Fringe Attack, page 8
part #2 of Delta Fringe Series
I trace my fingers along the wall, noting the different textures of mineral formations. “I thought you already knew what was on the stick?”
“We know it has something to do with a new type of mining operation. One that is supposed to not need as many miners to run.” The tunnel narrows, and Red and I are shoulder to shoulder now. “But no one seems to know any details other than one of the mines is a testing area for whatever tech is on that stick.”
I stop dead in my tracks and look up at the ceiling. “Of course. That’s what they’re looking for,” I practically growl, and the dark words echo off the walls.
“What?” Markov and Red both say.
Markov comes to stand next to Red. I turn toward both of them, leaning heavily against the rough wall. “Whoever is doing this is looking for the prototype of this new tech. If one of the mines is testing it, then every mine is in danger of attack until the pirates, or commanders, or whoever is behind all this, get what they want. The working prototype.”
10
Deadly Alliance
I run my hands over the rough rock wall supporting me. “Maybe these people, whoever they are, figure if they can’t get the data on the tech, they’ll settle for the tech itself.”
“So do you think they’ll give up on finding the data? Then at least the couriers should all be safe?” asks Markov.
“No, I don’t think so. I don’t think what I found is the only data stick out there for sale. There’s no way something this important and that could possibly make a lot of money, is going to be trusted to only one backup. Or one customer.”
“But we don’t have testing going on in our mine.” Red crosses his arms as he stares at me.
“You wouldn’t know. None of the miners would know. Whoever is behind this for some reason doesn’t want to start a new mine to test the tech. So they somehow sneak their tech and people into an existing mine. Maybe they don’t want to leave a trail of resources, or attract attention to a new asteroid. Maybe it’s illegal research not registered with the Galactic Mining Corp. I don’t know why, but I think there’s still something this tech, or its creators, need from an existing mine.”
I look at Markov. “We need to look for similarities between that tech and the current resources on each of the attacked asteroids.”
He shakes his head. “Don’t they all need the same kind of stuff? Air, water, places for the miners to live, machinery to get to the minerals?”
Red lets out a grunt. “Can tell he’s never been in a mine for very long.”
I grin. Although the light isn’t great in this tunnel, I can tell Markov is turning pink again. “Not everyone has worked in mines, Red. I just happened to be raised in one.” I turn away from Markov, smiling. “That’s how I know how easy it is to hide in a mine. The other kids and I would get lost for hours in the tunnels and even created a hideout the adults never found. We’d stash stolen goods from up top and would pretend we ran the mine. We even figured out how to syphon power and extra air to our little cave.”
Red’s mouth gapes open. “Kids? As kids you did that? You weren’t worried about a cave in, or the diggers turning toward your hideout?”
“Nope. We were all taught all the safety information the adults knew. And our hideout was in a dead-end part of the mine. One of the spots already dredged out and devoid of any value. That’s where we need to start looking.”
My pulse races, and I suddenly can’t stand still. “We need to hide our carts somewhere, and you need to show us where the dead-end tunnels are.” I push Red to get him going. He’s staring at me like I’ve grown antennas out of my head.
“What?” I ask.
He just shakes his head and leads on down the tunnel.
We hurry along in silence until it opens up into a chamber lit by a few well-used lights strung around the room. The small generator’s humming is the only noise in the empty space.
“You can leave your carts here, no one will bother them.” Red studies my face and shakes his head as if trying to figure me out.
“What do you think you’ll find, Bren?” Markov comes to stand next to me. “If the attackers have already been here and gone, they either found the tech and left with it, or didn’t find anything at all.”
“Right. I don’t think they found exactly what they needed yet, which is bad because that means there’ll be more attacks. But I’m hoping to find something that shows they were looking in places none of the other miners would have any reason to be near.”
Markov lays his arm comfortably across my shoulders. “Like your hideouts on Mars?”
I look over at him, suddenly aware of just how close our faces are. “Yes.” I glance over at Red and see he’s thinking the same thing I am. I duck under Markov’s arm and stalk across the room. I reach behind the generator and pull out two old miners’ flashlights. “So, which way?” I ask Red. I’m good at avoiding awkward situations.
He grins and points down one of the tunnels that branches off this main cavern. “This way.” He grabs one of the flashlights from my hand and leads the way.
“Why don’t we just use our flashlights?” Markov waves at one he grabs off our cart.
“Because the mining ones are designed especially not to interfere with whatever gas or mineral may be down in the mines. Depending on what’s in the rock here your flashlight could turn combustible.” I grin at him wickedly, illuminating my face with the light.
He tosses the flashlight back on the cart. “All right, then. Don’t want that to happen.”
I’m still grinning as Markov stumbles on the uneven rock beside me. I hadn’t thought much about how different my childhood was compared to almost everyone else I know. They have all grown up on habitat ships, or Earth or some kind of working ship like the couriers or barges. Most people raised in mining colonies settle there, generation after generation. It was only because of my mom dying that I left. Otherwise, I might’ve still been there, living the life of a miner. Would that have been so bad?
