“Can’t be as many out there as in the pool.”
“Let me see.” Timer squeezed past her, then crept to the edge of the fallen bulkhead where he peeked through the jagged metal protruding from its sides.
Several of the amphibians prowled along the edge of the hole on their mighty forelegs, while the rest swam in the ashen waters. Timer realized Vamp was right. If they tried to fight them, they’d be over run. He was about to step back when he noticed one of the creatures sitting on the far side look up and shriek. The others near it looked up too, then a white blur streaked down from above and splashed into the pool, sending a plume of water high into the air.
Timer edged forward until he could see down into the artificial lake. The creatures screamed furiously as they dived in, and swam after their hapless prey. They were all determined to tear it to pieces, to get more of the food than the others, to fight and kill to survive. When they reached the spot where their prey had fallen into their makeshift habitat, they dived below the surface.
Timer turned to them. “Something’s in the water!
Vamp squeezed in beside him. “What is it?”
“Don’t know. It fell from above. Now they’re all after it.”
For a moment, the pool grew quiet, as all the creatures swam down after their prey, then white flashes deep below the surface illuminated the gray waters. One of the creatures surged up from the deep, was airborne long enough to breath, then dived down to renew the struggle.
One look told Vamp this was their chance. “Let’s go.”
“Go where?” Timer asked.
“While they’re distracted,” she said as she caught the fallen deck and pulled herself up.
The collapsed bulkhead was a rectangular slab that formed both the ceiling of the cargo deck and the floor of the deck above. A curved section had been blasted away from the end now lying in the water, while flying debris had partially melted and holed it in many places, creating a natural ladder. At the top of the slope, a hint of light reflected off the charred ceiling of the deck above.
Vamp scrambled up the steep face of the fallen bulkhead quickly, while Timer helped Dr McInness onto it. She glanced down once, seeing the milky flashes continue, then turned as the sound of scratching footsteps came charging towards her. She dragged her M16 up just as a dark red jaw and yellow teeth came speeding over the lip of the deck. It was too fast for her to get a shot away, but the creature’s jaw swallowed the barrel of her rifle. The force of the impact drove the gun backwards until the butt wedged into one of the holes, then the creature cartwheeled over her, pivoting on the rifle. It hit the deck beside her with a thud, but refused to release the barrel. She fired a burst as she struggled to hold onto the M16, blowing the back of its bony head off. The creature slumped to the deck and slid down the ramp, leaving a trail of dark blood behind. When it splashed into the water, its blood sent the creatures fighting beneath the surface into a crazed fury of cannibalism.
Vamp quickly started climbing again, with Timer and Dr McInness scrambling to keep up. When she reached the jagged rim of the next level, she sighted along her M16’s barrel as she peeked into the partially lit deck. Finding no creatures in sight, she rolled onto the deck and lay watching the pool below. Timer and Dr McInness climbed up beside her, although Timer kept watch on the space behind them.
In the pool below, the white flashes stopped, then the surface erupted as a white bipedal form leapt out of the water. Vamp knew at once it was not a machine, but a metallic suit. The heavy lift suit was shorter and wider than a man, with an overly large helmet. Its back was angled towards them, concealing the helmet’s translucent face plate, while five creatures clawed vainly at the suit’s metal exterior. The left hand held a white nano net, encasing two unconscious creatures, while its right hand held a silver bar which flashed each time it jabbed one of the creatures. The stun device stabbed at the amphibians, forcing them to release the suit and stumble away, shaking their snouts to clear their heads. After a moment, they screamed with rage and charged again, only to be stunned, or swept aside by a powerful metal arm. When the heavy lift suit had thrown off all of the creatures, it made a propulsion field assisted jump straight up six levels, then glided effortlessly over the ragged edge onto the deck high above. Without looking back, the white metal suit walked off into the darkened interior, while below in the pool, the creatures swarmed over one of their number floating facedown in the water, and began to devour it.
“That was one of them,” Dr McInness whispered excitedly from their vantage point overlooking the pool.
