The Slaver Wars: Galactic Conflict (46 page)

“Airlocks are
opening,” Captain Sanders reported as the ship’s LIDAR system scanned the
asteroid, giving real time data to the flight computer as the ship dropped
steadily down toward the asteroid’s pockmarked surface. It was large enough to
generate a slight gravity field of its own, but the powerful engines of the
cargo ship had no trouble compensating for it.

Mason looked
ahead at the asteroid, feeling glad to be home. He had been raised inside Vesta
in the artificial world his grandfather had created and his father and he had
added to. He could see the flashing lights on the surface, which designated the
location of the main airlock.

The massive
airlock doors slid open and the cargo ship flew smoothly inside, finding itself
in a long and brightly lit tunnel two hundred meters in diameter. For another
twenty-five kilometers the ship flew, passing through several more massive
airlocks as it descended deeper and deeper into the asteroid. It finally
entered a large chamber nearly two kilometers across and half a kilometer high.
There were a number of berthing docks on the floor and the cargo ship dropped
down smoothly toward an empty one, settling gently down on its landing struts.
Moments later, the engines shut off and the ship became quiet.

“Good flight
and landing, Captain,” spoke Mason, feeling anxious to leave the ship. His
quarters on the ship had been comfortable, but Vesta was special. He knew that
Captain Sanders was one of the best pilots in the company and had gone out of
his way to accommodate him on this trip.

“It was a
pleasure to have you aboard, Sir,” Sanders replied with a friendly nod.

Mason left the
cockpit and made his way to the hatch, finding the docking tube already
connected to the ship. Walking through it, he went into a smaller airlock and
then exited to find two people waiting for him. One was his close friend, Drake
Thomason, and the other was his secretary, Adrienne Lynn.

“Mason, it’s
good to have you back,” spoke Drake, reaching out and shaking Mason’s hand.
“How was your trip to Earth?” Drake was an expert mining engineer and second in
command behind Mason.

“Very good,”
Mason responded with a pleased smile. “I signed several lucrative contracts for
the delivery of
ruthenium
,
rhodium
,
palladium
,
osmium
,
iridium
, and platinum with our two biggest
rare metal contractors.”

“Wow!”
exclaimed Drake, feeling excited that Mason had managed to sign contracts for
the precious metals. “How did you accomplish that?” Drake knew they would make
some good money for the delivery of the rare metals. It would also please a
number of the prospectors.

“It’s
becoming increasingly more difficult to find the metals on Earth, and they have
finally had to turn to us,” Mason replied with a satisfied smile. “We stand to
make a good bundle off the new contracts.”

“Enough
to pay for your new exploration cruiser?” teased Adrienne, referring to the
unfinished hulk of the five hundred-meter Phoenix that was in the landing bay.
Adrienne had blonde hair and deep blue eyes that made most men swoon.

“Perhaps,”
Mason responded with a grin. She was always teasing him about all the money he
was putting into the new ship. It was a big investment, but he knew in his
heart that someday it would pay off.

Adrienne
was the most efficient secretary he had ever had; things seemed to run very
smoothly with her around. She was twenty-eight years old, extremely attractive,
and somehow still managed to stay single. She also kept good track of the work
being done on his pet project, the Phoenix.

The
Phoenix was supposed to be the first interstellar exploration ship to leave
the solar system. The ship would be the largest and most modern spacecraft ever
built once it was finished. The only problem was the star drive. The scientists
had still not managed to come up with a workable star drive that could break
the speed of light barrier. Until that happened, the ship would remain
unfinished. Even so, other systems were being installed and tested. Her new
sublight drive would be the fastest one ever placed in a spaceship. Mason couldn’t
wait to test it out and see if they could break the system speed records. There
was no doubt in his mind that they could do so easily.

The
three walked down several corridors until they reached a large transit station.
Once again, they passed through an airlock to find themselves upon a large
platform, similar to a subway station back on Earth. A number of other people
were present as they were going to and from work. They made their way to a
waiting transit car and sat down. The cars could hold up to twenty people at a
time, ran on electricity, and were extremely comfortable.

“How
are Larcy and Madison?” asked Mason, looking over at Drake as they waited for
the car to begin moving. There were still a few people taking their seats.
Larcy was Drake’s wife, and Madison was their twelve-year-old daughter.

“They’re
doing great,” Drake responded
,
pleased that Mason had
asked. “Madison is doing excellent in school. They’re supposed to be
interviewing someone for a school project and I believe she has chosen you as
her victim.”

Mason
laughed. He loved kids, his sister had two of them, and he never got tired of
being around them. “Tell her to come by the office and we can do it; have her
check with Adrienne first to make sure I’m there.” 

The
car began moving, rapidly accelerating to its top speed of sixty kilometers per
hour, and entered a narrow tunnel. After traveling twelve kilometers, the car
began to slow and finally pulled into another transit station.

“We’re
here,” spoke Adrienne, smiling. “Are you going to the office or the Control Center?” She knew that Mason would want to check on everything to see how things
had run during his absence.

“The
Control Center,” Mason replied after a moment of thought. “I want to check on
several of our current mining operations as well as what our stock levels are
on the precious metals I just signed contracts for.”

“Your
sister wants you to come over for supper tonight,” Adrienne added. She knew
being around his sister’s two young children was something Mason really
enjoyed.

“Tell
her I’ll be there,” Mason responded with a smile. Just thinking about his
sister’s cooking make him feel hungry. Susan was a good cook, and her husband
Michael was one of the top asteroid prospectors in the company. A home cooked
meal sounded great after eating the MREs on the cargo ship.