“Red, do you get off the asteroid much?”
He stops and turns toward me. “A couple of times a year I take trips to visit my other mines now and then. Why do you ask?” In the shadows I can see his expression is wary. “Am I one of your suspects?”
His stance is sturdy, and his shoulders are tense. I step toward him. “I was just thinking to myself that I would still be living in the mines if my mom hadn’t died. Most mining families stay for generations. I was just curious if you were one of those.”
“Oh. Well I have no family here, my parents live on one of the planets I visit in between mines.” He turns his head as he scrutinizes me. “Does that make my case better or worse?”
“You tell me.” I wave my hand around the narrow shaft we’re standing in. “You have us down here by ourselves. No one, I’m guessing, knows where we are, and now you’re suddenly defensive. Which shows you’re hiding something.”
Markov comes to stand next to me. “Are we in danger here, Bren?”
I don’t take my eyes off Red. “I’m not sure yet. Red? What’s going on here?” I’ve lived with and trusted miners all my life, but my heart races as I wait for his answer.
He stares a bit longer, and then he lets out a deep breath. “Good grief, girl. The only thing I’ve got to hide is you two.”
“What?” Markov’s deep voice echoes off the walls.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask.
Red looks nervously between Markov and me. We’re standing side by side, both of us taller than Red. We have our packs over our shoulders full of supplies, while Red just stands there with a flashlight. I’m sure he carries some tools or weapons in his pockets, but he doesn’t look like he’s come ready to take on two young medics. And all the money in the galaxy isn’t going to help him in a dark mining shaft miles from the surface.
Red looks away first. “I’ve been on this mine or another close to my whole adult life. I know every crack and cranny. I know when something strange is going on. This mine is part of me, you know?” He looks back up at me, his eyes searching.
I nod “Yes, the miners could feel the shift of the walls, could sense when a fissure was headed their way. It was like,” I look over at Markov, “they were connected with the rocks and dirt and essence of the planet.” I shrug. “That’s what they believed. I wanted so bad to feel it, but as hard as I tried, as much time as I spent down there, I never was able to feel it the way they did.”
Red surprises me by slapping me on the arm. “That’s cause you already had a different path laid out for you. You’re blessed with medical aptitude, and it seems you’re also gifted with a unique sense of intuition. You have something similar to the old miners. You may not be able to ‘feel’ the mine, but you do seem to be able to use that same kind of gift to read people and the world around you.” He grins and waves for us to continue walking. “I’ll explain as we go. We need to keep walking.”
He walks ahead of us, his body slightly sideways so he can still talk. “I wasn’t supposed to give you a tour of the mine.”
I nearly stumble and curse myself silently. “What do you mean?”
“The galactic commander,” Red’s face contorts into an expression of hate, “chose one of his men to give you a tour. The man has only been down here in the mines twice during the so-called investigation after the attack.”
“So you didn’t want us to get lost with a newbie?” I ask carefully.
He looks back at me with a hardened expression. “No, I didn’t want you to get dead.”
Markov stumbles into me then, and I have to brace myself against the wall to stay upright.
Markov gets his footing and steps up toe to toe with Red. “You’d better start explaining faster, because that sounded like a threat.”
“I’m getting there, hang on.” Red holds up his hands.
“I agree with Markov, spit it out.”
Red puts his arms down, and his shoulders slump. “About a month ago I noticed an unauthorized supply shipment land. They said it was just a mix up, but it seemed to me there were more men that came out of the ship than got back onto the ship. It was our delivery day, so the docks were busy and crowded, so I think some of those men managed to make it down into our mines.” He holds up one of his hands. “I never actually saw them, but day after day, I got the feeling something was wrong way down here. It’s like I could feel an extra vibration.”
“Go on,” I encourage.
“Eventually, I did some snooping and found they had used one of our abandoned tunnels and set up some sort of equipment in there. I didn’t do anything at first; I just thought they were setting up some sort of black market storage or something like that. You remember how hard it was to get fresh food or rare household supplies?”
I do, but I’m not going down that path of memories right now. “Did you confront those men?” I ask instead of answering.
“I was going to, but then we were attacked. After that there were too many galactic troops down here for me to do anything right away. But yesterday when I heard you were coming to investigate, I decided to try to find that tunnel again.”
“And everything was gone,” I say flatly.
“Almost everything. There are a few things they didn’t take.”
“So, then, why all this secrecy? Why didn’t you just tell the galactic troops?”
“I can’t trust them. You’ll understand. Let’s get going, I don’t want them to find us down here.”
“Is that why you decided to pretend to be our guide? Because you don’t trust the galactic forces?”
“It’s a bit more complicated than a trust issue. I want you to see what I found.”
We round a curve in the tunnel, and it opens up into a small area with two other tunnels branching off.
Markov leans close to me and whispers in my ear, “Do you trust him?”
