The Quarry, Part 1

[The Egg]

The borehole depth gauge sounded off inside Captain Edna Delaney’s helmet; she switched off the maser drill. “That’s the last one,” she announced into her helmet’s proximity phone. “Garvey and Jack, start setting the charges. Selma and I will follow you twenty minutes behind and start stemming.”

Garvey, built like a brick wall, nodded inside his own enviro suit. “Alright. Looks like the girls get the break shift this time. See you in twenty.” He waved for Jack to follow him; the lithe, athletic Asian smirked at Garvey’s comment, and the two men began to trudge across the starlit surface of Asteroid Delta Omicron 742.

Selma, a Latina in her mid-twenties, smirked as well. “Always the smartass, that Garvey. You’d think he’d cut us some slack once in a while.”

“To him, that was cutting us some slack,” replied Captain Delaney, heading back towards the ship. “In the grand scale of things, it wasn’t so long ago that women were fighting for the right to vote in free elections. You can’t expect hard-wired masculine genetics to change overnight.”

“I can when it’s always night,” quipped Selma, gazing idly up at the starscape as she followed the Captain back to the ship. Edna chuckled, saying nothing more.

Once inside the mining ship Palace, the two women removed their helmets. “You want a donut?” asked Selma.

“That would be great,” replied the Captain, peeling back the thermal head-cap to let her curly brown hair down. “Ugh. It feels good to be out of that hairnet for a few minutes. I know the air’s no more fresh in here than it is in a spacesuit, but it’s nice to have a little breathing room.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” said Selma, her own chin-length black bob now freed from the constricting headpiece. She poked around the refrigerator for a few moments. “A few slightly stale crullers. They seem mostly alright, and there’s really no point in opening a new box; we wouldn’t have them ready in time.”

“The difficult life of a space miner,” Edna said, chuckling. “Do we at least have coffee?”

“That we do,” replied Selma. A few moments later, she brought a service tray over to the table where Edna sat. Edna eagerly took one of the mugs and began to cream and sugar the black liquid.

The two women sipped their beverages, idly noshing on the old donuts. After a few minutes, Selma asked, “So what do you think is down there?”

“Dunno,” replied Edna. “Scanners say it’s some kind of metal deposit, but they can’t get a fix on it. So either it’s too far down to get a good reading, or it’s some kind of alloy we don’t have in the database. In either case, all we can do is blast it out and see what turns up.”

Selma nodded. “Well, at least we found something here. Those two weeks on Delta Epsilon 421 were pretty boring.”

Edna smiled, “That they were. Even Jack started to lose his cool a little.” She took another bit of the cruller. “Anyway, whatever it is, it’ll be out of our hands soon enough. All we do is dig this stuff up; the scientists at PhoenixCorp will poke at it when we get back. Frankly, that’s the part I like best about this blast.”

Selma nodded. “Early return. That makes Delta Epsilon 421 worth the waste.” She finished her own donut, wiped her hands and mouth on a spare napkin. “Well, we’d better get out there,” she concluded, pulling the thermal cap back over her scalp.

“I’ll be right behind you,” said Edna, taking a sip of her coffee. Selma nodded, re-attached her helmet, and walked to the airlock.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The packing went smoothly, and two women were on their way back to Palace forty minutes later. Inside, Jack and Garvey had begun to assault the remainder of the stale donuts and day-old coffee.

“You two don’t waste any time,” said Selma.

“A man needs his donuts,” said Garvey. “The universal food. Not a spacer from here to Patton Minor that doesn’t keep a box onboard.”

“We’re all finished,” the Captain cut in. “Did you check the scanners for ground vibrations?”

Garvey nodded. “Jack ran the simulations twice. Everything looks good. Standard C-type, just like we scanned from approach. Might break a few L-chondrites free, but it’s not likely they’ll hit us.”

“Great,” said the Captain. “We’ll detonate then.”

“Lemme finish up this cruller,” said Garvey.

