"Tayana and I will search the bunker. The rest of you please gather the drones and parts, and bring them to the bunker. Be careful, there might still be live rounds on them. We will look at them later."
"You four, check out the mining equipment and see if you can figure out what they were mining.
Grant and crew headed towards what was left of the bunker. "Jesus, Sam, if I knew we had that much firepower we would have dusted this place sooner."
"I think you may have enjoyed that too much! Gonna have to keep a close eye on the armory. I don't want you out night hunting alone."
Grant smiled. As they neared the bunker Grant could not resist saying, "Sam, you have point."
"The hell I do! We go in together or we don't go in!"
Grant laughed and pushed past Sam, who was still reeling, followed closely by Tayana who stopped and looked Sam up and down, spun, glanced over her shoulder, and entered the bunker.
Sam muttered, "Well it's not fair, there's two of you." Then louder, "For the record, I was not afraid!"
Once they were inside Grant led the way. The roof of the bunker was mostly gone and several walls were demolished. Pieces were scattered around with parts of equipment and other items. The SHTF was very thorough and did not miss much. The bunker was the dimension of a four bedroom house in an average part of town, with fifteen feet high ceilings.
"I think we're standing in the central bay."
Sam, being his usual smart ass self, said, "Your grasp of the obvious amazes me, Grant. All the mechanical stuff sort of gives it away."
"The drones were stacked in here on these odd landing pads." Grant pointed to circular landing pads arranged in a grid pattern about eight feet off the ground with a ladder leading up to the walkway surrounding them. "We need to get a count of the drones. From the look of things, there were probably nine of them. I would hate to have one of them flying around rogue, randomly blowing stuff up. Let's keep looking."
Tayana motioned they should check out the door at the other end of the bay. Once inside they realized it was what was left of living quarters. It was sparse. A bed, a table with two chairs, and a small dressing area. It looked recently used by a slob, at best. Clothing was scattered about and dirty dishes were relocated by the blast. The restroom was little more than a hole in the floor and no place to wash up. "I hope the occupant was only here when they set up the mining compound. Now would not be a good time to run into them."
Grant and Sam ignored her comment. Grant said, "Let's go check out the other end of this place. There has to be a control room or something in here." The other end of the building had two doors. The one on the left revealed nothing but daylight. They slowly opened the remaining door leading to the room in the other corner. It was fairly preserved despite the massive holes blown into everything, everywhere. "Sam, this looks it was a control room. See the cables running up the wall? They probably connected to the communications equipment on the roof and up the tower."
There was a bank of computers, a small workstation, and a chair miraculously standing, but rolled to the corner. There were drawings on the workstation and a tablet. It would take weeks if not months to decipher once they got them back to the shuttle. Sam noticed a small room behind the computer bank and peeked inside. He let out a scream like a six year old girl being chased by her brother with a snake. He mustered the courage to say, "Uh, Grant, there's a body over here."
Grant immediately rushed to see what Sam had found, "Holy crap, it is a body!"
Sam shook his head and stepped inside the room. Whatever it was, it was no longer breathing and was fairly well ventilated, like the surrounding walls. "Have either of you seen anything like this?"
"Never have I seen such a hideous thing." Tayana looked disgusted at the sight of the dead alien.
The alien was larger than a human and had four muscular arms. Its face looked swollen and Grant thought he could make out multiple eyes, but they could be holes from the blast. It was brownish green and covered in rough bumpy skin. There were no ears to speak of and its nose was flat and very broad. The mouth was wide with two full rows of razor sharp teeth. The teeth were nasty and full of food pieces. "I guess this guy forgot his toothbrush." Its elephantine feet were covered in heavy boots and the body was mostly covered with tough thick clothing. Its hands were massive and filthy.
"I can't even imagine where those have been." Sam was almost as grossed out as Tayana looked. He hadn't seen any toilet paper or towels anywhere and his imagination went wild.
"We need to get as much of this to the shuttle as we can. We can examine it later or send it back to the PSAD lab and have them do it."
"Great idea, Grant. Send our boss the stuff we don't really want to process and then fly away into space with his newest toys, not to be heard from again for several months, years, or ever, brilliant."
"Sam, don't you have somewhere you need to be?"
They laughed and Sam called some of the villagers inside to haul the alien to the shuttle. "We need to process this guy. Another intelligent life form, we hit the jackpot, Grant. That's now what, four intelligent life forms on the same planet? First trip out and bam, heroes. We will never have to work again."
"Ha, not quite so simple. We are owned by the PSAD. Whatever we find is theirs and they get all of the credit, remember who we're dealing with?"
Sam thought for a moment and realized Grant was more than likely right about this one. The PSAD was a great organization but it was run by some not so upstanding people who didn't really care about you or your life. They wanted fame and glory for themselves. The exception being Major Abram T. Aboy. He thought the world of Grant and Sam and would do most anything for them, even if he did act and sound like he didn't really like them a good portion of the time. He was really a soft hearted teddy bear when you got to know him. The drones were piled up and counted to be sure all of them were accounted for and none were rogue. "I count nine, Grant."
