The trio had been walking up the river banks for about a week when they saw a cloud of dust in the air. It was coming from beyond a nearby hill. Perhaps they wouldn’t have to walk all the way to the town and Ats could go home sooner. They traversed the forest and went over the hill to investigate. Wending across the mountainside was a wide gravel road. At the bottom of the shallow valley was a large pit with industrial scale excavating equipment. Ats looked concerned. This mining operation was close enough that the tribe might be discovered but Jake could think of nothing that could be done. He was sad but he figured that the tribe was going to be discovered sooner or later.
When they approached the mine pit, Ats said a tearful good bye to Jake and Ming. He then started back on his way to inform his father of the bad news. Jake and Ming made their way down to the floor of the mining pit and managed to get the attention of one of the equipment operators. They spent the night in one of the trailers that the mining company had set up for the workers. The manager of the operation said that there was a truck they could take to the nearest town coming in a couple of days. He also told them more about the mine. It had opened only a few months prior and was actually a test mine, an attempt to see how much recoverable gold and copper there was. It was a small company. The owner had quit his job as a manager of a larger mining firm, mortgaged everything he had, and acquired the rights and startup equipment.
Jake wondered about the runoff from the mining operation. Would it be toxic to the tribe? They survived by fishing in the river and the river might well contain mercury, arsenic, or any number of dangerous chemicals. If there was a risk, Ming might know or be able to use his computer to find out.
“Ming, do you think those people are at risk from this operation?”
“I care about those people too”, Ming replied as he got out his metallic stickers. “I had discretely checked the safety of the food we were eating and the salmon had high levels of mercury. The river water had high sulfuric acid content as well.”
“If test is successful, they will be greatly expanding the operation. The whole tribe will be poisoned. Is there something we can do?”
“If there is, I don’t know. This isn’t my time. All these people were dead long before I was born. There are no such things as aborigines where I come from. The Aye takes care of the environment and no one has to live in such conditions. Maybe aliens will come and save them. But if you think of anything we can do to help we’ll discuss it.”
The joke wasn’t funny. When Ming had first given Jake the time machine, he had told him that aliens had put it in his room while he slept.
Both of them were tired and Ming went right to sleep. Jake had gotten used to sleeping on planks. The opulence of the trailer bed almost seemed uncomfortable. The hum of the generator powering the trailer seemed to rattle him to his core. The periodic ringing from the satellite phone also disturbed him and it took him a while longer to get to sleep.
