by Korza, Jay
“It looks like the drill bit got caught on something that over-torqued the shaft and blew the bit. But I don’t know what could’ve done that so fast. The drill should’ve stopped as soon as it hit something too hard to penetrate.” Surgeon was scanning the ground with Seth’s handheld sensor. “Holy shit”, he mouthed from behind his visor.
“A sonar scan shows a hollow cavern below us. About ten meters cubed. Small enough to evade our ship’s scanners. It’s made of an unknown metal alloy.” Surgeon looked at Seth and then turned towards where he had placed his own scanner. “That radioactive isotope was positioned at the far edge of the cube below us. I’m willing to bet that it’s not a natural occurrence.”
“Tell me something I don’t know, like what it is.” Seth came to Surgeon’s side.
“Get out the laser drill bit. The one-centimeter diameter bit. We’re gonna see if we can crack this egg.” Surgeon turned towards his rear guard. “Sensor team one to all units and command ship. We have found something at site one. I am relaying data to all hands now.”
“I have received the data.” The general’s voice was anything but pleased. “What’s your plan?”
“We’re setting up a one-centimeter laser drill bit to try to penetrate the structure. After which we’ll insert an optic camera to take a look around”, Surgeon said as Seth began to drill into the structure.
“Keep your visor on relay mode. I want to see the operation in real time”, the general said from the ship’s operations room.
“Aye, sir. Sensor team one out.” Surgeon turned to Seth. “How you doin’?”
“I’m actually getting through this stuff but it’s gonna take about five minutes.” Seth never stopped watching his console. He guided the drill bit millimeter by millimeter until finally it punched through the surface of whatever was below them.
Surgeon had the camera ready for insertion but Seth had to cool the edges of the hole with liquid nitrogen before they could proceed. Even with the almost non-existent atmosphere of the asteroid, the laser drill created enough heat that it would take almost a minute to cool off and that was sixty seconds more than Surgeon cared to wait.
Surgeon put the optic camera in the hole and almost pulled it out instantly from what he saw. When he realized that his initial fear was unfounded, he settled the probe back into place. “Sir, if you’re getting this as clear as I am, I don’t have to tell you what I think it is”, Surgeon said. Seth became nervous when he saw that his mentor’s hands were trembling slightly. Surgeon saw what Seth’s eyes were focused on. “Fear keeps you alive, kid. Don’t ever let anyone tell you different. The difference between a coward and a brave man is that a brave man does what he knows has to be done in spite of his fear.”
Seth looked at the vision of computer arrays coming up from the box and into the optical camera. “Well, at least they haven’t detected us yet”, Seth offered.
“What makes you think that they haven’t? This could be part of their early warning system. Either their highly advanced technology isn’t working today or they’re just waiting for the right moment. And now that we’ve found this, they’ve got nothing to lose.”
“Surgeon’s right.” The general spoke to the entire landing party. “I want everyone back on board now. Battle stations, everyone.”
Beyond the general’s voice, the ship’s captain could be faintly heard, “Red alert. All hands to battle stations. This is not a drill.”
Seth jumped into the co-pilot’s seat as Surgeon took his place at the command stick. The communications of their small skiff was patched into the bridge of the main ship. “Three vessels approaching from zero-nine-three mark two-one-one”, the conn officer said with an adrenaline-rushed voice. “We are being targeted. Lead ship is firing a pulse weapon.”
The communications went silent.
“All skiffs are under my command.” Surgeon switched to a secure frequency that the landing party was designated to. “Hopefully our stealth technology will defeat their sensors. All craft converge on the main attacking vessel and deploy limpet mines on its hull at these points.”
Seth was already one step ahead of his partner and had projected a holographic display of the oncoming enemy vessels. He was touching points on the hull with his finger to mark the spots for the mines to be placed.
“Welcome to the first battle of the war”, Surgeon said before executing his final ascent towards the main ship.
The ships had either decided that the skiffs were of no immediate danger or they were unable to detect them. The oncoming craft prayed for the latter.
Fire team two was in position first and held steady until the rest of the team was in position. The alien technology may not sense the oncoming crafts but it would surely detect the placement of limpet mines on its hull.
When all teams signaled their readiness, Surgeon slaved their fire controls to his own and deployed all the mines simultaneously. He then cut the slave circuit so that the ships would be able to fight on their own. After the main ship was destroyed, the other two would surely attempt to locate the attacking vessels.
Below them, their general’s ship was taking a beating. Small explosions were erupting all over the hull. Seth looked at the damage and turned towards his pilot. “I don’t think that they’re trying to destroy it, just cripple it. The damage is focused at key areas, engine room and thrusters.”
“Yeah, well, our mines are targeted for their hull.” Surgeon was about to key the mines’ trigger.
