by A. K. DuBoff
The AI laughed.
“Am I interrupting?” a familiar voice said from the galley entrance.
Kira turned to see Kyle entering. “No, just chatting with Jasmine,” she replied. “We’re anxious to see what we’re facing.”
“Nia and Ari are taking bets. My money is on a space station.”
“Jasmine thinks it’ll be the planet I saw,” Kira told him.
“That’s what Nia thought, too. We’re coming up on the twelve-hour mark, right? Should know any minute.”
Kira looked back out the viewport. “I’m already trying to plan out how we can possibly investigate something that large.”
“Big things always have smaller parts that are decidedly more interesting. We’ll go after those.”
“I’m used to opponents that operate like us,” Kira mused. “Individuals, society, computer networks, transportation systems. These Trols defy all that.”
“But you can interface with them.” Kyle came to stand next to her. “We have every confidence in you, Kira.”
I guess I’d better deliver—
Kira’s private thoughts were interrupted by a glimpse of a new point of light in the starscape out the viewport. She magnified it using the holographic overlay on the viewport.
“That’s a planet!” she exclaimed.
Kyle peered into the darkness. “Fok, it is.” He groaned. “Now I’ll have to pay up to Nia.”
“What did you wager this time?”
“Just his dignity,” Nia said from the galley entry.
Kira and Kyle turned around.
Nia held out her arm, palm upturned, and curled her fingers in a beckoning fashion. “Come on, let’s have it.”
Kyle sighed and dropped to his knees. He gazed up at Nia as she leered over him. Kyle cleared his throat. “Nia is the wisest guesser there ever was, and her name shall echo throughout history as the greatest predictor ever known.”
She looked at him expectantly.
“And she was right about this,” Kyle added in a decidedly quieter and less enthused tone. He rolled his eyes.
Kira watched the exchange with crossed arms and a raised eyebrow. “Really, guys?”
“Well, money is irrelevant, and I don’t need a genuine favor at the moment,” Nia explained. “But, I mean, come on—I’ll be able to lord this over him for weeks.”
“I have no doubt we’ll be hearing about it for some time.” Kira shook her head. “If you’re finished with the theatrics, I need to talk with the captain about this new planet.”
She left Nia smirking at Kyle as he tried to explain the rationale behind his original prediction.
Jasmine took a moment to respond.
At the top of the access shaft, Kira headed toward the bridge’s door. It was cracked open, and she entered.
Sandren was examining the holodisplay at the center of the room with Rodrick while Aleya piloted the craft.
“It’s a planet,” the major announced.
“So we’ve seen,” Kira replied, stepping forward to stand across the holodisplay from him.
“But it’s not really a planet,” Rodrick clarified.
Kira’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
“Well,” Rodrick continued, “first of all, it would be a dwarf planet. But really, these scans are all wrong for a natural object. It’s not nearly dense enough, and the materials are… strange.”
“Can you quantify that?” Kira asked.
“Uh, lots of weird?” he said.
“That would have to be ‘Weird Factor 7’ to be properly quantified,” Aleya chimed in from the controls.
“Right, that.” Rodrick frowned at the holodisplay. “Basically, we’ve never seen anything like this, and the databanks aren’t helpful.”
Kira took a slow breath. “Okay, so we’re dealing with a non-natural object the size of a dwarf planet. What about its other properties?”
“Well, it looks like a normal planet,” Sandren replied. “Forests, mountains, oceans. However, it’s lacking the usual markers for organic compounds.”
“Not all life is carbon-based,” Kira pointed out.
“Very true, but the arrangement of the structures on this planet is… designed.” Rodrick zoomed in on a section of the world using the panel. “Like here, it’s all perfectly mapped out. This isn’t something that nature did on its own.”
Kira had to admit there was something unnerving about the perfectly straight lines and divisions between different geographic elements. “Okay, so there’s an artificial dwarf planet with manufactured environmental features. What else?”
“It’s emitting a frequency we can’t explain,” Sandren stated.
“Let me guess: the same frequency we observed while tracing the signal from Jared back at base?” Kira asked.
“The very one,” he confirmed. “Strong pulses with an underlying constant background hum.”
“I guess we found the transmitter.” She looked over the map. “Where’s the origin point?”
“It seems to be everywhere,” Rodrick told her. “We’re still trying to sort through the data to get a more accurate reading. It has to be coming from somewhere, even if that’s just the power source feeding into bio-speakers around the whole planet.”
Kira nodded. “If you can identify the location, then that’s where we need to go.”
“This is a recon mission,” Sandren countered.
“And the data we’re gathering up here is being classified as ‘weird’ and ‘strange’, sir. If we’re going to learn what’s really going on with this structure, we need to get down there and gather samples or try to interface with it—something.” Kira looked down. “And yes, I know it’s entirely possible that this is a trap. I know they want me. But right now, finding out everything that we can is what’s most important. The Guard and the safety of Empire’s citizens come first.”
