by Bruce Adams
“Majestic, we have a situation. Someone has already been here before us and used explosives to blow open an elevator shaft. How do you want us to proceed?” Eris waited for a reply.
“Commander Monroe, Reese Langdon here. If you think you can continue you should do so at once. I am sure your team can handle anything that you encounter. After all, that’s why we brought you along in the first place!” Her team was checking their weapons in anticipation of combat. Eris nodded approvingly at their actions.
“Roger that.” Eris faced her team and mounted her gauss assault rifle on her back. “We’re going to continue down into the facility. Everyone stay alert and keep sensors on maximum detection range.”
“Prepare a harness and a rope. Let’s see what’s at the bottom,” Eris ordered. Specialists Grant and Zang prepared climbing gear harnesses and a rapeller – a device which had extendable durasteel ‘arms’ that could be locked in placed in a secure location. Zang used the three meter wide corridor to establish the rapeller and locked it firmly in place. Grant tested it with two solid pulls, it did not come loose. It was designed to hold two hundred kilograms of mass on a plasteel rope, which would easily hold the weight of each soldier plus equipment. Eris stepped away from the edge as the men uncoiled the rope that would carry her down the elevator shaft. “Arneson, do you copy?”
“Yes, Commander, though the signal is weak,” replied Kyle. He was receiving all data streams from the team including audio, visual and telemetry on any materials that were locked in by a soldier’s eye. “You go any deeper into that pit you’re going to break up and the link will fail.”
“I can set up a link-repeater to boost the signal. That should give us another klick or so of comm distance,” offered Mathias Jorstad, her communications specialist.
“Good point. Jorstad, see to it.” A few minutes later Eris was descending into the depths of the shaft at one meter every two seconds…nice and steady. Her breathing was regular and her heartbeat never wavered from the slow rhythm of forty-five beats per minute. After three minutes, she reached an open platform at one hundred meters. A doorway had been blasted open similar to what was up above. She swung over to the jagged hole and clambered through. Looking down, she could tell that the shaft continued downward for at least another two thousand meters. The Valdren were incredible engineers. They had created this facility by boring tunnels through solid rock, straight down at least two kilometers. Even more incredible, their machines were still working as evidenced by the entrance door they had managed to get open. The lessons the Republic had learned at Dawson Slope had yielded multiple benefits. They would reap substantial rewards from this base as well.
“I’ve found another corridor. Sergeant Delantus…dispatch the rest of the fire team down here. We’ll continue exploring this facility outward from my position,” breathed Eris. “Be advised, the shaft continues on for at least another two kilometers…I couldn’t get a solid read on the distance.
“Roger that…we’ve rigged more climbing harnesses. I’m sending them down two at a time. Okoro and Visalis are headed your way now. They should make contact with you in a few minutes.”
Eris turned to survey her surroundings as she unlimbered her gauss assault rifle. She examined where the elevator door had been blasted, finding twisted remnants of scarred metal scattered about. One large chunk was one meter long and five centimeters wide, blackened and burned. There was no evidence that this was recent however and no sign of whoever did it. Her sensor suite indicated the metal had a resting temperature of eighteen degrees centigrade. Valdren metal, even heated, rarely exceeded that threshold, but the metal could be destroyed if exposed to enough blasting force. The explosion could have happened three hours ago or it could have happened years before. The corridor she found herself in stretched to her left and right. The Valdren apparently were obsessed with hexagons which were reflected in their structures. Few of the surviving facilities that humanity and other star-faring species had discovered contained working artifacts, making this one on Domovik incalculably valuable. It was clearly a very large structure. What it was used for, Eris had no idea – that’s why the science team was waiting up on the Majestic. It didn’t matter; she had to make sure this whole base was cleared before she could endanger any of the civilian scientists.
Promise Okoro and Enjeru Visalis arrived and unhooked themselves from their climbing gear. They immediately took up positions, one facing north; the other south as they waited for the rest of the team to arrive. Eris was talking to her suit combat computer which had identified another portal ten meters distant to the north. After twenty meters, the corridor bent at a sixty degree angle to the left, obscuring her vision as to what lay beyond.
After ten minutes the rest of her fire team arrived. Eris stood in the middle of the group, imposing in her black armor. She rested her gauss assault rifle barrel up as she addressed her soldiers.
“We’re going to stay together and head north; I want Moak to use an airborne drone which will move south. We check out any entrances or portals we encounter. Whoever blew these doors with explosives may still be here. I want everyone focused. Stay in contact through comm link. Yell out if you see anything unusual. Let’s move!” Eris didn’t need to shout her orders. Her team knew she was calm - they had utter confidence in her leadership abilities. They trusted her.
“You heard the Commander! Move out!” Moak rumbled over the link. “Anyone see any shit call out fast!"
The combat team encountered six rooms on the level, but nothing of value was located, just bare rooms and scattered Valdren furniture. The ancients had built pretty much everything out of the dark green metallic material that Republic scientists couldn’t duplicate. There was nothing functioning or portable seen in any of the rooms, which appeared to be living quarters. The combat team spent at least thirty minutes checking everything out and found nothing of consequence.
“Commander, if there ever was something here before, it ain’t here now,” declared Moak. “We still have plenty of air in our suits, wanna keep looking?” Delantus was leaning against a wall. Eris could tell he was disappointed. The fire-team was still in combat ready stances, expecting anything.
“At ease, we’re going to use drones to scope out the lower levels. This base is huge so we’re just going to have to do some more climbing.”Eris said. The soldiers visibly relaxed as Moak sent one of the drones off to scout the main elevator shaft. Eris had the team wired in and observing everything the drone’s sensors picked up.