“Wait.” Seth stopped Surgeon’s hand. “Look, they haven’t even reacted to the mines. Maybe they don’t even know that they’re there. If we destroy the ship now, the other two might destroy ours out of fear or just plain anger.” Both men’s hands eased back from the firing control. “They don’t seem to know that we’re here, either. Let’s use that to our advantage. Let’s see where they take their prisoners. The mines might be good for an escape diversion later. That was a secondary option for this mission anyway.”
Joker, along with everyone else on the secure frequency, could hear their conversation. “I agree with Cadet. Let’s wait and see what’s happening. Get our bearings and then fight. Even if we do take out one of those things, the other two will get us. It’s not a winning proposition to sit here and fight.”
“Agreed”, Surgeon said somberly. “Everyone keep a two hundred meter separation to reduce the possibility of detection. Stay on my lead. If anything goes in the wrong direction, those mines are being blown and we split into two groups to attack the remaining vessels.”
Surgeon tilted his head down to view the general’s ship through his holographic visor. “We won’t leave your side, sir”, he whispered to his commander, whose ship was already being boarded.
Chapter 23
Dig Site One – Further Down the Rabbit Hole
During the descent into the lift shaft, Bloom was explaining to Emily what his translation program had figured out from its earlier scans. “The computer says that the alien language is a composite of about seven known species. I was right when I said that it sounded like Detrill and Nortes. Those two comprise the bulk of the language. The other five are languages from species that we know very little about. All are very private and tend not to deal with the Coalition. All in all, there is a seventeen percent portion of the language that the AI doesn’t recognize.”
“Does that mean that the translations aren’t going to be exact? Are we going to push the wrong button down here because it tells us to?” Emily asked through her comlink.
“No, nothin’ like that. The AI was able to decipher the language based on its characters and the eighty-three percent of the language it did recognize. There is always room for error, but it’s so marginal that I wouldn’t worry about it.” Bloom was in the second descent team and was waiting on the fourth anchor for the rest of the team to finish with the third leg of the journey.
Bloom finished typing in the last of the command lines into his computer before he spoke to Davies. “Hey
sniper, I just finished altering your visor’s display optics. It’s linked to my translation program. It will automatically translate any alien writing that you view with it.
“I can do the same for our virtual visors, too. If the translation program sees any writing that can be cross-referenced with information from the data bank, it will automatically throw that info to the top right corner of your visor for viewing.” Bloom hit the Enter key to finish the process.
Davies’ visor blanked momentarily and then returned to normal viewing. The markings on the lift shaft that he, and everyone else, had been passing for the last couple hundred of meters suddenly became readable to the sniper. “Hey guys, I can read these markings. It says that we’re at level forty. We got thirty-nine to go.”
Two hours later, the whole team had arrived on the roof of the lift car that was at the bottom of the shaft. Snake had already cut a hole in the corner of the roof for the team members to get through.
Daria unslung her rifle and took out her environmental scanner. She jumped through the hole, with Snake close behind her for cover. Snake took up a crouching position while Daria walked twenty meters ahead of the lift car, sweeping her arm back and forth to cover the entire area. “Scans show no anomalies in the air down here. No unusual bacteria, viruses, radiation, spores, nothing. I don’t think that we’ll need our breathers on. The air is stale but we’ll live.”
“Thank you, Doc”, Emily said over the comlink while adjusting her VR goggles. “Fang, you’re on point with Davies in second. Between Fang’s senses and Davies’ thermal imaging, we should get a fair enough warning if anyone’s down here.”
Every member of the team checked their magazines and a few reloaded for a full one. Magazines slapped home and receiver bolts were actioned. “Team two has Scan on point. Fall in and move out”, Wilks ordered. The rest of the team followed Daria’s example and jumped through the hole. Once everyone was through, the two teams formed up on their respective point men.
The first room was as large as three football fields and at least fifteen stories high. “This is where the cargo was initially brought to before it got sorted through and then distributed through the complex.” Bloom was reading off information that his AI was fed from the computer terminal back in the first bunker. He walked next to Emily so he could keep her updated on any information that he might get.
“Those doors over there,” Bloom pointed to three double doors to the right of the team, “they go to the workers’ living quarters and galley areas. The ones to the left go towards the livestock pens for the guys in charge. If I’m interpreting the data right, I think that all of their workers are slaves. It doesn’t say it outright in the data banks but everything points to it.”
“Like what? Give me an example”, Emily said.
“Well, I had enough time during our descent to go through some personal logs as well as cargo logs. First off, some of the workers arrived on the cargo ships and were listed as cargo, not passengers.
“Second, in one of the officer’s logs it mentioned how he had to continually put some of his workers from the motor pool into something called a “‘torture tube.”’ That doesn’t sound good in any language.”
“Davies,” Emily’s comlink automatically keyed an open channel to the sniper at the mention of his name, “I think you were right before when we were talking about the artifacts. Bloom thinks that the aliens used slaves as their primary workforce. That could explain why the different artifacts were made by the same creators but designed for different races to use. Do you follow where I’m going with this?”
