"We have clearance to cast off from Alba Port Control," the Communications Officer reported.
"Acknowledge."
In his earphones, Commander Neal, again at his post as Exec in the Combat Center, announced that all crew stations and sections reported ready for space. Gravs, electricals, and all other systems were on internal, and the brow had been secured. Young Neal had not batted an eye when he learned that Morganen was taking the destroyer's hotseat once again. "Perhaps it's best, sir," he'd said softly. "For the Old Man's sake." Everyone in the squadron, it seemed, was pulling for Kendric Fraser, willing the expedition to succeed.
"Very well," Morganen said, looking around the bridge a last time. "Let's do it. Signal Port Control, release moorings."
Outside the destroyer's hull, magnetic clamps released and swung free.
"Helm, maneuver astern, slow." "Slow astern, aye, Captain."
The Gaidheal began drifting clear of the Alba Port orbital station.
TO: Agent Clarity, Gael Cluster FROM: HQ
MESSAGE: Urgent your mission terminated. Evidence here your operation known and under observation by TOG Security. Use underground railroad to effect escape immediately. Luck. Message ends. Decoded text of special message, transmitted from Military Intelligence Directory, Cathandra, Source: Classified: Most Secret, 21 Sep 6830
As it turned out, Kendric and T.C. had not far to climb. Once the lift carrying them from the bowels of the mountain had stopped, they had begun to worm their way up the tunnel shaft, scrambling in the dark from bucket to bucket. Within minutes, they heard shouts and voices, muffled in the darkness above them. They had begun to yell, and been answered. There came a final crashing sound, and then they were struggling up toward a radiance that was blinding when they emerged. The radiance turned out to be a battery of work lights arrayed across the cavern floor of the upper level, which was filled with crowds of slaves working under the urgent directions of a small army of slickered custies. They had been in the process of opening up the Level 3 ore lift when they'd heard the shouts of survivors and began using laser torches to open up the shaft.
Out of nearly seven thousand miners and custies, Kendric and T.C. were apparently the only two to escape from the gennarite mine's underground workings. They were not immediately aware of that fact, as many of the other slaves in the cavern had crowded in close, creating a babble of questions about how they had escaped and what had happened to the rest.
The slave miners working the volcano's several Hell Pits were actually a minority of all the slaves at the mining complex. Thousands were employed in the upper works alone, maintaining machinery, sorting ore sent up from The Pits, and loading the periodic star freighters that called at the port. Thousands more worked in conventional shaft mines in the mountain's flanks, while others labored with shovels and bare hands on the tailing heaps. Their job was to keep the black mouths of the lifts from the mountain's depths clear so that they could continue to vomit waste rock out of the mountain and down the slope.
Almost the entire work force on Grod had been mustered to the upper level cavern when word came that the tremor felt twice that morning had interrupted the flow of ore and rock from the Hell Pits. Their orders had been to recover any ore trapped inside the Level 3 lift once it froze. They had not expected to find two naked, burned, and mud-covered survivors climbing up the shaft toward them.
The senior boss on the site had conferred with his superiors by radio and then snapped out his orders. Both survivors were to be sent by aircar, handcuffed and under guard, to the Lynch Estates at once. Boss Lynch would want to see these two himself.
Lynch Estates was a complex of buildings on a cool plateau far from Mine 12. The aircar that bore Kendric, T.C., and their two underboss escorts raced high across broken and tormented terrain for an hour, while the horizon swallowed the swollen half-globe of Haetai behind them. With most of Haetai-Aleph's heat coming from the superjovian Haetai and with one side perpetually locked toward the giant, this place was one of temperature extremes. The side facing the gas giant was inhospitable desert; the side turned away was buried under glaciers kilometers thick. Between the two extremes was a broad band of climate mild enough to tolerate Humans, hotter toward the desert, colder toward the ice.
