Chapter 28
“Turn it on,” Joseph Senior growled at Foreman Alejo. He thrust the handle of his pickaxe at the recharge station. It had taken ten minutes to walk here from the mess hall, and he had walked fast. If he was lucky, he had fifteen minutes of air before he got desperate.
Alejo’s eyes were pleading with Joseph, when they weren’t glancing around at the crowd. Alejo held his rifle across his chest, finger laid straight along the frame above the trigger.
The agitated crowd of miners encircling the recharge station had gone silent. No miner had ever barked an order at a foreman that they had heard. They didn’t know what the consequences would be. Before Joseph had roused them in the mess hall ten minutes ago, they had never thought to think about such a thing. Sure, Ganyon was aggressive, and so were a couple other foremen. But most of the time, when a miner caught their eye they deserved it.
“I can’t do it, Joseph,” Alejo said.
“I saw their boot prints heading south of the crater,” Joseph said, seeing no reason to drag Hagen into this. “We are going to find them.”
“All of you?” Alejo said.
“Yeah, we’ll treat it like a dig. Each man will be responsible for a section.”
“It’s a good plan but a bad idea. I can’t.”
Joseph Senior took a step toward Alejo. The foreman licked his lips, glancing down at the pickaxe gripped in Joseph’s hand. The miners looked to each other, hoping for a clue about what to do next. Joseph Senior knew what was coming. The recharge pumps were going to be turned on, whatever steps in between might come. He was losing some of the crowd, but he did not notice, and he did not care.
“Open the panel or get out of the way,” Joseph snarled and stepped forward again. A couple of the miners backed away.
“This will be bad for both of us.”
“I don’t care about that. I care about finding those boys.”
“I do too,” Alejo said, looking desperate.
“Then turn it on,” someone in the crowd snapped. Half the crowd surged forward. Alejo’s finger edged toward the trigger. Joseph Senior held up a hand and the crowd stopped.
“What’s going on here, Alejo?” Governor Emerson said.
Using the flat side of his rifle, Foreman Ganyon shoved miners aside, clearing a path for the governor. Striding through the parting crowd, the governor scowled.
“They want me to turn on the pumps,” Alejo said.
A few miners voiced their agreement; the rest played it safe or backed down completely. Joesph hardly moved.
“I’ve never seen a whole flock of Ollys,” Ganyon said.
The governor held up a hand to silence Ganyon.
“Why do you want the pumps turned on, Joseph?”
“We are going to find the boys.”
“Being a father at TMS is about making the future generation of miners. About making Oscars. Your father did it, but you have not.”
“Say what you want about me, or Joey,” Joseph said, “but we’re going. For your son as well as mine.”
“No you’re not. We’ve already potentially lost one resource, we’re not going to risk you too.”
Joseph grimaced. My son is more than a resource.
“Our three days are ours,” Joseph said. “Chapter one.”
Using his son’s argument against the governor now made Joseph chuckle.
“That is not what it is about,” the governor said.
“It’s pretty plain words,” someone in the crowd said.
The miners murmured and nodded in agreement. The governor opened his mouth to speak—
“Yeah, Governor,” another said, “this is how we’re gonna spend our three days.”
“Right. Plus the extra one you said we get on account of the dig being called early.”
“Turn it on, Alejo,” Joseph said.
Alejo looked to the governor, and found no answers. The crowd was getting louder.
Ganyon surged toward Joseph, his rifle half-raised.
“You’re worth more to the Society than three Joeys,” Ganyon said.
“Ganyon, quiet,” the governor snapped. “Joseph, you have to let the experts track him.”
“What have the experts found so far?” Joseph said.
The governor didn’t respond. He watched the miners growing more agitated.
“That Joey found some sort of alien artifact,” Joseph said, “and he’s on his way to find more, and that Stan planned the whole thing? That they jumped off the asteroid?”
The miners buzzed with confusion.
“Turn it on, Alejo.”
Joseph took a another step toward Alejo.
“Don’t you turn on that fucking machine,” Ganyon shouted.
Alejo’s eyes darted from Joseph to Foreman Ganyon. Joseph stepped closer.
“Not another step, Joseph,” Ganyon snarled.
Alejo lowered his rifle and stepped away from the recharge station. Joseph Senior stepped up to the side of the station.
“That’s enough,” Ganyon shouted, shoving the barrel of his rifle against the dome of Joseph’s helmet.
Joseph turned in time to see a brief flash of green light explode Ganyon’s head in a cloud of bloody mist. Gore jetted up, propelled by the air escaping the ruptured dome. Ganyon’s body sank to the ground, micro thrusters misfiring and sending one of his arms flipping back and forth. Blood filled the remaining bowl of the fused-quartz dome and spilled over the melted rim into a freezing puddle in the regolith.
Joseph looked around wildly, trying to figure out what happened. He saw Alejo, frozen in shock, with his rifle still aimed were Ganyon had been.
The miners and the governor were stunned into inaction.
Alejo let his rifle drop onto its sling. He put a hand on Joseph’s shoulder.
“It’s okay, Joseph,” he said, “I got it.”
Alejo turned the pumps on, and Joseph connected the hose. When the fog in his helmet faded he saw the governor staring at him. I guess you’re not controlling the information now, sir.
More foremen were arriving and the miners had all lost their nerve. The foremen stared at the body of Ganyon. The governor stood there, seeming to mumble to himself, eyes darting. They were all in shock and Joseph wasn’t going to wait to see what would happen with they got hold of themselves.
Joseph reached down and grabbed Ganyon’s rifle, pulling at the sling still looped around his arm. This seemed to wake the other foreman up. Joseph got the sling free. In the confusion, foremen raised their rifles, only to have their aim blocked by other foremen who made a grab for Joseph.
Joseph spun around, stomped his left heel, ran, and jumped out over the rim of the crater. He screamed as the micro thrusters shot him in a high arc. Hot rifle fire flashed past him and fizzled out in the cold of space. He landed, tumbling hard to the ground a kilometer away, well south of the dig site. He didn’t wait to see if anyone followed. He stomped his heel and jumped again.
A couple more jumps and he should be close to where Hagen said Joey went.