“Giacomo, scenic route.”
“Yes, sir.”
Giacomo changed course. Bismarck eased away from the gate, lost it on scanners, and headed to another system. Anhour later, she cut back through her own path, picking up her own engineresidue and nothing else.
A million kilometres away, acomet melted its tail in a stream towards its sun. There was nothing else, andnothing to hide in or behind unless it was the hypergiant itself.
“Let’s go home.”
Giacomo eased course back to thegate.
John wasn’t slowing the ship foranything. As soon as they were within range, he logged into the gate and setthe co-ordinates. It acknowledged and activated. Bismarck reached the gate asit opened, and it closed behind her. Navigation recalibrated and set the starmaps.
Giacomo set course for Tricon.
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Chapter twentysix
Every engineer was dead againstreturning to Tricon, no matter how necessary it was. Dead being the operativeword. Giacomo got the ship into transporter range without being detected.
Locating crystals wasn’t a hardtask – the mines were full of them. Finding some in a state that could beeasily refined was going to be a lot harder. If the ship had been in goodenough condition to refine the crystals from crude ore, then she wouldn’t haveneeded them in the first place.
Tan found what they wanted. He’dbeen eavesdropping communications to and from the planet from the moment they’dbeen in range. The lines were quiet – a mining planet had very little need tocontact anyone – but he’d found out that a shipment of crystals was due to bepicked up in a few days time.
“I don’t think they’ll miss ahandful out of two tonne, sir.”
“That depends on who’s pickingthem up.”
“Centauri’s.”
John grimaced. “They’ll probablycount every individual crystal. Where are they?”
“Still underground. The minerswon’t bring them up until the Centauri’s arrive.”
John let out his breath sharply. He looked around the bridge. “All right… Mister Gillespie. You, me andKowalski.”
Gillespie’s nod was reassuring.
John hit the intercom. “MisterKowalski, meet me in the transporter room. Gear up, we’re going down.”
Kowalski and Lorraine werewaiting in the transporter room when John and Gillespie arrived. The twoengineers had a cupboard open and assorted equipment grouped across the floor –collection bags, scanners, ropes, helmets with lights and a handful of oxygencanisters.
“Not taking chances, sir,”Kowalski said as John picked up a canister.
John buckled on a belt, clippedthe canister to it along with a collection bag, slung a coil of rope diagonallyfrom shoulder to hip and buckled the helmet on.
“We right?” he asked.
Gillespie and Kowalski nodded. Lorraine was at the controls. They stepped onto the transporter pads and she powered up.
*
It was when they materialised inthe clammy darkness that John remembered why he hated mines.
“All right, Sam. Where are thosecrystals?” he snapped as he switched his light on. “Let’s get them and getout.”
“Down two levels, sir.”
John spun around sharply, thestrong beam from his light rotating like a lighthouse beacon and hittingKowalski in the eyes. The engineer put up a hand to shade his face.
“Why didn’t you put us on theright level?”
“Take it easy,” Gillespie steppedin to defend Kowalski. “You wanted to get in undetected. Some things have tobe done the old fashioned way.”
Kowalski blinked, his eyeswatering slightly and pulled out his scanner. He rubbed his eyes with the heelof one hand while the scanner read the area. “Air’s clean.”
That bit of confirmation easedthe tension a fraction.
“Elevator’s over this way, sir. About ten metres.”
The soft dirt muffled theirfootsteps, the only light that of their helmets. John looked around; the wallsand ceiling dark rock that was only just out of reach.
They reached the shaft only tofind that the elevator wasn’t on their level. Kowalski reached his scannerinto the shaft, aiming it first up, then down.
“It’s on the surface. I canprobably get it down here –”
“And alert everyone?” John shookhis head, lifting his rope over his head and off his shoulder. “Looks like theold fashioned way.”
It didn’t take long to rig upsome ropes in the elevator shaft. The thought of abseiling into the darknessbelow wasn’t pleasant. Even the light from their helmets was quickly absorbedin the blackness as they looked hesitantly down.
“Last one down…” Kowalski grinnedas he leapt into the shaft.
John and Gillespie watched himfor a moment.
“Was I ever –?” John began.
“Worse. Now get going before youchange your mind.”
John took a deep breath andfollowed Kowalski. Gillespie was close behind.
Kowalski stood out like a beaconwhen they neared him. He had already scanned the area, found the crystals, anddouble checked to make sure no one else was around. The crystals were stacked,ready for taking to the surface.
Kowalski picked one up and lookedat it in fascination.
“Just think,” he mused as heturned it over in his hand. “Our whole lives depend on a handful of theserocks.”
It caught the light from hishelmet. Even in its grubby state, it was able to refract light like a well cutdiamond. It sparkled in the colours of the rainbow, and for a few minutesKowalski could do nothing but stare at it.
“No spares. We don’t need themto be missed,” John told them. He unclipped the collection bag, picked up arock that was larger than his hand and put it in the bag. Half a dozen – thatwas all they needed. His bag held two and he pulled the drawstring and clippedit back to the belt.
“I got two.” Gillespie clippedhis own bag to his belt.
Kowalski was still staringawestruck at the crystal in his hand.
“Sam.” John clapped him on theback.
“Huh?” His gaze lifted slowlyfrom the crystal.
“Time to get out of here.”
“Yeah… right.” Kowalski slippedthe crystal into his bag, deposited a second and followed them to the elevatorshaft. He grabbed the first rope and began to climb up.
“Ten bucks says you can’t beathim up there,” Gillespie prompted.
“He’s got a head start.”
“All right, make it fifty.”
“Done.” John grinned anddisappeared after Kowalski.
They all froze as they
