The air sleaker was making good speed and passed over the outlying group of rocks. The home dwellings could just be made out, almost touching the horizon. They looked temptingly near, yet far enough away; that it left Ed and Jenny, feeling they would never make it home, yet as time passed by, the dwellings, ever faster sneaked up upon them.
Jenny exclaimed that she was going to be in some trouble for getting back so late, her Father liked her to be in before sunset normally.
Ed said that he'd go straight to Jenny's dwelling first to ensure she got home safely.
Soon Ed was retrieving Jenny's safety gear and bidding her good night. They paused, both looking into each other's eyes as if a secret communication was taking place, yet in reality, they both felt awkward, neither knew what to do next. Ed clumsily leaned forward and pecked Jenny on the cheek, saying, "good night, hope to see you again tomorrow, hope you don't get too much grief from the SCs."
Jenny replied, "SCs?....Oh I know what you mean..... only have a Father, our Mother died a few years back."
Ed said, "Oh sorry to hear that." as if it had just happened.
"Better go" said Jenny.
"Yeah, see you soon." replied Ed, he couldn't help but notice that Jenny had the same red flushed appearance as she had before their flight. Mind you he felt pretty warm himself and wondered what he must look like.
"Hopefully tomorrow." said Jenny wistfully. Then she turned and walked into her dwelling, paused for a moment at the open doorway, looked over her shoulder at Ed as if she were savouring the moment, capturing the memory of what he looked like standing there before her in his flight suit. Ed likewise admiring once again Jenny's stylish costume, emphasising her beautiful figure. As she turned to walk fully into the dwelling and the door gently slid into place, Ed caught sight of Jenny's long gleaming hair again as it flicked around following the movement of her head. How he wished now that he'd kissed her lips rather than her cheek.
As Ed hung around, just in-case there were fireworks, he could not help but reflect upon their adventure and the way that Jenny had clung onto him as they rode the Airsleaker, kept coming back into his mind. It bought that familiar gooey feeling back to his stomach. He longed to see Jenny standing at the door again. Instead, he caught a sight of her at an upstairs window. He could swear he caught the sight of her raise her hand up to her mouth, she seemed to kiss it then held the hand out towards him and she seemed to be blowing. Ed had no doubts that Jenny felt as strongly about him as he did about her. He returned the gesture and mouthed, "everything OK?"
Jenny mouthed back, "Yes..... perfect." She stood at the window staring down at Ed, whilst he not daring to move, least the magic spell be broken. After what seemed like an eternity, Jenny's image at the window faded as she faded in the LCD light filter. Just as Ed was about to turn and walk over to the Airsleaker, he caught sight of Jenny again as she took one last look at him, before fading in the filter again.
Ed climbed back aboard the Airsleaker, after having stowed Jenny's safety gear, and he made the air sleaker climb back up into the silvery sky and headed off towards the two moons.
~~~~~~
Chapter 3 - Through The Back Door
"Sub-zero Ed," Paul greeted Ed, then continued, "How did last night go?"
Ed appeared to have not heard the question, but instead asked his own question of, "Where's the SCs this morning then?"
Paul replied, "I think they muttered something about going to the trading station, MSC's weed waster has gone on the faulty spiral, possibly heading towards the recyc plant."
Ed pointed out, "I didn't actually touch the weed waster, I hope he realises that."
Paul replied, "Yeah I think he knows that. Its something to do with the power regulation system, I think he said moisture was to blame, whoever that is."
"Rain or mist, you brain loss clan boy. Wonder where the FSC put the Tastiday?" replied Ed.
"Der, I think she left it on the table ready for you along with a bowl, as she knows you have difficulties with your sight and engaging your brain first thing." Jested Paul.
"Hey look who's talking, Mister I can't find my comter unit, oh it's still attached to yesterday's clothes." replied Ed.
"Hey Mister cranky, just eat your low carb garb and refuel your brain." said Paul.
Despite engaging with the usual banter with his brother, Ed was wondering how Jenny was and whether he'd see her again today. The very thought of Jenny, reminded him of their adventure last night, it bought back the familiar memories of her clinging onto him tightly and their parting, it also reminded Ed of the temporary buildings that they had seen in the secret gorge, which prompted Ed to say, "Paul, you'll never guess what Jenny and I saw last night in that canyon that you and I saw in the afternoon."
"I'm shocked that you took Jenny to our place." mocked Paul.
"Seriously, we saw some form of temporary factory complex. There were coloured lights and gases emerging from it, goodness knows what was going on down there. I tried to take photos and readings but the Airsleaker's kit wouldn't record anything. I ended up taking notes on my e-reader. I wondered if we could do some research on the Galcomnet." asked Ed.
"More like, could I do the research, you're hopeless with the Galcomnet." replied Paul.
"Its too complicated." complained Ed.
