Armed with nothing but a towel around her hips, a bottle of shower gel in hand, which also served as shampoo and a pair of flip flops on her feet she made her way to the common shower and kept telling herself that this was absolutely fine if one had a body without any sexual characteristics.

  None of the worker drones had any, so it really didn't matter. When she had signed on they had told gender-neutral bodies reduced social friction in a working environment like theirs, packed up together for years and isolated from anyone else. It had made sense to her on some level even. Not that she actually had much choice but to accept, unless she wanted to be stuck in mind storage for another century.

  She opened the door and warm, humid air welcomed her in the common shower, mixed with the scent of company supplied shower gel. A dozen shower-heads mounted at the back wall, half a dozen in use by other drones. It still gave her a little sting each time to see all the bodies which looked just like herself, except for the skin color, hair and eyes, and some variation in their faces.

  Without their name tags, and even with them, there was no good chance to know if any of them identified themselves as male, female or other and right now she wondered if it made any sense at all anymore to think of herself as a she. It totally didn't matter for any practical application. She still didn't want to let go that bit of personal identity even if she looked like a copy of the others, or they looked like differently colored copies of her.

  She put the towel on a shelf, nodded greetings to the few drones who had noticed her arrival and got into position under one of the free showers. Getting the water temperature right was tricky, one could chose between being shock frozen or boiled on the first attempt, at least that was how it felt to her whenever she got the setting wrong. Luckily she got it about right this time and a few moments later had a pleasant water temperature to shower.

  The voice in her head remained quiet, even that the foreign presence was clearly notable and she wondered how much of her thinking seeped through the mind link. Nothing to do about that though, like there was nothing to do about the company supplied bodies they had gotten. And if some thoughts got through, Operator Andersen was courteous enough to remain quiet about it.

  She turned off the water and began to soap herself and eventually her hair.

  The company saved on everything. Their clothes, too few to change daily, the food, a bland synthetic nutrition paste disguised as porridge, sanitary facilities like the common showers and of course the fact that they did not need to offer separate showers or restrooms if all drones were the same.

  She turned the water back on, quietly cursed the fact that it was now colder than before because the warm water was used up and tried to get the soap out of her hair and off her body with unpleasantly cold water. The company even saved on the boilers for warm water and millions of kilometers from Earth in a company owned mining facility there was no way at all to do something about it. Except to shower earlier while the tanks still held enough warm water.

  She turned the water off and went to fetch her towel and rub herself dry. And of course, the company did not supply hairdryers or install blowers, so the best option was to rub the hair while the towel was still dry. And three towels had to last one week and two days.

  She tried to push the unpleasant thoughts away and made her way back to their room. The other two were already done and dressed and James welcomed her, "Hey Vivian, got news for us?"

  She shook her head, "Nope, Operator Andersen is either asleep or busy elsewhere. Guess our best option is to get breakfast and I'll try to ping them later."

  Merle chimed in, "Breakfast sounds good. I'm feeling hungry."

  She had to laugh, "How can you be hungry so early? My stomach never feels ready for food before noon."

  Merle shrugged, "Don't want to ruin your hope for lunch, but if we are supposed to do mining work all day, you better get used to have a proper breakfast, cause the next chance to eat is after work."

  "Right", she nodded, "We'll probably be outside all day."

  Breakfast was no different from what they had gotten as food yesterday, just that there were lines in front of the vending machines and the room was quite crowded. It seemed everyone had been woken the same time and so all had come for breakfast the same time as well.

  Once each of them had a glass of water and a bowl of porridge surrogate, strawberry flavored this time and delivered in a suspicious pink color, they gathered up. All tables were in use. James nodded towards a table with only two drones sitting, "How about we join them?"

  She nodded, not quite happy to share a table with strangers, "Sounds good. Let's ask if we can sit with them."

  They walked over and to her relief James was quick to ask, "Hello, may we join you?"

  "Sure", one of them nodded and pointed to the empty chairs, "Take seat."

  "Thank you", all three of them said about the same time and she tried to see the name tags of the two drones who were already sitting while she placed her tablet on the table and took seat. "Miriam Eight" the one and "Justin Two" the other. Justin had two stars above his badge. Another one with a mind link? Operator Andersen had still not contacted her but their presence felt stronger now.

  She scooped some pink porridge and blew the portion to cool it down to an acceptable temperature when Justin spoke up, "Hey, Vivian, you're a three star. That's rare."

  She shook her head lightly, "It is? I'm new, sorry. I have no idea."

  Justin nodded, Merle and James seemed to listen intently, "Not sure how rare, but like one in fifty or so."

  "Eh, thanks?" she tried and ate some of the porridge, bland as it was with just a tiny hint of strawberry flavor, "What's the difference between a two star and a three star?"

  "I can't tell, you're the first one I get a chance to talk to. One thing is sure, your mind link is better than mine. If I take the difference between a one star and me, you and your operator can share much more than just a few words."

