MiNRS 2 by Kevin Sylvester

Author:Kevin Sylvester
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Chapter Eighteen

Digging Deep

I asked Therese to wake Elena and the others, and we all gathered around the Oracle. It reminded me of the campfires my mother and father had made when I was a little kid back on Earth, complete with the frightening story.

“There is a battle . . . ,” the Oracle began. “Right now it’s inside Melming Mining, but it will soon spread to the rest of the Earth.”

A battle? I typed, the first of many questions.

“When the Great Mission was first designed, the governments of the world gave extraordinary powers to Melming Mining. This made sense.”

I knew something about this from history class. The mission needed to succeed. It was Earth’s last chance.

“Melming was given control of satellites, rockets, computers, technology, but also the global defense system. Melming promised these things would only be used for protection, to secure everyone’s global interests. The minerals that would be coming back to Earth would be worth more than the wealth of most countries. It needed to be protected. The corporation was true to its word.”

But something went wrong? I thought of how much I’d already learned about the darker side of the Great Mission.

“Not at first. The first trips to Perses showed incredible promise.”

We saw an old abandoned colony.

“It was the first base camp. But tests indicated better mining opportunities in the north where your colony was located.”

I looked at Elena and nodded. She’d been right.

The Oracle went on. “But greed for power and money can make people do horrible things.”

My father said something like that to me right before he was killed.

“Thatcher loves power. He was a junior officer in charge of escorting and protecting ships as they came in and out of orbit. He had higher aspirations. He rose through the ranks quickly. There always seemed to be some mistake made by a superior officer. A mistake Thatcher would expose and then remedy.”

Elena smirked. “History keeps repeating. Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler. All started out small but quietly got bigger and bigger, usually by discrediting the people above them. They created voids only they could fill.”

I looked at Elena. “Do you want me to type that?”

“Yes.”

I typed.

“You know military history,” the Oracle said.

Elena didn’t smile but nodded in acknowledgment. I was impressed too.

The Oracle continued. “Thatcher saw his opportunity early and seized it. He thwarted an attempted hijacking of one of the first shipments of ore back to Earth.”

I was confused. But we never sent any ore back. I thought we were the first colony?

“You were the first permanent colony. But there had been exploratory mining done before it was determined Perses had the minerals we needed and that it would actually pay off as an investment. The company kept these first missions secret in case they failed.”

But someone found out about one of the shipments.

“It was a small shipment. But valuable. Thatcher found out about the plot, and foiled it. He killed all the rebels. The ore was delivered to Earth and distributed equally among all the nations. Thatcher made many allies.

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