The Abyss of Time

Chapter Fifty

     Nothing more was heard from the cyborgs that day.

     Jack performed what first aid he could for his father as he drifted in and out of consciousness, removing the upper portion of his surface suit so he could try to stop the bleeding. A few minutes later he heard messages from Kevin Dundee telling him that it was safe to come out and emerged cautiously from his hiding hole, his rifle held in front of him in case it was a trick. It wasn't, though. Jean Cassel had already emerged and was being comforted by Frank Buford, who was looking uncomfortable about it.

     "Dad's hurt," said Jack, showing the rescuers where Miller was lying. "Multiple bullet wounds. He'd be dead if the suit hadn't taken most of the force."

     A man pushed him aside to attend to him. Together he and another medic sprayed his chest with medisalve, injected something into him and lifted him onto a stretcher. Then they loaded him onto a mule and sped him back to the colony.

     They did a head count of the survivors and found they'd lost two more people in addition to Charles Tharp. Vezenes had been caught by two cyborgs and cut almost in half by gunfire while Pierre Xuvier had been killed by a multiserpentes. The same creature that had killed Lucas Gwent soon after the crash of the Orchid. Jack was furious. "We were so focused on the cyborgs that we forgot about the jungle animals," he cried, striding back and forth across the jungle floor as if in search of something to vent his anger on.

     They climbed aboard the quads and mules the rescuers had brought with them and were driven back to the colony, where the gates opened to let them in. Jack went straight to the shuttle that had been outfitted as a hospital and demanded to know how his father was doing until orderlies escorted him firmly out. "We'll let you know as soon as there's any news," one of them said before closing the door firmly behind him.

     There was to be no rest for Jack, though, as he, Dorelis and Jean were brought before the ruling council to give an account of what had happened since they'd set out. "So the cyborgs have the tantalum they need?" said Kathleen when they'd finished.

     "Yes," Jack replied, staring guiltily at the floor. "We might as well have handed it to them on a silver platter. We found it for them. We even dug it up for them. All we didn't do was give them a soft kiss on the mouth as we handed it across." He clenched his fist and tensed up as if about to slam it against the wall. He thought better of it and lowered his hand, but he still found it impossible to meet the eyes of his interrogators.

     "It was a good plan," said Pangiran, leaning forward as if to reach out to the younger man. "It might have worked. We just had some bad luck."

     "And the cyborgs would have gotten the tantalum they need sooner or later," said Kevin Singh. "They'd have found their own supply."

     "Eventually," said Jack bitterly. "It might have taken them years. We'd have had that much longer to prepare ourselves."

     "How long have we got?" asked Kathleen Miranda. "Before they have enough thinking war machines to attack us?"

     "With the printer on their captured shuttle and the crystal imprinter they took from the Lucina, they can probably manufacture one war machine a day," said Andrew Nabb. He was staring at Jack accusingly, but Jack knew him well enough to know that the engineer was probably more upset by the damage done to the Landmaster than by the loss of the tantalum. "If they use the printer and the imprinter to manufacture another printer and another imprinter, it'll take them a day to do it, but afterwards they'll be able to make two war machines a day. Do it again and they'll be able to make four a day. I'm guessing that's what they'll do. Spend two days creating four manufacturing facilities and then crank out four war machines a day."