Chap. 395 The Open Mine

Chap. 395 The Open Mine

They came out of between to see a fogbank exposing only the tops of the mountains.

He gasped. Where is the Hall? Am I even in the right place?

Raventh circled, working hard in the cold damp air.

Fear grasped his heart. I’ve never been here, and damn it, I’ve forgotten about fog.

“You youngsters,” he remembered an old, old dragonrider discussing how easy today’s dragonriders had it, “you have that thing from Aivas and the starship to tell you about weather. We never had such a thing, so we learned to deal with meteorology as we found it.  One of these days you’re going to find yourself in a situation where there’s no weather forecaster to tell you what’s going on.”

Yeah, he was right, he thought. Because now I am in a situation where I can’t see the ground. I don’t see a dragonstone. I don’t see anything but the top of the fog. And trees poking up out of it. Where do we land?

As if hearing him, Raylan, behind him, said, “K’ndar! Atop that mountain, see the dragonstone? We’re here at the Minecraft Hall.”

He did see it, now. It was enormous. That took a lot of work, I bet. Maybe they have fog here all the time?

I see it Raventh said. Don’t be afraid. I’ll send Siskin to guide us down.

Raventh’s soft voice in his mind calmed his fears.

Siskin chittered, so happy, as always, to be of service. He launched from his spot behind Raventh’s head and dropped without opening a wing, vanishing into the fog.

Show off, K’ndar thought. Raventh chuckled.

He sends he said.

Through Siskin’s eyes, he saw a stone surface.  Once again, he thought, as Raventh set his wings and rocked back to land, that little blue lizard of mine has proven invaluable.

They landed with Raventh’s usual careful, jolt free landing. As if his wings were waving it away, the fog began to lift.

They were on a broad, rectangular courtyard paved with dull gray stones. A chest high parapet surrounded it. The courtyard went on for a very long way, then narrowed to a fairly wide ramp down to a grassy meadow. A road paved with the same rocks led to a river, where a wide bridge arced gracefully to the other bank. Beyond that, perhaps a kilometer from the river, was the gaping maw of what he could only guess was the entrance to a mine in the mountain.

Siskin did a backflip, cheeking in victory.

“Good lad, Siskin! You guided us! You’re the best fire lizard!”

Raylan laughed. “I’d forgotten that you’d never been here before.”

“It’s okay, boss. I have to relearn some things about flying, I guess. I’ve not had to deal with fog in a very long time.” He dismounted and turned to unbuckle Raylan. The man handed him a heavy backpack. K’ndar knew it contained The Rocks, the reason they were there at Pern’s major mining Hall.

“Am I going in with you?” K’ndar asked.

Raylan shook his head. “I don’t think that’s wise, for the moment. At least, you don’t need to go in to see the Master Miner. Nickle isn’t as cantankerous as his grandfather, Nicat was, but it never hurts to be as diplomatic as possible. I can tell you, though, go into the main entry hall, they have some incredible pastries, if I remember correctly. They’ll have someone to talk to while I’m meeting with Masterminer Nickle.”

And elderly man approached them. “Good day, sirs,” he said, “I am Digger. Welcome to Minecraft Hall.”

K’ndar heard him wheeze as the man spoke. He was very old.

“I am K’ndar, rider of brown Raventh, and my passenger is Raylan, Science Division Chief, both from Landing.”

“Landing, eh? We don’t get many visitors from Landing.”

 “I would like to meet with Masterminer Nickle, if I may?” Raylan said as he picked the pack up.

Digger nodded. “He did say you would be coming dragonback. You’re in luck, usually he’s off at one of our smaller mines,” Digger said, looking at K’ndar. “Will you be accompanying your master, K’ndar?”

K’ndar suppressed a grin at Raylan’s being described as his master.

“No sir,” he said, “I don’t mind waiting out here. I’m used to the cold.”

Digger chuckled. “Believe it or not, soon as this fog clears off completely, the sun will be back out and you’ll be shedding that jacket of yours. It is late summer, after all.”

He coughed. Again, K’ndar heard a whistling sound in the man’s lungs.

“Is this your first visit to Crom?”

“Yes, sir.”

“If you wish, once I direct Chief Raylan, I can return and tell you a little about our Hall.” With that, he motioned to Raylan to follow him through a pair of massive doors into the Hall.

Raventh reclined, Siskin moved to between his wings.

