Chapter 342

Deep Space

The scout's AI had kept the small ship well within the margins of the asteroid field, dodging through the rocks with judicious use of energy that the ship's shrouding shields should be able to hide from the aliens. The rock having ricocheted off another nearby rock had been a surprise even to the AI, and the resulting change in direction at such close range had put it on a collision course, giving the AI no alternative other than to accelerate out of the way.

Now, as it gradually built speed, Arlene and Ann sat glued to the screens as the AI used only the minimal amount of power necessary to dodge as it hurled the little ship through the asteroids, the AI's reactions far surpassing anything a human pilot could ever accomplish. Both girls sat mute, other than an occasional gasp as the AI threaded its way through denser parts of the belt, the rocks blurring past.

"It is logical to assume the aliens will come closer to investigate. Immediately upon my movement out of the rock's path, they began actively scanning; however, I reduced power as soon as I was clear of the rogue's path. The heavy acceleration was of short duration, and they, like us, were using only passive scanning until my energy expenditure exceeded the ability of my shields to conceal the output."

There was a slight hesitation before the AI went on. "I have detected the launch of two of their tenders." There was a further hesitation, then, "Their vectors indicate that they intend to cross to this side of the asteroid field."

"Oh, shit!" both girls said as one.

As the minutes that seemed more like hours ticked away, the AI continued to update them on the enemy craft. "Both are now in the general location of our near-collision with the rogue." Then after several moments of waiting, "They have separated. One is heading in the opposite direction along this side of the belt, while the other is accelerating in our general direction, but it is paralleling the belt well away from the asteroid swarm. If I accelerate at a higher rate, they will be able to detect my energy emissions. If I do not expend more energy, the tender will reach our general location in slightly more than six minutes and twenty-seven seconds, and they are actively scanning.

"As before, I do not detect warp engines aboard the enemy tenders, but they are more heavily armed than I am. In addition, we are well within their detection range if we warp out. They have shields, but I do not know their strength. Decision?"

"Find a dense part of the swarm and get behind something that will block their scans," Arlene ordered without hesitation.

"Should they find us, anyway, I will not be able to go to warp until we are well clear of nearby asteroids. In that interval, the aliens will have a simple targeting solution."

Arlene and Ann looked at each other, but Ann spoke first. "Jeff said not to take any chances. To obey him, we have to clear the asteroid field and warp out now."

"But that will alert the aliens that Earth is watching them."

"Do we have any choice?" Ann reasoned.

The two locked eyes for an instant before Arlene gave the order.

Nashville, Tennessee

A few hours earlier, Charlotte Bankston had just finished up. "Mom," she called out. "Supper is ready."

"Coming, Dear," the near-invalid called out as she directed her wheelchair into the kitchen in the small, two-bedroom house on the outskirts of Nashville.

"Meatloaf," Charlotte began, but was interrupted by her mother.

"Oh, I know, Charlie. I've been smelling it, and it certainly does smell wonderful."

"Well, it should. It's your recipe that you taught me when I was a teenager."

"Seems like yesterday," Ada responded as she managed to get to her feet to walk the few unsteady steps to her chair.

"I wish you would let me help you. It scares me when I see you do that. If you fall..."

"Hush, Charlie. I'm not going to fall. I manage on my own while you're gone, well, with a little help from the agency for cleaning, and doing my laundry, but I'm not glued to this chair completely."

"But I worry about you being here all alone with me working halfway across the country."

"Stop with the worry and say the blessing. I get tired of hearing myself saying it all the time."

Charlotte had already poured both glasses of iced tea before her mother came into the kitchen. After the blessing, Charlie slid a glass over to her mother and put a helping of the meatloaf on Ada's plate while she took a sip of her iced tea.

"Blaaah," she said with a laugh. "You gave me the wrong glass of tea again. How do you stand sweet tea, anyway?"

"How do you stand it without sugar?" the daughter responded as she exchanged glasses while the two laughed over the old joke between them.

"I still miss your dad. Those Yankees always drank their tea without sugar, and I wanted to please him in every way I could, so I started drinking mine without sugar while we were dating, and I never stopped – as you well know. Sometimes I think you just want to tease me by slipping that syrupy stuff in front of me."

"Well," Charlotte said with a smile, "I can't say that I never did it, but that time it was an accident."

"Yeah, I'll bet," her mother said with a hint of sarcasm. "Now tell me again when you have to leave, and tell me something about this job you're on this time."

"I thought you didn't want to hear about my job. You always say it's too dangerous and you don't want to hear about it."

"Well, I'm still a woman. That gives me the right to change my mind, doesn't it?" she finished with a chuckle as she put the first bite of meatloaf into her mouth, "Uhmmm. This is good."

