<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;">He just shook his head. It was some mission impossible. Alice couldn't understand that she had only seen those returning from work, either as wrecks or as bodies. But she had never seen those at work... he had spend years to find out the right dosage to prevent miners from getting addicted, he had paid for long-time studies on miners after their job contracts, there were directives on his planets at work, directives given to every worker once he left the job. Of course not all followed them, like with all directives, but most of them did. Because no miner wanted to become a wreck. You don't work for seventeen years and earn a lot of money to be not able to enjoy it.<br/><br/>Wordless he stood up and pulled Alice up, when she pointed at the wine and the food, he shook his head.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">"Leave it. It won't taste you afterwards..."</span><br/><br/>Some somber mood seemed to have taken over, but indeed Peter wasn't keen on going over those facts again. For someone like Alice they were numbers, for him they meant faces. From his training group, his boys as he always called them, six had been on Delta-11. Two had been sent to Darquel and died there, four had remained on Delta-11. None of them survived that planet and it was one of the reasons why he had been so desperate in putting those facts together. He had not been able to prevent the disaster from happening, even with that huge effort the black-market dealers had put into it, they still had needed eight months for the first shuttle to arrive there, with new supplies and new people to take up the void of those dealers who had been captured. But there had been a chance that he was able to open eyes. At UE, at the authorities, with politicians, lobbyists, the press. But nothing had happened. It was as if those files had never been sent.<br/><br/>They crossed his bedroom and entered his office. He switched his computer on and entered the password, then motioned to Alice to sit down in front of it.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">"It's a long dossier. You will have to read it in total to understand it properly. I give you the time. Everything in this folder are petitions I have send out and dossiers to undermine the conclusions I have drawn. Every petition lists who got it, you'll see that I have tried every possible angle, from company, to organisations, politicians, military, press, anybody who may be of help. Nothing ever happened, Alice."</span><br/><br/>He scrolled down several pages, until a chart appeared on the screen.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">"There are other charts in there too. I have documented every single worker on this planet. But I know that you are as stubborn as you are intelligent. You will argue with me that the casualties are the result of year-long drug abuse and sudden lack of drugs. I won't go down that road with you. When you study this dossier, you will find enough of studies from universities and health organisations about the results and casualities of miners finishing their jobs. None of those explains the numbers in those eight months. But this chart is the most horrible one. Delta-11 is a beginners planet. One of those you start your fifteen year stint with. None of the like of this one here. When that raid had taken 500 workers away, they had to fill that void quickly. A shuttle with 500 rookies arrived six weeks later from a nearby training planet. All of those had underwent their 2 years training, none of them had worked on a real planet before. The red line at the bottom are the numbers of casualties under rookies before the raid happened. Accidents happen, but you see that it were never more than 5 miners per months. The black line is the statistic from the moment those 500 rookies arrived on Delta-11. The mining quota was the same like before the raid and so where the shift arrangements. Double shifts, one shift break, like it is here. But the medical system was better than here, which explains the proper documentation on every worker."</span><br/><br/>Peter put his finger on the first black mark.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">"You see that in the first week, there had already been 25 casualties. 25 from 500, that's 5%. Nothing anybody could be proud of. In the second week it were sixty more. 51 by heart failure caused by exhaustion, 9 by suicide. Two weeks later the numbers decline for the first time. But simply because 2/3 of the 500 were already dead. When the first drugs arrived on the planet seven months after those 500 started their work, none of them was alive anymore. 500 young miners, they all collapsed within two months of work. Why? Because UE knew that the miners used drugs all the time. They had increased the quota year after year knowing that the miners would use more drugs to achieve it. Nobody even considered lowering the quota at the moment no drugs were available on that planet. The young workers, all young and eager were like you. They believed that they slacked, that it was their inexperience that made them miss that quota. A quota none of the other workers achieved too. But those ignored the quota. The only thing that may happen to them, may be that they got send to another planet. Where there were drugs available. Still the number of casualties with them increased too. But more into the 20% region. Not 100%. Those young workers were too dumb to accept that it wasnt them, but the system. They tried to work harder, to put more effort in it to achieve it. And they all paid with their lives. Do you really believe I want to carry your body up to the quarters from sole 65 and accuse myself that I didn't stop you? Calm myself down and tell myself that it was only some stupid policewoman who wanted to haul my ass in anyway?"</span><br/><br/>He suddenly bend down and grabbed her head, kissing her. But as quick as he started it, he broke it and walked to the door avoiding to look at her.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">"Read it, read all of it. I need to be alone."</span></div>