Interregnum (Children of Steel Book 2) Read online

"Sidearms are being issued to all personnel for this mission; they are to be worn under your uniform. We don't think there will be any problems, but the captain has decided that it is better to be safe, than to be sorry." He paused a moment, "We know that the last time a supply ship came here was almost two years ago. They expected the last one well over a year ago."

  "Has anyone asked for an explanation?" Dave asked.

  "Why bother? We'll find out soon enough."

  Everyone looked around at each other again. No one wanted to say anything, but you could tell they were all thinking it.

  But the chief was right, we'd find out for sure soon enough.

  The next day we launched while the Astra was still doing its orbital burn. All six of the assault shuttles and both of the cargo shuttles were going down. We had twenty in the back of each of the assault shuttles, which made for a tight fit when you added in their gear and the supplies we were bringing down.

  I was fifth in line. The first three were a mix of security forces and the combat medics. Fourth had more security, plus a few of the engineers we were bringing down and the one behind me had more medics, the two doctors, and some other specialists. Mine had the ten intelligence team members, plus another group of security. The two Cargo shuttles were so packed full of gear that there were only the flight crew onboard. Once unloaded they would start shuttling up the installation personnel almost immediately.

  The data we had on the fourth moon was fairly complete at this point. It was less than a fourth of the size of earth's moon, but had about a quarter of a 'G' gravity. Apparently the core of the moon was some sort of super-dense material, probably tossed off from some kind of planetary or stellar explosion, and it had ended up in orbit around Tualatin Five.

  The installation was on the moon's North Pole, as the crust was probably thinnest there for any kind of mining operation to go after the core materials.

  It did have an atmosphere, though it was a rather thin one, really just enough to make flying a pain.

  The orders were to let the first four assault shuttles land first; so they went ahead of the rest of us. They would disembark, check the situation, and the medics would assess the physical condition of everyone. Once they gave the all clear, the two cargo shuttles would land, as well as the last two assault shuttles.

  The only problem was that it looked like the one hanger that they had, which could be pressurized, would only fit the two cargo shuttles, and maybe not much else. So vac-suits would be the order of the day for just about everyone.

  "So, what did you think happened?" Dave asked me as we orbited around a point a few miles away, waiting for the all clear.

  "I haven't a clue to be honest. I'd say to ask the people in the back. They're the intel group."

  "Well, if only a bunch of preds are left, I think it will be pretty obvious," Dave sighed.

  I nodded, the rumors onboard the Astra were already in full swing once everyone figured out that about half the people on the ground were missing. "Just wonder what the company will do if that really happened."

  "Well, there's the all clear. Might as well go find out."

  I nodded and keyed the circuit to the team in the small hold, "We're cleared for landing. Make sure everything is secure.

  "Roger that, Raj," The team lead's voice came back over the com. The senior intelligence officer on the team was Senior Warrant Olivia, a fem rabbit; Cassandra was actually third, right behind Selenna who was second. The rest were mostly technicians and computer operators who were are much a part of the internal tech team for the ship as they were the intelligence team. Even the security troops we had with us doubled as techs, but then pretty much everyone who was on the security detail had a second job, you can't be fighters all the time on a cargo ship after all.

  I brought us around and followed the cargo shuttles, and then watched as they landed in the underground hanger, which had its roof open. I could see there were a few shuttles in there already, which would explain the lack of room for the rest of us. I could see the entrance over by where the rest of our shuttles were parked, so I flew over to land by those, with number six off my wing.

  "Everyone suited up back there?" I called on the com.

  "We're good to go."

  "Okay, opening the rear hatch," I called and hit the switch, and then I powered down the shuttle and checked the seal on my flight helmet.

  "Ready?" Dave asked as I disconnected my suit from the shuttle's systems.

  "Good to go."

  He nodded and opened the cockpit access to the back, rather than pop the cockpit canopy, and we both climbed down to join the others who were gathering up their gear.

  Dave and I helped, and then led them over to where the entrance was. We then cycled though in groups of six into the compound.

  The first thing I noticed once we got inside and I got my helmet opened was the smell. It wasn't exactly bad, but it didn't smell the way you'd expect a ship or pressurized compound to smell. There were a lot of scents in the air, and not all of them were good ones.

  "Atmosphere scrubbers must be compromised," Olivia said.

  "Command is down the hall that way," Said one of the two security troops that were stationed by the door.

  "What happened here?" I asked him, I knew him, he was from the Astra of course, he was one of the wolves in Dave's clan.

  "They'll brief you in command, but no, they didn't eat each other."

  I heard several of the others give a sigh of relief, and when the next group of six cycled through, we started down the hallway to make room for the others.

  "Well, that's a relief," Dave said.

  "Definitely," Olivia said and Selenna agreed. Cassandra just looked ill for a moment and didn't say anything.

  It only took a couple of minutes to walk to the command room. Balizar was there, he had come down on the first shuttle as the commander of the ship's security force. There were several other people there who weren't from the Astra, all of whom were lying down on the floor, with medic's examining them. Two of them were human females, the rest were all females as well, two wolves, a raccoon, and a rabbit. They all looked emaciated and weak.

