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“Ladies and gentlemen,” Carla announced to the bridge as she brought up the forward visual display on the main viewscreen. “A29-M1. Levarc territorial possession, although officially unoccupied, and - rather more directly - a possession of the Class-2 gas giant A29-G.”
She smiled. “They tend to get a bit carried away with the names they give these things. However, I believe we have arrived at our destination. Eroim, see if you can raise them now.”
Eroim exhaled as he leaned over his communication equipment. “For what it’s worth, Captain.”
The bridge listened to see whether anyone would answer this time around but after several moments, there was still no reply.
“All right, Eroim,” Carla said, giving the old man a nod. “Terminate the transmission. Marlin, bring us in. Kailis, check for any other vessels in the system and scan the surface for power readings.”
The helmsman, a member of the rather avian species the Tollum, gave a nod, as did Kailis at her navigation station - and the Lantern accelerated towards the dark sphere that filled the viewscreen.
“I’m getting energy readings,” Kailis called out. “Near the equator on the near side. Marlin?”
“I see them,” the Tollum replied. “Coming around. Starboard yaw. Yes. We’re coming in on a good clean vector now.”
From the back of the bridge, Carla nodded and tapped some controls on the arm of her seat. “Bringing up a visual. Let’s have a look.”
Several heads turned to the viewscreen to see the wasteland that appeared there. Red rock, almost crimson, covered in shifting dunes of ochre sands, greeted them under a dark sky. For Carla, it brought back memories of the planet Nemasil, although thankfully without its terrifying atmospheric storm activity. In the midst of a cluster of large rocks, possibly debris from blasting or drilling, the crew of the Lantern could just make out the edges of a metallic structure. The entrance to the mine shaft.
“Marlin,” Carla said, “let’s do a flyover and see if we can figure out where we’re supposed to land. But don’t bring the ship down just yet.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Marlin replied.
Carla then switched on the shipboard communications system. “All hands. We’re preparing to land. I want everyone on yellow alert. Security, man the hatchways. If there are people down there still and this ship’s their only chance of getting off this rock alive, they may well try to storm it.”
When Carla had finished her address, Kailis turned to her. “But now that we’re here, there are enough ships for everyone, surely.”
“One would hope so,” Carla said. “But if there are still survivors here and they haven’t been responding to our calls, something strange might be going on.” She gave her navigation officer a smile. “Plan for the worst but hope for the best, Kailis.”
Kailis smiled back. “Right, Captain.”
For a few moments, the bridge was silent as Marlin brought the Lantern over the structures. Carla watched the view from the dorsal cameras on the viewscreen.
“There’s our landing platform,” Marlin announced. “With one ship left on it.”
“The cargo ship we heard about,” Carla said. “Looks like the shuttles are gone.” She studied the lone vessel for a moment and then gave up on the exercise. “Do you know what it is, Eroim?”
“I’d say that’s one of those old Aurora Prime shifters,” the old man guessed.
“Shifters?” Carla asked.
“Don’t know the proper name,” Eroim said. “They’re an older version of the General A-type vessel. Aurora Prime doesn’t make them anymore.”
“All right,” Carla said. “Marlin. Bring us down but keep the systems online in case we want to get out of here in a hurry. The bridge is yours.” She climbed out of her seat. “Kailis. Eroim. You’re with me in the away team.”
The two of them followed her off the bridge and met with two mechanics who doubled as armed security guards. When the ship landed, the group checked the conditions outside and, satisfied that they were safe enough, debarked. It was hot outside the ship. A strong breeze blew over the sands but far from alleviating the heat, it felt like a blast from a furnace.
Carla wrapped a scarf around her face to keep the sand out of her eyes and mouth. Then she shuffled a foot around, digging it into the sand underneath until she felt a hard surface.
“Metal,” she said, almost shouting to be heard over the wind. “Anyone see a door?”
“Or a welcoming party?” Kailis muttered, although no one heard her.