The tidal drag of Haetai flexing its satellite's crust as Haetai-Aleph pursued its slightly ell iptical orbit about its primary was responsible for the world's vulcanism. Though much of Aleph's surface was wracked by volcanos, a plateau at the edge of the ice fields was far enough from the major belts of activity that the air was completely free from the taint of sulfur fumes or drifting ash. The administrators of the Grod mines had their estates and villas here, three thousand kilometers from the sulfurous and volcanic plains where mountains burned and slaves labored in their Hell Pits. On the plateau, the air was fresh and chill enough to burn the throat, cool enough to discourage the vicious lifeforms of the steaming jungles at the base of Grod. The sky was a perpetually clear and starry twilight, even when the distant sun was high. Kendric shivered as he stepped from the aircar onto a small landing field near the villa of Boss Lynch. The sharp wind brought back sudden memories of ice fields on Pomona, of winters on Alba.
The Imperial Mine Supervisor had found it more convenient to remain on Narbon II, where he had his own villa. Because Addis Lynch managed Mine 12 with so much efficiency and economy, the Supervisor had assigned his Aleph quarters and rations to his subordinate. Supervisor Clovis only came to Haetai-Aleph when quota shortfalls or labor problems required his personal attention. Otherwise, he remained in the secluded comfort of his seaside retreat on Narbon II, while Lynch enjoyed more power and luxury than any Imperial slave had any right to expect. It was a good arrangement, and one that Addis Lynch was determined to preserve.
Their hands still manacled behind their backs, T.C. and Kendric had been escorted to the villa's reception room and into the presence of Boss Lynch. Lying sprawled across a green divan am id tropical trees and flowering plants, the man wore a light toga in obvious mimicry of TOG's ruling classes and nibbled from time to time at small tidbits from a silver tray. A trio of young women dressed only in bracelets and slender gold chains around their hips reclined on the floor at Lynch's feet, regarding the newcomers with large, dark eyes. At a nearby pillar stood a Ssora bodyguard, trying to be as unobtrusive as it was possible for a green-scaled and glittering-eyed, warm-blooded reptile. The guard's clawed hands grasped a sharp-edged pike that obviously had more than a merely ceremonial purpose. Kendric saw no other weapons, besides the bosses' virgas and knives strapped to their belts.
Boss Lynch looked down from his divan and smiled at T.C. and Kendric, then he threw back his head and laughed. "So, these are our two lucky survivors! Dirty, aren't they?"
Lynch laughed again, the fat on his jowls wobbling. "We'll need to summon the housekeepers to mop up after them! Ha! The only survivors, you say?"
"They claim they crawled up an ore lift, Boss," one of the underbosses explained.
"I can well believe it. Well...slave. Who are you?"
"Kendric Fraser."
The boss behind Kendric swung his virga in a whistling arc that hit Kendric's shoulder with a stinging crack. Kendric turned sharply, and the boss swung again, backhanded, the rod smacking across his face. Before Kendric could recover, the other man had grabbed Kendric's wrist where it was chained behind his back and twisted it over to read the number there. "Slave 12/30-023744, Boss." He released Kendric's wrist with a contemptuous shove. "And you, Pit scum, you address the Boss as Master!"
"Gently, Juvin. Gently! I'm sure our lucky survivors wish to... cooperate with us, no?"
"Yessir."
"Remove their handcuffs."
Lynch's attention shifted back to Kendric as the underbosses fumbled with the lock releases of their manacles. "You see, Seven-four-four, it seems that you are quite important, all of a sudden. Mine 12's TOG supervisor is coming here. We summoned him, of course, as soon as we learned of the disaster u
nderground. When we told him we had two survivors from The Pits, he expressed the wish to talk with you personally."
"Did you tell him that that whole damned mountain is about to blow?" Kendric said, rubbing his wrists where the handcuffs had chaffed them.
Lynch chuckled. "Barris, you told me on the radio that he was babbling something about lava and steam. Any evidence of that on the surface?"
"Naw, Boss. Not a thing."
"Any more quakes?"
"A few. Nothin' unusual, though."
"Well, I think we can discount that..."
"No! You're making a mistake!" Kendric said. He sensed Juvin raising his virga behind him. "Master," he added, through clenched teeth. "There is live magma down in that mountain, at least as high up as Level 3! You' ve got I don' t know how many thousands of people on top of that mountain right now. If you work fast, you can get them off before..."
"Nonsense! Lava in your Pit? You wouldn't have survived!"
"We climbed up on one of the conveyors to escape." He raised his right leg, turning slightly. Parts of his foot and calf were bright red, blistered in places. "But I carried this away as a souvenir."
