[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
turns are too tight for it to pass. Somebody will have to stay behind and
guard the cart, or the other slaves will steal our ore. As you've noticed,
there's no honor among the damned."
At the end of the tunnel a group of half-filled sledges sat parked. Each cart
had at least one miner standing in it or in front of it, with a short-handled
rock ax ready to defend the cargo.
Ryan stopped their sledge against the tunnel side wall and helped Gabhart out.
The colonel pointed to the numerous man size tunnel openings in the walls.
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D5
"We've got to go in one of those crevices, follow it until we find the seam of
the hot stuff, then hack it out with our axes, bag it and drag it back here."
"You aren't going anywhere, Colonel," Ryan told him. "You're too damn weak.
Just sit here with J.B. and Dean, and rest. Krysty and me will go in, check it
out and bring back the first load."
"Watch out for the stickies," Gabhart said. His voice cracked and whistled in
his throat; he was badly drained from the effort he'd expended. "They like to
hide in the low-rad spots where the badges don't give off much light, and then
they get hold of you from behind. Once they get hold of you, you don't get
away."
Gabhart sucked in a ragged breath, then continued. "Be careful of cave-ins
while you're hacking ore. When the glass comes down, it comes down huge, and
it cuts like a band saw. Another thing, keep those rags over your noses and
mouths.
We've got Mind-burst mushrooms growing down here. They're one of the few
things that seems to be able stand the radiation. It's just them and the rats.
The rats live off the mushroom caps, but they'll take a piece out of your nose
if you fall asleep in the wrong place."
"You'll find the mushrooms sprouting up along the horizontal cracks and seams
in the glass. Any place there's a ledge. If you breathe in their spores,
you'll start to hallucinate within minutes. If you breathe too much, you'll
collapse and fall into a fit. If you accidentally get stoned on Mindburst down
here, you're as good as dead. You'll get lost. And one way or another, you'll
get killed. There must be a thousand ways to die in this hellhole, and none of
them are quick and painless."
"A trooper talked to us on the way in," Ryan said. "He told us about this
third gender business. What do you know about it?"
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D5
"The women, the officers, had some genetic engineering done before they came
over from our Earth," Gabhart said. "The men are scared of them, and with good
reason."
Gabhart's lips, which were crusted over with a mass of scabs, cracked and
started bleeding a thin line down his chin. Though his eyes were almost shut,
and his voice was losing its power, he kept talking. "When I first arrived at
Ground
Zero, the troopers spoke to me because I used to be one of them. They talked
out of earshot of their officers, of course. As far as the she-hes are
concerned, the male troopers are expendable, like us slaves. They take better
care of the troopers, of course, because they're more difficult to replace,
you know, because of the training and so on. It's the same old story.
Everything is a product.
Everything has a price."
"Do you think the troopers would turn on their officers if given the chance?"
Ryan asked.
"No way of telling that, Shadow Man. These are conglomerate mercenaries, not
FIVE regular army. Their allegiance is to themselves, first and foremost. I'd
say they'll stay loyal to the officers as long as they think they might end up
paying for a rebellion with their own blood. If the odds change, and it looks
like there's no penalty, it could be a different story."
J.B. and Ryan had a dozen other, critical questions that needed answering, but
before either could speak, Gabhart's head drooped his chest and his mouth went
slack.
"Fireblast!" Ryan said.
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D5
"He's not dead, just unconscious," Krysty told him. "I can see him still
breathing."
"From what Mildred told me," Ryan said, "he may never wake up. He's on his
last legs. If he comes out of it while we're gone, J.B., get as much info as
you can from him."
"Gotcha."
Ryan and Krysty picked axes from the pile at the bottom of the cart. The tools
had wickedly curved points at one end; the other end was flat, more like a
hammer. The reason was obvious. That way, two axes could be used to split
apart pieces of nuke ore too big to lift: one acting as a wedge, the other as
a sledge. They also each took one of the roughly woven bags.
"Be careful, Dad," Dean said.
"Always, son. You, too."
He and Krysty stepped into the nearest side shaft. The opening was as wide as
Ryan's arm span, and a couple of feet taller than the top of his head. It
looked as if it had been hacked out with a laser. There were no tool marks on
the walls, just smooth glass; it almost looked polished. And the floor, walls
and ceiling all met at near right angles. Inside the shaft, the level of
available light dropped even more.
