Battleground Mars (10 page)

“I know. This’ll be a two buggy operation, we'll need the second vehicle will carry militia to guard the drillers. I was going to send your crew to do the drilling, but with this new site you’re working I know it’d be a waste of time asking.”

“Yes, it would. Is there anything else?”

He shook his head and Rahm left the office and went to the canteen.

They were all there, celebrating the big find. Saul was half drunk, the others were all well on the way. With the exception of Kaz Yasan. The Moslem was sitting quietly with a glass of orange juice. Josh DeVries and his crew were nearby, they were drinking but there was little celebration at their table. Rahm noticed that Gabi Aaronsen was with them, he walked over to say hello.

“Josh, what’s going on? Gabi, how are you?”

She nodded coolly without saying a word.

“We’re going out to the Tyrrenha Plateau in the morning, hadn’t you heard?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I saw Fechter earlier.”

“Did he call you in about that punch you delivered to Tobin Ryles?”

“Something like that.”

DeVries nodded. “Bastard deserved it. We’ve been queuing up to give him what he deserved.”

Gabi looked disgusted. “It was an unprovoked attack.”

DeVries fixed her with a stern expression. “Miss, whatever it was, it wasn’t unprovoked. The guy's been asking for it ever since he came here. If you want a good reason for what’s going wrong around here, look at Ryles. The useless bastard has been trouble ever since he landed.”

Gabi looked away, for she obviously didn’t want to agree.

“You watch your back out there tomorrow,” Rahm said to DeVries. “There’s been a lot of enemy activity out on that plateau.”

“We’ll be fine. Damian Hacker is leading the security team in the other buggy.”

Hacker was at least a pro. He’d been a Ranger on Earth, a Captain who’d led men into a number of heavy fire missions. More importantly, he’d led them out again. With a heavily armed six man security team in a back-up buggy, they’d be carrying some heavy firepower if there was any kind of a run-in with the aliens. But still, Rahm was uneasy. Gabi Aaronsen would be with them, her first mission since the murder of her brother. He caught her eye.

“Gabi, this is bandit country you’re going into. You should consider starting off nearer to home, there’s a lot that can go wrong out there.”

“I’m not scared,” she said in a voice that dripped with meaning.

He sighed, not prepared to argue. “Good luck with it, Josh.”

“You too, I heard you’re on a roll.”

“Yeah.”

He went back to his crew and downed a couple of shots of Bourbon, but he didn’t enjoy their company as much tonight. He looked across again to where Gabi was engage in conversation with one of Josh’s people. He’d messed up there, very badly, and he wasn’t quite sure how. Or how to put it right. Maybe he was fated with women, but that made him think of Christine Blake. That wasn’t fate, it was something else. He wasn’t quite sure what. When would he ever put that behind him?

They headed back to the Schiaparelli Crater next morning. Once again, Kaz kept watch and Brad manned the laser cannon. It meant they could get on with their work without worrying about an attack. Kacy was recovered from her ordeal and this time, Rahm had made certain that the spare air supplies were stowed in the vehicle locker. The trevanium poured into the cargo hold and they ended the day having to leave the site an hour early, they were full to capacity. They spent the journey back talking about what they were going to spend it all on. Kacy wanted to become an inventor, and she talked about funding a company to develop hi-tech gadgetry for mineral exploration. Saul speculated about opening a female wrestling arena, which got him into an argument with Kacy, who was an ardent feminist. He realized someone was talking to him.

“What about you, Rahm. What are you going to spend it on?”

He realized with a start that he had no plans. Ever since that terrible day when his operation had been shattered by the bandit raid and he’d left it all behind, he’d put his life on hold. Mars was somewhere to hide out, that was all. What would he do when he returned to Earth? All his soul craved was to find solace from the terrible loss of his station in Afghanistan. He managed to mutter something about a ranch, but they weren’t convinced and they left him alone. When they drove into the base garage to unload, and to have their haul weighed and then recover from the day’s labors, there was pandemonium.

“What the hell’s going on?”

Jacques Fechter was prowling around the garage, assessing the vehicle fleet and weapons inventory. He turned to Rahm.

