Serpents of the Abyss (The Darvel Exploratory Systems #2) Page 3

  That didn’t mean she was ever going to enjoy a single thing about being on “the rock” or anything else about her assignment there. Even Eddie Wik wasn’t going to charm her into liking this horrible place. She would stick it out because of her contract, but she decided that it didn’t mean that she had to pretend to like it or give more than exactly what she was required to. At least Vi, who had her feet kicked up on the table beside her, was all for doing less rather than more. It seemed that it was the non-gratas motto in life. Since they had nothing, they weren’t about to give any more than they had to. Right now, Lori could really appreciate that perspective.

  A helmet thunked down beside her, and she just barely kept from jumping as her mentor bent over the table and grinned down at her. She frowned back at up him. Eddie had more goodwill than anyone she had ever met and was also far more charming than she would have expected of a non-gratas. Although his face was lined from the harsh conditions of his work, his green eyes sparkled with humor and his smile was genuine and generously given.

  “Morning, Lori. This is it! Your first day out on the rock,” he enthused.

  “Hurray,” she mumbled into her cup, taking a swallow of weak coffee to wash down the nutritional paste.

  Vi snickered at her side and mumbled something into her own cup that Lori couldn’t make out. Knowing her friend, it was likely inappropriate, and centered either on the slim pickings of decent and available men in their rotation, or the miserable breakfast that she seemed to enjoy making snide comments about daily.

  There wasn’t anything anyone could do about Vi’s dating pool, but during orientation, Lori had soon discovered that being on an uninhabited chunk of space waste meant everyone’s diet was limited. Coffee was offered twice a day, and a filling meal at midday during shift change. Other than that, they were left with water and a nutritional paste of synthetic proteins and important vitamins.

  “Aww, come on, kid. I know she don’t look like much, but M285 is fascinating. You get deep enough in those mines, and you’ll see beautiful rock formations. It can get real pretty. You just need to get on your feet and go see it.”

  She stared at him flatly but tipped back her last swallow of coffee and followed behind him to the loading station’s prep-deck. Vi strolled beside her, looking unconcerned. Although she had confided not having any hands-on experience with mining what-so-ever, her last positions in the general labor department, she could bluff competence like no one else. That gave her a leg up that Lori envied. She still felt lost and unfortunately seemed to wear it on her sleeve.

  At least she was no longer dissolving into embarrassing tears in the dorm.

  Eddie shoved a helmet into their hands, followed by gloves. He held a laser vibrational drill in front of her, his finger flicking the on switch. A vibrating light shot out about a foot from the handgrip with an angry buzz. With another flick of his finger, he turned it back off and handed it to her and repeated the process with Vi. Once they both demonstrated that they could repeat what he showed them, he gave them a grin that could almost be paternal if he were old enough to be their father.

  “This is it now. I know you learned plenty about these things in training, but some stuff they don’t cover. Like, make sure to never point the drill at yourself, ladies. We’ve had a few accidental amputations that way. Nothing serious. A few fingers, and someone lost an ear once. It won’t kill you, but it’s painful and not very pleasant to face in the mirror. The vibrating beam is made to break up rocks, so handle it carefully. And now we put on our masks.”

  A flexible half-mask filtration unit was the last thing to be thrust at her. Watching him carefully as he fitted his own mask, Lori slipped hers over her head and slid it back up until the mask clung to her skin from her jaw to the bridge of her nose. She was instantly aware of the annoying pressure digging into her face.

  Vi made a face. “Just perfect. I had hoped never to wear one of these again. Remind me again why this is necessary. I thought we were told that the air is safe here,” she grumbled.

  Lori tried to adjust its placement to something remotely more comfortable.

  He grinned at them and tapped his own playfully. “Well sure, technically, the air is fine. They told you so in orientation, didn’t they? That said, the dust we kick up can kill you. Keep your half-mask on at all times while working.” He scratched one whiskered cheek. “Think you got it?”