  She nodded slowly, "Maybe. They ... I don't know how to say this. They showed me ... I suddenly knew tools that I never saw before, not only how they look, but what they are good for and how to use them."

  He pointed briefly at her, "That's the thing. A one star can barely share a few words. I can talk with my operator and sometimes get a hint of an emotion with a message. But be careful. They won't let you go easily when your contract ends if you have a mind link skill like this."

  She shrugged, "Ten years can be a long time. Who knows what happens till then."

  "Sorry to interrupt your talk, Vivian. I just got to know that training will start thirty minutes early today. I'll tell them to be patient, but eat swiftly. I'll guide you to the training facilities once you had breakfast," Operator Andersen's thoughts appeared quite clearly in her mind, more distinct than she remembered them from yesterday and they came with a mix of urgency, anger and defiance.

  "Got it. Why are you angry?" she replied in her mind.

  "I'm angry because those idiots didn't tell me about the change in the training schedule and now want me to force you skip breakfast. I won't do that. Eat, but don't waste time. Sorry Vivian", another well articulated train of thoughts arrived in her mind with an actual emotion of being sorry trailing at the end.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  "Understood. I'll tell the others", she let him know and focused on her surroundings again just to realize that all four at the table were staring at her. "What?" she tried to break the awkward situation.

  "You just froze up and your eyes went distant ... you didn't see us, did you?" Miriam spoke for the first time since they had arrived.

  She shook her head, "No, but I've got a message. Operator Andersen is mad. Not at us, but circumstances. Merle, James, eat quickly. Training will start early. Sorry Justin and Miriam. It's kinda urgent."

  She quickly scooped some more porridge to eat and flushed it down with some water.

  Justin watched her for a little while, "Be careful Vivian. With that level of mind link you'll be a drone not only in name."

  She didn't want to think about that now, but the urgency from Operator Andersen's thoughts lingered in her mind while she ate the porridge just as instructed, swiftly but not hastily.

  After the unexpectedly hurried breakfast, they said good bye to the other two drones, returned their dishes and silvers to the "dirty dishes" intake and Operator Andersen guided her, and with her James and Merle, to their presumed training center.

  She expected to meet someone with an actual human body, but it was another drone in a lab coat waiting for them in the corridor, identified as "William Twelve" by their badge and no stars to accompany their name.

  "Sorry for the rush and the confusion", William welcomed them, "There was a miscommunication about the training schedule and we need the simulators for another group right after you."

  She looked at him a bit angrily and took a breath, "With all that mind link stuff in place, you still manage to mess up communication?"

  William shrugged, "I'm link deaf, so don't blame me. And I'm not the one who makes the schedules. I'm here to tell you about your jobs and arrange the right training for you. So, please follow me."

  It was just a short walk and they entered a room, which was empty except for a holo table in the center and some cabinets at the left wall. The room looked much the same as all the other rooms with light gray walls and ceiling, dark gray floor, and the tops of the cabinets in a dark green. Just the holo table was kept is a satin-like steel finish.

  William entered something on his data pad and a hologram appeared above the table.

  "If you thought you'll be mining with a pickaxe in cramped tunnels and bad light, you've been wrong. This will be your new workplace," William explained.

  It was a sort of spacecraft, and she couldn't help but call it ugly. A monstrosity of metal. It didn't even have a closed hull, just compartments held together with metal beams.

  James instead seemed to have a different opinion, "Looks cool! What is it?"

  "It's an SC-3 dredger, used for space mining. The SC-3 is smaller type of dredger, but it's the model you will start with. A crew of three can operate it with assistance of the automated systems, and it can keep you alive out there in space for a week easily. Alright, now let me briefly show you the most important details", Williams entered something on a data pad and the hologram grew bigger.

  "Important parts are the control cabin, the storage compartments and the drive section", William continued, and while he explained, parts of the hologram became highlighted. The control cabin was near the front, seemed to have actual windows, and while undoubtedly important, it was pretty small in comparison to the rest of the ship. The bulk of the ship was made up by the storage compartments, spherical tanks, apparently supposed to hold whatever they were mining. The tanks were held in a steel girder structure which comprised most of the actual ship. At the end was the drive section, big in comparison to the control cabin, but still small compared to the size of the storage tanks. The ship had sixteen of the bulbous things, grouped in four lines of four tanks each.

  William continued his lecture, "The mining process is fairly simple. The pilot navigates the dredger to the target, orients the ship so the target can be pulverized with the rattler beam and then the two gatherer units will detach to collect the debris, filter dead rock from valuable minerals and once filled up, return to the dredger to unload and continue to gather more until the area is cleared."

  A contraption all at front of the ship was highlighted, which reminded her a lot of a hugely over-sized ray gun, then two sections of the ship just behind the control cabin detached and flew some distance ahead to soon return and position themselves above the storage tanks before flying ahead again. She doubted it would be this simple in reality, but the animation did the job to show the basic idea.

