Suddenly, I realised what had been eating at me. The ore carriers would be expected to carry ore into the sorting depots in the sector, and if they spent too many days without doing so, they would be flagged as missing, and this in turn would be passed to the headquarters back in the capital.
Do or Die
Another alarm, another
shift change. They seemed to be coming around fast, and while everything was
working well, I still had a feeling that things were too quiet. Something was
simmering under the surface, a kind of bubbling darkness.
I checked in with Torus and found out that only the last few colonies had to be reached. Most were already working feverishly to move back up to the higher homes, and those who were having to totally vacate had been designated space in some of the older colonies where the original levels were more than the needs of the present families. Now, Jacko was aiding them move, along with the use of the actual ore carriers which belonged to Adrian and his brothers. These now carried not ore but the possessions and the machinery that may be useful from those colonies which would no longer exist in a few moon rises.
Suddenly, I realised what had been eating at me. The ore carriers would be expected to carry ore
into the sorting depots in the sector, and if they spent too many days without doing so, they would be flagged as missing, and this in turn would be passed to the headquarters back in the capital.
I connected again to Torus.
“Can you ask Darthamio where the carriers should be delivering ore, in which sectors and their
original time tables, I need to disable or, at the very least, cause breakdowns in the depots so they are offline for the few days we have left.”
I stood over the holographic map waiting for his reply. When it came in, I marked each of the depots and found two of the ore carriers were already more than three shifts late, so asked him to get the captains to relay messages to say they had mechanical problems and would be in soon. I shouldn’t have been surprised no one had thought of it, but then, they were so used to simply following the same orders year after year that even though they were now secretly moving other things, the security of covering their backs had slipped their minds. Mind you, Jacko or Adrian should have had that covered. Oh well. It would be now, and hopefully, that would stop any investigation or drones being sent in.
I chose the sector nearest to the ship; I might as well go for that first and see if it rattled any nerves. It was fortunately one which had not been left with ore not being delivered on time, and as I homed in on the command room, I could see the itinerary on the wall. The ore carrier's name and owner's name, the ore quality and when they were expected. There were three carriers expected today, and none of them were Adrian’s. However, one of his carriers was due in four shifts.
I had two options. I could physically translocate and damage something to stop the entire process,
or I could use magic and do it from here. Clear as a bell, I heard again the warning about using magic. So it would have to be going in physically.
Looking at the marked spot on the map, I brought myself back into my body and simply translocated to the edge of the bay where the unloading was taking place. Fortunately I had
done so in my full desert suit with the helmet and mask, for I came around the corner and almost ran over one of the workers.
I scanned him automatically. In the few seconds we stood facing each other, I found he was humanoid and had no implants. He was surprised at seeing me, but the method of belting I had used on the desert suit told him I was Federation, so he was not unduly worried. Then, as he moved to the side to let me pass, I hit his mind with a forget-me spell. He walked on, spent a couple of seconds typing in the code to give him access into the machine room, and that had given me a chance to turn my short cape into the invisibility of the real elven cloak; then I simply walked through behind him before it closed and pressure locked behind me.
Everything in here was automated. The only need for humanoid or other personnel was simply as a safety factor to watch the multi-levelled dials and gauges that ensured the entire depot ran smoothly, from the conveyor system to the sifting tables and the washing, right through to the conveyors which removed the spent rock to the dump site.
One wall was filled with screens, these showed the different processes and the final ore weight when all was done. There were four people in here, one however, although technically human was cyborg and thus connected direct to the masters back in the capital. I wondered if the others were aware they had a spy in the camp. This one was specifically on the final count, the weights and tonnage, so to speak and the quality analysis was added to each before the ore was re-loaded onto the same carrier, which brought that specific batch of unsorted ore in.
It was mind-numbing to think that this was being done in every sector, every shift and with some sectors having multiple ore sorting units, the quantity would be off the chart, so to speak.
I would have to find a way of stopping the entire system for more than only a few hours, and I might as well start learning here, what section was the Achilles heel of the process? Gods, I wished I had Dralinmer or one of the others here, but right now I could toss a coin and take a guess and had better do so before I was detected.
Then I saw an opportunity. I had been staring at the monitors of the main ore conveyor and noticed that all the conveyors were interconnected, so if I caused one to malfunction, it would cause a chain reaction through the entire system; if I could stop someone from noticing it for just a few seconds.
I used X-ray vision to trace the electrical circuits and found the connection for both the light
flashing alarm and the sound alarm, which were integrated so where ever the alarm would sound, lights on the console flash, but it was down to those on duty to detect the actual zone of the problem, within their specific space. I did notice, however, that our cyborg friend had tapped a
particular bank of temperature gauges more than once since I entered.