4 Volumes for a single offering!
Aliens ripped a hole above Earth, arriving with a massive space station. I sorta figured we'd be enslaved to fight in their wars or exterminated for our resources. Nope. The hip-high Iglax were merchants with ugly squished faces and thick blue fur. While they weren't much to look at, they sure did have some wonderous technology.
Humanity bent over backwards to appease our new merchant overlords. The boorish aliens wanted cheap labor for precious metals, and honestly, I didn't blame anyone for their hunger to be among the stars.
For certain rare metals or special gems, they'd trade tech we could only fathom as magic. Me, I pawned a few things, made some money, then hunkered down to study to prove my worth.
The aliens tested humans on an individual basis for miner rentals. Do well on your pilot test, get a spaceship, sign up with a corp, and you can mine the belt. For a puddle-jumper pilot like me, yeah, I was so interested I became obsessed. When I finally tested, I performed above and beyond, being offered a contract for some better than a miner - Earth's First Starfighter.
