The plasmetal deck extended about 20 feet from the cavern wall and continued into the distance in both directions. There was a slidewalk but it was still. The wide catwalk was one out of many that encircled the installation at regular levels and darkened windows of rooms cut into the walls on the sides showed that, at one time, this had been a very busy place.
Starc explained, “When the first settlers, under the aegis of developer Planet Corp, came to Proxima two centuries ago this was where Manuel Igcenzio, the Planet Corp manager for this region, decided to put his water terminal. Originally an island several hundred miles away from the shore of what was called the Southern Ocean, the settlement became a city high on a mountain as galactic customers carried away about two thirds of the water that was here.”
“So why haven’t they recycled this place?” I asked.
“There’s still a couple bazillion cubic miles of water in what’s left of the ocean so they mothballed the installation just in case,” Starc replied.
“Just in case they need a fiscal bump,” I finished for him.
“Right,” he said, “and since Planet Corp owes me one for that nasty business about five years ago I’ve got the run of the place; I’ve been using it for my secret base for a couple years.”
“So what am I doing here?”
“About two months ago Chiraco, a Planet Corp rival, crashed what appeared to be a small asteroid in the desert about a thousand miles southeast of here. It was actually an automatic crust drill designed to penetrate the planetary crust in order to tap magma for the elements contained within. It’s a common practice with uninhabited, dead worlds.” Starc waved us over to a motorized cart and we all got in.
“And the Galactic Union? They’re just letting Chiraco extort Proxima?” I wondered.
Starc waved his chip across the cart’s control panel and the cart rolled toward the right side of the cavern. “They’d be the natural recourse if this wasn’t Free Space. As it is in this case, there is no legal solution. The strong survive, the weak get plowed under.”
We reached the corner and took a wide bend to the left and continued down the long side of the cavern. The way ahead disappeared in the distance. About a quarter mile ahead a group of windows in the wall were lit. Starc said it was his command center and the others were there waiting for us.
The SuperSoldiers are back in the saddle again, I thought. I could feel the excitement building in me as I contemplated the not so certain future.
