The Mothership (24 page)

Markus gave him an ironic look. “So were
the Americas and Australia when Europeans arrived. Now who’s running things?”

“Found something!” Timer declared from
beside a featureless wall. When he saw they were looking at him, he said, “Now
you see me,” then he took a step and vanished. A moment later he reappeared and
pointed at a slightly darker area on the floor. “It’s another elevator.”

“Where does it go to?” Beckman asked.

“To a . . . subway station.”

Beckman approached the elevator panel
curiously. “OK, we’ll check it out while the others finish up here,” he said,
then stepped onto the floor plate.

In a blink, he was standing in a cavernous
chamber hewn from the bedrock, next to a row of squat gray machines. Several
small, orange-tinted lights mounted high in the smooth rock walls were all that
prevented the chamber from being drowned in darkness. The wall on the far side
of the chamber was dominated by two circular tunnels, and a line of transport
capsules parked in front of the left tunnel. The capsules were the size of
small trucks, with open hatches revealing empty cargo bays running the length
of each vehicle.

Beckman drew his Beretta as he took several
wary steps into the underground chamber. A panel slid open on one of the
machines to his left and a metallic cube sixty centimeters across floated out.
The floor illuminated beneath the cube as it glided across the chamber,
reminding Beckman of a conveyor belt, without the belt. A light flashed on the
far wall at the cube’s height, stopping its horizontal movement, then another
flickered on the left wall pushing the cube toward the first capsule in line.
Beckman followed the cube, watching the floor lights glow beneath it as it
drifted toward the cargo capsule. A yellow beam inside the capsule caught the
cube and placed it on a stack of identical cubes.

Markus, Dr McInness and Timer emerged from
the elevator’s alcove as Beckman touched the metal cube that had just been
stowed aboard the first transport capsule. It was almost hot enough to burn his
fingers, while the cubes alongside it, Beckman quickly discovered, were much
cooler. He holstered his pistol, then struggled to lift one of the cold cubes.

“Heavy?” Dr McInness asked as he
approached.

“Oh yeah,” Beckman said, dropping the heavy
metal cube back in place.

The scientist examined the metallic blocks
curiously. “It explains this facility.”

“It does?”

“If you drill through the Earth’s crust, to
the mantle or even to the core,” Dr McInness said, “You’ve got access to vast
mineral wealth, and can produce metal ingots like these.” He touched several
cubes curiously. “The drill vaporizes everything it touches, then they extract
minerals from the gases and vent the moisture and waste products as superheated
steam. Fast and efficient.”

“OK, so they’re down, damaged, and digging
for metal,” Beckman said, gazing thoughtfully at the tunnels, the empty
transport capsules and the row of refining machines along the wall, trying to
imagine how much the mining facility could produce once it was at full
capacity. “Judging by its size, this place could pump out a lot of metal.” He
frowned, troubled. “So are they trying to repair their ship, or build a new
one?”

“Depends how bad the damage is. It explains
why Laura’s station was destroyed. They were scavenging for minerals, perhaps
to help build this place.”

“They must be desperate,” Beckman said.

“They’re obviously not expecting a rescue,”
Markus said. “Whatever’s gone wrong, they have to fix it themselves.”

Beckman watched the row of refining
machines, waiting for the next ingot to appear, but none did. “So what’s taking
so long? This place is built for mass production, but it’s made one ingot since
we got here.”

“They couldn’t haven’t reached the mantle
yet,” Dr McInness said.

“And where the hell are the guards? Why
only one lousy gun to protect all of this, if they need it so badly to repair
their ship?”

Their earpieces hissed with Hooper’s voice,
his signal breaking up from the interference of the surrounding rock. “Air veh
. . . incoming . . . a transport.”

“Acknowledged. Xeno, you get that?”

“Yes sir,” she replied from the control
room above.

Beckman turned toward the elevator when
Hooper’s voice sounded again. “It’s unload– . . . looks . . . dirt.”

They heard the sound of the harvester’s
cargo rumbling down a chute nearby, then a moment later, an outlet panel on one
of the refining machines slid open and a cube floated out. It glided over the
relay of floor lights into the transport capsule. When the ingot had taken the
last place in the cargo bay, the hatch closed and the capsule glided silently
into the tunnel. It then sped away, perfectly positioned in the center of the
subway tunnel with barely a centimeter separating it from the tunnel walls.
Behind it, the next capsule in line crept forward into its place, ready to
begin loading.

Beckman relaxed, thumbing his mike, “Stand
down. It was a dump truck.” He looked into the tunnel after the departed cargo
capsule, now invisible in the darkness, realizing what had just happened.

They got another full load of metal!
His instincts told him he should have
destroyed the capsule to ensure those minerals couldn’t be used against them.
Too
late now!

Hooper’s voice sounded again. “It’s mov …
north eas . . .”

“Understood,” Beckman acknowledged as a
blast of air burst into the chamber from the second tunnel, then a capsule
emerged from it. The capsule floated to a halt, then drifted across and joined
the queue of empty transport capsules waiting to be loaded.

Timer watched the transport capsule
thoughtfully. “We could use that tunnel as a short cut to the ship.”

“No,” Beckman said without hesitation.
“It’d be too easy to get trapped in there.”

“If that’s the same capsule that just left
here,” Markus observed, “It’s a fast turnaround.”

“Too fast.” Beckman said uncomfortably. “We
need to slow them down a little. Timer, can you collapse the roof onto the
drill?”

“What!” Dr McInness exploded.

Timer nodded, “If it’s anything like the
wall we blew in, no problem.”

Dr McInness looked from Timer to Beckman
with a horrified look. “Have you lost your mind?”

“Put a few charges down here too,” Beckman
said, “Just in case we fail to take out the drill.”

