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grazing impact. Outlying surface installations such as antenna arrays and
ground beacons had disappeared. The transporter used by the Security Arm
people who had arrived at Omsk earlier was standing in front of the buckled
remains of the main surface buildings protruding from an overburden of rubble
and rock. Figures were standing around it, easily discerned in their brightly
colored surface suits. Norburn had said the party consisted of a colonel,
another officer, and three technical specialists.
Although Omsk was in production now, supplying forgings and pressed parts for
the spacecraft construction program, Caton was still there with the
Construction Directorate, looking after new excavations for an extension to
the ore processing and rolling facility. Tanya, his former Terran assistant
rescued from Mars, had completed her certification as a mining and drilling
engineer despite her breakdown shortly after the tragedy, and had moved to
Titan. She had joined a group at
Essen who were developing methods of quarrying rocks and moving them based on
the revolutionary artificial gravity technology that had emerged in the past
year or so.
Artificial gravity!
Caton shook his head at the thought. Either he was going to have to go back to
school, or his professional days might be numbered.
Being closest at hand at the time of the disaster, with vehicles and equipment
from Omsk at his disposal, Caton had organized the first rescue teams to
arrive on the scene. But after the immediate tasks of dealing with the
casualties, searching the remains of what was left both above and belowground
for more survivors, and clearing the worst of the wreckage were done, the
later work of salvaging what could be used and evacuating the facility had
been carried out by the Security
Arm s own engineering crews from Titan.
So they had left the remains, deserted and unchanging, apart from the rain of
dust and occasional fusillades of larger bodies as Saturn and its moons swept
their path through the storm of debris that
Athena had stirred up across the Solar System.
And then now, all of a sudden, the Security Arm was interested in the place
again and had requested Omsk to provide local transportation and assistance
for a team that would be coming from Titan to conduct some kind of
reconnaissance out there. Some hours after the SA team
departed from Omsk, administration had contacted Caton to ask if he would fly
out to the site with
Norburn to look at something the SA group had found there. Caton s name was on
record as having been involved in the rescue and cleanup activities following
the meteorite impacts, and apparently that was considered significant for some
reason.
The bus settled a short distance from the transporter. As its engines died,
the flurry of dust around it collapsed in the airless environment like a
tenuous balloon deflating. From closer up, the remains of the domes and
connecting buildings formed a wall of twisted and splayed metal bordering the
rubble-strewn area where the vehicles had landed, sagging out from beneath the
debris that had buried it like the spilled content of a gigantic rock
sandwich. At one end, part of a flattened dome had been lifted aside-way back,
in an operation that Caton himself had supervised-
to open the way down to a section of the underground galleries that had
escaped being totally pulverized. They d had to tunnel under a bulkhead wall
concertinaed between two levels of flooring that had been crushed together, he
recalled. Fortunately, in the gravity of a body the size of
Rhea, supporting the load above had not been as difficult as the sight
suggested.
This place certainly took a pasting, Norburn commented, as he sat back from
the port and unsnapped his restraining harness.
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You have to see it for yourself to get a real idea of it, Caton agreed.
Was there much left there below-where the opening goes down?
Just parts of a couple of levels. We got a bunch of survivors up from a
compartment in the living quarters that had been sealed in. Most of them were
just trainee kids. Too dazed to know which moon they were on. Nobody left in
that dome up above, though. There was some nasty cleaning up to do in there.
They stood up and took down their helmets from the rack above. Well, now
maybe we get to learn what this is all about, Del, Norburn said. Any bets?
I couldn t even begin to guess, Caton replied.
The pilot came back from the nose compartment and checked their suit readings
before opening the lock. They bounced lightly down the extended steps and
joined the group of three figures waiting in front of the tunnel, two wearing
suits of Security Arm blue, the other s yellow, all of them carrying hand
lamps. The other two making up the party were at the transporter, unloading
equipment of some kind. The SA officer in the suit with colonel s insignia had
Asian features and the name tag xelu on his chest pack. Caton judged him to be
around thirty. He introduced himself, and then the others as Lieutenant
Queele, SA, and Bor Ethan, a technical advisor.
It was you who led the rescue team from Omsk, I understand, Mr. Caton, Xelu
said. The
Service will always be in your debt.
It was my privilege, Colonel, Caton replied. Just glad that we were here.
Only sorry we couldn t do more.
You did as much as anyone could have, Norburn put in.
Colonel Xelu half turned, at the same time looking back toward the tunnel.
And you directed the digging under the debris there?
Right. We could tell from sonar scans that some of the underground levels
were still intact farther down.
Can we go and take a look?
Caton and Norburn looked at each other. Caton shrugged inside his suit.
Sure, Norburn said. The question seemed to have been more for form. It was
what they had come out here for, after all. They followed Xelu into the
opening, Queele and Ethan falling in to bring up the rear.
The beam from Xelu s lamp revealed a path of trodden-down rock fragments and
dust descending among fallen floor beams and crumpled wall sections. A cleared
shaft going up marked where Caton s team had cut their way through to check
the upper parts. It didn t bring back the torrent of memories that he had been
half expecting. Too much else had happened in the meantime since the day of
those events.
I suppose we owe it to you to say what brings us here, Xelu s voice said in
Caton s helmet as they moved on and down. The political situation in Kronia
is getting complicated these days. It wasn t necessary for him to spell out
that he meant on account of the agitation and demands of the
Pragmatists. What s worrisome is that this Terran-instigated movement is
being led by individuals who consider coercion and violence to be a legitimate
means of achieving social goals-or at least, of imposing the appearance of
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