Freedom's Last Gasp

by M. A. Rothman

  “Okay, folks, we’re at level eight of the mine,” he said. He was surprisingly soft-spoken. “Which means we’re at the last chapter of your introduction to mining equipment.” He patted a contraption that looked like a cross between a spider and an eight-foot crane. “This is Bessie. She’s a roof bolter, and you’ll get to know her well. High or low gravity, it won’t matter. Bessie is for underground mining, and I’m sure you’re well aware of the difficulties of underground digs. The last thing a miner wants to encounter is instability in the tunnels.”

  He looked over the class. “Okay, does anybody want to try and impress me with what you know about what a roof bolter’s job entails?”

  Several interns raised their hands. The instructor pointed at the nearest one.

  “Clearing out loose rock in the ceiling?”

  The instructor nodded. “Absolutely. The whole point of a roof bolter is to add stability to our work environment. If you notice some cracked or otherwise unstable rock that can’t be secured, it needs to be removed, or eventually it’ll end up braining one of you guys.”

  He pointed at another student who’d raised his hand. The student winced. Apparently his comment had already been taken.

  Rolling his eyes, the instructor pointed at a third intern.

  “Make sure the equipment is safe and in working order?” the young man said hesitantly.

  The instructor shrugged, looking unimpressed. “Sure, but that’s a bit obvious. Anyone who doesn’t do that down here is going to get their ass kicked. Anyone have another key element of the job… a safety item?”

  He looked over the interns once more, scanning faces, and stopped at Priya. “You. Young lady, tell these would-be miners what it is they need to be thinking about when in a mine.”

  Priya felt the entire class turning to her. “Well, don’t they always have to do gas checks, you know… for methane? To prevent explosions.”

  The walking block of a man smiled. His teeth were like perfectly chiseled pieces of marble. “Exactly right. Tell me what you know about gas checks.”

  Priya was nervous, because she didn’t know much. It was just something she’d read about way before any of this mining business had even started for her. “Well, isn’t that where the term ‘canary in the coal mine’ originated? The canary would die if there was gas, and people would know to clear out… at least, that’s what I read.”

  “Very good. What’s your name, young lady?”

  “Priya.”

  “Well, Priya, that canary story is true. If you can believe it, before they figured out the whole canary thing, the earliest miners would send some poor sap into a tunnel with a wet cloth draped over him, carrying a lit torch. If there were only minor flare-ups, the cloth would protect the miner and he’d know they’d be able to air the tunnel out and be okay. But if there was a major pocket of methane, you’d light the whole place on fire and you’re almost certainly down one miner. Nowadays, of course, we have electronic gas sensors that do the job of the canary or the poor sap holding the torch.”

  The instructor walked up to the intern who earlier couldn’t come up with a response. He patted him on the shoulder and pointed at Priya. “It’ll be someone like that girl that’s going to save your life, because she’s got a good head on her shoulders.”

  The intern looked down, embarrassed.

  The instructor turned to the rest of the class. “You people might think this mining business is like any other mindless job where you dig ditches or fix a leak in a pipe, but it isn’t. You need to think. Always. This is a dangerous business, a business where people get killed. Always have your wits about you.”

  Priya liked this instructor. He was smart, blunt, and didn’t mind telling people the way it was. Of course, it helped that he’d complimented her. That was a sure sign of good taste.

  The instructor motioned for everyone to approach Bessie. “Okay miners, let’s go over every square inch of this bolter.”

  As Priya moved closer, she noticed a freight elevator on the far wall, and suddenly a new memory arose in her mind. She’d been on that elevator before. Or at least, she had the memory of having done it. She’d taken it down to level ten, the deepest it went, then walked to a door that required a special access key. She reached out—or a man’s arm did—a disc in hand, and the door opened.

  “Priya?”

  Priya was startled back to the here and now. “Yes?”

  “Would you like to be the first to take the controls of good ol’ Bessie?” He smiled, patting the side of the roof bolter.