“Don’t
be late,” warned Adrienne, folding her arms across her more than ample chest.
“You know how your sister gets if her food gets cold.”

“I
won’t,” Mason promised
,
as he didn’t want to upset Susan.
“Is Michael home
,
or is he out prospecting?”

“I
believe he’s out at one of the mining operations,” answered Adrienne, recalling
one of the reports she had read earlier in the day that detailed the current
status of the prospectors. She tried to stay up to date on everything just in
case Mason asked.

“He
is,” Drake confirmed as the three stepped out of the transit car and onto the
brightly lit platform. “He left yesterday and will be gone for three days. He
took some new mining equipment out to one of his newer claims.”

Mason
nodded. Over one hundred licensed prospectors worked for the Smithfield Mining
Cooperation out of Vesta and were responsible for setting up mining operations
on any asteroid they filed a claim on. The minerals were mined and sent back to
Vesta to be refined, and each prospector received a lucrative paycheck, which
he used to pay for his mining operation and deposit in his bank account. Most
of the miners worked numerous claims to bring in as much cash as possible.

The
three walked down a short corridor and passed through yet another airlock. This
was the last one as they stepped out into the massive habitat that had been
created inside of Vesta to house the employees of the Smithfield Mining
Corporation. For thirty kilometers, the habitat extended. As far as the eye
could see were trees, grasses, streams and a few small lakes.

The
city of Smithfield itself was in the center and contained seventy thousand
people. The habitat was twelve kilometers wide and two kilometers high. It was
like a miniature Earth but free of pollution. Birds and other abundant wildlife
were allowed to roam free in most areas. Special wildlife rangers kept a close
watch on the animal species
,
making sure they didn’t get
out of balance and that they remained healthy. Mason’s grandfather had begun
the construction of the habitat and Mason’s father and he had finished it. It
had been a massive, expensive project and Mason was extremely pleased with what
had been built here. Nothing else like this existed anywhere else in the solar
system.

Many
people had felt it was a boondoggle to build something like this so far from
Earth. However, once his grandfather and father had begun exploiting the
available resources to be found in the asteroids, many people soon came to
change their mind. Families flocked to Smithfield to find their fortune and
soon found that they had found a home instead. The population had swelled until
they had to put restrictions on who could come and live here. Now only the best
and brightest were even considered. Construction of a larger habitat had
already begun as Mason had ideas for the future that would allow their
lucrative mining operations to be greatly expanded. The moons of Jupiter and
Saturn beckoned, and Mason intended to be the first to plant mining operations
on each one of them.

The
three took an electric car to the city and after dropping Adrienne off at the
office, the two men soon made their way to the underground Control Center that monitored the habitat as well as the ongoing mining operations. They had to
take an elevator down to the Control Center, as it was located six levels
beneath the city of Smithfield.

Entering
the Control Center, Mason let out a deep breath. They were in a large room
where over sixty men and women were busy at work. On all four walls, massive
viewscreens showed views of the inside of the habitat, Smithfield, as well as
some of the nearby mining operations. Everyone was dressed in a standard dark
blue uniform, which was the normal dress code for company employees while they
were on the job.

From
the Control Center, all of the outgoing prospecting missions were monitored as
well as the current mining operations on numerous large and small asteroids.
Mining on an asteroid was a dangerous business, and the company had long since
come up with stringent guidelines to maximize safety. Many of the operators in
the Control Center were busy monitoring and speaking to different ongoing
mining operations. Each operation had to report back to Vesta on a daily basis.

“Mason,
I’m glad you’re back,” Pamela Cairns said, hurrying over to where Mason and
Drake were standing. She had a look of confusion in her eyes. “Something
interesting is coming in over our communication feeds from Holbrook Station and
Luna City; you need to see it!”

Holbrook
Station had been named after Mason’s father and was the large company space
station in orbit around the Earth. Pamela was thirty-two-years-old, married,
with dark black hair, which she normally kept cut short. She also had a
ten-year-old son that constantly got into everything.

“What
is it, Pamela?” asked Mason, feeling curious. There hadn’t been anything out of
the ordinary mentioned on the media channels when he had been down on Earth or
on Holbrook Station. He had just left the station four days ago; he couldn’t
imagine anything that could have changed in that short amount of time.

“You
need to come to the main communications console,” Pamela said, gesturing for
the two men to follow her. “We just started receiving this a few minutes ago
and we’re not sure what’s going on. You’re not going to believe this!”

They
made their way across the room to the main com console. There were four
communication specialists sitting in front of the large console. From here,
they could keep track of their twenty-seven cargo ships as well as the one
hundred and five smaller prospector ships. They could also communicate with
Earth, Luna City, or Mars Central if need be.

Fortunately,
thanks to a communications breakthrough on Earth, faster than light
communication had been discovered. So far, the principles that allowed
communications to bypass the light barrier hadn’t found its way into ships yet.
When it did, the Phoenix would be ready and Mason would be off to Alpha
Centauri on the first interstellar trip. He already had a team of engineers and
scientists looking into that aspect of the new communications technology.

“What
do we have?” asked Mason, looking over at Pamela curiously. She was showing a
lot of concern on her face, which was unusual. Even her shortly cut black hair looked
slightly ruffled.

“Put
it up on the main screen,” Pamela instructed Jessica Lang, one of the
communication specialists.

The
young woman pressed several icons on her computer screen, and the image she had
been observing was transferred to one of the big viewscreens on the wall above
her.

Instantly
an image appeared on the screen. Mason and Drake stopped breathing at what was
being shown. They hadn’t been expecting anything like this.