The Ghost Mine

by Ben Wolf

  Justin knew where this was going. He held up his hand. “No thanks.”

  Pinch grinned. “I understand. No one wants to be associated with a guy like me. I get that. But every now and then, when you’re dragging, and you can’t bust out of your slump, or when you’re so high-strung that you can’t relax, you know who you can turn to.”

  “I’ll keep it in mind,” Justin said. “But I don’t use.”

  Pinch held up his hands. “Like I said, I understand. Just wanted to introduce myself, should you ever change your mind.”

  Justin shook his head and gave Pinch a fake smile. “I won’t.”

  Pinch continued talking, but Justin’s attention wandered to the far side of the cafeteria. Stecker sat down at the table next to the cyborg lady and began talking with her.

  But their discussion ended abruptly when the cyborg held up her metal hand dismissively, picked up her tray, and walked away from Stecker. He watched her go, his brow furrowed, then he looked at Justin.

  Justin refocused on the conversation happening around him.

  “Look, we’re trying to eat, here,” Connie said. “You mind?”

  Pinch held up his hands again. “Not trying to bother anyone. I’ll go. Let me leave you with a parting gift, though.”

  Justin glanced at Keontae again, and Keontae shook his head.

  Pinch reached into his jacket pocket and produced four individually wrapped capsules. “Nothing illegal about these. They’re adrenalites. They boost your adrenal gland’s natural production. It’s like an adrenaline shot without pricking yourself and injecting an unnatural amount into your bloodstream.”

  Justin shook his head. “No thanks.”

  “Like I said, these are a gift. One for each of you. Just bite down on one of these babies, and the effects kick in within ten seconds. Maybe thirty seconds, depending on your metabolism. Perfectly safe. Profoundly effective.”

  “Bro,” Keontae said, “he said we’re not interested.”

  “That’s fine, that’s fine.” Pinch set them on the table and stood up. “Just so you know, these only work temporarily. One lasts about an hour minutes or so. Need a mid-afternoon boost? Pop one of these bad boys, and you’ll hit your stride real quick. You don’t have to take them if you don’t want. I’ll just leave them here. And if you decide you want more, let me know.”

  Justin glanced around the room. No one around them seemed to care about Pinch’s pitch. Every copalion mine had at least one guy like Pinch—the resident dealer. Uppers, downers, recreational drugs, supplements for this purpose or that. Justin didn’t know them all because he’d never taken any of them.

  He didn’t intend to start, either.

  Anyone caught with illicit substances, especially illegal ones, got smacked with points, fines, wage garnishments, or all three. Substance abuse and mining equipment didn’t mix well.

  “We’ll pass, Pinch.” Justin sipped his coffee. “I’ll stick with the brew, bland as it is.”

  “Pass if you want. Makes no difference to me.” Pinch bared his crooked yellow smile again. “You all have a great day. And stay awake, if you can. Last thing I need is someone snoozing on the job, endangering my safety.”

  Justin shot him a glare. He wanted to report Pinch, but he wasn’t a rat. “Just leave, okay?”

  Pinch gave a slight nod, still smiling. “Whatever you say.”

  As Pinch walked over to another table, Justin and Keontae stared at the capsules. Then Candy reached for them and took them all. Justin gawked at her, but she dealt one out to each of them and stuck hers into her pocket.

  “Are you serious?” Justin asked.

  She just shrugged and went back to her breakfast.

  Connie grabbed hers and stashed it in one of her pockets as well. “He made a good case. These are all-natural and safe. What’s the harm of bein’ more alert while I’m workin’?”

  Keontae put his capsule in his pocket too.

  Justin’s eyebrows rose. “Seriously?”

  Keontae just nodded toward something behind Justin.

  Justin turned back. Shannon—Foreman Davis—was approaching their table from behind him along with Foreman Harry Skylar.

  He cursed, grabbed the capsule, and jammed it into his jeans pocket.

