“Oww, darn it,” she said softly. “I swore I'd seen the last of these filthy crawlspace years ago.”
Stephanie paused as she watched a gash on her mother’s arm seem to close immediately. Within seconds the wound had already begun to scab over and heal.
“How is that possible?” she asked.
Liz stopped, recognizing what her daughter must have witnessed. She didn’t want to take the time to explain, but she also couldn’t think of a way to gloss over the subject.
“Remember I told you to eat your fruit snacks?” she asked rhetorically. “Eating the fruit from the tropical rainforest can enhance your own genetic strengths. It turns out my side of the family are fast healers. Our scientists found a way to concentrate this effect and speed the development of this genetic change. It has kept me alive a few times now, including a recent scuffle with an old friend of mine.”
Stephanie accepted the information at face value. It helped her make sense of the crazy world she had been thrown into.
“So the bird people, did they get this way from eating the fruit? Or the miners?” she questioned her mother.
“No, not in that exact way,” Liz answered. “Their change was the result of the experiments that created the planet’s biomes. Unfortunately for them, their changes were far more immediate and excessive.”
“Are they stuck that way?” Stephanie asked.
Elizabeth was hearing the clock ticking in her mind to keep moving.
“I’m not sure,” she answered vaguely. “We need to hurry Stephanie. We can talk more later.”
Stopping before reaching another grate, Elizabeth changed the subject.
“The door in this hallway leads to quarters of my dear friend Gregory,” Elizabeth informed her. “The two guards outside the door give me hope he is alive. Can you use your ability to distract them somehow?”
Stephanie considered an effective ruse then projected her thoughts upon the two men. Liz couldn't ascertain why, but both men looked in opposite directions clearly searching for something. Suddenly they sprinted opposite directions down the hall. Their voices faded as they continued down the hall giving an order to stop. After a few seconds their commands could be heard again as they returned. Both warriors nearly ran into each other at the doorway. Seeing one another they drew their weapons. Their picture of an illusionary bandits had been given to each other, both firmly believing they had caught up to the ruffian.
“Put the blaster down!” the young guard commanded, raising his pistol toward the veteran.
The old guard knelt down as though placing his weapon on the ground. He instead quickly fired his weapon, striking the young "bandit" in the chest. He slumped to the floor, unconscious. As the elder guard pulled his Ksync off his belt and was about to speak into it, he stopped. A look of worry came over his face as he stared down an empty corridor. Slowly he knelt down and put his Ksync on the ground along with his plasma pistol. The guard then kicked both of them away. After that he raised both of his arms up in the air saying, “Please don't shoot me, I've three children that need me.”
Stephanie continued to focus her gaze on the guard below, but said to her mother in an emotionless voice, “Drop down now.”
Elizabeth slid the grate aside and dropped down from the shaft. Moving quickly, she picked up the younger guard's plasma pistol and aimed it at the kneeling warrior. Firing a stunning shot she knocked him unconscious, his body spread across the floor.
Stephanie dropped down to the corridor soon after, checking the pulse of each man.
“They're alright,” she said to Elizabeth who had already moved to the doorway after grabbing a card from the nearest guard.
Elizabeth waived the card across the screen of the vidcomm and the door to Gregory's quarters opened.
“Bring them inside,” Elizabeth told her daughter.
Sitting on a modest couch in the middle of a small living area was an elderly man, clearly in the last years of his life. Both legs and his left arm were in a crude cast, the sight only eclipsed by the dark bruises on his face and head. His reason seemed intact though, as evident by his speech.
“Great Caesar's Ghost,” he uttered with a stare of disbelief. “You are alive. I wasn't dreaming when I spoke with you on the vidcomm.”
Moving to the old man Elizabeth gave him a smile and a gentle tap on his right arm.
“What did he do to you Gregory,” she said with a voice of concern. “He'll pay dearly for this transgression if it's the last thing I do.”
“Don't fixate on the livelihood of a man with so few days left,” he replied. “You must find a way to toss that demagogue from our city.”
Before Gregory could continue, his eyes stopped upon Stephanie.
“I never knew you had a sister, Elizabeth. What is her name?” Gregory asked.
Masking a smile Elizabeth replied. “You know better you old fool. This is my daughter, Stephanie.”
The man seemed to think for a moment before acknowledging her.
“From Earth, Stephanie your daughter from Earth,” he repeated. “Then has he come as well?” Gregory added.
Elizabeth nodded.
“Even the bearers of that banner are a fair sight compared to our current lot,” Gregory added. “Do what you must and seek aid where you can. This tyrant must be stopped.”
“My father came here to bring Dominic to justice,” Stephanie said standing tall. “He won't rest until Dr. Andreou answers for his crimes.”
“She sounds full of fire and fury,” Gregory commented to Elizabeth. “Reminds me a bit of another young lady I've had the fortune to know. Perhaps there's malleability yet in the mold for her.”
Elizabeth gave the man a smile and a quiet response. “Perhaps if time allows. For now, I need to know how deep Dominic has sunk his dagger into the city. I need your help to take back what is rightfully ours.”
