Raphael, she saw, had eaten little himself.
“Do you think it’s related to the ‘incident’?”
Victoria shrugged. “I don’t know what to think. Neither of the men with her actually saw anything, but Albert said he didn’t see how she could have fallen. She wasn’t even near the railing and he vouched for the integrity of the railing at that point.”
“But they were busy. I talked to them myself. They can’t say for certain that she hadn’t gone over to the railing for some reason. Maybe she heard something, leaned out to look?”
“Neither of the men mentioned hearing anything. Surely they would’ve said something if they had. And they were working pretty closely together, close enough I’d think they would have heard anything she had. Still, I suppose it’s possible—doubtful in my opinion, but possible,” Victoria said.
Raphael was silent for some moments. “The crew is going to wonder if there was any chance of foul play.”
Victoria glanced at him in surprise but said nothing, replaying the images in her mind. Finally, she shook her head. “There was absolutely no indication of any kind of scuffle. You said you talked to the two men. Did you see any signs indicating an altercation?”
Raphael shrugged. “I wasn’t looking for one. I assumed it was an accident.”
“Me too. But I knew Kichens well enough to know that there’s no way in hell either of those men, or even both of them together, could have managed to throw her over without her leaving a mark on them.
“Besides, we haven’t even been here a week. I hardly think that’s long enough to develop deadly animosity.
“And, before you suggest self destruction ... I can’t buy that, either. She had a psych evaluation before we left planet. If she’d had any kind of emotional problems, they would’ve caught it. Besides, as I said, I knew her.”
Raphael stared down at the cup in his hands. “All the same, the accident is just iffy enough to have the rest of the crew speculating on the possibility that she was thrown.”
Victoria sent him a wry look. “Roach.”
He nodded.
Victoria frowned. “Ordinarily I’d say a making a very public, very thorough investigation would satisfy everyone. But, if I call Quinton and Albert in for questioning, I’m afraid it’ll only cause more talk, not less, maybe even arouse suspicions where there were none before. I think we’re just going to have to play it by ear.”
They called off the search after the third day. Victoria made it a point to call on members from both crews to help her check out the accident site, hoping it would forestall the problem Raphael foresaw, but it was impossible to ignore the fact that tensions were building.
Victoria decided overtime was in order. If they were too tired to do more than crawl into their bunks at night, they would also, hopefully, be too tired to stir up trouble.
That seemed to work, to a degree, until the day Roach went missing.
Chapter Nine
Victoria’s personal problems should have been the least of her worries, should not have crowded her mind with unwanted thoughts and emotions. She’d lost a crew member—a well liked crew member, who had too many friends who wanted someone to blame for her death.
Beyond that, the habitat was crippled to the point that they had barely begun to limp along in mining and processing ore well into their second week on Kay and topping that was the fact that they were scarcely a wit wiser as to what had happened to the previous crew.
Victoria had had to let up on the crew after little more than a week. The overtime wasn’t making the crew too tired to fight. It was making them tired enough that paranoia was beginning to set in and tempers growing short.
She gave them a day off to rest and sent them back to a regular work schedule.
Overall, tensions seemed to ease up a little after that.
Unfortunately, Victoria’s stress level only climbed several notches higher.
As accustomed as she was to shelving her personal considerations and concentrating on the job at hand, her intimacy with Raphael had brought out something she’d previously managed to ignore—a strong emotional attachment. That bond only made her situation with Roach even more difficult. Whereas, from the moment she’d noticed his interest she’d felt a combination of physical revulsion, and the suspicion that Roach’s interest was predicated on a personal myth that he would be able to control her once they became intimate, she now had added to that a curious attachment to Raphael that made the possibility of having to bunk with Roach even more repellent.
And Roach was counting the days—publicly—despite his insulting remark about taking Raphael’s leavings, he made certain that everyone knew he’d staked a claim on being next in line to bunk with her, and that no one could remain ignorant of the day count.
His preoccupation not only unnerved her, it infuriated Raphael—a singular feat since Raphael was very difficult to ruffle under almost any other circumstance, creating just the situation that the Company had hoped to avoid when they’d established the rule of intimacy—territorial propriety.
Her stress leapt several notches higher when she discovered that her birth control had expired before she’d ever arrived on Kay--discovered it the hard way when Tuttle finally got around to running the routine debarkation check on the crew. It made it worse that she’d had no prior inkling of the difficult situation she was about to find herself in. Though Tuttle’s request to speak to her in private after the examination had immediately alerted her to trouble, it had not prepared her for the shock of her life.
“I just wanted to make you aware that your blood pressure is up—too much stress. You’re going to have to make an effort to control your stress levels.”
Victoria gave her a wry look. “Suggestions?”
Tuttle frowned. “I’d give you something to help, but ... I’d don’t know if it would be safe in your condition. I’m just a medic, not a doctor.”
Victoria stared at her blankly. “Tuttle, if there’s something I should know, tell me.”
“Your birth control implant expired six months ago.”
A wave of shock went through Victoria. “Expired? But ... wasn’t it checked before we left?”