“Take your time,” said the Captain. “Selma and I can handle it. You guys did good work, take a break.” She headed towards the bridge.

Selma followed. “You want me on the scans?”

“If you wouldn’t mind.” Captain Delaney sat down at the mining controls, firing up the detonator pre-start sequence.

Selma played Jack’s simulations back on the scanner. “Yeah, it checks. I’ll keep an eye on it, but you should be alright.”

The Captain nodded. “Starting it up now.” She flicked the engage switch. The optic initiators brought each of the detonation controllers online, pinging them all individually to minimize data collisions. Once they were all synchronized, the console displayed a ready status.

The Captain pressed the detonation switch. Asteroid Delta Omicron 742 shook.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“What the Hell happened?” said Garvey.

“I don’t know,” claimed Selma. “I checked the sims before we blasted. Everything was fine!”

“It’s not your fault,” said Jack, sitting at the metallurgical station. “Whatever’s down there caused a secondary shockwave. The computer didn’t have a match for the material, so it couldn’t have predicted this.”

Captain Delaney nodded. “No point in placing blame. What have we got left?”

Garvey checked the internal schematics. “Well, it goes without saying that the landing struts are shot. There’s a rupture in the starboard engine pod, and only one grav-lifter is responding to diagnostic pings. We might be able to break gravity, but it doesn’t look good.” He sighed. “And the long range antenna array is crushed.”

Captain Delaney slumped in her chair. “Any good news?”

“Sure,” said Garvey. “Most of the rest is intact. Scanning is fine, life support’s in no danger, onboard mining gear is largely untouched.”

“On the bright side,” cut in Jack, “the blast was successful.”

“Fat lot of good that will do us,” said Selma, “if we can neither leave nor call for help.”

“Hey,” said Jack, “I’m just trying to be optimistic.”

“Alright,” said the Captain, “let’s all just try to keep our heads. Palace is in no immediate danger; we’ve got enough oxygen and food to last us for six more months. PhoenixCorp will send a retriever out to our last known position if we stop filing our regular reports. In an absolute worst case scenario, we’ll be here six weeks.”

“Great,” said Garvey, “I could use the overtime pay.”

“That’s the spirit,” said the Captain.

“So what do we do?” asked Selma.

“We do the job,” replied the Captain.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“You’re really enjoying this, aren’t you?” said Garvey into the phone, repelling down the side of the blast crater.

“You had the last break,” Captain Delaney replied from the console of Palace.

“Besides,” called Selma from the scanning console, “surely a big strong man like you can show us weak little females a thing or two.” She was grinning like a cat.

“I feel I should note that I remain neutral in this discussion,” cut in Jack, also inching his way down into the crater.

“We’ll remember that when the revolution comes,” joked the Captain.

“He’ll make a fine slave boy,” added Selma.

“Har, har,” said Garvey. “Very funny.”

The two men reached the bottom of the blast crater. They walked towards the center. Jack used a portable scanner to collect readings, which were relayed back to Palace.

“Still nothing,” said Selma. “Whatever that is, its not available on Earth.”

“Maybe we’ve discovered a new element,” offered Jack.

Garvey smirked. “’Garvinium’. Yeah, I like the sound of that.”

“Hey,” complained Jack, “who gave you first dibs?”

Garvey grinned. “Because I’ll be the first one there.” He started a light sprint across the crater. Jack followed suit, easily overtaking the larger man with his powerful marathon runner’s legs.

“Damn it!” cursed Garvey.

“Way to go, Jack Chou!” called Selma, laughing. “Looks like ‘Chougon’ will be going on the report.”

“Alright,” said the Captain, “I think that’s enough horseplay, you two.”

“Sorry, Captain,” said Jack. “Couldn’t resist.”

“Let’s get this thing up,” grumbled Garvey, slinging the excavator off of his back.

Jack took his final readings. “Hold on,” he said. “It’s close to the surface. We should be able to get to it with shovels.”

