Merker's Outpost

by I. Christie

  "All right, everyone, listen up!" The Captain took charge immediately. "Check your air and temperature gauges."

  "Roberts and Bandio, forward position. JG and Smitson remain here. Let's move!" The captain followed behind Cpl. Roberts, giving her and Bandio plenty of distance to let them check for the surprises. They made a complete circle and were back to the service entrance facing JG and Smitson who had drawn their weapons at their approaching lights.

  "Sir, it's time to change over to the second tank."

  "Right." The group climbed back into the corridor to comfortably change. While the group switched to their second tank, gratefully shedding the bulk of the empty one, the captain turned to JG.

  "JG, go check with the shuttle."

  Nodding she returned to the elevator to go topside. She knew he wanted a complete report from Sgt. Vanster on what was going on topside and he did not trust any of the other grunts to remember or know what was important to relay to him.

  "Roberts and Scout, get back in there and place a charge," the captain ordered impatiently.

  ***

  **

  "How's the weather?"

  "Fine, for the next two hours."

  The two glanced at the other crewmembers that were busily repairing parts to emptied tanks, working fast and efficiently from habit, and then refilling them, each marked for species differences in air mixture.

  "Most of the tanks are worthless now. I'm having to strip down others for replacement parts."

  "I'll send up our discarded tanks."

  "Well, let's change yours since you're here. I can see a seam already forming at the stem. Check the others when you get back. We don't have any more stems to replace so the whole unit will have to be swapped out."

  As they swapped JG's equipment, Vanstar continued, "Mr. High and Mighty is on his ship. Sent word he wants to see the captain when he returns from his inspection. Said to check with his staff for his whereabouts." Both women smirked. Lord Chaney did not trust some of the smugglers so he did not give his location out until he was there.

  "Windstorm over the city caught some of the search groups topside, so they were picked up and delivered to the two hovering freighters. We have a second windstorm forming over the rim. It should hit here in two days. I don't want to be a party pooper, but it looks like the same type of weather pattern from the previous year is shaping up."

  They both exchanged meaningful looks and then gave each other the Black Rose 'talley ho' sign. JG's decent back into the city was quiet as she mentally laid her own plans. When the elevator door opened, the others were gathering around the elevator door.

  "Where are the other three?" she asked worried.

  "Placing a charge in the tunnel," Lt. Ninian answered. "Captain, why don't we wait in the elevator and give our equipment a rest?" he suggested.

  The captain nodded as they crowded on the elevator to run a check on their equipment. The elevators were the only places the computer that oversaw the outpost, did not threaten them in. While they huddled in the elevator, JG passed on her information to the captain and lieutenant, with both cursing under their breaths, more at the weather front moving in than the news of Lord Chaney's desire to speak with the captain.

  ***

  *

  Cpl. Roberts, meanwhile, had found a place to wedge the charge. As the explosive specialist, she disagreed with the size of blow the captain insisted on using. She thought it was not enough to damage the wall structure, which would be suicidal, but would cause a back draft and a possible flameout. As she and her partner hurried back down the tunnel, they could see in their lights the exit panel closing.

  "Helgas Bloody Moon!" Scout cursed. "Carson should be keeping that thing open!"

  The two frantically pushed all around the panel area looking for something that would reopen their exit. In the city, it was to the right of the panel's top corner. They had to get out of there soon or the blast that was set with a five-minute delay would blow them out of their suits.

  Angrily, Roberts slammed her gloved palm on the corner of the panel and she fell through the sudden opening into the corridor. Scout scrambled over her grabbing her wrist and hauling her to her feet. They had to get around the corner, away from the backlash. The last sound they heard was the muffled explosion. The force of the blast knocked them into the wall, leaving one stunned and the other unconscious. A green cloud of gas flamed out of the tunnel, the orange tendrils curling up into the air vents and sucked in. The empty canisters sitting next to the tunnel exploded sending shrapnel about the area.

  The elevator shook from the explosion. The group in the small space looked at each other while activating their visors in an automatic response. Various expletives were heard over the communicators as everyone whispered their favorites.

  "Everyone secure?" the captain demanded.

  JG tapped each helmet quickly getting thumbs up responses from each Spartan that they were good.

  "Secure, Sir!"

  The lieutenant pushed the button to open the elevator door. The flameout had receded but bits of metal were strewn about the floor and a burnt object was stuck to one of the walls.

  "The metal is from an air canister, sir." JG reported as she read the read-out from her HR. There was no evidence of any life forms or the remains. Helgas Bloody Moon! We lost soldiers in a noncombative recon mission and parts we badly need for our equipment.

  The others also had their readers out. No one mentioned three lives gone; it was the hazards of their job. There would be another time and place for grieving.