“Do you want the bad news, or the much worse, really terrible news?”

Rahm smiled, what kind of a joke was this? It was rare that the manager tried to be funny.

He grinned. “Ok, I’ll play. Give me the easy bit first.”

“Josh DeVries’s crew was ambushed, a large force of Taurons.”

His thoughts flashed to Gabi. “Are they all dead?”

“No, so far they’re all ok. But they’re pinned down, Damian Hacker circled the wagons, he’s formed a defensive perimeter and so far they’re holding them off. Their most pressing problem is air, what they have left won’t last forever.”

“Right, so let’s got and get them out,” Rahm said, turning to shout for his crew to stop removing their suits. “What are we waiting for?”

“That’s the terrible part, my friend. The air scrubbing plant is playing up, I’ve got a team of engineers out there now but they’re not hopeful. If it breaks down completely, I’ll have to bring in the emergency lockdown procedure. That way, we’ll at least hold out until the relief ship arrives, but we’ll have to cut out all of our drilling operations.”

His team had come up behind him. Their exhilaration at the huge cargo of trevanium had evaporated.

“Hell, Jacques, we can’t stop drilling. We’ll all go home broke,” Brad said. His voice was filled with anger.

“Hold it, Brad,” Saul said to him. “The first thing is to get that crew out of trouble. We’ve got what, twelve of our people out there?”

“Thirteen, with Gabi Aaronsen, she’s on DeVries’s crew as a trainee.”

“Right, thirteen. So let’s go get them.”

“No ones leaving here, Saul. We need to wait and see what the engineers say about the air scrubbing plant.”

“Surely they can fix it,” he said with a note of anger.

“They’re not sure, none of them have been trained on that type of equipment, their specialty is drilling equipment, for Christ’s sake. This is a mining operation after all.”

They all went silent, thinking about the implications. A crew of drillers with their security team, under threat many miles from home. With the whole of their operation facing potential disaster from lack of air. They would get back to Earth with just their basic wages to look forward to. There would be no bonuses, nothing to represent many months of hard, dangerous labor. In addition, they could be carrying a shipload of corpses. Assuming that the Taurons left any corpses for them to take back.

“We’re not sitting back and taking this, Jacques,” Rahm said quietly. “First off, there must be someone here who knows about those air scrubbers, it’s not possible that on the entire Mars colony there’s not as single person who doesn’t know how to fix them.”

Fechter was silent for a moment, thinking. He looked up at them. “There was one person who did have some training on that gear, now let me think, who was it?” His face cleared. “Oh yeah, Gabi Aaronsen. She used to repair them before she went in for mineral exploitation technology. Yeah, she’s…” He stopped as he realized the appalling truth.

“We’ve got to get those people out,” Rahm said. “I don’t care what you say, because no way do I leave anyone for those Tauron bastards to eat for dinner. That’ll solve your problem too if she can fix the air scrubbers.”

“We’re not going anywhere,” Tobin Ryle said as he walked into the garage. The man’s face was still swathed in bandages and he couldn’t speak properly, but they understood him enough to start shouting.

“We’re going,” one of the crew leaders shouted. “Let’s get the buggies moving, we’ll need plenty of firepower too.”

“You’re not listening to me,” Ryles said. “Mars Base is on shut down. I’ve just had a call from the engineers, the scrubbers have finally stopped working and there’s no way they can fix them. Standing orders are that Mars Base goes to the emergency lockdown as of this moment. No one goes in or out, all drilling operations are ended until the relief arrives.”

The garage was packed with people now as every member of the drilling crews, as well as the ancillary workers, came to find out the worst. The noise grew to a hubbub as everyone seemed determined to shout at once. Even the chief engineer, Dan Weathers, a normally taciturn man, looked furious. Probably it was his last contract before retirement. Rahm stepped forward.

“I don’t care about procedures, because we’re not leaving those people to die. We’re going after them.”

“You will not,” Ryles shouted as loudly as his damaged jaw would allow him. The base is closed. If you don’t accept my word, listen to what the Base doctor has to say.”

