“Who would go to all that trouble?” Mantis asked. “If something is really so dangerous that it required such safeguards, would it not be simpler to destroy it outright?”
“Ain’t nothin’ simple ‘bout destroyin’ what’s in there,” Lynch glared darkly at the door for a moment before saying, “but that’s what we’ve come here to do, so we’d best get to it. Before we do,” he said, turning around and fixing each of the team members with his hard, almost black eyes in turn, “I need y’all to understand that if we actually get outta here, it’s just the beginning. Once we kick this thing over,” he jerked his thumb over his shoulder, “we’ll be hunted by everyone and everything in this galaxy. I know y’all signed up for hell, and are more than capable of dishin’ it out, but everything you’ve done until now wasn’t nothin’ but warm-ups for the real game—which is about to kick off.” He swept the team with a steady gaze before asking, “You ready?”
Silence hung in the chamber, but Lu Bu felt her teammates’ resolve harden behind her. Much as she hated to admit it, Lynch had executed the little speech better than she could have done. Even she was feeling galvanized by the idea of starting a fight that was, at least in his mind, vastly more difficult than anything else they had engaged in up to that point.
“If this door is truly locked by such a complex mechanism…” Shiyuan said into the growing silence, “how do you intend to open it?”
Lynch’s insufferable, lopsided grin spread across his lips. “I’ll take that as a tacit ‘yes’ on y’all’s behalf,” he said, turning to the door and removing his right glove. “And to answer your question,” he continued as he thrust his hand into an apparently concealed panel, prompting the massive, disc-shaped door to audibly hum as blue and green lights along its edge slowly filled the chamber with their dark, somehow hollow light, “all we gotta do is knock.”
There was a loud clang from deep within the door, followed by a human-shaped hologram springing into being beside Lynch. Lynch stepped back a few paces and squared himself to the woman-shaped hologram, which airily demanded, “Identify yourself.”
“It’s me, babe,” Lynch said, a twinge of regret in his usually cocky voice.
“Why did you come?” the hologram pressed as her facial details seemed to clarify, fade, and then clarify again at apparently random intervals.
“I keep my promises,” he replied.
“What of your promise to me?” the woman’s voice asked.
“I tried…I really did,” he said haltingly before actually slumping his shoulders. “But none of us are omnipotent—nor should we be.”
“Am I dead?” the hologram asked dispassionately, its voice echoing throughout the chamber.
“You’ll never be dead,” Lynch said fiercely, his hands clutching to fists at his sides. “Nobody like you ever dies…though they did kill you.”
“Have you found the Elder device?” she asked.
“I did,” he nodded, “but I lost it.”
“Then we are done,” she said coldly.
“They’re coming,” he said, taking a step forward just before the hologram winked out of existence. “Actually, they’re already here. I have to move it, and I have to move it now.”
The hologram flickered briefly before an almost human note of anxiety entered its voice, “How did they find it?!”
“They took the information from you, Alice,” he growled, and Lu Bu realized this hologram was a facsimile of Alice Schillinger—the archeologist who had led the team responsible for discovering the site of an alien civilization that was capable of making spaceflight thousands of years before humanity had achieved the same. “You wouldn’t have told them, so they must have taken it from you.”
The hologram nodded decisively, “You do not have the Elder device; we must bury this vault immediately.” The hologram raised her arm as though she was a wizard preparing to cast a spell, but Lynch held up a hand.
“No,” Lynch said calmly, “I have a better plan.”
“This is the plan; we agreed,” the hologram retorted. “We cannot allow it to fall into their hands.”
“James and his people aren’t the only ones who know it’s here,” Lynch shook his head. “They’ve alerted the Empire—even if the core-busters work, it won’t take them more than a decade to dig this far down again and retrieve it. And if that happens, everything we believed in goes up in smoke.”
“I am unconvinced,” the hologram said coolly.
