The skipper was a four-legged research vehicle that rested on the surface of large bodies of water. It had three sections: the head, the thorax, and the abdomen, all of which contained essential compartments that were key to either vehicular motion or oceanic research. It was a niche vehicle designed by Kythera to accommodate their scientists on water-based planets. It ‘skips’ to new destinations with a large thruster at its belly, and the push of its four legs off the water's surface.

  As Riza and Pilo arrived back at the Skipper after their tasks for the day, Violet and Duncan volunteered to remain in mine shaft B-four to complete the final task so that Riza could contact Operations to discuss paying the miners. It wasn’t common for Kythera to delay payments, but with a camp of hundreds of thousands of Rims, it’s the safest option to keep them all level-headed with an explanation as to what’s going on. Being this far out of the inner Rim meant that many of them left their families behind.

  The only ones that arrived here alongside their children are the families in which both parents worked within the mines and had no one to leave their children with back home, or single parents in a similar situation. Kythera was not the kindest to Rims and screened them rigorously before deciding whether or not they were suited for the job. Employment in the inner rim was in high demand, and it wasn’t difficult for corpos to replace miners at a moment's notice if they saw fit, which always added to the tension that Rims felt daily.

  “We’re doing everything that we can.” The unnamed Operator said over comms.

  “Sure, but what delayed the payment?” Riza asked in response.

  There was a pause, and Riza glanced at Pilo, who was looking through the probe data from yesterday.

  “We are working on a solution.”

  Riza sighed, rolling her eyes before taking a moment to calm herself. “I understand that, but I need to tell the Rims something that doesn’t keep them on edge, y’know? Any sort of explanation so I don’t get my head ripped off by thousands of angry parents.”

  There was another pause. Longer this time.

  “H-hello?” She stuttered.

  “It seems to be a problem with banking. We’re working on a solution.”

  At this point, Riza began wondering if she was speaking to an artificial attendant, but as far as she knew, Kythera didn’t place them between Supervisors and Operations.

  “Is that all you can give me?” She asked. “I’m not sure that’d help me at all.”

  “The payment will be resolved in due time, Captain Riza Beleke.” The Operator responded. “Please do your best to contain the situation.”

  “There’s no situation yet, but there might be.” She mumbled to herself as she massaged her brows.

  “Pardon?”

  “I said I understand. I’ll do my best.”

  “You are one of our most capable Supervisors, Dr Beleke. We are certain you will have the situation under control.”

  “Understoo-” The line cut out before she could respond. And she damn well had the urge to slam her fist against the desk, but opted towards taking a few deep breaths instead.

  “Everything sorted?” Pilo asked.

  “Nope. They didn’t give me anything to work with, so now I have to go to Thabz and tell him to take my word for it.” She shrugged.

  “They’ll make the payment, like always,” Pilo said as he leaned closer to his monitor. “Come check out these readings.”

  “Find something interesting?” Riza asked as she stepped closer to the monitor.

  “Check this out,” He said as he pointed to a few of the graphs, “The sediment at the bed of the trench has more of that mineral, uhh, what’s it called-” He snapped his fingers.

  “N-T-5-7,” She said.

  “Right. But the reading shows that it’s all over the place, nearly occupying thirty-five percent of the trench’s interior.”

  “Seriously,” She leaned closer, “But we did a scan two weeks ago, and there was only three percent or something.”

  “Yeah,” He nodded, “But now, 12 days later, it’s suitable for mining.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Agreed.”

  They both lean back, somewhat baffled at the sudden increase in N-T-5-7. There is little known about the mineral, other than the fact that it is one of KYTHERA’s primary mining operations. From the tests that Riza had done in her spare time, she believed it to be an unstable isotope.

  “Have you sent the data to the main labs?” She asked.

  “They remotely accessed our logs when we were down in the mines.” He responded.

  “In the meantime, we should run another probe just to be sure.”

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  “Yeah… Should we get suited up now?”

  “We can save it for later. I need to get back to Thabz and let him know what’s going on with the payments.”

  “I’ll tag along.”

  “You sure?”

  “It’s been a little while since I’ve seen Thabz, and I’d just be bored by myself.”

  As they made their way to the mines on a speeder, Riza took a long look at the horizon that sat like an infinite disk stretching three hundred and sixty degrees around them. No mountains, few waves, and just the expanse of a never-ending ocean. There was something rather unsettling about there being no land to dock or swim towards if the speeder sank.

  There was no ocean on CINTRI, but she’d seen a few of them since graduation and employment. She looked over the side of the speeder as Pilo steered and noticed the subtle, blueish-green shimmer of the water's surface before the abyssal black depths of the deep sea. Nowhere to place her feet if she fell over the side or if the speedboat sank.

  Ugh, the thought sent a chill down her spine. The mining rig sat above the surface of the ocean in the distance with its megalithic design that stretched up from deep in the ocean and across the horizon for three kilometres.

  _INCOMING TRANSMISSION: THABZ

  “Captain Riza, do you read me?” Thabz entered the comms.

  “I read you, Thabz, we’re on route.”

