Blowups Happen

A short story.In the near future, asteroid prospectors—rock hoppers—risk everything mining the belt. Jonah is one of the best, based out of Ceres and partnered with Burt, a loyal companion no one else can see or hear. That's because Burt only exists in Jonah's mind.Of course, Jonah is mad—space mad.But the Daedalus Corporation doesn't care. Jonah and his invisible friend have brought in more paying claims than any ten other miners combined. As far as the suits are concerned, he's a golden goose. Untouchable.While scouting the belt for M-Class metals, Jonah stumbles upon something stranger than ore: an alien relic buried in a forgotten rock. Tinkering with the device, he manages to wake it up.And then—blowups happen.A darkly comic tale of isolation, madness, and discovery, Blowups Happen is a psychological sci-fi prequel to Exiled From Earth, introducing the Ceres colony and the dangerous frontier of asteroid mining.