I AM STORING IT FOR LATER STUDY, KRIS, WHEN I HAVE MORE OF IT AVAILABLE.
RIGHT. “Are the nanos inside?”
“Yes, Kris. They report nothing dangerous. However, they do appear to be gaining weight. They are having to use extra fuel to stay aloft.”
“What’s making them heavy?” Jack asked.
“I do not know. I would have to bring them out to evaluate the problem fully.”
“Bring a couple out and let’s have a look,” Kris ordered.
A minute later, several nano-scouts were out. “Ah, Kris, they are no longer overweight. I can find nothing on them,” Nelly said, sounding rather puzzled for a computer.
“Interesting,” Jack said. Kris could almost hear his eyebrows going up behind the mirror of his faceplate.
“So, a million years ago some clean freak designed gear to keep this place spotless. And they’re still at it. Too bad we can’t tell her how good she was.”
“Maybe so, but how will it effect our suits?” Jack asked.
“I intend to find out,” Kris said.
“I’m glad you got your itty bitty buddies out in front,” Abby said, coming back from across the street twirling a stick as tall as she was. “But I’m gonna trust something a bit more primitive to test out where I put my dainty feet.”
“I think I’ll get a stick, too,” Beni said, heading for the same small copes.
“Get me one, too,” Kris said after him.
“Me three,” Jack added.
“I’ll get one for everyone going in,” a sailor with a laser answered as he followed the chief.
“How many are going in?” Jack asked.
“You, me, Abby, Beni. Doc, you willing to stay behind?”
“I really want to get a look inside. Take air samples. Why not leave our radio boss behind. He’s got the antenna to net us to the Resolute. Him and one of the gunners.”
Since Abby was one of the two gunners, that left only one. After some good ribbing about bringing back lush native girls for Comm Boss, and a hunk for the gunner, that was settled.
Beni headed back with an armful of walking staffs. “Bring me a big rock,” Kris called. “Something to put in the doorjamb.”
The laser wielder turned back, picked a large one that looked like it had started life as a cut slab, but been broken in half. Radio trotted over to give him a hand and the two of them lugged it in and set it upright along the right side of the door.
“Think that will stop it from closing?” Jack asked, eyeing the half meter tall block.
“Long enough for us to get out,” Kris said.
“Here we are, the finest example of twenty-fourth century womanhood,” Abby said, “and manhood, and we’re reduced to using rocks for doorstops.”
“I’m sure the next expedition will be much better prepared,” Kris said. “Now, do you intend to fold this hand and leave all the fun to them, or are we going to take our own primitive step into, well, whatever.”
Abby put out her walking stick, tapped the stones on the inside of the doorsill, and stepped across. “One small step for this woman, one big question mark for the rest of you.”
7
Jack went next, tapping all the way with his stick. Kris followed, letting her walking stick just slide along ahead of her. Beni and Doc brought up the rear.
“I’ve got us connected to the Resolute,” Comm Boss reported from his station at the door.
“We are delighted to see you’ve gotten this far,” Captain Drago reported.
“So are we,” Kris answered. She wanted to trot into the huge void in front of her, but, as she’d been trained, she checked her back door. Comm Boss was standing in the doorway, a long pole reaching to the top of the door, ready to warn if it suddenly decided not to be a way out. The gunner was faced out, toward the rest of town, just the way the Marines trained its back door. NELLY, REMIND ME TO LOOK AT THE RÉSUMÉS FOR THESE FOLKS. IF THEY AREN’T ALL EX-MILITARY, IT’S ONLY BECAUSE THEY ARE STILL MILITARY.
YOU MAY BE RIGHT, KRIS.
Satisfied that her rear was as protected as it could be, Kris turned her attention inward. And found out why the net had been so full of “wow” and “oh my” and “this is unbelievable.”
“This place is huge,” Kris added to the admiring wonder.
Kris shot a laser range-finder out. Almost two thousand meters to the silver metal spire that rose to the roof and beyond. Almost four thousand meters to the far wall.
And it wasn’t nearly as dark as it had been.