Timer nodded and moved off to set his
explosives on every third machine.

If you destroy this installation,” Dr
McInness said, “It’ll be an act of war!”

Beckman turned to the scientist,
suppressing his irritation. I’m not letting them have those minerals until I
know what they’re using them for. And they say ‘please’.”

“You’ll ruin any chance we have of
establishing friendly relations with them!”

“If they want friendly relations with us,
they can damn well ask for them.”

Dr McInness turned to Markus. “You can’t
let him do this. It’s insane.”

Markus’ face was stone. “It’s the smart
thing to do.”

“For God’s sake, you could be getting us
into a war we have no hope of winning. Of even surviving!”

“They’ve got a weakness,” Beckman said,
“And I’m not about to let them fix it, until I know what they’re up to. Now, do
you need to be helped into the elevator?”

The scientist glowered at Beckman, then stormed
to the elevator.

When he vanished, Markus said, “We are
taking a risk.”

“I know, but if they’re hostile, blowing
this place up won’t change anything, and if they’re friendly, they’ll accept an
apology.”

“You could have told him that.”

“I don’t have to explain my orders.”

“It could all be for nothing, if they can
repair this place as fast as they built it.”

“Depends on how many drills they’ve got,”
Beckman said, hoping they had no spares.

Markus stepped onto the elevator and
vanished while Beckman waited for Timer to finish, then they took the gravity
lift back to the control room.

“Time’s up, people,” Beckman said as he
stepped off the subway elevator.

Dr McInness watched with rising anger as
Timer set shaped charges around the floor window and at the base of the domed
ceiling, then placed a satchel charge in the center of the window.

Timer turned to Beckman when he’d finished.
“All charges are on the same circuit,” He said, holding up his radio detonator.
“When I hit this, the floor and ceiling will blow together, dropping the
ceiling and this satchel onto the drill head.” He pointed to the bag of
explosives at his feet. “This bad boy’s on a ten second delay, enough time for
it to fall onto the drill head. Can’t guarantee it’ll survive the heat down
there, but if it does, adios muchachos. The machines downstairs are rigged to
blow when the main charges trigger up here.”

Beckman nodded approvingly. “Good job.
Let’s move.”

Xeno and Markus disappeared onto the
elevator. Beckman was about to follow when Vamp yelled out behind him. He
turned to see her staring at the empty gravity lift.

“McInness went back down!” she said.

“We don’t have time for this shit!” Beckman
snapped. “Go get him. Knock him out if you have to. We’ll wait for you at the
entry point. Timer, go with her. Check he hasn’t damaged your charges.”

Timer and Vamp took the gravity lift down
to the cargo terminal, while Beckman took the other lift down to the ground
floor, wondering what the scientist thought he would achieve. He should have
known Beckman would never let him interfere with his orders.

God damned eggheads!

* * * *

Timer stepped off
the elevator plate in the underground chamber as Dr McInness pulled a C4 charge
away from the nearest refining machine. The scientist turned when he heard
Timer’s footsteps approaching, then a moment later, Vamp appeared in the lift
alcove.

Dr McInness started backing away. “I’m not
going to let you do this!”

Timer held out his hand for the explosive.
“Give it to me, Doc.”

“This is madness!” The scientist declared
as he pulled the detonator pin out of the explosive. “We can’t afford to make
enemies of these people!”

“We don’t want to hurt you, Doc,” Vamp said
as she circled around to the left.

Dr McInness reached for another explosive,
then Vamp darted forward and kicked him in the stomach. He doubled over,
gasping for air while she relieved him of the explosive and tossed it to Timer.
She took him by the shoulders and guided him to onto his knees where he wheezed
for air.

“Breathe,” she said with a hint of
sympathy.

Timer reinserted the detonator pins and
reattached the explosives to the machines. Before he’d finished, the master
sergeant’s voice, distorted by interference and distance, sounded in their
ears.

* * * *

“Air vehicle
inbound,” Hooper reported calmly.

Beckman activated his mike as he jogged
along the passageway towards the hole in the outer wall. “Acknowledged. We’ll
extract when it’s clear.”

Markus and Xeno waited at the opening,
inhaling the fresh air flooding in from outside. They coughed and wiped away
tears, expelling the alien atmosphere’s irritants from their lungs and eyes.
When Beckman joined them, he felt fresh, humid air wash over him with relief.

“Good, huh?” Xeno said.

Beckman nodded, wiping his eyes.

“It’s approaching the central structure,”
Hooper said. “It’s not a dump truck.” From his vantage point among the trees,
he watched a small rectangular craft circle the billowing column of steam, then
nose in toward the roof. Boiling white clouds swirled around the craft, partly
obscuring it from sight, then two slender shapes leapt from an open rear hatch.

“Two runners have jumped onto the roof!”
Hooper reported.

“I guess the red golf ball was a warning
system,” Xeno said. “That’s why there’re no guards.”

Beckman thumbed his mike. “Timer, have you
got him?”

“Affirmative,” Timer’s voice crackled back
as he finished securing an explosive. “No permanent damage done. Fixing it
now.”

Beckman’s mind raced. The two seekers
landing on the roof could only mean there was access to the control room from
up there. He wondered whether they’d arrived to repair the hole they’d blasted
through the wall, or hunt down the intruders? Apprehensively, he thumbed his
mike. “Hold your position, the control room is compromised.”

“Understood,” Timer replied.

“How are they going to get out?” Xeno
asked.

Beckman hesitated, wondering how far below
ground the cargo terminal was? Five meters? Fifty kilometers? Could they
survive the blast down there? He knew they couldn’t afford to be trapped in a
fire fight inside the building, or allow the explosives to be disarmed.