Cobalt Slave

by Walker, Jon

  Hank doesn’t know what the device does, and after having a lot of time to contemplate it, he has come to the conclusion he doesn’t want to know. All he knows is that as long as he quietly sits in this room every night he, and more importantly his young sister, live. That is all that matters.

  After an hour of sitting around, the device suddenly makes a playful BEEP BEEP. After so long, it is both jarring and strangely anti-climatic. Hank had always expected the BEEP to be louder and menacing. Deep down he thought it might be the early warning of something dramatic, but when Hank quickly looks out the window, everything seems normal.

  Hank’s shock only lasts for a moment before he springs into action. He walks over to the beeping piece of electronics and on the little screen it reads T512D42U80. Hank writes the code down and reads it a dozen times to commit it to memory, just to be safe. What it means, Hank doesn’t know. Once he is confident he has the information, Hank pushes the "complete" button. As soon as the little light goes from red to green, he unplugs it. He then deconstructs the device, carries the parts far away from his home, and buries them in a hole in the ground.

  Hank feels the overwhelming urge to run the message down to Mr. Snider right now, but he was explicitly warned in the most serious of terms to never do that. He will simply give Mr. Snider the code tomorrow when he reports for his shift at the waste management plant.

  It ends up being a very sleepless night for Hank. All he can think about is T512D42U80, what it could mean, and how it is probably better if he never finds out.

  ------

  On the main continent of Goliath

  Mark gets himself comfortable to watch the red light all night, but after less than five minutes of staring at the radio, the red light changes to green, meaning the message was received and the radio has tuned out. Its one and only task is over.

  He did it. After all this time. After all this danger, he did it. Mark looks triumphantly at that green light, celebrating for ten minutes before finally thinking, now what?

  ------

  The next morning as Mr. Snider is about to walk into his office, he sees a very tired Hank White approach him with wide eyes. Hank awkwardly reaches out to shake Mr. Snider's hand, saying, “I was hoping I could talk to you about a new schedule.”

  Mr. Snider looks at him, disappointed with how sloppily he delivered the code phrase while handing off the piece of paper. The unusual needs of the time have unfortunately required relying on people who are suboptimal. The only upside is that Snider doesn’t need to feign irritation when he answers, “Now is not a good time.”

  Hank apologetically says while backing away, “Sorry, sir. I will try you another time.”

  Palming the small note, Mr. Snider goes into his office. After he puts down his things he heads straight into his tiny private bathroom. Inside he discreetly reads the note over and over again until he has T512D42U80 memorized. He then tears the note into tiny pieces of confetti and flushes them down the toilet.

  Mr. Snider can’t help but smile as he goes to alert Jarod Wu that they have both the time and leverage they need to execute plan A. They had been preparing to accept something much less, but now there is no need to compromise.

  CHAPTER 24

  High above Ararat

  Looking up out the window, Ella sees New Eden dominating the sky. A giant blue and white marble hanging above her, half is brightly illuminated by the sun while the other half is hidden in near complete darkness. Closely studying the nightside of the planet, Ella can just barely make out her home. From here the great city of Ararat is only a dot of bright light with faint tentacles reaching out in multiple directions. There it sits, a tiny beacon of humanity in a sea of untamed darkness. She could make the whole thing disappear behind an outstretched thumb.

  In the sky to her right is Cain, an ugly grey potato floating among the stars. Almost half its rough surface is marked with massive craters and the rest is covered with countless smaller impact sites. It is the larger of the twins but its orbit is slightly farther out, making it appear almost the same size as his twin when gazing at the sky from New Eden.

  Beneath her is the grey surface of Abel, so small it doesn’t really seem like it has a true horizon. Since Ella first landed on Abel, it has felt to her more like being at the center of a small island in a sea of blackness than standing on a world. Looking at the horizon still gives her the weird feeling that she could just walk right off the edge. The eerie sensation is made worse by the knowledge that she almost could -- one really strong jump could practically send her right off this barren rock.

  By far the most distinctive feature on Abel is what looks like the skeleton of a giant whale that had the strange misfortune of dying on this moon. It is what remains of the great slowship that brought her ancestors across the incredible void of space. Ella is standing in what would be the skull -- a set of living quarters, storage facilities, and work stations for the small crew. Extending for over two kilometers on her left is the dead whale’s spine and ribs -- numerous sets of automated machines slowly chewing through the moon to extract and refine essential metals for the people of New Eden.

  The view is truly everything they told her it would be. It is magnificent. It is awe inspiring. It is life-changing, and Ella is completely sick of it. You can only take so much awe before boredom wins out. Besides resetting and repairing the mining machines, there has been very little to do for the past several months besides think about what she misses back home.

  She is sick of her crew. She is sick of the hours of strange exercise she needs to do every day to prevent her body from deteriorating too much. She is sick of all food tasting flavorless and having to put hot sauce on everything. And what she is especially sick of is taking an hour every time she needs to poop. When you only weigh half a kilogram, there really isn’t any downward force to help things move.

