Varigne system near Planet VI - A recently discovered asteroid belt
Mikram floated in the dimly lit airlock counting down his checklist for the third time...or was it the fourth? He looked in the mirror at his tall frame noting his face was a bit dirty and greasy. Pod fluid was hell on your complexion. His deep green eyes flicked over each portion of his hard suit, checking and rechecking the seals and functions that would ensure he came back from this spacewalk alive, whole and unfrozen. With a final sigh and a realization that the rest was up to luck, he raised his helmet. With a loud click and a hiss of pressurization, Mikram was now in a world of his own. Everything he saw, heard and felt came through the suits systems. He reached out a puffy, hardened finger and clumsily pushed the large yellow and black striped button labeled "open." A flashing red light began to strobe as the air was sucked out of the tiny room and the heavy doors began to prise apart.
It was cold in the void. No matter how many times the E.V.A. course instructors had warned him of this, it still came as a surprise just how cold it was. Even with the insulation and heating provided by his Six-kin Mk.4 Hard-suit he still felt a bit of numbness biting at his fingertips and toes. The view however, was magnificent. The system's blue star shone bright and clear forcing his visor to compensate for it's azure glare. Mikram slowly drifted towards the cluster of asteroids that was his target. A wide grin slowly spread across his face as an impulsive idea occurred to him. He twisted as sharply as he could pushing one arm above him to curl back down pointing at his head while his other hand rested on his hip. He neared his target asteroid as he completed what may have been the most awkward and graceless pirouette in the history of dance, his grin still plastered to his face. How many Wind Dancers could say they had danced in the solar winds of a star, unfettered by the chains of gravity and atmosphere?
The sleek shape of his Anathema class covert-ops frigate hung motionless behind him, the illuminated blue ring surrounding it's airlock the only sign of life and power. He pulsed his suits thrusters to steady him from his turn and then once again to slow his approach. Mikram softly bumped into the asteroid, quickly scrabbling for purchase. Even though the prospect of waking up in a new clone held no mystery for him, a thrill of primal fear still shivered up his spine as he considered just how tenuous his situation was. The thin material of his suit offering a bare modicum of protection against the lifeless chill and rending vacuum.
With his legs and one arm bracing his body, Mikram reached into his tool belt and began to unspool an anchor cable with a laser-piton at the end. He set the piton against the rocky surface and clicked the end. A warm, orange light began to glow as the piton burrowed it's way into the surface of the asteroid. He felt the light tug as the anchor spikes deployed but heard no sound. It was unsettling to hear only your own breath and thoughts. Everything past the tiny, darkened visor of his suit was utterly devoid of noise. He took one last look around before reaching behind him and tugging on the tether to his small, handheld laser drill. He placed the guide spikes against the asteroids rocky surface and looked down at the scanner unit display. His sensors had not lied, there was a large, dense deposit of nickel-iron with traces of other elements. Mikram gripped the handle of the drill and aligned it for a moment before gripping the trigger. The shutter slid down over the guide spikes and he saw only a faint ring of bright orange-yellow light leaking from between the shutter and the asteroid's rocky surface.
Mikram took a moment to look around in wonder. His journey to reclaim just a tiny fraction of his heritage was approaching it's end. All the training, the sacrifice, the loss and the pain would all be worth it. The mining drill shuddered once and then stopped. The indicator light on the sensor display turned to green as it flashed a completion message. Mikram quickly secured the full drill with it's precious ore to his work belt again and then slowly turned around, bracing himself against his anchor rope and the asteroid. He engaged his personal heads up display and plotted the return trajectory and did his best to line up to it before pushing off and giving his thrusters a quick burst to power him back towards his Anathema and the final steps of his journey. Inside his ship waited a sealed, pressurized locker with the word "Digir" engraved on it, "Sky" in the old language of the Ni-Kunni.