“Our lights are being reflected back,” Abby said, walking over to the nearest rib. There was something light beside the rib, and growing brighter as Abby’s suit light got closer. “Our light is being reflected up the light beam, or whatever you want to call this thing.”
“It’s being intensified,” Jack said. “Any chance it could burn us like moths under a magnifying glass?”
“Oh, you say the most inspiring things,” Abby said. But Kris noticed that Doc and his sailor sidekick who had headed straight out onto the floor of this huge dome were now trotting for the door.
“The light in here is growing brighter,” Nelly said. “However, for it to get truly dangerous to you in your suits would take several hours at this rate.”
Doc and his teammate turned around again.
“Thank you, Nelly. Any other thoughts, girl.”
“I would like to see more of the floor. Also, certain sections of the floor are giving me radio signals I can match against those unidentified sequences from Santa Maria.”
“Think your girl found a one-size-fits-all key?” Abby asked.
“Only one way to find out. Nelly, point us at one of those sources.” Nelly led them to a section of floor that didn’t look all that different from the rest: speckles of sparkling gold in the dark green stone and some patterns in white and gray several centimeters in size.
“I am sending the signal,” Nelly said, and suddenly, out of the floor rose a translucent block of . . . something.
Close to three meters tall, almost two wide, nearly five long, it took on their lights and turned completely clear. The sole exception to that were two light blue, six-bladed propellers that turned lazily inside the near center of the block, one at each long end about ten centimeters in.
“What is it?” Kris said.
“I have no idea,” Nelly answered. “I also am no longer getting any signal from this area of the floor.”
“Speaking of floor,” Jack said, stooping close and struggling in armor to look up through the block. “Where’s the green floor stuff that was on it?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Nelly said.
“You’re getting to like that phrase,” Kris said.
“It fits too much of this place for my comfort,” Nelly answered. “Kris, I agree with Jack, the full examination of this place should be left to a larger, better-equipped team.”
“That was a vote I never expected to get,” Jack said, standing up. “Anyone have any idea what this is?” he asked.
Doc and Chief Beni examined it with their black boxes. Slight shakes of armored helmets told Kris all she was going to get out of them for the time being.
“Well, is it likely to explode?” she asked.
“Your guess,” Beni started.
“Is as good as mine,” Kris ended. “Yes, I know. But a guess would be appreciated.”
“I’m getting no out-gassing,” Doc said. “I’ve rubbed the surface of the thing and gotten nothing.”
“I’ve probed it with everything I’ve got that doesn’t involve partial destruction of the sample,” the chief said. “And I got squat.”
“It’s clear,” Kris said, tapping her laser range-finder. The pulse she sent bounced off the end of the building and returned that measurement. “It is totally clear.”
“What’s the propeller for? I don’t see any beanie,” Abby said.
“Better question is how can it be turning in what looks like a solid,” Kris said.
“Is it a solid?” Doc muttered. “Or something else we don’t even have a word for?”
“I’m kind of getting the feeling of some hunter-gatherer, who’s so proud of inventing the throwing spear, coming across a jet engine and not having a clue what it is,” Jack said.
“Speak for yourself, Marine,” Beni said. “I know what it is.”
“What is it?” Kris said, in chorus with everyone else.
“It’s a puzzle,” the chief said, with a smile that leaked onto the net even if Kris couldn’t make it out through his faceplate. “It’s a puzzle we are not going to solve today.”
Abby swung her walking stick at Beni’s helmeted head.
“At ease, crew,” Kris ordered. “And if anyone else wants to make a joke at all our expense, remember, that poor gunner back with Comm Boss would love to have your slot in here.”
“Not really,” someone contradicted on net.
Kris ignored the insubordination. Anything that failed to rise to the level of full mutiny struck her as just fun, all things in her past considered. She looked around. “Any more signals, Nelly?”
“I have identified forty-seven, but there are more that may qualify.”
“Where’s the nearest one that takes us closer to the spire?” Kris asked. And Nelly gave directions to another perfectly normal bit of floor. “Send the signal,” Kris ordered.
