Brynin 3 (7 page)

The SMT drove under the IC and parked. In the center of the craft’s belly, a hatch opened, revealing a large hole. Two robotic claws came out of the hole, grabbed the SMT’s load—a bucket filled with rocks—then pulled back inside the ship.

Boma blinked. “Jason, come with me.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Worik, everyone else, stay here. I’ll be right back.”

All the guards muttered, angry tones.

Boma and I jumped out, headed for the tunnel. He murmured, “Jason, Obno executives told just about everyone, including the guards, that this is a titanium mine. It isn’t. This is the biggest Perovskite mine ever. The deposits are all pure metal, not rock crystal.

“This is a secret, one you can tell Ieeb about, but don’t mention it anybody else. Make sure that she keeps the information to herself.”

I raised my eyebrows, shocked. “Perovskite metal?! It’s rarer than gold.” Chills ran up my spine. Although many robots, computers and starships used some gold circuits along with gold laser cables for their optical computers, pure Perovskite metal, a superconductor, was better than gold. Any LN robot, computer or starship with Perovskite in its hard drive would be slightly faster any robot, computer or starship that didn’t have it.

Boma rubbed his neck, a worried look on his face. “That’s true.”

I frowned. “This is terrible. If the LN get enough Perovskite, they’ll destroy Icir.”

Boma nodded, but didn’t say a word.

I whispered, “Why are you telling me this?”

“Unlike me, your ship has a laser transmitter. You could send a message to Icir.”

“Don’t any of the guards have a laser transmitter?”

“No. There is another complication. According to a friend of mine, one of the guards is an LN spy. Unfortunately, neither one of us knows who it is.”

“How do you
know
they’re a spy?” Was this information based on facts or rumors?

“My friend is worried that if the spy finds out who he is, he’ll murder my friend. If I tell you and the spy tortures you or Ieeb, chances are that one of you would reveal his name. So, I can’t tell you anything else.”

I paused, thinking. “When I get back to my ship, I’ll send a message to Icir.”

“Thanks.”

“Why do you trust us? You barely know us.”

“According to a friend, both of you are honest.”

“How does your
friend
know that?”

“He’s studied your files.”

“Is checking them part of his job?”

Boma tapped his teeth with one hand, a concerned expression on his face. “Yes.”

I couldn’t tell if my last question bothered him.

Another thought came to mind. If I sold fourteen pounds six kilos of Perovskite metal, I’d have enough money to take Ieeb back to Icir and I’d never have to work any more. But robbery wasn’t my style.

“How did you find out about this mine?” I glanced to the right and noticed that the guards were too far away to hear us.

“Dr. Xio told me.”

I mentioned my conversation with Alip, the one where she talked about finding a valuable metal.

Boma shrugged, but for some reason he didn’t say a word.

“Will Lyso and Raui let you go inside the mine?” I listened, curious.

“No.”

“Why am I allowed to go inside?” I hesitated, surprised.

“Because Fi and Baaax spend most of their time there. Despite the fact that Lyso and Raui don’t want you to enter the mine, Fi and Baaax insisted on it. Fi and Baaax want to buy the tickets from you, and nobody else.”

“Won’t anybody else take them back to Icir?” I cocked my head to one side, amazed.

“Fi and Baaax didn’t tell me about it, and I don’t push the subject. If you want to know what their reasons are, ask them.”

“Thanks for the information.”

“No problem. Anyway, I brought you here safely. My job is done. I’m going back to see Dr. Xio.”

“Who’s going to pick me up?”

“Ask Und.”

He pointed at the entrance. I looked at it.

A Qoowo miner, a stranger with a fierce expression on his face, emerged, walking toward us.

Boma hurried back toward the giag.

The Qoowo miner, an older man with a W-9, called out, “Jason, I’m Und. Come this way.”

I nodded. Both of us continued on.

To our left, a droning sound made by insects grew louder. Eight hundred yards from us, a swarm of Oiins flew over a tree.

Und glanced in that direction and cursed, “Mek.”

A recorded translation came out of my earplugs.
Mek means fuck.

We ran for the tunnel, and made it.

My shoulder-mounted flashlight switched on. After going around a bend, we stepped inside an open-air-elevator with a waist-high barrier. It slowly descended. Below us, somewhere in the darkness hundreds of yards away, I heard loud drilling sounds, an ominous noise.

