I nodded, and he led the squad into the room beyond.
It was some kind of ready room. Coveralls hung on the wall, awaiting use, but none of us stopped to put them on. We passed through the area, and into another room where equipment was issued. I took my mask, goggles and hat, and copied what everyone else was doing to get them on. It wasn’t much different to what I’d done on one of my previous missions, and I figured, minor variations aside, mining was mining, no matter what world it happened to be on.
The next step was another elevator, bigger than the last one. My guess was that it was big enough to fit a full team on. Very economical; one trip down, and one back up. Made me curious about what happened if you missed it. The squad followed Easrick and I into the box, and we watched the doors closed.
It was a high-speed trip down.
I didn’t expect there to be a crawler waiting. The sturdy four-man vehicle stood in a row with half a dozen others. Each cockpit was encased in its own little glassteel bubble, and a metal emergency trunk was stashed under the rear seat. Nothing like being reminded you’ll be safe in a cave in.
We took four of the vehicles. Easrick drove, heading out into the tunnel with a set of headphones and mike arcing over his helmet. He had the crawler lights on full, in spite of the brightness in the tunnels. I figured it was a safety thing, like the way he was talking to Mines Control as he went.
Twice we ducked into a side tunnel as something much bigger thundered towards us—and half a dozen times more I saw men step back into alcoves to let us by. Not everyone got to ride in crawlers, which was news to me, but explained why so many had been standing idle outside the lift shaft.
The further we went, the less lights there were, the less men and vehicles, too, until we hit a point where a squad of guards had set up around a reinforced mesh gate. They were tucked in behind a plascrete barrier that stretched from floor to ceiling, with firing ports looking out into the cavern beyond. As we approached, I took in the pre-fabricated hut on the mines side of the gate, the weapons slung, but in easy reach, and the fact the six men at the firing slits spared us little more than a hasty glance, before turning back to the cavern beyond.
“Trouble?” I asked, and Easrick gave me a brief glance.
“Always.”
“This is where the caverns start?”
He shook his head.
“No, but it’s your stop.”
I turned my head, as he powered down the crawler engine.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you get out, here, and walk the rest of the way. On your own.”
“I thought you were taking me to the caverns,” I said, wanting to get things straight.
He sighed.
“Nope. I said I was taking you to the cavern entrance. This is it. We’ve pulled mining operations out of that area, until his lordship says otherwise.”
“Care to tell me why?”
“Did his lordship brief you?”
“Yes.”
“Then you should know why.”
“There were gaps. Abandoned operations weren’t something he covered.”
Easrick turned for his door.
“Then he didn’t want you to know. Leave your gear on the seat.”
“But...” I stopped, hearing the hum of a blaster heating up behind me. “Fine.”
The hum took on the steady tone that told me it was ready, but the blaster didn’t fire. I knew, if I looked back over my shoulder, that I’d be looking right down the barrel. Since that was a view I didn’t appreciate, and could do jack shit all about, I didn’t turn around. I just hoped the bastard wouldn’t shoot me as I got out of the cab.
As hard as it was to resist the urge to raise my hands and sit perfectly still, I exited, sliding out of the cab to stand beside the crawler, while I stripped off my mask, goggles and helmet. Turning back so I could put them on the seat I’d just vacated, I got a good look at the front end of the blaster, and realized the guy had been taking no chances. Until then, it hadn’t crossed my mind that there might have been contractors before me. Just how hard was the man on his hires, anyway?
A small portion of my mind reminded me of the way Mack had been beaten into the ground, and I told it to be quiet. Some things a girl just doesn’t want to think about, especially not when she’s about to head into a bug infested hole owned by a rat of intergalactic proportions. Ants and hornets aside, I could think of another infestation I wanted to clear out. It was nice to have someone to be mad about that wasn’t Mack...or Odyssey...or Delight...or Tens.
Tens snorted in my head, and I was glad to be reminded I wasn’t alone, even grateful that he was along for the ride.
“Anytime, kiddo,” he said, and I didn’t feel quite so grateful, anymore.
Man couldn’t have been that much older than I was.
“You’d be surprised,” he said, and I remembered his old girlfriend was a lot older than I was, and decided I didn’t have time to go there.
“Darn right, you don’t,” he said, “but I’ve got a good connection, and the team is standing by to haul your ass out of there if you need it.”
They were, were they? Well, that was damn good to know. Having teleportation as an option for getting out of this hole was a definite bonus—and it wasn’t even my birthday!
“You could always walk.”
“No thanks, Tens. I’m good. You can give me a lift any time you think I need it.”
“I think you need a lift under the ear, right about now.”
I couldn’t stop the smile tweaking