#
Moving to the room’s entrance, John knelt down and then peeked around the corner. Several paces across the room were several miners. They were pulling a short flatbed cart, likely used to move heavy machinery. On this flatbed, however, rested the vehicle they had used to travel through the mines. John couldn't be sure, but he thought he saw the two small people who had run from him. One of them was tossing a ball in the air as he walked.
A much different sight grabbed his eye from another corner of the large hall. Here several women were tending to injured miners. John’s heart sank as he could tell several of them were children of various ages. They looked to have suffered wounds ranging from burns to lacerations. He had to look away as a rage began to rise from his core. Who were the monsters here? Was it really these people with their strange adaptations, or those who would work children in such conditions?
He had witnessed it back on Earth. During his assignments abroad it was far too commonplace to see children leaving their homes to work hundreds of miles away in a factory or mine. In the company of total strangers they would work twenty hours a day in decrepit conditions. They hoped to send what little money they could back home to their loved ones. It was a heartbreaking pattern to see repeated time and again. One more example of how hard it was to comprehend such tragedy until it was personal. One more example of people ignoring injustice while their pockets filled.
If he was going to have any way to help these people, he was going to need their help first. Believing his best chance of escaping rested on the flatbed, John decided to try to communicate with them.
Crawling into the room, he raised his hands up at his waist and said, “Ni hao.” The group of miners stopped, quite surprised at his appearance. “That's all I know, sorry.” John couldn't bring himself to admit he had only known that from reading fortune cookies at Chinese restaurants.
“If you only knew I'm trying to help here,” John explained in futility. “If I just had my Ksync!” John pictured the language translator on the small device, wishfully thinking he had one. A wish that he didn’t recognize was shared.
; The miners began talking with each other, their voices were deep and guttural, but they were clearly using a form of Chinese. One of the miners climbed up on the flatbed. He reached into the cart and pulled out all the clothing and gear they had changed from. After dumping everything on the ground below, he finally stopped and made a sound of satisfaction as he pulled a Ksync out of the cart.
The miner hopped down and slowly approached John. Carefully he extended his clawed hand toward John, with the Ksync dangling off one of the points.
“How did you know?” John asked rhetorically.
John slowly reached up and took the offered Ksync.
Still confused, John brought up the language translator on the Ksync and selected English to Chinese. He then chose “speaker” and “take turns” under options.
“Hope this works,” John said out loud before realizing the Ksync would pick up his voice and translate it. The device at once enunciated his words in a standard Chinese dialect.
Hearing his Chinese, the group became quite excited. Some of them pounded items they had on the ground while others raked their claws together like rhythm sticks. The miner who had handed John his Ksync then spoke to him in Chinese.
The Ksync paused a second then beeped. It was followed by a rough English translation, “You're talking box speaks our language well.”
“How in the world did you know to get this?” John asked.
The miner replied, “It entered our thoughts like a dream, but we were awake.” He motioned toward the cart. “I saw this box in my head and knew it would help us talk. Then I remembered seeing it when we searched the machine.”
“You know, sometimes you're crazy ex isn’t so crazy,” he laughed to himself. “I should have led with my tongue instead of my fists.”
The miner looked confused.
John waived his words off, interjecting. “Don't repeat that to anyone. In fact I think we just had a faulty translation.”
Transfixed on the language lesson, John had tuned out the moans of the injured. As his perception relaxed he heard the cries of the children once again. John requested. “Please, let me search my gear. I had some medical supplies in there that could help.”
After the translation, the miner in front of him stepped aside. John jogged over to pile of equipment. Locating the medical pack they had taken for the ride, he opened it up. Glancing through it, satisfied it was in good shape, John then turned back to the miner.
“Do you have a doctor, a nurse, someone that can use this?” he asked.
One of the elderly looking women tending the injured miners spoke up. “I remember the days we had such things. Back when we drove the excavators and the dump trucks, we were trained for emergencies. I will try my best now, but those old ways required things I don’t have.”
“Well maybe you’ll remember some of these supplies,” John replied, carrying the medical bag over to her.
She let out what could have been a gasp as she rummaged through the pack with her claws.
“Some of this does look familiar,” she settled on. “Bless you for coming. It pains me to watch these young ones come to me for help.”
Looking at the hurt children, his thoughts drifted to his own daughters. He couldn’t imagine living in a place where such injuries were commonplace.
Turning back to the miner who had helped him, he asked, “What’s your name?”
“Shu Han,” the miner said.
John walked up to him and put his hand on the miner’s shoulder. “Shu Han I promise you I’ll do everything I can to stop these injuries. First, I need your help to reach New China.”
“Stranger,” the miner responded, “you cannot stop this. We toil in these mines in exchange for our lives. Without the blood ore we mine, we would have nothing to trade for our food.” The miner pointed toward the smaller pipeline he saw in the beginning of his journey. Examining the pipe John could see its true function. Two nozzles extended from one section of the pipeline. He watched as one worker extracted water from one of the pipes and then oatmeal (or something looking like oatmeal) from the other.
John shook his head at the realization of the servitude these miners existed in.