  Shannon and Harry walked past. For once, Justin didn’t want to make eye contact with her, but he watched her as she moved toward the cafeteria exit. He glanced up at one of the screens mounted around the cafeteria. The clock underneath the ACM logo read 0530.

  “We’ve got fifteen minutes to get into the mine,” he said.

  Connie nodded and stood. “Yep.”

  Justin scarfed down a few more bites of his breakfast then chased after Keontae to deposit his tray on the conveyer belt on the side of the kitchen. When he turned back, he nearly ran into Stecker.

  Great.

  “Morning,” Stecker said.

  “Morning.” Justin tried to step around, but Stecker moved with him and held up his hand. Justin eyed him. “Something I can help you with? I’m in a hurry.”

  “I saw that Pinch stopped by to visit you. You guys have a good conversation?”

  Justin’s heart rate accelerated. Why would he need adrenalite capsules when Shannon, Dirk, malfunctioning androids, and now Stecker kept putting him on edge? “Just wanted to introduce himself. That’s all.”

  “You don’t have to play games with me, kid.” Stecker folded his arms across his burly chest. “We already know he’s a dealer.”

  “There you have it. Would you excuse me? I’m due in the mine by 0545.”

  “Did he give you anything?”

  Justin hesitated, and Stecker’s eyebrow rose. Justin cursed silently to himself. He needed to learn to answer quicker.

  “Guess that answers that question.”

  “He told me it was legal. I’d never heard of it before. An adrenalite.”

  “The only reason those are legal is because they’re new. The crash afterward leaves you all but worthless, and to keep functioning you’ve got to take another one. He’s banking on repeat business. I wouldn’t take it if I were you, but I don’t care either way. I’m not a cop, kid.”

  “Okay.” Justin didn’t know what else to say.

  Stecker shook his head. “That means I’m not gonna bust you for it. I am, however, concerned about him dealing illegal stuff. Do me a favor and let me know if he shows you anything you know is contraband. It’s the least you can do for me.”

  Stecker had a point. Justin did owe him for intervening during Dirk’s ambush. He nodded. “Yeah. I can do that.”

  Stecker patted his shoulder. “I’m not trying to make you a snitch. Just gotta do my job.”

  “Yeah. I know. Thanks.” Stecker moved to let Justin pass, but Justin stopped him. “Hey, Stecker?”

  “Thought you were in a rush, kid. What is it?”

  “How early does the company allow access to the mine?”

  Stecker’s blue eyes narrowed, and he folded his arms again. “Why do you want to know?”

  “Just curious.” It didn’t sound convincing when he said it, but at least he hadn’t hesitated this time.

  “Access is denied to basically everyone except foreman-level employees and some admins until 0500. Security can get in there too if there’s an alert of some sort.”

  Justin nodded. “Good to know.”

  “Now I’m going to ask you again.” Stecker leaned in close. “Why do you want to know?”

  “I said I was just curious.”

  Stecker eyed him again. “I don’t buy it. You got plans that maybe you shouldn’t have?”

  Justin shook his head. “No, no. Just wanted to know how early I can get in for my shift.”

  “You do realize that any time you type your access code into a screen on a door, a locker, anywhere, you’re logging your presence in the system, right? You’re telling us exactly where you’re going and when you’re going there.”

  Justin nodded again. “Yeah, of course. Obv
iously.”

  “And you do realize security has access to those records, along with footage from the cameras I pointed out throughout the complex?”

  “Yeah. That makes sense.”

  “So you know that I know you visited the kitchen at about 0300 last night.”

  Justin froze.

  “You’re not in trouble, kid.” Stecker grabbed his shoulder and smiled. “Just wanted you to know that we’re watching.”

  But no mention of Justin in the buffer zones? Had Stecker not found out about that? “Thanks… I guess.”

  “Speaking of watching, the clock says 0539. Don’t you need to leave?”

  Justin turned back, glanced at it, and swore. “Yes. I do.”

  “Get along, then.”

  Justin nodded and started to hurry away.

  “And stay out of trouble,” Stecker called from behind him.