He lowered his foot and stood straight. Kendric had not realized he had been burned until the pain had begun, some time after they had crawled from the lift on the upper level.
"Hmm... mmm..." Lynch rubbed his face with pudgy fingers. He looked up at the boss behind Kendric. "Well, perhaps the quake opened up a steam pocket. Juvin?"
"Could be. Boss. We was on the surface. But I do know all the lifts and elevators are dead...and I mean dead. Boyce said he thinks the quake might've twisted the machinery and plugged the shafts, down deep. We'll have to start new diggings if we're t'open her up again."
"Well, that's not my responsibility, thank Caesar!" Lynch looked back at Kendric with distaste pulling at the corners of his mouth. "But you, your story could...upset my sponsor. Come now, man, you couldn't have seen lava down there! You got burned by a little steam released from a hot pocket during the quake. You've been through a terrible ordeal, but you're safe now!" His mouth worked silently for a moment. "You saw no lava! You couldn't have!"
Kendric tried to keep his face impassive as he realized the man was terrified. But why?
"I saw what I saw...Master. I wasn't imagining it."
Lynch turned from Kendric and stared at T.C., as though seeing her for the first time. "Well, and what's this? Bring her closer."
The underboss grabbed T.C.'s arm and pushed her forward two steps. Lynch reached out and lightly stroked her face. Then, with a quick movement, he stripped her headband off. "You won't need that anymore, m'dear."
Kendric took a step forward, fists clenched. A warning hiss from the Ssora by the pillar stopped him.
"Ah!" Lynch said, continuing to stroke T.C.'s cheek. "This means something to you, then?"
"We're...friends."
Lynch guffawed, his eyes squeezing shut as he slapped his thigh with one hand. "Haw! Friends! I can imagine!"
Kendric stood frozen, his fists clenched at his sides. The Ssora was regarding him with a cold and utterly alien stare, claws fingering the shaft of his pike.
Lynch brought himself back under control, wiping at his eyes. "Ho! Haw! Well.. .I'll tell you what, Seven four-four. I'll strike a deal with you! Citizen Clovis wants to talk to survivors.. .and you're it. When he gets here, though, we're gonna tell him that sadly...very sadly, one of the survivors died of her injuries."
"No!" T.C. struggled, but the underboss still held her arms.
"Vira," Lynch addressed one of the girls at his feet. "You'll take charge of our new.. .guest."
"Now wait just..."
"Oh, you needn't fear! Your...ho! Friend! Your friend will be perfectly safe. Here! Vira!"
One of the girls stood up beside the divan, her eyes on the floor. "Master?"
"Vira, you take this...this lovely thing to the slaves' quarters. Get her cleaned up. And disinfect her! I'll stop by later."
T.C. tried to pull free from the man behind her. "No! Please! Let me stay..."
"You will go with Vira. Now, my dear.. .or shall I have Barris there escort you?"
Kendric watched helplessly as the slave girl led T.C. from the room. T.C. exchanged one glance with him before she was gone. He read sheer terror there.
"Now, Seven-four-four. I think you can guess what my bargain is. You will answer all of Citizen Clovis's questions when he gets here, won't you?"
"Yes...Master."
"And I don't want you.. .alarming him with your stories of lava on Level 3! You see, if he hears that, he might decide to close Mine 12, and that would be a tragedy! I've worked very hard to become what I am today. Very hard! If Mine 12 were closed down because of some crackpot story of lava in the underground works, the Supervisor might decide it better to shut down the whole operation!"
"I saw what I saw, Master. He'll have to shut it down! There's no way he can open a new mine there. If you're lucky, you might be able to get your people on the site off now"
"Shut Up!" The fat man was nearly in tears. "Listen, you! Deston Clovis is sick, see? That's why he's let me run things here while he stays at his villa on Narbon. And he's got a brother, Felis, who owns three other mines near Mine 12.
"Now old Clovis has sometimes talked about selling his Grod holdings to his brother and retiring. We can't let him do that! If he did he might pass me on to his brother, and young Felis Clovis is a sadistic monster who supervises everything personally... and works his slaves to death! You haven't seen the younger Clovis's mine works, but I have! He'd send us all back to the mines, or have us all tripoded. just because he felt he couldn't trust us!