"I got nine, too. Thank God we got them all. I would lose my mind if there was another one out there on a seek and destroy mission and we were its targets. I've had enough crap!"
"Me too!"
"Me as well!"
"Tayana, come here and check this out." Grant, Sam, and Tayana made their way to the mining pit where the equipment had ceased operations. "They must have been controlled from inside and more than likely; the dead alien was monitoring their progress."
Grant noticed something unusual, there were no tailings from the mining operations, and the mining equipment was considerably smaller than he thought was necessary to successfully mine anything. "These must be used to get samples, sort of like our bots."
"I think you're right, but what have they been sampling?" As they approached the group gathered around the pit, there were whispers and giggles. The whole thing seemed like a joke.
Tayana picked up on it. "What foolishness are you up to? We are here for serious matters, not to make fun, and exercise as if it was play time."
"Tayana, we are not playing, look at the machinery." A gaping hole was ripped into the side of the machinery. Peering in they saw why the villagers were whispering and giggling. It was full of diamonds, rubies and other precious gems, some beautiful unknown gems were there, too.
"All right then, wow! Grant, can we be heroes now, please?"
"Sam, now we are heroes!" Grant reached in and grabbed a handful of gems, awed by their size and quality. "These machines must either vaporize the soil or singularly extract each gem without having to move mountains of soil and rock. This is amazing!"
"Grant, Tayana, this one is full of gold and other valuable metals. We will look in the other machines, too."
Other machines contained materials they had not seen before and one contained an emerald green liquid smelling like bathroom sanitizer, at least to Grant and Sam.
"This planet must have been volcanic in nature in the not too distant past, judging from what they were mining. We need to gather what was mined and take half to the
village and half to the shuttle."
Grant thought he was being generous. He was shocked when Tayana said, "No, we will take nothing from these creatures. Besides, we have no need for anything here, but for decoration and adornment. You can take it all."
Grant, not knowing quite what to say, understood the subtle undertones of why she refused. These may have been the creatures that killed her family. "Tayana, I think I understand your position. We will remove the items to our shuttle for analysis."
"Thank you, Grant. You really are a hero!" He smiled and they shared a knowing look.
"Grant, I had a troubling thought." Sam paused for a few seconds gathering his thoughts.
"Well, let's hear it, don't leave us hanging."
Sam continued, "We just destroyed an alien mining operation. It was purposely hidden under a static haze in order to not be detected. It appears to be a lucrative operation and has now ceased. The radio beacon that was on the top of the tower probably got off a signal before we blew it to bits. I'm pretty sure we will have visitors of the dead alien variety very soon. I think we need to have Eliot signal for immediate assistance from the PSAD so we don't get blown to bits and the Ebony Belle taken over by these things, or worse, destroyed."
"Sam, you're right and bordering on genius sometimes, not now of course, but I will radio Eliot to make the calls. We need to get the shuttle flight worthy as quickly as we can."
"There is a slight problem with the plan. The shuttle is flight worthy but only here on the planet. The AG drive was slightly damaged in the crash."
"What do you mean slightly damaged?"
"You better be playing around because if you're not, we are screwed. The Ebony Belle is a sitting duck and we are next on the list. These aliens did not look friendly and their drones were less friendly. What do we need to do to get it flight worthy?"
"I'm going to have to test some of the materials we're gathering to see if there is anything I can use to create an alloy similar in strength to the broken part."
"Is that all? Is there anything else that needs repaired... is there any...Grant collapsed to the ground.
Everyone began to move all at once. Sam caught his head before it hit the ground with a thud. "Grant, Grant!" We need to get him back to the healers, now. Tayana help me get him into the rover." Sam carried Grant on his shoulders for over half a mile to get back to the rover. His back and legs were numb. He knew he had to get Grant back to the village as soon as he could. Tayana trotted along behind Sam, who despite Grant's heavy weight, was moving at a brisk pace and not stopping for anything. When they arrived at the rover Sam practically leapt into it with Grant still on his shoulders. He not so gently put him in the back and told Tayana to strap him in and not to let him fall off.
"Hurry Sam, his pulse is weakening and he is sweating like crazy. We need the healers fast."
Sam took off like a rocket with reckless abandon, sailing across the plains leaving a trail of dust behind them. The ride was rough but swift. Sam had a déjà vu moment. They did this exact same thing less than a week ago, only without the blood and poison this time. Sam frantically crossed the falls and raced down the hill to the healers pod, coming to an unceremonious halt right in front of their door. "It's Grant, he passed out while we were talking, then collapsed. He's sweating again." Sam was dragging him out of the rover as he spoke.
"Bring him inside quickly, we were afraid of this. Some of the poison is still in his system. It lays dormant waiting for stressful situations, and then reacts with the nervous system to immobilize its host."
"Is he going to be all right like last time?"
"Sam. We need to go and let them do their thing. Sam!"
Sam reluctantly pulled himself from the pod and walked away. He didn't know how much more of this Grant could take. He had been through the wringer since they crashed.
