Tina sighed. “Do you have a dozen sensors?” She asked. Her patience with this was starting to ebb.
“No, but I know where I can get them. But we’ll have to crawl all over the ship to place them at the correct spots.” Kian informed them all. “We should use trackers to keep track of everyone. I wouldn’t want to lose anybody in the maze of tunnels through this place.” He offered.
Jamie chuckled. “You’re just afraid of running into whatever it is in the tunnels, you can’t fool us that easy.” He said only partially in jest. Truth be told, he was just as nervous about this undertaking as his brother was.
Tina was ready to move out, but of course they weren’t quite ready yet. “When can you get the sensors so we can get this over with?” She pressed.
Lock spoke up again, having lost the push of this mission and wanting desperately to get it back. “I’ll help coordinate from here. The trackers will all report and we have our communicators. We will be fine.” He said to reassure the others. He had his fingers crossed behind his back for he was very superstitious.
Emelia crossed her arms. “So, in a nutshell what you are saying is that we need sensors to put out into the tunnels to catch something we probably shouldn’t be messing with. But to counter the danger, we’ll keep talking to each other, giving away our locations?” She asked. Her tone made it sound so much worse than it had in their heads. Then she smiled. “I thought so.” She said in a sing-song manner. “I’m in.” She proclaimed excitedly. Her mood shift was so abrupt that none of them had kept up with it.
Lock was looking at his pad now. “I suggest we look at the last reported location to see if there any clues left behind. If there is something moving around in the tunnels, it has to leave some kind of trace behind.” He said, sounding for all the world like a true detective. That was the role he envisioned himself in during this mission.
“Yeah, okay, we’ll go see this empty place while Kian finds his sensors. Then we’ll meet back up here for actual deployment.” She suggested. Her suggestions were usually taken as orders. This time was no different. The small group fell into line except for Kian who had a task of his own now.
“It won’t take long.” He promised as he moved away down the corridor. The rest of them sighed and then moved along after Lock. His data pad was out in front of him with a path laid out before them. It wouldn’t be that long before they would be together back here in the plants. It was more open than the scary tunnels.
The intersection was unremarkable. The deck plates hadn’t been shifted. The walls had no incriminating grime or fingerprints on them. The light was functioning, and the air refreshers were still pumping air into the space. It looked for all the world like a normal intersection. The sensor array was visible in the corner. Unfortunately, there was no visual pickup in that array. Then they could have checked the video logs. The sensor had triggered for motion alone. Despite the normalness of the space, everyone’s nerves were on edge.
Lock put his pad away. The tablet would only have allowed him a bit more light and this place was not dark at all. “Okay everyone, spread out and look for clues.”
“What kind of clues?” Emelia asked almost in protest.
Lock shrugged. “I don’t know. It could be the smallest thing that gives us a direction to follow like scratches on a panel edge, or an unidentifiable spill on the floor. Just look for anything out of the ordinary.” He instructed.
“We should have brought scanners of our own. We might have picked up some residual stuff that can’t be seen by the naked eye.” Jamie muttered. The idea had a lot of merit, but they were already down here. It was too late.
Tina made a huff. “Remember that for next time.” Her tone was reflected in the eyes of the entire group. Then she stopped in mid-step. Couldn’t you configure your pad to work like a camera with magnification?” She asked.
Lock stopped what he was doing as well and pulled out the tablet. “Good idea.” He said as he switched it on. His pad was an industrial one with an unbreakable screen. But the sensors on it were limited. Still, the camera feature might help them. He swiped the camera on and began scanning the surrounding walls.
The results were pretty much the same though, everything looked normal. The camera only saw what his eyes could see. If he noticed something interesting, he would zoom in on it and then sigh that it was nothing. This happened several times. They had now been down here searching for the better part of an hour.
Emelia was sitting down now. Her motivation had plummeted, and she was ready to go back home. Adventure wasn’t supposed to be boring. “Can we go back now? Whatever was here has been fixed. The maintenance crew has been down here you know.” She complained.
Lock froze. “Yes, and there would be a record of what they did.” He said, a little excitement returning.
Tina protested. “You said the maintenance crew found nothing.”
“Yes, but what panels did they open looking?” Lock asked. He was on a trail and was not ready to give up on it yet.
“So, you think they opened something down here?” Tina asked. “Why?”
Lock looked up from his pad. “They would have had to before declaring there was nothing here. What if they had found a panel open and simply closed it after the inspection?”
“Come on, they would have mentioned the open panel. It would have shown that someone was tampering with the ship. That would be important.” Emelia complained. She was really ready to get back to her room.
Tina took Lock’s side. “While I agree that an open panel would be reported, they may have noticed something insignificant and noted it in their report only for it to be ignored by their higher-ups.” She suggested.
Lock glanced at her. “Exactly. They can’t be bothered with every little detail. They are important people.” He said as he read through the correct report. He looked up at the wall and noted the location they were in. “We’re in the wrong place.” He said softly.
“What?” It was Tina protesting this time. “You assured us that you knew where we were going.” She accused Lock.