  “Sure. Breathing death dust is bad, pointing laser at self is a big ouch. Anything else?” she asked.

  “Don’t fall?” Vi suggested, her eyes sparkling with amusement.

  “Isn’t that what the helmet is for?” Lori countered, settling on a scowl as she tried not to laugh.

  “Won’t save you if you fall down the shaft,” Eddie replied, his voice cheerful as if she weren’t glaring at him sourly.

  “That almost sounds like a dick joke,” Vi observed, and this time a little chuckle escaped Lori.

  He laughed and stepped between them, smacking them on the back. “I like someone with a sense of humor. Wait and see, you both are going to get on just fine here!”

  Lori sighed. Why did that sound like a threat? She didn’t want to “get on.” She wanted to get out—preferably somewhere that plied her with fruity beverages at the end of the day. Everyone else she wanted to leave her alone…and to stop staring at her like she was a disease.

  She squinted as a bright light flooded the room and a long, tubular transport vehicle rolled onto the platform of the prep-deck. From lockers all over the prep-zone, workers hustled over toward the transport and climbed in. Eddie beamed and gave her a thumb’s up before yanking on his helmet and gloves. He stomped over to the tube with Vi trailing close behind with her long-legged gait as she too pulled on her gear. Tucking her tool into the holster of the belt strapped securely over her ugly camo jumper, she pulled on her protective gear before reluctantly following them onto the transport.

  Clambering aboard, they made their way toward the back of the transport where her mentor dropped down near a handful of other guys who gave Vi a friendly nod and eyed Lori quietly. Following a quick introduction, they grunted out greetings that were barely decipherable even with her translator.

  Mumbling hello in return, Lori sat down next to Eddie on one of the hard metal benches and strapped herself in. His large hand patted her on the shoulder before dropping away to drape over his knee. She wasn’t sure if it was meant to reassure her or provide some silent support, but she was oddly grateful for the gesture all the same while faced with so many unfriendly faces.

  A loud beep blared overhead, and the tube jerked, throwing her against her belt as it carried them back out the way from which it had entered. Clearing the station, Lori winced at the piercing bright light until the automatic solar shield slid down over her visor. With her eyes adequately protected, she stared at the passing hillsides. Despite how much she hated her new job and the entire planet itself, emerging out onto the surface of the alien world with its hot suns beating down on them still proved at least a little interesting, and one memory that she could take with her when she finally left it behind.

  She quietly admired it, shooting an occasional glance over at Vi, who seemed similarly entertained with their surroundings, while the men conversed among themselves until the craggy red landscape turned into an indistinct blur as the tube gathered speed the further it got away from the outpost. Within nothing to look at but streaks of red rock and gray skies, Lori settled on scowling down at her gloves.

  One of the men sitting across from her leaned in to speak to Eddie, his brow above his filtration mask knit together with concern.

  “Second shift reported all kinds of tremors down there, Eddie. None of us know what to make of it. Boss doesn’t seem to think it’s anything to worry about, but you know the Corp guys. As long as we’re pulling ore out of the ground, they’ll just smile and slap us on the backs.”

  “Probably nothing,” Eddie said, tone uncertain. “Just people getting spooked. The
re’s been more folks reporting tremors since they started using the excavator. May be aftershocks.”

  “What is the excavator?” Lori queried, perking up with interest.

  The man across from her crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s a damn foolish thing is what it is. The Corp doesn’t think we’re drilling quick enough with our equipment—you’ll see them when we arrive, good, reliable tunnellers—so they had a team develop the excavator to drill deep shafts from the surface. Who knows what important mineral veins they’ll be breaking up in the process… and who do you think will have to sift through all the rubble, I ask you? Us, that’s who,” he grumbled.

  Vi laughed without humor. “How else do you expect it to be? We are the grunts. That’s our sole purpose in life according to United Earth and Corp. Now it seems that they’ve roped citizens here too, so clearly their disregard is extending.”

