by Aer-ki Jyr
“Then whatever is prompting my head to go wonky might start happening to a lot of others. So let’s get this figured out now, before the war really ramps up.”
“A point I’ll be sure to make with the trailblazers.”
“If you don’t mind, can I get your medtechs to run me through a few scans before I head off to the states? Not the normal ones, your specialists.”
“Please. The messages from Jason and Aaron didn’t come with any data, and I’d like to get our biologists working on the problem as soon as possible.”
“Have you had a look through the database yet?”
“Briefly, but I don’t have any terminology to specifically search for so I was just wasting my time.”
“Why the damn dinos couldn’t leave an index is beyond me.”
“Alien thinking. Besides, when you pack a bag for a trip, how often do you make an inventory list?”
“Never.”
“Because you already know what’s inside and where to find it.”
“Right…we’re fake Zen’zat so we shouldn’t be complaining.”
“Our techs can work their way around the portions we’re familiar with, much as I assume the V’kit’no’sat did, and can show others where to find what they need, but finding new areas is random and tedious. I’ve got 8,000 techs working through it, piece by piece, but we’ve gotten through less than 2%...and we only know that now because we have core access. I’m sure there are files on the Zen’zat’s mental abilities in there somewhere, but without any links we haven’t been able to find them.”
“You did run a search for ‘superpowers,’ right?”
Davis smiled. “I don’t even know how to say that in V’kit’no’sat. Our vocabulary is still on the thin side…and our mathematics are even worse. They have an engineering language that is completely separate…that we also discovered with the core access. We’ve learned about 10 words since, and that’s just from matching up symbols on schematics.”
“So we’re going to have to figure this out on our own for the time being?”
“Pretty much, which is why I’d prefer to have you all working the problem together. I’m not the combat expert, but even I know that telekinesis would be a huge asset on the battlefield.”
“And if the real Zen’zat have it,” David said, thinking long term, “the sooner we figure it out the better.”
“That thought also crossed my mind.”
David shook his head in dismay. “Is there no end to their bag of tricks?”
“Given the size of their database, I’d guess we’re in for a lot more surprises…not to mention whatever they’ve developed over subsequent millennia.”
“Don’t remind me,” David said, standing up. “If I start mindbending pebbles I’ll let you know, but I’d like to get on the Colorado mission before the cop shooting gets any colder.”
“I’ve made arrangements for you to work out of the Phoenix spaceport. There’s a mantis on standby to take you there whenever you’re ready.”
David tapped the datapad he’d left on the Director’s desk. “Send a copy of that and all other relevant information to my account.”
“That’s all I’ve got at the moment, but I’ll make sure you get any updates within an hour of them crossing my desk.”
David nodded, not bothering with a goodbye now that all relevant information had been exchanged, and headed down the stairs out of Davis’s office, picking up his armor satchel from the bottom where he’d left it, and headed straight over to the mantis air pads.
4
May 17, 2405
Solar System
Earth
David sat in one of the Phoenix spaceport’s executive offices, studying report after report that Star Force security and analytics were pulling for him, some based off of Davis’s previous work and others following up leads the Archon pointed them toward. The more data that David worked through the more he was convinced that Davis was right that some shadowy organization had a foothold in the Colorado region. Whoever it was was very tidy, but Archons weren’t chosen only for their physical skills.
Seeing and identifying new patterns, troubleshooting where one had no previous experience, and finding ways around problems were all baseline prerequisites for Archon trainees and while this organization, which David had come to start referring to as ‘The Silence,’ had perfectly blended itself into societal norms to the point of invisibility, his mind didn’t function within the box that the masses did, and thus The Silence couldn’t camouflage against what they didn’t understand.
There were clues everywhere, like scattered easter eggs, but nothing that could even remotely be used as proof…not that David needed proof. Nor did Star Force for that matter. But he could see how The Silence had eluded national authorities so easily, even with the occasional gigantic snafu like the death of the police officer in Steamboat Springs. The city was small, but like most nowadays had a central portion that was built vertically to allow for population growth while maintaining the wilderness environment that many vacationers came to visit from the urban sprawl along the coasts.
The shooting had apparently happened on the street in a small college park when a group of students got into an argument with a passerby. The man had shot them, then a nearby officer that responded to the ruckus before three others got onsite and killed the shooter, whereupon they claimed his weapon that mysteriously morphed from a plasma variety to the much more common bullet-launchers.
Three students in total were killed, but the death of the police officer is what had made national news. Upon arriving in the United States David had immediately traveled out to the college campus and did some quiet searching around, both in daytime and night. The hubbub of the shooting had already died down and normal routines were returning to form but there were plenty of people still unnerved enough at what had happened to be willing to talk about it at length.
Security footage from the park area where the shooting was supposed to have occurred was unavailable due to a power failure in the cameras…though with some minor hacking Star Force techs were able to confirm that the campus security systems were functioning normally and that the recordings from that time had been erased.