“I did, but this isn’t the place. According to the report, there is an access way off of this branch that they were investigating.” He said. Then he moved like a shot. He was determined and his newfound knowledge was leading the way. He moved with purpose back to the beginning of the intersection and then he looked down. There it was. An access hatch was below the floor grate. Upon brief inspection, the metal on the edges of the grate had been scratched. It had been moved. They worked together to lift the grate and set it aside. The hatch looked old, but the dust had been recently disturbed. This only proved to reinforce the notion that they had been searching in the wrong place.
Lock reached down and pressed the admit button on the hatch and seals in it released with a loud air pressure popping sound. The locking mechanism rotated to the open position and a light next to the button turned from red to green. Lock pulled up on the hatch and it opened up with an air pressure stabilizing hiss. The drop beyond was not far, but it seemed to go off into the darkness pretty convincingly.
He tested the gravity here just in case there was a pocket of heavy around here. He dropped a stylus into the hole. The sound of it bouncing off more deck plates was reassuring. Lock dropped down and planted both feet. He flashed his light around the space to make sure he was alone. Then he called up to the others.
“It’s okay, come on down.” His light was blinding in the darkness here.
“Don’t shine that thing in my face!” Tina complained. “Shine it on the floor.” She added to be more helpful than critical. It wasn’t long before all four of them were down in this secondary corridor. Lock began looking for markings on the walls right away.
“Why are there no lights in here? We should have triggered the sensors accordingly.” Emelia asked.
“Maybe there are no automatic lights here.” Lock suggested. He was looking at his pad and it lit his face up as it displayed the requested information. “In
fact, we’d better not stay down here too long. The cyclers may not be working either.” He cautioned.
Each of them sniffed the air, trying to sense if it was fresh or not. From a lifetime of breathing circulated air, they had all become experts when something wasn’t right. So far, there seemed to be nothing wrong save the darkness.
Jamie was working his way along the wall, fingers outstretched so that when the light was not with him, he could still move cautiously forward. His fingers were just brushing the wall. His feet were planted squarely each time so that he wouldn’t trip on anything. “What panel are we looking for?” He asked.
Lock was back with his nose in the data. “Looks like we’ll need to get down to C deck. It says C-2317 here. According to the chart, it is closer than you’d think. It’s just about forty meters down this corridor.
“Forty meters?” It was Emelia again, tired of this nonsense. “Can’t you just find a light switch so we can walk normally?” She moaned.
Lock blinked. He slid something onto his screen and tapped a button. The lights in the corridor came up to about sixty percent.
Tina grunted. “You mean you could have done that all along?” She asked. “Why did you make us jump down in the dark?”
Lock shrugged. “I… I just noticed the app sitting on the side of the report. If I hadn’t looked up the panel number, we’d still be in the darkness.” He explained.
Tina held her palm out to him in a ‘stay back’ gesture. “Fine, let’s get to this panel of yours before we all lose our patience.” She said. It sounded more like a warning.
The group made good time, looking for signs that someone had been down here recently. Of course, they found a few signs. There was dust on the floor that had been disturbed by the maintenance team. There were handprints all around the panel when they found it. The lock mechanism had fresh scratches on it as well. Whoever had come down here was in a hurry to get this over with. The kids could relate.
“So, this is your panel.” Emelia said. “How do you expect to open it?” She added indicating the locking mechanism.
Lock smiled at her. “Excuse me, what is my name?” He asked her sarcastically. Then he produced a key from his suit. The key fit the lock and the panel opened without any problems. It swung open into the corridor and Lock lifted it off the hinges and set it down as quietly as possible onto the floor.
“Where did you get that key?” Emelia asked. It all seemed so incredible.
Lock smiled. “It’s a pass key. It fits almost every lock I’ve ever encountered. I will not tell you how I came by it, but suffice it to say, it comes in handy.” He said putting the key back into his suit carefully. “Now, let’s investigate what we came here for.” He suggested.
The light inside the panel was dim so Lock shined his pad light into the opening. There were indeed scratches here. The panel had been off before, many times by the look of it. The panel itself had been covering and access control. The label on the access control said “Hydraulics”. There were a few gauges underneath it that were all in the green. The only problem was they were not showing true readings. It was obvious to all the teens that the gauges had been rigged to show normal. The investigation had only revealed more questions.
“How many other panels had been rigged to lie? What hydraulics did this panel actuate? Who was allowing this broken machinery to exist? It was a sure thing that a maintenance crew would have spotted the lie just as easily as the teens had. No, this was some sort of cover-up for something. A creepy feeling was coming over them as they stood in that dimly lit corridor.
“Somebody is hiding something here, we should put that panel back on and get out of here before they realize we know that.” Tina suggested.
Lock realized the same thing as Tina spoke the words. He was already picking the panel back up and getting ready to put it in place.
A sound up the corridor made them all look. They were frozen in fear. Tina nudged Lock. “Put it back now!” She said sternly trying not to scream at him. “We need to get out of here sooner rather than later.” She urged. She waved the others to the hatch and they began to climb. Another sound down the corridor clanged something and lock snapped the panel back in place. He pulled out his pad and swiped the lights off again. Then he and Tina made their way to the ladder that was only deployable from the lower deck. It seemed so ridiculous. The deck looked just like it had, but now there was an element of fear.
