Page 24 of Escape from Nova Nine
And then make her send the message that would get him killed if her plan failed.
9
NOVA NINE FACILITY • GDAT 3243.121
Zade wouldn’t have traded last night’s midnight connection with Julke for a fully fluxed interstellar racing yacht, but it was now ten hours into the shift, and his energy reserves were hovering a few degrees above absolute zero.
The only good news was being reunited with Julke, Lantham, and Sutrio when the guards took them to their new work area.
It was his first experience with rhybarium, a key element in flux fuel. Sutrio’s cutter sank into the sky-blue deposits like they were pastry in a pan, but she had to be ready to step back when she cut the top of the square she was excavating. Sometimes the sheet of ore separated and shattered the gravity-plate floor.
Like it had a couple of minutes ago. Zade dumped the last shovelful of dull blue crystal into the jig’s chute, then stepped back. He’d nominated his noob-self for monitoring the enviro controls and shoveling the shattered ore into Julke’s jig. She rolled the machine back so she could transfer the rhybarium into Lantham’s collection hopper. The latter looked like it had been rescued from an Abyss trash heap.
Sutrio steadied herself on the mechanized stilts, then lifted the cutter up, making a vertical slice.
Without warning, the whole three-meter excavated face broke apart like an avalanche and spilled onto the gravity plate. It pushed against Sutrio’s stilts, knocking her sideways to her left. Her cutter swung wildly and sank deep into the wall. She lost her grip when one of her stilts slipped and sent her to the ground.
Julke’s voice got Zade’s attention. “Emergency cutoff!” He lunged forward to pull the cable, nearly losing his footing on the new wave of crystalline shards.
Zade helped Sutrio stand as Julke and Lantham climbed off their rigs to survey the situation.
“Well, that’s not good,” said Lantham. In sign language, he asked Sutrio if she was hurt. She shook her head.
At least, that’s what Zade thought the signs meant. Even though the others tried to teach him when they could, he still tanked at it.
The airlock behind them began cycling.“We’re coming in.”
Zade crossed to the scanner to pick it up and power it on, guessing guards would order him to use it on the newly exposed face.
He hid his dismay as Dajoya strode in first, a pugnacious look on her face. She’d been in and out of the work area all morning, micromanaging every task and ordering them to work faster. From her harangues, they’d learned the guards had been chasing more phantom signals the night before and were in line for a bonus if the mine operations met the warden’s new production quota.
Lhap Cho followed behind her. He looked as exhausted as Zade felt.
Dajoya halted near the jig and glared. “Sutrio, pull that farkin’ cutter out of the goddamn wall. The rest of you slaggers, clean this up and get back to work.”
Zade looked at Lhap Cho, willing the guard to remember that protocol called for scanning the newly exposed face for stability. The tunnel didn’t have a top plate to protect them or the equipment if the ceiling gave way. Unfortunately, Lhap Cho’s frowning attention was on Dajoya.
Zade didn’t need a sifter talent to sense that Dajoya was working herself up to violence, like a dreeno addict itching for her next high-glide ride. She might be ramper-fast, but she had tells. Her mech-suited knees flexed and her gloved fingers fidgeted as they hovered near the holster where she kept her stunner. Her rapid, shallow breathing fogged her suit’s faceplate. And rage radiated around the black hole of her mental shield like a sun’s corona.
He’d learned the hard way that taking a stun meant for her intended target just egged her on. He hated feeling helpless.
Maybe compliance would appease her. He put down the scanner and grabbed the shovel on his way to the mess.
Sutrio checked her stilts, reset the emergency cutoff, then grabbed the cutter’s handle and pulled. Where it had been cutting freely before, now it fought her efforts to pull it from the gray rock. Rocking it back and forth and a final, two-handed jerk freed it. She powered down the blade and turned away from the wall.
Something vibrated under his feet. More crystal shards fell, and then a whole section of gray rock wall to the left fell away, leaving a hole big enough for three people to walk through without ducking. Through the swirling clouds of dust, he could see faintly glowing lights and part of a wall of another tunnel.
He froze, watching Julke and the others for a cue on whether to start running.
“Admin,” said Lhap Cho, “unexpected tunnel interface in work area Zed-1012-Yang-927. The tunnel looks really old but intact. We’ll need map bots and the big scanner. Workgroup 17-C and equipment standing down.”
“What?” Dajoya squawked. “It’s just a little hole. They can work around it.” Her cajoling tone sounded like a sanctioned gravball player trying to work the referee.
Lhap Cho’s eyes narrowed. “You go right ahead and ask Operations for a safety procedure variance.” His expression morphed into a sarcastic snarl. “We haven’t had a blowout in, what, three whole days?”
Dajoya growled and stomped away. Her fingers twitched and her rage corona flared. Her gaze landed on Sutrio. “This is all your fault!”
In an eyeblink, Dajoya’s stunner was drawn and Sutrio toppled, falling forward in her stilts and knocking Julke over in a tangle of limbs.
