Below (14 page)

He sprawled on the bed as she settled at her desk to work and appeared to be sound asleep when she finally joined him several hours later. He was gone when she awoke the following morning, but she thought little of it. He often rose before her in the morning.

Climbing from the bed, she showered, dressed and went down to the dining hall to grab a cup of coffee. It wasn’t until she returned to her desk to finish up the work she’d left the previous night that she discovered the note he’d left her.

He’d hacked in.

Victoria stared at the note blankly, but even as groggy as she was the implications were clear—contrary to her specific orders, and despite the risk ignoring that particular order carried with it, Raphael had only waited until she’d gone to sleep and had gone back.

Anger surged through her. She should have known this would happen. The last time she’d been fool enough to allow a man prolonged intimacy he, too, had considered that gave him the right to ignore her commands. It was the main reason she had avoided it ever since, the main reason she’d been determined not to allow Roach to bunk with her, because she’d seen he would become a discipline problem if she allowed it. She would never have thought that Raphael would.

After a moment, she sat down at her desk, deciding she needed to drink her coffee and wait until she was more fully alert to decide how to handle the problem.

It couldn’t be ignored. It was absolutely essential that she retain command at all times. If she allowed anyone to disregard her orders, they would all begin to question them, which could put everyone in danger as well as the project itself.

By the time she’d finished her paperwork and her coffee, it occurred to her that Raphael had at least been discreet. He’d gone up while she was sleeping. No one but the two of them could possibly know. It made her feel a little better.

It also occurred to her that she could pretend she had no idea he’d acted against her orders. If she didn’t ask him, she wouldn’t have to do anything about it, because it also occurred to her that there was only one thing, really, that she could do, and that was to ask him to remove himself to other quarters.

She found that she was very reluctant to do that. She was disturbed by how deeply reluctant she was.

Finally, she decided to dismiss it for the moment and concentrate on the work at hand. She needed to look at the files. She also needed to go over the physical files she’d collected from the security office. She’d spent hours doing paperwork the night before, however, and two additional hours since she’d gotten up. She decided to check on the projects in progress before tackling more paperwork.

When she arrived at the flight deck, she saw that Quinton and Albert had almost completed the erection of the new communications tower. “How long before it’ll be operational?” she asked them as she reached them.

“We’ll have the tower done by tomorrow at the latest,” Albert responded, “but you’ll need to ask Caroline about the transmitter.”

She located Caroline and Barbara on the main operations level. They were still trying to scavenge some of the parts they needed, but expected to have the transmitter ready, if the parts could be located, by the time the tower was finished.

For the first time since they’d been stranded on Kay, Victoria felt a surge of hope for their chances of survival. She knew very well that the odds were against them being able to make contact with anyone, even if they succeeded in getting the transmitter operational, but a ray of hope was better than what they’d had before—none.

“Good,” she said. “When you get it on-line I want you to begin transmitting a distress call, immediately. If you manage to get anyone, explain the situation we found on arrival and tell them we need immediate evacuation. If you can’t pick anyone up, try alternating with SOS.”

Caroline and Barbara exchanged a look.

“Are we in immediate danger?” Caroline asked.

Victoria studied her a moment. “I think the longer we’re here the greater risk, and the less likely any of us are to leave. Stay with it.”

She paused when she reached her level once more, feeling an unaccustomed indecisiveness. She’d left her quarters with the intention of checking all of the projects in progress. She wasn’t particularly anxious to tackle more paperwork, but found she was also reluctant to check out the mines.

It occurred to her finally that her indecision arose from a reluctance to allow anything to dim the hope the news from the communications crew had given her.

Shaking it off, she made her way down to the access level, stopping in the locker room to don her wet suit. They were bringing up a load of ore as she arrived at the access pool. “Where do we stand, here, Brown?” she yelled above the noise of the machinery they were using to haul the baskets up through a pulley system to the warehousing levels above them for processing.

“We processed the last of the ore the previous crew pulled yesterday. This is the first load our crew’s pulled. Sylvia said they were up to quota yesterday before the cave in. I don’t know if they’ve pulled any today or not.”

Victoria nodded, waited until the basket had cleared the pool and leapt in. It was a little easier adjusting than either previous attempt. It was not something Victoria foresaw as ever being easy, or natural seeming, but it gave her hope that she would learn to endure better as time went on.

If they remained on Kay for the duration.

She very much hoped they wouldn’t. It was one thing to take a high risk, high yield job. It was another matter entirely to take on a job that had wiped out everyone who’d tried before. That wasn’t risk. That was suicide.

She hoped the crew’s projections were right and the communications tower was up and operational soon. She meant to have someone on the transmitter day and night sending out a distress call. No way was she staying on this rock any longer than it took to be picked up.

No one was in the operations shack when she arrived. Frowning, Victoria debated briefly and finally decided to go down for a look herself. When she reached the main shaft, she could see the miners below her, steadying a load of rubble. Stepping back from the opening, she waited until they’d reached the top.

Sylvia was among them.

Victoria swam to her. Where’s Raphael?

Sylvia nodded toward the main shaft. Overseeing the clean up in the tunnel. I could tell him you need to speak to him when I get back down.

Victoria shook her head. I’ll go down.

Sylvia stopped her. Are you sure you should? So soon after the accident?

The truth was, Victoria would have just as soon not gone down into the mines, ever, again whether it was a particular health risk for her or not, but she’d made it a policy never to ask anyone to do anything she wasn’t willing to do herself. She smiled. Tuttle would have told me if she’d thought there would be a problem.