Tuttle shrugged. “Apparently somebody overlooked it.”
Victoria’s lips tightened. “Or they discovered it at the last minute and decided it wasn’t worth delaying launch. Shit! I don’t suppose you were issued any since we weren’t supposed to be here more than six months?”
Tuttle looked away. “No. But it wouldn’t do you any good anyway.”
A flash of heat washed over Victoria, followed almost instantly by a flash of cold that left dizziness in its wake. She swayed, looked for a place to sit down. It was the last thing she remembered. When she woke up, she was lying on the floor. Tuttle’s concerned face swam into view. “What happened?”
“You ... uh ... fainted.”
Victoria sat up with an effort, holding her head. It felt as if it might explode any moment. “Did you say what I thought you said?”
“You don’t have a permit, do you?” Tuttle responded.
Anger surged through Victoria. “Why would I have a damned permit?”
Tuttle sat back on her heels. “This is really bad.”
Victoria laughed a little hysterically, but there was no humor in it. “Just let them try to penalize me for this, damn them! I’ll sue them for incompetence!”
“What are you going to do?”
“Now? Is there anything I can do?”
Tuttle sighed. “Not that I know of. To be honest with you, I’ve never been around anyone who was ... uh ... gestating. It’s completely beyond my training.”
Victoria thought about their precarious situation on Kay. “You are not to mention this to anyone. We’ve got problems enough. I don’t want everyone panicking because they don’t know if they can rely on me. Do you understand?”
Tuttle nodded, her eyes wide now. “It’s that bad?”
Victoria calmed he
rself with an effort and smiled wryly. “Our situation isn’t great. I’ll feel better when they get the communications tower up and running.”
Tuttle helped her to her feet. “You think Kichen’s death was connected to what happened here before?”
Victoria shook her head. “At this point, it doesn’t seem likely, but it was a freak accident, there’s no getting around that. I imagine everyone’s feeling about the same way you are—worried that there might be a connection, anxious about what threats we might be facing. That’s why it’s important no one have the additional concern about my health.”
Tuttle nodded, but she grasped Victoria’s arm as she turned to leave. “I wouldn’t have told anyone anyway.”
Victoria smiled. “Thank you for that.”
Victoria strode toward the door, anxious to remove herself from the clinic, uncertain of whether she most needed to put the potentially catastrophic information out of her mind, or if she needed to mull it over and look for a solution to her latest problem.
“Victoria?”
She stopped and turned, trying to keep the impatience from her expression.
“This isn’t something you’ll be able to keep secret for very long.”
Victoria smiled with an effort. “No, but hopefully long enough to resolve some of the other problems we’re facing.”
* * * *
The moment Victoria had been dreading was upon her. She stared down at the water in the access pool, trying to calm her jumping nerves.
“You don’t have to come,” Raphael said quietly.
Keenly aware of Roach, who was making his first excursion into the sea, as well, Victoria set her jaw and leapt in. “I have to check the situation myself,” she said when she’d caught her breath from the abrupt immersion in the chilly water.
Raphael’s brows rose, but all he said was, “Ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Victoria responded. Controlling her chattering teeth with an effort, she dragged in a deep breath, ducked beneath the waves and swam in the direction of the lights that indicated the mine area. Instinctively, she held her breath as long as she possibly could. When she began to feel the urge to breathe, she stopped abruptly, panic washing through her. Raphael caught up to her, wrapping his arms around her.
Just breathe.
I can’t. I can’t do this. I have to go back.
You can. You’ve done it before.
I’m ... scared.
I know. It’ll be all right.
Despite his soothing words, Victoria struggled against his hold, becoming more and more desperate to retreat to the habitat. Finally, when she found she couldn’t shake his hold, and she couldn’t hold her breath any longer, she breathed. The sensation was indescribable and her panic only escalated for several moments before she finally filtered enough air through her prosthesis that her panic began to subside. She clung to Raphael then, where before she’d fought to free herself from him, finding comfort as she slowly adjusted to the artificial gills.
Finally, she pulled away self-consciously and looked around.
The miners nearest where they were looked away, allowing her the comfort of some doubt as to whether or not they’d witnessed her display of weakness.
Embarrassed as she was, when she looked around and found that two of the miners were holding Roach down while he fought them like a madman, her discomfiture subsided fractionally with the knowledge that she wasn’t the only one who’d had difficulty with the transition. Perhaps, she’d handled it a little better as well.
She saw that Raphael was smiling at her. What?
For an air breather, you handled it very well. I have to confess we felt more than a little panic when we found ourselves breathing air for the first time.
Victoria smiled back at him but shook her head. I don’t believe you. You’re just saying that to make me feel better.
I said it because it was true. I had to be manful about it because you were watching, otherwise ...
Victoria burst out laughing. Liar! You were so pissed off because Kichens fired on you, you forgot all about the transition. The thought of Kichens sobered her, and she changed the subject abruptly. Let’s have a look at the mine shaft.
Roach, she saw, had recovered sufficiently from his distress to assume the cockiness that was his trademark once more. They left him tallying the ore and complaining that there wasn’t more of it, and swam toward the opening in the floor of the sea bed.
