Diamond Dust

by | Jun 7, 2021 | Fiction | 188 comments

A Tale of the Belt

 

 They aren’t ‘Roids exactly, more like a large, coalesced pile of debris we called Diamond Dust, and I found one. They are full of rare earths, water ice, and yes diamonds, not dust but industrial grade chunks, easier to harvest than grow in orbit, and this one find set me up for a cycle or so, I was what they called a happy camper.

 

 I pulled out an old style Vanilla Cigar, sat down and had a good look. Too big for a grav lasso, I may need Mylar paint to fab up a bag to put it in, so I ran the numbers and for 2B tonnes, I needed 2000L. Cheap enough. With my claim registered and my Stake buoy in place, I plotted for high G direct to Ceres, there were appointments to be made, but I couldn’t do it over normal comms. No one knew where my claim was except for the Reg. department, so silence was key at this point, Burn!

 

 Ceres, always a welcome sight, I can’t actually see it, sensors take us in from 10k, a flip at 4k and a landing at pad 9, and an easy walk to Rose’s Cantina. Rose keeps a room for me on credit, and she has the recipe for Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, So it’s a great spot for rest and business.

After dinner and a rest period, I dressed in some nice clothes and set out, I had three appointments set up, 2 buyers and a mining company, so I set out to the main strip, and walked the promenade.

 

 Andy was there prowling for girls, he still grinds the gold runs, Which is a lot of work considering gold being cheap, but Volume I guess? He’s making bank, and his wife is fat and happy, so good on him .Marie is still running the Girl House, we shared a quick Espresso, the girls are fine, including my daughter, I paid Marie her the geld and we parted ways. Fredo, Lucianne, Nick, all the usual losers were in their usual places, and I passed on, down to the trade quarter.

 

 Understandably the Investors had concerns over me even getting the Dust back, let alone the pirates, I let them see my armament, shielding and tac systems and they seemed satisfied, so we sealed the deal, then it was off to see a Mining operator, but first…

 

 Kerry!, it’s been a while, and she had a four hour layover, how lucky! 

/3 hours later…..

Oh Shit! I’m late! Damned Bots!

 

 I need a mining ship, a full crew and Mylar tow capacity, and Will Robinson fit the bill, a true roughneck, his Fam were OG belters, and so were his boys.I was lucky, My Mom was an Eart’er, and me Da was a Belter, so I have connects you know? If you want a good job you pay extra and use Belters, they don’t complain about low O2, dust, or the cold, the toughest humans in the system Ya.

/sorry for the slang

 

 Last stop was Martian Security inc.,post13. MS13 is a private security firm that does cloaked backup, very pricey, but we always win. They have been in business for hundreds of years.With the Leopard as Flagship, three mining ships and the MS13 ships in stealth, we were off.

Burn!

 We had to run at less than relative speeds so as not to attract attention, so after a quarter cycle run, we were due for some down time once we arrived.The thing about diamond dust is you can’t burn straight at it or you’ll just blow it out of the sky, so an indirect burn and a flip is required, and without radar, this can be very tricky.

 The Mining ship led the way in and established a stable orbit, then gave us LaGrange points to fix, we didn’t want to create tidal effects and drag the dust apart, these guys are good. With MS13 at an unknown location close by, we took a few days off, and plotted our next moves. 

 

About The Author

Yusef drives a Kia

Yusef drives a Kia

Punctually illiterate But never late

188 Comments

  1. kinnath

    A fine start

  2. DEG

    They aren’t ‘Roids exactly, more like a large, coalesced pile of debris we called Diamond Dust, and I found one.

    I read “‘roids” as steroids.

    Rose keeps a room for me on credit, and she has the recipe for Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

    Rose is excellent.

    This is a good start.

    • Fourscore

      I read it as a different kind of”roids” and happy for a fellow traveler

      • rhywun

        #metoo

  3. pistoffnick

    Rose’s Cantina

    https://youtu.be/uZWaj3JZN1Y

    Out in the West Belter town of El Ceres
    I fell in love with a West Belter girl
    Nighttime would find me in Rosa’s Cantina
    Music would play and Felina would whirl.

