Operation Orion - Kevin Dockery [33]
“Nice work,” Jackson said. “But belay the experiment for now. We’ll take it aboard the frigate and see what Carstairs’s engineers can learn. For the time being, you can join the search parties. I want this station covered with a fine-tooth comb.”
But they could discover nothing suggestive of the presence of the shield driver. Finally, about four hours later, Tommy returned to land beside its sister ship, and the Shamani woman stepped out of the rugged drop boat just outside the pirate station. She bounced easily out of the boat when the hatch opened; Chief Harris was standing by to steady her as she came down onto the asteroid’s surface.
“Takes a little getting used to,” he said, holding her a little more firmly than was strictly necessary. “There’s just enough gravity to allow a person to fall.”
“Thank you,” she replied demurely.
Jackson found himself surprisingly glad to see her. “We’ve been through their warehouse and depot areas but haven’t found anything that matches the description and picture you provided. We’re hoping you might have some ideas.”
She shook her head, then blinked. “I understand that the pirate ship was destroyed in attempting to leave the asteroid. Could the device have been lost with the ship?”
“Possibly, but I don’t think so. We have a prisoner, and he admitted that something had been removed from the ship. But we have no idea where they might have hidden it. It doesn’t seem to be in the installation, and from what you’ve described—it’s a crate four meters long—they couldn’t have just hidden it in a drawer somewhere.”
“I have one suggestion,” the Shamani woman said deliberately. “I know that the key piece of the shield activation is magnetic. I’m not certain, but it seems that the device would have some kind of magnetic signature, a way that you could possibly locate it.”
“Better than nothing,” Jackson allowed. He turned to Harris. “Chief, have the men activate the magnetometer function on their detection packets. Let see if we can’t get a reading.”
The SEALS continued to move through the ruined pirate base, still protected by their pressure suits. Jackson made no attempt to restore the atmosphere. For one thing, their attack had seriously disrupted the station’s air lock integrity. For another, he didn’t intend to stay there any longer than the time required to find the stolen shield device. He didn’t even want to think about his explanation to Admiral Ballard if it turned out that they were on some kind of a wild-goose chase.
It was Mirowski who spoke over the communicator with a promising announcement. “I’ve got some fluctuations in the surrounding magnetic field, LT. I’m outside the landing pad, above some deep crevasses. These cuts run right across the surface of the asteroid, but the disruption is really local, just where I’m standing right here.”
“Hang on, Ski. SEALS, let’s all gather around our Polish comrade in arms.”
“Polish-American, with all due respect, sir,” Mirowski responded.
Within ten minutes the Teammates who had remained on the asteroid, as well as Consul Char-Kane, had emerged from the interior of the base to see that Mirowski had spoken aptly. He stood at the brink of a wide, lightless crack that descended into invisible depths. Across a gap of five or six meters—an easy enough jump in the low gravity—the opposite side of the chasm was as sharp-edged and smooth as the cliff below them. Several men played the beams of their helmet lamps into the crevasse, but the light was swallowed up by the distance before they could see a bottom.
“Like some giant took an ax and tried to chop this rock in two,” Ruiz noted.
“Damn near succeeded, too,” Dobson allowed. “Who knows if this hole don’t come right out the other side?”
Jackson was consulting the magnetometer on his own instrument array. “I see what you mean, Ski. There’s something down there that’s making the magnetic field go all wacky on us.”
“Sir?” Mirowski’s cheerful, boyish face was surprisingly serious. “Request permission to go down and have a look.”
The officer didn’t have to