"Look at our badges," Krysty said.
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D5
They were definitely glowing brighter. But they weren't bright enough to light
up more than twenty feet of tunnel ahead.
They had only walked thirty or so yards when the darkness in front of them
began to dance with green lights. From deeper in the fissure, three slaves
appeared, single file, dragging the loaded ore bags behind them. Their badges
were like tiny beacons on their chests. The blurry circles of light they cast
bounced and quivered as they walked.
Ryan and Krysty put their backs against the wall, their axes ready to fend off
a sudden attack. No words were exchanged. Not even a nod to acknowledge one
another's existence.
After the slaves had passed, Ryan and Krysty stood there, staring at the glass
wall opposite. Their badge lights penetrated the solid mass, allowing them to
see deep inside. There were shadowy, mysterious shapes, distorted by folds and
masses of bubbles, obscured by irregular, unidentifiable pieces of large and
small debris.
"Gaia knows what all's in there," Krysty said.
"Yeah," Ryan said, "it's a treasure chest of busted-up shit."
Around a tight turn that would have blocked an ore cart, they came across the
first of much smaller intersecting tunnels, obviously hacked by hand. As they
approached it, a man's head and shoulders popped out of the narrow hole in the
wall. Before they could reach him, he had scrambled out with his ore bag.
Growling like an animal, he threatened them with his ax, the pointed tip of
which was worn into a tiny mushroom, like an expended bullet.
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through.html (176 of 344)16-2-2006 16:48:43
D5
"Easy," Ryan said, raising his own ax as he stepped between Krysty and the
guy. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl akte20.pev.pl
turns are too tight for it to pass. Somebody will have to stay behind and
guard the cart, or the other slaves will steal our ore. As you've noticed,
there's no honor among the damned."
At the end of the tunnel a group of half-filled sledges sat parked. Each cart
had at least one miner standing in it or in front of it, with a short-handled
rock ax ready to defend the cargo.
Ryan stopped their sledge against the tunnel side wall and helped Gabhart out.
The colonel pointed to the numerous man size tunnel openings in the walls.
file:///J|/sci-fi/Nieuwe%20map/James%20Axler%20-%20Deathlands%2057%20-%20Break
through.html (172 of 344)16-2-2006 16:48:43
Page 84
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D5
"We've got to go in one of those crevices, follow it until we find the seam of
the hot stuff, then hack it out with our axes, bag it and drag it back here."
"You aren't going anywhere, Colonel," Ryan told him. "You're too damn weak.
Just sit here with J.B. and Dean, and rest. Krysty and me will go in, check it
out and bring back the first load."
"Watch out for the stickies," Gabhart said. His voice cracked and whistled in
his throat; he was badly drained from the effort he'd expended. "They like to
hide in the low-rad spots where the badges don't give off much light, and then
they get hold of you from behind. Once they get hold of you, you don't get
away."
Gabhart sucked in a ragged breath, then continued. "Be careful of cave-ins
while you're hacking ore. When the glass comes down, it comes down huge, and
it cuts like a band saw. Another thing, keep those rags over your noses and
mouths.
We've got Mind-burst mushrooms growing down here. They're one of the few
things that seems to be able stand the radiation. It's just them and the rats.
The rats live off the mushroom caps, but they'll take a piece out of your nose
if you fall asleep in the wrong place."
"You'll find the mushrooms sprouting up along the horizontal cracks and seams
in the glass. Any place there's a ledge. If you breathe in their spores,
you'll start to hallucinate within minutes. If you breathe too much, you'll
collapse and fall into a fit. If you accidentally get stoned on Mindburst down
here, you're as good as dead. You'll get lost. And one way or another, you'll
get killed. There must be a thousand ways to die in this hellhole, and none of
them are quick and painless."
"A trooper talked to us on the way in," Ryan said. "He told us about this
third gender business. What do you know about it?"
file:///J|/sci-fi/Nieuwe%20map/James%20Axler%20-%20Deathlands%2057%20-%20Break
through.html (173 of 344)16-2-2006 16:48:43
D5
"The women, the officers, had some genetic engineering done before they came
over from our Earth," Gabhart said. "The men are scared of them, and with good
reason."