Not only in the park, though. There was a large section of the campus that had been blacked out. That, combined with some idle gossip around the campus, gave David the impression that the shooting was a cover up for something else that had gone down outside of the park. The shooter himself was unimpressive, though his personnel records were also altered to include previous run-ins with the law that Star Force’s files did not show. The man, named Harkin, had visited Luna on several occasions, and as such his personnel file was computer checked by Star Force for any security flags…at which time a copy was made and stored in secure databases that couldn’t be easily hacked.
A quick check between the American and Star Force records popped up the discrepancy, which suggested that the man was a fall guy, either a part of The Silence or someone they had paid off or set up to cover for something else…and David thought he had the location for that something else pinned down to a particular building on campus that held support services, including a bowling alley, cafeteria, fitness center, and several lounges.
Since he’d gotten back to the spaceport he’d had Star Force’s people digging up whatever data they could on the college and its staff, as well as the students. Security had also placed several discrete recording devices on site so they could monitor traffic patterns in and out of the campus and that one building in particular, which David was now reviewing in conjunction with a logistical estimate analytics had put together on his request.
Given that the suspect building was a cafeteria that fed thousands of students on campus continually it was natural to assume regular shipments of food coming in and trash going out, but David had suspected, and analytics had confirmed, that the traffic flow was above and beyond what was necessary, meaning the cargo shipments were either being carried in ha
lf empty trucks or there was more moving to and fro than just college foodstuffs.
Also, two of the three students killed were a couple whose friends had said they had a regular eating schedule in the cafeteria before one would attend a night class and the other would head over to a friend’s dorm room. No one knew what the two had been doing in the park where they were alleged to have gotten shot, which made David suspect they had been killed elsewhere and moved to the park to divert attention away from the location of the actual shooting.
If this was all a massive cover up, then the pair had probably stumbled across something they weren’t supposed to see, while the third person may have been involved or just added to the body count while in the park. David didn’t know what to suspect there and he hadn’t been able to dig up any information on that individual’s dining patterns.
Several other people in the cafeteria at the time had recalled seeing the couple eating and then leave prior to the shooting, which jived with the official report of the incident occurring in the park, but David’s gut still said they had seen something they weren’t supposed to have seen and they were shot on sight, with a very quick cover-up put into place, otherwise the plasma pistol would never have seen the light of day. He guessed it was either the only weapon The Silence had on hand at the time, or they used it in public to match the lethal wounds the students had received so no one would think twice on site…then the files were altered later, with key people being hushed up to overlook the difference.
Had there been plasma wounds on the bodies, supposedly fired from a bullet launcher, that could have spread word of mouth before The Silence would be able to hush it up…at least that’s where David’s mind was headed. What had actually happened was still up for speculation at the moment.
The building, though, was the main priority. Receiving schedules appeared to be repetitive, according to the report he was reading, with several occurring during the night. The cargo trucks would arrive, offload in an interior bay, then leave shortly thereafter. Based on wheel depression, for most American vehicles had not transitioned over to anti-grav, expensive as it was, the trucks coming in had been lightly loaded the first few days after Star Force had its surveillance equipment set up, but the past three, it seemed, showed fully loaded vehicles coming and going…while shipping manifests for the college indicated that the trucks were delivery only and should have been departing empty.
“Mistake number one,” David said to The Silence, wherever and whoever they were. “Assuming that no one is curious enough to pay attention to details.”
Getting up from his borrowed desk the Archon shot across the room and out the door…then came back in a moment later with a ‘did I really just forget that’ face and snagged the last two cookies from a small plate on the desk, biting off half of one as he headed back out the door.
Six hours later, after a quiet, stealth mantis drop off in Steamboat Springs, David was walking across Manning Community College campus just as the sun was setting behind the mountains and the street lights were coming on, blanketing the walkways in gentle green and orange to match the school colors. David was dressed in baggy civilian clothes, not even of Star Force issue, and blended in easily with the college students as he made his way across to the cafeteria in question.
He walked through it twice, from different angles, trying to spot anything out of the ordinary that the dead couple could have stumbled their way into but there was nothing on the main floor so he slowly walked up the curving staircase to the second level balcony where there were no vendors, just tables looking out the building’s walls that were mostly made of glass, offering a decent view of the campus grounds, lit up splendidly in artificial light now that night had fallen.
There were only a few occupied tables, all of which were along the edge of the balcony where they could look down on the people below. Opposite the railing there was an array of potted plants and trees bracketing twin doorways leading to restrooms. David walked that way, giving him a purpose for being on the upper level as he visually scanned the area, finding nothing of interest until he was a step away from entering the leftmost door to the men’s restroom.
