Jewel (15 page)

Jewel watched as he ticked the items off on his fingers.

“And we could use your engineer, of course. If we’re going
to use these boats, we’re going to have to get them out of the boathouses and
make certain they’re in proper working order.”

He stopped and flashed a big grin at Erik, Jester, Falco and
the others. “And finally, what we need more than anything else, is for you to
find the location of those two platforms so we know where to start diving for
them.”

Four local days later, Jewel rode across the storm-roughened
waters of the North Sea in the company of Strongheart and his twenty-five
miners. They hadn’t been easy days, especially with Erik maneuvering to get her
alone to steal a few kisses, despite his promises to act more professionally
than that. It wasn’t as if she wouldn’t love to indulge him, but with Spy
active in her head again she simply could not afford to flirt with the man. So
she’d thrown herself into her work to avoid being alone with Erik and
accidentally impressed Captain Kiara enough that she’d been given the new
responsibility of chaperoning the miners. She still wasn’t exactly certain how
she’d drawn the short straw and she certainly wasn’t happy about it. As purser
she was clearly a ship’s officer, but how that qualified her to be in charge of
a mining salvage operation was way beyond her.

As much as she tried to, Jewel couldn’t shake the feeling
that something very bad was just over the horizon, and it wasn’t just the storm
clouds and the snow setting off her nerves. Two sets of colonists had
disappeared on this moon and she didn’t want to add herself and the crew of the
Euripides
to the death count.

To make things even more difficult, Ana Yang was with her on
the boat. Jewel had been getting along with the woman a little more cordially
since the armenium had been discovered but that really wasn’t saying very much.
Ana was still furious over Erik leaving her for Jewel, and was clearly not
ready to give up on the executive officer. Strangely enough, Ana’s jealousy had
worked in Jewel’s favor in Snója, helping her to keep Erik at arm’s length. It
would only take one kiss from the exec to turn the spy in her head completely
against her. Actually having sex with Erik would provide Spy with undeniable
proof that Jewel was off her parents’ metaphorical reservation and running her
own game. Jewel really didn’t want to deal with the bioware under those circumstances.

Beside the launch, Jester drove one of the two speedboats,
looking like he was actually enjoying himself. The boats were called Hunin and
Munin, after the ravens of the Norse god, Odin, and they were fast enough that
Jester could literally have driven circles around the larger boat if he had
wanted to.

The boat Jewel rode on had the almost unpronounceable name
of Tanngrinir, which was apparently a goat that pulled the chariot of the Norse
god, Thor. Goat-driven chariots didn’t sound all that sexy to Jewel, but maybe
they had been considered to be the power-starships of their century.

Erik, over his own vehement protests, had remained at Snója
to keep the base camp operating and to organize the transportation of any
recovered armenium from the launch to the shore and from there to the
Genesis
where it would wait for the
Euripides
to return from its jaunt around
the solar system collecting space buoys.

That last was yet another thing that bothered Jewel about
this operation. Removing space buoys—without replacing them, of course—violated
the laws of every planet she had ever heard of. She’d argued unsuccessfully
that taking down the buoys served no legitimate purpose. If the Aremenites ever
did find Valkyrie and recognized the true value of the system, nothing was
going to stop them from claiming the moon. But as with so many other matters
since arriving in this system, she’d lost that argument too. Captain Kiara was
convinced that if any other starship stumbled upon this system and reported
they had discovered a former Ymirian colony, the Armenites would certainly
arrive in force to claim it, cutting off all of their future profits.

* * * * *

“How are we doing, Strongheart?” Jewel asked later that
afternoon.

The squat man gave her a thumbs-up through the falling snow
instead of answering through the all-environment suit’s intercom. He and nine
of his men were geared up and ready to dive to the first of the wrecked
platforms. Jewel couldn’t help but feel this was a mistake, but she’d given up
arguing about it, concentrating instead on sifting through the data Spy had
found for her. It was, as she had already noted, voluminous to the say the
least, and she’d grown sick of reading through it days ago.

“Anything you need from me?” she asked.

“Just that you make sure the ship is still here when we come
up again,” Strongheart laughed.

