‘You crash-landed in an EEV. Nobody knows what happened to your mothership or what caused you to be ejected. If Harry Andrews — he’s the superintendent here -
knows, he isn’t saying.
‘Whatever catastrophe caused you to be ejected also must have damaged the landing controls on the EEV because you smacked into the bay pretty hard. We hauled it back here. I haven’t been inside myself, but if the exterior’s any indication of the kind of internal damage she suffered, you’re damn lucky to be alive, much less more or less in one piece.’
She swallowed. ‘What about the others?’
‘Yeah, I was kind of wondering about that myself. Where’s the rest of the crew? did they get off on other EEV’s?’
‘There is no “rest of the crew,” ’ she informed him tersely.
‘It’s a long story, one I don’t feel much like telling right now. I mean what about those who were in the EEV with me? How many were there?’
‘Two. Three if you count the android.’ He paused. ‘I’m afraid they didn’t make it.’
‘What?’ It wasn’t sinking in.
‘They didn’t survive.’
She considered for a long moment, then shook her head brusquely. ‘I want to go to the ship. I have to see for myself.’
She started to sit up and he put a restraining hand on her shoulder.
‘Hey, hang on. As your doctor, I have to tell you that you’re in no condition for that.’
‘You’re not a doctor, remember?’ She slipped out of the other side of the bed and stood waiting expectantly, quite naked. ‘You want to get me some clothes, or should I go like this?
Clemens took his time deciding, not entirely displeased by the opportunity to view her vertically. ‘Given the nature of our indigenous population, I would strongly suggest clothes.’
Rising, he opened a locker on the far side of the infirmary and began sorting through the contents.
‘Keep in mind as you gambol through our little wonderland that the prison population here is strictly male and none of them have seen a woman in years. Neither have I, for that matter.’
She waited, hand on hip, giving him the calculating eye.
‘Yeah, but I don’t have to worry about you, because you’re a not-doctor, remember?’
He grinned in spite of himself.
III
Clemens noted how her eyes darted to and fro as he led her through the corridors and along the walkways. Like those of a nervous child. . or sophisticated predator. She missed nothing. The slightest sound drew her instant attention. Their feet made little noise on the worn metal. The garb he’d scavenged for her was a little small, but she didn’t seem to mind.
‘I’ve no idea how long you were in deep sleep, but coming out of it the way you did can be a helluva jolt to the system. Just so you don’t panic if I look at you crossways, you should know that I’m still monitoring you for possible delayed side effects.
So let’s steady on as we go, Ripley.’
She looked at him sharply. ‘How do you know my name?’
‘It’s stenciled on the back of your shorts.’ He smiled apologetically. ‘We also found your ID tag. It was so mangled the computer could hardly read it, but we got that much off it.
Unfortunately, most of your personal medical info was scrambled. I had to guess a lot.’
Ripley rolled her shoulders forward experimentally, let her head roll from side to side. ‘Feels like you did a pretty good job.
Thanks.’
To his immense surprise he found that he was slightly embarrassed. ‘Hey, any jerk can slap on an armpack.’
She grinned. ‘I don’t think so. It takes a specially qualified jerk.’
The work crew was being as careful as possible with the hulk of the EEV as they eased it onto hastily raised blocks. The old crane groaned with the effort. There hadn’t been much call for its use since the mine had been shut down, and temporary reactivation for the purpose of manipulating the emergency vehicle had been a touchy process. But the machinery was responding adequately. Cables sang as the craft was gently lowered.
It had attracted its share of stares when it had first been hauled inside the complex. Ripley drew rather more as she and Clemens approached. She did a much better job of pretending not to notice than the prisoners did of trying not to look.
‘Just what kind of place is this work prison?’ she asked her guide as they started up a ramp toward the battered lifeship.
Clemens stayed close. ‘Used to be a mine cum refinery.
Mostly platinum-group minerals. Naturally the raw ore was refined on the spot. Much cheaper than shipping it offworld for processing elsewhere. I understand there was a considerable rise in the price of platinum about the time the ore body here was located. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been worth the Company’s while to go to the expense of setting up a facility this size this far from any point of consumption. It was a rich lode, highly concentrated.’
‘And now?’ She had stopped outside the EEV and was inspecting the damaged hull.
‘Weyland-Yutani’s got it on hold. Interstellar commodities trading isn’t exactly my specialty and I don’t know that anybody here gets their jollies from following the relevant rises and falls in raw materials prices. I think I heard that a drop in the price of the refined metal was accompanied by less need for the stuff.
‘So most of the equipment here’s been mothballed. Not worth the expense of moving it, not worth enough as salvage.
There’s still ore in the ground and if the price goes up I’m sure the Company would reopen. That means we’d probably get moved. Wouldn’t do to have felons associating with nice, moral miners. Not that anybody would mind being shifted off this rock. The change would be sweet and it’s pretty hard to conceive of anyplace else being worse.
‘So we’re just caretakers, just a custodial staff. Keeps things from freezing up in case the price of the ore or the need for it goes back up. Works out well for the government and the Company.’
‘I’d think you’d go crazy after a year or so in a place like this.’
Clemens had to laugh. ‘That’s what they said some of us were before we were sent here. But I don’t think we are, at least not the majority of us. The isolation isn’t nearly so trying if you can learn to think of yourself as a contemplative penitent instead of an incarcerated felon.’
‘Any women ever been here?’
‘Sorry, Lieutenant Ripley. This is a double Y chromosome facility. Strictly male.’
She nodded, then turned and bent to crawl through what remained of the battered air lock. Clemens let her forge a path, then followed.
The battered exterior of the craft was pristine compared to what she encountered inside. Walls were crumpled and bent, readouts and consoles smashed, equipment strewn haphaz-ardly across the deck. The thick smell of salt water permeated everything. She paused, astonished that anything or anyone could have survived intact, much less her own fragile form.
‘Where are the bodies?’
Clemens was equally taken with the extent of the destruction, marvelling that Ripley had suffered no more damage than she had.
‘We have a morgue. Mining’s the kind of enterprise that demands one. We’ve put your friends in there until the investigative team arrives, probably in a week’s time.’
‘There was an android. .’
Clemens made a face. ‘Disconnected and discombobulated.
