The wagon crew began to hear muffled explosions two days before they reached the mine. They hoped the explosions were charges placed inside the mine to dislodge ore rather than charges fired to frighten away predators. There were never fewer than two guards on duty near the wagons, at the head of the column and at the rear, while the roadwork progressed, and the road crew workers were never far away from their own weapons.
Reaching the mine was cause for celebration by the road-building crew. Although facing a difficult journey back to the camp with ore, they could relax and enjoy a full day off to rest before they started loading the wagons. The mining group had been busy and an enormous pile of ore sat outside the mine. The miners had brought two wheelbarrows on their pack animals and it made the job much easier, although they longed for an ore trolley.
"Any problems," Lt. Rimes asked Lt. Commander McCloud, when the two groups met up.
"No attacks, but lots of problems. I never realized that blazing a simple wagon trail could be so difficult. What I wouldn't give for a couple of laser pistols and several freight loaders. We'd have been here two weeks ago."
"Yeah, I know what you mean. In five minutes, a boring rig could have produced the same amount of ore it took us three weeks to extract. It's amazing when you think this was how it was always done as recently as four hundred years ago on Earth."
"Yeah. Any sign of bearlons?"
"Nope, none at all. Someone's always on guard duty, though. We established a position on the rock face." He turned and glanced up at a spot ten meters above the mine entrance. "Chief Halsey is on duty right now and we change every couple of hours." Looking at the lead wagon, Lieutenant Rimes said, "I see you brought dinner."
"Yeah. We didn't want to risk the smell of cooking meat before we got here so we ate jerked gelk once the fresh food ran out, but I couldn't resist dropping this fellow when he stepped out in front of us a couple of hours back. I'm looking forward to a nice rare steak tonight."
"Sounds good. My people could use some fresh meat as well. We just finished the last of a gelk we killed about a week ago. The meat was becoming pretty dried out so we cooked the rest of it last night in a stew. I thought we'd be back to eating jerked gelk tonight."
After their day of rest, the road crew turned their efforts to loading up the wagons with the mined ore. Once the wagons were filled to capacity, the entire group worked to mine enough ore for another load, piling it up outside the mine. The wagons could return to get it without the miners having to come along next time. Just a week after the wagons had arrived at the mine, the entire group started back.
The fully loaded wagons left deep ruts in the new road, and the wagons got stuck a couple of times, but the route chosen by Lt. Commander McCloud proved to be adequate for the job once the crew put their shoulders to the wheel— literally.
Lt. Rimes later estimated that they returned to Vroman Castle with almost five tons of ore. With luck, they'd be able to smelt over two hundred kilograms of lead from each trip.
The success of efforts to bring back sulfur and galena prompted Admiral Vroman and his officers to plan additional expeditions. They would have to complete their ore retrieval operations, as well as any other expeditions, before the weather turned nice and the dinos returned, but a newly developing situation with the gelks threatened to delay their efforts. It seemed that all the females had suddenly started putting on substantial weight. The doctor confirmed the females were pregnant, and Lieutenant Croff, the camp's paleontologist, explained his theory.
"It makes perfect sense for the gelk population to have evolved with this common time for their gestation period. They seem to be the main food source for the carnivores in this region and during the warm months they must be able to elude the Alioramus, Bearlons, and other predators. They'll probably drop their offspring before the return migration, giving their babies a little time to mature so they have a good chance of being able to outrun the dinos."
Being restricted to using only male gelks meant the expedition schedule would have to be trimmed down and trips begun immediately to complete as many as possible before the dinos returned. Besides, as soon as the weather began to warm, it would be time to begin planting on the farm. Admiral Vroman had already started work on the wall for the South Pass. Stonecutters were cutting blocks of granite in preparation for construction and laborers were preparing the building site in the pass by excavating dirt for the poured foundation.
* * *
Chapter Twelve
~ November 15th, 2279 ~
The Scorpion hung seemingly motionless over Scruscotto, locked into an orbital track that varied slightly with each pass. There was always the danger of collision in the uncontrolled space around the mining planet, but that mostly occurred between ships attempting to move into or out of a standard orbit. The Scorpion had been circling the planet for weeks, clandestinely studying the movement of ships to and from the surface. The busy mining planet had an incredible amount of traffic, with outgoing ore shipments responsible for most shipping, but incoming freight operations ran a respectable second. It took enormous quantities of supplies to sustain the hundreds of thousands of miners and support personnel on the surface of a planet that neither grew no crops of its own, nor raised any animals for food. The situation was unlikely to change anytime soon since a miner could earn several times what a farmer or rancher could make.
After weeks of documenting ship movements, the team of intelligence agents was no closer to an answer than they had been when they arrived. They held a meeting in the mess hall after their evening meal.
"This is getting us nowhere," Vyx said. "We'll have to go down to the planet and intensify our search."