Charlotte hastily swallowed a bite. "Mom, I wish I had a job close by, but with only a high school education, there's no way I could make the money I'm making now. The tunnel boring company is good to its employees. On most jobs, we usually have a nice motel room that we share with a buddy."

"But she's kinda wild, didn't you say."

Charlotte laughed. "Well, she does like her men now and then, but she doesn't bring them back to the room. She drinks very little, and I've never seen her even close to being drunk. I'd really rather room with her than have a room of my own."

"You've been with the company, what, five years now?"

"Yeah, last October."

"I still wish you would find something around here. With my Social Security coming in, we could make it."

"Mom, the training the company has given me would be useless in another field, and rock tunneling companies using the equipment I'm trained on are few and far between. What else could I do with just a high school education? I surely don't want to be a waitress, and with the fantastic salary I'm making now, we're putting money in the bank. The company even pays for my trips home, as they do for everyone who is away on a distant job."

"So tell me about this job. You mentioned it was on a mountain."

Charlotte stopped to take a swallow of tea before replying, "Well, like I said, it's a rush job for some multimillionaire just outside of Winter Park, Colorado. Mom, you should see the place. I thought it was a hotel, or maybe a swanky ski lodge or something, but it's supposed to be the Matthews' home."

"Stuck up, are they?"

"But that's the thing, Mom. I've talked for a few minutes every now and then with some of the women and a couple of the men. The guy who's paying for this underground fortress to be built even talked to me once. It's cold on that mountain. You wouldn't believe how deep the snow is or how hard the wind blows sometimes, and this guy – oh, Mom, he's a hunk – just walks around wearing nothing but jeans, a tee-shirt and combat boots. On a good day, it's ten above zero, but his skin doesn't even get red in the wind while I'm freezing my butt off with a full complement of winter clothes on."

"I hate the thought of you working in that cold."

"Well, it's much better now because we're underground, and we have great big heaters blowing warm air on us. We even had them above ground, plus wind breaks, but I have to admit, it's much better now that we've pushed underground."

"But a lot more dangerous..."

"Mom, we're careful. The company has all kinds of safety devices and procedures that keep us from getting hurt. And, in case you're concerned about it, I also know that injuries quite often mean lost time on a job, and as much as my company charges our customers, that would involve a lot of money. So we can be cynical about it, but whether they do it for the employees' good, or just because the company doesn't want to lose money, it's the same for me in the long run. We have a short safety meeting every morning before we start to work. It's been a long time since anyone was hurt on the job, and safety is hammered into our heads at the beginning of every shift. I'm not going to get hurt, Mom."

"And you're never going to get married working this job, either. You're thirty, Charlie. I want grandkids. Your clock has begun ticking, in case you haven't noticed. Before you know it, it will stop."

"I know, Mom. I know. But I haven't met the right guy yet."

"And you never will while underground nursemaiding some machine that's chewing through granite. When's the last time you got laid, Girl?"

Charlotte was glad she had just swallowed or she would have choked for sure. "Mooommm," she whined. "That's personal."

"That long, huh? Girl, a woman needs a man every now and then. That vibrator is a girl's best friend, but it gets old after awhile. I can surely attest to that."

"Mom, I don't want to hear this. Waayy too much information."

"Oh, bull. I was twenty when I had you. I'm fifty – not dead. If I can ever get rid of this arthritis, I could have a number of good years left in my life yet. I have high hopes for this new medicine the doctor put me on, and the therapy is helping too. I'm walking a few more steps every day at rehab. In the overall scheme of things, I'm lucky. You should see some of those people in the arthritis doctor's office. Some are just kids and are even worse than I am. Do you know that some people die from arthritis? It gets into their lungs. Besides, like I said, I'm getting better."

"Oh, mom, I never thought you would be in a wheelchair. I know you'll be back on your feet one of these days."

"Well, that may be, or maybe it won't, but we're getting away from the subject – you. Now what about these rich people? You have a face and body most girls would kill for. If this guy is that good looking, why don't you turn on the charm for him?"

Charlotte had to chuckle over that. "Me with a rich man? Momma, please. And about my looks, I'm wearing cold weather gear, a face shield and a hard hat. The only way anyone can tell if I'm female while I'm on the machine is when I speak – well, yell. That's the only way a person can be heard while near the big borer. Besides, the only time I've talked to any of them is through a fence while I'm taking a break. We are to stay inside the fence at all times. I guess these rich people are paranoid. Something happened last week and our newbie got arrested, but I was in one of the work trailers and didn't see it. One of the guys said the newbie just got off the tractor, lay on the ground and was arrested. Even the supervisors don't know why, or if they do, they aren't talking."