“There!” Eroim called out, pointing at a rectangular outline on one of the structures that formed the enclosed wall around the landing platform.
The group headed over to it.
“These guys probably don’t get too many unannounced visitors,” one of the Lantern’s mechanics-turned-security officers said. “So this thing might not have a lock.”
Eroim nodded and, without checking with Carla, hit the release. The door slid open with an unpleasant grinding noise caused by a build-up of sand in the grooves it slid over. Then everyone went inside and Eroim shut the door behind them.
“There a light switch somewhere?” someone asked.
“Here,” Eroim’s voice sounded in the dark. This was followed by a very audible click and then the room lit up with a dull orange glow.
“Sparse, isn’t it?” someone remarked.
Eroim shrugged. “It serves its purpose, I’d imagine.” He nodded to a large platform about twenty meters away. “Looks like a one size fits all elevator over there. Shall we go down and have a look around?”
“Well, we have come all this way,” Carla said, taking point and walking towards it. As the others followed, she pulled out her communicator and flicked it on. “Marlin, we’ve found a cargo and personnel lift and we’re heading down. We’ll keep you posted.”
“Copy that,” the Tollum replied.
When everyone was on the lift, Carla gave Eroim a nod and he pulled a lever that started the lowering mechanism.
On many of the worlds Carla had been on, there were elevators that would shoot someone up or down a hundred floors in a matter of moments. This was not one of them. And, for about a minute or so, her party had nothing to look at but a shifting surface of cut rock and metal scaffolding. Given the uncertainty of the facility’s safety, the fact that there was no way they could proceed any faster was trying on everyone’s nerves. Carla for her part did her best however not to show this.
When, after their interminable descent, the elevator came to a stop, they saw a large room, roughly the size of a good shuttle hangar, partly filled with containers but with quite a lot of empty space. From the large gashes in the rock floor and the several containers that were lying on their sides with their loads of ore scattered around them, it seemed as though someone had cleared out of there in a hurry.
Then the group saw a lone figure, lying on the floor at the far end of the room, propped up against a rock. It was the man who had contacted them.
Carla switched her communicator back on. “Marlin? Send someone with a med kit down here right away.”
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Carla looked at the man as he came round, wearied by fatigue and the pain of multiple untreated blaster burns that looked well over a day old. His features, that she had remembered finding quite attractive, were sunken. His eyes were clouded over and the dark rings beneath them, dark even against his naturally deep complexion, along with an almost frightening blue tint to his lips, told something of the ordeal he had survived.
Yet, considering what he must have been through, terribly wounded and left to die in the dim glow of this lonely subterranean cavern, the focus of the man’s gaze when he awoke was remarkable.
As he shuffled to make himself a little more comfortable, Carla adjusted the position of some of the healing packs that were strapped to him.
The man coughed.
“... dry,” he managed and, with some effort, tapped at his throat.
Carla was ready for this and she held a water flask to his lips. The man drank slowly at first, moistening his mouth, and then, taking the flask from her, he drank until it was empty. Then, with an audible sigh, he put it down and turned to her. “Thank you, Captain Casdan.”
Carla looked surprised. “You remember my name?”
The wounded man smiled. “Someone like you tends to leave an impression on a man.”
Carla blushed as she helped him into a more comfortable position, while the landing party were inspecting containers and exploring their surroundings. However, for the time-being, no one was straying far.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Carrelle,” he said, offering his hand. “Reece Carrelle.”
Carla shook his hand. “It’s good to meet you, Reece. Although, I didn’t expect to find you like this.”
“To tell you the truth,” Reece replied, furrowing his brow, “I didn’t expect you to find us at all. I thought this whole place would have blown by now.”
“How long have you been lying here?”
“Since an hour or so after I called you,” Reece said. “The chief operator got angry with me for putting out that call. He said he didn’t want any outsiders snooping around here and that this whole operation was under the radar.”