"It'll take us months, maybe years, to find their location," Byers said, "if they're even here. We could be conducting a search for something that doesn't exist."
"Admiral Carver is pretty sure it exists down there, and I've learned to trust her instincts. She wasn't just trying to get rid of us."
"What if they've moved their base?"
"That would be inconsistent with the way they operate. They normally only move on when they're threatened; so far as we know, no one has gone after them here."
"The planet is so big," Kathryn said. "Where do we even start?"
"Where we always start on Scruscotto— in Weislik, the largest town on the planet."
"They're not going to be obvious," Nelligen said, "or we would have heard about them already. They'll have a lot of Terrans providing a front to their operations."
"Yes, that's true. The front will almost definitely be a mining operation, one shipping a considerable amount of ore. Their operation will be mainly below the surface to hide its size from observers."
"Then how can we find it?" Brenda asked.
"We have to find an operation that receives a lot more food and supplies than the apparent number of working miners would consume."
"We've been watching ships for weeks without spotting anything unusual," Byers said.
"They must be bringing in their supplies loaded in ore containers, then filling the containers with ore to ship out. That's why we haven't seen any unusual freighter activity."
"So how are we supposed to find their operation?" Kathryn asked. "We can't stop all the space tugs bringing ore containers down to the surface to search them for supplies."
"We'll have to do it the old fashioned way. We hang around listening to conversations in restaurants and taverns until we hear something suspicious. Eventually we'll hear somebody complain of having to unload freight from ore containers, or complain about something else relevant. Then we tail them."
"I repeat my earlier statement," Byers said, "It'll take us months, maybe years, to find their location."
"Got something better to do?" Nelligen asked.
"I'd rather be at Stewart, getting ready to greet the invasion force. We'll need every ship we have when the Milori arrive there."
"Admiral Carver will recall us in time," Vyx said, "if s
he feels we can be useful. Right now, she wants us working on this assignment. If we find our quarry quickly enough, we can be back in plenty of time for you to die gloriously for the Galactic Alliance."
"Uh, well— I wasn't exactly planning on dying," Byers said. "I was thinking more along the lines of helping some Milori invaders die gloriously for their Emperor."
The Scorpion settled lightly onto a pad at the outer edge of the Weislik Space Port where enough space was available to accommodate the largest ships likely to land. As usual, Vyx stressed out over landing at a busy uncontrolled spaceport, but there was a smile on his face as the tension drained slowly from his body. This was his first landing in his new ship and she had handled like a dream. Her size meant that other ships found her easier to spot and were more fearful of a collision than they would have been with the old Scorpion. They would exercise more caution. In addition, on the run from Stewart, Vyx had clocked her top speed at Light-300. She'd never win a race against any of SC's big ships, but she'd walk away from any Light Destroyer or Destroyer currently in service. She was just as powerful and responsive as he could have wished. For the first time he began to feel that the Tsgardi had done him a favor by destroying his old ship.
There were only a couple of other ships in this remote section of the spaceport. Most captains of ships over a hundred meters preferred to have the vessel remain in orbit and use their space tugs or shuttles to commute to the surface unless they needed to land for loading or unloading.
Vyx called for a spaceport visitor carrier to take him to the office and the driverless vehicle arrived in a few minutes. Once inside the building, Vyx walked slowly to the counter, nodding to the seated regulars. Paying a month's rent in advance, he was about to leave when the spaceport administrator approached.
"Welcome back, Trader. I see you've acquired a new ship. She's a real beaut."
"Thanks. I think she'll serve my needs."
"A hundred-eighty-meters is quite a bit larger than your old ship. She was about a seventy-meter job, wasn't she?"
"All the better for your operation, Administrator. The rent is twice as high."
"It's necessary, Trader," the administrator said defensively. "The pad is three times as large, requires four times the materials for construction of the blast walls, and we provide visitor carrier service to that section of the port."
"I wasn't complaining, administrator, just making idle conversation."
The administrator smiled and nodded. "You're always welcome here at Weislik Space Port, Trader. I just hope Tsgardi don't show up to attack your new ship."
"If they do, it sure as hell won't be the same batch as last time."
"That's for sure. No one ever came to claim the body parts we found, so the body depot disposed of them in their cremation furnace."
"That's too bad. If someone had come to claim them, I might have been able to find out what they were after."
"As you said at the time, they were probably just looking for a ship to steal. The Whirm completed its repairs and left for Eulosi about a month ago. The captain certainly didn't blame you for the damages to his ship and he appreciated your taking care of the repair bill so quickly."
"I'm glad his repairs weren't major. Losing one ship was bad enough."
Having lost a ship to intruders that never even gained access, Vyx had redesigned the security system on the new vessel. Any attempt to enter the new Scorpion would first set off alarms, while automatically phoning security at the spaceport administration building. No charges would detonate unless intruders actually gained access to the interior, and then only charges in the area breached. Small, antipersonnel charges, sufficient to kill any intruders but not large enough to destroy that part of the ship, should be enough to stop them without depriving Vyx of his new vessel.
