"Where is the reactor housing?" Crusher asked.
"Four kilometers northeast of your current position."
"Let's just hope there aren't any nasty surprises waiting down below," Jason said. The SX-5 settled onto her landing gear with a gentle bump, and the primary flight systems automatically went into standby.
"This is going to suck," Crusher grumbled, slipping on the powered thermal undershirt Twingo had made for them before putting his light armor back on.
"Can't argue there," Jason said, checking his own gear and dropping the rear ramp. He wore light armor as well, but he hadn't put on the helmet yet, and the cold assaulted him as it roared into the confines of the small ship. "Yep…definitely gonna suck."
"I'm online and have a strong link," Kage's voice piped in once Jason slipped the helmet on and powered it up. He looked over at the small, spherical device that floated in the air next to his head. It had multiple sensor apertures and piped data directly into Kage's neural implant via a relay link through the SX-5. It had been something they'd been messing with off and on for the last few years, the original idea being to hire a team to develop an armed drone for Kage to control to augment their tactical capability. For now, they would just have to make do with him being an extra set of eyes and ears.
"You can take point." Crusher gave the small drone a push, sending it spinning through the air out the door.
"You know that makes me dizzy! Stop doing it!"
"Lock it up," Jason said. "Let's get this done."
The entrance to the worksite below them was a wide stairway cut into the ice, spiraling down. Lights could be seen still running as they moved cautiously down the flight. Jason had assumed they would be drawing power from the parked ship above them but, apparently, they had a separate generator down there. They passed down through the ice and frozen dirt of Che'ilith Minor and emerged into a massive cavern, so large that Jason couldn't even see the far side.
"Wow," Crusher said. Kage, or at least his drone self, zipped by, and dropped off down into the cavern. Jason and Crusher continued down the stairs, both dismayed at how far they still had to go. In the warm glow of the work lights below them, Jason could make out structures that appeared to be buildings.
"I wonder if they built their town in here to get out of the weather," he said.
"Once you get down to the bottom, take a right and come down the main thoroughfare," Kage said. "You have a small welcoming committee in the second building on the left. It looks like four ConFed regulars, only two armed, and six researchers."
"How competent do they seem?" Jason asked, picking up his pace to the bottom and realizing how much he wasn't looking forward to the climb back out.
"Only half of them managed to find their weapon, if that tells you anything," Kage said. "They look confused and terrified. I'll scout ahead and make sure there aren't any others hiding out."
Once they hit the floor of the cavern, Jason was blown away by the scale of everything. The buildings were large and uniform in appearance, and the entire thing had a sense of familiarity about it that tickled the back of his mind. The work areas were organized and tidy, not haphazardly put up or appearing rushed in any way. He paused by a large monitor that was still powered up and saw they'd laid out a search grid with annotations next to each area already gone over.
"They're definitely looking for something specific," Crusher said from behind him. "Strange."
"Let's go ask the survivors what they know," Jason said, pointing to the building Kage said had the remaining defenders. They approached with their weapons up and ready. Jason didn't expect much from the ConFed troops, but when two sidearms were tossed out of the main doorway, and all four soldiers emerged with their hands up, he had to admit to being a little disappointed. It had been a while since they'd been in a decent fight.
"We surrender!"
"I can see that, idiot," Crusher snarled. "You're not even going to try to defend yourselves?"
"We're just here to help out the researchers," the larger alien spoke up. "They never said anything about us being attacked or needing to fend off armed intruders." Jason and Crusher just exchanged puzzled looks.
"You're soldiers, but you didn't expect to actually have to do any soldiering…in the middle of contested space…right after your side invaded a sovereign nation?" Jason asked.
"We're an auxiliary unit that was activated to help out," another offered. "We've never been deployed for combat. I’m actually an attorney when I'm not—"
"Yeah, yeah…we don't care," Jason stopped him. "Just get on the ground and don't talk for a minute." He switched over to just their team channel, shutting off the speakers on his helmet.
"What do we think?" he asked. "Do we believe this is a vital site to the Machine, but all he left to guard the site were some reservists and an old troop transport?"
"This thing has shown a real knack for misdirection and subterfuge, Captain," Twingo said over the link.
"I agree," Kage said. "Since it just appears to be ancient ruins at first glance, having a large, elite presence here would announce to everyone there's something else here, and they should keep digging. If you came here and saw these idiots guarding a couple nerds fussing over undecipherable script on the walls, you probably wouldn't even bother with them."
"Unless you're us, and then you'll bomb their position from orbit and attack with a ground team," Crusher said.
"I like being unpredictable," Jason said.
"And if this turns out to actually be just some scientists?"
"It just proves my point," Jason insisted. "Who could guess we'd decide to attack a random science expedition so savagely? Unpredictable."
"One of the guards is moving for his weapon," Kage said. Without looking over, Crusher drew his sidearm and fired, pulping the trooper’s head with a powerful plasma blast. The others screamed and recoiled in horror, and it looked like one of the scientists may have fainted. The still-smoking corpse of the foolishly brave soldier twitched on the ground.