"Just stick to your fly boy activities and leave the real brain work to Paul-e-kins." rebuked Paul.
"Lets have breakfast first and retire to your terminal." replied Ed, not rising to the bait.
"OK fly boy, see you shortly, I've already had mine." Said Paul heading towards the door.
"Awe breakfast alone, how I crave for intelligent conversation, but then the FSC has gone shopping, so I'll just have to put up with my own company." replied Ed.
Paul wasn't going to respond, he just slipped through the doorway and disappeared down the corridor.
~~ Later ~~
"OK Ed just give me the interactive glove, I don't want you straying off into areas you won't have a clue how to get out of." said Paul.
Ed replied, "Hey clan boy you have some interesting stuff here about astronomy, never knew you were into this sort of stuff and there's loads on materials science, you're a secret little boffin aren't you?"
Paul said, "Just give me the glove or I'll shut down the terminal."
"OK clan boy, don't get your clothes in a twist, here's your glovey. Oh and here are the notes I took down last night." replied Ed.
Paul took both items, the glove and e-reader. He fired up the e-reader and read through Ed's notes. "Pretty comprehensive notes clan boy, I'm impressed."
"Thanks", replied Ed, "Do you think its enough to find some relevant info on the Galcomnet, so we can find out what is being made in that temporary factory?"
"We'll just have to see what we come up with, I'll do some searches to find what matches I come up with." replied Paul.
"Shall I see what I can find to drink in this place?" Asked Ed.
"Yeah, but don't raid Dad's drinks unit again, you know how hopping mad he was last time." replied Paul.
"As if I'd make that mistake again, anyway I have my own secret supply now." said Ed.
"Wow clan boy I'm impressed. Off you go you little hunter you, I'm going into busy mode now." replied Paul.
Ed headed off through the doorway and said, "I'm in search mode now, clan boy on a mission."
By the time Ed got back with two drinks and nibbles on a tray, Paul had some good news for him.
"Who says you aren't adaptable? Ed does domesticated, I'm impressed. By the way got somewhere with your stuff." reported Paul.
"Help yourself to nibbles and a drink, what have you got for me?" asked Ed placing the tray gently beside the terminal.
"Thanks. The indications are that what is being manufactured is a fairly complex, but a totally illegal and deadly mix of gases. The stuff that's escaping is bad enough to give you a serious headache and sickness for a few weeks." re
plied Paul as he took the interactive glove off and helped himself to a handful of nibbles and a drink.
"How on Regenis 4 are they getting away with that then?" asked Ed.
"The question is more, why are they doing it, what is their aim and who the heck are they?" replied Paul.
"Good point. If it's so deadly, they must be planning some form of weapon, but for what purpose?
As to who they are, well there are many off worlders who'd love to have control of Regenis 4's resources and wealth, but why manufacture a weapon on the planet where they are likely to be found?" responded Ed.
"Ah but, they don't think they can be found, remember the cloaking? We only stumbled upon their factory because we happened to take that particular path to their area of operations and then we wouldn't have seen it if you hadn't have gone back at night." replied Paul.
"True, but I don't think we're dealing with off-worlders, call it a gut feeling." said Ed.
"It doesn't really matter who they are; they are up to dangerous stuff and now we know we've got to do something to stop them." pointed out Paul.
"A thought just occurred to me, what if it isn't going to be used against the populace of Regenis 4, but against another planet?" asked Ed.
"What you think it could be our own administration?" asked Paul.
"It could be, after all we don't know what is happening on the intergalactic scene do we?" pointed out Ed.
"True, true." agreed Paul, then he offered, "I could search the administration's Secrenet."
"How on Regenis 4 can you do that, it's so secure and locked up with encryption, you'd be detected in a matter of milliseconds." asked Ed.
Paul pointed out, "Every system has a back door and weakness and the Secrenet is no exception. A mate of mine cracked it a few months back and gave me a copy of the routine to get beyond the encryption ring and security hurdles. But I must make sure she's not using her copy as two can't run at the same time, otherwise we'd be detected in the drop of an Apsicon seed. I'll just contact my mate." Paul switched to the visicall screen and called his academy pall. "Hi are you visiting George this morning?" The rather attractive girl on the screen replied that she had no intention of visiting George all day, so Paul could stay all day if he needed to. Paul asked if anyone else was likely to visit. She assured him that he was the only other one with George's address. Paul thanked her and switched back to the Galcomnet. "OK lets go in" he confidently announced.
Ed remarked, "Hey Paul you dark horse you, never told me anything about that little beauty."
Paul replied, "What Felicity, she's just a mate, she's dating one of those athlete types from another academy." Then Paul turned his attention to searching the administration's most secret areas.
After about an hours search, Paul announced that he'd been to the "inner heart" of the administration and there was no record of any research or manufacturing projects of weapons or anything even vaguely associated with the boys discovery.
