Chapter 23

They finally found a narrow land bridge that spanned the chasm, six days south of their original route. With Kat driving, and Bob walking ahead, scouting and guiding her, they were able to get the mule across to the other side though not without a puckered sphincter or two.

Twelve days wasted.

The rest of the trip was anti-climactic and they were able to find the mining town of Champlace only two days later. The town was much smaller than the Port. It had two primary streets that met in a small town square, and a third, gently curving road that led from the East end of town to the South end, bypassing the built up area.

The North /South Street terminated at a small lake on the North End and a small Port facility on the South. Beside the lake was a pumping station that was probably supplying water to the town and the mine operations. The lake itself was fed by three, medium sized, tributary streams and it looked as though the single outlet had been fitted with a hydroelectric power generator.

The port facilities looked typical of a small town port. There were three hangars for small and mid-sized fliers and a trio of landing pads for the extra-atmospheric craft. The pads looked large enough for ore haulers and courier sized ships, but would be a tight squeeze for anything larger.

The east/west road terminated on the West end of town. It stopped at the last building and there were piles of dirt and detritus at the end, as if the construction crew had reached that spot and called it a day. On the East end, the road continued for another kilometer or so and ended at a cleared area in front of an open mine. The mine pit was easily five kilometers in diameter and even from their perch on a hill overlooking the town, Kat and Bob could see the giant strip-mining machinery working to make it larger.

Kat's binoculars allowed her to see more detail at the mining site. The mining machinery itself was a massive assembly of cutting wheels that was slowly chewing away at the side of the pit, spewing rock onto a belt that shifted the rock towards the rear of the machine. The rock was transferred to a series of large tractors, with dump beds on the rear, that would haul the raw, ore-bearing rock to a crushing machine. On the far side of the crusher was a conveyor belt assembly that fed the crushed and sorted ore to smaller, wheeled bins. As each bin was filled, a tractor pulled it out of the flow and a second tractor maneuvered an empty bin in place.

The full bin would be attached to a long line of similar bins, in a road-train setup, that was pulled by a massive wheeled truck. Kat watched as the most recently filled bin was attached and the train lurched into movement.

The curved East to South road made sense now. The train would take the bins to the port where they would be loaded on to ore haulers for transshipment to the off-planet port facilities back west. The curving road allowed the train to take a more direct route to the port facilities without having to enter town or negotiate the ninety degree turn in the center of town.

While Kat watched the mining activity, Bob was scanning the town. There was some foot traffic and a few mules packed with supplies headed for the mine, but it seemed the town existed solely to support the mine activity and most of the people were already at work.

The flier that was stolen, and then crashed, was taken from the port facility below. The crash site was located about twenty-five kilometers north of the town and they could, if they needed to, bypass the town all together and head directly for the crash site.

Kat doubted that there was much in the way of evidence left at the site after all this time, and there was no chance of finding tracks or other signs that hadn't been washed away by the daily rains, but it would be the logical place to start searching. First though, she wanted access to the power and Comm facilities below. If they could get a full charge on the mule, and maybe steal a generator so that they didn't have to stop as often, they could make much better use of their time. The long delays chafed at her and she knew that the longer it took, the less likely that Pan was still alive.

Kat also wanted to try and gain access to the Comm facilities. She needed to get a report back to Minerva and let her know everything that had happened so far. If the Comm setup had the power to punch through the atmosphere to the FLT transmitter, then it would have the power to contact the ship that was supposed to be hiding in orbit as well.

Kat was concerned about the ship and its small crew. When she thought about the betrayal by Alex Vega, she had to wonder if the ship was still even there. If may have been destroyed or captured, or it may, after so long without contact, have left orbit and returned to Clerc. If, by some chance, they were still in place and undiscovered, Kat could explain the situation and set up a rendezvous point and time, probably at the crash site, in a few days from now.

They waited until dark before moving out. Slipping over the top of the hill, they hiked down into the town on the South side near the port. The Comm facility was easy to pinpoint because of the large communication dishes and power station alongside the building. The port itself seemed to run around the clock and there were bright pools of light around the pads. The buildings were partially lit and one of the three hangars had its doors open, light spilling from inside.

They walked calmly, openly, as though they belonged, but casually avoided the brighter pools of light. They didn't want to draw attention to themselves by appearing to skulk, but they didn't want to chance anyone recognizing them as strangers to the town either.

They were able to work their way around and behind the Comm building without raising any eyebrows and Kat slipped into the dark shadows to peer through the windows. Moving from window to window, they were able to determine the basic layout of all but the front rooms of the single story building. It appeared to be, primarily, office spaces around the perimeter of the building, and though they couldn't see through the walls of the large, central area, the power and data cables ran to a structure that was centered on the roof. The transmitters and machinery for the Comm center must be there.

There was no way to get into the Comm center without being seen, but they could, and did, chose an empty, unlit office as the spot to enter the building. After using the night vision goggle to verify that the office was empty, Kat pried open the window and, with a boost from Bob, slipped inside. Bob remained outside, guarding her escape route.