He certainly seemed confident. Ana and he had personally
checked each and every all-environment suit. They looked more like patchwork
quilts to Jewel then underwater survival gear, but they were apparently good to
go.

Strongheart moved to the back of the launch and hoisted
himself up on the rail.

Jewel shivered in her heavy parka, glad that it was water
resistant and pushing most of the spray away. “Your heaters are working? You’ve
double checked your air supply?”

She could see Strongheart’s expression through the faceplate
of the suit. His constant good humor was beginning to fray with annoyance.
“Why, Ms. Aurora, I’m beginning to think you’ve become interested in me. Should
Mr. Gunnarson be alarmed?”

What did that comment mean?
Spy asked her.

Be quiet
, Jewel sub-vocalized.
He’s teasing me.

To Strongheart, Jewel tried to laugh off her nervousness.
“I’m sorry, it’s just that I keep reading about what happened to the Ymirians.
And remember, there was a whole other group of colonists who disappeared before
them. Money isn’t worth dying for.”

“Oh, I quite disagree, Ms. Aurora,” Strongheart said with
one of his patented big smiles. “Money is the only thing worth dying for!”

Without another word, he tipped himself backward and
disappeared beneath the angry gray waves.

* * * * *

An hour later, Jewel still couldn’t stop herself from
pacing.
How are they doing, Spy?

Are you certain you would not like me to lower your blood
pressure
? the bioware asked.
I am far more effective than any sedative a
doctor could prescribe.

I’m certain you are, Jewel thought to herself, but instead
she said,
Would you please just answer the question
?

Mr. Strongheart has reached the estimated depth of the station.
I am monitoring his progress through the cameras on his suit.

A murky image appeared in Jewel’s eye—generated by Spy
stimulating her optic nerve. This resulted in a form of double vision that
could best be cleared up by Jewel closing her eyes.

She didn’t do that.

I thought I told you not to mess with my body chemistry
,
she told Spy.

I am attempting to fulfill your instructions to update
you on the progress of the divers
, Spy replied.

Maybe. Or maybe Spy was just trying to get her hooked on the
technology again? Jewel wondered.

She considered making the program terminate the visual
effect, but decided she really did prefer to see what was happening.

Carry on.

Two hours later, Strongheart’s voice came through his suit’s
com unit with an unexpected discovery. “There are air pockets left in the
mining platform.”

Jewel felt just as amazed as he sounded.

“How is that possible?” she asked. “Everything we’ve read in
the colony logs suggests the sea here is very hard on non-metallic substances.
That’s why the platform sank in the first place. Why didn’t the sea finish the
job after pulling the platform down?”

“I can’t answer that,” Strongheart said, “but it’s a real
bonus for us. We can bring down a couple of generators, heat up some of these
rooms, maybe even pump out some more water. This will give us a space we can
rest and eat in and recharge the oxygen and power in our suits.”

Jewel found herself shaking her head. “I think that’s
extraordinarily dangerous,” she told the miner. “At the very least we need to
figure out why the corrosion stopped before we start trusting you and your
men’s lives to that thing.”

“It’s probably a matter of depth,” Strongheart argued.
“Whatever causes the corrosion is only operative at surface level. If it’s even
here in the depths it becomes inert—inactive.”

“That hypothesis doesn’t fit the facts,” Jewel warned him.
“Most of the accidents outside the sinking of the two floating platforms
occurred while the men were physically mining the armenium. That happened even
lower than you are now. Depth is no protection.”

“Well, we’ll be careful,” Strongheart promised.

Jewel didn’t find comfort in his words.

* * * * *

“Hey, stranger!” Erik waved to Jewel from one of the little
boats they were using to ferry the armenium ore back and forth to Snója. It
wasn’t a particularly efficient way to move the ore. The little boats were
better for passengers than they were for cargo. But the crew of the
Euripides
was making good with what they had at hand. As for the land to orbital leg of
the journey they would do as the Ymirians clearly had before them and fall back
on the Meteorite they’d found parked on
Genesis
. They hadn’t accumulated
a lot of ore yet, but it was early in the recovery operation.