  "During gathering the dredger pilot needs to reposition the ship so that the gatherers don't need to go long ways to gather and unload, that means close to the area where the gatherers work, but at the same time far enough to be safe from drifting debris. Without a protective hull debris can damage a dredger quite easily, but a hull would add too much mass to the ship. So, it will be a delicate balance between efficient gathering and keeping the dredger safe. Once the area is cleared, the gatherers will dock again and the pilot will navigate the dredger to the next designated mining target."

  The idea seemed simple enough to her. Simple enough that she had a chance to actually learn and do the job. Such a gatherer was more or less just a big, motorized vacuum cleaner, and she was somewhat sure she could handle steering that.

  "The better you three work together, the more you can earn. There are bonus payments if you beat the estimated time for each target. And it depends on all three of you, the dredger pilot as well as the gatherer pilots. Only if all three do their part, you'll be efficient. A lazy dredger pilot is as much of problem as an unfocused gatherer."

  "Who will fly that monster of a ship?" she asked. At least one of them seemed to have actual skills from their former life and she was curious if it was James or Merle. Dancing or cooking wouldn't help her as miner, that was certain, and neither was picking pockets, a skill she rather wanted to forget that she once had had it.

  "Who's got three stars on their chest?" William asked in response.

  Her heart plummeted and it took a moment before she could reply. "You can't be serious. I can barely drive a hovercar without autopilot assistance."

  "Well, you will learn. Now it's time to split up though. Vivian, you'll come with me for mind link induction, the other two will join Sam, my assistant, and receive conventional simulator training."

  "Mind link induction?" she felt immediately suspicious about that part.

  "Don't worry. You'll be asleep during most of the procedure. It's painless. You'll learn while you sleep," William explained.

  "Painless. I'm so happy to hear that. And what if you put all weird ideas in my head?" she eyed him with distrust. She still remembered her mind link activation experience and wasn't keen to have that repeated.

  "Don't worry. If you don't use the knowledge, you'll forget it as quickly as you learned it. That's why each session of mind link induction will be followed by simulator training so you can readily apply what you've learned and consolidate the memories. You'll see it's the most efficient method to learn, and available only to a few people," William explained with a certain pride in his voice.

  Their dispute was interrupted as the door opened and another drone in a white coat entered, "Hello, I'm Sam. The two gatherer pilots come with me. The simulators are just down the corridor."

  James and Merle confirmed and left the room with Sam in the lead. Now she was alone with William, "Well, now. Where to?"

  "This way", William pointed to a door in the back of the room began to walk towards it. She followed a bit cautiously and stopped right on the spot as the door slid open. The room contained one of these examination chairs and devices like the lab had had where they had given her the mind link with Operator Andersen.

  "No," she declared and crossed her arms.

  "Come on Vivian. It won't hurt," William sounded impatient.

  "No. Last time I got into such a chair, I ended up with a voice in my head. I certainly don't want to wake up with a second voice in my head. Nope. One is plenty enough." She refused to move.

  "I'm sorry to say Vivian, but even that you are a three star, you don't have the mental capacity for that", William explained.

  She felt stunned at a thought. Mental capacity. A second link. "William, wait. One moment," she said.

  "Operator Andersen?" she thought with all intensity she could muster.

  "What is it, Vivian?" the reply didn't take long.

  "Are you a four star?" she thought towards Andersen's presence in her mind.

  "No, three stars are about as good as one can get. Why?" The reply carried a hint of curiosity.

  "Because ... because William just implied there are people with more than one mind link." She needed two attempts at this thought.

  "Ah, that is it. Yes, I have four, including you." The reply came with friendly emotions.

  Four! Operator Andersen had four voices in their head. Despite the positive vibes that had come with the answer, dread filled her and wiped any good feeling. She formulated the thought anyways, pretty certainly some of the dread would seep through the link together with the message, "Thank you, Operator."

  A hint of confirmation reached her from Operator Andersen's presence in her mind and then she was alone again.

  Now she wanted to hide somewhere, but William obviously had noticed she was back in reality, "Had some talk with your operator?"

  She nodded, "Yeah. I don't feel any better than before though. But I think I'm ready. Just promise me there won't be two voices in my head afterwards."

  "Certainly not. This installation is for learning. And you neither need a second link, nor can you manage one. Trust me on this. Come on now," William spoke with urgency.

  She climbed into the chair and like the woman last time, William fixated her arms and legs with wide bands of synthetic tissue. "Why are these needed if the procedure is supposed to be painless and not harmful at all?" she asked.

  "Some people punch or kick randomly in their sleep, some just fall out of the chair. It's just safer for both of us this way", William explained.

  She nodded, "Alright, do your worst," leaned her head back against the headrest and closed her eyes.

  "Vivian, this is not torture, this is the most advanced method to acquire knowledge and learn new skills. You should be grateful", William told her.

  'Whatever' she thought to herself, but didn't say anything. And just a few moments later she felt her hair being parted and electrodes glued to her head.