“Alright. So, how is that related to the missing scientists?”
“Well, ma’am. Technically, information from Frequency Six cannot be recognized in Frequency Zero. It would be invisible, or at the very least, completely forgettable. The idea that these doctors could receive the signal and identify it as a message, not to mention confirm it as coming from Frequency Six, is cause for concern.”
Lin knew that any beings from Frequency Six, if humans flashed to that level of the universe, would be incomprehensible. Also, due to the incompatible frequencies, everyone would forget their experience the moment they returned to Frequency Zero, if they weren’t sent insane, first. Even so, there was always the possibility of an alien in a higher frequency choosing to step down to a lower level to communicate, as risky as that was.
“Thank you, Ykrist. Your discovery is most disconcerting. We don’t know what kind of effect crossing to our side could have on them. It’s highly likely they could go mad. See if you can continue the doctors’ translation work. If you can figure out what the message said, it might help us locate the missing scientists.”
Ykrist looked alarmed at the impossible task Lin had just set for her, but politely nodded and headed back to her station.
Of course, Lin knew her general scientist was not a frequency physicist. She wouldn’t be here otherwise. Still, she might find something useful.
Just then the monitor lit up to warn that a bright yellow dot was heading towards them at high speed. Lin immediately reacted without thinking. “Evasive maneuvers. Ascend two kilometers.”
Immediately, her pilot swung into action, and the crew held their seats as the patrol ship blasted to a higher position.
“Ma’am,” asked her pilot, tentatively.
“If you’re about to tell me that it won’t get here for about an hour, I’ll give you one of my disparaging looks. It may be so, but with some of these things disappearing and reappearing just about anywhere, I don’t want to take any chances.”
Relieved that Lin was not about to shout at him, the Pilot smiled and said, “The ship is now safely out of range of the future micro time particle, if it continues on its present path.”
“Very good, Pilot. Carry on.”
Micro time particles. They were really the greater concern. They’d been increasing in number in recent days. Some traveling at close to light speed, some even as slow as rocket speed, but all of them were heading here. She’d just received a flash report that several had appeared not far away and were making their way in. According to the A.I.’s calculations, they were all going to arrive at ProxiBee in about an hour.
She didn’t want any of her soldiers and crew to be there when it happened, and had protested at the assignment. Still, it was better than playing dogfights around comets. "Report," she said.
"The six scout craft have connected to the airlocks, and the crews are disembarking now," said one of her officers from behind her.
"Still no further life signs?"
"Now that they’re under the atmosphere, the systems can make out a faint reading. One individual has become clearer, possibly our target."
"Location?"
"The signal looks to be coming from hexicle 3, ma'am."
Commander Lin raised her eyebrows, and the officer was quick to defend his words. "It's not defined, ma'am. The life sign flickers, and it could even be coming from hexicle 12 or 13. There’s also the possibility of more than one, but until we get closer…”
"Understood," said the Commander. She tapped her lobe, and sent a thought to the other military personnel. "Retrieve the target. First team there gets a bonus."
She turned back to her screens, now showing internal cameras. The dark metal and gray interiors of the scout craft weren’t the best, but she could make out bodies that represented her human and alien crew waiting to exit their ships.
She knew them all by name, and was happy with her selections. She had been accused of being an anthropomorphist with her choices, but she wanted her precinct to have aliens that could be easily understood. Not random blob things that no one knew where their brains or hearts were, or if they were dying or not.
She definitely wasn’t alienist, though. She had quite a number of aliens in her crew. It was just that they were all humanoid. What she really wanted was head at the top, legs at the bottom, and four arms in the middle. Anything else was a bonus. It was a joke at the recruitment station. Question One on the application form. Do you have six limbs? If the answer is yes, skip the other questions and sign at the bottom.
For the humans that didn’t have six, she’d fit them with an extra two, and train them. Specially designed myoelectric prosthetics attached to connectors under their shoulder blades detecting muscle, nerve and EM signals, they gave her soldiers additional strength, and that extra pair of hands for particularly wriggly captures.
How humans survived with just four limbs for so long was beyond her. Whenever she saw a human with just two arms, she always felt like something was missing. The fact that she only had two arms, wasn’t up for discussion.
Multiple messages from her six teams came crackling through her lobe implant. “Accessing airlock.”
Connecting pipes extended from the shuttles, internal and external airlocks opened, and her soldiers stomped forward into their chosen hexagonal room.
For a brief moment she smiled, proud of her team.
But then, the screaming started.
Soldiers everywhere froze, and Lin flicked through helmet cameras, quickly locating the source of the screams.
Team One.
Team One’s helmet cams turned wildly, but there were enough of them to quickly piece the disturbing scenes together. Her soldiers seemed to be shaking as though they’d been hit with extreme cold. And then, she watched in horror as they all aged before her eyes, their clothes matting into powder, their skins wrinkling, their bones enlarging, and then their bacteria dissolving their bodies into so much green and black oil, before this too disappeared.