  "The charge must have hit something. Look at that green gas." The lieutenant shinned his light on the ceiling. The captain stepped into the corridor. The lights in the area immediately came on giving them a better view of the damage, which was scattered shrapnel, and nothing else. The walls remain unaffected. Cautiously the captain walked out of sight of the others as he inspected the corridor up to where he felt the panel should be. The others followed, careful to not step on the sharp remains of the tanks and maybe other things that they did not want to think about.

  "It's probably from the canisters," Markson quietly mentioned in his helmet to no one in particular.

  "Watch your step, Spartans," the lieutenant cautioned. The lieutenant kept his eyes on the green gas seeping from the tunnel opening and getting sucked up through the ceiling vent. They had seen many different shades of green gasses that Guardian would release in the city but this one was not familiar.

  The captain was kneeling in front of the service door careful not to let the gas cloud touch him. Some of the chemicals Guardian used ate through their AEGs, giving a good warning as to what it would do to their lungs. There was nothing his light revealed except that the tendrils of the gas were dissipating before it reached the ceiling. As the last of it curled upward, the captain stepped cautiously into the tunnel. He was too close to give up and return to the ship, and time was running out. His intuition was telling him that kid Fermin was up to no good. He felt that as sure as he felt Captain Montran was still alive…somewhere on this outpost.

  Once in the tunnel, he hurried down the passage sweeping his light along the walls, ceiling and floor, looking for a mark of where the charge had been set.

  "Lieutenant there's an opening here in the ceiling." In his preoccupation with his discovery, he failed to notice the silence.

  The lieutenant on the outside decided to follow since the captain was not responding to his calls. He found Captain Miller attempting to move some cables in a space between the floor levels. Two of the cables looked like they were leaking something. The captain and lieutenant both started to push on what appeared to be a floor panel to the floor above them.

  "Get one of the others to help."

  The lieutenant watched the captain's lips move. He gathered their communicators were not working. The lieutenant shook his head. The lieutenant was not going to leave the captain alone when they were so close to the portal.

  Outside of the se
rvice panel, JG realized their communicators were malfunctioning.

  "It must be some kind of trick from Guardian," wrote Cpl. Markson on a pad.

  JG nodded. Cpl. Markson was skittish about the computer that over-saw the outpost. He was starting to give it mystical qualities, much to JG's contempt, which she was careful not to show. She motioned to two of the Spartans to stay near the elevator and then to Markson and Bandio to check the tunnel out. Henderson remained with her at the service tunnel opening.

  Markson and Bandio found the captain and lieutenant trying to push up a floor plate in the ceiling. Bandio squeezed in at the captain's direction and lent his own weight. The plate moved enough to show a space big enough for their fingered gloves to pass though. The captain gestured to use a charge but the lieutenant was vigorously shaking his head no. Markson was relieved but he was afraid the captain might get his wish if they did not come up with an alternative. While the two continued to argue in gestures, Bandio leaned against the tunnel and looked back the way they came while Markson shinned his light around further up the tunnel. Curious, Markson left the two arguing officers to investigate a movement. Ten steps further into the tunnel, his heart nearly stopped and a scream that only his ears could hear filled his throat. His light revealed two yellow eyes before him. They blinked. Dropping his light, Markson turned and frantically ran back to the others. His light attached to a line on his utility belt, banged back and forth around his legs, creating eerie shadows on the walls. The captain and lieutenant stopped their conversation to see Markson frantically waving his arms at them and his light wildly swinging around his legs. The lieutenant caught him by the arms and tried to calm him down while the captain picked up his light and handed it to him. Both could see that he was frightened. His helmet's faceplate was condensing over. The captain reluctantly signaled they would return to the elevator so that they could hear what Markson had to say.

  Cpl. Markson's visibility in his helmet was quickly becoming nil so he was placed between two men who guided him back out. JG helped Markson out of the tunnel and they all retreated to the elevator. When the elevator doors sealed and their scanners read that the air was breathable, they retracted their helmets.

  "What in blasting asteroids is bothering you?" Captain Miller demanded.

  "Eyes! Two yellow eyes staring at me!" he gasped out struggling to get his breathing back to normal.

  The others were silent. They had not met any living species on this planet yet, only cyberbeings and small utility roBots. However, none of them had yellow eyes.

  "There can't be any life form out of a suit and my COR hasn't picked up any bio forms," the captain started slowly. He did not want anyone to panic when he was so close. "Check your breather mixture." It was the first thing to do when something like this happened; you ruled out possibilities.

  "Yeah, yeah," Markson mumbled. He had already done so before he entered the tunnel and they were just fine, however he looked at it again. The dials registered an imbalance, but that was expected since he had overtaxed the suit with his hyped up bios.

  "There you go. You were hallucinating from an uneven mix. You should know the drill, Markson," the lieutenant pointed out relieved.

