by Terry Mixon
If that was the case, they might be able to work their way around it. Carl Owlet had taken a number of these machines apart and figured out how they determined who was friend or foe. Supposedly, the Marine Raider armor had the appropriate IFF—identify friend or foe—circuitry built into it, but Kelsey wasn’t willing to take that chance.
Thankfully, no one else was either.
Angela raised the possibility of the war machines being present on the old science station and how they had to avoid being detected. Thankfully, Raider armor was stealthy as hell. If they didn’t want to be seen, there was a decent chance that they could avoid being detected.
If, of course, they managed to slip past the protective forces around the station at all.
“What about you, Julia?” Angela asked, turning her head to look in Kelsey’s direction. “What do you think about our plan, and do you have anything to add?”
“Since Kelsey’s not here, I think maybe I should represent her point of view,” Kelsey said. “We all know that she’s aggressive and would be in favor of driving a spike right through the side of the station and heading directly for the target.
“I think that’s probably too risky, but we don’t want to be so stealthy that we can’t get to where we need to go in a timely fashion. The Clan warships will arrive at some point, and we don’t want to be trapped here when they attack.”
“It’s a balancing act,” Peters agreed. “On the one hand, we have to be aggressive enough to get to where we need to go in a reasonable time, but we also have to be cognizant that once we’re detected, we’re going to be in a fight that we’re going to lose in fairly short order.
“The pinnaces have enough explosives on them to destroy the master AI if we can get them placed appropriately, but that’s not going to be enough to save humanity. If we can’t force the thing to turn off the other artificial intelligences or make them compliant, then we might as well not have been here at all.
“In fact, that might even be worse. Without overall control, the various AIs may do whatever they want. Can you imagine if one of them starts conscripting humans to fight other AIs? Humanity would become the cannon fodder in a war for control by the various AI regions that are currently under the thumb of the master AI.”
Kelsey shuddered. “Yeah, that’s a bad outcome. Still, we have to have as direct a plan as possible. Angela has the override, and we’ve got to see that she gets to where she needs to be to use it. That has to be our highest priority. Even if the rest of us die, so long as she succeeds, humanity wins.”
“I’m not going to be carrying the override,” Angela said. “That’s going to be you, Highness. You have all the necessary codes to deal with any of the various computer systems that we might run into that aren’t controlled by the AI. That makes you the ideal choice.
“Besides, we’re not going to get called back at this point, so I think it’s time we start calling a spade a spade. Wouldn’t you agree, Kelsey?”
Kelsey blinked. “What?”
“Please. As if I wouldn’t know who you were. I don’t know Julia very well, but I know you like the back of my hand. You don’t think that I didn’t notice when you and Julia went off to talk and then you came back in Julia’s place?
“Now, don’t get me wrong, you did a great job of concealing your identity from everyone else, but I’ve fought you hand-to-hand so many times that I can’t even begin to count them. Julia doesn’t move like you. She’s not a trained combatant.
“Kelsey, you move around like a panther, so graceful that there’s never any doubt that you’re lethally dangerous. Julia isn’t. I saw you when you walked back from that meeting, and I knew right then what you’d done.”
For a moment, Kelsey was speechless. “If you knew, then why didn’t you say something? Jared’s going to be pissed.”
“He’s my admiral, but you’re the senior Marine Raider. He’ll be mad at you, but he’s not going to take it out on me. Besides, I’m not an idiot. I know that we have the best chance for success with you leading us.
“Now, if we’re finished playing charades, could we get on with this? You’ve heard what my plan is, and I’ve wasted enough time pretending that I’m in charge. What are we really going to do, and how are we going to take this machine out?”
Kelsey grinned. “Well, it just so happens that I do have a few ideas.”
Talbot followed along behind Elise and Carl as they made the trip down the long, straight tunnel that seemingly led directly to the side of the mountain. He didn’t see any side passages, but from the map of the facility that Elise had shared with them, it looked like there were some hidden behind the walls that he couldn’t detect.
It was kind of annoying that the alien tech effortlessly shielded the contents of this facility from detection. The fact that he couldn’t see any of the entrance runes also wasn’t helpful. Only by tapping into the video feed that Elise was sharing could they see the doorways that they passed and the runes that engaged them.
She stopped at a random one and touched it without saying a word, and the door underneath it opened when the stone blocking it vanished. A low tunnel led into the distance, but she simply turned away from it and continued walking. He suspected that she’d just wanted to make sure that she could open one.
They reached the end of the large tunnel. If he hadn’t known any better, he’d have suspected that it dead-ended. The wide, tall stone tunnel that they’d been traveling through was far different than any that he’d seen inside this facility thus far, so there had to be a reason for it. Based on the servitor, the aliens seemed shorter than humans. Perhaps this tunnel was for moving large pieces of equipment.
