Chapter Three
1845 – Arkansas2
150 – 2105
Captain Zachary Foxx had just finished directing the few remaining miners to clean up tasks when the earth shook again. "Dammit, not again." He growled using a fractured roofing support beam to keep him on his feet. "Doc, you getting a location?"
"Already on it." Ranger Walter Hartford answered as he pulled out his CDU. "C'mon Pathfinder, up and at'em."
The telltale sparkle of the tweaker came to life. "Got your preliminary numbers right here, Doc." Reported the little program as data uploaded into Doc's handheld computer.
"Captain, there appears to have been one major earthquake followed by three distinct aftershocks. The coordinates form a trajectory across the planet with the main mining settlement at the heart of it."
Zachary moved next to Doc in order to see the pattern of tectonic activity displayed. The screen was dotted with red hash marks depicting the mass wasting of the planet from the past few days. Although there appeared no exact rhyme or reason to the activity, the main mining city was indeed central to all of the chaos.
Zachary ran a hand wearily across his face leaving a trail of sweat and dust. They had discussed making arrangements for the evacuation of the planet since they arrived, but the mayor of the town, who was also the Vice President of Ore Acquisition for this sector of Metallurgy Conglomerations, had balked at the idea of abandoning the planet. He had made assurances to them that the city much less the planet was in no danger. "I wonder how he is going to explain these quakes and aftershocks." Zachary muttered to himself. "The planet settling?"
"We had better head back to the city, Doc. We're going to have to get the mayor to agree to an evacuation plan."
"I agree, Captain. If the earth continues to shake, rattle, and roll, there is no way that the settlement's power grid will remain unaffected. Current data indicates that even if we experience no more seismic activity, there is a 32 percent chance that the atmospheric dome will shatter."
Captain. Zachary's wrist comm announced followed by a static filled image of Shane Gooseman.
"Go ahead."
Niko and I have been detained, sir.
"Report, Gooseman."
The last aftershock caused a sinkhole to form separating us from the horses. The area surrounding the horses and us dropped approximately 90 meters in upon itself.
"Casualties?"
No sir. We were able to retrieve the horses. The extra field rations and medical kit were not so lucky.
"Understood." Zachary knew Goose was deliberately being succinct. He had his own suspicions as to exactly how the events unfolded. "Take the horses and return to base camp. Doc and I are on our way to the city to see the mayor as well. We'll still regroup at 2100.
Aye, Captain.
"And, Goose."
Yes, sir?
"Make sure that both you and Niko recharge. Given the terrain, we're likely to need it."
Understood, sir. Gooseman out.
Captain Foxx looked over the fractured remains of the mine opening and shook his head. The terrain had indeed become treacherous. It was unclear when or where the next tremor would occur. But the political terrain was just as unsteady.
"Paul." Zachary shouted to be heard over a mining excavator. The foreman wearing an orange hat motioned to the driver to continue clearing the remains of the entrance to the mine and then walked over to the Ranger Captain.
"Captain Foxx." The man replied wiping his brow with a bandana and shoving it into the back pocket of his work jumpsuit.
"Ranger Hartford and I need a lift to town. Think you can spare a hover truck?"
"I can do you one better. Shift change happens in a few minutes. I can drive you there myself. Not that second shift will be able to do much today." Paul looked at the mess of rubble and shook his head. "We were really counting on this one, too."
"At this point," Captain Foxx replied, "I think you were lucky. We'll take you up on your offer though."
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Gooseman and Niko ate in silence looking out the small window of a rundown cabin that the rangers had made their base of operations. From here, beyond the hydroponics buildings, one could just see the atmospheric dome that encased the mining settlement.
While Arkansas2 was rich in precious metals, it was not habitable, at least not without artificial assistance. It was a small planetoid or probably asteroid would be a better description, somewhere between the size of Earth and Earth's moon. In addition, it was in a complex orbit around a black hole that somehow provided light through the superheated gases being pulled into the accretion disk. There was neither atmosphere nor water to be found naturally on the rock, but Metallurgy Conglomerations provided everything that the miners and their families would need at least while the mines were prosperous. And, the mines had indeed been prosperous so much that other areas had been terra-formed for life outside of the mines creating a mini city with housing, shopping, and even some entertainment.
Finishing the last of her rations, Niko leaned back against the wooden backed chair and closed her eyes. She was starting to feel the physical effects of the day now that the psychic ones had faded. She heard the creak of the chair across from her and looked into the blue eyes of her companion.
"Just like Mom used to make." Shane nodded and pushed his empty wrapper away.
Niko grimaced and shook her head. "I think, you're spending too much time with Doc. You're starting to sound like him."
Gooseman said nothing to defend himself but stood and stretched. "You ready to get Q-Ball's recharger up and running?"
Niko could think of a thousand other things she would rather be doing, sleeping and taking a hot shower topped the list but nodded to Shane instead. While Goose handled the unloading and setting up of the recharger, Niko unpacked and fueled the generator for the device.
"You sure about this?" Gooseman asked as he watched Niko pull two wires from the recharger and place them into the receptacles of her badge.
"I've done this before, Shane." Nike snapped irritably.
"I'm not questioning your competency, Niko."
Niko looked up into Gooseman's face at his sharp response. "No, I guess, you're not." She admitted. "Let's just get on with it. Doc and I used this unit's precursor on our last mission. If it anything like is predecessor, it will feel very different from the main recharge unit at Beta. It will also not offer a true full recharge. But, it will do the job. Is the generator on?"
Gooseman nodded his reply. He still couldn't help but feel like there was more going on with Niko. Of late, and not just on this mission, she had been different – distracted…defensive.
Niko finished attaching the wires to her badge and looked up. "Okay, I'm going to initialize. You should probably stand back. Sometimes the energy surges around me while charging."
Shane took a step back and waited. Niko smiled slightly at him and triggered her badge. Instantly the generator started to whine as it provided power to the recharger. Energy in the form of glowing light started to radiate within and then through Niko's body. For anyone watching, anyone other than a super trooper, the brilliance would have been blinding. As she had predicted, cascading currents of excess energy seemed to flow all around her body causing her hair to fly upward as if it were blown on a thermal of air.
Niko's finger released the trigger to her badge. The energy immediately fell away, and Niko was left standing as if nothing had happened. Slowly, she disconnected the wires and held them to Shane.
"Well," he said taking the wires. "That was impressive."
Niko looked up at him with a small smile playing on her lips. "One day, I'll tell you what happened to Doc when he didn't take the prerequisite step back."
"Niko." Shane grabbed her shoulder.
"What!" She yelped catching his arm before she fell against him and then pushing away from him just as quickly.
"Your eyes."
"My what?"
"Your eyes."
Niko knew Shane Gooseman well enough to know that he was not about to wax poetic about her eyes. "What about them?" She asked quickly moving to the small water closet off of the kitchenette.
"Oh," she murmured, as she looked at herself in the small mirror above the lavatory. Once again her eyes were the color of lilacs at dawn. "It's a side-effect."
"Side-effect?" Shane repeated.
"Yeah. Don't worry, they'll return to their normal color in a little while."
"This has happened before?"
"To me? Yeah. Doc? No."
"Did Doc experience any of these – side-effects?"
"You'll have to ask Doc."
"Niko." Her name was a slight growl of warning on his lips.
"I've been sworn to secrecy. Shane."
Goose finished attaching the wires to his badge and watched as Niko took several steps back. As she had promised, her eyes were slowly darkening to their normal shade. . "I wonder what kind of side-effects a super trooper will have." Goose muttered softly as he triggered his badge.