    Blacker than night were the eyes of Felina
    Wicked and evil while casting her spell
    My love was deep for this West Belter maiden
    I was in love, but in vain, I could tell.

    One night a wild young miner came in
    Wild as the West Texas wind
    Dashing and daring, a drink he was sharing
    With wicked Felina, the girl that I love.

    So in anger I challenged his right for the love of this maiden
    Down went his hand for the phazer that he wore
    My challenge was answered in less than a heartbeat
    The handsome young stranger lay dead on the floor.

    Oh Felina!

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      That. Was. Awesome!

    • Fourscore

      Nick, I traveled via the ‘net to Isabella. For those looking for a permanent getaway, handy with tools, short on cash and enjoy being alone, Isabella, MN is looking for you. It’s beautiful, quiet and few noisy neighbors. Acreage is not too expensive, snowmobiles useful.

      On a different note, my uncle had a sawmill in Isabella back in the ’50s. The company has their own school for the younger kids. He and his family were there for a couple years.

      • pistoffnick

        Hey 4score,

        I’ve been thinking about you. I finally got my garden planted this past weekend. I hope to have some peppers and cherry tomatoes to bring to Honey Harvest. The garden is about half the usual size. I get my left knee replaced this Friday and I’m not sure I could keep up with the full garden.

        I actually LIKE Isabella, MN. I was just pissed at how that date ended.

      • Tulip

        Good luck! Hope it all goes well.

      • Fourscore

        The missus got several tomato plants (and a couple bells) in her garden around the house. She put them in the ground about last Thursday, this weather has really turned them on to grow.

        A friend up the road took my garden seed and planted some , he will share the corn and dog forbid zucchini and other stuff. We have tomato sauce and cuke pickles left over so we’ll be in good shape for veggies this year.

        Good luck with the new knee, you’ll be out and about within days, working away, boy-farm, I know the feeling.

        Next trip to the Shore will include Isabella but the same ol’ date as the last time.

      • blackjack

        I can’t help but think of lake Isabella in Cali. It’s the low rent lake around here. mostly dirt around it. We stayed about 15 miles up the mountain and our cabin was pretty cool. The lake is…featureless.

    • hayeksplosives

      Very nice! Vaguely where my mind went too, but you did all the poetic details.

  4. rhywun

    -1 Screech 🙁

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      huh?

      • rhywun
  5. blackjack

    I enjoyed it all, but really, all i need is Burn!

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Yes!

    • Ted S.

      Nobody needs 23 kinds of burn.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Vivaldi did 254 variations of the same song, go figure,

      • blackjack

        I got dragged to a Dead show. Those guys did 254 different songs simultaneously. I still can’t understand the attraction. Of course, I was stone sober at the time.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I was stone sober at the time.

        Seems you answered your own thought

      • Chafed

        I have never understood the love for that band.

  6. Ownbestenemy

    Good start. Great job

  7. Ownbestenemy

    Geicos Lisa Loeb commercial…she still cute and…does math…52? I have crossed the Rubicon it seems

    Maybe she can sing in your cantina

    • rhywun

      Yeah, I dunno how they conjured her up from 25 years ago.

    • Ted S.

      She only hears what she wants to.

      • hayeksplosives

        Lol

    • Count Potato

      Is she still wearing fake glasses, or does she need real ones now?

    • straffinrun

      Made me look up Leopold and Loeb. Loeb’s death deserved, but sheesh.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      She was a cutie, still hot?

      • Ownbestenemy

        For age yeah.

    • Gustave Lytton

      I saw her about 15 years after she was back to playing smaller venues. I don’t remember much of the show itself other than her in person singing was as good as her studio work and she had a good rapport with the audience, but after the show she sat out by exit and did signings and meet & greet for anyone (and the venue wasn’t that small).

      • Chafed

        Kudos to her. That’s a lot more than most musicians will do.

    • EvilSheldon

      I was the sound guy at one of her shows, probably twenty years ago. She struck me as a pretty nice person.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Lighting the Q signal early are we

      • Chafed

        MS most overlooked.

    • blackjack

      At least she’s up front about it.