“Yeah. Too bad we didn’t get a look at its face,” Vamp said.
“What do you think it wanted with those mutts?” Timer asked.
“Don’t know. But those space dogs aren’t an alien’s best friend,” she said, then nodded for them to crawl back away from the edge.
When they were well out of sight of the pool, they stood and crept through the darkened deck towards flickering emergency lights. The deck was of similar proportions to the cavernous cargo hold below, and covered with the same smooth polished surfaces. Decompression had also sucked this deck clean, leaving no clue as to what had been stored there.
Eager to put distance between themselves and the amphibian pack, they hurried on past the flickering lights to a relatively undamaged section, where the emergency lights glowed continuously. They stayed close to the bulkhead until an enormous archway appeared, opened by their proximity. The arch was flush to the wall, with no nearby controls or markings, and was large enough that the black ‘tank’ trapped between the blast doors below could have driven through it.
“Damn, we can’t see their doors!” Timer declared.
Dr McInness stared thoughtfully at the edge of the arch. “There must be something different about their vision.” He glanced at the orange tinted wall lights thoughtfully. “Our eyes evolved to see the hotter yellow light our sun emits, but all their lights are tinted with orange.”
Vamp glanced at the orange lights. “So?”
“Their eyes may have evolved under a cooler star than our G type sun, possibly a K type. They might be more sensitive to the infrared end of the spectrum, which we can’t see.”
“Well, if we don’t figure out how to spot their doors,” Vamp said, “how are we going to find the exit?”
“Stick close to the walls,” Timer said.
Dr McInness stepped into the archway, studying it, finding no trace of the door retracting into the walls. “It’s like it vanished. There must be something very weird happening on a quantum level.”
Timer gave him an impatient look. “What we need is something weird happening on a ‘let’s get the hell out of this rat trap’ level.”
Vamp stepped past Dr McInness into the next compartment. It was a rectangular chamber hundreds of meters across with only a few scattered yellow-orange lights high up on the walls to soften the shadows. Filling the chamber were row after row of raised circular silver platforms, each with a matching silver disk floating above it. The larger the platform, the higher the disk floated, while beside each platform was a shallow metal saucer half its size. Most of the platforms were empty, except for a cluster near the entrance, where each platform supported a column of white light joining the base to its floating upper disk. When Dr McInness spotted the active devices, he started toward them with unbridled enthusiasm. Vamp caught his arm, restraining him while she looked for any sign of movement.
Timer stepped through the arch, then moved away to the left, studying the chamber warily. “Looks clear.”
“OK.” Vamp released her grip, then together they headed towards the illuminated platforms. When they had moved a few meters from the arch, the wall materialized seamlessly behind them, causing the archway to vanish. Vamp halted, then took a few cautious steps back to the wall, triggering a proximity sensor that caused the archway to open again. She nodded to herself, satisfied, then followed Dr McInness to the platforms.
Each active platform contained a partially fo
rmed machine. Most were mere skeletons awaiting further equipment, while some were almost complete except for their outer bodywork. Five of the largest skeletons were battloids, sitting on sled housings that had not yet been equipped with anti-g field generators. The embryonic battloids lacked armor, weapons, and shields, but the central housing, power plant and most of its internal systems were finished.
“Big mothers,” Timer said.
“Probably some kind of heavy engineering machine,” Dr McInness suggested as he paced between the platforms. Partially assembled repair drones stood on several platforms, most no more than skeletal poles with some internal equipment installed. In all, nearly two dozen platforms were occupied by an assortment of machines at various stages of completion.
“No shortage of power here,” Vamp said as her attention shifted from the cluster of illuminated platforms, to the endless rows of inactive platforms that filled the chamber. There were too many to count, but she guessed there were thousands. She walked around an embryonic battloid, unaware of its military purpose, then her eyes settled on one of the largest platforms. It could comfortably have accommodated the ‘tank’ wedged between the blast doors below.
Dr McInness saw the curious look on her face. “It’s probably some kind of maintenance facility. Not surprising, considering the size of this ship.”
