“But one of my duties is to protect you.”
“And one of my primary requirements is for privacy during biological rituals,” she said firmly. “I’ll be back before you miss me.”
Soon enough, her personal morning rituals complete, she and MARL and the small robots made their way from the cave heading toward the lake. Jill kept glancing at the sky as she hiked.
“Nothing will fly over,” MARL said after the fourth time. “I protect this location. There were only two shuttles in the air when we checked last night, and neither was headed in this direction.”
“Have you run a scan today yet?”
“No air traffic whatsoever.”
After MARL’s report, she relaxed and was delighted to find a spot where the lake was shallow enough for wading. Stripping off her stained and sweaty jumpsuit, she bathed as best she could, wishing for a clump of the soapy root Aydarr had used in the Preserve to clean her wounds. Donning one of the shirts she’d taken from the abandoned building, which fell to her knees, she felt better. After emptying the jumpsuit’s pockets, she rinsed the garment out and laid it on the beach to dry before seeking the shade.
“Now will you brief me on why you’re here and what your plans are?” MARL asked, settling beside her.
As if she was reporting to one of her military superiors, Jill shared what little she knew about how she and her fellow colonists had been kidnapped, and an edited version of what had happened to her since awakening in the Preserve with the Badari.
“I can try to calculate how far we are from your world,” MARL offered. A detailed star map projected in midair. “We’re here,” he said, as a pulsing red light appeared overlaid on one star system.
Jill shook her head. “I’m no pilot, no astro navigator. I can’t begin to give you a hint where my colony is in relation to your map.”
The representation of a star field disappeared as silently as it had arrived.
Guessing she’d disappointed her sidekick, she held up the inactive handheld she’d stolen from the lab complex. “Think you can do anything with this?”
“A primitive form of artificial intelligence.” MARL flashed a smoky blue light over the handheld and it powered up immediately.
“Yeah, I hacked into the system while I was there. The Khagrish have no understanding of system security, or how to build efficient AI’s either.” She laughed as she logged on and reviewed the most recent status updates. There was no change in the files regarding the pack’s mission or the humans. She was presumed to be hiding in the Preserve and finding her had been given a relatively low priority. “Interesting, the authorities promoted Dr. Cwamla to be in charge since I knocked Gahzhing out of the picture. Wonder if she’s any smarter than he was.” Jill held the unit out to MARL. “Can you take over their systems? Hack in through this? I created several back door identities for myself, none of which seem to have been compromised.”
“Of course. Will this further your plans?’
She shook her finger at the AI. “You just want to know what my plans are, you don’t fool me.” With a sigh, she clasped her hands around one knee and explained her next moves. “Tomorrow, after resting up today, I’m going back to rescue my sisters and as many of the colonists as I can. Sooner or later the Chimmer are going to transmit their instructions for whatever experiments my people are being held for, so I need to get them to safety now.”
“And this Aydarr and his pack?”
“I hope by the time he returns from the military mission, you and I and my people will have a strategy for extracting the Badari as well. Honestly, I’d like to blow up the entire complex, the sooner the better, and rescue everyone.”
“I’ll see what can be done along those lines.” MARL hummed and his lights strobed.
Lulled by the sound, Jill found herself dozing off and, when she awoke, there was a pile of fat fish beside her. The small robots were lined up.
“Is this sufficient for your midday meal?” MARL asked.
“Too many for me actually, but we’ll cook them all. Is there a salt lick anywhere in the valley? Salt is a great preservative.” Jill collected her now dry jumpsuit as the robots gathered her fish. She stood staring over the deep blue lake as MARL floated to join her. “Where did the ship crash?”
A blue beam stabbed across the lake from the AI at her side, indicating roughly the center of the expanse. “The lake is hundreds of feet deep at this point. There will be no salvaging of the wreck without the importation of significant equipment.”
“I was merely curious.” Jill spun on her heel and headed to the cave, MARL at her side. The small robots were waiting for her, their bounteous catch laid out neatly on the stone floor near the fire. She pulled the knife she’d stolen from the lab, checking the edge. “Cleaning these is going to be a bitch, but if I want to eat something other than the dry bars, I’d better get started. Can you move these outside, please, MARL? Fish guts get very smelly, which might not bother you, but it’ll sure upset me and attract predators. I’ll clean them at the base of the hill, away from the cave.”
“Obviously I have much to learn about the primitive life,” he said as the tiny robots scurried to do her bidding.
“I should have mentioned it sooner. We’ll adapt together, no problem.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Her partially burnt but savory fish dinner was messy and filling, and Jill drifted off to sleep shortly after sundown. Awakening at dawn, she breakfasted on a nutrition bar and set off on her mission to rescue her sisters and the other colonists. MARL floated next to her, having retracted or absorbed his manifestations until he could see what was best suited to her plan.
“I prepared this for you,” he said, projecting a small object in her path.
Jill paused to accept the gift, turning it over. “An ear piece?”