In between the shrubbery and the back wall was a narrow gap on both sides, but on the one to his left was a fairly well worn path. Playing a hunch he stepped onto it, disappearing from view though there were a few tiny gaps that he could see the tables through. The dirt/wood chip pathway led to the corner of the wall where it revealed a hidden nook in the architecture…along with a very attractive girl typing something into her phone.
She looked up at David, then did a double take, sizing him up from head to toe and back again. “You’re not the one I was waiting for, but you’ll do just fine,” she said with a smile as she pocketed her phone.
“Oh I will?” David said, catching on quickly. “What if I was waiting on someone too?”
“Then we better hurry,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and pushing him back against the sidewall before standing up on her toes and kissing him hard.
David returned the gesture, but twisted her around enough that he could get an eye on the oddity in the building’s construction. The walls were unfinished, just bare plastio board, and the backside was open, though to what he couldn’t see because the entire area was in shadow with the only light coming in through the breaks in the trees, making for a convenient, yet secluded makeout niche.
The Archon found himself coming up short on air, but kept at it until she finally relented, realizing he hadn’t kissed anyone in a very long time. He looked down into her big brown eyes and smiled.
“How was that?”
“A bit sloppy. Seems like you could use some practice, but I’m really digging this hard body of yours. Are you on the football team?” she asked, leaning heavily into him and kissing his chin playfully.
“No, but I train pretty heavy. I’m going to try and test out to become an Archon later this year.”
Dim lighted as it was, he could clearly see her give him a ‘yeah right’ look, though the kiss that followed didn’t hold such sarcasm.
“As hot as you’re making me right now, I hate to break it to you, but you’re no Archon,” she said, followed by another kiss.
“Why not?” he asked, suppressing a laugh as he let himself enjoy the moment.
“You’re too short. I hear they don’t take anyone under 6’ 9’’ and you’re a good foot short of that.”
“I’m still growing,” he countered, then kissed her back, twisting her around again so he could try and get a different angle on the back end of the niche, but other than the faint drop off he couldn’t see anything past it.
A vibration on his hip cut the kiss short and the girl quickly backed away and pulled out her phone, looking very nervous as she read the text.
“Um, shit. My boyfriend’s here. Can you hide…please???”
David glanced around. “Where do you suggest?”
She grabbed his hand and pulled him back to the edge, then used her phone’s screen to provide some light on a narrow walkway along the wall about a foot and a half wide that led to another wall that jutted out left with the walkway following the perimeter to a hidden landing cattycorner from their position.
“Nobody’s back there, I think. Please?”
“I don’t know…you called me a bad kisser,” he teased.
“I said sloppy,” she said, kissing him hard again. “All you need is practice, which I’m more than willing to help you with later…just not now. Please.”
David pulled her back to him and did, he thought, a more credible job in the art of liplocking, then nudged her away. “Go.”
A relieved look crossed her phone-lighted features as she hopped back up to the front of the niche while David walked out of view down and around the L-shaped ledge that he guessed was half of a structural wall. He gingerly stepped off onto a flat top of what was probably a room below, but there was so little light that he had to feel his way around with his feet
and hands. He followed the wall a few meters away from the drop off, then his foot caught on something. He reached down and, through tactile inspection, guessed that it was a bra some college chick had lost in the dark…making this the ‘more than make out’ platform.
Eventually he came to the other side of the landing and found another edge, making it clear to David that he was in the ghost of the building. Star Force designs didn’t have ‘ghosts,’ meaning interior space that wasn’t designated for use. Whoever had built this building had done so by drafting rooms as needed and fitting the entire construct into an exterior shell rather than adjusting the rooms to fit the shape of the shell. Normally ghost spaces were sealed off, from both people and air, but apparently the construction crew for this building had missed a wall, and with the leafy interior decorating the oversight hadn’t been noticed.
Meaning that if a couple of college makeout artists had ventured far enough in this building’s ghost zone they might have come across something they weren’t supposed to see.
David worked his way across the edge of the drop off until he found the far wall, which coincidentally was at a slant, meaning he had to stoop down to follow it to the base where there was about half a meter of empty space between the edge of the room he was standing on and the angled roof. He reached a hand over, feeling the drop off, then noticed a hint of light when he stuck his head over. It was barely a crack, but it let out enough of a glow for him to see where the floor was.
Swinging his legs forward first, he slid over the edge and dropped down a remarkably short fall, being able to reach back up and touch his elbow to the ledge. The Archon knelt down next to the crack, smelling chemical sealant. He pressed a hand against the flat surface above the crack and pushed firmly.
The bottom corner peeled forward, letting in more light and breaking off little bits of dried sealant. David froze, waiting for a reaction from the other side, but no sounds or movements resulted so he pressed on, working his way up the panel and finding the hard points. With proper leverage he snapped each one loose, allowing the panel to swing forward enough that he could slip through underneath.