Sandren inclined his head. “If the environmental conditions are reasonable, you’re right. We do need some boots on the ground.”
“Conditions are conducive to supporting life,” Aleya confirmed. “Gravity is a little light, but way more than it should be, given the mass of this thing. There must be some sort of active artificial gravity.”
“I’d suggest powered armor,” Kira said. “Air recirc sounds a lot better than whatever particulates might be floating around down there.”
“Agreed,” Sandren confirmed. “Prep your team. We’ll arrange a shuttle transport as soon as we have a target.”
— — —
As if there weren’t already enough red flags, Ellen had become convinced that the secret Mysaran facility was definitely trouble once she learned that the transit system didn’t service the location. Though it was positioned almost in line with the city and the capitol building, it was at the base of a bizarre valley, which meant it was only accessible by shuttle.
True to Fiona’s statement, the facility didn’t look like more than a small house on the surface. Ellen would have missed it if she wasn’t looking for a structure in that specific location. It was surrounded by rock formations unlike anything she’d seen elsewhere on the world—almost like dark waves arching from the red soil. The steep cliffs ringing the valley rose one hundred meters, making the place appear even more isolated.
“What were they doing out here?” she muttered to herself while staring out the shuttle viewport as they approached the landing site.
Trisha was seated in the
row in front of her, and Fiona was across the aisle. The two other women had their eyes glued to the viewports next to their seats, as well.
“It has to be connected,” Fiona replied.
“What do you mean?” Trisha asked.
Fiona didn’t take her gaze off the viewport. “There’s no way this place was only serviced by shuttle. There has to be another way in.”
Ellen was inclined to agree, but she didn’t like the implications. An out-of-the-way facility was one thing, but kilometers of underground tunnels took the conspiracy to a whole other level. Still, it was the most likely scenario, and she couldn’t ignore evidence just because she didn’t like what it indicated.
She knew from experience that there were multiple sublevels to the main government building. It was possible one of those contained a tunnel that spanned the six kilometers to the valley. But why would they do that?
So many other secrets had been kept in plain sight that it was odd that they’d have gone to the trouble of creating underground tunnels when a road or rail line would have increased the connection.
Because they didn’t want others to know that the facility was there, let alone that it was connected to the government, she answered her own question. Whatever is in there can’t be good.
The shuttle descended into a clearing between the wave-like rocks, and the side hatch opened. A wave of heat swept through the cabin.
Trisha scowled. “I hope they have air conditioning in this place.”
“It’s underground. We won’t need it,” Ellen replied. She rose from her seat and smoothed her pencil dress, which was paired with lightweight leggings and flat boots that were her most practical footwear for walking.
The three women walked down the ramp from the shuttle.
Dry air burned Ellen’s lungs as she took a deep breath. She coughed. “Let’s get inside.”
Hewn of dark stone similar to the material of the rock waves, the facility’s exterior façade rose one story and had a roof that angled down from a massive boulder next to it. There appeared to be no openings in the walls, aside from a single door.
Ellen picked up her pace to reach the door first. A control panel was enclosed inside a hinged protective cover next to the door, complete with a biometric scanner. She placed her hand on the device.
The screen flashed red, accompanied by ‘Access Denied’.
“Let me try,” Fiona offered, and Ellen moved out of her way.
When Fiona placed her hand on the screen, it changed to blue. The adjacent door hissed open.
“Good to know you’re in their system,” Ellen said to her.
“Not sure that’s a system I want to be in.”
Behind them, Trisha took a shaky breath. “I don’t like this place.”
Ellen stepped inside. “That makes all of us.”
The five-by-five meter room looked more like an MTech lab than something found inside a stone shack at the bottom of a remote valley. Primarily finished in white, and well lit, the room was everything Ellen would envision for a sophisticated control room. Monitors lined the walls at three distinct workstations, and a sealed door was set into the wall that butted up to the boulder Ellen had observed from the outside.
“This is really weird,” she said.
“I’ve heard others describe it, but this isn’t what I imagined.” Fiona looked around the room. “We need to get through that door.”
Trisha held up her hand. “First, we need to gather any data we can from these computers.”
“Agreed, there may be records here that we can’t access elsewhere,” Ellen said. “Fiona, you might need to do the honors, since you seem to be recognized in the system.”
“I’ll try.” She stepped over to the closest workstation.
“Trisha, let’s take a look at this door.” Ellen walked over to it.
There was no handle, which indicated the door either swung inward or was controlled exclusively through an electronic panel. A shove against it confirmed that they wouldn’t be able to open it manually.
“Where would you put controls?” Ellen scanned the vicinity until she spotted a scanner at waist level to the left side of the door. She extended her hand toward it.
