant her being a miner, but he had meant her real job actually. <span style="color: #FF8000">"...but we have quite the walk in front of us and I give you the tourist tour showing you all the sight-seeings. The recreational facilities, the sports center, the five star restaurant and the nice little bungalows you will sleep in."</span> <br/><br/>Peter walked with large strides, forcing her to make nearly two steps for one he made. They left the shuttle terminal and walked into one of the endless corridors that crossed the underground of Sirius-238. Practically you never saw daylight on Sirius-238, if you had no office on the top level, like he did. Although the dust-clouds didn't make a lot difference between actual daylight and no daylight.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">"So, tell me, have you experience in Exploration Preparation? If not, it is no problem. It is no difficult work, just hard labor and some danger. We will work on our own, as we usually do in Explo-Prep and as we got some pressure from the company, we are doing double-shifts. Means we work 24 hours and have 12 hours free. I promise you after three days you believe you work round the clock as those 12 hours free are over before you realise that they started at all."</span><br/><br/>They had left the corridor after some miles and Peter called a lift to the entertainment area. They entered the crowded cabin, housing some 150 miners and within 20 seconds they reached the top level. All miners poured out and the Viking stopped outside of the lift and pointed to the right.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">"On the right is the cantine. The food is standard Universum Exploration stuff. It is tasting like shit, it is probably made of shit as far as I know, but it gives you a wagonload of calories. We should eat something. Our shift starts in two hours and 24 hours can be long if your stomach is empty."</span></div>