Und, a dimly lit silhouette, remained silent.

Dust began accumulating on my sleeves. I wiped it off. “How far down are we going?”

Und replied somberly, “You’ll see.”

The elevator, suspended by cable, stopped. We stepped off.

Und grumbled, “Follow me.”

We started down a curving tunnel, a poorly illuminated route, passing several ceiling supports.

He paused. “This is as far as I go. Go around that bend.” He pointed and walked away, retracing his steps.

I descended, went around a corner, and came upon an Aito man, a lean humanoid with an oval-shaped face and angled eyes.

“Are you Baaax?”

“Yes. Just a minute.” He stared straight ahead, examining an eleven-foot tall humanoid robot, an updated WADI prototype, a wide-angle drilling android with two pelvis-mounted lasers, one on each hip. Between the lasers, in the center of the WADI’s stomach, a huge drill started boring into a rock wall, making a shrill grinding sound. As the ear-piercing noise grew louder, both laser beams moved across rock facets, cutting them.

On the opposite side of the robot, next to this one, six other WADI’S, all of them standing side by side, drilled faster. After a few moments all the drills shut off.

In front of the androids, Qoowo miners stepped forward and picked up chunks of metal—Perovskite—and tossed them into the back of an SMT. As its engine groaned louder, the vehicle drove away, inching its way up the tunnel.

Baaax glanced over his shoulder. “Jason, I’m going back to Icir.”

“I need to see your ID.”

Baaax grimaced. “If you insist. He yanked his tablet out. The screen appeared. He was from Dadim, a town near Icir’s equator. For nine years, while he was on Icir, working for Hitiec Corporation, he had designed five-legged nanites, microscopic androids that folded up into balls, making it easier for WADI’s titanium muscles to function more efficiently.

He was the real Baaax.

I mentioned that both doctors wanted to leave Danig soon, then gave him the exact day and departure time.

Baaax hesitated. “That’s a good idea.”

I imported his payment and sent a ticket into his database.

“Fi is over there.” Baaax pointed at the last robot, an android on the far end of the room.

I walked there and paused next to a lanky Aito man, a humanoid with a goatee. He pivoted and began staring at me, a worried expression on his countenance.

“You are Fi?”

“Yes.”

“Baaax just told me that you want to go back to Icir.”

He nodded. “Yes. I just made up my mind. I could have made a lot of money on Nooa, but it’s too hazardous. A week ago, eleven men in Lah, a mountain range in that planet’s southern hemisphere, died of encephalitis. Doctors say that there are too many lethal viroids in the drinking water.”

I mentioned the departure date and time.

“Count me in.” Fi raised one hand. His ID materialized. While at Diyy University, a school two thousand miles southwest of Wcip, he had studied and improved RL, a photonic computer language that the WADI’S used to recognize 6012 crystalline structures, making it easier for these robots to locate the Perovskite.

RL, which recognized a hundred eighty thousand different types of impedance as it organized coring sample databases, made it possible for WADI’s to recognize a variety of sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic strata faster.

His ID was authentic. After retrieving his payment, I exported a ticket.

I said, “Thanks. I’m going to Rougt and marry my girlfriend. See you at the hangar.”

Fi grinned. “Congratulations.”

I turned and walked behind the robots.

Without warning, one of them stepped back, blocking my path.

Baaax yelled, trying to shut off the WADI, “Stop! Cancel.S!”

The android’s arm hit a ceiling support. The roof started caving in.

A miner screamed.

All around me the chamber was dark, no lights anywhere.

Not far away, several miners were grumbling, every word incoherent.

We were trapped!

My legs and waist were covered by dirt. I turned left and right, but the dirt didn’t move.

Damn!

I reached down, my adrenaline pumping, and starting digging. At the same time, I sniffed dusty air, and uttered a command, “Shm.on.”

My shoulder-mounted flashlight didn’t work.

I reached up and pushed a button on the back of the device. The light still didn’t come on—a falling rock had broken it. I announced, “Ey.inf.on.” My mechanical left eye switched to infrared. Much to my surprise, I glimpsed dimly lit shapes—miners, some crouched, others stooped. Apparently, only I could see.