  "So what's the situation?" Olivia asked.

  "We're going to start evacuating the people here, as soon as we've got them all triaged. Gather the rest of your team and meet me in the conference room," Balizar pointed to a door leading from the command center.

  Olivia nodded and we all moved into the room, I sat behind Cassandra as she sat at the table. Within a few minutes the rest of the team was inside and Balizar came in and closed the door behind him.

  "Okay, here's what happened," He started off immediately. "According to what I was just told, when the supply ship didn't show up on schedule, they went to short rations. Their hydroponics and meat culture vats weren't fully up and running. They still needed a lot of raw materials for those, which the next ship was due to bring.

  "When four months had come, they only had enough food for another two, but the head of the hydroponics department said he could up the output if enough people donated their bodies to the mix."

  I noticed there were a lot of shocked expressions at the table.

  "They didn't!" Someone muttered.

  "They most certainly did. Over a two-week period, three hundred and twelve people went down to the vats and killed themselves. A month later, another one hundred and ninety or so joined them.

  "They were getting ready to do it again; using dead bodies in the growing medium apparently doesn't work well for the long term."

  "Who picked them?" Olivia asked.

  "According to Administrator Sechkler they were all volunteers." Balizar said. "The only rules they had were you had to be over eighteen, and had to be there of your own free will."

  "Do you believe her?"

  He shrugged, "They were facing death by starvation if they didn't do something, which can be a pretty good motivator for self-sacrifice. The command team had stopped eating two weeks ago, and were ab
out a day from killing themselves when we showed up. That's why they're so weak now, same for about a hundred others, they were on a downward spiral here. Even the rest of the survivors look pretty malnourished."

  Olivia nodded, "I'll have my team examine all the records and the data and see if we can verify their story."

  "Also gather whatever data you have on other company installations, as well as any other intel you can find. Once we have everyone evacuated and the engineers have completed their assessment, we'll be moving in the new team and shipping in all the new materials. So don't expect to have more than three days to gather data. We'll be leaving as soon as the new team is set up.

  "Raj,"

  I looked up, "Yessir?"

  "Once the facility is secured, take Dave and go examine the other cargo shuttles in the hanger. We're going to move out some of the material they've extracted. The Captain figures it'll help cover the costs for the operation."

  I nodded, "Yessir."

  "Well, at least they didn't eat each other," Cassandra sighed as Balizar left the room.

  "Hardly matters when you think about it," Dave said. "These people are still going to be feeling a lot of guilt and anger over using their friends to grow food."

  "You think so?" I asked curious.

  "Hey, I know about survivor's guilt," Dave sighed. "Add to that seeing your friend's and coworker's sacrifice every time you sit down to eat?" He shook his head.

  I could see Cassandra shiver at that, so I put my hand on her shoulder, "Well at least its over for them."

  She nodded but didn't look too happy. Then again, everyone in the room looked a bit sad.

  "Okay," Olivia said taking charge, "let's get our gear set up in here, might as well use this as our command station, it's nice and close to the main command station. Jose, see if you can run a data line from the main console in here. Let's find some maps for the station, and see if we can find any for their networks as well. Selenna, Cassandra, take Raj, Dave, Red, and Muris down to the hydroponics level and give it a once over. Do the meat vats next. Make sure no one is messing with anything, then seal them off for now. We'll do a more detailed investigation of any remains down there after they have all the station personnel evacuated."

  She looked around at everyone, and then clapped her hands, "Come on, people, yes it's sad, but we have lots of work and little time, so hop to it!"

  Dave and I looked at the other four, "Do we need to bring anything along?"

  Selenna shook her head, "Red and Muris can carry the door seal tags. Cassy and I will take the cameras. Let's go find a map and be on our way."

  I nodded and we followed them out of the room.

  It took a minute to find a map and get it downloaded to Selenna's handheld, then we headed off to the life support systems area, which was were the food production was located.

  "Wow, this place is pretty big," Dave commented looking over Selenna's shoulder at the map.

  "The mine had just proven itself and they were getting ready to increase the workforce. The next ships in were supposed to be bringing more miners." Selenna replied.

  I listened as Dave continued to make small talk with Selenna, I didn't know if he was truly interested, or just hitting on her. With Dave you really never could tell. I noticed that Cassandra was being a little quieter than normal, so I put an arm around her as we walked, and was a little surprised that she leaned into me as we did. Obviously this place was bothering her, but I had no idea why.

  We passed a lot of people as we made our way down, and they were all doing the same thing: eating.

  Someone had come through here before us passing out high energy rations and everyone was eating them. None of them looked to be in good health, and they all looked tired, weary I guess would best describe it.

  We passed several medics examining people, and they all seemed grateful for our rescuing them, but again, there was still that feeling of melancholy.

  Entering the life support section we came across a bit of a surprise when we entered the hallway that led to the hydroponics and vat cultures area. On the wall someone had written:

  Do not grieve for me,

  for I have given of myself freely.

  I do this to save my clan members,

  to save my friends, my coworkers.

  I take this burden, so that others will live.

  Celebrate our lives as we celebrate yours.

  And under it and down the hallway were signatures, hundreds of them. I almost cried, several others, including Cassandra, did.

