Installment #6

Chapter 11

At the designated time, a young man came to fetch Adrian from his room. The young man seemed to be intimidated by Adrian, who had changed into his work clothes, which included a large holster on his belt holding an impressive pulse ion hand gun. So they walked in silence down the labyrinth of corridors until they reached the gangway for the transport. There were at least two dozen people milling around, some were taking crates of materials down the gangway into the ship, others were customs officials checking manifests and other paperwork. Amy was there, as were Maria and the others from the briefing. Swelling their numbers were eight soldiers, dressed in gray military camouflage uniforms with pulse rifles and various explosive devices strapped to their belts. The man obviously in charge walked over to Adrian.

"Mr. Masters, I am Lt. Colonel James Snyder. My team will be escorting you to the station and providing whatever protection you need."

"Thank you, Lt. Colonel. Do you really think we need all that firepower?," Adrian said, glancing at the arsenal being loaded into ship.

"Don't know, frankly," Snyder responded. "All I know is that the restart team disappeared. Campbell is not taking any chances with your group."

"That gives me great comfort," Adrian replied. Adrian hated military men. They always thought they were smarter than he was. As far as he was concerned, they were little boys with big, dangerous toys. Half the time they ended blowing themselves up or, more importantly, killing those they were sent to protect. Adrian saw that it was going to be a while yet before the ship was loaded, so he thought he'd try to get to know Snyder. If he was putting his life in this guys hands, he'd like to know a bit more about who he was.

"So, Lt. Colonel," what do you think happened to the restart team?"

"Don't have a clue. The eggheads back at HQ have run a series of simulations, using all of the data we currently have available. The scenario with the highest degree of probability is 'Insufficient data.' Real helpful."

"Were there other scenarios?," Adrian asked.

"Yeah, a bunch of them, all with a relatively low probability. Not much help." Snyder stopped. He was watching the gear being loaded. "Damn, amateurs," he said to himself. Then he shouted to the workers, "Hey, take it easy with those crates. They contain some sensitive scientific instruments. And those over there," pointing to some carbon fiber crates," contain enough explosives to level this entire station."

The workers stopped what they were doing and stared where he was pointing. The two guys running the forklift hoisting the crates stopped in their tracks. One of the workers walked over the Snyder. "I'm Griffin. I'm the shop steward on this dock, and the manifest says nothing about explosives." Griffin shoved his clipboard at in Snyder's face. "What gives?"

Snyder casually moved his hand to the holster on his belt, unsnapped the safety restraint and rested his hand on the handle of the gun. He smiled and looked Griffin in the eye. "Fair enough, Mr. Griffin. Mr. Campbell didn't want to cause any concern among the people on the station. As you know, this station is under civilian supervision, not military control. We need to tread carefully, so as not to cause any problems. Mr. Campbell thought it better than we used unmarked containers to avoid any unnecessary concerns amongst passerbys. However, the crates were marked 'Fragile' and manifest should have indicated that the crates contained very sensitive equipment."

Griffin stepped back. "Every manifest says that every crate is 'fragile.' Whether they're filled with antiques or scrap iron. After while we just don't give it much credence."

"Well," Snyder said calmly, "this time they meant it. So please treat them carefully. We wouldn't want any accidents, would we?"

Griffin was becoming increasingly angry, but spoke softly to the man with the gun. "This is against the union contract. We are suppose to be told if we are handling any dangerous cargo. I plan to file a grievance as soon as the rest of the cargo has been loaded."

Snyder clipped the safety back on the holster and held out his hand to Griffin. "I'm very glad that we understand each other. You go ahead and file your grievance. I'm sure it will be carefully considered by Mr. Campbell, who owns this station and whose daughter is in grave danger at Site 209. So you go ahead and file your grievance. But in the meantime, please let your lads know that those crates really are fragile."

Griffin shook Snyder's hand grudgingly, turned and walked back to his crew. Turning to Adrian, Snyder said, "Well, I'm glad we were able to reach an understanding."

. . . at the point of a gun, Adrian thought to himself. People wonder why I hate the military. "Yes, indeed," Adrian said to Snyder, trying to break the tension. "Now, if you could tell me more about those other scenarios the computer came up with."

Chapter 12

Maria Santos was delayed in getting to the gangway, and just saw Adrian and the soldier talking to the dockworker, the dockworker turn angrily and walk back to his men, and Adrian speaking to the soldier.

She had taken a shower and fixed her hair. That's what had delayed her arrival at the dock. Although Adrian was an ass, she still had a thing for him. The had first met on a rescue mission on Mars. A group of workers had been trapped in a mine collapse. It was one of the largest iron ore mines ever built. Juno Mining had complied with all of the safety requirements of the Amalgamated Mining Board, yet there had been an explosion in Shaft 12. They later learned that there were gas deposits deep in the martian crust, which could be ignited by heat even in the absences of oxygen. But at the time they had no idea what could have caused the collapse. Adrian, much younger and less experienced than now, was just one of the junior wildcatters brought in to try to dig a parallel shaft down to the depth of the trapped miners. Then they would open a hole between the two shafts, hopefully finding the trapped miners before their oxygen supply ran out. She was hired as structural engineer, to make sure the emergency shaft was properly braced, and to insure that once they broke through to the site of the collapse, they could shore up the roof of the shaft temporarily so they could locate and rescue the workers.

Adrian was beautiful. He had blond, curly hair and the body of Atlas. His crooked smile and the glint in his eye caused all of the women that he met to fall in love with him. She was no different. On this mission, she had been the only female on an all male crew. She knew he was a womanizer from the way he looked at her when they first met, but she couldn't help herself. There was something about him – his scent, his pheromones, whatever – that attracted her like a moth to a flame. She fell for him hard.

While the work was demanding, and they had little free time, they were able to sneak moments away from the chaos to be together. While she had been with a few men before Adrian, they were nothing like him. Despite the enormous pressure they were under on the job, when they were together he was totally focused on her. It was as if she knew everything about her. He saw through everything directly into her soul. So it was devastating that when the job ended, he just kissed her goodbye and left. He had stolen something from her . . . something that she could never get back. And he didn't care. That was why he hated him so absolutely. He had left a dagger buried deep inside her heart. Whenever she thought about him, it was as if he was twisting the dagger deeper and deeper into her. The pain was unbearable.

That was why she had avoided working with him again . . . until now. She had thought that after all of these years, after all of the relationships she had had in the interim, and now that she was a mature, confident woman, he wouldn't have the same effect on her today. Boy, was she wrong.

When she entered the conference room an hour ago and saw him standing there, the dagger was back, as was the pain. He had turned her into a man hater. She knew that she had a reputation of being a ball buster. But it wasn't something she had ever intended to be. He had made her this way. She hated herself for it, and she hated him even more.

But here she was, looking at the man who had ruined her life. Why was she doing this to herself? She had a successful career, she lived well, and she was respected for her work – if not for her interpersonal skills, particularly when it came to men. She didn't need this. If she could have done so, she would have walked away, taken the next shuttle home, and forgotten all about this. But it was too late. She had signed a contract with Juno Mining. If she backed out now, she would be blackballed for life. You don't screw with Matt Campbell and get away with it. Particularly when the life of her daughter hangs in the balance. There was nothing else to do. She put on her best smile and walked toward Adrian as if she didn't give a damn.

[Word count for this installment = 1,632]
[Total word count = 10,878]