  “Uh, sure.”

  Priya wiped the sweat from her brow as she removed the drill bit from the chuck, inserted a bolt, and pulled the lever that made the roof bolter’s hydraulics press the bolt deep into the ceiling.

  “I think you’ve got this, young lady.” The instructor gave her an approving nod and tossed her a dry cloth. “It’s sweaty work, but critical for the operation.” He pointed to another intern. “Your turn. Let’s see if you can operate Bessie without pissing her off.”

  As Priya wiped her face with the cloth, the instructor approached and said in a low voice, “There no need for you to watch the rest if you don’t want to. You’ve clearly got the hang of this. You might want to get a good night’s rest, because tomorrow the work assignments are going to start.”

  Priya nodded. “Thank you. I’ll stay for a bit.”

  As the other interns took turns with the equipment, many of them struggling, she did pick up another tip or two—mostly learning what not to do when one of them made a mistake. But eventually she grew bored. That’s when she spotted Terry passing through with Ranger at his side.

  What was Terry doing on level eight? Was there a security issue way down here?

  Curious, she slipped away from the class and followed in the direction he had gone. She didn’t feel like she was trespassing, or at any risk of being lost—she knew this place. She knew that over to her right was the freight elevator to the fifth level, and up ahead, where Terry had gone, were the offices. She could even see in her mind’s eye the break room at the back of the offices, complete with refrigerator and soda machine.

  But when she arrived at the closed door that led into the office area, she found Terry gone and Ranger waiting. The dog spotted her, wagged his tail, and barked several times.

  The door opened. “Ranger!” said Terry, stepping through. “What’s gotten into you?” Then he spotted Priya. “Oh! Hey, stranger. Are you done with your class?”

  “I was given permission to leave early. So when I saw you walk by…”

  “You were wondering what I was doing down here on level eight.” He looked amused.

  Priya felt her cheeks redden. “I guess I’m nosy like that.”

  “Well come on in and be nosy then. You like games?”

  “Games? What kind of games?”

  “You’ll see.”

  He led her through the offices to the break room, which was just as she remembered it. Five miners sitting at the table, where various dice and sheets of paper were scattered.

  “Want to join?” Terry said. “We could always use a cleric.”

  A large-bellied miner with a giant red beard groaned. “Hey! I said I’m healing this time.”

  Terry rolled his eyes. “Okay… well, we can find another role for Priya.”

  Priya took a seat. “I’m game to play if you guys are okay with a beginner. What are we playing?”

  “Dungeons and Dragons,” said several of the miners in unison.

  She shook her head. “That doesn’t help. How do you play?”

  “It’s a game from the twentieth,” Terry said. He sat down and stood a series of cardboard folders in front of him, partially blocking him from view. “It’s an adventure game that’s played with our imagination. I’m the dungeon master, so I’ll sort of be the referee, and the rest of you are going to be a team of different types of players.” He pointed to the other miners one by one. “Fred’s a fighter, which is p
retty self-explanatory. Walter is insistent on being a cleric, the healer for the group. Tony is a bard, who sings songs—”

  “And is basically useless,” Walter interjected.

  “Oh, stuff it,” Tony responded.

  “Is there magic in this?” Priya asked.

  Terry nodded. “There is! Would you want to be a wizard?”

  Priya looked at the others. “Would that fit with the team?”

  “Oh, hell ya. We can always use a finger-wiggler,” said Walter. The others nodded in agreement.

  Priya chuckled as she took in the scene. A group of adults, mostly rough-and-tumble types, gleefully engaging in a game based on made-up fantasy characters. It was awesome.

  She grabbed a blank sheet of paper. “How do I start?”

  Terry slid three six-sided dice toward her. “You’ll need to begin by rolling up your character.”

  “Intelligence is key for a wizard,” Tony said.

  “Ya, but she’ll want decent constitution otherwise she’ll be a glass cannon—”

  “And don’t forget her race. We need someone with infravision, so maybe an elf…”

  As everyone got her up to speed, Priya relaxed and had fun—and for just a moment, she forgot that she was there on false pretenses.

