“From mining?” I repeated with incredulity.

“Yeah man! We pulled in just over a billion isk in two hours! It was insane!” Nathan Carver said through our secured comm excitedly.

Nathan had been living in wormhole space for months, only recently venturing out on his own solo expeditions. We had tried once together to find some profit in wormhole space, but it wasn’t in the cards that day.

He sent me a comm, late in the evening, telling me how himself and three miners went into wormhole space, and while he engaged the Sleepers, they emptied the gas clouds.

“I made 70 million in salvage alone. I’m telling you, you need to get out here with me and do this. It’s like stamping your own isk.” Nathan said, his energy level increasing. “I took my Drake, tanked it easily. Man, still can’t get over how much isk we made.”

“And you didn’t comm me earlier because?” I asked playfully, but with just enough inflection as to seem genuinely hurt.

“We were in Caldari high sec.” Nathan replied evenly. “I assumed you wouldn’t have been interested, but if I was wrong, next time I can just …”

“No, no, that’s fine.” I interrupted. “Good call on your end. I’m not exactly a welcomed guest by the State.”

“So after I finished up with the Sleepers, I went and got my Badger. The value of my hold filled with Fullerite was easily 250 mil, but then we took it to a POS and the miners/industrialists refined into some other even more valuable component. So yeah, crazy isk for minimal effort. I totally wish you had been here.” Nathan said.

“You know, Nate.” I began. “When you get all excited like this, you sound like a teenaged boy in heat over some skirt. It’s funny really.”

“Hahaha, well, you sound like that all the time; at least I have an excuse.” Nathan replied.

I have to confess he did have me interested in the profitability, but mining? Please. I had never mined in my life. There were civilians with far more expertise in that field than me. Granted, they wouldn’t ever have access to wormhole mining in their lifetime, but still.

“What kind of mining did you say it was again?” I asked, realizing my mistake as soon as the words left my mouth.

“Gas harvesting!” Nathan replied even more excitedly than before. “I could show you how to do it with about three days of training. Then it’s just isk lining our pockets.”

“Ugh. I can see it now, ‘Colonel Roc Wieler, Miner of the Republic.’ It just has that majestic ring to it.” I said sarcastically.

“Oh get over yourself. Who cares how you get rich so long as you get rich? You’re not much of a gambler, you’re not out there pirating, your not one of those ninja salvagers living off of other people’s hard work, you’re a Colonel in the freaking military. I’m sure that pays you oh so well.” Nathan said, the hints of a lecture forming.

“Alright, alright. I’ll think about it.” I said. “But I swear if you tell anyone that I was mining, I will hunt you down and kill you a hundred times over.”

“Hahaha. Fair enough.” Nathan replied, content just to have won a victory.

I couldn’t believe it. I was actually considering mining. I felt so very dirty.