Nothing happened. “Nelly?”
“I sent it. Nothing and now the signal is no longer there.”
“Maybe that was one that was dead and didn’t know it until it tried to come active,” Beni guessed.
“Mark the floor with something,” Kris said. Doc’s escort pulled out some tape and marked an X.
Kris checked her readouts. “I show six more hours of air.”
“Kris, are you having any trouble moving your joints,” Jack said, rotating both arms of his suit. One moved much slower.
Kris did the same—with the same results. “One leg is moving a bit stiffer than the other, too,” she admitted.
“I don’t know what’s causing it, but shouldn’t we be heading out of here?” Jack said.
Kris ignored him and trotted toward the base of the spire. She ended up kind of limping, but the closer she got to the spire, the more excited she was. Several hundred meters out, she spotted a false ceiling or overhang around it, spreading out. Taken edge on, it was hard to tell how far it went.
A hundred meters out, they came under it.
Initially translucent, the lights from their suits caused specks to appear. “It is a star chart,” Nelly whispered. “Yes, definitely a star chart as seen from here. Look, there’s what Chance calls the Wild Horseman. And the Fat Lady Singing.”
“There are lines between the stars,” Kris pointed out.
“I think those are jump points. At least the basic ones. Chance has three jumps out from it. The system we are in is marked with a point surrounded by a circle. Do you see it?”
“I think so,” Kris agreed, pointing her range-finder up and clicking it to visible red.
“That’s it,” Nelly said.
“That one next to it also has a circle. Those are the only two,” Beni said.
“And the line between it is green. The others are kind of yellow gold, but that one is green,” Jack said.
“Why the difference between two stars?” Nelly asked.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Beni said, “but my suit is getting real hard to move. Let’s get out of here.”
Kris joined the others limping quickly for the exit, but thinking as well. “If any guess is as good as any other, let’s have a few. For starters, I’m guessing that it has to do with this spire. What if it is a faster-than-light commlink?”
“And that shows where they got a signal from,” Jack said.
“If you could make jump points across space, you could send signals through those jumps,” Beni agreed, pulling ahead.
“But why the low-tech radio signal we picked up?” Abby said, breathless. “That certainly isn’t the interstellar commlink.”
“Unless Abby’s idea about the de-evolution of the species has something to do with it,” Kris said, slowing to stay even with Abby. “Part of Santa Maria was left as a nature preserve. Everything else was nano-mined. What if this was a nature reserve? A place for folks that didn’t want all the tech?”
“And the last interstellar message had to be radioed to the other towns?” Jack said, falling back, too. “That’s a big leap.”
“I’m open to other leaps,” Kris said.
“When we get out of here, if we do, I’d sure like to see what that other circled star looks like,” Doc said.
“So would I,” Kris said, “Resolute, you copy this star map?”
“We’ve got it,” Captain Drago said.
“It fits the two new jump points I’ve found out of this system,” Sulwan added.
“How long to boost to the one we didn’t come in?”
“Not too long,” Sulwan answered.
“Once we’re out of here, we’ll see,” Kris said.
“Assuming we get out,” Jack said.
“Whatever this stuff is, it’s sure making our suits shine,” Doc said. “But I can’t get any readouts off of it.”
“I can tell you that it’s doing something to my joints,” Abby said, coming to a halt. “You go ahead. I got to rest.”
Kris didn’t pause, but hobbled on, each step an effort. If she remembered right, the extra weight vanished from the nanos the second they got out of the building. Jack stayed beside her.
Beni, Doc, and his helper struggled out into the daylight, their heavy breathing filling the net. Kris was throwing each stiff leg ahead of the other by swinging the suit from left to right, right to left. Jack struggled, too.
“Who’d have thought a clean freak could kill us a million years after the last white-glove inspection,” Kris muttered.
“Kind of makes you wonder what a Neanderthal would think if you handed one a bar of soap,” Abby drawled.
“Remind me to say something nice about you,” Doc said.
“Save your breath,” Jack ordered.
“You okay, Abby?” Kris asked.
“Long as my air holds, I’m just the tin man giving advice.”
