And, as The Jewel began to return to normal, people making for the tables and bar, Dek threw his head back and laughed until his sides ached.

Chapter 35

  35  

The way the shoring ran, the entire roof of the Number Three was enclosed. No way that IG Soukup could see the shocked rock that the bore had been drifted through. Kalico, Desh Ituri, and Arobindo Ghosh, dressed in protective suits with helmets and breathers, took a position in rear. Soukup, also covered in a protective suit, stared up through a transparent facial shield.

They stood in the tunnel—rails underfoot where the ore cars carried the rich quartz, schist, and metal-laced rock mined above, out to the haulers that in turn trucked them down to the smelter. Occasional lights—sometimes flickering—illuminated the tunnel. Even with the shoring, water dripped on them as if it were a healthy rain, while on the floor, the “water make”—heavy metal-rich water draining from the mountain—ran in a fast rivulet to one side.

Kalico pointed to where the ore from above fell through the hopper and into the cars. “That’s the payoff. Took us three years. We’re still using the tram above, removing ore and metal with the skip, then carrying it down in buckets. If we had a bigger smelter, we could triple production.”

Soukup winced at the droplets spattering on his helmet and face shield. His voice came out tinny through the speaker. “And you say this is all toxic?” It had been necessary to leave the Four at the tunnel mouth, not having enough protective suits.

“Many of the metals we mine, like beryllium, arsenic, and cadmium, are toxic. Not to mention the uranium, polonium, thorium, radium, and the rest. We have had to innovate. The really hot stuff is unprocessed. We load the radioactive ores directly into containers and ship them up to L5. When Turalon gets around to it, those containers can be strapped to the hull and can make the trip back to Solar System in vacuum, and on the other side of the ship’s radiation shielding.”

“You said it took you three tries to dig this tunnel? That it took you two years during which time, the mine was only running at partial capacity?”

Ghosh stepped up, saying, “We had to learn as we went. Had to develop the technology, design the shoring. Drilling through the shocked rock necessitated new techniques. And then there were the safety issues when it came to the metals. Dealing with the mercury alone caused us a month’s worth of delays.”

“And it cost us five people,” Kalico added. “Five lives we couldn’t afford.”

“You all seem unusually preoccupied with safety,” Soukup noted. “Even to the detriment of meeting production quotas.”