Max wondered aloud where the material had gone.
The artificial cavern was not large however and another tunnel continued out the other side. The drone continued following the tunnel around corner after corner. The tunnel was now semi regular. In places there was no sign of the previous scoring that made even walls, as if the loose material was simply drawn away. At one point the tunnel cored right through one of the solid hunks of metal that had been avoided in the past.
“I think I may have found the excavated material, Captain,” Linda said. The monitor changed view to show a view of space near the ship. As the image was magnified, a thin hazy line of light expanded to show a cloudy line of material.
“Yep,” said Snow.
“Once we account for the slow spin of Fourteen, the material is moving as we would expect if it was ejected from the mouth of the tunnel,” Linda said.
The view returned to the drone. It entered a much narrower tunnel. This time though, the tunnel was not empty.
“What's that?” Linda said.
For a moment, an object appeared on the monitor, sitting in the center of the tight tunnel. There was a brilliant flash of light. The drone’s signal went dead.
Linda's voice became very robotic. “Emergency jump,” she said.
Chapter 16
The emergency jump placed the ship a few kilometers from the explosion. Fourteen split into three large pieces. The smallest, a wedge shape that emerged from between the two larger sections, moved away more rapidly. But the two larger chunks floated apart at a much more leisurely pace. In sharp contrast a split disk of debris, shaped like a Y as seen from the Dee-Dub's position, exploded from between the three large pieces of Fourteen and fanned out in all of the directions those gaps allowed.
Max piloted the ship into a blast shadow.
“Well I guess we have an answer to why there was a tunnel network running through Fourteen,” said Snow.
“And to ‘What's that?’” Max said.
“But was it waiting for us? Or were we just lucky-unlucky with the timing,” Snow said.
“Linda, how long ago did the mining debris stop flowing from the tunnel?”
“The trailing edge has been traveling for eight days, three hours, twenty-two minutes and thirty-five seconds. Unless the debris' velocity has been modified to confuse us.”
“I'm guessing the bomb was waiting for us then,” Max said.
“Why a bomb?” Linda said. “Did they expect you to crawl in there in person?”
“Maybe they just like to mess with the local astrological system— oh no! Now we can't predict the future!” Snow smiled at her dumb joke, then dropped the smile as she realized something. “They're mining up all our Akoronite before we can get to it. Those bastards!”
She hammered her knee in frustration and Max leaned automatically away from her in his seat.
“What now?” Linda said.
“We visit Fifteen. Then Sixteen and so on. We have to hope we can get to one before they take it all,” Snow said.
“First…” Max launched three more of their mining drones. “This may be all the Akoronite we're going to get. And they did at least do us the favor of making a dust ball for the drones to sift.”
“It won't be enough. Even if we had a few years to work at it.” Snow slumped in her seat, as much as the harness would allow. “Are we screwed?” She had never said it, but Max had the feeling Snow expected they would save everyone, that things would turn out all sunshine and flowers and candy catch for everyone.
“You’re right. We need more. But it’s not over till it’s over. We still have moves to make before we chuck in the…ah”
“Towel!” Linda said, helpfully.
Max pointed at the monitor. “Towel, right. We should jump now though, as our next move. In case they noticed their bomb went off and come back to see what's what.”
Fifteen had not been mined. Nor had PANs Sixteen to Twenty-Eight. But neither did they contain any trace of Akoronite. Two were well stocked with the more traditional rare and precious metals, and the Dee-Dubs crew left drones there to mine. At PAN Twenty-Nine, they found the trace readings of Akoronite they had been looking for. They also found more bore hole tunnels. This time they did not immediately explore the tunnels and so discovered that there were at least three openings spread across the surface of the asteroid.
They left their last three drones, hoping they might filter out enough Akoronite to make a difference.
It was well past sleep time when they arrived at the first supply cache in orbit around Grailliyn. That cache, and others, had launched right before the Dee-Dub, giving the packages time to spread out and make some distance between themselves and Mega. The chosen supply package consisted of mostly more small drones, and a pair of nutrient blocks. They didn't need them; the food printers had hardly been used and were capable of recycling indefinitely. But Freenan had been in charge of the supply packages and he had difficulty believing a fresh block wouldn't be better. Max appreciated Freenan's concern, given that he himself had the same difficulty. They were well used to eating bac-mat, which was considered by the earthlings to be only the first phase of the standard space travel diet, which involved a sort of recycling of materials. But cycling food into food was different than recycling…waste.
As it turned out, recycling waste wasn't too bad, though the earthlings used a food printer to convert the bac-mat into 'Real Food' as Snow put it.
Max was suspicious of the new food. But ultimately steak and potatoes won him over, despite the worrying changes they caused in the bathroom. To his poop.
The small nutrient block was for Doozer food, the process, developed by Gustov, was based on the nutrient blocks they had brought with them from Grailliyn on Icarus. The larger block was for humans. Max placed them both in the corner of the bay as Snow began loading the drones into the launch magazine and strapping the rest to the walls. They had decided to load up all the supply packages that would fit in the cargo bay, since the hope of finding the motherlode and filling the bay with Akoronite now seemed unlikely.