  “Aw, crap.” Priya had just rolled a one on her twenty-sided die.

  Her teammates groaned and looked to Terry—who rolled three eight-sided dice and winced.

  “Well, the ever-valiant Brianna the elf wizard just took a critical hit from the cyclops. Twenty-three hit points of damage. Since you only had twenty hit points to start, it looks like Brianna… is dead.”

  Terry pointed at Walter. “And she’s dead-dead. You’re not yet high enough level to resurrect her, so don’t even try.”

  He turned back to Priya. “Sorry, Priya. If you want to keep playing, the merchant NPC that’s accompanying the party is a level six thief. You can take over that character while the party drags your body along. Who knows, later they might find a way to bring Brianna back to life.”

  She shook her head. “I think this is a good place for me to stop. I’ve got an early day tomorrow.” She glanced at the clock. “Holy crap, it’s been four hours. Yeah, I really have to go.”

  “Did you have fun?” Walter asked.

  “I did, but don’t you dare let anyone know. It’ll ruin my reputation for being a total bitch.”

  They all laughed.

  Terry got up and picked up a receiver hanging from the wall. “Tom, she’s going to be heading up. Five minutes? Okay.” He turned back to Priya. “He’ll meet you at the topside entrance.”

  “Sounds good. Thanks, Terry. It was fun. I’d never heard of this game, but I like it.”

  “Well, if you want to play again, this is a regular Friday night thing.”

  Walter piped up. “I’ll see about bringing Brianna back to life. I just have to get enough experience points. She was fun having on the team.”

  Priya smiled. “Thanks. But you don’t have to drag my body around. You can just come back for it.” She waved. “It was nice meeting all you guys.”

  She left the break room and the offices, and as she headed down the tunnel toward the elevator going up, she felt guilt weighing heavily on her. She liked these people. Maybe even more than the folks she knew on Earth. And yet she was lying to them all.

  She felt Harold shift from his regular position. She was about to whisper that this wasn’t the place, when something smashed into her back, launching her forward.

  She landed face-down on the ground. She felt no pain, but she tasted blood.

  She tried to get up—only to realize she couldn’t move.

  Her heart raced. What happened? Did something fall on me?

  There were footsteps nearby.

  Someone yelled.

  More footsteps, farther away. Running?

  A wet thud.

  And then everything went dark.

  Chapter Twelve

  Moments after Priya left, Terry glanced at the clock and realized that the shift was about to change in the mine. There’ll be dozens of people moving about and Priya walking the tunnels by herself.

  Terry grimaced and hopped up from his chair. “Hey guys, I’ll be right back. And you better not look at any of my maps, you damn cheaters.”

  As he walked out of the office area, Ranger hopped up, barked, and walked at his side. They were fast-walking down the tunnel together when the dog suddenly growled and shot ahead.

  “Ranger?”

  Terry heard a popping sound just as he turned a corner and saw Ranger sprinting toward a collapsing body. Was that… Priya? A man walked toward her, his arm extended, and Terry was about to shout at him to leave her alone. But he stopped short when he saw what happened next. Or what he thought he saw.

  Did that really just happen?

  The man’s body slumped forward as his head rolled several feet away.

  Terry raced forward, activating his collar transceiver as he went. “Emergency Alert! This is Chapper two three eight. We have two men down. I repeat, we have two men down. I need medic support, level eight, tunnel three alpha. Over.”

  “Chapper two three eight, copy. Chapper one niner five responding. I’m bringing the cavalry. Be there in three. Over.”

  Terry reached the two bodies, the decapitated man now lying on top of the other. To his horror, the person on the bottom was exactly who he’d feared it was.

  Priya.

  And she wasn’t moving.

  He yanked the man’s body off of her. Ranger growled. “I know, boy. He got what he deserved.”

  He turned his attention to Priya. “Priya?”

  No response.