I can’t grasp the concept of ‘’seasons’, like Risal talks about. It’s still winter in Southern, and here on Northern it is late summer, he thought.

The fog swirled around the base of the building, only sometimes revealing the true size of the Hall.  Even so, he could see that it was the largest manmade thing he’d ever seen.

It’s all of stone, the same stuff as I’m standing on, he thought.

I’m not a geologist, he thought, seeing how cleverly the rocks in both building and pavement were fitted together, but I’m pretty sure these are sedimentary rocks. What gaps there are look to be filled with tiny bits of rock that broke off.  And moss, growing up between the cracks!  “Obviously, the cessation of Thread is allowing moss to slowly but relentlessly colonize the gaps between the pavement rocks,” he said to himself, “I’ll have to write this up.”  

They had to have built this thing, rock by rock, he thought. There’re hundreds. Thousands. I bet they never had to worry about Thread burning anything here.

There’s a pattern here, he suddenly realized. This is a line, a line of stones all the same color, orange or yellow. It’s different than that of the rest, that’s all gray.

It’s a trail? No, an outline!

He followed it to where it was turned aside by a carpet of blue stones that abutted the parapet.

There were holes at regular intervals lining the base of the parapet.

He looked over the edge. It’s a long way down, he thought. The holes must be for drainage.  

A change of color on the ledge caught his eye. He went to the spot, where a large red arrow, made of some unknown mineral pointed north-and suddenly the entire courtyard burst into understanding.

“It’s a map!” he cried, turning around to see the entire courtyard. “A giant map!”

“That it is, dragonrider,” Digger said, coming up to him.

There were spots all over the map of different color combinations. He almost trotted to them, as if on a treasure hunt. “Here! This is the badge for Ruatha Weyr, and down there is Ista Hold,” he said, tickled by the unknown artist who’d created the badges using the correct colors.

“This is incredible! A giant map! The blue section, that must be Nerat Bay. This is wonderful, Digger!”

Before Digger could answer, K’ndar went to the very center of the map.

In it was a large round badge of white limestone, with black stones creating a pick and a shovel. “The badge of the Minecraft Hall, right in the very center.” He looked at Digger. “Very appropriately so!”

The old man smiled. “This map, K’ndar, is very old. Begun perhaps a thousand turns ago. We’ve not changed much other than add smaller mines to the map as they’ve come into production. It was something to do, I suppose, when we didn’t have to mine firestone. Now the inmates keep busy by extending the paving, one of these days we’ll have reached Telgar Weyr,” Digger said.

K’ndar looked south, expecting to see Southern Continent picked out in some differentiating color.

But the only color not gray was of Raventh, reclining where Southern should have been. Beyond was still hidden by fog.

“No Southern continent?” he asked Digger, feeling oddly insulted.

“No, K’ndar. I said the map is old. Southern had been abandoned, you know that. What IS shown is a small star showing where Landing was, is, and your dragon is laying on it. That’s it. No one went to Southern, everyone thought it was naught but volcanoes. And no one wants to completely dismantle this entire courtyard merely to add Southern continent. You southerners must just get used to that.” He chuckled.

K’ndar laughed. “I’m sure I’ll survive. And we DO have volcanoes, just like Northern, but the ones near Landing are dormant, even thought to be extinct.”

“The mountains here aren’t volcanic. If it weren’t for this fog, you’d see them on the southern side of the river, too, but they’re much further. Nevertheless, K’ndar, we still get earthquakes, usually just tremors, but even so, when they hit, the mountains tremble. It’s a terrifying sound when you’re deep in a mine, it’s the mountain saying, I don’t like you digging away at my innards and now I will kill you. And often, it does.”

“Ug,” K’ndar said, shaking his head, “Just the concept scares me. I learned about cave ins from the night baker at Kahrain Weyr. His name is Oscoral. He told me he almost died in a rockfall.”

Digger rummaged through his memory and found the face. “Ahh, Oscoral, Oscoral. I remember that lad. Big lout, couldn’t tell him nothing, but he had a nose for gems, just like his father and grandfathers. You’re right, though, he did survive, although a whole handful of miners didn’t. They were after gemstones. The mountains don’t like letting them go.”

Digger coughed. “I never did learn what became of him. He’s on Southern now?”

“Yes. And he’s a good man, Digger, there’s no pretense or boast with him. Everyone respects him. He thinks it’s a bit strange that a miner is now a baker, but he’s happy to not have to mine firestone.”