By the time they finished unloading the next package, the cargo bay began to seem much smaller. The package contained two of the larger mining drones, an outsized assembler ring for the tiny onboard factory, and a fist-sized packet of rare materials. With no more than micro-gravity, the packet weighed essentially nothing, but its inertial mass was significant for a package of its size.
With the larger assembler ring, which plugged directly into the existing factory, they could build larger tools. They could now build whole mining drones or any other stable objects. They could even build the large drones, if they mined the required materials in the required quantities, though some assembly would be required. It was great to have the option especially given the route they would likely be taking given the lack of Akoronite found locally. Sadly, the increased maximum size of manufacture did not increase the speed of the factory. Its APS bond rate, atoms per second, that the factory could form molecules with which to bond, did not get any better with the addition. Building large objects would take a lot longer than the small tools, parts, and other wee objects the factory was intended to build.
With the supply packages unpacked and the cargo bay full and resealed from the vacuum of space, the two humans succumbed to the lure of much needed rest. Linda was given a list of PANs to visit and scan, and ordered to wake them if she found anything interesting or dangerous.
“Anything I think is interesting?” she asked, “or anything I think you would find interesting?”
“Definitely the latter. You can tell us about the things you found interesting when we get up,” Max said.
“Or tell Doozer about it. He's a good listener!” Snow said.
They left Linda and Doozer, (who was already having a crab-nap of his own) climbed out of the cockpit, and pulled themselves into the back. They brushed their teeth, a new procedure for Max, who was still getting used to the taste and sensation of the mint-f
lavored toothpaste. He did see its value however, in that it defeated that infrequent, but horrific mouth odor that might impinge upon a lad’s chances of kissing a girl. More than once. Max finished his teeth and went to the bunk cabin to quickly strip down to his thin white body suit from his space gear then slipped into his sleeping jumpsuit, another new piece of clothing gifted by the earthlings. When he'd finished, he found that he was unwilling to risk falling asleep and miss a chance to mash his lips against Snow's. So instead of climbing into the sleeping bag strapped to the bunk space, he clicked his belt into the recreation bench to wait. Snow, having finally finished cleaning her teeth, found him watching a blank screen and struggling to keep his eyes open. He recovered quickly and smiled like an idiot.
“Don't go anywhere,” she said, “I'll be right back.” She winked and swam into the bunk cabin, presumably to strip off her own space suit. His imagination followed that idea and before the real Snow returned, Max had departed the plane of waking existence, falling into happy dreams and deep sleep.
He awoke to find he was still attached to the rec bench, and filling the role of small spoon to Snow's larger one. They were attached securely, leg to leg, by Doozer who had latched on with a firm hug to both of them at the same time. Max was content to lay all day in the tight embrace of his two favorite people. Which was good, since they were each holding onto him rather tightly.
“Ummmm. I'm not sure if you felt that…” Linda's voice came from the media center speakers, which surrounded the trio, with a pitch that seemed chosen to wake the dead. “I think you would find this interesting. It's certainly very exciting—”
The ship shuddered from what sounded like a distant explosion.
Snow woke up suddenly. “Holy jumpin'! The rat-lords…” she said, “are upon us…” Her voice trailed off as she realized that the rat-lords were not the cause of the current crisis.
The ruckus of Max and Snow wriggling woke Doozer who released the humans from their fuzzy, firm, ankle cuffs. Snow flung herself towards the cockpit. Max made to follow, thrusting himself forward with his mismatch arms. He instead rocked forward, bonking his head on the floor. He unclicked himself from the recreation couch and relaunched himself into the cockpit, rubbing his head with his flesh and bone left hand.
“I've been dodging them so far,” Linda said. “I don't think they were at all designed for combat.”
Tiny ships, or smallish drones buzzed, though not literally, towards the ship, which was at the moment unmoving
“They've been launching explosives at us,” Linda said. “Once they do, I move the ship.”
“Bombs. Little bombs?” Snow made gesture with her fingers indicating just how little she wanted the bombs to be.
“Oh no. They are quite big. I'm guessing they are the same explosives they used to blow up Fourteen. But they have no casing, they're just explosives, so unless they are really close, they have nothing to push against us with. No oomph.”
“So, we're not in danger then? Is that why you haven't E-jumped us?” Max asked. He flung his body towards the bunk cabin without waiting for the reply, trusting Linda to continue evading the bombs a little longer. They needed to get their suits back on. Now.
“We are in great danger,” Linda's tone was enthusiastic. “Great as in large, rather than good. This is large danger, not good danger.” Her clarification continued in an upbeat tone. “We didn't jump because we can't. Something is interfering with the jump drive, malforming the jump bubble.”
And just like that, the magic of instantaneous space travel was placed in check. Max felt foolish. He'd thought he had imagined all manner of problems that might plague them, but a sort of jump disruption net had not been in the mix.
“There's no need to hold back for the sake of drama, Linda, if you know what is blocking our escape, let’s hear it.” He grabbed Snow's suit and sent it floating out the hatch and towards her. Despite throwing it quite hard, it moved as a slow unsatisfying blob. He pulled off his sleep gear and began wiggling, legs first into his suit.