    • creech

      I was under the impression most young Mexican women had no need of boob jobs. Especially soccer fans.

    • Chafed

      That’s not the craziest thing promised by a Mexican politician.

      • banginglc1

        All politicians plan on fucking you one way or another.

    • blackjack

      That IS nuts, but this struck me as funnier. From a little lower down the page.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Wtf

      • straffinrun

        Tik Tok videos. ?

      • Chafed

        Straff gets it.

      • Mojeaux

        Thanks. Now my husband’s irritated I made him watch that.

      • Count Potato

        I made you make your husband watch it?

      • Mojeaux

        I can’t look away! It’s such a trainwreck. So he wanted to know what trainwreck I was watching. It’s all your fault!

  8. straffinrun

    I hate the simulation for throwing Ivermectin and Ivor Cummings at me in the same cycle.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      I live in the Stepford Simulation, help me please…..

      • straffinrun

        Milfulation?

      • Cutting down trees, one disc at a time,

        God I wish, it’s all heifers here,

    • Gustave Lytton

      Once a month flea treatment makes the odds of hitting it up with something else pretty good.

      • Cutting down trees, one disc at a time,

        I do a Tick check daily, Golf you know, chicks don’t dig fleas and /ticks,

    • rhywun

      Have some Ivor Biggun instead.

  9. Timeloose

    Yusef,

    I’m really digging the space opera. Thanks.

    ” MS13 is a private security firm that does cloaked backup, very pricey, but we always win. They have been in business for hundreds of years.”

    Nice touch.

    • Cutting down trees, one disc at a time,

      Thank you, glad you noticed, there is more,

  10. Timeloose

    OT: So when did my neighborhood start getting its air from Manila.

    80 DEG and soupy at 10 pm. Gross

    • Timeloose

      Brood X should be emerging after this heat wave. Lemmy will be eating every cicada he comes across.

    • Chafed

      I never heard of him. Has he been been venerated or unpersoned by the CCP?

      • Chafed

        Makes sense. At least they got that right.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      You’re saying I should buy semolina futures?

    • egould310

      I’m heading down to Richland, WA tomorrow to count silos full of corn. Pretty stoked.

      • tripacer

        I’m heading down to Richland tomorrow to try to talk my girlfriend out of buying an overpriced 804 square foot Hanford house.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Bring a Geiger counter, or better a walkie talkie with adjustable squelch.

      • tripacer

        Heh, I’ll actually fly over the B reactor on the way there

    • Chafed

      Most California crops are hard hit due to lack of rain and California’s decade long inability to store water.

      • hayeksplosives

        If only there was a way to save up the water when it is rainy season, some way to “reserve” the water for when we need it, really need it, for voir…

    • creech

      Which one of us gets to hang with Jamie Lee Curtis?

    • J. Frank Parnell

      That’s fine, we’ll all just eat bugs.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      No intense looks?

      Willem Dafoe haz a sad.

      • straffinrun

        Swiss got arrested after hearing a pun.

    • slumbrew

      “The signs shouldn’t be addressed to gay people, they should be banning all public sexual acts without any mention of sexual preferences.”

      That seems correct.

      “No Fucking”

    • Cutting down trees, one disc at a time,

      At least we can make out in Michigan,

    • Timeloose

      So being gay is fine by trying to attract another is right out.

      • Cutting down trees, one disc at a time,

        Gotta find em before you bang em!

    • J. Frank Parnell

      What about wide stances?

      • Gustave Lytton

        Inside the toilet cubicle, no one can hear you tap.

  11. Ownbestenemy

    When you do what you love, you never work a day in your life.

    https://youtu.be/TmMV_R7d2eo

    It’s a bit long but some good old fashioned Candian nice.

  12. rhywun

    I’m watching old Law & Order episodes on BBC-A and they’re blurring out clothed female rear ends and mannequin bulges.

    The New Puritanism is getting tedious.

    • Cutting down trees, one disc at a time,

      Minus one on Claire,

    • Count Potato

      “they’re blurring out clothed female rear ends and mannequin bulges”

      Wait, what?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        The world seems to be getting stupider.

      • Cutting down trees, one disc at a time,

        it is getting stupider, Live the Dream of Mediocrity!