“So where are the spare parts?” Timer asked, unconvinced. “And the machines to fix stuff?” He drew his knife and moved to poke the nearest skeletal battloid with it. As soon as the blade passed over the edge of the platform, a golden cloud appeared around the point. He jumped back, startled. “Did you see that?”
Vamp caught his wrist, lifting it so she could inspect his knife. Four centimeters were missing from the end.
Timer eyes bulged in amazement. “It ate my knife!”
“Imagine what it would have done to your hand.”
Timer swallowed uncomfortably as a hiss of equalizing air pressure behind them signaled the arch had opened. Vamp grabbed Dr McInness and dragged him down behind one of the empty platforms while Timer hid behind the skeletal battloid.
A repair drone identical to the machine they’d seen cutting the damaged deck floated in, carrying a slab of twisted metal the size of a small car. It flew toward a platform holding its skeletal twin and dropped the metal slab onto the dish beside the platform. The repair drone turned and flew back through the arch, while a golden cloud formed in the column of light over the platform. The cloud swarmed across into the dish and swirled around the salvaged metal. In seconds, the metal dissolved while the golden cloud bloomed in brightness. When the metal had completely vanished, the cloud swept back to the platform and enveloped the skeletal maintenance drone. Internal parts began to form out of the air, tentacle arms grew from nothing and an outer skin appeared while the cloud’s luminosity faded. Moments later, the new maintenance drone was complete. The brim of the coolie hat atop the drone’s slender body glowed to life, lifting the self-aware machine off the platform. Fully cognizant of the mothership’s desperate need, it tilted forward, glided through the archway which opened as it approached, and flew off to its first allotted task. On the platform where it had been created, the golden cloud swirled again, as it formed the beginnings of a new skeleton. When the luminosity faded to nothing, the cloud vanished, having exhausted its supply of salvaged metal.
Dr McInness watched the repair drone depart, almost unable to contain his excitement. “You can tell yourself a thousand times, but until you experience it, you just don’t understand! Not at all!” He beamed a smile at her.
Vamp looked at him sideways. He’s kind of cute for a geek, but mad as a hatter! “Understand what?”
“Arthur C. Clarke was right! Advanced technology really does look like magic to primitives, like us!” He glanced around the room, then pointed to Timer. “You wanted to know where the equipment was. Well, it’s right here! We’re surrounded by it!”
“Yeah, we sure are,” Vamp said with a worried look on her face.
“It’s nanotechnology, developed to an incredible level.” His forefinger shot up excitedly. “No, it’s more than that! It’s manufacturing at a molecular level. Nano machines convert raw metal into molecules and reassemble them into whatever they want. That’s what the cloud was, trillions of nano machines. The platform must have some kind of acceleration field, I can’t believe nano machines could generate their own fields. Or could they? No, surely not.” He shrugged and laughed. “Who knows. It’s beyond me!”
“So, all they needed was minerals from the mine, and they could make…?”
“Anything!” He turned and looked at the rows and rows of platforms in realization. “This is not a maintenance facility, it’s a factory! A million years ahead of ours!”
Vamp studied the skeletal battloid sitting on the platform near her. “We destroyed their mine, so now they’re cannibalizing their own ship for metal.”
“And scavenging the countryside,” Timer added, remembering the research station stripped of metal.
“What choice do they have?” Dr McInness asked. “They can’t repair their ship without resources.”
“With this technology, they can build another mine. Right? They could build ten, a thousand, as many as they needed.”
Dr McInness looked across at one of the larger platforms with growing relief. It appeared to be large enough to construct another drill head. “You’re right. We haven’t done them any permanent harm.”
Vamp looked at the endless rows of nano fabricators apprehensively. “You’re missing the point, Doc. With enough raw materials, this factory could pump out thousands of machines an hour. Tens of thousands!”
“That’s right,” Dr McInness agreed. “It’s amazing. Imagine, with this technology and enough resources, we could wipe out world poverty in a week.”
“Yeah, or they could build an army to wipe us out.”
