Chapter 61: THE MINE

RAIGORO’S POV

Raigoro reached Rellan on the third day after leaving Blackharrow.

The active rescue board still carried the original count.

31 RECORDED UNDERGROUND.

11 EXTRACTED.

20 NOT YET EXTRACTED.

Rellan Mine smelled of coal dust, wet stone, and opened earth.

Rescue work had not waited for him.

Local crews had already opened one blocked middle gallery, brought out injured workers, lost part of another route to secondary movement, and begun rotating exhausted rescue miners away from the lower workings. Blackharrow’s first reinforcement teams had arrived ahead of Raigoro after changing horses through the territorial relay posts.

The outer settlement no longer resembled an ordinary mining town. Carts had been pushed from the main tracks to make room for rescue equipment. Families waited in the Rellan meeting hall and nearby houses rather than beside the mine mouth. Food stations served miners coming off rotation while medical teams worked from the upper yard.

Raigoro dismounted beside the mine office.

Master Engineer Pellan Var had reached Rellan earlier with the first specialist group.

Foreman Tomas Rusk met them over a map.

They were arguing.

Good.

Raigoro preferred disagreement before a decision rather than after a tunnel collapsed on the wrong rescue team.

Master Var had spread structural plans across a crate.

Foreman Rusk had placed an older working map over half of them.

"The east approach is shorter," Rusk said.

"And carrying load from a section we have not inspected since the latest movement," Var replied.

"It was reinforced last spring."

"Before half the deep gallery moved."

Rusk pointed toward the main access.

"The central incline takes us under the damaged ventilation trunk. If that drops, we lose the route behind the rescue team."

"And if your eastern support wall has shifted, you lose the rescue team before reaching anyone."

Raigoro stepped to the map.

"Start again."

Both men looked at him.

"Assume I know nothing about your argument."

Master Var pointed toward the central incline.

"Primary route. Longer. Better documented. We can reinforce while moving."

"Risk?"

"Secondary movement overhead near the old ventilation trunk."

"How likely?"

"I cannot give you a useful number yet."

Good.

Raigoro looked at Foreman Rusk.

"Eastern route."

"Shorter to the deepest workers on the main roster. Lower ceiling. Recently reinforced."

"Risk?"

"Old side workings beside it."

Master Var said, "Which may have taken more load after the collapse."

Foreman Rusk ignored him.

"We won’t know without entering."

"Distance difference?" Raigoro asked.

"Central route adds perhaps forty minutes if clear," Rusk said.

"If clear," Var repeated.

"Air?"

A ventilation master answered from behind them.

"Central route has weak but measurable flow. Eastern approach has almost none since the collapse."

That mattered.

"How long can a rescue team work eastern without fresh air?"

"Depends how much dust remains suspended and whether any gas pockets opened."

"Best estimate."

The man gave one.

Shorter than Raigoro liked.

Raigoro looked at the working map.

"How many people have you reached?"

"Eleven extracted from the first obstruction," Rusk said. "Seven injured."

"Remaining confirmed contact?"

"Knocking beyond the deeper main gallery."

"And the people assigned farthest below?"

"Main roster places them here."

Rusk indicated the lower section.

"Assigned is not the same as confirmed."

"No."

Another good answer.

Raigoro considered the two approaches.

The eastern route offered speed but unacceptable uncertainty in structure and air.

The central incline could be reinforced as the team moved and still connected with the section where rescuers had confirmed signs of survivors.

Foreman Rusk did not give up on the eastern route.

"The men beyond the deeper gallery have already been waiting since before dawn."

Raigoro looked at the ventilation master.

"If the central route costs forty minutes, what does that cost the trapped workers?"

The man did not answer quickly.

"If their air pocket is stable, perhaps nothing. If ventilation is failing where they are, forty minutes matters."

"And the eastern route?"

"If it is open, faster."

Master Var added, "If it is not, we spend those forty minutes pulling our own team back out, assuming we still can."

Foreman Rusk looked at the map.

"My miners know that passage."

"I know," Var said. "They do not know what load the collapse transferred into the old side workings."

Neither route gave Raigoro a safe choice. He needed the one whose risks the engineers could actually describe and manage.

Raigoro looked at the central route again. It was slower. It was also the only route where the engineers could describe how they intended to keep the rescue team alive while advancing.

"Central."

Rusk exhaled through his nose but nodded.

Raigoro did not need the foreman to like the decision.

He needed him to understand why they were making it.

"Central route for the next team."

Foreman Rusk looked back at the eastern route on the map.

Raigoro continued before he objected.

"Your experienced miners go with Master Var’s structural team. You tell him what the drawings don’t know. He tells you what the mountain has changed."

Neither man appeared delighted.

Excellent.

"Once the deeper junction is reached," Raigoro said, "we reassess from actual conditions rather than this table."

Master Var nodded.

Foreman Rusk took another second.

Then, "Agreed."

Raigoro remained above ground while the next team prepared.

There was nothing useful about adding one more untrained body underground merely because every man in the yard would obey him.

He coordinated what belonged to command: fresh rescue rotations, medical preparation, road access, additional bracing timber, and ventilation equipment. He decided which arriving wagons mattered first and kept food and heat moving to workers coming off shift.

The mine already had professionals.

His responsibility was to keep them supplied, keep competing needs from blocking one another, and make decisions when their recommendations crossed.

A rescuer was carried into the upper medical station while Raigoro reviewed the next equipment list.

Falling debris had opened the man’s scalp badly enough to cover half his face in blood.

The medical team took him directly into the upper station and began closing the wound while the rescue continued around them. One injured rescuer did not stop the operation, but he changed what the engineers needed to know about the route.

Raigoro asked Master Var’s deputy what had fallen.

"Small secondary shift. Route remains open."

"Any change in bracing recommendation?"

"More timber before the next rotation."

"Take it from the third wagon. Ventilation equipment keeps first priority."

The deputy nodded and left.

Raigoro returned to the map.

A relay clerk entered the mine office before he finished reviewing the next route.

"Priority correction from Blackharrow."

Raigoro held out his hand.

The clerk gave him a short dispatch marked for immediate command review.

Raigoro opened it.

SIX MISSING FROM MAIN LIST.

MAINTENANCE CREW.

LOWER SERVICE ROUTE.

TOTAL RECORDED UNDERGROUND AT TIME OF COLLAPSE: THIRTY-SEVEN.

Raigoro read the final line again.

The original count of thirty-one became thirty-seven.

The lower service route had not been part of the active rescue plan.

It was now.