Moving into town after securing the ship, the group of agents divided into two teams to cover the north and south parts of Weislik. Vyx and Byers took the south part of town, knowing from experience that it was the rougher of the two. That part of the colony was inhabited mostly by miners because all ore shipments left from the South Spaceport and each mining company maintained facilities there. Nelligen and the two women would cover the north side, working as a single team, as in the past.
Collecting important information while not appearing to be collecting information is a practiced art and all of the agents had spent years refining their techniques since their training by Space Command. Brenda and Kathleen were still quite young and had benefited greatly from their close working association with Nelligen, Byers, and Vyx.
* * *
After a week in Weislik, the agents had picked up a lot of information about illegal activities, but nothing pertaining to their current mission. Vyx and Byers had spent most of their evenings sitting in the tavern they had established as their defacto headquarters over the years, drinking their ales and listening to the conversations around them. A thick veil of smoke always hung in the dim light of the room while the odor of stale ale, mixed with the greasy smells of cooking food coming from the kitchen, assailed the nostrils of patrons. Although they appeared to be solely occupied with their drinking and totally oblivious to the patrons around them, Vyx and Byers were keenly aware of every person in the room. When Ker Blasperra entered and approached their table, Vyx finally looked up.
"Good evening, gentlemen. Might I be allowed to join you?"
"Sure, Ker," Vyx said nonchalantly, pushing a chair lightly away from the table with his foot. "Have a seat."
"Congratulations, Trader," Blasperra said after pulling the chair the rest of the way out and sitting down, "your new ship is quite an improvement over the last."
"I can carry twenty times the cargo, if that's what you mean, but I still sort of miss the old ship. We had a lot of years together."
"Yes, I was referring to the cargo capacity. I was surprised to hear you had returned so quickly. I thought it might be years before you were seen in this area again."
"I lucked out. Stewart is absolutely awash with confiscated ships and I was able to convince them to sell me one at a decent price."
"If you're available, I'm sure I can find you a very lucrative deal. I have a couple that might be ideally suited for a smuggler with your exceptional talents."
"Perhaps in a month, Ker. Right now, my associates and I are taking it easy. We've worked our tails off getting the new Scorpion in shape and we're just looking to relax for a bit. I'll let you know when we're ready to start working again."
"Very well, Trader. Is there anything I can assist you with in the meantime?"
"Nope, not right now. I'm on vacation."
"I see. I thought that you might be seeking something since you've spent so much time in the south part of town."
Ker Blasperra didn't miss much. His small network of information collectors reported on anything out of the ordinary. Vyx was well known on the colony, especially since the destruction of the first Scorpion, and his movements were always noteworthy.
"Just taking advantage of our time off to renew old friendships and make new ones," Vyx said. "I had a few debts to pay also. Speaking of which…"
Vyx withdrew an envelope from an inside pocket of his jacket and passed it to Ker Blasperra, who opened it and looked at the contents before sliding it into his own pocket.
"The information was verified then?" Blasperra asked.
"It was confirmed as accurate."
"If there's ever any additional information you need, I hope you shall call on me."
"Thanks, Ker. Right now we just want to relax and enjoy the fruits of our labors."
"I'll leave you gentlemen to your drinking then. Have a pleasant evening."
"And you, Ker," Vyx said, as the Wolkerron stood and left.
* * *
Sitting on the floor of her living room, Jenetta leaned back against the sofa and stroked the fur of her pet Jumaka, Cayla, who was lying by her side. Tayna, her other pet Jumaka, was being similarly stroked by her sister Ch
rista, who was lying on the thick, rich carpet several meters away. Eliza entered from the galley carrying three large bowls of chocolate ice cream and handed one to each of her sisters before taking a seat on the floor against a chair.
"Jenetta, how many ships are in port, or nearby?" Christa asked.
"Warships?"
"Yes."
"Twenty-four."
"Isn't that a little bit— unusual?"
Jenetta hesitated for a second before answering. She knew where the questions were leading but there was a limit to what she could tell her sisters at this time. They were, after all, only lieutenants, not senior officers privy to top-secret information related to tactical operations. Still, there was no way Jenetta could hide the fact that an unusually large number of ships were in port.
"Yes, it is."
"So something is up then?"
"Always."
"You know what I mean," Christa said irritably, "something big is coming."
"We're engaged in a lot of shipboard reassignments to staff the newly commissioned ships. It's necessary that all the ships assigned to Stewart actually come into port so we can shift personnel to the new vessels and begin the training."
"Yes, we know, but why are the ships still in port after dropping off their reassigned crewmembers. Aren't they needed out on patrol?"
"I'm sorry, but there are some things I can't tell you until it's time for all personnel at your level to hear the news."
"That has to mean the news is really big. Does it concern the Milori?"
Castle Vroman Page 17