“Did you know that when you joined up?”
Reece sighed. “I suspected it was a somewhat dubious operation but these guys are something else. When I told them we would need help to evacuate everyone to safety, the chief and his faction took the shuttles.”
“Odd that he left the cargo ship though,” Carla said, “since he didn’t want anyone unloading it.”
“He left it?” Reece said in surprise. Then, for the briefest of moments, a small smile crossed his lips. “So none of his friends could handle the thing. Funny, isn’t it?”
Carla frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Well,” Reece said, “it seems that the only person could fly the old piece of junk is trapped in the mine.”
“Trapped in the mine?”
Reece’s gaze flicked down slightly and he exhaled a long breath. “That’s where everyone else is. The ones the chief operator left behind. He collapsed part of the shaft where they were working. And he shot me when I tried to warn them first.”
“Then we’ve got to get them out,” Carla said. “Where are they?”
Reece pushed himself up, groaning from the pain that accompanied the effort. “I’ll show you,” he stammered when he was standing. His resolution was clear in his eyes but he swayed dangerously on his feet, obviously in far more pain than he was letting on.
Carla looked at him in concern. “You can’t go down there. You’re a mess.”
“I’ll hobble if I have to,” Reece replied. “But those people need me. Although you and your friends don’t have to come. There’s no sense risking everyone.”
Carla nodded. “I agree. There is no sense risking everyone. You’re not going down there.” She turned around. “Eroim?”
The old man appeared almost instantaneously, as though he had been waiting just out of Carla’s peripheral vision the entire time. “Yes, Captain?”
“Find me the schematics of this place. We need to mount a rescue.”
Eroim nodded. “Aye, Captain.”
Then, as he set about his task, Carla turned back to Reece. “You can show me where your people are when he gets back. And then I’m sending you to my ship’s infirmary.”
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When Carla had the location of the trapped men and had assembled her rescue team, she gathered them by the entrance to an elevator back from the room with the cargo containers. This elevator was right under the landing platform and descended straight into a vast, shaft over a hundred meters in diameter, the reach of its depths lost in darkness.
“If the people trapped down there are still alive,” she said, “then we’re going to help them.”
One of her mechanics nodded but his companion looked uncertain about the venture. “I’m with you, Captain, all the way, but are you absolutely sure this is safe?”
“Fair question,” Carla conceded with a shrug. “Absolutely safe? I can’t guarantee it. If what our friend Reece has told us is true, then this place could blow to pieces at any moment.”
“Any way we might be able to get an accurate timescale on that?” the mechanic asked.
“Eroim’s found the reactor and he’s having a look at it now,” Carla said. “As he tells it, some nasty fluid is leaking from it and when it corrodes through enough of the casing, it’s going to bring two electrical currents together that should really be kept apart.”
A grim smile formed on the other mechanic’s lips. “He said it would be like a kitchen appliance blowing up from a power surge. Just scaled up.”
“Pretty much,” Carla said. “However, if it was going to blow up in the next five minutes, I’m sure he would have said something. But since he hasn’t, I’m going to assume we’re good to go. That said though, if any of you don’t want to come, I won’t hold it against you.”
The mechanic who had voiced the concerns that were on everyone’s mind shook his head. “No. We’re all with you.”
Carla nodded. “Well, let’s get going then.”
Kailis operated the elevator this time. Just like the first elevator, this one was painfully slow but this time, they were going a lot further down below the planet’s surface than they had before.
As they were lowered into the gloom, they eyed the horizontal shafts that veered off the main one where, as Reece had explained, promising seams had been found. Lower and lower they went, bathed in the eerie glow of temporary lighting reflecting off the ochre rock. Every member of the group at some point eyed the vertical metal guides and the chains within them that were all that supported the crude platform they were standing on. Considering their life depended on these things remaining firmly in place, they didn’t look very sturdy. And the occasional crumbling section of rock, invariably near the anchors that held the guides against the side of the shaft, didn’t make them feel any better.
