by Scott Moon
Thaddeus swore under his breath. He shook his head, and walked toward Ryan and Amanda. “This is looking less and less like a criminal enterprise and more like a war. SagCon has enemies that could finance an attack like this. I think you should evacuate Raven’s Haven. Make an appeal for sanctuary in Darklanding,” Thad suggested.
The frontier scientists looked at each other, communicating with tense body language and facial expressions. Neither seemed ready to make a decision. Thad thought they were also holding back information. It seemed to be a tradition in all parts of the planet.
“We have some time,” Amanda finally said. “Now that Rings has his reinforcements, he will secure his control over the crash site. We’ve taken some resources that might buy us passage. The rest of it is lost to us now.”
Ryan shook his head. “It’s not enough.”
“Nothing is enough if you’re dead,” Sledge said from where he stood watching Transport Canyon.
Amanda never looked away from Thaddeus.
He searched for answers in her eyes but could not reach her. “At least evacuate the children. I fought on Centauri Prime and know the devastation wrought in a real battle. If this turns into a combat zone, there will be no way to protect families.”
Amanda nodded.
“Why does this guy hate Raven’s Haven so much?” Thaddeus asked.
“He asked us to help salvage the train wreck before they attacked it, and we told him no,” she said.
Ryan jerked around and stared at her in surprise.
Thaddeus held up his hand to forestall the interruption. He stepped closer to Amanda. “You’ve been in contact with this White Skull character?”
She looked at her feet in shame. “He promised to leave the rest of the town alone.”
The admission had been in a low voice, but everyone heard it. Ryan stalked back toward the town. Sledge laughed.
“Doesn’t seem like he’s a man of his word,” Sledge said.
“This is important, Amanda. Do you really think they will secure the site of the train wreck first?” Thaddeus asked.
She nodded. Tears leaked from the corner of her eyes. “Only three things are important to Stacy Rings. Power, money, and winning.”
“I bet he’s going to get all three this time,” Sledge said.
Thaddeus rejoined the SagCon SI on the highest portion of the rocks. “Are you going to stay in this fight once it starts?”
Sledge smiled broadly. “Yeah, I think I am.”
* * *
P.C. Dickles sat up in his cot. The room he slept in wasn’t much bigger than the cot, but he had a private dormitory, such as it was. In the corner was a small basin where he could wash up. Next to that was a footlocker with two neatly folded jumpsuits. He had bought them after the last windfall of overtime, thinking he would switch out his uniform more often.
It was an idea, at least. The thing was, he had to go through the decontamination shower scene in full gear whenever he went into certain parts of the mine. As a supervisor, that meant about every day. So his mining gear was about as clean as it ever would get, changing out or not. It wasn’t like the place had an excellent laundromat. He looked around the room, eyes well-adjusted to the dark after several hours of sleep.
“I guess I’m up,” he said to the room. After washing his face and then his armpits in the sink, he dried off and pulled on his gear.
The hallway he stepped out into wasn’t much taller than his cubicle. He came to an intersection and decided to head toward the warehouse and loading docks rather than the cafeteria. His mind was a tangle of emotions and worries, but what he couldn’t stop thinking about was the two unworn jumpsuits. As soon as this mess in Transport Canyon was over, he would take all of his extra stuff to his apartment in Darklanding. And then he would start spending more time there.
There was no place he would rather be but mining, discovering all of the planet’s secrets no matter how deeply they were hidden. But he was a human, not an Unglok.
He held his left hand up to shade his eyes as he emerged onto the open area where mountains of ore had been stacked. In the early days of the crisis, it had been packed into crates and locked. Now there were piles of raw ore spilling everywhere. The warehouse was completely full. They had been able to store more inside by leaving the doors open so that it could flow outward when there was too much.
Still thinking of his extra jumpsuits, he walked toward the ledge that overlooked Transport Canyon. He wondered if he could store some of the exotics in his footlocker. Not for himself, but until it could be taken to Darklanding and exported from the planet.
The clouds of A19 were thinning. He could see more of the canyon than he could the day before. Something about the scene was wrong, but he could not describe what it was. There seemed to be an unusual amount of activity down there.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Heavy Transport Ships
Thaddeus counted each of the children as they crammed into Sledge’s vehicle.
Ryan hesitated at the door to the cockpit. “I should stay. I know the canyon better than anyone.”
“No. I need Sledge here with me. Amanda can show me where the rest of the townsfolk are and get them out before they’re hunted down and put to work by Ring’s goons,” Thaddeus said. “I’ll get these to safety. If anyone gives you a hard time at Darklanding, say that you’re all temporarily in my custody. That should buy you some time until we can figure out something more permanent.”
One of the scientific radios they were now using to communicate with beeped on Thaddeus’s belt. Sledge’s voice pushed through the static. “You better come have a look at this.”
Thaddeus pointed at Ryan. “Every one of these kids is your responsibility now. Don’t let them down.” He turned and jogged toward the observation point Sledge had set up.
