Nobody, of course, would have the least idea that there was a uranium
mine in operation under it, shipping ore to another time-line. The
Hulgun people knew nothing about uranium, and neither did they as much
as dream that there were other time-lines. The secret of paratime
transposition belonged exclusively to the First Level civilization
which had discovered it, and it was a secret that was guarded well.
* * * * *
Stranor Sleth, dropping to the bottom of the antigrav shaft, cast a
hasty and instinctive glance to the right, where the freight conveyers
were. One was gone, taking its cargo over hundreds of thousands of
para-years to the First Level. Another had just returned, empty, and a
third was receiving its cargo from the robot mining machines far back
under the mountain. Two young men and a girl, in First Level costumes,
sat at a bank of instruments and visor-screens, handling the whole
operation, and six or seven armed guards, having inspected the
newly-arrived conveyer and finding that it had picked up nothing
inimical en route, were relaxing and lighting cigarettes. Three of
them, Stranor Sleth noticed, wore the green uniforms of the Paratime
Police.
"When did those fellows get in?" he asked the people at the control
desk, nodding toward the green-clad newcomers.
"About ten minutes ago, on the passenger conveyer," the girl told him.
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