The Abyss of Time

Chapter Forty Four

     Frank Buford flat out refused to go with the Landmaster, so Miller had to go with his second choice. Fortunately, Kostas Vezenes was more than willing and, as a fellow veteran of the war, would be sure to be a great asset if the cyborgs attacked.

     The two geologists picked for the Mission were people he hadn't met before. Pierre Cuvier had proven his worth in the mountains of Algeria rooting out the few remaining terrestrial sources of zinc, copper and lead. He would be assisted by twenty year old Jean Cassel, his student, whose brilliance and expertise, despite her youth, Pierre valued more than that of a person three times her age.

     The other geologist was fifty year old Mary Tharp, who would be assisted by her husband, Charles, a biologist. Each assisted the other in their areas of expertise, but since this was to be a geological prospecting mission Charles very much expected to be the junior partner for the duration. Miller was glad they would be having a biologist along, though, since he expected that the wildlife still had a few surprises in store for them.

     Miller and Vezenes took their places in the Landmaster's cockpit as the others strapped themselves into their seats in the crew lounge. On the other side of the colony Kevin Dundee was making the final preparations to the diversions they had planned to attract the attention of the cyborg spy drones. He, Buford and half a dozen other men were sitting on quads, in the cover of another tent, while maintenance men removed sections of the inner and outer fence. Their actions had already drawn the attention of two spy drones, which hovered fifty metres away, almost hidden by the background of overhead tree branches.

     "Ready when you are," came Kevin Dundee's voice over the intercom. "Just say the word."

     Miller gave a thumbs up gesture to a man on the ground in front of the Landmaster, who could see him through the cockpit window. They couldn't use radio communications in case it was picked up by the spy drones, spoiling the surprise. The man on the ground left the tent and ran to the tent in which the quad riders were waiting. A few moments later he heard a great roaring as the quad engines were given full throttle, and then came the sound of them racing out of the camp, across the kilometre of cleared ground that separated the colony from the jungle.

     "The two drones are following us" Miller heard Dundee say. "We're splitting up."

     Miller glanced across at Vezenes, who stared anxiously back. Whoever was controlling the drones would surely know that most of the quads were diversions, but hopefully they would think that one of them was on a genuine mission of great importance to the colony. They would want to pull in whatever other drones they might have in the area to keep an eye on the one quad that was actually going somewhere. The cyborgs were smart, though. They might realise that all the quads were a diversion and leave a drone on the other side of the colony. That was a chance they would just have to take.

     "Entering the jungle," Dundee said. "The drone's still with me. Can't shake it." In fact he had no intention of shaking it. He was speaking for the benefit of the cyborg who would almost certainly be monitoring their communications.

     "Okay," said Miller. "Let's go."

     He flipped a row of switches under the main display screen, each of which turned on the power to one of the Landmaster's main systems. Lights flashed on around the cockpit and the display screen lit up with the main systems overview chart. Everything was green. He turned in his seat to direct his voice through the open door to the crew lounge behind him. "Here we go," he said. They raised their hands in acknowledgement.

     "Okay, Mister Vezenes," he said. "Take us out." Vezenes nodded and pushed the joystick forward.

     All Miller felt was a slight backward acceleration pushing him back into his seat as the Landmaster glid forward as if on a cushion of air. God, but it was smooth. Nabb had built the thing well. Ahead of them, two men pulled aside a section of the tent wall and the Landmaster walked out into the open air. Miller saw Zanele and Lucy standing a distance away, beside the gutted corpse of a Finch class lander. They waved to the Landmaster as it passed, and nearby other small groups of people were waving to other members of the crew, visible to them through the windows of the crew lounge. They were all spaced apart, so as not to create a crowd that would have aroused the curiosity of the cyborg drones.