There were about a dozen townsfolk who had returned from their scavenging operations. Thaddeus had placed them in observation posts and threatened them with arrest if they disobeyed his orders. It wasn’t the best way to inspire people, but he didn’t have time to build up goodwill.
When he arrived at the edge of town, he saw that there were several more that had struggled in with truckloads full of exotics.
He pointed at the driver of the first vehicle he came to. “Take that truck to the third building on the right and park it on the lines I painted there. We might need it for cover if this turns into a firefight.”
“Are you kidding me? This thing is full of exotics. We need to hide it until we have a way to sell it,” the driver said.
“It’s hard to sell anything when you’re dead,” Thaddeus said. “You know the White Skull raiders better than I do. Think about it. But think about it when you’re doing what I just told you to do.”
He started running even before he finished giving the order and soon reached Sledge’s position.
“This would be a lot easier if these dumb-asses would just evacuate everyone,” Sledge said.
“No argument there. What’s the emergency this time?”
Sledge handed him the best pair of binoculars in Raven’s Haven. “Look down on the far end of the canyon. More ships have landed. These look a lot bigger to me.”
Thaddeus agreed after the first glance. There were ten of the new space vessels, each three times the size of the initial wave of reinforcements. “I think they brought too many ships. There’s no way they’ll fill those with what’s scattered from the train wreck.”
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Sledge asked.
Thaddeus cursed. “They probably didn’t stop mining when the train stopped running. They’re not just here for the train wreck, they’re here for everything.”
“Here comes your girlfriend,” Sledge said.
Thaddeus turned to look.
Amanda walked briskly toward him, took him by the arm, and led him away from Sledge. “I talked to one of the drivers. That girl you’re looking for is near the oasis. There’s at least one squad of the White Skulls betwe
en us and her.”
Thaddeus looked at Sledge, who was still watching the new arrivals across the valley. Thad stared into Amanda’s eyes. “Why didn’t you tell him?”
“I don’t like him. He’s a big, cocky jerk,” she said.
“Some people probably think he’s jovial,” Thaddeus said.
“Not funny,” she said. “If you want to tell him, go ahead. I’m just telling you she’s out there.”
Thaddeus was trying to decide what to do with the information when he realized she was hesitating. He looked at her until she talked.
“The canyon wolves have a den near the oasis. If the White Skulls don’t find her, and I don’t think they’ll treat her well if they do, then the wolves will. They’re always hungry. Normally hunt at night, but she’s right there in front of them if she’s where Zach says he saw her last.”
“Why didn’t Zach pick her up?”
“He says he couldn’t get to her,” she said. “What are you going to do?”
“Talk to Zach.”
* * *
Thaddeus found the man standing behind one of the fuel trucks. This one didn’t carry any recovered materials and only served to keep the other trucks moving. It was parked at the far side of town, where they didn’t expect there to be fighting. The driver had other jobs to do now that his mobile fueling duties were over. Somehow, from what Amanda said, Thaddeus knew right where he would be.
The truck looked ancient. The giant wheels were scarred from years of driving over rocks and other rough terrain, and more recently from smashing down bits of the train wreckage. He thought the paint had been white, but now was a sort of reddish-brown—darker near the bottom and around the wheel wells. He looked at the cab, but didn’t see any obvious signs of someone inside. Walking with purpose but not too quickly, he circled the vehicle.
Storming in and telling the man to do his job would only frighten the coward and send him running. He might not be a coward, Thaddeus thought.
What he found when he came around the back of the truck was a middle-aged man with a weathered face and tired eyes. The truck driver leaned against the back bumper, one hand supporting his weight and the other hand holding a metal flask.
“What you got there?” Thaddeus asked.
“Whiskey.”
“You all right?”
“Tired as hell. Thinking about that girl.”
Thaddeus wasn’t sure about the man or his motivations, but thought maybe he was just someone stuck in a hard place. That didn’t make him any less pissed off that Zach left a young girl in the middle of a desert surrounded by wolves and raiders. He took a deep breath, then let it out. “Amanda says she was near the oasis.”
Zach nodded. “Can’t drive the fuel truck anywhere near that place. It’ll sink in the sand. She looked like she could run faster than I can, for sure. She had one of them damn pig-dogs with her. Those things scare me more than the wolves do.”
“What about the White Skull raiders?”
Zach took a sip of his whiskey. “Well, there’s only one squad, but I happen to have seen these guys work. The only ones rougher than them is White Skull’s personal crew. They come down hard and fast on anybody that crosses them.”
Thaddeus considered the information.
“I seen one full squad, armored and rested. Look like they were breaking camp. Two guards on the perimeter, to packing up gear, into going over some kind of map tablet.”
“Did you serve?”
Zach nodded. “I drove for mechanized infantry. Seen combat. Never went to Centauri Prime or anything like that, but I got a medal once.”
“Thanks, Zach. What’s it gonna take for a ground pounder like me to make it to that oasis?”
Zach considered him. “You look fit for an officer type. I bet you get there in less than an hour, depending on if that big horse going with you can run at all.”
Thaddeus laughed. “I’ve got a feeling he can move quicker than you might think.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Showdown
“You don’t even have to ask,” Sledge said. “Once we pick up the girl, we can deal with these Jack-wagons together.”
