Up Against It - M. J. Locke [157]
Kamal obliged. “You’re lucky,” he remarked, as he worked. “You might have been killed.”
No argument there, Xuan thought.
A big whump! shook the walls and the floor. It knocked them tumbling into the air. A second, louder one set off more alarms. Choking clouds of dust rolled into the room. Xuan coughed spasmodically, twisting in the air. Jets sprayed icy water, which stung his exposed skin, mixing with the dust. He began shivering. Xuan could not see well out of his right eye. He settled to the floor, and gingerly poked at the sodden bandage with a finger. Bloody water dripped onto his hand. He looked over at Kamal. Muddy water ran down the young man’s face, too.
“Wait here, I’ll go check,” Kamal said. But Amaya and Geoff entered, wearing their helmets and pony bottles. A platoon of small robots followed them, carrying more supplies, drinking water, and tools. Last came the rocketbikes, driving themselves. Geoff used a controller to park them in a corner, and then shut off the dust suppression stream at the console.
While Geoff and Amaya removed their helmets and started putting the new supplies away, Kamal finished taping Xuan’s arm and redid the head dressing.
“What happened?” Xuan asked Geoff. “What were the explosions?”
“They launched another missile,” Geoff said. “It took out the inner lock and explosively decompressed the entry cavern. But we were ready.”
Amaya said, “I had a minerbot rig a charge at the West Spider Way shaft entrance. They’re programmed for that. I triggered the cave-in as they entered—after Geoff and his bots made it into the shaft.”
“We collapsed the back half of the entry cavern,” Geoff said. “That should keep them out for now.”
Amaya gave Xuan and the others a troubled look. “I think at least one of them was hit by flying debris. I saw blood.”
“What do we do now?” Kamal asked. “We’re trapped down here. The distress signal didn’t go on long enough for anyone to hear it before they fired a missile at us. Nobody knows where we are.”
“Yes, they do,” Xuan said. “My trip out here was logged at the docks.”
“And I called Sean Moriarty,” Geoff said, “and let him know we were on our way out here. Remember?”
Amaya said, “We could dig our way out, if we had to. Use one of the little tunnelers.”
Kamal shook his head. “Not if we wanted to get away. They’d hear it. They’d feel the vibrations. And where would we go, anyway?”
“If we could get a distress signal out,” Geoff said thoughtfully, “that’d do the trick. If it wasn’t detected and shut off, or destroyed…”
That all seemed too much to hope for.
“Are there any other ways out?” Xuan asked after a moment, “other than tunneling our way out?”
Geoff hesitated. “There’s a venting shaft for heat and waste emissions. Amaya can get through it, but just barely. The rest of us won’t fit, though, and neither would any of our bots or mining equipment.”
Amaya said, “Which means I could climb out through the vent again, and go for help. My bike is still out there.”
“They probably already found it,” Geoff replied. “And you’re low on fuel.”
Kamal went on, “And the launch ramps are right next to the shuttle. It would be too risky. They’d see you go.”
“I might be able to tap the fuel tanks up top.”
“Amaya…”
“We have to do something!” she snapped at Geoff.
Xuan said, “I appreciate your willingness to risk your life, Amaya, that’s very brave, but I got a good look at their cargo hold. They are armed with heavy munitions. Smart weaponry. They could shoot you out of the sky without even having to think about it. And they would.”
Amaya looked away, distress straining her features.
“What if we just sit tight?” Kamal asked. “They can’t get in. Eventually they will just go away.”
Again, Xuan had to shake his head. “I don’t think they’ll be going away. They can’t afford for this rock to be discovered by the authorities.”
They all looked at Xuan. Geoff said, “It’s because of the ice, isn’t it?”
“It is. Have you taken your own measurements?”
“No, but we figured it