“We can communicate subvocally. Much more efficient when infiltrating an enemy facility. If we have to separate to accomplish the mission, it will also be ideal.”
“Good thinking.” She inserted the tech into her left ear. “How do I make this work?”
“Basically just think at me, no need to speak.”
“You can read my mind?” She wasn’t sure she liked the idea.
“Only those thoughts which would have become speech,” MARL said. “I can scan those neural pathways via this device.”
Like this?
Exactly. His tone was crisp in her ear and what she’d come to think of as the happy lights rippled across his smooth exterior.
“Were you able to hack into the lab’s AI?”
“With ease. I’m monitoring but can control all the systems now and have absorbed the data bases for organization and examination at our leisure.” MARL’s tone was critical. “I have all the years of data and experimental results, among other files. Your enemies are certainly not skilled in the use of AI capabilities, exactly as you said yesterday.”
“Any problems?”
“The other four complexes are not networked to this one or to each other, from what I can tell. The super user whose account you hacked does have the same privileges on each AI, but it will be more difficult to gain complete access. I’m working on it. Should our penetration be discovered, or should anything change, we don’t want to lose the opportunity to gain as much intelligence on the Khagrish as possible.”
“Good thinking. You’re an excellent sidekick, MARL.”
“What is this term you keep using?”
“I have no idea where it came from, but it means a special companion, a helper in everything I undertake.” Jill stopped, staring at the goat track leading up the imposing bluffs. “Like climbing out of this valley. Are there any easier ways to ascend?”
“Scanning topography. No, the hooved animals have identified the best egress for you.”
“I don’t suppose you can levitate me to the top?”
If an AI could sound apologetic, MARL did. “Regretfully, no. My unit is only adequate to support my own needs.”
With assistance from MARL’s manifestations, who basically cut steps in the goat trail for her, and using sturdy vines as handholds, Jill managed to get out of the valley in better time than she’d anticipated. Although it was annoying to have MARL pacing her, floating easily in the updraft on his built in antigrav, but unable to offer direct assistance.
After a short rest, she set off at a good steady pace to the east, through the forest and toward the lab. It was a much less nerve wracking journey with MARL doing surveillance in all directions. She was free to take the easiest route, in the clear spaces between the trees, and she made better time. Although she cautioned herself against overconfidence. MARL was a game changer all right, but there could be other surprises in the Khagrish arsenal she might not like.
It was early afternoon when she arrived at the edge of the forest and reconnoitered the situation across the field at the abandoned, partially collapsed buildings where she’d take shelter and forage, and the gleaming lab complex beyond.
“Check the security records again, would you? Make sure Security hasn’t gotten suspicious about the old buildings or the ventilation shafts.” She crouched in the tall grass and waited.
“All clear. I’ve inserted a note in the file certifying the vents were swept and nothing was found.”
“Are you sure a fake cert is a good idea? What if the commander checks up and nobody takes credit for actually doing the surveillance?”
“According to protocols, the vents were required to be swept regularly but like many other things here, the enforcement has been quite lax for two decades now. I doubt if the current security chief will even check.” His tone was disapproving. “I can make it appear the sweep was an automatic function.”
“I’ll take your word for it – good idea. Quiet mode now, we’ve got to get across the open field.”
“I can project a distortion field in my immediate vicinity,” he said. “The effect would screen you as well, if you stay within two feet.”
“This just gets better and better. Distort away.” She and MARL set a deliberate pace through the meadow and, even knowing he was scanning and distorting, Jill heaved a huge sigh of relief as she ducked under a cantilevered slab of building and into the relative safety of the ruins.
“What’s the plan? Will you wait until tomorrow to attempt the rescue?”
Jill shook her head. Now that she was so close, impatience rode her. “I’m going in tonight. Based on my experience when I escaped, the place closes down pretty completely, only a token guard. I’m sure the Khagrish don’t expect me to set foot there ever again. You stay here—we can communicate with the ear piece. I don’t want to risk you.”
“I exist now to assist you. It will be more efficient if I am on the scene. I may detect aspects of the technology you will overlook.”
Taking a deep breath, Jill said, “Your lights and sounds attract attention.”
“I can shut those off.”
“Maybe send in a manifestation or two with me?” She felt she was losing the argument. Her AI sidekick had spent a long time cooped up in the cave and now acted determined to be present for any and all action or interesting events.
“My strong recommendation is that I accompany you. You might require another distortion field, which only I can generate.”
Impatient at the time she was wasting, Jill capitulated. “All right, but you have to promise to do what I say.”
“Agreed.”
Jill made her way to the spot inside the ruin where she could boost herself into the ventilation shaft, MARL right behind her. He was silent and running dark, per their agreement, except for one light illuminating the area where she moved. She tried not to think about the long subterranean crawl toward the newer lab. At least this time she had backup in MARL and who knew what the true limit of his capabilities might be.
At the point where the shaft entered the new lab complex, she had MARL turn off his light and then proceeded, following the route they’d worked out, to reach the chamber where the files indicated the humans were being held.