"Sam, you have to have faith. Salbola and Emara know what they are doing. They have seen this before and have the right herbs to treat him."
"I know, Tayana, but he was weak and I've never seen him so frail and helpless. I can't even imagine how he must have felt right before he began to pass out. He was getting angry and louder by the second and then, he was on the ground. The look on his face will haunt me. His eyes were zinging back and forth and then they rolled back into their sockets. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want him injured so I grabbed his head and made sure it didn't split like a melon when he hit the ground. I am terrified right now."
"Sam, I cannot promise he will be all right, but I can promise the healers will do their best to bring him back to full health and this time he will not get out of bed too soon, I will see to it myself."
"Thank you, I'm going to take a walk and clear my head."
"Want some company?"
"No, I think I need to be alone for a while. I have some things I need to get straight in my head before he wakes up, if he wakes up." Sam truly hurt inside and walked towards the top of the falls alone. He made it to the top he looked around at the beauty surrounding him and marveled at the similarities between there and Earth. Pines and bushes were growing between the streams and amongst the rocks. The stream, flowers in all colors lining the banks, and the reeds rustling in the breeze, gingerly dipped their leaves into the cool dark water. It was breath taking. Sam waded into the stream about knee deep with thoughts of walking to the edge and letting the water take him over the falls. Instead, he found a flat dry rock near the edge of the falls and took a seat. He felt alone and isolated in this strange world without Grant there to laugh at this stupid humor and set him straight when he really got out of hand. He was Sam's rock and his idol, always was, and always would be. He had to pull through, he had to. Sam lay back and got lost in the gurgling of the stream, the rustle of the reeds and flowers, and the swishing sound the wind made as it softly swirled past him. The caress of the breeze on his face and the rays of sunlight filtering through the trees made this one of his favorite places on this alien world. "How is it that my best friend is fighting for his life and I'm lounging around a stunning waterfall surrounded by all of this beauty? There has to be something about this place that isn't quite right."
He called Eliot "Eliot, are you there?"
"I am always here, how can I assist you?"
"Eliot, Grant was injured again. The poison had not completely left his system and he is once again struggling for his life and at the mercy of the healers' knowledge and skill. We need to get a message to PSAD regarding what we have discovered and we may have inadvertently started an inner planetary war of sorts. We need some serious back up."
"I am aware of what you have discovered, Sam. I can be of more assistance if you provide me with more information."
"We raided the bunker in the mining camp and blew it all to hell. They were mining for precious metals and gems. We discovered this when we searched the equipment, it was also destroyed in the blast. Their machinery is amazing and needs to be reverse engineered. We discovered an alien being. It is being delivered to the shuttle as we speak. He was killed by our SHTF rocket when it was launched into the bunker. There is a lot of technology here we are not familiar with and it needs to be researched in the PSAD labs. We are afraid the alien in the bunker may have sent a distress call before we blew up the bunker. If this is the case, depending on how close their planet is to this one, we have just a few days; maybe a week before they arrive to see what happened to their operation. When they see the Ebony Belle parked in orbit they will either capture it or destroy it, I can live with neither option. Please call for help and tell them it is paramount they bring battle cruisers. We have no idea what we may be up against. Oh, and tell them we have discovered four new forms of intelligent life. That will get them moving for sure."
"The message has been sent. It will take two days to make its way to the receiver in the PSAD communications hub and two days to receive their response."
"Thank you Eliot, you are a blessing."
"I am an EL 10 T, this is my programmi
ng."
Sam cocked his head to the side and said, "We are going to have to see about a personality upgrade for you when we get back to Earth."
Chapter Thirteen
"Eliot, I need your help. The expansion port on the AG drive cracked when we crashed and I need to fabricate a new part. We do not have a spare here on the shuttle. Can you assist me in processing the materials we brought aboard from the mining operation? There may be something in there we can use to make a new part for the drive."
"Yes, I can assist you, where would you like to begin?"
"Let's begin with the metals, there may be something in there we can mix to make an alloy strong enough to hold until we get back to the Ebony Belle."
"This will take time and there is no guarantee a combination will be found."
Sam was fully aware of their situation and dreaded the short amount of time they had to come up with something. He and Eliot broke down each material analyzing it with a spectrogram to see what chemicals will bond and what ones may cause an explosion. This could take days and they didn't have many of them to get this done. "We have to work fast. We must be complete within the next two days or we may be in for a rude awakening."
"I will process at the limit of my capabilities."
"That's all I ask, Eliot, that's all I ask. The lab is well equipped and we will make every effort to figure this out. Our lives hang in the balance and we must repair the broken shuttle and get it flight worthy. Grant's last words are still ringing in my ears and my thoughts are everywhere, but where they should be."
"Sam, it has been six hours since we started our analysis. You have not stopped to eat, drink, or relieve yourself."
"My focus is beginning to get the better of me."
"Sam, you must rest. You are not performing at your peak and are making simple errors. Get some food, rest for a few hours, and then return, refreshed and clear minded."
Helium Fall Page 11