“The Elder device…there are more of them,” Lynch said, a hint of desperation in his voice, “a lot more.”
“Where is your evidence to back such an assertion?” she demanded, prompting Lynch to produce a data crystal. A beam of laser-fine light sprang from the part of the door which Lynch had touched a few minutes earlier and apparently scanned the crystal in his fingers before disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. “I…I do not know,” the hologram said doubtfully. “This is inconclusive; I cannot arrive at a definitive probability analysis.”
“Then do what your mother did—and what I think you learned to do only after it was too late,” Lynch pleaded, stepping close enough that he nearly ‘touched’ the hologram. “Trust me, Alice.”
The hologram reached out with her hand and seemingly caressed his cheek by reaching through his helmet’s visor. “Are you sure?” she asked.
“I am,” he nodded, trying and predictably failing to touch her forearm with his hand, causing it to pass through the holographic limb. “This is our best play—and we need to make it now.”
“Then say it,” the hologram prompted, stepping back and clasping her hands before her illusory body.
He hesitated for a moment before finally drawing in a long, loud breath and saying, “Faith and reason…life and death…yin and yang.”
The hologram disappeared as soon as he had finished reciting his cryptic phrase, and Lu Bu saw the door before them begin to move—but rather than rolling away, it seemed to collapse in on itself in tiny, triangular sections just a few inches across. The process began slowly, but gained speed after a few seconds until visible gaps appeared between the giant, crystalline struts beneath the metal ‘skin’ of the massive door.
Lynch stepped through the first man-sized opening and Lu Bu followed him, with Shiyuan in tow while Hutch and Mantis took up covering positions at the edge of the slowly-revealed opening.
The struts—giant, glittering columns that appeared almost identical to naturally-occurring crystal formations—were soon exposed, revealing a dozen sets of the meter-thick columns that looked for all the world like spokes in a wheel spanning from one end of the exposed tunnel to the other.
But even the struts began to withdraw into the surface of the cylindrical passageway, which was nearly fifty feet deep and appeared to have been constructed entirely out of the same crystalline material as the struts themselves. But rather than opening into another chamber like the one where the door had been, the tunnel ended with an incredibly curious sight that was far from what Lu Bu had expected.
At the apparent end of the crystal passageway was a sphere of metal, and when Lynch shone his wrist-mounted light on it, it seemed as though a smoky cloud swirled just beneath the metallic surface.
“Ladies and germs,” Lynch growled through gritted teeth, “meet MAN Core Fragment Number Four—who I’ve taken to thinking of as ‘Archie,’ though we’ve never actually spoken.”
Lu Bu saw Shiyuan recoil in horror and nearly trip over his own feet at hearing the true nature of what rested before them—or, more precisely, hovered a meter off the floor.
Lu Bu jutted her chin out and moved to Lynch’s side. She looked across the apparently perfect sphere, which measured nearly fifteen feet across, and found that she was utterly unimpressed. She had heard of the AI Wars, of course, wherein humanity had been driven near the brink of extinction by the warring computers. Humanity had survived, which suggested to Lu Bu that these overgrown data-links were apparently not as apocalyptically dangerous as ma
ny seemed to think.
She had been designed to be the perfect warrior, so she intuitively understood threat assessment in a way that most people could never understand. She knew she was not as smart as many of her fellows, but she also knew that sometimes the simplest approach to a problem was the best one.
“So,” she sneered, “how do we kill it?”
Lynch snickered before chucking her solidly on the shoulder, “I like the way you think.”
Chapter XXVIII: Extraction
“We brought it down here a century ago,” Lynch explained as he approached the perfect sphere which levitated motionless above the floor. He placed his forearm-mounted wrist-link a few inches from the sphere’s surface, and a ripple shimmered across the smoky, metallic globe. As the ripples moved across the sphere, the dark and smoky texture was replaced by a light bronze-colored, mirrored once. “Looks like the repulsors still work,” he said with apparent relief.