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About fifteen minutes after Kailis had started the descent of the elevator, the group arrived at their destination, one of the lower horizontal shafts. Carla eyed the rubble blocking their way with uncertainty. This was not her area of expertise.
“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Kailis said to her, “but this rubble might be holding up the rock above and if we try to move it out of the way, the ceiling might collapse on us.”
“It certainly looks like it,” Carla said. “However, Reece said it wouldn’t. As he put it, this rock isn’t like dry cheese. It’s more like a loaf of bread that’s been left in the oven a week. You can knock a bit out but the rest will stay in place.”
“Maybe,” Kailis said, her tone doubtful. “But it was crumbling well enough around the elevator guides.”
“That wasn’t the same rock,” Carla replied. “That rock’s more like the stuff that fills in the gaps. Hardened sand. Trust me. Reece explained everything before I put him on the ship.”
“So can we blast this stuff?” one of the mechanics asked.
“We’ve got to try,” Carla said, keeping her voice firm. While she trusted Reece’s judgment on the matter well enough, she still felt as though the slightest provocation here would collapse the immeasurable weight of the rocks above on top of them all, crushing them.
She took a breath. “Let’s get to work. Short controlled bursts.”
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Carla did her best to keep the group’s spirit up, to maintain a semblance of hope, but she couldn’t put aside the feeling that it was a grim task they were undertaking, a prediction that was realized just over an hour later.
She sighed at the sight of the eleven victims who had been left down there to die under the pitiless gaze of dim orange lights. It was a bitter blow to have come to this forsaken rock, adrift in the middle of nowhere, to find out that even if they had arrived a whole day earlier, they still would have been too late.
“Hang on,” one of the mechanics said. “These people couldn’t have died from hunger or thirst in just a day or so.”
Carla nodded. “Right. Get some new atmospheric readings.”
The mechanic took a small device off his belt and flicked it on. Everyone watched in silence. Then, with a shrug, he put the device back. “Well,” he said, sighing, “whatever it was that killed these people, it’s dissipated.”
Kailis shook her head. “I can’t believe someone would do something like this.”
“Well, someone has,” Carla said. “And I intend to find them.”
“Bring them in?”
“Bring them in, yes,” Carla agreed. “But I also want to find out what they were up to. Abandoning these people here is bad enough but they deliberately murdered them to prevent them from talking to us. These people are hiding something.”
The mechanic who had spoken earlier stirred. “All right. Shall we go then?”
“In a moment,” Carla said. “But I want to make identifications to forward to the authorities when we get back.”
“All right.”
“And there’s one other thing,” Carla said.
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When they had all returned to the surface after their grisly work in the dark depths below, Carla met with Eroim.
“Well?” she asked.
Eroim forced a smile but it didn’t get as far as his eyes. “We don’t have to worry about the installation exploding in the next few minutes. We’ve probably still got about five or six hours.”
Carla nodded. “Good to know we’ve got a window.”
“Yeah.”
“By the way,” Carla asked, “can you fly that shifter out there?”
Eroim frowned. “What about you? You’ve got a ticket for just about everything that flies now.”
“For recently manufactured ships at any rate,” Carla said. “But I’ve just had a quick look at the bridge and the flight controls are something else. I mean I could manage it but -”
“All right,” Eroim said. “I’ll take a look at it. An old man and an old ship. We should get on fine.”
“You don’t have to fly it far,” Carla said. “Just get it up in orbit so we can look it over at our own leisure without having to worry about being blown to pieces.”
Eroim nodded. “Ah. Got it.” He turned to go and stopped. “By the way, how’s our patient?”
“I checked with our stand-in medics on the Lantern,” Carla replied. “He’s sedated at the moment.”
Eroim’s gaze drifted down. “That’s probably for the best.” He then tried another smile, this one even less successful than the first one. “All right. I’ll see what I can do about that shifter.”