For a moment the hair, greasy bones and metallic attachments hung in the air, before collapsing into piles, skulls rolling across the floor.
Lin took a breath.
Then another.
Team One was gone.
She could see the looks of shock and fear from the other teams as they were quickly updated.
What the hell were they going to do now?
Episode 4
Clouded
Chapter 24
For a moment Lin stared dumbfounded at the screens before gathering herself. She had to save the others. “Teams,” she said, struggling to keep her voice calm. “We’ve lost Team One.” She paused, and took a breath, steadying herself. “There is an aging time field near hexicle 40. Probably a micro time particle. Stand by.”
She hadn’t lost so many soldiers in years. She had only just joked with Blum that morning. And Orman…” She took another deep breath and slowly exhaled. She had to keep calm for the others.
Twelve soldiers gone, just like that.
It was her fault for not properly checking first. Of course, if scientists had gone missing, then the logical thing was that something had killed them. Not having an enemy to fight was making her soft. She should have sent robots in first to inspect. Then again, with limited signals, they might have lost them and ended up going in later when things were much worse.
She made a fist and smashed it on the nearest surface, making her crew jump.
Her face was livid. Now all her soldiers were in danger. Damn Patel.
“Should I go to 40, ma’am?” asked one of the doctors via the link. Lin saw the ID pop up. Doctor Rosen Styert, Team Six.
“No, Doctor. There’s nothing you can do.” Lin looked sadly at the collection of bones streaming from one of the remaining cameras. They all had had friends in Team One. She knew what they must be thinking.
“Ma’am,” interrupted one of the soldiers, tentatively. Jacques Durand, Team Three. “There’s an updating map of
the base on the viewfilms here. It shows our locations, as well as some flickering yellow spots. There is a yellow spot where Team One is…was.”
“Thank you, Jacques. A.I. connect to that stream.” The A.I. confirmed, and a new screen appeared in front of Lin. On it she could see a simple map of the hive, with the black clouds of dots of her teams unmoving, waiting for her command. Not far from Teams Four and Six were bright yellow dots. Throughout the base were quite a lot of bright yellow dots.
She rubbed her face. The whole place was a death trap. What had caused this? If those damn scientists and their crazy experiments were responsible for these particles…
The life sign in hexicle 3 continued to flicker strangely. Was their target being affected by a micro time particle or was some energy field in the way?
She flicked everything to lensview from the group leaders, calling up six screens on her monitor. The first screen was black.
She was surprised to see how many identical hexicles there were. It would be easy to get lost without every hexicle being numbered. Then again, perhaps the scientists rarely moved from their stations.
“Teams. Standby. Analyzing the situation.”
She received confirmation from the team leaders, then turned back to the images in front of her.
Was there some way of making this easier? The map suggested scientists’ quarters were mainly around the edges, with a few being for administration. The next ring of hexicles were mainly research and experimentation areas. Then, closer to the Clarke, were meeting areas, amenities, kitchens, waste disposal and general relaxation areas. There were some private hexicles mixed in with the research areas – she guessed that some scientists wanted to remain next to their experiments.
Nothing about the way the hive had been structured gave her any indication that there was an easier way to do this. If the radiation wasn’t so strong, she could have had her teams go outside and walk along the roof. But cutting in from above, with a high risk of decompression, was not the best alternative.
“A.I. Anything under the base? Storage? Conduits?”
The screen changed to show her a network of robot-only areas, waste processing and other power generation facilities. She could see there was a basement tunnel from the elevator via a number of tunnels and up some stairs to hexicle 16. Otherwise, the service hatches were an even worse option.
Lin shook her head, knowing the soldiers were all standing there waiting for her to make a decision. But, she now wondered if her teams were still up to the task. Hand to hand combat, no problem. Facing down opposing forces, easy. Sending in drones and attacking targets remotely, piece of cake. Walking through an escape-room-like base with random, invisible death traps, not so much.
“Teams. I’ve crossed-checked with our own scanners, and the map you see is reliable. I’ve been able to trace it to a Traverse shuttle docked at the top of the Clarke elevator. The yellow dots do indicate temporal dangers. Avoid them at all costs. However, I believe that they can come and go randomly, so be on alert. Analysis indicates they have been steadily increasing in number so, start moving again, and tread carefully. Find Heartness. You now have 30 minutes. No pressure.”
There was a moment of silence as the soldiers absorbed this information, and then she received their acknowledgements. She watched them on the microwave map, like ants converging on a bug. One line of ants was definitely closing in on Heartness faster. Team Three. She guessed offering a bonus was a bit unfair considering airlock 48 wasn’t far from hexicle 3, but it looked like they might have to find a longer way around to avoid a yellow spot.
As long as I don’t lose any more soldiers.
She chose the lead’s head as her main view on the screen and watched as Group Captain Anatjari’s metal arms swept the area ahead of them with his blaster, as per regulation. The arms would detect movement faster than his body could react. If it began firing, he could take out other weapons to join in. Double the firepower.