“Yeah, I think so”, Davies replied. “If each species only knew how to use a small portion of the technology, then no single species could overthrow their masters. They would have to get other races to help out, using their portion of knowledge in order to make things work. If all of the shipbuilders wanted to revolt, it would be difficult to take over a ship if another species had designed the computer components and they were all in a foreign language.”
“I might be able to verify that theory.” Bloom tapped his VR goggles and brought up a control display, which he worked in the air with the fingers of his right hand. To the unknowing onlooker, it seemed as though Bloom was on drugs and swatting at invisible bugs swarming around him. “I was able to call up the living quarters and guess what, they are all clumped together by species.
“Now that could just be for ease of feeding or to reduce racial tensions. Let me try to cross reference something here…” Bloom’s last word hung on his lips until he finished his search through the database. “And we have a winner! Mr. Davies, you seem to be correct. Each species was assigned to specialized tasks and they didn’t do anything else. One species called the Panzts were half a meter tall and were used to clean out the plasma drive intake systems on the alien ships. Their size made them the perfect cleaners. They were all housed in Blue Sector.”
“What about the Detrill and Nortes, what did they do here?” Daria asked from her position in the rear squad.
“I already tried to find that out. They apparently weren’t on this outpost. At least they weren’t stationed or living here. I do see some data corruption gaps that look purposeful, like someone was trying to get rid of information. Maybe the data containing information about the Detrill and Nortes was in the parts that were removed.” Bloom stumbled slightly as he was paying more attention to his VR readout than where he was stepping.
“That’s odd.” Emily actually paused in her stride to think about it. She was nudged from behind by Scan before she began to walk again. “The alien language is more than eighty percent Detrill and Nortes yet there is no mention of them in the records.
“They would’ve both had to have had some contact with the alien species in order for their languages to match so closely. More than likely a lot of contact among the three races. What do we know about the Detrill and Nortes?”
Snake, the intelligence officer, joined the conversation. “Both races are very private about internal matters. They do trade freely with the Coalition and allow travel to their worlds without restriction.
“The two races don’t interact at all. As far as our intelligence knows, the two have never gone to war with each other and there is no present conflict between the two. They just don’t seem to want to have anything to do with each other.”
“The Detrill are master craftsman when it comes to weaponry and ships”, Fang offered. “I have two of their weapons on me right now. There are many mercenary training centers on their home world, along with five of the galaxy’s most highly acclaimed military officer schools.”
“The Nortes are noted for their commerce and government.” Emily was searching her memory. Although she specialized in ancient history of other civilizations, she did keep up to date on some things. “They have ambassadors throughout the Coalition and are usually involved in peace treaties and other humanitarian events. So why wouldn’t they tell the Coalition of their history of enslavement?”
“They might be embarrassed by it or just want to forget about it all together”, Bloom said as he continued searching through the database. “Also, just because they’re called the Detrill and Nortes now, doesn’t mean that they didn’t have a different name while they were enslaved and that’s why we can’t find them in the database. Maybe they just barely got away from their captors when these outer perimeter posts were destroyed. And they were so frightened that after they fled, the survivors changed their species name and have been hiding out ever since.”
“Possible. As soon as we can communicate with the Coalition again, we’re going to send a priority message back to the nearest star base and get some answers.” Emily had a look of determination on her face that Bloom hadn’t seen on her before.
The team was past the cargo bay and sixty meters into the main passageway when they came to an intersecting hallway. “Which way?” Fang asked.
“The passageway to the left goes to sickbay and the quarters for the enslaver
s.” Bloom scrolled a map on his VR goggles. “The one to the right goes to the command center and the docking bay.”
Emily had linked her imaging system to Bloom’s and was seeing the same map as he was. “Bloom, scroll up to the docking bay and give me the distance from our current position. Belay that, make it the estimated distance in a straight line from the second survey site to the shipyard and then overlay that image with a plotted course from site two to site one.”
“That would be approximately three point five clicks, el-tee. And when you overlay the two…the docking bay is directly underneath the primary survey site.” Bloom looked at his CO with wide eyes.
Chapter 24
Vengeance’s Pride – Decisions, Decisions
The new captain sat in his seat on the bridge awaiting orders from Supreme Command. “What is taking them so long?” he asked no one in particular.
In the background, the faint scream from the former captain rose from the torture tube one deck below. The sounds were piped into the ship’s intercom system for the whole crew to hear, and allow them to contemplate what it meant to disobey orders from Supreme Command.
“Ensign,” the captain looked to his junior officer, “you have the bridge. I’ll be back shortly.”
“Your orders, sir?” the officer timidly asked.
“I don’t care what you do as long as you don’t crash us into that planet”, he said, pointing to the view screen. “Besides, it seems as though the captain’s job on this mission is to just sit in that seat and do nothing.” He turned his back and headed for the lift door. “Think you can handle that?” he asked over his shoulder, not bothering to wait for a response.
Once in the lift, he keyed the torture tube as his destination. The lift doors opened and the guard on duty looked dryly from his former captain screaming in agony to his new one.