Thaddeus checked his blaster, then pulled his hat tighter on his head. “All we have to do is take out twelve men in full armor, steal a girl who’s probably gonna run from you as soon as she sees you, get my stupid dog-pig to listen, and then fly the White Skull’s ship to the mines and save the day.”
“Easy,” Sledge said. “Maybe you and I will get along after all.”
Thaddeus held his good humor in check. He wished he had his ground forces company with him. He could almost hear their pre-combat shenanigans. This wasn’t the time to laugh and cut up. Ruby needed them, and so did the miners. He was beyond caring about the stolen exotics, but knew it would be best if he could prevent that as well.
They ran along a dried-up creek that was nearly invisible from a distance. If one of the airships made a patrol, it would easily see them, but for now, they were moving well toward the oasis. Sledge set the pace a bit slower than Thaddeus would’ve liked. He was glad he had been doing calisthenics and flipping tires in the vacant lot between the Mother Lode and the industrial area behind the saloon.
“What did she do?” Thaddeus asked.
Sledge jogged a few more steps, catching his breath before he spoke. “It’s not what you think.”
“I think you have more combat experience than any SagCon special investigator I’ve ever met. I also wager you’re not the only one looking for her. So what did she do that justified sending one of SagCon’s top guns after her?”
He looked at Thad with the sly smile Thad was starting to get used to. “It would be better if you just left it alone. It’s not what you think.”
“Let’s stop here. I want to go up top and get our bearings,” Thaddeus said. He climbed to the top of the creek-gully and scanned the area with binoculars. He decided to drop something on the SI that the man probably didn’t see coming. “I ran into her brother a while back.”
“Ike? Now that’s interesting,” Sledge said. “He’s damaged. How long ago was that? I should have been updated on his whereabouts if he had been seen.”
Thaddeus put away the binoculars. “You just missed him. How about you answer my question?”
“Are you trying to protect her?”
Thaddeus stared him straight in the eyes. “Yes.”
For once, the big SI allowed his face to be serious. “Okay, good. She’s done some things that can’t be undone. But that’s not why I’m after her. SagCon wants her. The law wants her. I work for both, but the family is who sent me.”
“You came all this way just to take her home?”
Sledge exhaled. “All of this is going to depend on her. I’ve been in some bad places, including my share of battles on Centauri Prime. I’ve been scared a lot of times. The most scared I’ve ever been is when dealing with this kid. She’s smart, fast, and more ruthless than you think. So if I can grab onto her, I will. I’ll take her home, but she’ll probably escape at least three or four more times.” He nodded toward the canyon. “Why do you want to protect SagCon’s financial interest so bad?”
Thaddeus answered without hesitation. “I know the miners up there. They’re not going to let somebody take all that they worked for. They’re not soldiers and they’re not armed. It’ll be a bloodbath. I want to help them just as bad as I want to help Ruby.”
“Noble. Stupid, but noble. We have to be smart about this.”
Thaddeus slipped back into the dry creek and led the way around the oasis to where Zach had described seeing Ruby and Maximus.
The plan was simple. He hoped for at least one lucky break and got it. Just as it was starting to get dark, he saw a pair of eyes staring at him through the gloom. They were low to the ground like a wolf…or a pig-dog-thing. “Maximus, is that you?”
The creature moved forward without a sound.
“What’s that smell?” Sledge asked.
“Maximus
,” Thad said. He reached forward and scratched the creature behind its ears until it squinted its eyes and made an odd sound from deep in its throat.
Sledge looked on skeptically. “Are you sure it likes that? You could get your hand bit off. I’ve heard those things are omnivores.”
Thaddeus patted the animal’s head. He squatted down and spoke carefully. “Can you take us to Ruby without being seen?”
Maximus turned around and headed toward the end of the creek. The direction it went wasn’t what Thaddeus would have chosen, but he followed the creature anyway.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Sledge said. “We’re heading away from the oasis.”
“Maximus!” Thad hissed. “Take us to Ruby.” He saw the dog’s head shaking side to side and imagined it was rolling its eyes. Instead of stopping to argue or turn around, the animal picked up the pace.
“I’m not feeling the humor in this situation,” Sledge said as he laughed under his breath and searched the night for potential ambush.
Maximus crouched lower as it ran until it slowed down.
Thad wanted to think the animal was taking them around a guard post or dangerous terrain. Every minute that passed made him doubt the animal was intelligent. He half-expected the thing to crawl into an abandoned animal den and take a random nap. It never looked back, or side to side, or stopped.
Sledge quit complaining. In his head, Thad created several backup plans and alternate routes back to the oasis but continued to follow Maximus. “You better know what you’re doing, mutt.”
Maximus dusted him with a silent but deadly fart in response.
“Oh my God!” Sledge wheezed.
“It takes getting used to. I really hate this creature sometimes,” Thad said.
Maximus slowed to a near-stop and crept forward like a cat. Thad and Sledge low-crawled after him to stay lower than the lip of the creek that was nearly gone now.