Bad news.
What? Jill’s nerves were so tight with tension she could hardly breathe.
There is no ventilation shaft leading to the room your people are held in.
You’re just telling me this now? She wasn’t happy.
We’ll have to climb out of the shaft in the closest room, which appears to be a storeroom, and then make our way through a short hall.
Swell. Jill kept moving forward with her now perfected quiet crawl. What choice was there, really? She had to rescue her sisters and as many of the others as she could tonight. You turned off the vids in this room and the hall, right?
Right. MARL sounded as confident as always.
Carefully, she opened the vent in the storeroom closest to the people she intended to rescue and climbed into the room. Pulse rifle at the ready, she took a deep breath and opened the door to an empty corridor. With MARL floating silently behind, she hastened to a heavy portal emblazoned with warning symbols. She waited while the system processed her request for entry, accepting her illicit super user authentication. As it slid open and the lights inside came up, she took one step over the threshold and stopped in utter shock.
She faced a huge room, containing well over two hundred humans, each spread eagled inside a transparent container, as if freeze dried in place. The containers floated and even the breeze caused by opening the door sent the packages moving and spinning, colliding with each other and bouncing off, rotating lazily in midair. The people closest to her had their eyes wide open, without blinking, and she wondered if they were awake, held in these stasis cages. Jill fell to her knees and dropped her weapon, stomach heaving, as memories of being helpless inside such a device herself surfaced. She realized she must have been imprisoned in one of these prior to being placed in the Preserve for Aydarr and his packmates to find.
What’s the matter? Jill? MARL’s voice in her head became insistent.
She took a deep breath and counted to ten. Even if she’d been inside one of these containers she was out now, she had a weapon and an ally and she was here to find her sisters. She groped along the floor for her rifle and then used it as a crutch to stand. She forced herself to focus on the people nearest her, floating helplessly. She recognized a few, members of the colony she dealt with from time to time. Most were in their nightclothes, as she’d been. Walking forward a few feet, trying to find her sisters and hoping perhaps Lily and Megan had escaped the alien dragnet, Jill took a tiny bit of comfort from the fact there were no children and none of the few elderly residents of the Amarcae 7 colony. She hoped the raiders had left them left safely behind. She tried not to touch the envelopes, since even a slight disturbance sent them spinning.
So many.
Off to the right, by the wall, she caught a glimpse of a woman with red hair. Pulse pounding, she ran that way, hoping she’d located Lily. She had to rotate the container, touching the edge gingerly. Under her hand the surface was hard, like glass. A moment later she was gazing into the wide, unblinking green eyes of her sister.
“Lords of Space, now what?” How do I open this thing? She searched the edges of the container for any kind of latch or button, finding nothing. Briefly she considered her pulse rifle but decided discharging her weapon was a last resort. “Any suggestions?”
“I’m attempting to analyze the material,” MARL reported. “It’s nothing I’ve ever encountered.”
Jill drew her knife and tried to work the tip of the blade into the seam where the halves of the envelope met, attempting to pry the container apart. Not making any progress, she stabbed the knife directly into the material, at the bottom, well away from her sister’s legs. Although the blade penetrated, Jill was unable to make a cut and when she pulled the knife f
ree, the material sealed itself with a tiny pop. Swearing, Jill retreated a step to think. She glanced at the man imprisoned in the container next to Lily, not recognizing him. He was obviously a soldier or an ex-soldier, as the Special Forces tattoo on his bicep was unmistakable. He might know how to open these. Special Forces had rescued humans from Mawreg experimentation camps during various battles. Ironic to realize the answer might be right there, but unobtainable under the circumstances. Where had he come from? Had the Chimmer raided more than one world? Or captured a spaceship perhaps?
“Any ideas?” she asked MARL, looking away from the soldier and her sister. “Do I need to try shooting at the damn thing?”
“A review of the AI’s vid records indicates there is a red handheld device which unseals these specimen pods. The aliens identified as the Chimmer demonstrated it to the Khagrish when you humans were delivered and then left three of these units with the staff.”
Jill’s hopes rose.
“I’ve scanned this chamber and there are no such devices present.” MARL hummed. “We are running close to the time limit you established for this part of the mission.”
“Yeah, well, I wasn’t counting on these problems. I’m not leaving without my sisters and I still have to find Megan.” She raised the pulse rifle, swiveled and shot the left corner off the bottom of the container holding the Special Forces operator.
The energy radiated through the envelope in a flash of blinding light and then the substance vanished. The soldier fell heavily to the floor, apparently unable to break his fall.
Jill went to him, to checking whether he was breathing and then rolling him onto his back. Tapping his cheek gently, she asked, “Hey, buddy, how’re you doing?”
“Fucking seven hells, lady, couldn’t you give a guy some warning?” Voice rusty, as if he hadn’t spoken for a long time, he rasped the words out, hand over his eyes. Turning on his side, he threw up.
AydarrGoogle Page 12