Dr Neil Price had entered the garage behind the deputy manager. He looked tired and haggard, a beaten man. They all knew that he had several patients in his medical center who were seriously ill. There’d been an accident only six months into the contract, five men had been injured when a drilling rig went out of control and broke up. Four of them were still on the critical list, twelve months afterwards. They needed to get back to Earth for microsurgery, for it was the only thing that could save them. There simply weren't the facilities inside Mars Base.

“My patients need all the air they can get. I have come to ask that you observe the lockdown procedure to give them a chance. If there is any kind of heavy demand on our remaining air, it could be the end for some of them. You men are able to cope with increased levels of carbon dioxide, these patients can’t. That is all, I know about our people out at Tyrrenha. If there is anything that can be done for them we should do it, of course. But please, do not use up what little air we have left in a useless endeavor is there is no chance of it succeeding.”

He turned and left, and the crowd began to disperse. Rahm went to his quarters, located a bottle of Bourbon and took it into the canteen. Saul Packer brought in a bottle of vodka and they sat sharing out the booze. Eventually, Packer looked at Rahm.

“Any ideas? Tell me what you’re thinking.”

“I’m not thinking about anything.”

Saul grinned. “You’re always thinking about something, I know you too well. Tell me.”

“I can’t abandon those people, Saul. Somehow, we have to get them back.”

The toolpusher nodded. “I agree, but it’s not going to be easy. If we go out there and fight the Taurons we’ll burn up so much air that the rest of our people could be in serious trouble until the relief ship comes. I mean very serious, some of them could die without adequate air.” He looked thoughtful. “You know, I reckon that bastard Ryles worked it out, if we bring back DeVries’s crew, there’ll be a bigger demand on the remaining air. The bastard.”

“You could be right. But I’m going out to get them, so we’ll have to worry about the air later. Besides, Gabi Aaronsen may even be able to fix the scrubbers.”

“She’ll sure need to. Otherwise it’ll be touch and go without them. So you’re going?”

“Yes, I am.”

“I’m with you, Rahm. You know that, we’re all with you.”

He nodded his thanks. “We need to find out how bad things are before we leave, we need to see Fechter.”

The Mars Base manager was in his office, talking to the Chief Engineer, Dan Weathers. They looked up as the men walked in, Fechter nodded. “Yeah, I wondered now long it would take you two to get here.”

“We can’t leave them, Jacques. Whatever the other problems, we’ll sort them out later.”

“I feel badly too, but my hands are tied, I have to follow the rules.”

“We know that. You can follow the rules, we’re leaving right away. We’ll need buggy, weapons and as much air as you can spare for us.”

He shook his head, but he was smiling. “I thought it would pan out like this. I can spare you precious little, if the Taurons hit us we’ll be left here to carry the can without enough air to get us through the next few months. I can let you have ten hours, that’s it.”

Rahm shook his head. “You know we can’t get there and back and beat back the Taurons with only ten hours. Besides, DeVries’s crew may be running low, and they’ll need air to get them back.”

“I’m sorry, that’s it. I have the whole of Mars Base to worry about, ten hours is more than I can spare, but that’s all. Don’t push for more, because I’d be criminally negligent to let you have it.”

“I could tell you where to find more air,” the Chief Engineer said. “Enough for you to complete the rescue mission and have some to spare for Doc Price.”

They all looked at him in amazement. “Dan, you’ve been holding out on us! Where is it?” Fechter exclaimed.

“I only just remembered. You remember the Eastern Star, the ship that crashed in the Huygens Crater?”

They all remembered the crash, because it had been a severe setback to the whole program. Some said that it should have been shut down. The Eastern Star had just delivered a new party of miners and taken off the old crew, together with their valuable stocks of trevanium for the return journey. How it happened had been argued ever since, some said they were greedy and overloaded the ship. Others said it was a simple malfunction, a few insisted it was the result of a Tauron attack. The ship had lifted off as normal. When it reached a height of about ten miles something had gone wrong, the engines had failed and the ship plummeted back down to disappear into the Huygens Crater, a few miles south of the Schiaparelli Crater. Miraculously, the hull survived relatively intact, probably due to their frantic efforts to restart the engines. But all hands had perished, their bodies had been retrieved and they were sent back to Earth on the next transport.