Mission: Planet Biter (Veslor Mates #4)(36)
“Are you well, Vera?”
She nodded at Roth. “I’m much better now that I’m not being accused of trying to kill someone.”
Clark cleared his throat, drawing her attention. “You were targeted at your facility. Now you’ve been targeted again on Defcon Red. I’m not in agreement with George that this is a personal attack against you. I want you to tell me why someone would murder everyone down on that planet. Think about it. Does New Worlds have a history of getting employees killed on the job?”
Vera frowned. “Who’s George?”
“George Trowly. Answer my question. Do you know of anyone who holds a grudge against New Worlds? You’ve worked for them for six years, correct?”
“Yes. They have an excellent safety record. There was one death last year but it was a personal error.”
“Explain,” Roth urged.
She turned to him. “A member of a survey team went against orders and visited a dangerous location. I talked to a few people who were on that survey team. The guy was an adrenaline junkie who liked to make vids of alien planets to share with his friends back on Earth. That time it was a sinkhole. He got too close, despite it being marked as off limits, and the ground collapsed under him. As a drone operator, I’ve had members of my team ignore my warnings, too.”
Clark frowned at her.
“The first thing a drone operator does after we move into our base is to send up drones to evaluate the areas around us. Usually a fifty-to a hundred-mile radius. Initial scans from space are how the project manager decides the safest place to set us up on the surface, but they can miss small dangers.” Vera paused. “I look for heavy alien animal activity that could be dangerous to our team. One planet had some dark ground areas on the surface that acted like quicksand. One of my drones had picked up some wildlife sinking into it. I document that kind of activity with the drones and share the information in group meetings with my team. No one is allowed outside to start taking samples until my report is finished. Otherwise, in the case of that planet, they could have driven right into quicksand and died. It was tagged an off-limit area.”
“Do you know if your company was sued by the dead man’s family?”
She took a deep breath before answering Clark’s question. “New Worlds has excellent benefits, including a hefty death payout. We sign waivers because of it. Our families aren’t allowed to sue for more.”
Clark nodded. “Fleet is like that too. What is New Worlds’ stance in a hostage situation?”
That question surprised her. “We’re sent to planets without sentient alien life. That’s not an issue.”
“Do you believe your company would pay though, if that situation came about?”
She chewed on her bottom lip, thinking about Clark’s question. “It would probably cost them less to pay a ransom than the combined death benefits of losing an entire survey team.”
“Are you sure?”
Vera told Clark the payout amount for death benefits on her team. “That’s why we sign waivers. It can be a dangerous job being on a new planet. The second team that goes in doesn’t have the same high payout. I heard their death benefits are about half that much. We’re the ones who find all the dangers, and give them a heads up on what to avoid.”
Clark whistled. “That’s a lot of money.”
Vera nodded. “It is. New Worlds also pays higher than any other survey company. But they don’t send an extra freighter to stay in space with a secondary survey team and extra supplies, which saves them money. It also means if someone gets sick, they better recover fast. We don’t have backup members to take over for our shifts. We also must be very careful about our supplies, to make sure we don’t come up short. I was on a team once that ran out of food three weeks early because the new cook wasn’t good at rationing. Thankfully, we were able to find edible vegetation on that planet.”
“Other companies keep freighters in space?” Clark was making notes on his data pad.
“Yes. They’ll usually send two. One is loaded with our survey equipment, food supplies, and materials to build a habitat on the planet surface. Plus the people that construct our living and working spaces. That freighter will leave once the site is set up. A second freighter is mostly loaded with additional food supplies to feed the crews and a secondary survey team to relieve the first. They switch off every week. Plus extra shuttles to ferry both teams to the surface and back. Those people get paid less because it costs the company more to do it that way. Then again, they also have a fast exit if shit hits the fan.”
The Veslors, Roth, and Clark all stared at her.
Vera swallowed hard, emotion choking her. “Like what happened to my team. If we’d had a freighter in space, they could have evacuated us off the surface fast. We were stranded on Biter until help could arrive. New Worlds survey teams get paid to work without that kind of safety net.”
“Why would you agree to that?” Roth’s harsh tone made her flinch.
Vera met his angry glare. “The pay. I make three times what I would at some other company. Sure, it’s hard work, the danger is higher, but I won’t end up having to work until I’m seventy years old to retire. I’ll be able to do that by the time I’m in my mid-forties.” She licked her lips. “I grew up poor. I’ll have managed to save a small fortune if I stick with New Worlds, and never have to worry about going hungry or having to take on dangerous jobs when I’m older.”