The scientist looked aghast, then gazed at the sprawling facility with growing unease. The rows of platforms of all sizes, capable of manufacturing vast quantities of machines and equipment, limited only by the supply of raw materials, vanished into distant shadows. In a heartbeat, he knew if her suspicions were correct, it meant only one thing.
The ship was a colossal time bomb.
CHAPTER 16
The striker was a black, elongated wedge-shaped aircraft five meters long and two meters wide at the front. Its outer edges curved down thirty degrees like bent wings, before sloping gracefully back to a spear like tail. Small spherical turrets, fitted with needle-like weapons, were mounted at each wingtip, while two thin glowing strips ran the length of its undersides, brightening each time it accelerated or banked. Along the horizontal leading edge was a thin glassy black sensor strip that gave the flying machine perfect vision to the horizon.
The sensor was equipped with a suite of passive sensors – electromagnetic, motion, metallurgical and thermal – which gave it a detailed view of the battlespace. Its temperature sensor had been calibrated to the subarctic environment of the mothership’s original destination, an environment where the background thermal radiation would be minimal and the targets would be thermally shielded. The sensor was extremely sensitive to minuscule thermal variations at low temperatures, but was wholly incapable of scanning an environment soaked in solar radiation. Consequently, the thermal sensor had fried itself the moment it activated, blinding the striker to heat signatures. A replacement sensor had been scheduled for construction, one that would allow it to filter out the tropical heat and detect minute variations at high temperatures, but it was far down the priority list.
The striker also possessed active sensors, which it rarely used, preferring not to give away its position. It was able to precisely target any point in an operating volume that reached from horizon to horizon to orbit, and while it was not a spacecraft, it could achieve suborbital altitudes if required. The striker, however, preferred to hug the ground where it could use terrain for cover, dodging behind ridges and into v
alleys, where it could shoot and scoot with lethal efficiency. Normally the mothership’s bombardment control center would allocate fire support missions to the striker negating the need for it to hunt, but that center had been destroyed, forcing the striker to find its own targets as it patrolled the inner perimeter. It was in every respect a devastating piece of aerial artillery, self aware and stealthy, cunning and mobile, yet it was an inferior perimeter guard. It was fulfilling that role now out of necessity, as no sentry drones had survived, and none could be constructed for many days. It had shot down aircraft and neutralized satellites to ensure no hostiles flew over the mothership, and now it searched for the primitives who had destroyed one of the few operational battloids.
Without its thermal sensor, it was unaware that Cougar hid a short distance away among the trees. Behind Cougar, the rest of the team waited undercover, watching through the canopy as the aerial predator passed within twenty meters of their position, drifting left and right, scanning all the way to the horizon.
Cougar watched it glide to the south, following the ridgeline. He kept the striker in his telescopic sight for several minutes until it had become no more than a distant black dot loitering above the trees, then he called back, “Clear!”
The sniper started creeping forward through the trees, over ground covered with a light sprinkling of fine ash, stopping only when he reached a sandstone ledge that protruded out over jagged cliffs. From his high vantage point, he looked out across the Goyder River to a wall of gray metal that spanned the valley from east to west. For a moment he thought it was a fortress, then he realized it was the mothership’s hull. It was composed of enormous dark gray slabs pockmarked with hundreds of circular black heat scars. The ship was like a city encased in metal, stretching more than twelve kilometers up the valley. Its sides towered above the ridge tops and in places had torn through the surrounding sandstone cliffs like chalk. At the top of the metal wall, the hull sloped back sharply into a ridge that ran the length of the ship. There was no gash through the valley, indicating the ship had come down vertically, crushing everything beneath it. The forest that had covered the valley floor between Cougar’s position and the ship had been flattened and incinerated. Charred black trees, knocked flat by the impact blast, were everywhere, while the normally ochre colored cliffs looked as if they’d been seared by a blow torch. Where the ship blocked the river, ashen water had backfilled into a small lake that was slowly drowning the burnt remains of the forest.
The Mothership Page 25
