Frontier's Reach: A Space Opera Adventure (Frontiers Book 1) by Robert James (beach read TXT) 📗

if I don’t have clearance or not! A lot of people have died for this. Tell me what I want to know.”

Petit sighed. “Very well, Captain.”

With their flashlights, Jason, Tyler, and Althaus walked cautiously across the rocky landscape. It was so dark and the fog so low. Their lights were having trouble cutting through the air, as the beams dispersed in the mist. With each step, Jason wasn’t sure whether he’d find proper footing or fall off the edge of a cliff.

“Can’t be too far now,” he said, reading his tracking scanner, hoping they were heading in the right direction. “A hundred meters at most.”

“Might as well be a hundred kilometers,” Althaus grumbled behind him.

“Oh, come on, this must remind you of your childhood. Sneaking out at night with your friends. Up at all hours.” Jason stopped suddenly. “You had friends, didn’t you?”

Althaus glared at him.

“Maybe not.” Jason chuckled and continued to lead them farther through the thick fog. The surface conditions changed, and they started to descend an incline. Jason’s feet slipped, but he regained his bearings and trudged on. Then a clang sounded beneath him and he stumbled, almost tripping over.

“What the—?” He kneeled and waved the mist away, revealing the cap beneath his feet. The circular metal plate was two meters in diameter and firmly bolted shut. “I found it!”

Tyler and Althaus joined him, and his uncle pulled out a handheld laser-cutter from his belt and pointed it at the cap. A red-hot beam shot out. After rounding the entire plate, Althaus closed off the laser-cutter and put out an open hand. “I’ll need help.”

The three of them bent down and grabbed an equal share. With a heave, they gradually lifted the cap into the air.

“God, this thing weighs a ton!” Jason winced. “Try not to let go of this on my toes, Althaus.”

“Don’t tempt me.” The older man sneered at him.

“Do you really think this is the time?” Tyler asked as he struggled to raise the large piece of alloy.

The trio moved it away from hole and found a nice clear patch of terrain to place it on.

“Okay, on three,” Jason said. “One, two, three.”

With a backward movement, the men pulled their hands away and the cap clanged against the ground. They checked their suits to ensure they were still in working order, then walked over to the hole they’d unearthed.

Jason peered into the pitch-black abyss. “I hope you brought enough rope.”

Tyler took a coil off his shoulder and threw it into the void. There was no way of knowing if it touched the bottom or not. “Only one way to find out.” He pulled a rock bolt from his suit pocket and inserted it into the ground. He threaded the line through and passed it to Jason. “You’re up,” he said with a smirk.

“Tell me again why I talked you into this?” Before Althaus could say anything, Jason scowled at him. “And I didn’t ask you.”

“Just take it nice and slow.” Tyler put a climbing belt around Jason’s waist and buckled it tight. So tight that Jason thought his legs would lose their circulation.

“Where’s the fun in that?”

“The fun is that you’re less likely to die that way.” His brother attached his flashlight to the top of his helmet so he’d be able to see where he was going on the descent.

With the rope threaded through his belt, Jason walked to the edge of the hole. He grabbed the line with both hands and then ambled carefully backward off the edge and into the emptiness beyond. With gentle ease, he abseiled downward.

The moonlight above his head got smaller with every step, and Tyler’s voice grew quieter. He was left alone with his own thoughts. And that was the last thing he wanted. Though he liked the fact he wouldn’t see Althaus’s face for a while.

As he continued to sober, everything that had happened in the last six months came back to him. From that first call from David Ortega on Odyssey Station to the realization in Frontier’s Reach he would never solve the death of his friend. His foot slipped before he swiftly regained his balance.

Keep your mind clear.

He continued farther and the bottom of the shaft appeared. But the rope hadn’t made it. Jason bit his bottom lip and unclipped the line from his belt and jumped. He landed on his back with an almighty crunch.

“Aw, my ass!”

He gingerly brushed himself off and stood, taking in his surroundings. Mining equipment lay dormant, while not a soul appeared in sight.

He pressed in the commband on his wrist. “I’m down.”

“Can you see anyone?” Tyler responded.

“No.” An elevator opening caught Jason’s attention. “But there may be someone farther down.”

He walked toward a carriage which had stopped at the end of the line. It was inactive, but there was heat coming from the engine.

“Someone’s definitely here.”

“Okay, we’ll begin our descent.”

Jason looked at the panel on the wrist of his EV suit. Even with the cap off, the climate-control system was circulating enough warmth acceptable for human life. He never liked how restricted the Argo’s suits were, so he opened his helmet and peeled it off.

He strode over to the elevator and punched in a command to bring the car from the bottom of the shaft to the top. By then, Tyler and Althaus had joined him. Both took their EV suits off too.

Tyler put a finger to his mouth. “Can you hear that?” he whispered.

Jason listened carefully to some buzzing, and the echo of screams.

“It’s coming from the tunnel,” Althaus said, pointing toward the tracks where the empty carriage sat.

Everything that Jason had assumed was correct. Whoever came from the ship in orbit were clearing the way to their part of the facility. They couldn’t be too far now.

“We have to go down this shaft now and rescue whoever’s there,” Jason said, stepping toward the elevator.

Althaus didn’t budge. “I’ll stay up here.”

“Are you crazy?” Jason asked, though he already knew the answer.

“I’m not the one being