Hellhole Inferno (41 page)

They were prisoners of war and should have been kept safe. But Selik Riomini didn't care. He demanded his iperion production and refused to fund adequate safety measures for the workers.

As he held the handrail on the stairs, Anderlos saw the maintenance foreman, Jando Knight, emerge from a side tunnel and stride down a ramp to a lower level. A small, stocky man, Knight seemed preoccupied and rushed; he looked annoyed about something. Above him, the work supervisor Lanny Oberon stood at his high perch, overseeing the delicate excavations.

The Buktu captives were working in one of the largest caverns in the Vielinger mines. Under close monitoring by guards, they operated remote-controlled skimmers to strip iperion from the walls, filling bulbous, refrigerated storage compartments on beelike flying machines. It was cold and damp in the caverns. Anderlos had worked with his fellow prisoners, no matter how dirty or dangerous the job was, and he would continue to demand better treatment.

He had determined that Oberon was a halfway decent man, considering the vile man he worked for, and Anderlos had been hesitant to harangue him too much, but he had to keep advocating for his people. They were prisoners, not slaves, but it seemed as if Riomini wanted them to perish. This place was like a death sentence.

The excavation cavern was large, and the stairway long. Under normal conditions, the observation level could be reached via an elevator, but the machinery had failed. Two thirds of the way up, Anderlos took a deep breath, trying to calm himself for yet another conversation about the same issue. Poor maintenance, dangerous work conditions, the Buktu captives suffering. He felt the stairway vibrating from the machines that droned in his ears.

No stranger to hard labor, in his youth Anderlos had worked at the Lubis Plain shipyards on Qiorfu, on a crew assigned to maintaining mothballed Constellation warships. In those days, Lord Jacob Adolphus had run the facility and the planet. On Qiorfu, Anderlos had seen Lord Adolphus and his son Tiber, but had never met the legendary man who would become known as the General.

When Anderlos subsequently emigrated to the Deep Zone and went to work for Ian Walfor at the remote Buktu operations, Walfor had often spoken of what a fine and inspirational leader General Adolphus was. Now that he was a prisoner of war, Anderlos doubted he would ever have the opportunity to meet the General.

Yet, even far from the Deep Zone, enslaved in the Vielinger iperion mines, he considered himself under the General's command. It gave him something to hold on to, that he was on the right side of the great conflict, even if he was far from the fighting.

Anderlos finally reached the observation deck, felt the unstable platform shift under his feet as he walked across it. Standing at the rail, Lanny Oberon turned to watch him. The mine supervisor was a man in his middle years, his boyish face and thinning hair visible through the faceplate of his protective suit. He looked just as dirty as anyone else in the caverns, and just as unhappy.

Oberon had operated these mines for the de Carre family before the Riominis took over Vielinger. The supervisor knew what he was doing and had made numerous muttered comments about how much he resented the poor safety measures himself. Repeated system failures and numerous mine accidents had led to the overthrow of Louis de Carre, and Lord Riomini had excoriated the nobleman for poorly managing such a strategic asset. And now Riomini was doing even worse.

Anderlos was not impressed with the new Diadem's foresight. Without iperion, the stringlines would eventually weaken and fade; the paths through space would dissipate, and interstellar commerce would fall apart. And yet, when the prisoners could no longer continue, he probably had backup crews ready to go to work.

Anderlos began by saying, “My people appreciate the full-body suits you obtained for us, but they are so old that at least a third of them don't have the proper integrity, and my people are exposed to toxic dust. Almost all of us are sick, to one degree or another.”

Oberon said, “I've expressed my displeasure to Lord Riomini. I have requested more suits, along with better safety measures and other improvements, but he is preoccupied with the urgencies of being a Diadem. When he delivered you and your companions to me, I told him I couldn't operate safely with the pitiful budget he allowed. I send letters of complaint to him almost daily.” He seemed exasperated. “No one else could keep these mines running with such a box full of setbacks.”

