The Abyss of Time

Chapter Forty Nine

     "Picking up a transmission," said Dorelis, sitting in the Landmaster's driving seat. "Two transmissions. One from the mine. The other from around three hundred miles west of here. That'll be Karalis replying."

     "Encrypted?" said Miller from the weapons console hopefully. Stranger things had happened than an enemy forgetting to turn on encryption in the heat of the moment.

     "Sadly yes. And Karalis will be using a repeater so as not to give away his location. It means they've found the drone, though. And they'll have figured out why we were there."

     "Yeah." He turned on the Landmaster's communications systems.

     "If you send a message you'll be giving away our position," Dorelis said, in the tone of voice of someone who knew he didn't have to say it.

     "We're leaving no conventional wheel tracks away from the mine," Miller replied. "They know we're mimicking a Titan. All they've got to do is follow our tracks." He selected a frequency and pressed the transmit button. A physical switch that required some effort to flip, as a precaution against accidental use. He also checked the encryption was turned on. "Landmaster to Colony. You there, Han?"

     "Here, Skipper," replied the communications officer, Han Zeguang. "You okay?" There was worry in his voice. He knew that things weren't okay if Miller had broken radio silence.

     "Tell Kathleen we need to prepare a force of men to attack the mine. Tell her there is Tantalum there and the cyborgs know it. If they go to mine it, we'll have an opportunity to hit them hard."

     "Copy that, Skipper," Zeguang replied. "Do you have any cargo aboard?"

     "Affirmative," Miller replied. They had dug up and processed nearly a hundred grams of tantalum. Enough to make around a thousand thinking war machines. "We'll need an escort back in. It is imperative the cargo not fall into enemy hands."

     "Copy that," Zeguang said again. "Kathleen is here. I informed her the moment you called."

     "Miller?" said Kathleen's voice over the radio link. "You had some bad luck, then."

     "Yeah," Miller replied with a heavy sigh. "But we may be able to turn it around. We're about an hour out, and I'd be astonished if they're not hot on our tail."

     "We'll send everyone we've got with suicide chips. They should rendezvous with you in thirty minutes."

     "It's going to be a tense thirty minutes," said Dorelis when Kathleen had signed off. "You think we'll make it?"

     "Let's push this thing as fast as it'll go," Miller replied. "It's a race now. A race against time."

     Dorelis nodded and pushed the joystick as far forward as it would go. The Landmaster surged forward and Miller imagined the twelve legs churning up the ground as they ran. A dead giveaway that would look nothing like the tracks left by a real Titan, but that didn't matter. Their secret was out. Their one hope now lay in speed.

     Mile after mile flew past beneath them and Miller dared to hope that they might make it, but then an explosion threw the Landmaster violently to the side. A blast of hot air blew over the two men in the cockpit, slamming them forward against their seat belts. Alarms began wailing and the status console lit up with angry red lights. Screams came from somewhere behind them, reaching them through the still open door to the crew lounge.

     Miller was momentarily dazed and it was a moment before his consciousness recovered enough for him to react. "Something hit us," he said, staring at the status console and struggling to make his eyes focus enough to read it. "The cyborgs..."