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Authors: Valmore Daniels
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traces of a semi-large deposit of something beyond the core sampler range, didn’t it?”
“Yep. I brought the override code, just in case. We can get an extra twenty meters out of the sampler drill.”
He opened the ATV carry compartment and withdrew a telescopic extension for the drill, and joined his wife at the Nelson II.
*
Michael interrupted the playback with a hand gesture. The image froze at Raymond’s thought-link command.
“Do we have the readings of the Nelson II?”
“Yes.” The assistant brought them up on a secondary screen. “Non-conclusive. The mineral readings were typical as far as a kilometer down, nothing to write home about. No significant lodes. But when the drill reached its maximum depth, it registered a .002 per cent content reading by mass of some unknown substance.
“Obviously, Margaret and Gabriel believed it was a deposit of iron ore, as the record of their dialogue shows. This is why the potential value estimate he filed is so high.”
“Right.” Alliras cleared his throat. “Let’s finish the recording.”
*
The playback continued, with the two surveyors speculating on their find, and what they would do with their bonuses once they returned to Canada Station. Michael could not help but smile, even though his throat was tight, and his temples throbbed. It was a grim business.
*
“The Nelson II indicates the deposit begins fourteen meters below maximum depth,” Margaret reported.
Gabriel adjusted the depth cue on the drill, and tapped in the command to engage the Nelson II’s engine. The core drill twirled and dug into the asteroid.
“Any indication on size of deposit?” Margaret inquired as she monitored the Nelson II’s temp and friction indicators.
Watching the sample analysis display, Gabriel shook his head.
*
At 13:11:02 GMT, he reported, “Almost there, another minute or two.”
*
At 13:11:47 GMT, the image blanked.
*
The silence in the conference room drew out for a few minutes.
“Damn,” was Alliras comment.
Michael tried to be analytical. “Obviously, the deposit reacted with the something in the drill or sampler, or even with the friction and heat of the operation.”
“We’ve already begun analyses,” Raymond told him. “The makeup of the drill is designed to avoid causing a reaction to any known mineral compound, including plutonium and uranium. Whatever happened, it wasn’t nuclear.”
“So we’re left with heat?”
“We can’t rule out the possibility of a new element, one that does react to something in the drill?”
“So we are left where? At the beginning?”
“Yes.”
“Caught with our pants around our ankles, I would say,” Alliras put in. “Damn.”
They were interrupted by a message sent from Calbert. The casement appeared over the DMR of the survey playback. “Michael, one of our probe sentries has picked up small mass readings in the event area.”
“Be right there,” he replied, and the three men hurried back to the Operations Center.
*
Calbert greeted them with a nod. He pointed his hand to a medium-sized DMR on the east wall.
“Initial readings indicate a number of objects, ranging from 50 kg to 5000 kg mass.”
“Meteors?”
“No, ion pulse radar shows the objects as irregular, not cylindrical or spherical. We should be getting an image in about three minutes.”
The technicians and operators in the room all ceased their work and looked up at the DMR as the screen flicked to visual camera.
There was nothing on the screen at the moment, but the radar magnification indicated a range of 932 meters.
At a range of 500 meters, several objects could be discerned. One looked like the remnants of a Nelson II drill. Closer still, and the ATV could be seen, horribly mangled and burned.
One hundred meters in, the probe picked up two objects: the bodies of the two surveyors.
“Alive?” Michael shouted.
A tech punched a command sequence into his keyboard, and reported, “No, sir.”
“Damn!”
“Yep. I brought the override code, just in case. We can get an extra twenty meters out of the sampler drill.”
He opened the ATV carry compartment and withdrew a telescopic extension for the drill, and joined his wife at the Nelson II.
*
Michael interrupted the playback with a hand gesture. The image froze at Raymond’s thought-link command.
“Do we have the readings of the Nelson II?”
“Yes.” The assistant brought them up on a secondary screen. “Non-conclusive. The mineral readings were typical as far as a kilometer down, nothing to write home about. No significant lodes. But when the drill reached its maximum depth, it registered a .002 per cent content reading by mass of some unknown substance.
“Obviously, Margaret and Gabriel believed it was a deposit of iron ore, as the record of their dialogue shows. This is why the potential value estimate he filed is so high.”
“Right.” Alliras cleared his throat. “Let’s finish the recording.”
*
The playback continued, with the two surveyors speculating on their find, and what they would do with their bonuses once they returned to Canada Station. Michael could not help but smile, even though his throat was tight, and his temples throbbed. It was a grim business.
*
“The Nelson II indicates the deposit begins fourteen meters below maximum depth,” Margaret reported.
Gabriel adjusted the depth cue on the drill, and tapped in the command to engage the Nelson II’s engine. The core drill twirled and dug into the asteroid.
“Any indication on size of deposit?” Margaret inquired as she monitored the Nelson II’s temp and friction indicators.
Watching the sample analysis display, Gabriel shook his head.
*
At 13:11:02 GMT, he reported, “Almost there, another minute or two.”
*
At 13:11:47 GMT, the image blanked.
*
The silence in the conference room drew out for a few minutes.
“Damn,” was Alliras comment.
Michael tried to be analytical. “Obviously, the deposit reacted with the something in the drill or sampler, or even with the friction and heat of the operation.”
“We’ve already begun analyses,” Raymond told him. “The makeup of the drill is designed to avoid causing a reaction to any known mineral compound, including plutonium and uranium. Whatever happened, it wasn’t nuclear.”
“So we’re left with heat?”
“We can’t rule out the possibility of a new element, one that does react to something in the drill?”
“So we are left where? At the beginning?”
“Yes.”
“Caught with our pants around our ankles, I would say,” Alliras put in. “Damn.”
They were interrupted by a message sent from Calbert. The casement appeared over the DMR of the survey playback. “Michael, one of our probe sentries has picked up small mass readings in the event area.”
“Be right there,” he replied, and the three men hurried back to the Operations Center.
*
Calbert greeted them with a nod. He pointed his hand to a medium-sized DMR on the east wall.
“Initial readings indicate a number of objects, ranging from 50 kg to 5000 kg mass.”
“Meteors?”
“No, ion pulse radar shows the objects as irregular, not cylindrical or spherical. We should be getting an image in about three minutes.”
The technicians and operators in the room all ceased their work and looked up at the DMR as the screen flicked to visual camera.
There was nothing on the screen at the moment, but the radar magnification indicated a range of 932 meters.
At a range of 500 meters, several objects could be discerned. One looked like the remnants of a Nelson II drill. Closer still, and the ATV could be seen, horribly mangled and burned.
One hundred meters in, the probe picked up two objects: the bodies of the two surveyors.
“Alive?” Michael shouted.
A tech punched a command sequence into his keyboard, and reported, “No, sir.”
“Damn!”
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