“Is he a good baker?”

K’ndar laughed again. “The best.”

“That’s good news. I saw he had a lot of good in him, but he roamed with greedy men who used his talent for their own gain. Mind you, he was headstrong as a young bull back then.”

Digger paused. It’s a long walk to the mountain mines, but maybe this young bull might like to see inside it, now that the fog’s gone completely.

“Would you like to go into the mountain mines? To see what he and I and everyone here has seen and experienced?”

A chill ran up K’ndar spine. “No. Thank you, but no. I don’t need to find out what it’s like. I’d probably get lost, like I did at Ista Weyr.”

Digger laughed. “I know only Ista Hold. Last year, they found an extremely rich source of bauxite. They’re beginning to make ‘alumnim’ with it, that’s where most of the miners are these days. I was born at the Hold, it has the same labyrinth of tunnels and caves as the Weyr is said to have. If you don’t know where you are, you’re right, you’re going to get lost.”

K’ndar nodded. “The only thing that saved me, I think, was a little girl no bigger than a minute, found me about to spend the night curled up with my dragon after my fire lizard led me out. I’d been wandering those tunnels for hours, it seemed. That girl, she knew every one by heart.”

It was Digger’s turn to laugh. “And I bet I’m the first one you ever admitted that to.”

“The first MALE. Don’t want my hunyocks to fall off, you know.”

Digger roared.

K’ndar’s eye went back to the entry to the mountain across the river.

“So that’s the mine where Oscoral almost died?”

“No, there is an entire complex of mines and mountains behind it. That’s just the original one, the one that the Ancients started. The tunnels go for kilometers, both in length as well as depth.”

“It’s not one mine, then.”

“No. And we only got firestone out of the mountain mine. We also dug blackstone.”

“Where did you get the blackstone?”

“Out of the open mine. Behind us. Turn around.”

K’ndar turned around-and gasped.

Before him, stretching a very long way, was a deep crater. The outline was only vaguely round. Terraced like nesting bowls, he saw switchback trails leading from the various levels to the surface. From one end to the other, piles of rock had been dumped from the surface, or piled at the base of the walls. Instinct told him the piles would be perilous to climb. Small trees and shrubs were only now beginning to grow on the sides and the piles. At the very bottom was a large body of water. It looked black.  

“THAT’s a mine?”

“Yes.”

K’ndar was aghast. “It’s like an enormous scar. I’ve never seen anything so ugly in my entire life. It’s hideous.”

Digger nodded. “That, it is. But productive, all the same, although these days we’re no longer working it much.”

“Was the blackstone, um, in those piles of rock?”

“No. We dug it out by hand, by pick and shovel, from the sides of the mine. It was in what we call seams. A seam is a layer of blackstone with sandstone above and below. Once a seam was done, we had to start digging down until we found an older, deeper layer. Those piles are what we discarded. If we were lucky, we’d get big hunks of blackstone just waiting to be removed. But most of the time we had to knock the sandstone off the blackstone. It was usually five parts sandstone to one part blackstone.”

K’ndar whistled. “That must have been awfully hard work. Was it always an open pit like that?”

“I doubt it, K’ndar. You’re asking me what it looked like twenty five hundred turns ago? I don’t know. I think the ancients discovered it had blackstone in it and just started digging down to where it was in seams. We just continued digging as we emptied a seam. Down, down to where that lake is, now. You don’t want to drink that water, either. It’s toxic. Even algae won’t grow in it.”

K’ndar shook his head. “I had no idea it looked like this. None.”

“Most folks don’t, K’ndar. Crom and Minecraft Hall, we’re pretty much a place where everyone on Pern sent their criminals and took blackstone and firestone in return. No one thinks of the mines as a place to see a beautiful landscape, like Ruatha. This Hall is pure business. The work turned many of our hearts to stone, with resentment. And yet, everyone here who wasn’t an inmate had the opportunity to leave, like Oscoral did.”

Digger sighed. “Humans survived the first two millennia because of the mines, K’ndar, and smaller ones scattered all over Northern. We dug firestone out of the mountain for you dragonriders to kill Thread, and blackstone out of this open mine to heat caverns and cook with. You know better than I ever will about flaming Thread. But it was us miners who supplied both.”