  We took pictures of all of it, and when everyone had gotten composed we went into the labs.

  The hydroponics section looked like any other hydroponics farm I'd ever seen before. We checked to make sure all the entryways were secured, that there was nothing out of place, and then sealed the entry and put seals over the door to indicate if anyone entered.

  We did the meat culture vats next, and again, nothing out of place, and nothing really different. We sealed that up as well.

  There was one area left, ‘reclamation and intake processing.’ Normally that was were all of the raw materials for the two sections were processed, as well as the facility's raw sewage. When we got to that one, I could see Cassandra was looking pretty shaky. But then again, so was everyone else. Even I wasn't feeling too good.

  I looked at Dave and he looked at me, I sighed.

  "Let me go in and check it out," I told the others.

  "Why?" Selenna asked, sounding a bit unsure.

  "To check it out first."

  "No, I mean why you?"

  "Because I've seen more dead bodies than any of you."

  "He has you know, course he killed most of them himself," Dave joked.

  "I'm okay, I'll go." Cassandra growled and straightened herself up. "I've seen worse, I'm sure."

  I looked down at her, "You sure?"

  "Yes dammit, now, let's go check it out."

  I nodded and opened the door and went in, with Cassandra behind me, followed surprisingly by Dave.

  The area quickly checked out as standard, except for one room that was marked with a set of skull and crossbones that someone had crudely painted on the door. When I opened it and looked inside the scent of old blood was strong. Looking inside I could see it was the old decontamination room. There were bloodstains against the back wall of the showers, all of them at a depressingly large height.

  "Guess this is where they did it," Dave said looking in.

  "Headshot?" I said with an involuntary grimace. "Not exactly pretty."

  "It's quick, and as far as anybody knows, painless." Cassandra said looking in as well, then ducking back out again.

  I stepped into the room and took a few pictures, the room wasn't very large, and so I was able to cover it quickly. The walls were all steel, probably to make the room itself easier to decontaminate. When I got closer to the shower stalls where they had died, I could see the wall was pitted from the bullets that had been used. Probably another reason why they had picked this place.

  I left quickly.

  "I wonder why they didn't just use poison," Dave asked as Cassandra put a seal on the door.

  "Because anyone eating them would die as well," Cassandra said softly. "It would also pollute the vats and kill off the cultures."

  I pulled her close and gave her a hug, I could feel her trembling. "You okay, Hon?" I asked.

  "It just, it just reminds me of the people they murdered in the camps, Hon," She replied and hugged me back. "I saw a lot of people I knew killed."

  I nodded, "Well, that's over now."

  Cassandra sighed and nodded and we all went back to the entrance and opened the door.

  "Just stay away from the one I put the seal on," Cassandra told the others. "The rest of this is like the other rooms, no visible evidence."

  Selenna and the other two nodded and made a quick circuit of the room, checking all the other exits, offices, and taking pictures. After that we secured the exit, put a seal on it,
and went back to Olivia's headquarters.

  "You going to be alright, dear?" I whispered to Cassandra after she reported in and told Olivia what we had found.

  "Yes, yes I'll be fine, love," she said and gave me a hug. "Though I may have a few nightmares tonight."

  I hugged her back and rubbed heads, "If you need me call."

  "I'll be okay; you have your own work to do."

  I gave her another hug and grabbing Dave went to the hanger.

  "She okay?" Dave asked.

  "I think so, things were pretty rough in the prison camps from what I've heard, and she was in one for three years."

  Dave nodded, "Yeah, I've heard some of the stories from a few of the folks we brought back. Nasty Stuff."

  "Well, it's all in the past now."

  Dave shook his head, "Don't be too sure Raj. How long did it take you to get over Cassandra's loss?"

  I looked at him, "Not sure I follow where you're going with this, Dave."

  "It took you months to even start coming to terms with it, Raj, I know, I was there."

  I nodded, he was right about that.

  "So it's probably going to take Cassy that long to come to terms with whatever happened to her. Maybe longer. To her, she's still living it."

  I thought about that, it made sense. "Good point."

  I checked the airlock, the hanger was pressurized, so we went in and got to work. The two shuttles from the Astra had left already, taking up the worst of the people here. There were three shuttles in the landing bay, two of them were ore carriers, and the third was a smaller transport. We did a basic flight check on each, they were all in good shape and ready to fly and we reported that back to Balizar when we were finished.

  It took about twenty hours to evacuate all of the facility personnel, after that a larger engineering team came down to do a complete survey before we dropped the replacement team off. The captain figured that it would be at least six months before Tri-Star would be able to send a supply ship out here, and he wanted to be sure that the replacement crew would be able to live here without any problems.

  After the engineers did that, the replacement crew came down to take over and the rest of us spent three days moving gear from the Astra down, then taking ore back up. We loaded each of the cargo pods one-quarter full, to keep the ship balanced. We could easily have filled both the pods; they had kept the mine going up until they had made their sacrifice, and even to a small degree afterwards. I guess they needed something to take their minds off of it. But the stuff was incredibly dense and massed quite a bit, and it would have slowed the ship down too much to keep our schedule.