    • straffinrun

      You mean like a lady in tight jeans? WTH?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        So how are things in Japan? Are people over there really pissing their pants over the olympics or is that the media here playing it up?

      • straffinrun

        People I know don’t care much at all.

      • rhywun

        No, it was two ladies romping around in bed with some dude. They were wearing nighties.

      • straffinrun

        They went from bra burning to this? Progress.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Conway Twitty hit hardest.

    • rhywun

      Now they just crap-gapped the word “ass”.

    • Chafed

      Are they afraid Prince Andrew will do something stupid?

  13. Count Potato

    Speaking of ivermectin, anyone know of a good source that is safe for humans and doesn’t need a script?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Amazon’s got tons of the horse stuff and it’s almost certainly safe as long as you don’t screw up the math for the dose.

      • commodious spittoon

        Did someone say meth dose?

  14. Cutting down trees, one disc at a time,

    See you on the other side!

  15. Timeloose

    “ A Tale of the Belt”

    Sounds like the time I left my Hess truck on the stairs when my dad was on third shift.

    • rhywun

      lol

    • straffinrun

      They really never do, but it doesn’t feel like she’s actually Vice President.

      • Chafed

        Agreed. It’s amazing she has any job given how unlikable she is.

      • hayeksplosives

        She makes Preet seem like a pretty chill AG.

      • Chafed

        Legit lol.

  16. Ozymandias

    I don’t know if this will cause narcotics to fall from my derriere, but has anyone posted this gem re: Lori Lightfoot’s “No Whites Allowed” interview policy?

    A judge told lawyers for Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, D., Monday to provide a declaration by the end of the week as to whether her policy of only granting interviews to journalists of color was still in effect or would be in the future.

    Conservative watchdog Judicial Watch asked the court for an injunction against Lightfoot’s policy last week, saying it was unconstitutional, but Lightfoot’s attorneys said at a remote hearing Monday that the policy was not in effect and the request was unnecessary, according to reports.

    Mayor runneth giant mouth and lawyers lie asses off to protect her. I love it.

    • straffinrun

      She actually said “overwhelming whiteness”. This type of shit better stop soon or some ugly backlash will happen.

    • Count Potato

      I think I posted it a week ago.

  17. Crusty Juggler

    Fellow Whites, we peaked years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy_cZCvXAuk

    No one brought it to my attention before now so I apologize for assuming there could be some improvement.

    It’s all over. Let them have it.

    Let’s negotiate our way into annexing Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho into Canada and settling there.

    One might way we should…jump…into our future home.

      • Crusty Juggler

        Your video – while fantastic – is far too self aware.

        The Kings and Queens who shine in my either have no idea what they are doing or don’t care, which is great. I don’t even want to make fun of it, I just like it.

      • l0b0t

        Nah… James Last is a kraut; he’s been a fixture of German television for 40+ years. Also, that Florida shite is excused because in 1971 he released the album Voodoo Party which features this amazing track – https://youtu.be/SPJWMhpey0M

    • Chafed

      On behalf of whites everywhere, I apologize.

      • hayeksplosives

        These crazy goyim!

      • Chafed

        That group would eat mayo on white bread then sincerely tell you it’s delicious.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Hey! I resemble that remark.

        Depends on the bread and mayo, too.

    • Tres Cool

      Pat Boone heartily approves.

  18. Count Potato

    Bud Light Seltzer Iced Tea?

    WTF?

    • Crusty Juggler

      You wanted to let women go to college so have to deal with the consequences.

      Country clubs and blended Scotch are out, hideously expensive brunches and Seltzer ice Tea are in.

      • Brochettaward

        You misogynistic ass clown.

    • Chafed

      That’s just wrong. Fortunately, Nephilium isn’t awake to read that.

  19. hayeksplosives

    Another space adventure from Yusef! Yay!

    Good brain candy.

    • Cutting down trees, one disc at a time,

      the first of many, thanks!

      • Festus

        Fredo. Really?

  20. hayeksplosives

    I’m reading “Anatomy of Fascism” by Paxton.