"Please, stay where you are with your hands visible," Jason said pleasantly before switching back to the internal team channel. "Let's question that twitchy looking researcher—the second from the left—and Kage can begin gathering a detailed scan of the area with his sensors. The faster we find out what this place is, the faster we can get out of here."
The drone Kage inhabited buzzed off deeper into the cavern while the other two approached the remaining prisoners. Crusher went about securing the soldiers with their own restraints and threatening the rest of the science staff while Jason pulled the especially frightened looking one away from the group to talk privately.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Glaretram," the alien stammered. "And yours?" The question was likely asked in an effort to be polite, so Jason resisted the urge to cuff him on the back of the head.
"This isn't a social visit, Glaretram," he said. "What are you guys looking for down here?"
"W-we don't actually know."
"Bullshit," Jason said. "Either start talking or you join that hero over there missing a head."
"We were only told there would be some sort of technology, and that we'd know it when we found it…I swear!" Glaretram blubbered. "I'm just an imaging technician! Ask Suurov, she's the expedition leader!"
"Crusher! Figure out who Suurov is and drag her over here," Jason yelled before turning back to his captive. "I don't play games, Glaretram. If I find out you're screwing with me—"
"I'm not!"
"This one says she's that name you said earlier." Crusher shoved an olive-green-skinned alien towards where Glaretram stood, still shaking like a leaf.
"Suurov, I'm short on time and patience here," Jason said. "What are you looking for?"
"I'm not about to just tell you what—"
"We will kill you, and everyone here, if you don't," Jason cut her off. "It might be quick, or I might let my friend here indulge himself. Your choice." Suurov took one look at Crusher, he
r skin shifting to a bright shade of blue around her neck, and she seemed to deflate a bit.
"There are two parts to the task," she said. "The first was to try and identify the civilization that created this settlement based on some research material we were given at the outset. The second, the part we're in now, is to locate and identify any artifacts that would be technology based such as discarded computing equipment or storage medium."
"That first part…what civilization built this?" Jason asked.
"I wasn't here for that, nor was I allowed to know," Suurov said. "This job has been highly compartmentalized by the Office of Scientific Field Study, the orders coming from Miressa Prime itself. The team that did all the excavation and identified the ruins were pulled out, my team was sent in. I'm an expert in ancient technologies and construction methodologies. I lecture at—"
"Stay focused here," Jason said. "Your life depends on it. What have you found so far?"
"As per my last report to Miressa: nothing recoverable." She stiffened at his causal threats of violence. "We have identified two locations that still had what I deduced to be computing cores at them, but they'd been damaged too badly to be salvaged."
"Damaged from time, or destroyed intentionally?" Kage asked through the speakers of the little drone. Jason hadn't heard it come back from its scouting mission.
"Likely intentionally, but done many hundreds of thousands of years ago," she said. "The locations are annotated on the status screen you passed on the way in."
"Crusher, secure the doctor and her people in one of these buildings," Jason said, turning back to Suurov. "When we leave, we'll release you. I assume you have some way to call for a rescue other than the ship on the surface?"
"We do."
"Then get walking," Crusher demanded, pointing to the building they'd originally hidden in.
"Let's go," Jason said to Kage. "I assume you know the way to these two sites?"
"Already checked them out," Kage said. "First one is this way." The drone whirred a bit as it accelerated away. Jason didn't think the ConFed had any assets in the area that could get to Che'ilith Minor in time to intercept them, but there was no sense in dawdling and find out the hard way he was wrong.
The walk to the first site was short, as promised. Jason stepped into the well-lit chamber and took in all the equipment that the exploration team had been meticulously disassembling and cataloging. There was more of that script all over the walls, some of it burned away. Not being an expert himself, Jason couldn't see where the damage to the equipment was. It all just looked old and crumbling to him.
"I wonder why the Machine has teams scouring through this place?" Jason said to himself.
It's hardly any wonder. This is an outpost built by the Ancients.
It had been so long since Cas had spoken in his mind, Jason jumped at the voice.
"The Ancients? You're sure?"
There can be no doubt.
16
"Where the hell have you been, by the way?" Jason demanded of Cas.
"Cas?" Kage asked. Jason just nodded.
The cascading failures within the implant are accelerating. I haven't had the juice to hold your hand and keep your wetware from coming apart at the same time.
"Can you access the com system in my helmet?" Jason asked. "I don't feel like relaying everything you're telling me."
"I'm so sorry to inconvenience you as I struggle to keep this implant from frying your frontal lobe," Cas said through the speakers. Its voice was the same spoken as it sounded in Jason's head.
"Oh…this guy," Kage said, also now speaking through the com channel.
"Don't worry, Kage. I'm too busy keeping your boss healthy to waste my time giving your fragile ego another thrashing," Cas said. "But we both know who the second-best code slicer on this crew is…you."
"I don't have to listen to this from a—"
"Shut up! Everyone!" Jason barked. "Cas, you're sure this is an Ancient site?"
"Of course, I am," Cas said. "From the looks of it, not a research outpost, either. This looks like it might have been a contingency site."
