INTERSTELLAR NIGHTMARES - THE DESCENT

Chapter 17

   Back down the pipeline, we went. We grabbed our segments, went back down the line, and hopped off. We then continued to scale the tunnel. It was getting difficult to carry the segments, but I pushed myself to keep going. Kurt gauged the distance and placed it where it needed to be, and then the pipe segments connected.

   "This gets repetitive, huh?" Kurt sighed. "Yeah," I answered, "back and forth and back and forth, all through the caves to earn out pay. Here, lemme see the gauge." He gave me the gauge as I called for it, and then I measured the length of the pipeline to the proper length, plopped it down, and it connected.

   I saw the pumpjack now! I looked down at Kurt further down the slope. "Look what I found," I called, "a pumpjack." Kurt scoffed and smiled. "We have one more after this," he reminded, then asked, "Have you realized the booming got quieter?" I didn't realize until now. "I didn't," I replied, getting on the pipe as my scanner vibrated. "Looks like the boys found the last well!" Kurt chuckled, pulling out his Terrain Scanner. "Ah! And it's just a walk away from the refinery!" he exclaimed, pumping his fists into the air out of joy.

   We scorched down the lines again and came back up with the segments. I put down the segment and got out my drills until I realized the pipeline connected. "I'll fix it in a minute," I told Kurt, thankfully before he could say anything as his expression eased from slightly bewildered to understanding.

   I drilled through the rock, and when I reached where I needed to be, the drills just... stopped. I was dumbfounded until I looked at my drills and saw the HUD screen: 00L.

   "I'm out of fuel," I shouted back to Kurt, "let's hope we won't need more digging, or we'll have to do it by hand!" I put away my drills and walked back to my segment. I used my pickaxe to plug it into a hole in the side of the pipe segment and turned it like a key in a lock. It was difficult to do as the cave was getting dark again, but the framework came off and got sucked back into the pipeline's leading segment.

   I picked up the segment and hauled it closer to the pumpjack, then put it down. The frame reconnected and extended into the pumpjack, which came as a surprise to me. "Oh," I grunted. Kurt shrugged and looked at me. "Makes our jobs easier," Kurt said, and the guilt that started to grow in me, albeit slightly, diminished as he told me.

   We both hopped back onto the pipeline frame and sped down the frame with the message of confirmation from Mission Control. "Oh, and a pumpjack's coming down once more," Mission Control added, "Last one needed, boys. Get it done to come home, and don't forget your bonus."

   That's right! Our secondary mission! "Wait a minute," I said in shock, "we forgot the secondary objective!" Kurt's face lit up in remembrance. "Well shit, let's get it done!" he shouted, "we've got all day!" Then we both heard a snap, and we looked in the direction of it.

   "We only need a bit more," Morris said to us as the pumpjack erupted from the ceiling and slammed into the open well. "We got most of it," he continued, "but we collectively have eighty-nine dystrum, Freddy and I." I looked to Kurt and he looked to me. "I'll get the remaining dystrum," I told him, "you focus on the pipeline with those two. I'll be back." Kurt nodded and patted me on the back as I passed. I took it as a wish of good luck.

   A new high-intensity flare went into the cave ceiling as I walked off into the cavern. I passed the first pumpjack and continued into an opening below the cliffs, which eventually faded into the walls. I looked around in the dimly lit zone as the light from the flare that Fredrick launched didn't reach as far in terms of good lighting.

   I tossed a flare to look around, and there it was: a dystrum vein. It was high up and was near the end of the cliff, where it blended into the rocky walls. Seeing this, I ran back to the refinery and met Fredrick as I passed.

   "Back already?" he asked, and I replied, "Yeah, just found a vein near the cliff out there." Fredrick nodded quickly and simply replied, "Alrighty!" I used the pipe and ground it onto the cliff, jumping off with the board as I went towards the end of the cliff near the wall.

   Once I got there, I got out my drill before realizing that the drills were out of fuel. I then put them back and got out my pickaxe. I started working through the hard rock to get to the slightly shiny, dull blue stones. I was starting to sweat a bit of the way through, as it was harder than I expected, taking a few more hits to clear the same ground it would've taken less before in the Salt Pits. Despite the struggle, I continued until I broke through to the dystrum vein.

   I finally reached it and swung away, as it was much softer than the surrounding rock. Chunk after chunk fell onto the floor I've mined, and I snatched it up before it fell. As the entire vein depleted, I had my pockets nearly full. That ought to do it, I thought, and began my way back to the others.

   I walked back on the cliff, walked down the tunnel, and met.... no one. I realized what they were doing when I saw bolts fastened into place on the segments and the rubbery tube surrounding the framework of the pipes. I guess they went about building the pipes, I understood.

   I walked up onto the refinery and poured in the almost-periwinkle stones. "Good work, team," Mission Control told us through the earpiece, "secondary objective down. Make it home to collect your bonus. Also, the first pumpjack is hooked up to the refinery. Soon, we'll be pumping those wells dry!"

   I heard grinding after the addition and looked to see Morris grinding on the board towards me. He stopped, picked up his board, and put it in his bag. "First down!" he hollered in accomplishment. "Let me guess," I asked, "the rest are on the other pipes?" Morris nodded. "Well, let's go help them," I told him.

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