    It’s partly good, but he resorts to the old “Fascism is far right, socialism is far left” model. And I think he’s at least subconsciously sympathetic to socialism and communism.

    I hope I’m wrong; some aspects of the book are quite good so far.

    • Festus

      I stopped refusing to finish a book when I knew how it would end about six years ago. I didn’t throw them at the wall but would quietly close them and return to the library. Adult fiction is dead, Sci-Fi is dead, horror is still dead-alive, non-fiction is spotty, historical fiction was done like dinner ten years ago, science writing has sputtered and anything whimsical is buried in a ditch these days.

      • UnCivilServant

        I can predict the ending ans still be entertained.

        Admittedly, I seem to be favoring authors who wrote in the first half of the 20th century, with a few from the latter half for settings that didn’t exist then.

      • Festus

        I’m still a completist. Do you understand how hard it was to stop that reading habit? I didn’t leave the publishing industry, they left me.

  21. Plinker762

    Stupid Mountain Time

  22. Tres Cool

    WRT to JF Parnell’s upthread comment:

    A woman was in the country club bar after being on the golf course. She told the people she was with “today on the course, I got stung by a bee.”
    One of the men said “where?” and she replied “Just between the 1st and 2nd hole.”
    He said, “your stance is too wide.”

    /shows myself out

  23. Cutting down trees, one disc at a time,

    Mornin’ Glibs, let the Covfefe flow, and let’s swim to work, it’s so gross right now,

    • Tres Cool

      Currently a nice 72º F here, with a dry relative stupidity of 86%. But the forecast high is only mid-80s.
      Summer in SW Ohio.

      • Tres Cool

        Once I get someone delivered to the airport….TALL CANS!

      • Cutting down trees, one disc at a time,

        Drink some for me, it’s Deer Thirty at Chez Yusef, later on, with golf, I’ll raise a TALL CAN! to you,

    • westernsloper

      A balmy 60 F with a sort of high 29% humidity here. Gonna be warm today.

  24. Gender Traitor

    Aaaaaaaaand here it comes. My commute used to be fifteen minutes, all on surface streets. Then my employer merged with another organization, and my job moved to the opposite side of town, tacking on another fifteen minutes to my drive, mostly on the interstate.

    My boss has been concerned about how to be evenhanded WRT WFHers and those of us who HAVE to come in to the office to do our jobs, since that arrangement may continue for the foreseeable future. I may try to drop the words “gas allowance” into his ear.

    • UnCivilServant

      I’m sorry to hear that.

      The upside of a 30 minute commute is that it’s a decent amount of time for listening to audiobooks.

      • Gender Traitor

        On the way in, I spend the first fifteen minutes (the surface street minutes) listening to the local news radio station for the traffic reports, since there are frequent boo-boos along my highway route, in case I have to resort to Plan B. I might try an audiobook on the way home if I can figure out which format will pick up where I left off. (Tried it some time ago with my portable satellite radio/MP3 player but couldn’t crack the code on how to “bookmark” it.)

      • UnCivilServant

        Hrmm…

        Not sure, since I’ve been using a walkman which I can take with me on my walks and plug into my car, so it’s always at the current spot. It depends on what you’ve got to work with.

      • Gender Traitor

        I’m nursing this poor obsolete model along as long as I can. Unfortunately, a tiny plastic tab that holds the selection button to the front of the radio has broken off, so I have to keep the whole thing flat on its back – the dial and the button still work, but if the device is set upright, they’ll both fall off.

        I keep it at the office now. At home I listen to the radio online. Needless to say, this is not a good option for the car.

      • UnCivilServant

        Yeah, the car needs something that can survive being jostled a bit.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        One of the standard choices for iPhone or Android should do that for you just fine. That kind of functionality has come a long way in the past several years.

      • Gender Traitor

        Know any of the apps’ names? I do Android, but use very few apps since they all seem to want unfettered access to everything on my phone. I’d consider making an exception for something from a reasonably trusted source that would do the trick and work with readily available audiobook formats.

      • Ted S.

        They actually have useful traffic reports?

    • rhywun

      My boss doesn’t want to work in the office any more than I do, which is evident in the fact that a week and half after we were directed to return he still hasn’t shown up.