“I’m not sure who is running this place, but it’s time we renegotiated your contract,” John told Shu Han.
Moving over to the pile of equipment again, John lifted his MARC suit out of the pile.
“First things, first,” he said throwing it over his shoulder. John looked for a good place to change. “I can’t strike fear in the hearts of men wearing this toga.”
*
Chapter 46 This Land is Mine Land
The sensors in the duck detected movement from the group of armored vehicles. It sounded an audible alarm and a flash on the vidcomm as it was programmed to respond.
Tyler sat up in his seat, having temporarily been lulled into a daze by lack of sleep and inactivity.
Casting aside his usual banter, Tyler quickly assessed the situation and gave a report.
“We have movement,” he warned. “Looks like a diamond formation with heavies at the tips. Taking point are a half dozen speed buggies running a sweep in front of the convoy.”
Kyle responded to Tyler's description.” Are there sweepers in the back or just the front?”
“Looks like sweepers in the front only,” Tyler clarified. “They're on a firm heading for the mining complex, ETA twenty minutes.”
“Good work Tyler,” Ashley replied. “What's the play Kyle?”
“We need to take out the heavies,” Kyle replied. “They're the only ones with enough punch to level that complex you're in. With those sweepers out in front, I can't send in my mines. If you try to send in your drones to take care of them, they'll be shredded by those pulse cannons on the dome… which means they're all going to be on top of us before we can start fighting.”
“Sounds like you could use a way out that mess,” interrupted a familiar sounding voice over their comm channel.
“Captain?” Ashley called back over the comm.
“I sent you on a thief's mission, instead I find you testing fate with a small army,” Captain Sterling said disapprovingly.
“What's your position Joker?” Kyle referred to the captain by her call sign.
“Bulls eye one forty, eighty kilometers, angels fifteen, Lieutenant,” she reported back. “No need to paint anything. I brought my own. Just call a target.”
“Our remotes are pinned by direct fire along the watchtower,” he informed the captain. “We could use some relief.”
“Roger that, Wilco out,” she ended the exchange.
A short time later two fighters could be heard in the distance. The winds howled as they blazed across the terrain in the blink of an eye. Each plane launched a volley of missiles before banking away from the city. The missiles approached the city’s defenses bringing its cannons to life with a new purpose. Two missiles exploded in the sky before the remaining ones split again into several smaller streams. The cannons strained to catch the incoming volley before reaching them but failed. One by one, the defensive turrets exploded, sending shock waves through the upper levels of the dome.
“Ashley, send in the bobcats while they're off-guard, before it's too late,” Kyle instructed her.
She replied in a melodic voice, “Right through the gate...hey, that rhymes.”
“Even Dylan had to start somewhere I suppose,” Tyler commented, having heard the exchange over the comm.
“Who's Dylan?” Glennay asked.
“How is it you Americans can't remember your greatest songwriters?” Tyler replied.
“She only listens to Loretta Lynn,” Ashley cut in, still hoping to find the time to look her up.
An old-fashioned computer drive went whizzing past Ashley, clearly meant to warn not injure.
“Hey, I'm trying to drive here,” Ashley shot back hoping to avoid more flying computer parts.
Like lions woken from the grasslands of Africa, the bobcat mining machines roared
to life. Ashley and Glennay had several screens positioned around them each virtually tied in to the controls of the machines. They paused a moment as the unsettled dust outside the complex obscured their vision. Once cleared, Glennay swung the bucket of her excavator to its front. Straightening the arm like a lance, she imagined the faces of their attackers when they saw it charging at them.
Ashley threw her loader into second gear. By the time it hit fourth gear, even a heavy assault tank would be squashed like a tin can in a compactor. Simultaneously, she wound a pair of high wall miners in the direction of the oncoming sweepers. The miners had their giant chainsaws locked in front of them, forming a terrifying counter for any lightly armored truck.
Glancing over to Glennay, Ashley reminder her. “Go for the lead heavy, I'll take care of the sweepers. Hopefully Kyle can take out the rest.”
In his homemade bunker outside, Kyle surveyed an action map of the scene upon his workstation. Ashley's miners were headed directly for the sweepers. If they could punch a hole through, Glennay's excavator should be able to open up a gap in the diamond formation through the lead heavy. It would just be a matter of guiding his hover mines through the gap and blowing the formation apart from the inside. His turrets should be able to clean up most of what was left-over.
Seconds passed like hours before the two sides engaged. The sweepers were designed to nimbly catch and destroy small vehicles and mines. Unfortunately for them, the high wall miners proved to be surprising agile in their own right. Moreover, their powerful chainsaws were designed to rip into the side of earth and stone walls, which translated into short work for them against the sweepers.
Kyle’s mines flew like mosquitoes over a stagnant pond. Keeping them in tight formation behind the loader, Kyle hoped to create an odd profile that would confuse the enemy's scanners. Seconds after the sweepers had been shredded, the loader hit the heavy tank at full speed. The two titans collapsed in on one another as both refused to give way. The resulting impact sent debris shooting straight into the sky like fireworks.
Curious Sols (The Sol Principle Book 1) Page 32