I almost laugh out loud as I stare at the back of the miner as he chooses one of the two tunnels. It seems trust has become a major problem in my life. I look up into Markov’s pale blue eyes. “I would trust a miner over a galactic officer any day. And this one, although a little strange, seems to be genuinely concerned for us.”
Markov nods, and I take it to mean that’s good enough for him. We follow Red through the tunnel and quicken our pace.
After a few minutes we step out into a large cavern. The marks along the walls from the diggers carving through here are dull showing age. We’re in one of the abandoned sections of the mine. A shiver goes up my spine as I look around.
There are a few bioluminescent lights attached to the walls still glowing slightly. But as we shine our flashlights around, it’s obvious there was something here recently. The cavern floor is scuffed, and there are fresh holes in the rocky floor, where machines had been anchored into the rock and then yanked out.
Red walks to the far side where some mangled equipment lies under a heap of fallen rock. I shine my light up and see a fresh perfectly round hole in the ceiling that looks to go in fairly deep. I frown. Why would there be a hole going up?
I bend down with Red and scrutinize the mangled metal. It looks like supports to some kind of machine. “I think it was part of whatever kind of tech they were experimenting with,” he says confirming my suspicion.
“Do you think whatever they had made that hole?” I point up. Drilling overhead is risky and hard on machinery and the men using it. Most mines are drilled sideways, just like cutting tunnels.
“Yes, I think so, strange as it is. But look here.” He turns over one of the metal legs. There, stamped almost invisibly small is the galactic logo. Right next to it is the stamp for Ash Corp.
“Charon’s Ice, they are working together.” My pulse quickens as I piece together many of the facts I’ve learned on the way over. An alliance between Ash Corp and the Galactic forces was most definitely not in my data. A military experiment funded by a private mining corp.
“This has to be part of one of those anti-grav mining machines.” I look to Markov looks fearful instead of happy we found a clue.
Red looks just as concerned. I sit back heavily on the rocky ground as I study the logos. “Well, scarp it all. What if they’re covering up their experiments by attacking the mines? The military has partnered with civilians before. What’s different about this one?” I look up into the hole above me, wishing I could see where and how far it goes.
Red takes off his hard hat and runs his hand through his hair. “It doesn’t make much sense business-wise. Even if there were something wrong with the tech, which it looks like there is for them to have so many testing locations, good business partners wouldn’t destroy their research. Or draw attention to it before it’s completed.” He frowns as he stares down at the two logos.
I stand up, dusting off my pants. “There’s got to be a third party involved.” My heart races as parts start to fit together. “Scott seemed to be surprised at the turn of events at Delta. I don’t think he realized whom exactly he had partnered with. I think he was only focused on having found a way to get some easy money. We need to find out what my dad found on that pirate ship they captured.”
“Right now we need to get you guys out of here.” Red stands up and motions toward another tunnel in the back of the room.
I point down at the logos. “This is why you were afraid for our lives if we went with the galactic officer. You knew from this logo that someone in the galactic forces was involved.”
“No, I’m afraid for your lives now. If you had gone with the galactic guide, he would’ve never have brought you down here.”
“Great, so you just put us in danger.” Markov growls from the other side of me.
Red ignores Markov and turns to face me. “You needed to know, Brenna. You are the only one who can stop this.”
“Why me? How can I stop this?”
“Because you know the mines, and you are your mother’s daughter. She knew there was a down side to this prototype. She knew there had to be something the engineers were hiding.”
“You really think my mother knew about this?”
“Yes, of course. This project came after her tireless work trying to make mining safer for the miners and their families. She wanted to eliminate the growth problems children of miners suffered, and the accidents and lung diseases that we get from working the mines.”
“But she wasn’t an engineer. And she wouldn’t want to put miners out of jobs,” I argue.
“No, she just wanted safety measures and new tech to improve the process. She was vehemently against what they came up with from her ideas.”
“Auto machinery. It would put hundreds of thousands of miners out of work.” I finished for him.
He nods in the dim light. “Like I said, she wanted to help them, not replace them.”
“But there’s something wrong with their design, isn’t there?” I point my flashlight back up at the perfectly round hole drilled into the ceiling.
“I was kind of hoping you could figure that out,” says Red quietly.
I look sideways at him, “Because you think my mom said something to me about all this? Well, you’re wrong. I didn’t even know she was working on anything this dangerous or political. She always gave me the impression she hated new tech.”
“Your mom was conflicted between two worlds, Brenna. She loved living on Mars Colony with its deep, generational history and simple family customs. But she also was frustrated when a problem could be solved with new tech, but the Council would refuse it. And she was angry that she was forced to go the gray market to get fresh food and supplies for the miners.”
I turn my flashlight on Red. “It sounds like you knew my mom more than you let on earlier. Not just by her reputation.”
His gaze wavers, and then he looks away. I swear there are tears in his eyes. “Yes, as you know I knew her for a long time. And I worked on Mars Colony for many years until I was given a promotion to supervise the Delta Fringe mines. It just about killed me that I wasn’t there when she died. Maybe I could’ve prevented her death.”