  “We have–,” He responded, “There is something g—Wi—. I don’t— sou—,”

  “I’m getting some interference, Thabz, could you say again?”

  “Th— wr— a— igh—.”

  “Is the comm-sat bouncing off the moon?” Riza asked.

  “No interference scheduled.” Pilo shrugged.

  “Thabz, I’ll meet you at-”

  “CAPTAIN!!” Violet yelled over their open comms, panicked, more so than Riza had ever heard before.

  “Violet?” A large burst of static hissed over her comms. “Violet, do you read me?” She asked as she squirmed amongst the overwhelming frequencies.

  “Ca— ple—” The static hiss continued, and Riza felt an overwhelming sense of helplessness sink within her stomach.

  “Violet, we’re on our way, just-”

  Before she could finish her sentence, she realised the hiss was coming from an unknown open channel that continued broadcasting. When she raised the volume, her eyes widened at the realisation that it wasn’t static, but the continuous screams of what must have been thousands of voices.

  “Oh my god,” She muttered as she passed Pilo a blank glance.

  What do I do? What’s going on? Her mind raced, uncertain of the details or what could cause such alarm in the mines.

  “Everything okay?” Pilo asked, confused.

  “I don’t-” Her stomach stooped lower, and she suddenly felt the urge to throw up under the anxiety and confusion.

  “Captain?” Pilo’s expression grew concerned.

  “Something’s going on in the mines,” She said amongst her increasing dizziness.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I-I don’t know, I-It’s-” The screams continued, distant, non-stop as she could now distinguish the voices of children and women amongst the bellows of men. It was happening in the camps, too.

  “We’re almost there,” Pilo added, just take some deep breaths.

  “I don’t know what to-” Before she could continue, a high-frequency buzz cut off the comms, and the ocean surrounding them began vibrating like one, massive cymatic pattern.

  The speeder shook with so many micro vibrations that Riza's teeth clattered, and they both dropped to the floor of the speeder as it rocked from side to side, nearly tipping over. Before she could think any further, or even scream in fear, the vibrations vanished. All she could hear were faint, distant rumbles.

  “What the fuck!” Pilo exclaimed as Riza scurried up to her seat in dismay. “What just happened?!”

  Riza's vision grew hazy after the vibrations, but she could somewhat make out what she saw through the vertigo. Her body went numb, and she could barely muster the energy to mumble under her breath. “Oh my god,”

  She pointed ahead of them, shaking, and Pilo followed her gaze. The entire, multistory rig that held the entrance to the mines and the encampment that housed nearly two hundred thousand Rims was tipped on its side and half-submerged underwater. The three-kilometre-long vessel looked as though the entire mass had snapped at its base and blown over like a tree that had been chopped down. It eclipsed the sun and cast a skewed shadow across the ocean as smoke and flames engulfed the rig and the surrounding sea.

  “No way,” Pilo whispered as he stood up. “No fucking way,”

  Riza leaned over the edge of the boat and threw up, her head still spinning and her anxiety peaking greater than she’d ever experienced before; she could barely keep a solid grip on the side of the boat as her hands shook uncontrollably.

  “There were two hundred thousand people on that rig,” Pilo said, still in awe. ‘That’s just not… That’s not possible…”

  Riza couldn’t contain her fear, her anxiety and what bothered her the most was her uncertainty. She didn’t know what to do, or if there was anything she could do. Do we try to help? How do we even get aboard? How do we get past the flames? Is anyone even alive? Although the comms were disabled, she could hear the screaming echoing in her mind, and she couldn’t bear the thought of the death toll. It was all just too much, like a nightmare she was hoping she’d awaken from, but as she looked back up, having spewed in the sea, there was no awakening. No freedom from what she’d witnessed.

  “What do we do?” Pilo placed his hands on his head. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  “We…” Riza fought the urge to throw up again and maintained a grip on her dizziness, “We need to go and help them.”

  “But… How?”

  “We need to help them!” She stood up. reaching for the wheel, nearly pushing Pilo aside and shifting the accelerator.

  “No!” Pilo yelled as he pushed her back, “There’s nothing we can do!”

  “We need to help them!” She yelled, punching Pilo in the chest as tears started raining from her eyes.

  “I-I’m sorry,” His voice cracked.

  “We need to help them!” She yelled again, punching him once more as she began sobbing uncontrollably.

  “I’m so sorry, Captain.” He cried, “I can’t let you do that– I won’t let you die too.”

  She tried to punch him again, but couldn’t muster the strength, and she buried her face into his chest as she continued crying. She hadn’t cried like this since the first week she arrived in this world. The moment she realised she wasn’t going to find her way home. She could hardly catch her breath amongst the tears or bear the pain she felt in her chest, and Pilo just embraced her, uncertain of what he could say or do that would help.

  “I’m sending out a distress signal,” He stuttered as he activated his chip, “This is an emergency. The Kythera mining rig of Prion-A has… has…” He wasn’t sure how to acknowledge what he’d witnessed, and took a deep breath before he continued. “The mining rig of Prion-A has collapsed. Please send as many people as you can. Please hurry!”