Sylvia shrugged and returned her attention to helping the others maneuver the cart to the area they were using to dump the rubble. After watching them for several moments, Victoria shook reluctance and dove into the tunnel. Raphael looked up as she made her way to the end of the tunnel. He frowned, but then looked away, concentrating on his task.

Victoria waited until the crew had finished up and started out of the tunnel. You made quick work of the clean up. It must not have been too bad.

Raphael shrugged. Bad enough we’ve lost half a day’s work. We should go up. They need to get the equipment in here and get started.

Victoria frowned, grabbing his arm as he moved to pass her. Is something wrong?

He stopped, studying her a long moment, but finally shook his head. Not that I know of.

You seem ... distracted. He seemed remote, but she couldn’t decide why she felt that way.

We’re running way behind schedule, he said and turned away again.

After a moment, Victoria followed him out. She saw the miners were waiting just outside the tunnel opening with the equipment and hurried to catch up to Raphael and get out of their way.

I need to pull the rest of my crew off of search detail. We’re not going to make quota this week if I don’t, he said as they reached the main entrance once more.

Victoria studied him, but somehow she doubted that was why he was behaving so coolly. It was possible, but she didn’t buy it. Before she could probe further, however, a telepathic shout interrupted them.

We found him! We found Roach.

On the heels of that telepathic call came a sound that Victoria felt certain she would never forget, the rumbling growl of the mine as the shaft collapsed.

Chapter Twelve

Cave in!

Victoria whirled, too stunned for several moments to do more than gape at the belch of silt that rose from the mouth of the mine shaft like smoke from a dragon’s throat. Around her, miners raced toward the shaft and dove in. She followed them, appalled at the amount of rubble that blocked the entrance to the tunnel they’d so lately occupied.

Who was in there? She asked as she fell in beside them and began digging rocks from the rubble and piling them into a bucket someone had lowered.

Richard and Linda, someone said. Samuel, Kevin and Melinda, someone else supplied.

Shouldn’t we get some heavy equipment in here to move this faster?

They might be under the rubble.

Victoria nodded and kept digging. It took them an hour to clear an area large enough for someone to squeeze through, if they were small. I’m going in.

Raphael grabbed her, dragging her back. Wait until we clear it.

They might not be able to wait that long, Victoria pointed out.

They wouldn’t have breathed up the oxygen in the water this quickly.

Victoria glared at him, but quickly realized that they did not have time to argue the matter and returned to helping with the digging.

A few minutes later the first of the victims trapped behind the wall of debris, alive and relatively unscathed, climbed through and Victoria relaxed as the others followed behind him. Is this everyone? She asked Samuel, who was the last to climb through.

Samuel nodded. There were only the five of us.

You’re certain of that?

He looked a little hesitant. I think so ... unless someone was behind us. The five of us all went in together.

Everybody outside for a quick head count.

Raphael counted them twice and finally frowned. Liam’s missing.

Oh God! Victoria thought. Has anyone seen Liam?

He was with us when we went out to search for Roach, one of the searchers said.

Did he come back with anyone?

The searchers all looked at each other but none of them said anything.

When was the last time anyone saw him?

After some discussion, they arrived at the conclusion that Liam had not been seen since they’d gone to search for Roach the day before. Victoria didn’t know whether to be relieved to discover that Liam couldn’t possibly have been trapped beneath the rubble, or unnerved about the fact that the search party had recovered one man only to lose another.

She sent them out again to look for Liam.

* * * *

They had to fashion a makeshift gurney to carry Roach up to medical. He was muttering incoherently, as if he was delirious. Victoria waited until the computer had scanned him and Tuttle had analyzed the data it collected.

“What are his chances?”

“He seems to be stable ... for the moment, at least. He broke his ankle when he fell into the ravine. He’s dehydrated. I’ll need to keep a close eye on him for at least twenty four hours, but I think he’s going to recover.”

Victoria nodded, her lips taut with anger. “When he’s well enough to move him, put his ass in the brig.”

Tuttle blinked at her in surprise. “I said he’d be out of danger. It’s going to take him a while to recover.”

“He can recover in lock up. He ignored a direct order. No one is to go off alone, ever, for any reason whatsoever. We’ve lost another man searching for his sorry ass. As soon as he’s out of danger, lock him up.”

Returning to her quarters, Victoria showered, changed and settled down to study the files. Since Roach had been found, it didn’t seem imperative to look into the computer files at once, so she concentrated on the files she’d retrieved from security.

From what she could tell, there’d been no real problems until the arrival of the mining crew. The construction crew chief had reported several accidents, but only one fatality during their stint before the arrival of the miners.

There was nothing particularly unusual in the fact that an accident had claimed the life of one of the construction crew members, particularly on a project this size. Despite every effort to provide safety, statistically speaking, the company expected 1.5 deaths per three construction projects. Construction was dangerous work. Construction on an uncharted planet was hazardous beyond that because of the uncertainty of conditions. Nor could she tell from the report that the accident might have been other than an accident.

It had taken almost a month for the newly arrived crew to get all of the equipment set up and operational. The first crew member disappeared within two weeks after excavation began.

The security chief had suspected foul play. There’d been an ‘incident’ between the missing man and one of the other crew members shortly before the disappearance. The security chief hadn’t been able to come up with anything more than a hunch, however, and had finally released the suspect.

There were four more disappearances over a two week period. Three crew members had decided to go off to do a little exploring on their day off and had not returned. A three day search had turned up nothing and they had finally been reported as missing, presumed dead. The fifth crew member to disappear was one of the searchers who’d failed to return.

Three months into the mission, the power failed and the main shaft collapsed, trapping the majority of the miners fifty feet below the surface. The construction crew had gone in to rescue them, but they were unfamiliar with the equipment. By the time they managed to dig the rubble out the miners had run out of air.