Anderlos remained firm. “You have my sympathy, but that won't save my people. You did remove our children from the danger zone and transferred them to other living quarters, but we aren't miners. We are husbands and wives, simple colonists from Buktu. And the suits are getting worse—I'm wearing a leaky one myself.”

The other man surprised him. “So am I. Your people have the only good ones we have left—and there aren't nearly enough to go around.”

Despite Oberon's efforts, the suits needed daily emergency repairs with whatever materials the work crews could put their hands on. The protective fabric had a tendency to break down at the seams from caustic dust, and the resealing apparatus worked poorly.

The two men commiserated, but found no solution. This litany of complaints and helpless excuses had become a daily ritual with them.

From the observation platform, Anderlos coughed as he watched an extraction skimmer hover over the blue-veined walls, removing microthin layers. Oberon mentioned the previous lords, especially Christoph de Carre, lamenting the fate of the young nobleman. “He didn't deserve the raw deal his family got. The de Carres treated us with respect, made certain we were paid well and received everything we—”

Oberon's words suddenly cut off as a roaring noise increased in volume like a mounting explosion. Panicked, the supervisor grabbed a voice amplifier so he could shout orders. “Emergency! Leave your stations and get to higher ground! Climb stairs, get onto platforms or ledges, anything!”

Anderlos understood as the roar increased. Water—thunderous water. “It's an underground flood!”

Down on the cavern floor, workers scrambled onto ledges, raced up stairs.

Oberon yelled over the noise, “There's a big aquifer down here. It's been dammed up for years with diversion tunnels and pumps. Jando Knight has been working hard to keep it up, but something's—”

A blast of water hammering into the grotto drowned out his words. Anderlos felt the platform shudder with the strain as workers climbed the ladder, overloading the structure. The flood stampeded into the chamber, slamming against the support structure. He heard screams, saw men and women in work suits washed away and slammed against rock walls.

Oberon descended partway down the ladder, yelling even though his words could not be heard. He gestured the frantic miners toward a smaller tunnel. “This passage goes upward, winds around—eventually it'll lead outside, but you should be able to stay ahead of the rising water.”

Anderlos added his own voice. “Now run!”

Not everyone could make it, but many followed the instructions. When the last survivors had made it into the escape tunnel, Anderlos and Oberon charged in after them. Water continued to thunder in the grotto.

Inside the passage, after they had climbed high enough to feel safe, Oberon leaned against a wall, panting. “Lord Riomini is not going to like this. He wants iperion production, and he's not a man to accept excuses. He'll find a way to blame all of us.”

Anderlos thought of everyone who had died back there, probably at least a hundred—lost due to some cost-cutting measure that Riomini had ordered. He shook his head. “No, he will have the prisoners as scapegoats. We are expendable, but he still needs you.”

 

54

After he recruited them for his plan, the shadow-Xayans assured General Adolphus they would succeed. The stringline hub had to be recaptured, at all costs. He had already lost half a day setting up the details, and now the asteroids were that much closer.

His only other option would be to surrender as George Komun demanded. And, in order to save his planet and his population, he would do that if necessary, but he didn't believe a traitor's promises.

Before preparing to launch from Ankor, Adolphus had steeled himself and spoke with Sophie over the comm. “However this turns out, we have to begin the evacuation immediately, so start making preparations. I can't lose any more time. Komun will let me call his bluff. And even if Keana and Lodo do find the Ro-Xayans on their expedition, I have very little hope they'll be able to stop the asteroids.”

She was alarmed, and obviously wished she could be there with him. “If you surrender to Komun as he demands, he will still let us all die here. He's proved that he's dishonorable.”

Adolphus shook his head. “George Komun is not the man I expected him to be, but I think he'd keep his word if I presented myself for surrender. He wants me; he doesn't want everyone on Hellhole to die.” Even so, he heard the uncertainty in his own words.

“Then we'd better hope that the shadow-Xayans can do what they say they will.”

Since Sophie knew the converts much better than he did, she had helped him pick the best members for his team, even insisting on Peter Herald from Slickwater Springs, whom they both trusted greatly. Herald was racing to Ankor even as a defeated-looking General made his overture to Komun. Herald would wear his old uniform for veracity, and the other fifteen shadow-Xayan volunteers—his escort—would also wear old Rebellion uniforms, brave and loyal veterans standing by their beloved commander. Unless Komun recognized any of them by sight, he wouldn't know they were shadow-Xayans.