Outside in the sun, Doc moved the arms and legs of his suit. “It’s gone. Let’s see what happens,” he muttered, and ran back in. He was only starting to go stiff legged when he reached Kris. He grabbed her shoulder strap, and dragged her along.
“I’m gonna hate myself if this don’t work,” Chief Beni said, and dashed in to help Jack.
Long minutes later, all four of them were in daylight. And the stiffness was gone. “Can’t you get any readout off of this?” Kris asked Doc as she rotated her arms, bent her knees.
“Not a thing shows on any of my stuff.”
“We can’t leave Abby in there,” Kris said.
“I was kind of hoping you’d remember me.”
“Jack, you’re with me,” Kris said and headed back in. She and the Marine ran for Abby. The stiffness was just coming back when they reached her. The maid was locked up, stiff as a board. Kris grabbed one arm, Jack the other and they dragged her along most of the way to the shining door . . . and locked up themselves, twenty yards out.
“I’m really going to hate myself,” Beni said as he, Doc, and the door guards headed back in and dragged Kris and Jack out. The two door guards, then, had no trouble going back for Abby.
“Glad that’s over,” Abby said.
“Look at our air supply,” Kris said.
“My how time flies when you’re turning to stone,” Jack said.
“How do we protect this place?” Kris said, looking at the door. “If we close it, assuming we can, will it open again? If we leave it open, will we lose too much of what’s inside?”
“Sure you want to save whatever that stuff was?” Abby said.
“I’ve got a balloon,” Comm Boss said. “To raise a
n antenna if we needed to. We could use it to block the door.”
“We’ll get out-gassing off the balloon,” Doc pointed out.
“It’s still better than nothing.”
A few minutes later, the balloon blocked the entrance and a coat of plastic glue protected the balloon from anything short of a rifle round and everyone was hurrying down the path they had taken in. Their gleaming battle armor got smeared with poop and rocks. Another large-tusked animal disputed the right-of-way with Kris, ignored the tossed rock, and had to be shot as it charged. Doc bottled hair samples of the beast but with air supply down to three hours, that was it. They arrived back at the riverbank where they’d left the shuttle. It was gone.
“It can’t be far,” Kris scowled, more bothered than scared. Just now, panic was not an option. Kris tossed her walking stick out into the river and watched as it drifted to her left. “If someone untied it and pushed it out, it ought to be headed that way. There’s not much of a current.”
Abby had waded out into the crushed rushes made by the beached shuttle. “Mind if I go upstream? Those little dickens might have thought to tow it.”
“And now our intrepid heros separate into two groups,” Beni muttered. “Which one will vanish, never to be seen again?”
“Stow it, Chief,” Kris ordered. “It seems our jelly bean strings have a few tricks up their sleeves we didn’t expect.”
“Ah, Kris,” Nelly said softly. “I just sent a signal to the shuttle. It is slightly west of us and moving slowly westward.”
“Thank you, Nelly,” Kris said, to chuckles from the other twenty-fourth-century humans as they remembered they were, after all, not cavemen.
Around a small bend in the river, the shuttle bobbed gently along, drifting broadside to the stream flow. Four waded out to capture the line floating from the shuttle’s nose. The synthetic rope had not been cut. “They haven’t forgotten everything they once knew,” the woman gunner said, holding the line as she and the others dragged the spacecraft back into the shallows.
The return to space went quickly after that. Kris matched orbit with the Resolute, but did not enter the shuttle bay. Crew that had stayed behind now came out and passed them a line to follow into an airlock. The three girls started the process of decontamination. In Lock 1, their battle armor was sprayed, scrubbed, and generally scoured for anything virus size or larger. After the lock had been vented to space and the cleaning process run a second time and vented, the gals got to shuck their armored duds and advance into Lock 2. There they scrubbed themselves down, got to enjoy having the lock vented to space down to one-tenth normal pressure, then repeated. Stripped bare, they entered the third lock where they found long johns to skinny into and a airlock that wouldn’t open.
Kris Longknife: Resolute Page 13
