The Dead Fleet (Juggernaut #3)

Fifteen

Malachi and Ellie just followed. There was no point arguing now, even if they both knew they should be heading for the ships and getting out of here. But Tila wanted her proof, enough proof that no-one would be able to argue with her again. They understood her drive even if they didn't agree with her choices.

Tila skipped down the stairwell two at a time. Ellie followed more carefully. Malachi stopped to snatch something from the wall on the way.

'Cargo scanner,' he explained to Ellie when she stopped to wait.

'Mal, come on!' Tila called in a stage whisper. She was already on the main deck and examining the cargo pods.

Ellie and Malachi caught up quickly and while Malachi switched on the scanner to check the shipping inventory, Ellie looked down the length of the room.

The space had made sense from the gantry two decks up. From there they could see the whole room and the layout of the machinery. Down here, face to face with the complicated looking machines, nothing made sense.

The refinery equipment towered over them, easily reaching as high as the next deck up in places. Ladders and narrow walkways spread across the deck, linking each machine like an artificial spider's web. A matte black belt snaked it's way through the room from device to device, but Ellie quickly lost sight of it through the clutter of the room.

She looked up, and saw that only the lower parts of the heavy chains were now visible. The rest faded into the upper gloom.

It looked an easy place to get lost in. If you stepped away from the safety chevrons that lined the perimeter of the room and ventured into the middle, it would be easy to get turned around and come out in the wrong place.

Fortunately for Ellie, she had no such plans.

Satisfied that her immediate plan was the wisest course of action available, she tuned back into the conversation the others we having.

'Mal, you sure these are all full?'

Malachi waved the scanner. 'Very sure. This stuff is worth a fortune.'

'How much?'

'Enough to make Conway blink.'

'What is it?' said Ellie.

'Gold,' said Tila.

'Oooh, really?'

'What? Tila, that's just an industrial metal, the really valuable stuff is the tritinium.'

'I've never heard of it,' said Ellie. 'How can it be more valuable than gold?'

Malachi reset the scanner and climbed a short ladder to check one of the stacked cargo pods.

'Gold is common, you can find it on most planets. Tritinium is the really rare stuff. I can't believe they have so much of it. This pods got some too.'

'How much?'

'Including all the other pods, about twenty six kilos.'

'Twenty six? Is that all? How will that make Conway blink?'

Malachi hopped off the ladder and dropped to the floor beside the girls.

'Because, that's about the same amount of tritinium as we have we have in the commonwealth now.'

'I've still never heard of it,' said Ellie.

Malachi switched off the scanner and dropped it into their bag.

'That's because you never build a nexus beacon. There's about a kilogramme in the middle of each jump beacon. They can't work without it.'

'Are you saying they have enough for twenty six beacons?' said Tila.

'We know they've built at least two. Who knows what else they have planned? If they control their own beacon network they could sabotage the existing beacons and hold the commonwealth hostage.'

'But they haven't built more, have they?'

'Who knows? All I know is you can't build one without tritinium. It's no good for anything else.'