“Suits me fine,” said Garvey. “The quicker, the better.”

The men began to dig. It was only a few minutes before the shovel heads began to clang against a solid, metal surface. They dug a little further. The surface was smooth and level.

“Whoa,” said Jack.

Garvey nodded in implied agreement. “This isn’t a mineral deposit. It’s a container.”

“A container?” echoed Selma. She exchanged confused glances with Captain Delaney.

“Buried under the rock,” confirmed Garvey.

“Do you see any markers on it?” asked the Captain.

“Give us a sec,” replied Garvey. He and Jack cleared away more of the debris. The cuboid container was definitely made of a dense, green metal. “There’s a bunch of yellow symbols on the end of it.”

“On this end, too,” confirmed Jack. “I don’t recognize them. They’re not any standard hazard codes I’ve ever seen.”

“Get your scanner in closer,” said the Captain. “We’ll snap a screenshot and run it through the bank.”

“Roger that,” said Jack. He angled the lens at one end, then the other. The pictures appeared on the Palace screens.

“That’s some identification tag,” said Captain Delaney, absently.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Selma. She flipped a few switches, tying in the scanning console to the computer core. After a few moments, she added: “and neither has the computer.”

Captain Delaney tapped the side of her console with a her finger, gazing at the strange, spiraling markers. “This is damned peculiar,” she noted.

“What do you want us to do?” asked Garvey.

“Well, I don’t want you to open it, that’s for sure,” said the Captain. “But it is technically salvage. There weren’t any active warning beacons on this asteroid, and there aren’t any standard hazard markers or claim stickers.”

“Buried treasure,” said Jack, absently.

“That implies that the pirates will be returning for it,” replied Selma.

“We’re not going to get anything done just standing around,” said Garvey. “Let’s bring it back to the ship. We can keep it in a holder tank on the outside of the hull until we get Palace fixed, or someone from PhoenixCorp finds us. After we transfer it over, its their problem.”

“I concur,” said the Captain. “We don’t have the scanning equipment nor the security fields to examine it safely. Our best bet is to keep it in storage until we can get it to someone who does.”

“So we carry it home,” said Jack.

The Captain nodded. “Proceed.”

The men brushed off the remaining loose dirt. Carefully, they groped for hand holds on the sides of the box.

“It’s heavy,” said Jack.

The box began to jostle. They worked it up carefully, easing it out of the sediment layer.

“Damn thing is stuck in the bedrock,” said Garvey.

It was the last thing he would ever say. A blinding flash erupted from their position, turning all the Palace screens stark white.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“They’re just gone, Captain.”

Captain Delaney turned to Selma, a look of immediacy on her face. “What do you mean, ‘just gone’?”

“They’re gone. I don’t know.” Selma was visibly shaken. “There’s nothing on the scanner, not even their suits. They’re...” Her voice trailed off. She shut her eyes tight, choked on her own held-back tears.

The Captain moved towards her. “Hey,” she said. “Come on, keep it together.” She embraced Selma, the younger woman bawling like an infant onto her shoulder. “Come on, Selma, I need you right now. I know this is hard, but I need you.”

Selma wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “I’m... I’m sorry, Captain.”

“Don’t you dare apologize,” said the Captain. She turned to the scanner screen. “Now, what have you got?”

Selma sniffled, regained her composure. “Like I said, nothing. There’s no transponder signal, there’s no radar ping off of their helmet metal, there’s just nothing. It’s like they were vaporized.”

“Maybe they were,” said the Captain. She flipped a switch, tying in the metallurgical station before sitting down at it. “What about the box, where is it?”

Selma recalibrated her scanners. “Hold on. I’m giving you control.”

“I’ve got it,” confirmed the Captain. She ran two passes over the location. Her brow furrowed at the results. “I’m seeing something of the same size and mass, but the metal isn’t pinging back the same readings.”