K’ndar grimaced. “I’m sorry, Digger. I don’t deny you and other miners are the true protectors against Thread. Believe me, every dragonrider knew just how important your work was. We treated every stone you sent us with that knowledge. We didn’t waste firestone. After a thread fall, kids went collecting hunks that may have fallen from the sky, to be used against the next Fall. We knew, every flame it produced meant one less victim to Thread.”

Digger threw his shoulders back. “Thank you, lad. That makes me feel proud.”

 For a long moment, K’ndar tried to grasp the concept of the immense open mine. By the stars, how can something be so BIG?

Movement in the crater caught his eye. It resolved itself into a man leading a pony cart up one of the switchbacks. He didn’t have his binoculars, but he could see the cart was loaded. The pony pushed into the collar to pull the cart up the steep incline. He grimaced, thinking of the wear and tear on the pony’s legs.

The scale of it snapped into perspective, shocking him. The man  appeared no bigger than the first joint of his index finger.

“That person with a pony cart, he’s doing what?”

Digger squinted, then sighed. My eyes aren’t so good anymore, he thought. I can’t really see it. But I know very well what’s going on.

“Scavenging blackstone, most likely. As I said, we’re no longer mining it. What with solar panels, solar ovens, there’s really no call for it anymore. That and the Hall finally has thermal heating. Good thing, as the mine is played out. Just like in the mountain.”

“Played out?”

“It means, nothing left worth collecting. The firestone, the blackstone, both, there’s very little left. What that yob is doing is picking up bits and pieces, maybe for himself, he’s probably Holdless, or a pardoned inmate trying to make a living selling it to cotholders or the Wanderers.”

“No more fire or blackstone? None? Where did it go?”

“Go? We used it up. Pern, the Holders, the Halls, the Weyrs, everyone got either or both stones. It’s all gone. It doesn’t go forever, you know. All that’s left is the tailings, that’s what we call the rock piles, the stuff we’re standing on, the rocks the Hall is made of.”

No firestone. None. All used up, he thought. The concept scared him. I know Thread is gone, too. The computer said so, the Yokohama said so, Aivas said so. But, still, I feel naked knowing that we can’t flame firestone. It’s done, but I’d want a bag on hand, Just In Case.

“I can hardly believe it. It’s like thinking the ocean will dry up.”

“Believe it, K’ndar. I’m glad it’s all gone, especially the blackstone. It means I don’t have a job anymore, but it’s an honorable way to insist I’m never digging it again. Mining kills a man, little by little. Listen to my wind, lad. Listen to my lungs. I got a disease the healer says is black lung. I breathed blackstone dust, I inhaled mountain dust too many years, too many.  You could threaten to stab me and I’d have to stand and take it, I can’t run a step. I can barely climb stairs. My lungs are all ate up. It will probably kill me one day, and there are times when I wish it would hurry up.”

Stunned, K’ndar stuttered, “I’m so sorry, Digger. I…I don’t know what to say but I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright, dragonrider. I did it to myself, I did. I’m a reformed inmate, you see. I was sent here after killing a man.”

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh,” K’ndar stammered, even more shocked. Crom had always been the place where criminals were sent for crimes not severe enough for beheading.

“I paid for my crime, K’ndar, I could go home to my birth Hold, but this is my home now.”

Digger looked at K’ndar. I have never told a stranger why I’m here. He isn’t going to ask me what I did to be sent here. But, I WANT to tell him, just to make sure he knows it wasn’t murder.

“It wasn’t murder, so to speak. No. I was 19 years old, had this young lassie I was fond of, too fond, if you know what I mean, and one day a man decided he wanted her. So, we fought. I was faster and meaner, I didn’t mean to kill him, to this day I’m not quite sure HOW I killed him with my bare hands, but when you’re young and stupid, you do stupid things.”

“Oh…”

“My lord holder said, this is a crime of passion, lad, but I can’t let you stay here. It must be seen that justice is served. You don’t deserve beheading as it wasn’t murder. But I must do something. I can either banish you to where you’ll die of Thread, or you can go to the mines. And I didn’t like the idea of running from Thread.”

But there was injustice, he thought, the old resentment boiling back up. That girl, I can’t even remember her face. She played me against that other man, just for the fun of seeing us fight for her. He didn’t have it coming. Nor did I. I never saw her again and I don’t know what I would do I if I ever do.

“What do you do to heat the Hall, now, if not using blackstone?”