  Fortunately, by this time tomorrow Ella should be home as long as the weather holds up. She just has one last task to do before boarding the shuttle.

  While her two cousins are slowly working their way back along the spine to make sure all the mining equipment was correctly put in standby mode, she is left alone to take care of her secret task. She floats herself down to the storage area, and there it is -- a small, simple box which contains the most precious stuff in the world, just sitting on the bland white floor. She again marvels that so many lives can be made possible by so little.

  Ella moves over to it, simply puts the box containing 70 percent of the known cobalt supply into her personal bag, and leaves the room. Once outside she seals the door and puts it into a state of standby, like she has been doing to all the other rooms in the station.

  Ella has just committed what might be the most incredible heist in all of human history, and it feels extremely anticlimactic. There are no trip lasers, no burly guards to tranquilize, no special harnesses, no secret hacking. It is nothing like the movies, which is to the credit of just how clever Uncle Jack and her mother are.

  Yesterday her crew already checked out the whole cobalt stockpile, so according to the station’s computer it is gone, which is the plan the entire Council signed off on. After the cobalt stockpile was officially removed from the system, Ella and her cousin then divided out a 10 percent portion for the Aeronautics Department and a 20 percent portion for the Public Health Department. Both were loaded onto the shuttle, and the other 70 percent was left behind on Abel in a storage room -- just as the secret deal with the Director and the Head of Public Safety called for.

  What only Ella, her mother and Uncle Jack know is that she will bring the entire cobalt stockpile down on this shuttle mission in secret. Ella can’t help but reflect on its brilliant simplicity. Most of the council still believes the entire cobalt stockpile will be moved to the Palace vault, yet Director Lee and a few of his top subordinates in the Public Health Department will think most of it is still up in space. All the while, Ella’s family can quietly hide it away somewhere on New Eden where no one will ev
er think to look. If things go really south, everyone is going to be looking in the wrong place. If need be, her mom can turn the entire council on itself while being well positioned to pick up the pieces.

  As crew leader Ella is the first to the shuttle. After putting her stolen cobalt in the secret compartment that her mother told her to, she begins the launch checklist. An hour later her cousins arrive, and soon they are on their way home.

  ------

  At the same time well below Ararat

  The tunnels have been a hive of activity as they prepared for the “final push.” Andrew has been sanding, drilling holes, making bullets, and mixing ingredients for 15 hours a day for months.

  What exactly the final push is or when it will happen is the top source of speculation and conversation among Andrew’s companions in their underground hideout. Each day spawns a new theory more complicated than the last. Given that on several occasions, including one just a few weeks ago, they have been told to drop their half-finished projects and start completely new ones, Andrew is not all that convinced that even Mr. Snider knows exactly what the plan is. The one thing that is clear is that what is about to happen is going to be big, and it will change their lives.

  Andrew is sitting with others working on making crude stocks when from the other room someone yells, “Everyone shut up, someone is at the door!” Immediately everyone in the tunnels drops what they are doing and crowds into the room to watch the door. Slowly the massive door swings up, and behind it stands their patron and savior. Andrew and his companions all stand silently with bated breath as Mr. Snider enters, leaving the inner door still open behind him.

  His face beaming, Mr. Snider speaks, “I hear you are all doing great work. You should be proud.”

  One of Andrew's companions meekly asks, “Does this mean…"

  Mr. Snider puts up his hand to cut him off. His voice is still pleasant but firm, “Patience. I’m not here to answer questions. Things are moving quickly, but you need to be patient for a little longer. I’m here to speak to Andrew.”

  All eyes turn to Andrew who just stands there in stunned silence.

  Mr. Snider reaches his hand out, “Come here, Andrew. I want to speak to you outside.”

  Several people in the tunnels gasp, and Andrew’s already wide eyes go wider. No tunnel dweller who has ever been brought in through that door has ever gone back out of it. For ten seconds Andrew just stands in amazement until he is gently pushed from behind, causing him to slowly start walking. Mr. Snider smiles as he puts his hand around Andrew and guides him through the threshold to the small area between the two doors. Once he closes the inner door and firmly locks it, the outer door starts to open. Andrew is going to see the outside world for the first time in over three years.

  The first thing Andrew notices when the door swings open is a bland, curved wall and the smell. Even after growing accustomed to the crammed bug-filled tunnels, the smell here is distinctly unpleasant. Taking a step forward Andrew quickly realizes it is a sewer and sees the thick river of waste moving past. It is a strange combination of amazing and disappointing. Andrew knew intellectually the tunnels were likely hidden near a sewer system -- that is what all the clues pointed to. But after spending so long staring at this door, thinking about what could be on the other side, Andrew had let his dreams get away from him. He had been hoping for something a bit more glorious.

  It is only once he feels Mr. Snider’s firm hand at his back that Andrew realizes he had been standing at the edge of the outer door for a while, lost in thought. He shakes his head to remove the daze and steps out into the world, even if it is just into a sewer. Andrew can’t help but look at every detail of the walls, every crack, every imperfection. He didn’t realize how starved he was for something novel to look at.