  Justin threw him a thumbs-up and scurried toward the buffer zones. On his way to the passageway that connected the cafeteria to the buffer zones, Justin caught sight of the androids in the kitchen. One of them held a knife and was cutting some sort of meat. Even from a distance, Justin noted the dent above its left eye.

  Groucho.

  It stared at him as he entered the passageway.

  Black gas poured out of a crevice in the cavern wall in Justin’s assigned area, and the stench of burnt rubber stung his nostrils.

  “Back up,” Shannon’s casual voice spoke through the comms. “Back up now.”

  Thanks to the training videos, Justin knew the protocol. At other copalion mining sites he hadn’t needed to worry about this sort of thing, but for whatever reason, the blue rock that made up most of Ketarus-4’s crust had trapped plenty of toxic fumes during the planet’s formation.

  The most common—and the most deadly—of these was phichaloride, a thick, almost smoky gas that could paralyze and then kill a person within sixty seconds of exposure. Prior to landing on, terraforming, and beginning to mine on Ketarus-4, no one had ever encountered that exact gas before, but it was volatile enough to warrant extra safety precautions, so Justin was happy to stay back.

  Fortunately, the mine’s ever-turning turbines and the filtration systems they wore as part of their safety attire negated it as a danger. Even if they didn’t back away from it, as per the protocol, they’d probably still be fine. Probably.

  Justin lowered his hand-laser and backed up. The last thing he needed was Shannon on his ass for not following protocol, especially when he’d shown up two minutes after 0545 that morning. He’d hoped she wouldn’t notice, but she did. And she’d seen it was him, too. At least he’d made it back on time after their lunch break.

  “There’s a lot of this stuff. Seems like every five minutes we hit another pocket.” Gavin, who operated one of the two mechs assigned to Justin’s area, backed up too. He coughed a few times and waved his mech hand as if to waft the gas away from him.

  Justin turned in time to see Shannon approaching him. She looked at the billowing black gas. “This is going to take awhile.”

  Justin finished the last two hours of his shift amid conversations with Connie and the rest of his team, but they failed to find any copalion.

  Still, it was only the first day of actual excavation. No sense in getting frazzled about it this early in the process.

  Shannon rallied everyone together at the end of the shift and pointed up to the science office that extended into the mine. “According to our science team, we should hit the first copalion reserve within five weeks. Their preliminary scans and projections suggest we’re only a few thousand feet away.

  “I want to reemphasize that we must excavate safely, but I want to let you know that I’m offering a bonus from my own pay to the squadron that strikes first—a hundred credits to each person of the squad.”

  The workers murmured amongst themselves. Justin had never heard of a foreman doing such a thing. He glanced at Keontae and grinned.

  “Quiet, please,” Shannon ordered, and the crowd fell silent. “Hitting the reserve is a one-time event, so this is a one-time occurrence. Once we get up and running, we’ll launch a bonus program for all employees based on production and output levels.

  “I also want to reiterate how important it is to keep safety concerns in mind. I have yet to receive a report on the worker who sustained an injury, but the very fact that he sustained an injury underscores the importance of maintaining a safe workplace and following best practices to maintain industry standards for safety.”

  Justin turned to Keontae and whispered, “Someone got injured?”

  Keontae shrugged. “This is the first I’m hearing about it.”

  Shannon continued, “So let’s all do better going forward. That’s all I have for today. Good work, rockhounds. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Shannon stepped aside, next to Harry Skylar, and allowed the workers to stream through the mine doors. As Justin walked past her, she didn’t make eye contact with him. Instead, she joked and laughed with Harry.

  Jealousy stirred in Justin’s stomach.

  He glanced up at the science office. The same figure as before stood there, watching over them all, silhouetted.

  Kinda creepy.

  Justin and Keontae went through decontamination, changed out of their work attire, and headed to dinner instead of to the dorm showers. Better to avoid Dirk and his goons in another shower situation if possible.