“Ah, that’s an excellent question, one not many non-miners ask. Up until a generation ago, or so, the Hall had ice freezing on the walls in the winter and icicles dripping on your head in the summer.  But now…see the river, yes?”

He pointed over K’ndar’s shoulder.

“We’re standing, living on a tectonic plate. Do you know what a tectonic plate is?”

“Um, sort of. I’m a biologist, but I have a good friend who’s a geologist, and he once explained the plates to me.”

Digger laughed. “When I was sent here, I wasn’t a geologist, either. I was a punk. That river, K’ndar, wasn’t here a hundred turns ago. This entire area is what is called a rift valley. Everything behind me, the farmlands, the open mine, and across the river, the mountains? It’s all being slowly pushed apart. That side of the river is on one tectonic plate and we’re on another. Our side is going south and that side is being pushed north.”

“What? By what?”

“Upwelling magma. It’s a long, long fault separating the two plates, and the magma is slowly pushing its way up. Not enough to create a volcano, but enough to slowly separate the two plates. Being magma, of course, it’s hot. Some think that there’s blackstone thousand meters down, burning! but it’s still magma. And that’s heating the Hall. The valley is slowly sinking, the river is the deepest point and water will go where it wants, no matter what humans do to stop it.”

“What happens to the Hall?” K’ndar asked.

“Someday, I think it will collapse,” Digger said, “but not in our lifetimes.”

Siskin chirped from his spot on Raventh’s back. K’ndar turned to see Raylan  approaching them.

He looked glum, as if he’d been told his favorite horse had died.

“Thank you, Digger, for escorting me to Master Nickle,” he said. He dropped the bag of rocks.

“You’re welcome, Chief Raylan. What did the Master say?”

“I asked him if he’d ever seen the rocks I’d brought here and he said yes, they’re quite common. I asked if Landing could buy some? And he said, no need to buy them. Help yourself.”

He looked at the vast crater before him and shook his head. “It would take a lifetime,” he said, dejectedly. “And no way would Arr and Dee stoop to doing this sort of work. I’m not, either. I don’t know of anyone willing to do that sort of work. Not at Landing, for certain.”

Digger laughed. “Arr and Dee? I don’t believe I’ve heard of them, but…well, may I see those rocks?”

Raylan dug them out of the pack and handed them over.

The old miner sniffed them, then pulled a worn dagger from its sheath and scraped the several of them.

“I’ve seen these. Actually, you have three types of this rock, not just one. It’s  very subtle but they’re three different minerals. They’re found only in the open mine, and always in conjunction with blackstone. In fact, sometimes these rocks would tell us where to dig, because we’d have to chisel the mineral off the blackstone. Those tailing piles? They’re a mix of sandstone and these minerals. We never found any use for them, so they were discarded. What is so important about these rocks that sends you from Landing?”

Hope flared in Raylan’s mind.

“It’s, um, the bright sparks in research and development, we call them Arr and Dee, identified these rocks as ‘rare earth’ minerals. I’m no geologist, sir, but at the moment, the electronic items we have are wearing out and need to be repaired or new ones made, and they all use this type of mineral. But when I see how BIG that mine is and how many piles there are, I..I don’t know who at Landing is willing to come and pack it out.”

Digger laughed.

“How much would you be willing to pay for, just for starters, say, five cartloads of these rocks?”

“Cartloads?” Raylan said, hardly daring to hope. Cartloads? By the stars, Arr and Dee would pay through the nose for just one tiny backpack. And I have the ability to pay for these rocks, or barter.

“I’m not sure what it would cost in labor.”

“Sir, the labor-most of us are inmates here, sir. We get paid in food, housing, and other services. We dig rocks out of the mines, that’s what we’re obligated to do. But on our own time? We can do whatever we want, or most often, what we call side jobs, like building this courtyard map a thousand years ago. We’ll do just about anything for money as long as it’s legal, and if Master Nickle said you can have the rocks for free, it means he’s not going to have his miners go digging through twenty five hundred years of tailings to find them. But I have several, um, acquaintances who will be more than happy to fill up a cartload for you. Just say the word, pay me , oh, let’s say a mark per cartload, and I’ll have five carts waiting for you by the end of the week.”

“A mark per cartload? Done!” Raylan shouted. He pulled five marks from his pouch and handed them to Digger. They shook hands.

Digger smiled. Not quite a mark per cartload, he thought. I do get a commission.