The converts would push their human personalities to the fore in order to act as normally as possible, and they would keep their eyes averted so no one noticed the eerie spiraling shimmer that denoted the Xayan presence. He only needed to fool Komun for a short time.

As she said good-bye to him on the screen, Sophie's concern was clear. “They have powerful telemancy—but are you sure fifteen will be enough?”

“Komun won't allow any more than that as an escort,” Adolphus said. “We
must
take the chance, now or never. If the shadow-Xayans can perform their task, our fight will be on an even footing again.” He looked closely at her. “Don't worry so much, it'll be—”

Sophie held up a hand. “Don't tell me it'll be all right.”

“It'll be whatever it has to be, then. Have faith that it will go well.”

“All right.”

He had already transmitted full instructions to Lieutenant Sendell on the
Jacob
. The flagship had been repaired, its weapons systems restored to full functionality. The other battered ships back from Tehila were also combat-ready, their angry crews itching to do something important. But Komun held them all at a standoff with his rigged explosives on the stringline hub. Time was on his side. The traitor knew that General Adolphus would have to surrender, and soon.

Entirely preoccupied with the threat of the incoming asteroids, Rendo Theris wished him a “swift resolution” to the crisis. Before departing, Adolphus told the spaceport administrator, “Prepare for a complete planetary evacuation, no matter what happens at the stringline hub.”

Adolphus marched out toward the shuttle, ready to go. The fifteen shadow-Xayans who would act as his escort waited for him on the spaceport landing field, resplendent in their uniforms; they would make a fine honor guard.

As they boarded the shuttle, he glanced around and wondered if he'd be coming back to Hellhole. His honor guard took their seats in silence. Adolphus missed the joking and nervous camaraderie of brave soldiers who were about to go on a risky mission.

After the rumbling launch was over, the General opened a channel to the stringline hub, using the wide-field imager so that George Komun could see the fifteen uniformed passengers. “We're on our way, George. Myself and a small escort, as you demanded. We have to start the planetary evacuation immediately. I trust you'll be true to your word.”

Komun looked disheartened. “There was a time when you never would have doubted me, General. I give you my assurance that as soon as you surrender, we can start saving Hellhole's people. I'll make all of my ships available to take refugees as well.” He frowned. “I know
you
are true to your word.”

Adolphus said, “I'm careful when I make my promises—that way I don't have to worry about breaking them. But you've put me in an impossible position. So long as you've got explosives rigged throughout the stringline hub, I will take no action against you. You have the upper hand.”

The shadow-Xayans, however, would change all that.

After reviewing all available records of the Candela mass exodus, he had assigned teams to develop and implement evacuation orders for Hellhole. Tanja Hu had done a remarkable job in an exceedingly short period of time, hindered by a lack of ships and resources. Adolphus didn't have that limitation, but he had many other stumbling blocks. Hellhole's evacuation would be frantic, but should be more successful.

First, however, he had to recapture the stringline hub.

On the ride up to orbit, he transmitted to the
Jacob
. “Lieutenant Sendell, I want all your ships ready to commence a full-scale evacuation as soon as I finish my business with Administrator Komun. If all turns out well, he will not restrict your activities.”

“Yes, General. Our ships are prepared to go.”

“Komun knows that every delay cuts down on the number of people we can save,” Adolphus said. Sendell had his orders, but would wait for a signal from the General, which would determine how he was to proceed.

The shuttle reached the commandeered stringline hub without incident. The Umber peacekeeper ships were docked at ten of the hub's major stringline nodes, while five of them remained mobile and prepared for a space battle, weapons powered up and standing by. To maintain parity, Lieutenant Sendell flew the
Jacob
in close while coordinating sixteen battleships that General Adolphus had pulled together. Since George Komun was prepared to detonate his mines and destroy the hub, none of the General's ships dared open fire.