"Well if its not the administration, its either some dissatisfied faction of the Regenis 4 populace who want a greater share of the planet's riches, or its off-worlders. So our next question is who is it and why?" said Ed.
Paul asked, "Shouldn't we tip off the administration as to what is going on under their noses?"
"Oh yes they are going to believe two wild and scary academy students." retorted Ed.
"Hey we're not wild and scary!" protested Paul.
"To them we will be, if we start spreading rumours about the enemy within. We need more to go on before we make any accusations." said Ed.
"We should at least tell the SCs what we've discovered." said Paul.
"No I don't even think we should tell them, Mum will worry about the danger and bound to make a blunder that will alert the administration." replied Ed.
"What do you mean?" asked Paul.
"Well we've only got be back a bit late from somewhere and she'd blab it all out to the administration as to what we'd found. Whereas if she knows nothing, she'd only contact e-services, who will just treat us as just missing." replied Ed.
"Good point." said Paul and continued, "If we're to go back to that plant, we need some seriously effective safety gear."
"Oh yes I forgot about that aspect." replied Ed.
"Come to think of it, I know where I can borrow some seriously good supplies of safety gear, without being detected. However, I'm going to need to involve Elcesior." offered Paul.
"Why Elcesior?" asked Ed.
"Because he is my man with the finger on the gear." replied Paul.
"Do you think he can keep the secret?" asked Ed.
"I'm sure he can, after all his neck would be on the block if his borrowing activities were discovered." said Paul.
"What makes you so sure he will want to get involved in the first place?", asked Ed.
"Let's just say, you don't know everything about me clan boy", pointed out Paul.
"OK point taken, say no more. See what you can arrange OK?" asked Ed.
"Leave it with me." replied Paul.
Just then Edward and Maria came back.
Maria asked, "OK boys? What have you busy doing?"
"Just a bit of surfing, looking for some new tunes and videos." replied Ed.
"What's that on the screen? Looks kind of official?" asked Edward.
Paul suddenly realised, he hadn't signed out of the Secrenet. Quick thinking he said, "Oh its a game that we found on the Galcomnet."
Edward looked quite impressed, "Looks quite realistic."
"How would you know?" asked Paul, forgetting that he was talking to his Dad.
"I used to work for the administration, when we first came to Regenis 4." replied Edward.
"Yes I thought they'd done a really good job too." said Ed coming to his brother's aid.
"Well must get on, I'm helping at the mine this afternoon. Fancy coming with me?" asked Edward.
Paul hurriedly said that he had some academy stuff to do. Whilst Ed had no excuses, so volunteered his services, it was a while since he'd been down the mine in any case, so he was curious how it had progressed.
Maria looked at Edward and Ed and instructed them to both take care, then asked if they wanted any lunch before they went. Edward declined, saying that they'd get something at the canteen as it would be free anyway. Ed added, that it was usually pretty tasty anyway, then realised he'd upset his Mum a bit with that comment.
The three men set off in their various directions.
~~~~~~
Chapter 4 - Its all on the label
Edward and Ed arrived at the mine just in time for a shift change. "Ah well the canteen will be fairly empty, usually only a few of those coming off shift bother to stop for a meal." said Edward.
"More munchies for you and me then Dad." replied Ed.
"I don't believe it, you just called me Dad, I'm going to faint." said Edward, pretending to faint, then he continued, "OK let's sign-in and go straight to the canteen."
After their really tasty meal, they went to the protective gear lockers and suited up, then went down the mine in the express lift.
"Well not much change so far, since I last came down with you." remarked Ed.
"Apparently there is at the cutting edge, they have some new machines that came from Galtoid 3." replied Edward.
The lift stopped and the doors opened, revealing a largish cavern with a shiny see through transport tube to the right.
"Oh how convenient there's a Transvec waiting for us." said Edward and walked in the direction of the open end of the shiny tube.
Sure enough there was a transport vehicle waiting for them. Once they were seated and had fastened their belts, the vehicle gently moved off down the tube, gathering speed as it travelled down the mine. They could see the rock formations and their subtle changes as seams of valuable minerals were revealed, some were pretty large others quite small and insignificant. As the vehicle gained speed, the colour changes seemed almost like disco
lights.
After about fifteen minutes the Transvec started to slow down until it eventually came to rest at the other open end of the see through tube.
"Well we have to walk from here, but by the painted symbols on the wall its not far as they've only recently extended the Transvec tube to this point. Now I probably don't need to remind you, but stay close and keep a wary eye out for machines, there are all sorts of servebots around here, some are quite small and its really easy to trip over them, I know I've done it." said Edward.
"OK Dad. Thanks for the reminder." said Ed.
They walked for a bit and encountered several other people carrying out tasks along the route. Most looked up and nodded at them.