“It's a good news, sad news situation I'm afraid.” Now Linda sounded genuinely disappointed. “Forty-Two is chockablock full of Akoronite. Or I guess it is. And that's what's messing with the jump bubble.”
“Sad because we can't jump away,” Snow said.
“And because we can't have it,” Max said.
“What? It's risky, but it's what we’re looking for. It has to be worth the risk. Millions of people, fate of two or more civilizations and all that.”
“It would be. If we weren't in the only jump capable ship in existence. We can't risk this ship when we still have other options,” Max said. It was the forest all over again.
“What options? They've already scooped up all the rest, and if we spend time thinking about it, they will have scooped up all of this too.”
Another shockwave rocked the ship, harder this time.
“We won't be running or mining if we don't deal with those drones first,” Max said.
“They are working together now. Trying to hem us in,” Linda said.
With his suit on, Max floated back to the cockpit and slid into the pilot seat. Explosives floating through space toward them were highlighted in red on the canopy. Max zoomed in on one of them. It was a ball of gray material with no thrusters for guidance. Linda was right that they were easy to dodge once they had been launched. But the Dee-Dub's options were limited as far as directions to dodge went. He zoomed the view to look at the alien drones. They were simple golden doughnut shapes with un-obvious propulsion. But at one end, presumably the front, there was a forward-facing round cylinder with a cone shaped tip. He assumed it to be the drone’s mining tool which they knew was powerful. The fact that it wasn't being deployed against them strongly suggested that it was focused for short range, made only for mining, though obviously it would be useful for an up close and personal knife fight. And though Linda had done an excellent job of keeping the Dee-Dub from exploding they were now positioned between the alien drones, currently numbering seven, and the bulk of the asteroid. Given what had happened to Fourteen, Max did not by any means want to get any closer to Forty-Two. The alien drones, however, were coordinating their bombs with that precise goal, of forcing the Dee-Dub closer to Forty-Two. He grabbed the flight stick and throttled straight at one of the drones. “Program one of our drones to stay powered off for a few hours. And don't let me get too close to the bombs alright?”
“Roger and roger boss,” Linda said.
The alien drone at sixty—twelve o'clock to earthlings—launched another bomb. Though it had no guidance, it was launched at a fair clip and Max was forced to dodge sooner than he'd hoped. The new trajectory positioned the Dee-Dub, as he'd intended, towards a gap in the wide net cast by the alien drones. But the drones responded quickly, launching new bombs into those gaps, and forcing Max to reverse course momentarily. The enemy drones then used that moment to cinch up the net.
“They can't have many of those bombs left,” Snow said. She was struggling to hold Doozer still while she put his goggles on. Doozer, never a fan of accessories, was wriggling and writhing in her arms.
“They won't need many more if we don't break out of here quickly,” Max said, taking further evasive maneuvers. “It's getting crowded in here.”
Snow snapped the goggles on the little crab, covering his tender eyes and mouth parts. “I have an idea.” She was looking at the android sitting lifelessly on the rear bench. Specifically, the android's rifle.
“Ahhhh, that might work. Can you shoot?” Max said and nudged Doozer out of the cockpit. “Get back there, buddy.”
Snow’s expression said, I-don't-know.
Doozer followed his orders reluctantly and Max closed the iris hatch. “Helmets on,” Max said, fitting his own into place. He wrenched the rifle from the android's back holster. “You’re flying, Linda.” He saw that Snow was buckled in tight. He launched himself over to her and sat on her lap, pressed close by the limited space.
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Snow grabbed his belt. “I got ya.”
“Linda, find a hole, fly through it. I will do my best to keep the lane clear. Now, give me one of those countdowns and then open the hatch please.”
“The hatch will open in three seconds boss,” Linda said, “two, one, hatch open.”
There was a very short, very violent blast of wind as the cockpit emptied its gasses into the vacuum of space. Max flew from the cockpit hatch. He then came to a jarring halt as he reached the end of Snow’s arm’s length. The rifle would have been ripped from his hands if not for the powerful polymer grip of his new arm. He gathered his composure and steadied his position, placing his boots on the hatch frame and pressing slightly against Snow’s inward pressure. “Okay, LC, get us out of here.”
“Okay, boss, here we go!”
The ship turned and headed straight towards the largest gap. Immediately the alien drones launched a barrage of bombs to fill the space. Linda highlighted the ones that needed removal in his helmet’s HUD. Max aimed at one of them, leading it slightly. The rifle swung about easily. Too easily. He found it difficult to adapt without gravity to steady his aim. He pressed the rifle tightly against his helmet and tried to relax his front arm some. He got a bead on the bomb and fired. There was a buzzing vibration and the beam fired, but it passed harmlessly in front of the bomb. Realizing his mistake, he unnecessarily made to cycle the weapon, as though it were Grailliyn style. He tried to ignore the part of him that felt foolish as well as the part that thought him right to feel so. With the rifle back against his helmet, he fired again, again, and again. On the third shot he hit the bomb, which silently exploded.
Starship Invasion (Lost Colony Uprising Book 2) Page 13