Lu Bu ducked beneath the globe and noted that there were twelve grav-repulsors attached equidistantly across the sphere’s surface. She had not previous noted their presence because their color had blended almost perfectly in with the rest of the sphere, but now they stood in sharp contrast to the rest of the glittering object.
“Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait,” Shiyuan stammered as he moved fearfully toward the globe, keeping several steps behind Lynch and Lu Bu as he spoke, “how in the name of all the Ancestors did you come to possess an MAN Core Fragment?!”
“Long story, kid,” Lynch said as he turned and began to walk down the passageway, and to even Lu Bu’s surprise she noted that the globe was now following him at a distance of several meters. “And we ain’t got time for the tellin’ just yet; we’re going to need to get back to the main lift that brought us down here. Our friends will be poppin’ into the vicinity in just a few minutes, and we’ll only get one chance to get this thing out of here.”
“You were never after Senator Raubach,” Lu Bu said sourly as they emerged from the tunnel. “That was a lie.”
“Not true,” Lynch shook his head as they made their way across the chamber toward the mag-lev which had brought them to the Core Fragment’s location. “I’ve still got a score to settle with Jimmy boy. But we’ll be able to do that on the way out.”
The group moved to the mag-lev car and Lynch’s wrist-link chimed as the arms dealer maneuvered the Core Fragment—which was apparently dormant, or in a similar state which Lu Bu knew she would never understand in a meaningful fashion—onto the car. The mag-lev’s four cars each extended struts which clamped down on the sphere at twelve different points on its bronze, reflective surface. It was only then that Lu Bu realized that this mag-lev car had been built specifically to bring the Core Fragment this deep into the planet.
“Looks like the fleet just arrived,” Lynch said after each of the team situated his or herself in their respective seats. “Here’s hopin’ they keep ‘em busy up there while we bust outta here with this bad boy.”
“I’m reading twenty three warships in orbit of what appears to be a rogue, rocky planet, ma’am,” Sensors reported after McKnight’s ship had point transferred to the coordinates Lynch had provided.
Lynch’s briefing packet had detailed the characteristics of the dark world, which had drifted between the stars for longer than even the earliest of human ancestors had existed, but McKnight took some solace in the fact that things were as she had expected them to be—so far, at least.
“Ma’am,” Tactical Officer Ryan said in a raised voice, “none of the other ships in our fleet are present.”
A collective gasp whooshed throughout the bridge, and McKnight forced her features to remain stoic. “Confirm that, Tactical,” she said calmly as she exchanged a brief, pointed look with Lieutenant Spalding.
“Confirmed,” he said tightly, “none of the other warships jumped in with us, ma’am.”
“Incoming hail, Captain McKnight,” Fengxiao said with a degree of serenity which made McKnight wonder whether he had correctly surmised the true nature of the situation before his crewmates had done likewise. “It is a Captain Bashir, from the Light of Omega—an Imperial Cruiser.”
McKnight had not expected an Imperial Cruiser to be present, but she was less surprised by the revelation than she might have expected to be. “Put him on, Comm.,” she said measuredly as she straightened herself in the command chair.
The comparatively small main viewer sprang to life with the visage of a fair-skinned man with a perfectly-braided beard that plunged down his chest well past the video pick-up into which he cast a dignified, deadly look. “This is Captain Bashir of the Cruiser, Light of Omega, operating under Commodore Raubach’s Rim Fleet detachment. Strike your reactors, heave to, and prepare to be boarded or we will fire on your vessel.”
“This is Lieutenant Commander McKnight of the MSP Destroyer, Freedom’s Bastard,” she said in a pre-rehearsed delivery. “We’ve been conducting a patrol of this region of Confederation space in accordance with our charter—“
“Spare me the speech, Commander,” Captain Bashir interrupted. “The Multi-Sector Patrol Fleet is no more legitimate than most of my children. Stand down, heave to and prepare to be boarded; this planet and its surrounding space are under Rim Fleet authority.”