The mouth of the shaft was huge, perhaps thirty feet by twenty. It began to narrow, however, as they swam deeper, traveling straight down for almost forty feet before branching out in every direction into shafts that ran horizontal to the ocean bed. Long before they reached the branch, Victoria became aware of the fact that she was not equipped to handle the increase in pressure for any length of time. Her chest and head began to feel as if a band cinched them, tightening as she swam deeper.
This is where we found the obstruction.
Victoria tread water and looked around. Just above the branch tunnels?
Yes. It’s why I needed you to come out with me, to look at it yourself so you could get a better picture of the situation. And also because I didn’t want to discuss this on the habitat where we might be overheard—it doesn’t look like a cave in. It looks like they deliberately sealed the shafts.
Victoria glanced at him. Any guesses as to why?
He shrugged. Just a feeling ... up until yesterday. Nothing to substantiate it, which is one of the reasons I didn’t mention it before.
And the other was?
We didn’t uncover anything that even looked like evidence until we finished clearing the last shaft late yesterday. Rubble had been piled in all four tunnels. These two, he pointed, were obviously speculative ... no sign of the ore, and no indication that any had been pulled from either one. Most of the ore came from a vein we located in this shaft. The other, apparently, yielded some, but petered out. The blockages were specific to these shaft openings, however, after we got the main tunnel cleared enough to come in for a look. I thought at the time that it was a peculiar circumstance that all four tunnels managed to catch enough rubble to block them completely. When we found no bodies, I thought it was even more of a coincidence that none of the miners had been trapped—a welcome coincidence, but still odd. When we opened the last shaft, though, we found things in the rubble that shouldn’t have been there if it was just a cave in ... refuse from the habitat, even some pieces of equipment. It looked like they’d run out of dirt and scavenged everything disposable off of the habitat.
They deliberately sealed the shafts? It was a purely rhetorical question, however, as Victoria pursued the implications. Jesus Christ! Whatever it was that killed them ... they must have uncovered it!
But they were alive, some of them at least, when they sealed the shafts, Raphael pointed out.
Which means they were too late! Whatever it was ... is, is already free.
Raphael nodded. We’ve searched every inch of the shafts. There’s no sign of anything in them now.
You’re certain of that?
As certain as I can be considering I have no idea what it might be. You want us to seal the shafts again?
Victoria considered it for several moments and finally shook her head. If we do, we’ll have to explain why and panic is an ugly, dangerous thing. If whatever it was is already free, there wouldn’t be any point in it anyway. And then we have to consider the possibility that we could let even more out if we sink another shaft. What we need to find out is what was down here to begin with.
Raphael nodded. The problem is, we haven’t any marine biologists with us, nobody that would have at least a clue of what to look for.
Victoria frowned. I’m no biologist, but it occurs to me that whatever it is couldn’t have been completely sealed off even before they sank the shafts. Otherwise, how would it get food? Unless it was in something like a hibernation state and had been trapped after it sought a safe place to hibernate.
> That’s a pretty long stretch—underwater hibernators? But if it’s a possibility, then we’d certainly not be any safer sealing the shafts—obviously it didn’t work for our predecessors.
Victoria shook her head. You’re thinking in terms of Earth creatures. One thing you can count on when you’ve been on as many worlds as I have is that there’s never any telling what sort of creatures might have evolved. There might be similarities—there often are, but there are always vast, unpredictable differences too. I can’t even begin to guess what sort of conditions might result in an underwater creature that would hibernate, but that doesn’t mean there might not have been conditions on this planet that would have produced such a thing. Anyway, it’s all guess work. There hasn’t been enough studies done on Kay to give us even an educated guess.
What we need to know, fast, is is whatever it is still active? If it is, we’ve got a real situation on our hands—the weapons the other crew had were inadequate protection against it and we don’t have anything different.
Until we figure something out, remind the crew as often as it takes to get their attention that they’re to stay alert for trouble at all times. We can’t afford to be lulled into a false sense of safety by the fact that it hasn’t attacked us yet, Victoria finished, deciding it was time to head back. The place gave her the creeps. It would have if it had been nothing more than a hole. The fact that there was, or had been, some dangerous creature, or creatures, living in the caverns made it that much more creepy.
We also can’t afford to assume this is the source of the threat, Raphael said thoughtfully as he followed her back up the mine shaft. It looks like they thought so, but they might have been dead wrong. The crew was attacked from above, not just from below.
Victoria paused as they neared the entrance once more. You think we’re looking for two different threats?
Possibly.
Victoria thought it over. It does seem like the most likely scenario. To attack from above, it would have to also have the ability to fly, or climb—besides being able to breathe air or water. It seems the possibility would be pretty remote that one creature would be capable of it. This planet is mostly water ... doesn’t seem like there’d be a logical reason for it to evolve in such a way. On the other hand, it’s also possible that they were attacked by some local wildlife, sent out a distress call and exposed themselves to predators of a different variety,” she pointed out. The survivors of the attack by the creature might have been taken by pirates, as we thought before.
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