“Are we being followed?” It was Jamie who had spoken.
“No idea.” Lock replied. He was looking for a quicker way out. It was a cinch that somebody would expect them to backtrack out. He didn’t want to walk into a trap like that. “We need to climb again. I suggest we head up towards the main deck and then spilt up to get home through different random paths.” He looked as serious as anyone had ever seen him. Fear had solidified his demeanor as a leader.
“Sounds good.” Tina replied. She had her hoverboard out and was ready to take off. The others suddenly realized that their hoverboards could enhance their speed and pulled them out. They were off like a shot through the corridors they had slowly crept through before. It was dangerous to shoot off at high speed through the darkness. Eventually, most made it out onto the main deck. From there they could easily slip into regular traffic as just rambunctious kids. They were home without incident, but the fear they had faced remained.
Lock found himself looking up the hydraulic systems. The main clue they had was that. He needed to know what those systems controlled to understand why someone would want them turned off. Or more importantly, who wanted them turned off. It was also notable wondering who was covering up for whoever turned them off. This little excursion was turning out to be a potentially dangerous mission. He still had to get free though. He was still in the corridors and his friends had a good head start. He had needed to make sure their presence was not obvious. He moved with catlike swiftness and sure footing through corridors that should have been new to him. But he had spent a lot of time down here exploring and playing alone. The inner workings of the ship were his playground. The others would not understand his fascination with machines and how they worked and how they kept the colonists alive. But lock was all about that. It was why he had recognized that the panel was not where it was supposed to be.
The noise he had heard repeated, but this time it was much closer. Lock looked around and found a panel that he could slip into. He used his key and was inside in seconds. The sound happened again. It was a banging on metal, like something heavy being dropped onto the deck. Only whatever it was had no bounce to it, it was just a single metal clang for each hit. Lock felt the air moving in the corridor outside and he tried his best to shrink away from the opening. He didn’t want to be detected. His pad was switched off, and he concentrated on slowing his breathing. His hands were shaking though. A shadow moved past the panel he was hiding behind, and he felt his heart jump up into his throat. He wanted to scream but that was the exact opposite of what he wanted to do.
“I know you’re here somewhere little one.” A voice said menacingly in the corridor. “Come out an’ it’ll go easier for ya.” He did not recognize this voice, but it sounded deep and resonant. This was most likely one of the maintenance workers. “I know ya turned on my lights. I know ya turned ‘em back off again t’ hide.” The deep voice said. “Lookie, I c’n do that too.” He said and the lights suddenly went to full brightness. The light cast bars across Lock as he tried even harder to remain small and insignificant inside the panel.
Another noise happened somewhere down the corridor and the heavy metal sound rang repeatedly.
“Now I gotcha!”
Whoever it was ran at top speed towards the new audio evidence. Lock recognized this as his opportunity and emerged from the panel. The light was full brightness and his eyes took a few precious seconds to adjust. He made his way up to the next deck with little trouble and took off at a run the opposite way the clanging sound receded into. He finally made it to a hatch th
at allowed him access to the main deck. He was exhausted and winded, but fear was keeping him moving. He needed to blend in better and shaking as he was, that wasn’t going to happen. The young adventurer ducked into a small shop and began to browse through the merchandise. Out of view from the main area, he began to relax a bit. The wares were nothing special. If he were forced to make a purchase, it would be difficult to find something worth having. He decided that taking too long in this store would give him away too so he smiled politely at the cashier and made his way back out into the commons. The crowd was shuffling along thick for it was a shift change. This added crowd was the very thing Lock needed to run interference for his escape. He made his way home, looking around with the corners of his eyes. He didn’t want to look too obvious that he was searching for someone looking for him. Besides, what would he do if he found someone like that? He shivered at the thought.
Once home he settled in to bring his nerves back under control. He still wanted to know about those hydraulic systems. But he was just too tired to search for it now. He laid down and went to sleep with troubled dreams.
∆ ∆ ∆
The morning came with no new threats, but Lock had been restless in his sleep. His eyes were droopy and black rings around them showed just how sleep-deprived he was now. He had no messages from his friends, so he decided to look up the systems he had been concerned with the day before.
The hydraulic systems involved were a back-up system to a door. That system was not all that important. Since the main computer would detect faults on the main systems and repair them before the back-up system would ever be deployed. But the door in question was interesting. It was not just any door; it was the main airlock door to the launching bay. If that door managed to remain open beyond the safeguards, it would vent most of the air from the central portion of the ship. Emergency seals all over the ship would deploy to save as much air as possible, but the people would be locked in their respective places. Of course, there were many safeguards against such a catastrophic event, but the chance was not zero. This system was only a backup, so the main door system would have to fail so quickly that the computer could not foresee it. Then the door would have to be opened during that failure so that the hydraulic back-up would be expected to close it. Since that system was not online, yeah, that would be bad.
Eternals Among Us: Book one Page 2