Anatjari briefly looked up to see one of his alien team members climbing along the ceiling above them. She recognized the furry arms. Phub. Smart move, she thought. At the very least, if some of the crew encountered a micro time particle closer to the floor, Phub might survive it and be able to report back.
She switched her line to direct communication. “Anatjari, you’re the closest, so I’m watching you closely.”
“Confirmed,” said Anatjari, after sensing Lin’s thoughts via his lobe system. “We had to take a slight detour due to a yellow spot in 27, but we’re almost there. Entering hexicle 3 now.”
The tableau that was revealed as Anatjari moved through the entrance caused Lin to jerk back in surprise. But it wasn’t that there was three, it was what they were doing which was cause for pause. Doctor Vilanna Szuki was holding a cup, frozen in time. Another man sat, looking up at her with his mouth open. And their target, Admiral Victoria Heartness, was standing nearby, holding her arm outstretched as though to stop Szuki. Unlike the first two, Heartness was moving slowly, as though struggling to get closer.
How had they got into that position? Were they frozen in time or trapped in some suspended animation force field? Was it a slow micro time particle?
Before Lin could react to the scene, one of the soldiers ran over, scooped up Heartness, then ran back out, his lower metal arms holding her across his body like a rolled rug.
Lin raised her eyes briefly. They could be way too reckless when extra credits were included. She assumed the officer’s speed stopped him from being stuck in time like the rest of them.
Anatjari moved back out of the room and over to the soldier. “Good work, Svenson!” Lin heard him say.
Lin tapped her chin. She’d just lost twelve men. The base could very well kill the rest of them. Her mission was simply to rescue Heartness. She just had to get Team Three back out, and her other teams back to their scout craft, and go. Then her mission here would be complete.
Szuki, and probably one of the scientists from the base were trapped in a time bubble, and not her concern. She assumed the bubble would speed up at some point and release them.
Then again, what if that bubble sped up faster and they became like Team One? She might not have a job anymore.
Lin stared at the screen. Szuki’s father paid for her forces to protect the Proxima Centauri System, in association with the Secret Services. She couldn’t just leave her there. But she had no idea how to deal with a slow time bubble either.
It had taken a lot to get Heartness, and now she had her in her grasp. The woman probably knew everything that was going on.
Lin snapped her fingers, realizing what she had to do.
A bit of interrogation was in order.
Chapter 25
Heartness reached out to stop Szuki, but saw that she had frozen as soon as she had put her hands inside the field. What could she do next? If she went further, she’d be trapped too.
Suddenly the world whirled around her, and she found herself staring at a moving piece of ground. Had a boff taken her? The metal arms holding her didn’t look like boff arms.
Then she felt the warmth of the person holding her. "What the hell are you doing?" she yelled. "Put me down, now!" She tried to pull at the metal hands, but the soldier held her tight.
"Admiral Heartness,” said the soldier, with a slight French Canadian accent. “We're here to rescue you."
"No. Stop. Vilanna, and the scientist. I have to go back." She struggled in his grip, and his mechanical arms relented, placing her standing safely on the floor near him. Now that she was free, Heartness made to push past him and run back, but a dark-skinned, muscular man with curly, black hair moved to block her path. The soldiers behind him did the same.
"They're stuck in time,” he said. “You were still moving so the opportunity to rescue you was there. Any closer and you would have been stuck, too. We’re here to bring you to Commander Lin.”
Heartness could tell, from the officer’s almost invisible pupils, that his lensview system wa
s active. Lin was probably watching through them. “I want to speak to your commander, now. We have got to get Doctor Vilanna Szuki out of there. We don’t know what effect the fleshtube might have on them."
"Fleshtube?" came a voice through the soldier's lobecomm. “Anatjari, what was there?”
Anatjari touched his ear. “I’m not sure, ma’am. Would you like me to go back?”
“No, not just yet.” Her voice sounded tinny to Heartness’ ears. “Make sure everyone is clear of that room. Move into the next safe hexicle. I’ll check your recordings first.”
Heartness clenched her fists exasperatedly, but had no choice but to accompany the soldiers. If she couldn’t go back and rescue Szuki from the slow time field before a micro time particle destroyed them, Commander Lin would be held fully responsible.
She would make sure of it.
Chapter 26
Lin replayed the feed where Anatjari entered the room. Chairs, tables, a tall white cupboard, a bench, a viewfilm showing a map, Utzon, Szuki and Heartness frozen, and a wall with a strange ink stain on it. The soldier's lenses had moved too fast for her to see the first time. She paused the image and could see that it did look organic.
Some kind of structure?
It needed to be investigated. If it was a threat, they would have to dispose of it.
She thought about it, weighing up the risks. It could be a new alien lifeform, the one the scientists had contacted, so a possible first contact situation. Or it could be a Frankenstein’s monster created by mad scientists on the base, or even something to do with the micro time particles.
Either way, she had to know.
“Team Three will remain on the base. Other teams, return to the command ship. Captain Anatjari, set up an outpost in hexicle 10. Put a little space between you and it while you work out what it is.”
Temporal Incursion Page 9