Gabhart's lips, which were crusted over with a mass of scabs, cracked and
started bleeding a thin line down his chin. Though his eyes were almost shut,
and his voice was losing its power, he kept talking. "When I first arrived at
Ground
Zero, the troopers spoke to me because I used to be one of them. They talked
out of earshot of their officers, of course. As far as the she-hes are
concerned, the male troopers are expendable, like us slaves. They take better
care of the troopers, of course, because they're more difficult to replace,
you know, because of the training and so on. It's the same old story.
Everything is a product.
Everything has a price."
"Do you think the troopers would turn on their officers if given the chance?"
Ryan asked.
"No way of telling that, Shadow Man. These are conglomerate mercenaries, not
FIVE regular army. Their allegiance is to themselves, first and foremost. I'd
say they'll stay loyal to the officers as long as they think they might end up
paying for a rebellion with their own blood. If the odds change, and it looks
like there's no penalty, it could be a different story."
J.B. and Ryan had a dozen other, critical questions that needed answering, but
before either could speak, Gabhart's head drooped his chest and his mouth went
slack.
"Fireblast!" Ryan said.
Page 85
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D5
"He's not dead, just unconscious," Krysty told him. "I can see him still
breathing."
"From what Mildred told me," Ryan said, "he may never wake up. He's on his
last legs. If he comes out of it while we're gone, J.B., get as much info as
you can from him."
"Gotcha."
Ryan and Krysty picked axes from the pile at the bottom of the cart. The tools
had wickedly curved points at one end; the other end was flat, more like a
hammer. The reason was obvious. That way, two axes could be used to split
apart pieces of nuke ore too big to lift: one acting as a wedge, the other as
a sledge. They also each took one of the roughly woven bags.
"Be careful, Dad," Dean said.
"Always, son. You, too."
He and Krysty stepped into the nearest side shaft. The opening was as wide as
Ryan's arm span, and a couple of feet taller than the top of his head. It
looked as if it had been hacked out with a laser. There were no tool marks on
the walls, just smooth glass; it almost looked polished. And the floor, walls
and ceiling all met at near right angles. Inside the shaft, the level of
available light dropped even more.
"Look at our badges," Krysty said.
file:///J|/sci-fi/Nieuwe%20map/James%20Axler%20-%20Deathlands%2057%20-%20Break
through.html (175 of 344)16-2-2006 16:48:43
D5
They were definitely glowing brighter. But they weren't bright enough to light
up more than twenty feet of tunnel ahead.
They had only walked thirty or so yards when the darkness in front of them
began to dance with green lights. From deeper in the fissure, three slaves
appeared, single file, dragging the loaded ore bags behind them. Their badges
were like tiny beacons on their chests. The blurry circles of light they cast
bounced and quivered as they walked.
Ryan and Krysty put their backs against the wall, their axes ready to fend off
a sudden attack. No words were exchanged. Not even a nod to acknowledge one
another's existence.
After the slaves had passed, Ryan and Krysty stood there, staring at the glass
wall opposite. Their badge lights penetrated the solid mass, allowing them to
see deep inside. There were shadowy, mysterious shapes, distorted by folds and
masses of bubbles, obscured by irregular, unidentifiable pieces of large and
small debris.
"Gaia knows what all's in there," Krysty said.
"Yeah," Ryan said, "it's a treasure chest of busted-up shit."
Around a tight turn that would have blocked an ore cart, they came across the
first of much smaller intersecting tunnels, obviously hacked by hand. As they
approached it, a man's head and shoulders popped out of the narrow hole in the
wall. Before they could reach him, he had scrambled out with his ore bag.
Growling like an animal, he threatened them with his ax, the pointed tip of
which was worn into a tiny mushroom, like an expended bullet.
file:///J|/sci-fi/Nieuwe%20map/James%20Axler%20-%20Deathlands%2057%20-%20Break
through.html (176 of 344)16-2-2006 16:48:43
D5
"Easy," Ryan said, raising his own ax as he stepped between Krysty and the
guy. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]