  The others seemed okay with that explanation. They seemed to have forgotten that they all checked their gauges before entering the tunnel, but Markson did not. The captain meanwhile gave the rundown of their situation to the others and the conversation turned to what to do about the jammed floor panel.

  "We can't blast another hole. We don't know what's in those other hoses."

  "Well, what have you to suggest?" the captain asked the lieutenant.

  "Wedge something in there to pry it up. It feels like we just need the right leverage."

  "Yeah." The captain punched his gloved fist in his opened palm. "I can feel it's ready to give."

  JG pulled out a short metal bar from her leg pocket. It was used to open stubborn doors and such. It was also a handy weapon. "How's this?"

  Both the captain and lieutenant made a grab for it.

  "Well, let's go back and try." The captain looked at the lieutenant with wary eyes.

  The lieutenant ignored the look and checked his gauges. The others followed suit.

  "The lieutenant and I will return back up the tunnel. Markson, how are your gauges?"

  "They're still off their mark, sir."

  "If it doesn't clear up in a quarter stan, return topside and get new equipment. It could be a bad stem."

  The captain looked at his watch. "If we're not back in an hour JG, get fresh tanks for everyone, if you haven't already, and bring us replacements. Three light flashes, JG means we're in. We won't need air once we are at the portal. We won't need air anywhere within any of the compounds. Guardian, that damn computer thing, will have to take care of us!" The Captain took Guardian's defense against their illegal occupation personally. He looked around and got nods. He needed at least four people to make a claim for the possession of the Portal. As silly as all the information was on the portal, the power that could be derived from owning it made him cautious.

  "Gear up then."

  Everyone reactivated their helmets and waited for the doors to open. The light read green for the hallway but they ignored it. Markson's helmet still had condensation around the edges but it was enough to convince the others that his suit was still malfunctioning.

  As the door opened, the others did not move. A light powder had settled onto the ground and there was an unmistakable smudged trail that was from the elevator to around the corner.

  "It's us!" the captain suddenly announced relieved. The others heard it on their communicators. "Those are our footprints," he repeated.

  "The communicators are working, Captain," Markson announced relieved.

  "Let's go," the captain remarked to the lieutenant impatiently.

  Markson and Guilfo kept watch on the elevator and corridor, while Henderson, Bandio and JG followed the tracks back to the service tunnel, just behind the officers. The captain and lieutenant reentered the tunnel with Henderson, and left Bandio and JG to guard the tunnel entrance.

  "I almost thought Markson's friend with the eyes was here!" Bandio admitted to JG when the officers were well on their way into the tunnel. Dark unreadable eyes turned his way and Bandio held his breath a moment. She merely nodded. The facemask did not lessen the intensity of the stare and Bandio found himself nervously shifting his shoulders.

  Markson's voice, sounding far away, interrupted the silence.

  "Go see what he wants, Corporal. If he goes topside, stay with Guilfo."

  Gratefully he nodded and shuffled off. JG gave him the chills, not that he did not value her as a soldier. She was good and she made a point of getting her group out of combat situations and sometimes bar situations, with minimal damage, unless she was irritated with you because you were the cause of a stupid mistake. Then, she may save you but her pummeling you had you thinking twice about doing something stupid again. Personally, she was unreadable and too mysterious for him. He did not want to work that hard in a relationship.

  ***

  As the captain and lieutenant made their way into the service tunnel, they found that the hoses and partially opened ceiling were repaired and back in place.

  "Can you hear me?" the captain asked the lieutenant

  "Yeah, I can."

  "It's the maintenance bots. That's what Markson saw. With all of us in its small space, it probably went back into its cubbyhole to wait until we left. It's a wonder the explosion hasn't left any marks or life support breeches."

  "Hmm," the lieutenant agreed. "That green stuff is gone too." Yet neither man deactivated their helmets.

  Three lights shinned on the area where they had surveyed earlier. They once more wrestled it back open to a crack. They could slide the pry bar between it and the floor above them.

  In the main corridor, unseen by any of the group, a panel opened and three small robots came out to clean up the dust and debris, swe
eping away any trace of their presence.

  "Bandio, come in." JG had her back against the wall where she could look into the tunnel and down the corridor.

  Probably gossiping with Guilfo and using up air. Idiots. Now would be a good time for my snitch to send another message. Though, it may be rather difficult since this is on the other side of the city we're settin' up house in. However, if he or she did, it would give me a better clue as to who it may be…like who in Helios Fires would be able to transmit over here…besides the damn guardian? Shit! That would be too damn creepy if it was the guardian.

  ***

  Markson nodded to Bandio who he figured was coming to replace him since he had requested a release to get his equipment replaced. His faceplate was too fogged up to see now. Bandio's appearance was a relief for Guilfo. He was getting jumpy about the place and did not want to be standing alone when Markson went topside.