Jewel waved back at Erik, slightly disturbed at how excited
she felt to see him after more than a week apart. She took a deep breath trying
to calm her body, knowing that Spy would detect the physical signs of her
attraction and correctly interpret them. She would have to keep Erik at an
arm’s distance. Putting him off would hurt him, but Spy was going to freak out
if she ever genuinely suspected that Jewel and the executive officer were
lovers.

Erik tied the little boat to the launch while Jester held it
steady in the rough water. It was snowing, of course. When hadn’t it snowed
since they’d landed on this moon? But as storms went, this was a light one for
the region, and Erik had no difficulty scrambling up the ladder and opening his
arms to give Jewel a hug.

She sidestepped him. As much as she really would enjoy
feeling his strong arms around her, it simply couldn’t happen under the
circumstances. And if Spy weren’t enough of a problem, they had Ana Yang on the
boat with them. Right or wrong, a warm physical greeting was just asking for
trouble. So as much as Jewel wanted to, she simply couldn’t give Erik the hug
and kiss they both wanted.

Erik looked hurt, but he didn’t question her evasion. “How’s
it going down there? I decided it was time I came out and saw the center of
operations in person.”

They began to walk together toward the back of the ship
where Ana was trying once again to get the starboard winch back up and running.
The winches were absolutely necessary if they were to haul the ore-filled cargo
containers up to the surface. Each one pulled a mile long cable up to the
surface, dragging loaded cargo containers behind it.

“If you want the genuine center of operations, you have to
go down to Jörmungadr II with Strongheart,” Jewel told him. “Up here it’s
mostly a matter of stacking up the ore while we wait for your boat, or waiting
for Ana to get the winches running again.”

Ana looked up at her with angry eyes, but Jewel didn’t give
the woman a chance to vent her temper. “I’m not blaming you, Ana. The problem
is obviously the corrosion I’ve been reading about in the old colony records.”

“Well, why don’t you read up a solution to the problem?” Ana
snarled. “At first this crap was just eating up the lubricants, but now it’s
into the internal engine parts. It’s a goddamn mess trying to clean it all out.
I’ve gone through three sets of gloves in the past hour and I’m starting to
worry about my fingers.”

“It’s eating through your gloves that fast?” Erik asked. His
concern was evident and Jewel felt a flash of jealousy over it. Not that it
made any sense. Worrying that Ana might be burned by some sort of corrosive
agent was only human—not a sign that he wanted to get back in her bed.

“It’s starting to,” Ana said. “I’m not going to take a
chance of this crap getting on my skin. I’m double gloved as it is, but still,
I only have two hands.” She turned her attention back to Jewel. “So what about
it? Have you found what’s causing this in all those colony records you’ve been
reading?”

The wind kicked ocean spray over all of them, painfully
reminding Jewel why she didn’t like this moon. “No,” she told them. “It hasn’t.
The Ymirians obviously didn’t know why this was happening. They ran chemical
analyses, and the seawater has some strange trace elements in it, together with
all the strange sorts of xeno-fauna you expect to find on a foreign world. But
they found nothing to explain why the corrosion was occurring.”

Off the port side of the ship a humongous whale-analogue
surfaced briefly and sprayed the three of them.

“Wow!” Erik said as the beast dived beneath the waves again.
“That’s a big one. Is there any record of the colonists going fishing for
those?”

“They tried,” Jewel told him, “but the problem is those
trace elements in the water. You can hunt those monsters for sport but you
can’t eat them. In fact, they didn’t find anything native that they could eat
on this world, although to be fair, the Ymirians didn’t come here to farm, they
came to mine armenium.”

Jewel was surprised by the reaction her simple observation
drew from both Ana and Erik.

“What did you say?” Erik asked.

“They knew the armenium was here when they arrived?” Yang
asked.

Jewel realized she’d spoken carelessly and reworded her
statement. “I didn’t mean to say they knew about the armenium in advance. But
they came to mine. That much is certain.”

Both Erik and Ana seemed to find that plausible, but on
reflection Jewel honestly wasn’t certain that she hadn’t spoken the truth the
first time. The Ymirians had brought a lot of deep-sea mining equipment with
them and she’d seen no evidence in their records thus far that they had
surveyed the planet before bringing in the heavy equipment.