  “I don’t give a fuck about citizens having to suffer down here with us,” the man bit out. “It would do some of them good to see what it’s like. This place was always a hellhole, and now it’s just getting worse. You’ll see,” he said to Vi. “They treat us like we’re nothing but animals while they sit comfortably and watch, reaping the rewards.”

  Lori shifted at the scathing remark. Her time on M285 had already been an eye-opener, so she couldn’t dispute its effectiveness.

  She glanced over at Eddie. “How long has Darvel… uh, Corp been mining here?”

  Eddie scratched his jaw thoughtfully. “I’d say about, four… no, five years now. Why do you ask?”

  “And you’re telling me there’s never been tremors after you’ve used your equipment?” she asked.

  She knew she was grasping at straws, but if it happened, even if seldomly, it would make her feel a lot better. Like she wasn’t walking into a deathtrap while the supervisors carried on as if the wellbeing of the crew was entirely inconsequential. If this was normal treatment for non-gratas, it was a wonder they didn’t revolt on the colonies. But if the non-gratas rose up, it would be very likely that United Earth would abandon their colony efforts there rather than expend more effort and resources.

  Please let it be normal.

  Eddie shook his head at her, smiling as if he could read her inner prayers like they were written across her face.

  “Nah, but then our equipment isn’t designed to blast with such force either. The excavator… well, it’s one of a kind.”

  That wasn’t what she had hoped to hear. With nothing else to say and occupied with her own thoughts—mostly cursing Darvel for luring her into the contract to begin with—Lori fell silent as the vehicle rattled loudly over small rocks blown over the track. She could hear Vi talking quietly to the man beside her but tuned them out.

  As she stared out at the blur of the passing landscape, she wasn’t surprised that the planet was susceptible not only to consistent droughts, which made it impossible to find water anywhere on the surface, but also wind and lightning storms that caused all the dreaded massive sandstorms that swept in regularly.

  What a shithole.

  As they rounded a bend, the tube slowed, and a massive wall of rock cleared away to reveal a monster of a machine in the distance, nearly as tall as a twentieth century oil drill. Standing on a massive cage of legs, the excavator dominated the landscape. The enormous barrel at the center angled toward the ground was comprised of several round segments that seemed to whirl at various speeds, each decked out with flashing lights. Lori felt her mouth go dry as it grew larger at their approach. The reinforced metal entrance of the mine looked miniscule next to it.

  Eddie nudged her and pointed at the mine. “When the first team arrived, that was nothing more than the entrance of a cave system. It took nearly a year to reinforce it. There’s an elevator system in the main shaft that will take us down. The excavator is a new addition and has been used to drill a new shaft for us to expand the mines. It’s going to really transform this rock.”

  “If the tremors from the excavator don’t cause everything to collapse, you mean,” the guy across from them broke away from his discussion with Vi to add.

  She peered at the cavernous mouth of the mine curiously. Although the metal beams had done much to tame its shape, she could almost make out what looked like a giant mouth with long, pointed teeth shaped into the stone.

  “Freakishly impressive,” Vi murmured.

  Lori shivered. “Please tell me the cave didn’t always look like a giant gaping mouth?”

  Eddie glanced over at her in surprise. “Well, as a matter of fact, it did. The first exploratory team called it Devil’s Mouth. Didn’t want to go in it none either until they detected mineral deposits beneath it. The caverns took them to the first veins of wealth produced from this planet.”

  “Don’t forget to mention all the carcasses of dead critters they found in the caverns. Most were over a hundred years old, but plenty were fresh too. There are different animals that live down there that can’t survive on land. Who knows what all lives in the depths of the cave systems that we don’t know about?” their companion said.

  Eddie smacked the other guy’s helmet, making the rest of their crewmates snicker at the reprimand as it slid off and clattered to the floor.

  “Dave, quit trying to scare the newbs.”

