The Abyss of Time

Chapter Forty Seven

     Jack was in the cockpit, staring at the only screen that was still lit. He turned when he heard his father arrive behind him.

     "Very weak signatures," he said, "but definitely artificial. About two hundred metres away, as far as I can tell."

     "Did it detect us?"

     "I don't think so. It hasn't changed course. It's moving west by south west. If it continues on its present course it'll pass by about fifty metres away. I'm hoping that if we just hunker down and keep everything turned off it'll just pass by and never know we're here."

     "Is it looking for tantalum or for us?" asked Vezenes.

     "Can't tell. If it's looking for tantalum..."

     Miller nodded, his mouth suddenly dry. "If it's looking for tantalum and it drills here, it's hit the jackpot. The cyborgs'll come running before we can get reinforcements from the colony."

     "So we destroy the drone," said Vezenes.

     "That would be a big giveaway," Jack replied. "They'll know we're hiding something."

     "Not if they think it was destroyed by a local animal," the maintenance tech replied. "That bloody big creature almost destroyed the Landmaster. A little drone'll be a piece of cake."

     "We can't use weapons," Miller mused to himself. "It'll detect their EM signatures. We can't go anywhere near it wearing surface suits either, for the same reason. We could be reduced to going out in our bare skins and throwing rocks at it."

     "Would that actually work?" asked Jack.

     "If it doesn't have its cameras working," Miller replied, looking surprised as he realised that maybe his flippant suggestion wasn't so foolish after all. He looked around at the others. "It won't have active cameras while it's on the ground, will it?"

     "Only while it's flying, I'd guess," Vezenes replied. "While it's on the ground it'll turn them off to save power. Without a surface suit keeping you cool, though, you wouldn't last long in that heat. "You'd collapse from heatstroke within a couple of minutes."

     "Perhaps we can think of something," said Jack, looking thoughtful. "Some way to keep cool without a suit."

     Dorelis appeared in the doorway behind them. "That's all the mining equipment turned off," he said. "I pray we were in time."

     "The drone still hasn't changed course," Jack said, staring at the screen. "It's now one hundred metres away. Maybe it'll just pass us by and keep on going."

     The four men crowded themselves in the small cockpit, jostling shoulder to shoulder as they watched the tiny green blip on the display. "I suppose this display isn't detectable," said Jack nervously. "It runs on electricity just like everything else."

     "Only if it comes within five metres," said Dorelis. "If it comes that close we can turn it off and just watch it out the window as it goes by."

     "Has it stopped?" asked Vezenes. "It doesn't seem to be moving."

     Miller cursed under his breath as he realised the other man was right. "If it was looking for us, it wouldn't stop," he said. "It would just keep going in a search pattern. "If it's stopped..."

     "It's drilling," said Jack, his face going white with fear. "It's looking for tantalum. Just our luck one of the first places it looks is here."