not many people

are around anymore.....when the expansion fell back in on itself there was lots of infrastructure left hanging out beyond Mars orbit with nobody to use it......the Powers just cancelled contracts by fiat......I was way out around Neptune, in a singleship on a "science" mission.....a commercial exploitation mission of course, in actuality......somehow some program got screwed up, and I was still thousands of klicks out there when the last company ship left headed back to the inner system.....when I finally got back to the rock, everybody else was gone.....I had the whole place to myself, a habitat designed for 100 plus workers.....they left lots of air, water, and food....wasn't any profit in hauling it back down.....and no profit in getting me out of there either....so here I am. The AI is still up and running, and I'm on the SolarWeb.....but I'm alone as alone can get. So, what have I got to complain about? That's seems to be what Management is telling me....Hell, they are paying me triple time and a half, with full benefits....they figure I'm ripping them off.....but I can't blow a lot a bucks taking somebody out to dinner, when there just plain isn't anybody any where around, can I? I sit in the executive lounge a lot, with the robowaiter standing by, with the bar towel over it's arm and all that....slowly working my way through the forty cases of single-malt scotch the big-wigs thought they needed. But I'm still sort of pissed off.....