  “I’m doing nothing of the sort,” Dave retorted. “I’m just saying that it’s best to be on your guard at all times. You never know. I don’t trust these tremors. Not at all. And I sure as hell don’t trust that cave. Too many people as of late have gone missing.”

  “Don’t tell me you’re listening to those rumors. I swear, some of these people gossip like a bunch of old weaver women,” Eddie declared with a laugh.

  Lori smiled weakly at the joke. It was an old joke that she had heard many times or in some variant, usually directed at her mother in particular. It still stung but over the years she no longer felt the helpless anger at the little deriding turns of phrases that people bandied about so casually without regard for feelings. She was pretty sure he meant nothing by it. People always liked to gossip and talk regardless of their occupation and not just women who were perceived to be doing little more than sitting on their asses and gossiping as they played with textiles.

  “You only know of one person who went missing, and he was found with a broken neck from falling through an unexplored part of the shaft in the cave system,” Eddie snorted.

  “What about the hunks of flesh that were missing?” Dave demanded, his red-rimmed eyes fastening on her mentor.

  “Who told you that? Malcom? That ass suffers hallucinations from all that crap he smuggles in, and you know it.” Eddie shook his head and clucked his tongue. “Lori, don’t pay him any mind. You just stick by me, and if a jackalope comes running out of the tunnel, we’ll be sure to holler for Dave.”

  Dave rolled his eyes and slapped his helmet back on his head, his features obscured again beneath it as the shadow of the mining station fell over them. As it drew closer, the indented “eyes” above the mouth seemed to glower down at her, daring her to enter. Lori swallowed nervously.

  The last thing she wanted to do was go in that mine. Not even a premier pleasure planet was worth all of this. But it was too late. Once a contract was signed with Darvel, there was no backing out of it. She was utterly fucked. Shivering with nerves, she pulled on her helmet that covered her entire head with the exception of the space left for the filtration unit. She felt trapped and hidden within it, without identity or individuality, and she was forced to swallow back the unreasonable despair that rose within her. That she was now truly just another faceless worker being sent below.

  Their tube eventually pulled to a shrieking stop beside a metal platform where Lori could see a man in white coat hurrying toward them. She drew in several deep, steadying breaths to calm herself.

  “I don’t trust this planet,” Dave said. “And I don’t trust the men in the pocket of the Corp. You would be wise not to trust them either.” Casting a hard glance
at Lori, he nodded to her as a lead strode up to them with a wide smile.

  The newcomer squinted against the blowing sand, his eyes protected behind the heavy visors that he wore over his eyes in place of a helmet. An entirely different mask enclosed his lower face and connected to his suit, so his voice had a strange cadence as he spoke through it.

  “Welcome to Darvel M285 Mining Station Alpha.”

  Chapter 5

  The on-site portion of her “orientation” around the mining station ended up being laughable. The foreman who greeted them did little more than mark her and Vi off on his tablet, double-check that their equipment was on them as he reminded them that anything that needed to be replaced would be docked from their wages. He then handed them each a bag filled with several water pellets to serve as their rations for the shift. None of this seemed to surprise Vi, so Lori silently followed her example, shifting the drill on her shoulder out of the way to take the pellets and stick them in the sack strapped across her chest.

  She wasn’t entirely thrilled with the pellets since they never seemed quite satisfying, but the edible gummy pods of water would keep her hydrated, bursting open when she bit down on them while the pod itself broke down in her mouth to minimize waste. Between the texture and the taste of the water, Lori wasn’t a fan, but she wasn’t about to complain, not when water was scarce here. That was why, despite the pods being about the size of a golf ball, she was alarmed to see that there were no more than ten provided.

  Ten pods for a twelve-hour shift. That meant she’d have to survive on less than a half-cup of water per hour with the exception of the break for lunch. She immediately tightened the strap of the bag around her, a visceral fear filling her. What if she lost one? Or someone took her rations? She was already told that she would be given no more, so to conserve them.