Chapter 31; Verdollium!
Zeer had a Verdollium hunting plan, which he shared with the Empra. With a few changes, everything he needed was signed for. First, the Magi Circle had a huge cleanup project to finish out around the Ssarrian nest. At the same time, other cleaning projects were under written. All the metal from the battles through out the canyon must be reclaimed for recycling. Orders flew around the planet. From military supply, they ordered a giant magnetic lifter to be attached to the bottom of a huey sized flitter and several open wagon haulers.
Two days later, Jim stuck his head in Zeer’s door, “Quarter Master in Space Port City just called. The huey is ready, Father.”
“When can thee go, Jim?”
“First thing tomorrow. Let’s go right after Morning Song.”
“Good. I really enjoy serving at the Master’s table again these days. I’d hate ta miss it.”
“Done. What about both our Missus’s?”
“We canna do this ourselves. We gotta include ‘em. Could ya call ’em. Let’s get goin’. Let’s meet in Praseer’s HQ. They have people jammin’ the mental waves so me brudder canna hear.”
“Okay. Sheel is in her office. I’ll call for the grounder.”
“Good. Paris is at the hospital. She seems to live there most times these days.”
“Yes, there’s still so much to do.”
“I’ll go get her and meet you at the HQ.”
“See ya across town in ten.”
“Aye.” And he turned back to his screen to finish the last report. He linked with Praseer, “Prince?”
“Aye, yer Grace?”
“I gotta talk to thee super secret in thy HQ.”
“I am thy servant, Father. When?”
“10 ticks, I think.”
“See you then.” They broke off. Both knew their thoughts were not safe outside of the shield.
In eight ticks, he met Jim and Sheel at the main portal. Their grounder pulled up, and they jumped in. Zeer spoke to the driver, “Paronese HQ, Please!”
The driver saluted, “Yes, yer Grace.” Zeer sat quietly with his eyes closed. He had never felt this tired. Jim and Sheel nestled together for the ride over, claiming what little peace they could in these hectic days.
Once at the PHQ, they were met at the door by a small Paronese female, “The Prince awaits. I’m ta take ya’ll to him.”
“Lead on, Little Sister.”
The girl took them to a private meeting room with Prince Praseer. He had laid out food and drink. Right after they walked in, Paris came in a far door. She quietly went to her husband and licking him once, took the next chair. Sheel and Little Jim took the rest of the chairs at the table. Zeer noticed that Praseer had understood and none of his advisors were there.
The rest of the evening was spent explaining the plan for hiding the Verdollium search with the cleanup. Near the end, Zeer looked at Praseer. “I canna stress that we must have security. People, mostly ma brudder, mustna fesh our true plan. That would ruin our respective futures. We can only buy our freedom with this new treasure.”
Praseer sat back. He had tears in his eyes. “Father, I will do whatever you ask. If this works, thee will have blessed us more than we could ever repay.”
“Lead your people well, me son. That will repay all.”
Little Jim was a little stunned about the plan to free these planets. “I don’t know whether Ka-Namu will understand or accept this plan, Father.”
“Then it will her free choice ta make and not something thrust on her by force of arms. And, you’ll be here to help her. The Empra will leave troops here to protect the mines as before. Unlike Paron and Emerand, little may actually change here. The courts will go on. The military will still need to be here…”
“Right.”
“…and I am sure you’re right about her choices. I just want her recognized as the planetary head. We’re all just visitors here. The mines make this too valuable a place for the Empra to allow things ta change much.”
“Nuff said, Father.”
Zeer stood, “Okay…we better git some sleep, brethren. We will have move quickly and quietly ta avoid detection if this plan is to fly.” Goodnights were passed around.
Using a radiation detector set to read only Verdollium, they flew very slowly up Purgatory River bed. For several clix, they saw nothing on the screen. Just when they were getting discouraged, the first beep was sounded. Then, more and more beeps. They followed the beeps to just past the abandoned mining village of P-6. Then the beeps stopped. They turned the flitter around and the beeps began again. They came to a stop by a pile of slag in a sheer rock face.
Zeer looked at Jim, “What do ye make of this, ma brudder?”
“There’s ben no mining project here for decades, Padre.”
They added lift to the flitter and rose straight up the wall until they lifted over an area jutting out. Here, cleverly hidden from above by fake bushes and from below by that escarpment that they had just passed was an opening big enough for a war wagon. The door was sealed.
Jim was angry, “Well, I’ll be damned! There he was ight under my nose.”
“Hide in plain sight! Here, let’s see what’s inside…” Zeer aimed the gold blaster that the Empra had given him at the door. The door disappeared in a cloud of terraplast and rocks. The explosion blew the flitter out away from the escarpment. They dropped down. Zeer fought the controls for a second then brought the little craft into line.
He looked at Jim’s white face. “Ooops! Me brudder left us a little surprise gift.”
Jim laughed and slapped his shoulder, “Never worried fer a second, Padre.” They both laughed out of sheer panic.
Zeer added power to the anti-gravs, and they lifted back to the doorway and flew inside. The smell of rotting flesh was prominent, “Whew…that’s bad?”
The two men drew their blasters and put on mining hats for light. The twin beams revealed a gruesome sight. Everywhere were dead and rotting corpses. The eyes, heart and bowels were eaten in a classic pattern.
“Spiders!” They said in unison. They went down a different hallway and found wall writings and left over junk that showed that these halls had also been occupied by Patch’s whole band.
“Man! They were this close, and I never knew.”
“Come on, Little Brudder, dinna fesh yerself. He hid from the entire Imperium for forty cycles. How could one small town Fra catch him?”
They started back. Zeer took his pocket metal detector out and flashed it around. It went nuts. “Lookee here…”
“Dang!”
Zeer began to laugh. He laughed so hard, he had to sit down on a rock. “What?” said Jim.
“Me brudder, being a pirate and not a miner, expected nothing but a place ta hide here in these caves. He was sitting on the biggest strike of the century…” and he faded off laughing. Jim just shook his head wryly.
When Zeer got control of himself, he looked into Jim’s eyes. He picked up one of the green stones and put it in Jim’s giant hand. “This is the price needed to ransom three worlds from the Imperium.”
“Yes, Father…I pray thee are right.”
“Come on, let’s go see if we can buy our freedom. But first, we must send your sister-in-law off to see the Master.”