Well, whatever it was meant for, it led straight from the massive map chamber to the exterior of the mountain. If the exit was anything like the rest of the doors they’d encountered, there’d be a rune to open it, and the large door would simply vanish, opening a way outside.
“I think that we’re going to want to keep almost everyone away from the door when you open it, Elise,” he said. “We’ll tie some rope around your waist. We don’t want any of the wind howling around this mountain to drag you outside.”
“You and me both,” she agreed. “I see the exit rune. It’s off to the left side but near the end of the tunnel.”
Talbot retrieved some rope from the equipment that they’d brought in for the exploration, tied it around her waist and his own, and then backed up to make sure that he didn’t get caught up in any wind effects when the door opened.
That revealed a problem. There was nothing to grab onto and anchor himself.
“Elise, could you open one of the side passages for me? That’ll give me something to hold onto and give me some leverage in case I need it.”
It only took a moment for her to walk back to him and touch the wall, opening a door that he’d had no idea was there. He wedged himself into the opening and hoped that the door didn’t simply reappear and cut him in half.
She jogged back to the end of the tunnel and pressed her hand against its side. Immediately, the wall next to her vanished, and they were staring out into the open air beside the mountain. He could see snow-covered mountains in the distance and got the impression that there was a steep fall-off immediately outside the door. Interestingly, there was no wind.
Talbot walked up to stand beside her. Taking a risk, he stepped as close as he could to the opening and looked down. Yep, a cliffside that dropped at least several thousand meters straight down.
He craned his head in the other direction and saw that that cliff went straight up as far as he could see. That meant at least five hundred meters. Looks to the side confirmed that there were no ledges or handholds of any kind.
“I don’t think we need the rope,” he said. “We’re not going to be climbing anywhere. We’ll have to see if we can get ahold of someone through coms and have them send a pinnace to pick us up.”
Elise untied the rope from around her waist, and he started winding it
up again. While he did so, he engaged his implant com and tried to reach the surface party. No luck. The facility was obviously still shielded.
Maybe the exit was just as sharp for communications as it was for visibility.
Once he had the rope secured, he stepped as close to the edge as he could and stuck his head out. Instantly, the icy wind ruffled his hair, and he knew that there was some kind of shielding protecting the tunnel.
He again tried connecting with the surface party and was rewarded when somebody answered. A marine from Invincible.
Talbot put off the woman’s questions and directed her to send a pinnace down the side of the mountain to their location. The pilot was supposed to hover and extend the ramp so that it was just inside the entrance to the tunnel where they could safely board.
Everyone would use ropes to make sure they didn’t fall, but it should be a relatively simple matter to walk into the pinnace and be rescued.
“Elise, I want you to take a look outside the door to see whether or not there’s a rune to reopen it,” he said.
When she didn’t answer, he turned with a frown. She wasn’t behind him anymore. Carl and the rest were there, but he couldn’t see Elise.
“Where’s the princess?” he asked.
Carl gestured over his shoulder. “She stepped to the back of the group.”
Only she wasn’t there. The corridor was as smooth as if there’d been no doorway at all. Crown Princess Elise Orison had vanished.
19
Elise had retreated to the very back of the group and watched Talbot working in the open space with more than a little bit of unease. Heights had always bothered her. Given a choice, she’d rather keep as much distance between her and a steep fall as possible.
She stopped next to the open doorway where Talbot had braced himself. The map that she’d seen earlier said that the tunnel went a short distance and then spiraled down into the depths.
Part of her wondered exactly what was down there and what purpose it served. Why had the aliens built this tremendous facility? That was almost certainly a question that she’d never know the answer to.
Unlike Carl, she could live with her ignorance. The aliens did whatever they did for reasons that would be obscure to humanity. So be it.
She was about to step away from the opening when she saw a flashing blue light a little way down the tunnel. Actually, she saw the light reflecting off the floor and had to squat to see the light itself.
That was odd. None of the runes that she’d seen thus far had been flashing. It was almost as if this one was trying to get her attention.
She glanced back and saw that everyone was still occupied at the tunnel opening and decided that she had time to see what was there. It would only take a couple of minutes to crawl there and back. Carl would probably thank her for making a recording of whatever was trying to get her attention.
Elise got down on her hands and knees and crawled into the low tunnel. The mechanical crab that they’d found on the other planet would’ve fit inside this tunnel easily enough. Better than her.
Whoever explored this facility in the future had better wear gloves and kneepads, she decided. By the time she’d reached the flashing rune, her knees were already sore.
Only, when she took a closer look, it wasn’t a rune at all. It was simply a flashing oval at the top of the tunnel. That was very strange.
Even as she was thinking about that, the flashing stopped, and a new flashing light appeared further down the tunnel. The area above her looked like ordinary stone now.
Well, this was a mystery that just wasn’t going to be answered today, because she wasn’t going to separate herself from the rest like that. She turned around and headed back toward the opening, only to find that it had sealed itself while her back had been turned.
