Amotrak Korvac was in debt when a man named Kowalski found him at Titan Station. His grandmother's mining licence on Callisto should have cleared it. His uncle handled the sale and handed the three brothers one credchip between them, minus what he reckoned they owed him for their schooling.
Kowalski came with a smile and a briefcase. Simple cargo run, he said. Coal to Little Prince. Clean cargo, clear route, excellent pay, and five percent of what it sells for on arrival.
Little Prince ran out of coal two centuries ago. What it has instead is diamond, pulled from seams running the length of the planet, more of it than anyone there knows what to do with. So they trade coal for diamond, ton for ton. Nobody had ever carried a load like it. Amotrak would be the first, and five percent of that is a life without work in it.
What Kowalski left until after the signature was the distance. Twelve years. Six out and six back, alone, with eighty million tons of coal in the hold and whatever is left of a man at the end of it.
Ship PX5000, called the Eagle
Cargo eighty million tons of coal
Destination Little Prince
Contract twelve years, six each way
Crew one
Today is day one thousand and ninety five. Three years behind him and three ahead before he even arrives. He wrote one word in the log this morning and sat back to look at it.
Halfway.