Page 30 of Escape from Nova Nine
She vanished as he was limping to the solardry. In moments, she returned with both his robe and hood as he stepped into the exoframe and connected it to his obstinate cybernetic leg. He slid his flesh-and-blood foot into the adaptive boot built into the frame, then sealed his robe.
In his office, built by previous wardens to impress, he pulled on his hood, then pinged Taiyang. She answered immediately. From the holo image’s background, she was in the weapons control center.
“I’ll assume you’ve confirmed our visitors aren’t an early delivery of our new supplies, and that our pharma partners know nothing about them.”
“Yes, sir. Three ships dropped out of transit seventeen minutes ago. Ship configuration is typical jacker. No identifiers, no comms, extra armor and weapons ports. We’re assembling the visuals now.”
Kanogan had known this day would come. Even with the vastly improved security measures he’d implemented, secrets were hard to keep forever. Growing a nearly forgotten black hole of a political punishment prison into a major mining operation using pharma money had inherent risks. He’d spent most of the first year’s pharma rent on improving defenses.
“Wake theSongbird. Let’s see if they go for it. And activate the transit point’s swarm.”
Taiyang touched a display with deft fingers. “Done.”
When he’d first arrived at Nova Nine, more than half the loading ship hangar had been occupied by a badly damaged warship from the Central League Armed Forces, complete with typical over-the-top design and an absurdly long name. Once he’d seen Nova Nine’s potential and promoted himself to warden via a few carefully timed disappearances, he’d ordered the ship towed to a spot near the transit jump point to act as a honeypot.
Taiyang sat up straighter. “Incoming message.” She touched a control.
“To whom it may concern,”a synth voice stated in Standard English.“We intercepted an equipment shipment addressed to Nova Nine. We are looking for someone and would like to negotiate a trade.”The message repeated in Mandarin. A brief holovid of several pallets of mine excavation machines accompanied the audio.
Taiyang’s face hardened. “I recommend destroying the intruders immediately. They already know too much.”
“No, not yet. They might have more ships on the way. The swarm isn’t big enough to handle multiple waves of attackers.” Besides, losing the equipment the jackers carried would set his timetable back at least half a year. His hip couldn’t wait that long.
He needed more information. “Bounce a reply via theSongbird. Ask them who they’re looking for.”
Taiyang’s expression went blank. “Respectfully, sir, they’re very likely guessing. We’ll be giving up the advantage of silence.”
That was the trouble with security people. Always risk-averse, and thinking they knew better than he did how to handle miscreants. “Send the message, Ms. Taiyang.”
The prompt answer was unexpected.
He stood. “Send the prisoners to lockdown immediately and ready our defenses. Get all the data you can on the intruders. And get the Interrogation Team to find out what makes that man so valuable.”
12
NOVA NINE FACILITY • GDAT 3243.125
Julke sat in the cab of the collection hopper and watched as Zade’s jig slowly emptied its contents into the chute. One more load and she’d run the compactor.
Exhaustion was slowing her down, but the press of time kept her going. So did the nutrient-rich stay-awake chems the mine’s medics handed out like after-dinner sweets. After all, awake workers were productive workers.
It had been four days since the life-altering discovery of the cavern of ships. She’d spent every non-work hour thereafter pulling together every resource and alliance she had to organize the prisoners into a run for the cavern of ships.
She regretted allowing the network she’d been knitting since her arrival at Nova Nine to fray. Despair and loneliness were poor excuses, but they were all she had. The big blowout a few ten-days ago had cost them prisoners with needed talents and knowledge. She couldn’t change the past, so they’d have to work around it.
Zade’s map was one of three critical keys. He’d not only successfully copied it, but figured out how to upload it to prisoner exosuit memory. Now their heads-up helmet display could show the whole map with the press of a control. It wasn’t perfect — zooming in and out on a given section took practice, and three-dimensional orientation on a two-dimensional display was confusing — but it gave them a fighting chance. She’d memorized it, and asked all the other filers to do so, too, but not everyone could follow a navigator’s map.
The second key was Lantham, who’d returned to the workgroup two days ago after his autodoc healing session. The gods of Chaos had been in a merciful mood. Their workgroup was still assigned to the rhybarium seam. The tunnel breach had only been sealed with a tacked tarp. The guards were increasingly absent, sent to chase multiple phantom comms signals and misbehaving map bots.
Consequently, with Zade and Sutrio working their asses off to maintain productivity, she’d been able to sneak Lantham into the cavern to see for himself. After his second, solo foray later that afternoon, he’d provided a list of the best ships to choose, and said the giant scaffold with ship platforms was a standard military configuration for its time. Based on the lines and cables connected to each ship, he believed the scaffold’s automated systems were powered by a stockpile of refined xeronium that kept the ships launch-ready. He also took on the task of making sure each ship got a pilot and a navigator. The assignments would undoubtedly change once they got their hands on the actual ships.
Prughal, the enviro systems specialist, said no enviro system of the era could have kept breathable air in the huge cavern for two hundred years. In their opinion, the ships themselves were supplying the oxygen, humidity, and temperature regulation. Doing so would have both saved money and kept the complex ship systems in running order. Julke had a plan to sneak Prughal into the cavern for a hands-on evaluation later that shift. It would take good timing and better luck, but these days, what didn’t?
No one felt confident that the ships had flux fuel for their transit drives. It would be a problem in the long run, but fully powered system engines would get them off Nova Nine and in a position to be rescued. Assuming her messages reached the right people.
The third key was opening the giant overhead airlocks. She was still working on that one.
Timing was also critical. While the cavern had thin but breathable air, the tunnels to it likely didn’t. The prisoners would need exosuits to get to the cavern. Therefore, the escape would have to be early in a work shift, when oxygen and water were fully charged.