  Mr. Snider's voice interrupts his examination of the sewer. “Andrew, how are you feeling?”

  Andrew struggles for words, “I’m… It is… disorienting.”

  Mr. Snider gives him a reassuring nod, “I can imagine. Andrew, there is a reason I brought you here. I want to speak to you in private and for you to understand the seriousness of what I’m about to ask.”

  Andrew stares reverently at his patron, “Anything, Mr. Snider. Anything.”

  Mr. Snider smiles, “Do you remember when I first visited you after I saved you?”

  That memory is still vivid in his mind even though most of that time is so cloudy and hard to piece together. He can still picture Mr. Snider standing over him telling him he will live. Andrew answers, “Yes, of course. It was three years ago, but I remember like it was yesterday.”

  “Three stolen years. Three years I was able to get back for you after they stole everything from you,” Snider says while shaking his head unhappily. After a pause he continues, “Do you remember what I told you?”

  “Yes... you said I was alive. You told me as long I worked I would get to live,” Andrew answers. His eyes close as he struggles to remember it exactly through the mental fog he has suffered from as a defiant.

  “And?” Mr. Snider asks leadingly.

  “And you said if I work to stay alive, you would work to possibly give me a chance at vengeance and freedom,” Andrew says opening his eyes proudly at the end for getting it right.

  Mr. Snider places his hands firmly on Andrew’s small shoulders to look at him directly, “I’m here to tell you that you finally have a chance for at least one of those. Andrew, are you ready for greatness?”

  CHAPTER 25

  High above Ararat

  Strapped firmly into her chair, Ella feels the slight motion of the shuttle moving right, then up, then right again. Each movement is accompanied by a distinctive artificial hissing sound from the shuttle's speakers in the cockpit to indicate to the crew that the steering thrusters are being used.

  Ella carefully follows every action on the wall of screens and controls in front of her but doesn’t dare touch anything. The autopilot system has worked flawlessly for generations, and this time is shaping up to be no different. Even though Ella was forced to train extensively on using the manual controls, she knows her title of pilot is basically ceremonial. A sack of potatoes would be just as good at the job.

  After the last slight corrective thrust down, the screen indicates the shuttle is now in proper alignment. Soon it sends them into a controlled glide down to New Eden, which should land them right outside Ararat. Ella takes a deep breath to calm her nerves as the de-orbit burn kicks on.

  ------

  In the Palace

  Director Terence Lee stands by a large window in the Palace staring down. From this perch the Public Safety agents and their vehicles look like toys as they get ready for the security run to the landing field in the Aeronautics compound.

  Part of Terence desperately wants to be down there with them for this all-important run, but such a public display of concern would be undignified for his office. It would likely create new political problems by giving the impression that the director doesn’t think Anthony Chan is capable of doing his job as head of Public Safety anymore. More importantly, the director knows that he was more likely to get in the way than to be of any help if something went wrong anyway. So instead, he is up here watching them in private.

  After ten minutes the chaos transforms into nice linear order. There are four motorcycles in front. Next is a tactical car that will be carrying Anthony. Behind Anthony’s vehicle is the armored truck. This is followed by another two tactical cars and four more motorcycles. Every one of the 24 agents down there was picked for their loyalty. All of them are in riot armor and equipped with a stunstick, pistol, and hunting rifle.

  Once they are all lined up, the flashing lights and sirens turn on. The director watches as the procession slowly pulls out of the parking lot and heads down the street. After the last motorcycle disappears from his view, the director walks over to the screens he has set up to watch the feeds from the different vehicles.

  ------

  Below Ararat
>
  Chris once again marvels at just how cool this new helmet is as he watches on its built-in display the icon of the armored truck moving in their general direction. Not only is it fantastic for tactical communications but it also thankfully has an air filtration system protecting him from the putrid smell of this sewer tunnel. Walking through the river of waste to get to their rally point, Chris does not want to imagine what this place would smell like without it.

  Once the icon indicates the convoy has passed over, Chris looks at this two cousins to point the helmet's camera at them. His cousins look really badass in full gear. They are like something out of their favorite video game, which is good since that is what they used to do most of their training for this operation. Chris then pings, “Uncle, the convoy is en route, snappers are set, and my team is in position.”

  Leo Madison is watching the whole operation unfold from every angle in the tactical room he built in his house. Multiple screens are displaying both the view of his people and views from the Public Safety convoy. He has three teams of men in full gear in the sewers and a dozen people in plainclothes above, just in case. It took a lot of promises and screening to get so many people Madison could trust, but he is reasonably happy with what he has put together.

  The icons of his tactical teams form a line covering all the most likely routes the convoy will take back. Thanks to the cooperation of the sanitation bureau over the past two weeks, shaped charges have been set up on every main road. The plan is that once the loaded armored truck passes over the right spot, the charges will blow creating a hole in the road that will drop the whole armored truck down into the sewer. There one of his teams can grab the stockpile and make their escape. If everything goes as planned, they should be able to grab it without firing a shot. It things don’t go right, each team has the firepower equivalent of at least a dozen Public Safety agents.