Fi shouted, “The WADI’s can’t move!”

A miner yelled, “If we can’t get out of here, we’re all gonna run out of air and die.”

After a couple of tugs, I yanked both legs free and looked around.

To my right, the robot’s heads—egg-shaped body parts sticking out of fallen debris—started rotating, studying the cave.

All around them, everyone else—moving silhouettes, barely visible in the dim light—couldn’t stand because of a low ceiling.

In front of me, Baaax announced, “Don’t give up! Grab a shovel and dig. My guess is that in a couple of hours, Emhe’s team will dig us out with an excavator.”

A miner kicked dirt. “Ank! You better be right. Fuck! Shit!”

Another one bellowed, “I can’t reach anybody with my tablet!”

An angry voice announced, “Mine’s only picking up a lot of distortion!”

Baaax yelled, “Keep digging! Forget the tablets!”

About forty minutes later I halted next to a wall, took the VADB arm extension off my pant leg, and strapped it to my wrist.

“What the hell is that?” Baaax glanced at the device.

“It’s used for climbing and drilling holes.”

“It’s small. How can you see in this poor light?”

“My mechanical left eye just switched to infrared.”

“I thought you were a human.”

I told him about myself.

“Interesting. Good luck. Right now, we need all the help we can get.” He kept shoveling. “Ank.”

The drill started boring.

On the opposite side of Baaax, a Qoowo miner spat on a rock. “All I’ve got is this lousy ass pickax!”

Behind the miner, another one shouted, “I can dig out WADI Three-Zero-Three in two hours!”

Baaax yelled back, “Don’t give up! Work as fast as you can!”

Just over hour later, while sweat poured down my forehead, I said, “Oxy.on,” activating my bottled oxygen. I inhaled the bottled air as my drill bored deeper.

Baaax sighed. “My oxygen tank is low. I’m going to run out of air soon. After that, I’m going to die.”

“We can share my oxygen.”

“Thanks. I’ll tell you after I use up mine.”

“No problem.”

All too soon, Baaax muttered, “I’m out of oxygen.”

I took the canister off my sleeve and gave it to him.

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” I shoved my extension into piled up dirt. The device started rotating. As my adrenaline pumped harder the drill bit created a tiny opening. Dim light illuminated my face. I inhaled. “Fresh air is coming through a hole I just created.”

Baaax shouted, “Are you kidding me?”

“I am not.”

“I don’t believe it.” He looked inside the hole. “Holy shit! We made it.” He chuckled, happy to be alive, and gave me back the canister.

“What’s your name?” A miner coughed.

“Jason.”

“What’s your last name?”

“Six-Sixty-Four”

“No. What’s your real name? Nobody has a number for a last name.”

“Six-Sixty-Four. I’m a cloned human, a C.”

“Damn. Whoever the fuck you are, you saved our asses.”

“Glad to help.”

“Jason, are you going to take your wife back to Icir?” Baaax inquired politely.

“No. I don’t have enough money. Someday, if I make a lot of it, I’ll return and take her with me.”

To my right, in front of Baaax, a boomer drill broke through piled-up dirt.

Baaax wiped sweat off his face. “Fi, the boomer will remove this dirt in an hour or so, then drive in here and help us clean up. It’s going to be expensive and time–consuming, but at least we’re alive.”

Fi stepped over a pile of dirt. “Baaax, I hope the tunnel doesn’t collapse on Dr. Nees and Dr. Sim.”

“Knowing Lyso and Raui, it might.”

“Do Dr. Nees and Dr. Sim know Lyso and Raui as well as we do?” Fi paused, scowling.

“I only received one email from Dr. Nees. The only thing he mentioned was the fact that they needed to know who was going to pick them up at the hangar.”

Not wanting the miners to hear their conversation, Fi whispered into Baaax’s ear, “It sounds like Boma can’t reach them because his tablet isn’t working. They need to know that Lyso and Raui want them to remove nineteen tons of Perovskite within four months.”

“In the last two days, I’ve sent Dr. Nees and Dr. Sim eighteen emails. But I haven’t received anything from them.”

Fi shook his head, disgusted. “What a mess.”

“A week ago, I told Lyso and Raui that we’re working too fast. The tunnels are more likely to collapse. They said I should go back to work and stop bothering them.”