  He felt for a pulse. It was there, erratic and weak, but it was there.

  There was also a wet spot on her coveralls, right in the middle of her back. Blood? Or worse?

  He gritted his teeth as he dug the emergency kit from his utility belt. “Shit, guys, hurry the hell up.”

  “We’re in the freight elevator. Be there in twenty seconds.”

  He ripped open her coveralls. There was a puncture along her spine, and it was weeping clear fluid.

  The spinal column had been ruptured.

  With his teeth, he ripped open an emergency packet and dribbled its contents into the wound.

  Tom finally came running down the tunnel, accompanied by two medics. “Terry? What happened?”

  “She’s got a spinal injury with loss of cerebrospinal fluid. I’ve applied a packet of nanites to the wound.”

  One of the medics wrapped an instrument around Priya’s wrist, looked at the reading, then looked at his partner. “John, set up a gurney. Tom, can you help me get her immobilized and ready for transport?”

  “Sure,” said Tom. He glanced at the decapitated body and looked at Terry questioningly.

  “I’ll take care of this guy,” said Terry. “You focus on Priya. I need to go look at the security tape. But…” He leaned in and whispered. “Be careful. The thing that chopped this bastard’s head off… it wasn’t Priya. Just… be careful.”

  Tom looked at him strangely, but didn’t ask questions. “Don’t worry, Terry. We’ll have her heading to Saint Anthony’s in a few minutes. You want me to call Stef and have her meet us there?”

  “When you get a chance, that would be great. And I’ll meet you there too.”

  “Really, Terry. It’s going to be okay.”

  “I know.”

  But as Terry jogged toward the security elevator with Ranger on his heels, he wasn’t sure that was true. If the security footage showed what he thought it would, this was something that everyone with Deadman’s clearance needed to know about.

  The colony’s security was on high alert, especially around Priya Radcliffe. Tom was in her hospital room with her, while Terry stood just outside. The entire hospital was on lockdown.

  Terry heard a ding from the elevator, and looked down the hall to see the governor’s security detail step ou
t, all of them wearing sidearms. The governor followed, and walked briskly over to Terry.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “I’m fine. But we’ve got a Deadman clearance situation.”

  The governor motioned to her security. “Guys, give us some space.”

  The security detail backed away.

  “Tell me,” she whispered.

  “Let me show you.” Terry pulled out his PC, and his mother draped her arm over him so they could both look at the tiny display. With a swipe of his finger he found the surveillance footage and hit play. The video began with the man’s attack on Priya.

  Terry spoke softly. “We found a CO2-powered weapon that discharged a steel projectile into Radcliffe’s back, shattering her spine.”

  The governor frowned. “Gas-charged to avoid a loud noise.”

  The video continued, showing the attacker leaning over his victim and bringing his weapon to bear for a second shot. But before he could act, something burst forth from Priya’s collapsed form, and the man fell… in two pieces.

  The governor leaned back. “What the hell was that?”

  “We don’t know. When she arrived at the colony, we detected a signature that read alien tech. We figured it was probably an heirloom she’d inherited from her family, likely from the time of the Exodus. But I’m not aware of any alien weaponry among the tech we’ve discovered.”

  “I’m not aware of any either. And from what we’ve gathered, they were a peaceful species.” The governor shook her head. “Do you have a slow-mo of that sequence?”

  “Unfortunately, the mine’s security cameras are at sixty frames per second, and most of this happened within the span of a single frame. But we do know that whatever shot forth from the girl, it sliced her attacker cleanly between the C4 and C5 vertebrae.”

  “Was there any residue on the attacker? Any hint of a projectile from the tech?”

  “Nothing. The best we can figure is that the blur was some whip-like slash that did its job and got reabsorbed in the blink of an eye.”

  “Who else knows about this?”

  “I told Stef, of course. Tom and the two medics saw the body, but I’ve sworn them to secrecy. Tom has a lot of questions; I merely told him Radcliffe has some kind of protective device. I think he suspects more.”