Elise returned to the closed doorway and searched for the rune to open it. Only there was nothing visible in her sight. That wasn’t good.
She looked back over her shoulder and saw that the nearer light had resumed flashing. Perhaps whatever was making it flash didn’t want her to leave without seeing whatever it wanted to show her.
Talbot was going to be pissed.
She tried to use her implants to communicate with the rest but failed to get a response. Whatever was dampening their communications was doing so for her now.
Dammit. She’d done exactly the wrong thing. Every time she read an adventure novel, there was always some idiot that allowed herself to be separated from her party when common sense should have told her to stay right where she was.
Today, Elise was that idiot. She only hoped this wasn’t a horror story.
With a sigh, she turned around and began following the flashing lights. As soon as she reached one, it went out, and the next one started flashing. That brought her into a long, wide spiral that took her deeper into the mountain. It eventually came to an end.
Thank God. Her knees were killing her, even with the Marine Raider medical nanites repairing the aches and pains almost as soon as they appeared.
The door at the end of this tunnel had a rune, so she opened the door and crawled out into a wider area. It was an oval chamber, much like the one above, only much smaller in scale.
Unlike the one above, this one had machinery along the walls. Nothing moved, but there were colored lights that blinked on and off, seemingly part of the metal itself, and a low hum permeated the space. In the center of the room was a low platform fed by a ramp that the robot could’ve walked up.
Elise walked around the room, taking good video of all of the machinery. Carl was going to want to see everything, so she didn’t want to miss something critical. None of it made any sense to her, but the eyes of a genius would almost certainly see something that she’d missed.
There didn’t seem to be any other exits from this particular chamber, so whatever had brought her here had intended for her to climb on top of the pedestal. The smart move would be to avoid that, but how was she going to get out if the machines didn’t let her?
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” she muttered.
She walked up to the top of the platform. The oval chamber was taller than the tunnels and allowed enough space for her to stand at her full height without her head hitting the ceiling, though she could reach up and touch it with her fingers.
What was supposed to happen now? There were no glowing runes on the ceiling for her to touch. Maybe she had to bring up her controls.
She made the gesture with her hands to bring up the curves of light that went around her body and the runes that surrounded them. Only that was not what appeared.
Instead, she was surrounded by a dome of pale blue light. Well, crap.
Jared sent Julia off the bridge so that she could curse more effectively without disrupting everybody that was trying to work. Based on her reactions, it was evident that she was furious with Kelsey.
Of course, she was also angry with him, simply because of who he was.
No matter how much he showed her that he wasn’t the man from her universe, she had too much history with the other version of him. She’d give him the benefit of the doubt if she thought about it, but when it came to emotional reactions, she’d immediately lump him in with the bad actors.
It was sad, but there was nothing he could do about it. Eventually, she was going to go home again and have to deal with the crisis in her own universe. Now that they’d found the override, so long as they managed to stop the AIs here, she should, theoretically, be able to win the fight there with their support through Omega.
Of course, that meant they’d actually have to win this fight. As he’d expected, the AI forces had revealed a lot more ships in the system invaded by the Clans. Others were streaming in from the outer shell of the defenses as well.
The Clans hadn’t arrived unprepared, though. In addition to their first wave, they’d sent in even more ships to blockade the defenses from getting into the system from outside and to overwhelm the vessels trying to h
old the flip point.
They’d paid a hideous price, but they’d breached the flip point and were into the system beyond. That meant they were only a single flip away from Twilight River.
It was evident from the actions of the ships inside this system that they were aware of that. Except for the defenses placed directly around the master AI, hundreds of other vessels had come out of their hiding places and rushed to the flip point that was in danger of being breached. About half of them went through while the remainder set up defenses inside the system.
There was going to be a breach into Twilight River. Whether the Clans had brought enough ships to overwhelm the master AI was up for debate, but Jared was certain at this point that they’d brought enough force to kick down the door.
He was still pondering what else they could do when a message arrived from a probe deeper in this system. Kelsey and the rest were beginning their final approach to the old science station. It would still take them a few hours to get there, but they were coasting in with their accumulated momentum now.
At this point, it was up to fate whether Kelsey and the rest made it into the science station without being detected. If that happened, the clock started ticking down.
He had absolutely no doubt that the interior of the station was as heavily monitored as any place in existence. The master AI would know they were there before they reached it.
Once it figured that out, it became a race to finish overwhelming it before whatever defenses lurked inside that station tried to kill everyone they could catch. And considering the mechanical defenders that they’d found on the robotic ships being used to defend Harrison’s World after the AI there had suppressed it, that was a lot of firepower.
One of the officers turned and frowned at him. “Admiral, we just got word from the system with the alien ruins. They’ve recovered Colonel Talbot and Carl Owlet.”
