Stranded on Mining Planet by Vicky L. Holt

Author:Vicky L. Holt [Vicky L. Holt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2022-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Adrenalin pumping through my veins, I felt invincible. It helped that Drail, a huge and strong, albeit self-important, reptilian alien considered himself my debt-mate and declared he was never leaving my side.

Shaking my head, I marveled.

Three revolutions I’d worked with Granda, never once guessing he would betray IGMC. He used IGMC protocols like paddles, punishing anyone who stepped out of line, threatening punitive measures, reporting missteps and arguments and making himself generally hated all around. But at the same time, he’d demanded fair wages for all the miners, longer rest periods, better quality amenities and the like.

Everyone, including myself, thought he was just an asshole, but also a devoted “company man”.

I never guessed he was using his communication throne to find a buyer for the planet engine.

Glancing at my WU, I saw we’d been in the tunnels for twenty-four minutes.

“When do you think the attack ships will arrive?” I asked Drail, admiring his physique from behind. Broad shoulders, tapered waist, long legs. Shaking myself, I focused on the footpath.

“Minutes,” he said.

I swore. “What’s the cover like from the exit of the tunnels to the base?”

“Minimal,” he said. “However, I have remembered something that may be useful. Rather than exit from the tunnel at the plains, let us travel farther in the network belowground. If we can make it to the mountains, there is plentiful cover, and the mountains embrace the northern edge of the mining base.”

“We can come up to the launch pads from behind,” I said with a small smile.

“Precisely,” he agreed.

I recalled the maps of the tunnels from when the Dynamo first arrived, and we had pored over them to decide where to start the Room and Pillar mines. Drail was correct; the tunnel network stretched all the way to the mountains, created anciently by volcanic activity. The ores IGMC had been most interested in were concentrated where the base was built. That meant the other tunnels had no light, no ventilation, no camera feeds—and hopefully no Kezti.

“Let’s do it,” I said, and at the next fork, he turned left.

Picking our way through the unmined passageways, I cursed Granda and his hubris. When I was dismantling the planet engine, he was probably gearing up for some kind of villain speech. I didn’t care what his reasons or justifications were or what his backstory was. He’d trashed my reputation with Captain Mear and sent his Kezti goons to hunt me down. Without the communication towers, I hadn’t been able to defend myself to the captain. Truth be told, I was disappointed the captain found it so easy to believe pirates and traitors.

“You are lost in thought, Shay Leviticus,” Drail said.

“Nothing that would surprise you,” I said. “We just need to get as far away from the mining base as possible.”

“If memory serves, the network of passages is more complicated and tangled as we approach the mountain’s root,” Drail said. “We may hide and regroup, rest and eat, and then make final preparations.”

“Sounds good,” I said, panting. The last

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