The docking bay was filled with boxes, equipment and gear of all kinds. Scattered through the floor a diamond or two could be seen, but noone seemed to care too much of them. There were cameras on every corner of the bay leaving little room for blind spots, pretty heavy security for a mining operation.
An officer in a dark green jumpsuit walked towards the aercheologists. He looked a bit tired and didn't bother to smile at the group.
Guten tag
My name is Edward Borchert, docking bay manager.
Please excuse the mess, we just got a shipment of diamonds.
He paused for a moment, like trying to remember what he had to say.
Welcome to Solarius Station, the headquarters of DHC's current diamond mining operation. Errr... A few rules before we proceed, you can't pick any diamond scattered in the floor, during transfer procedures some of them fall from the conveyor, but they remain company property... So umm... yeah, don't pick any. Base security is always watching.
He opened a small pocket and took out several cards.
These are your passes.
He handled the visitor permits one by one, not before double checking them.
Yellow doors are restricted to employees, red doors are restricted to almost everyone, black doors are management, blue doors are public; needless to say, you can access any blue door but nothing else. Your pass is also a datacard, you can access authorized base information when inserted into any compatible device, including our info consoles, tablets, neural phones and whatnot... So... Follow me
He walked towards the door that led to the public hallways of the base, on a corner there were several big crates a few meters higg, filled with red diamonds, labeled with a yellow sign "Blood diamonds. Jettison/destroy" A smaller one the size of a desk, stood near the big ones "Blue diamonds. Daumann mansion" A base security officer was guarding them.
Hessian activity is on the low as of late.
He said as he pointed to a big panel that said "days since last Hessian raid: 30".
We don't know why neither we care, hopefully a rupture on their asteroid nearby killed them all
He said while opening the docking bay door.
The hallways were not much different than the docking bay, painted with the same rusty green, they were just a bit cleaner.
Just keep going down the hallway, these ones lead directly to the public lobby, and to the visitors quarters, you will see a receptionist there no way to get lost. Oh and if you visit the bar, don't believe the stories from the miners, they just like to scare visitors, specially the younger ones.
Edward said, just before closing the door.