"Great Caesar, even if old Clovis kept me on with him, it would be as a retainer or a household servant.../ have a good thing going here, damn you, and I'll not lose it!"
He stopped for a moment, breathing hard. When he spoke again, it was with a quiet, almost a friendly voice. "I wouldn't like to lose what
I've built here. You wouldn't like it, either! In the time allotted us here while old Clovis negotiated with his brother, we might be forced to do something.. .hmm.. .interesting to your 'friend.'" He looked thoughtful. "Yes, we might fix you up with a cell in the basement and let you watch. Barris is something of an expert at that sort of thing, you know. Then, when he was done, I'd have him start to work on you.
"All you have to do is cooperate and you and the girl will live. More than that, I can make things comfortable for you. Very comfortable! How would you like to be a boss.. .not like Barris and Juvin. Like me! You'll be my assistant! Would you like to live like I do? Good food.. .a nice place to live? Your pick of pretty girls off the slave freighters? You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Lynch smiled, and Kendric suppressed a shudder.
"Well?"
"You don't leave me much choice."
"I didn't intend to. Juvin! Take our guest to his quarters! Let him get cleaned up, and find something for him to wear. Make him look good for his interview with Citizen Clovis!"
As they led him off, Kendric thought how good it was to get away from Boss Lynch and his ugly smile.
Administrator Deston Clovis was a spindly wisp of a man with a sour face, icy blue eyes, and a dry cough that wracked him periodically, especially when he got excited. His interplanetary shuttle had grounded on the villa's landing field with a shrill hum of gravs some time after Kendric's talk with Lynch. Watching from a transparency, Kendric saw Lynch and a pair of armed bodyguards meet the supervisor at the port. One of the bodyguards had accompanied them to the house, while the other remained on guard outside the shuttle's hatch. Overhead, a sextet of TOG Spiculum fighters had dipped and wheeled. Fighter escort, Kendric thought. That fellow must he pretty powerful to rate an escort like that!
Moments later, Underboss Barris arrived to lead Kendric into the reception room. As they approached, Kendric could hear talking. "You can just leave it all to me, Citizen Clovis!" Lynch said smoothly. "We'll have Mine 12 up and run
ning again for you in no time! You won't have to trouble with it at all"
"I don't know, Lynch. I certainly admire your loyalty and energy, but I've been giving considerable thought to selling my holdings here and retiring to my villa permanently."
"Oh, you can't do that, Master! Our operation is moving so smoothly..."
"I know. And you've been a marvelous administrator on my behalf. I'm sure you will show my brother Felis equal dedication and loyalty!" He looked up as Kendric entered. "Ah, is this the survivor you mentioned?"
"Y...yes, Master."
"You are a lucky man, to have—." He broke off into a violent fit of coughing. "Ah! Excuse me! As I say, you are lucky to have escaped alone from that inferno."
"Yes, sir." Until that moment, Kendric had not foreseen what he would do in this interview. Something in Clovis's voice and eyes seemed to promise a measure of understanding. Perhaps it was because the man was so obviously ill. That made him more vulnerable, of course, and more Human. Maybe, just maybe, Kendric would be able to appeal to his reason.
Lynch was smiling again. "I was just telling Citizen Clovis that we would have no trouble digging out new Pits at Mine 12, or even opening the old...That we could be back in gennarite production in a few weeks! Isn't that right, ah, Seven-four-four?"
Kendric drew himself up straight and spoke in a steady, authoritative voice. "Sir...Mine 12 may be about to undergo a full-scale volcanic eruption. While escaping from Level 3 during a major seismic quake, I saw what was unmistakably molten rock moving from the elevator shaft into the level workings. I was burned by live steam while escaping and can show you the burns to prove it. If you move quickly, you may yet be able to rescue the people working on the surface at Mine..."
"Lies! Lies! He's...Forgive me, Master! The slave is deranged, obviously..."
"I am telling the truth, sir...as I told it to Lynch. This parasite is holding another worker hostage to ensure that I would lie to you. He has threatened to..."
"Barris! Take this slave away!"
Kendric heard Barris moving behind him. He dropped into a crouch, his right foot sweeping up, around, and back. The karate strike caught Barris just below the knee, snapping the man's leg back. Barris shrieked and collapsed on the floor, holding his knee.
William Keith Renegades Honor Page 24