“Wait!” Fiona called out.
Ellen paused. “Find something?”
“Yes. Shite, this is bad. We need to get out of here.” Fiona raced toward the exit door.
“What is it?” Ellen stepped back from the side door, but she’d need more than vague statements to make her abandon their research expedition before it’d begun.
Fiona held up a portable data drive. “I downloaded the summary data. I think Reya is still here.”
CHAPTER 9
Ellen ran with Fiona and Trisha to the waiting shuttle. “What makes you think Reya is here?” she asked.
“The login records,” she explained while they climbed inside the craft. “Not just for the network, but for the facility here. There’s a prefix code from each government office. I know the codes for the office in the city and the main capitol building near here, but I just saw a third prefix code which must be for this place. I noticed that the chancellor’s old login access stopped when it should have, at the time of her death, but that account has been active from this facility within the past two days.”
“Oh, shite,” Trisha whispered.
Ellen swallowed. “And if I was a power-hungry alien megalomaniac like Reya, I’d be pissed that my plans were upset and looking to either reclaim what was lost or get revenge.”
“Hence the ‘let’s get the fok out now’ stance,” Fiona said, accompanied by a hand flourish.
“Which now makes complete sense,” Ellen acknowledged. I’d really hoped Leon was wrong.
“Great, so these beings don’t die in the sense we’re used to.” Fiona shook her head.
Ellen looked over at the terrified faces of the two women. She needed to offer reassurance that they would get assistance in the upcoming fight.
“Right now, the Guard is investigating the place that they think is the aliens’ home,” Ellen revealed.
“They do exist in a specific place, then?” Hope returned to Fiona’s eyes.
“We’ll know soon.” Ellen looked at the data drive still clutched in the other woman’s hands. “In the meantime, let’s see what else we can find out about what these aliens were up to.”
— — —
Kira’s stealthed shuttle descended into the atmosphere of the alien world. She took slow, steady breaths inside her powered armor suit, awaiting touchdown.
It went against her training to go in without a set plan, but this mission was also unlike the challenges her team typically faced. An unknown enemy, ambiguous motives, and a mishmash of tech. They could find anything on the world below.
“Stick together. Don’t do anything stupid,” Kira told her team over the comm. It didn’t need to be said, but her role as the team leader dictated she say something.
“We’re on high alert,” Nia replied. She patted her sidearm.
“I’m patched into the comms and visual feeds, so reach out to me if you need assistance,” Jasmine added on the comm.
The shuttle bumped as it landed. Artificial gravity disengaged as the craft powered down, and Kira rose easily from her seat. Scans had shown the gravity to be at approximately 0.6g, so they wouldn’t be able to get too crazy, but they’d certainly be able to cover distance much faster than normal.
When the back hatch opened, Kira got her first glimpse of the alien landscape. It had the elements she’d expect to see on a world—groundcover, shrubs, trees, water—but it was devoid of movement. No animals, insects, or even wind.
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Kira gathered her gear and activated the stealth on her powered armor; her team did likewise. “All right, let’s see what we’re working with.”
Ari took a cautious step toward the rear ramp. “I have absolutely no basis for this remark, but I feel the need to warn against robotic tentacle monsters.”
Nia peered outside. “Normally, I’d tell you you’re full of it. This time, that warning seems oddly appropriate.”
Kyle laughed behind his opaque faceplate. “I’m so playing back this clip the next time one of you rags on me for saying something dumb.”
Ari bristled. “Hey, robotic tentacle monsters can be a real menace.”
“I’ll be on the lookout.” Kyle patted his teammate on the shoulder as he passed by.
Kira followed them down the ramp and onto the alien soil. The chartreuse sky enhanced the otherworldly appearance of the place, almost like the planet was in permanent sunset.
“I don’t like it,” she said to her team.
Nia looked around. “Yeah, it doesn’t feel right. It’s…” she faded out.
“It’s that it’s not alive,” Ari completed for her.
“Just… sterile.” Kyle agreed.
Kira surveyed the surroundings. “It’s weirder to see in person than I expected.”
“What about that forest?” Nia pointed at the strange trees along the neighboring ridge.
Kira nodded. “Let’s check it out.” She set a brisk pace toward the trees.
The groundcover was unlike anything Kira had set foot on before. Though it appeared to be moss-covered dirt from a distance, it didn’t compress like natural materials. After walking several paces, Kira bent down to inspect it.
She zoomed in and analyzed the dull green material with the sensors on her powered armor. The view on her HUD displayed a mesh of interwoven artificial fibers.
“This just keeps getting more bizarre,” she muttered.
Kyle crouched down next to her. “Was all of this manufactured?”
“I have no idea,” she replied. “But I’m not excited to meet whoever or whatever could construct an artificial landscape on this scale.”