      • Gender Traitor

        My boss, as introverted as he is, HATES to WFH. He’s supposed to do so one day every two weeks just to keep in practice in case he ever HAS to WFH, but it’s been a while since he’s done so. He’ll take any excuse to skip it.

    • Festus

      Ugh! Sorry, Red.

  25. UnCivilServant

    I am trying desperately to not yell at Ze German vendor tech. The man has zero adaptability, and cannot adjust to the fact that we do not give people half a world away undupervised direct root access to any of our boxes.

    • Gender Traitor

      (Dammit, that was meant as a reply to you, U. Brooksed it.)

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m grousing here so I don’t come off as unprofessional to my own management – the people who control promotions.

      • Gender Traitor

        A big chunk of my job is being the person to whom my boss can safely vent.

      • Sean

        I know way more of my boss’s personal life than I care to know.

        /Consigliere (without the pasta)

  26. Stinky Wizzleteats

    “The Science Suggests a Wuhan Lab Leak’

    https://archive.is/f6iG6

    A very interesting WSJ article without the paywall. Looks damning (probably) to me and if I find out I paid for it I’m going to be fucking pissed.

  27. Sean

    $547 for 6 months of full coverage auto insurance on a single vehicle. Should i be annoyed or (relatively) pleased?

    • UnCivilServant

      Less than what I have to spend. I’m closer to $600 🙁

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Looks to be in the normal range to me.

    • banginglc1

      That really depends on the car and age of the car. I pay $200 for 6 months for my 1996 Oldsmobile., $300 for my 2006 F150, but I get a discount for multiple policies as well

      • Sean

        2018 loaded GTI.

        Agent told me I’m paying a premium for the adaptive cruise control/backup & side alarms and associated bumper mounted sensors.

      • banginglc1

        that sounds like a good price then. You’re also paying more for it being a Volkswagen. They have high safety ratings, but those are high because the airbag sensors are more sensitive. That increases insurance cost since they are more likely to need replaced.

      • db

        Interesting.

      • db

        Wait, so you’re paying a premium for features billed as safety items? That seems off. Do the underwriters have data to show that they actually reduce the safety performance, or not enough data to form a conclusion, I wonder?

      • Sean

        Yes, paying extra for safety equipment.

        Direct quote from my agent in 2018:

        People think the tech will bring insurance rates down but what we are seeing is not a reduction in claims but an increase in the cost of small claims because on all the tech in cars. A fully decked GTI probably has a camera, radar unit and bumper radar sensors right on the front of the car so a fender bender which used to be 1500 is now 3500 once we get done replacing cameras and radar units. The industry is seeing no reduction in number of accidents yet. Hopefully we will see a benefit soon, but for now rates are up on new cars as cost of repair goes up. It is a trend across the industry.

        My 6 month payment amount is down a whole $2 since then.

        That being said, my 6 months payment is down $2 from 2018.

      • Sean

        umm…need moar coffee…

      • db

        Berry interesting, thanks. It definitely makes sense, but I would have thought that there’d maybe be some improved safety data to back it up. In that case, I see no utility in paying more for those systems. I drove a rental a couple of months ago with adaptive cruise control and at my first stop I dug into the manual to see how to disable it. I really didn’t like it. I use cruise all the time, but I don’t want my car speeding up or slowing down on its own, and certainly not making steering decisions.

      • Sean

        In limited situations, adaptive cruise is great. On long drives on interstates with light(ish) traffic, it really shines.

      • Ted S.

        I’m guessing the claims are for a higher dollar amount having to replace all that stuff?

      • Ted S.

        It looks like I guessed correctly.

    • Festus

      That’s what I paid (more or less) for years. Now it’s less than $800 per year.

    • db

      We’re at about $1800 annually for three vehicles and a motorcycle.

    • EvilSheldon

      I pay about that for a 2018 Tacoma.

  28. Tres Cool

    Jugsy safely delivered to the airport, and since gas is about to hit the $3/gallon point, all vehicles topped-off (for now).
    I have 4 TallCans® and many small ones, and the entire day before I work tonight.
    To mow or not to mow.