  As Justin passed the cafeteria, he spotted a guy with blond hair and wearing a yellow maintenance uniform crouching next to one of the kitchen androids. No light emanated from the android’s eyes, chest, wrists or ankles, but a gash marked its forehead above its left eye.

  Groucho. Someone else must’ve caught on that it wasn’t functioning properly.

  Back in their room, post-dinner and post-showers, Keontae poured a cup of water into the Nebrandt plant pots.

  “Aren’t there faster ways to grow those things?” Justin asked. “Impulse accelerators and whatnot?”

  Keontae set his cup down and leaned against his desk. “Yeah, of course. But that’s cheating.”

  Justin raised his eyebrow. “They’re plants, Key. This isn’t a board game or taxes.”

  “I don’t cheat on those either.”

  “That’s not my point. You could already be seeing the blooms by now.”

  “You don’t think it diminishes the value of the experience to force it to happen unnaturally?”

  “What’s unnatural about it?” Justin shrugged. “It’s just a few extra electrical impulses. The accelerators are cheap, and you can bet the greenhouse nearby is using them to grow their plants and our food. So what’s the difference?”

  “The difference is that this is a choice I’m making. I can’t control what happens out there, but I can control how I do this, and I wanna do it right.”

  Justin shook his head. “I don’t get it.”

  “Maybe you don’t need to, bro.” Keontae smiled at him. “And that’s okay.”

  That night, despite being exhausted and having a dry mattress, Justin still couldn’t sleep. He tossed and turned for a few hours, but despite his tired, worn-out body, his mind wouldn’t grant him any rest.

  He got up and tapped the screen on his desk. The ACM logo brightened and centered in the screen, and the time read 0245.

  Justin cursed his travel lag. If he didn’t get any rest again, he might have to take Pinch’s adrenalite pill after all.

  Or maybe Pinch had something that could help him sleep. Or, better yet, maybe he could get something prescribed from the medbay. Then he wouldn’t have to risk dealing with Stecker.

  Justin’s stomach rumbled. He could go try to find a snack like last night. Maybe he could hit up the vending machine in the first buffer zone again. He pulled on a pair of denim pants and a shirt, slipped into his boots, and grabbed his ID card.

  He passed Dirk’s room on the other side of the hallway, far from its corresponding screen, and left the corridor. He headed into the ca
feteria in search of anything that would count as food, but he found nothing. Next dinner, he’d snag some extra food to stash in his room. Then he wouldn’t need to wander out at 3am to scavenge.

  The kitchen glowed with familiar, modulating red light. No chance of going in there, not with it being so close to starting time for the androids. He did peer inside, though, to check on Groucho.

  Sure enough, Groucho stood in place, hunched over. Its red eyes glowed brighter then dimmed in sequence. Hopefully the maintenance guy had fixed it so it wouldn’t keep staring at Justin every time he walked by.

  Justin proceeded through the dimly lit passageway and into the first buffer zone, and he turned toward the vending machine. He tapped the screen with his finger, but it was black. The blue lights on the sides of the vending machine no longer glowed either.

  He smacked it on its side, but it didn’t respond. He moved toward the back to try to get a look at whether or not any power flowed to it, but it was bolted to the floor, and he couldn’t see between it and the wall. He cursed and smacked it again, but nothing happened.

  His stomach protested. No snack tonight, I guess.

  As Justin turned to leave, something beyond the far end of the lockers caught his eye. The door to the decontamination showers was cracked open, and familiar green light glowed inside.

  10

  The door that connected the decontamination showers to the lockers was supposed to be closed. It slid shut on its own whenever workers weren’t using it, but now it stood open just enough to let the light in.

  If some sort of custodial bot was in there, that would explain why it was open, but the questions swirling in Justin’s gut suggested something else. What that something was, he didn’t know.

  Justin slung his ID card around his neck. Time to put his curiosity to rest.

  He crept toward the showers and peered through the crack, but he didn’t see the source of the light. He glanced at the screen on the wall adjacent to the shower door. This one wasn’t a touch-screen like the others where he had to enter his access code. Instead, this one operated when a worker waved his card across it.