Selma thought a moment. “Maybe when it discharged it used up whatever was deflecting our scans. A radioactive element, maybe... a nuclear power source?”

The Captain nodded. “Not an unreasonable theory. But I sure don’t know of any reactor that can put out a blast like that, in that compact a size.”

“Maybe that’s why it was hidden,” said Selma, “or maybe it's the waste. Enough radiation could muck up our scanners.”

The Captain shook her head. “That’s the thing, though. We didn’t detect any radiation. Just a deposit of unfamiliar metal, which is now surreptitiously inert.” She pondered the situation. Finally, she concluded, “I’m going out there.”

“Captain!” exclaimed Selma.

“Look,” the Captain retorted, “by every scan we can do, that box has apparently used up whatever energy was inside it. If it’s dead, it’s dead, and if it’s not, we need to know it’s not. Nothing else can be done from here, so the logical conclusion is to do a proximity scan with a handheld.”

Selma was visibly concerned. “Captain, that box disintegrated Jack and Garvey!”

“I know that, Selma. But I also suspect that it has the potential to be extremely dangerous to a much wider base than this asteroid. The only way to determine that is to go out and see it. It didn’t do anything until Jack and Garvey moved it. I’ll just take my scans and return to the ship.”

“But what if something happens to you?” said Selma.

The Captain took a deep breath. “If it does, your orders are to stay with Palace until a retriever comes within short range communication, then appraise them of the situation immediately. Under no circumstances are you to follow me out of the ship or try to retrieve the container.”

Selma nodded. “Alright. I’ll keep an open phone channel with you at all times. Good luck, Captain.”

Captain Delaney nodded back, and began to suit up.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Edna hated guns. She felt they were a constant reminder of the failures the human race had made on its way to the stars, the countless wars and conflicts and senseless deaths on which their egalitarian future was founded. As the Captain of Palace, however, she rarely had the luxury of allowing her personal philosophies to usurp the protocols of a mining ship operation. With a certain grimness, she fastened a belt holster to the outside of her enviro suit, then slid her microcharge pistol into it.

She trekked to the blast site mostly in silence. Selma would occasionally ask for a confirmation that she was still there, which she would return, but the Captain had far too much on her mind for idle chatter.

After repelling down the slope of the crater, Captain Delaney began to jog towards the center. “I can see the box,” she said.

Selma said hesitantly, “Any sign of Jack or Garvey?”

“None,” confirmed the Captain. “Not even scorch marks.”

She stopped thirty feet from the container. “Selma,” she said, “we have a problem.”

“What now?” asked Selma.

“The box is open.”

Selma said nothing. The Captain scanned the area. As before, only the volume and density readings of the container showed up on the scans. “Nothing,” she said. “Whatever was inside this thing, it’s gone.” She packed up her portable scanner and, taking a long last look at the blast site, turned back towards the crater wall. “There’s nothing here, Selma. Put the Palace scanners on wide-band, see if you can find any residual traces of whatever was in there.”

Selma didn’t respond.

“Selma,” said the Captain, “are you there? This is no time for a donut run.”

Only silence came back over the phone. “Selma,” the Captain said again, “please respond.” The silence remained.

Reflexively, Captain Delaney fingered the grip of her microcharge pistol. Then, without another word, she sprinted towards the crater wall, ascending it as rapidly as the rock climbing equipment would allow.

Upon reaching the top, she peered towards Palace. She could just about make out a female human form emerging from the ship.

“Selma!” she called out. She began to jog towards the ship. The humanoid female seemed to detect her motion, proceeding towards her at a leisurely rate.

“Damn it, Selma,” cursed Captain Delaney, “I told you to stay with the ship!”

She stopped running. The female had come close enough for the Captain to make out her features. A look of confused horror overtook Captain Delaney’s face.

It was Selma. She was not wearing an enviro suit.


TO BE CONTINUED

[confusitron!]

You got me on the hook...