“On what pretense do you invoke such authority?” McKnight arched an eyebrow. “Rim Fleet activities are generally limited in scope to those made specifically under request of a local government.”
“Generally, yes,” Bashir said dismissively, “but our operation here is covered under the special provisions clauses.”
“Which clause, precisely?” she pressed. “To my understanding of the Rim Fleet’s charter, the special provisions apply exclusively to circumstances involving direct Imperial involvement. Furthermore, Imperial-flagged vessels are specifically disallowed from participating in Rim Fleet operations, under the Sector Sovereignty Act attached to the Union Treaty.”
“I don’t have to explain myself to you,” Bashir sneered. “You’d be wise to stand down, heave to, and prepare to receive my inspection teams.”
“It’s always that particular phrase, isn’t it?” McKnight asked, sitting back in her chair with what she hoped was mild theatricality. “You Rim Fleet people never just come out and say that you’re going to send over an armed boarding party; it’s always ‘inspection teams,’ as though we’re in need of adult supervision to sort us out lest we hurt ourselves.”
“If the shoe fits,” Bashir said haughtily. “But my fleet will have little difficulty in dealing with your…ship,” he snorted, “whether you choose to comply or not. Your crew needs you to do the right thing for them, Commander; don’t let them down.”
She had expected the appeal to her crew’s well-being; Captain Middleton had received similar barbs from Raubach commanders in the past and she had prepared for it.
In fact, she had counted on it.
“What if I told you that I brought more than one ship?” McKnight asked, causing several heads to turn in alarm on her own bridge. She looked off-camera to her XO, “Lieutenant Spalding, instruct the fleet to de-cloak.”
“De-cloaking, aye,” her XO acknowledged, prompting the tactical display to populate with a tight cluster of sensor icons representing the rest of her fleet—all except for the heavily-shielded bulk freighter.
“Verify those signals,” Captain Bashir said laconically before reaffixing his piercing blue eyes on his video pickup. “We won’t be fooled by sensor ghosts, Commander. It’s not too late for you to back down. After we’ve concluded our business here, we’ll release any of your crew who surrender in accordance with interstellar accords.”
McKnight knew that they were, in fact, sensor ghosts which had appeared on the tactical readout—and she also knew that Captain Bashir would confirm as much in just a few minutes. She ignored the faux magnanimity in Bashir’s offer and focused on his ships’ movements. True to form for a competent military commander, she saw that the enemy ships began to dep
loy in a somewhat predictable formation as six of their warships—four Corvettes led by a pair of Destroyers—broke away from the others and moved to an intercept course.
The point transfer had brought McKnight’s ship significantly closer to the rogue planet than any previous jump she had witnessed, including those aboard the Pride of Prometheus. In less than three minutes, they would enter extreme firing range—which was comfortably within the Raubachs’ modified turbo-laser range.
“The lead Corvette will enter firing range in six minutes, Captain,” Sensors reported.
“As I suspected,” Captain Bashir said, looking decidedly unimpressed, “you brought only sensor tricks with you. My patience is wearing thin, Commander.”
“As is mine,” McKnight retorted. “Since you’re ostensibly here with the Rim Fleet, I have to assume you know how the Rim Fleet’s Commodore, James Raubach III met his end?”
“Commodore Raubach’s supposed demise is a point of great amusement among those of us who still have regular contact with him,” Captain Bashir said dismissively. “Are lies all that you brought to this engagement, Lieutenant Commander? Somehow I expected better of Tyrone Middleton’s protégé.”
“Two things on that,” McKnight said, lounging onto the right arm of her chair and drumming her temple with the fingers of her right hand, “first, I’ve learned just how powerful lies can be while fighting you people. Second,” she added as she allowed a self-satisfied smirk to cross her features, “Captain Middleton taught me many things—including the fact that he hated being called Tyrone.”
McKnight's Mission Page 35