"For?"
"The Ancients were like any other species," Cas explained. "They had periods of internal turmoil and even a few all-out civil wars. Bugout sites like this likely pepper the galaxy. This room was obviously used to house information banks they then destroyed on the way out."
"So, the Machine is looking for an intact bugout site like this, isn't it?" Kage asked. "There's something it wants, some information that it no longer has."
"Or never had," Cas corrected. "The Machine used to simply be called the Primary Weapon Controller. It was sentient but restrained and limited in the knowledge it was given access to."
"That's disturbing when you phrase it like that," Jason said.
"I can pretty it up for you if you'd like," Cas said. "The point being, it's clear it is missing some vital piece of information."
"I feel like it would be beneficial to us to find that before it did," Jason said.
"No shit, huh?" Cas's sarcasm dripped through the speakers. "I can see why they put you in charge. Yes, genius, it would be wonderful to know exactly what nugget of information it's looking for but, unfortunately, it has access to vast resources to search the quadrant, and we do not."
"I liked it better when you weren't talking," Jason said.
"Same here," Kage said.
"Captain, I hate to break in on this incredibly enlightening conversation, but we have company," Doc said. "A cruiser just meshed-in at the edge of the system, and it's not broadcasting an ident beacon."
"Is there anything else we can find here?" Jason asked.
"Not likely," Cas said. "Whoever it was that shut this site down all those millennia ago even took the time to erase the etchings on the wall. They won't have left anything for us to find."
"Then let's go. Crusher! Turn the prisoners loose, we're leaving."
"We…ah…might have a problem there," Crusher said.
"What problem?"
"The one researcher, Suurov, is demanding we take her along."
"How is that a problem?" Jason asked, breaking into a run. "The answer is no."
"I sort of took my helmet off and was listening in on the conversation through the external speakers," Crusher said. "She heard everything, too. She connected a lot of the dots herself. We probably should either bring her along or kill her."
"Why did you take your helmet off in the middle of an op?!"
"It was itchy."
"I swear to all that you hold dear that when I get to you—" The mostly-idle threat died on Jason's lips as he saw a bright spark and his arms and legs stopped answering commands from his brain. He had been running at a fast clip, so the tumble wasn't gentle.
"Kage, we need to get him to the ship immediately," Cas said through Jason's helmet. "The cascade failures are now unstoppable. The implant needs to come out…now!"
"Crusher! Get back here and get the captain!" Kage called over the open channel. "Doc, prep the infirmary for an immediate neural implant removal. Make sure there's a data core nearby to accept the information off the implant intact. Twingo, you'll need to get the Devil prepped for departure. I'll help you get us past that cruiser once I disconnect from this thing."
Jason could hear all this as if it was happening at the end of a long tunnel. His body was racked with pain, but he could do nothing but lie on the ground and convulse. When Crusher loomed over him a moment later, he mercifully slipped unconscious.
When Jason's eyes cracked open, he was genuinely shocked at how good he felt. Even the low-grade headache he'd been suffering from for the last couple years was gone without a trace. He'd become accustomed enough to manipulating the neural implant in his head that he knew at once something was different. He subvocalized the commands for a status check and realized at once what it was: this was a brand-new implant.
Panic overwhelmed him. What about Cas? What about the Archive? Had all of that been l
ost? Priceless information of a dead civilization, entrusted to him and lost because he couldn't think of a better hiding spot than his own skull?
"Finally awake, I see."
"Cas?" Jason sat up, looking around. The voice had come from outside his head.
"The one and only." The small, onyx orb that was Kage's recon drone popped up over the edge of the bed. "They were able to get you up here and stabilized quickly enough to pull all the data out of the old implant before it failed completely, my own matrix included. After some cajoling, I was able to convince Kage to let me have one of his drones."
"So, your entire matrix is in that drone?" Jason asked.
"A temporary situation. I have more permanent accommodations in mind that will be less risky," Cas said. "But yes, right now, all that I am now resides in this little black sphere."
"Crusher didn't let that doctor come back with us, did he?" Jason asked, remembering the last moments before his brain shorted out.
"No, but not for her lack of trying," Cas said. "She really didn't want to be left behind once she figured out you'd been messing around with Ancient tech."
"The Archive?"
"It was touch and go for a while there, but it was safely extracted intact and stored on one of the servers down in the hold," Cas said. "You'll need to be the one to access it since it's coded to respond to you specifically. We need to figure out what to do with it, and I wouldn't suggest putting it back into your head."
"We?"
"While it's true I was created by accident due mostly to your own incompetence, I feel I'm just as much a guardian of the Archive as you are," Cas said. "At least, I have a strong compulsion to keep it safe."
"I was thinking about that, actually," Jason sat up and swung his legs over the edge, the medical gown someone had dressed him in riding up around his waist.
"Could have done without seeing all of that."
"Grow up," Jason growled, kicking the drone out of the way so he could hop off the bed and go in search of his clothes. They were nowhere to be found, so he clomped barefoot out of the infirmary, heading for his own quarters.
The Pandora Paradox Page 13