Moak guided the drone to the next lowest level, located thirty meters below this level. Once again, there were blast holes where explosives had been used. A gaping hole existed and more corridors beckoned. The drone flew on, continuously providing sensor telemetry to the assembled men and women of the Special Forces team. Eris watched in silence until the drone entered another, much larger hexagonal shaped room at least forty meters to a side. It seemed oddly familiar. There were box-shaped objects strewn all over the room ranging in size from five centimeters up to two meters. It looked like a tornado had picked up a hundred boxes of all shapes and sizes and scattered them all over the floor.
An image came over the link of Science Director Langdon, though static broke up part of the incoming signal, “Commander, can you hold the drone there and initiate another sweep on the central interior of that room?” He had a worried look on his face.
Eris nodded at Moak and then answered, “Copy that…Sergeant Delantus is holding it there and panning around to get a better view.” The telemetry was not showing anything unusual. When the camera had panned to the central part of the room, Langdon spoke again, “There! Move the drone over that spot to get a closer look. I recognize this room; it is very similar to the central processing core of the Dawson Slope facility on Kanpur!” His voice rose in pitch; the discovery seemed to have ignited his curiosity.
“Are you certain it’s the same type of room?” Eris wondered. She was becoming slightly fatigued. The adrenaline co
ursing through her body had made her hyper alert, but the hours spent investigating the base was taking a toll. If she was tired, then her team needed to rest.
“Everyone take ten. We’re going to relax while Sergeant Moak’s MEK does all the work for us.” That elicited a few chuckles from her squad. With directions from the science team in the Majestic orbiting above, Moak sent the flying MEK careening over objects with all of its sensors working at full capacity. After fifteen minutes, the MEK was investigating an area with regularly spaced indentations on the floor. There were some observations and arguments from the scientists over what the holes meant. Finally, the science director spoke to Eris.
“Commander Monroe, we need your team to climb down to that level and investigate the hexagonal room. The MEK is too limited for our purposes; we need hands in there to open up some of those boxes.” He paused for a beat and then continued, “Also, I am formally requesting permission for the shuttle to land with my science team so we can get to work. Your soldiers have cleared the base and there is nothing hostile or dangerous.”
“Permission denied. This area has not been cleared yet…there’s at least two kilometers of structure buried below us that haven’t been explored at all!” Eris was in no mood for arguing and was about to speak when Captain Shaw’s face came over the link.
“Uh, I’m afraid that our primary mission as a TEC vessel takes precedence Commander, I’m overriding your objections and allowing the science team to land. I feel this is for the best.” His voice was smug and he was smiling. “You and your combat team have done what was expected of you. You’ve found an intact Valdren base, opened it up, explored it, and found artifacts there. The science team needs to take over so those objects can be properly inspected, analyzed and catalogued for shipment to the Majestic.”
“Captain, I can’t guarantee the safety of the science team if they come down here! We haven’t learned yet what caused the explosions at the elevator shafts. Whoever…or whatever caused that…could have compromised the facility in any number of ways!” Eris was angry and she let him have it full force.
“Ms. Monroe, I’ve made my decision. Cheer up; you should be happy that all of your men are alive and unharmed. You should be congratulated on your success…” Captain Shaw turned to Director Langdon, “Proceed to the shuttle and land.”
Eris was furious and abruptly shut off the link to the Majestic. Shaw is a fool and he’s going to get people killed.
“Moak, keep on that drone and continue looking. I want to know who blasted those doors open. I don’t think it was the Valdren that destroyed them; I think it was more recent.”
“Affirmative, Commander…I’ll keep scanning. For the record, I think Captain Shaw is a goddamn idiot and so is that science director, he’s risking his people. If something bad happens to those lab hotshots, they’re going to blame us…”
Eris could only nod her head in agreement.
“The rest of you, break time is over, let’s get back to work. This base isn’t clear until we check every part of it.” Eris headed back out to the main corridor.
Two hours later, there were one hundred and twenty TEC science division personnel swarming all over the ancient Valdren facility. Eris Monroe had relocated to a temporary command center under direct orders. The communications link was spotty coming out of the base and Captain Shaw wanted a debriefing from her with a clear comm channel. Eris had set up her temporary command center in one of the five large ground vehicles that had been dropped by shuttle. Her combat team continued to search though the scientists seemed to resent them even being there. There were mentions of ‘contamination’ and ‘no-nothing brutes’ whispered around her team.
Eris swore this would be the last time she ever agreed to a joint military-civilian task force. Splitting the command structure had been a complete nightmare. She wasn’t the type to complain about it to her superiors and she certainly wasn’t going to go ranting to her own people. She was a good soldier and followed orders; even if she thought they were blindingly stupid.
Kyle Arneson was piloting a shuttle run bringing in more scanning equipment from the Majestic to the researchers inside the Valdren base when he experienced first-hand the effects of the nuclear explosion. The shuttle he was flying was state-of-the-art and heavily shielded against such blasts so the electromagnetic pulse only fried a few non-critical systems. The nuclear explosion happened when he was five clicks off the ground. The shields were able to protect the landing craft from the brunt of the electromagnetic radiation. Before landing he saw that the ground vehicles had been blown over like a giant had picked them up and scattered them about.
Kyle found Eris barely breathing, unconscious and in bad shape. The fact that Eris had not taken off her armored combat suit inside the Phalanx ground vehicle saved her life. The extra protection shielded her somewhat from the blast and heat, but the radiation she absorbed was a killer dose. No one else near the Valdren base had survived the nuclear fire. Kyle carried Eris back to the drop-ship as fast as he could and flew into orbit.
CHAPTER 11
She had arrived in a Skythunder - a rented two-seat vehicle which hovered fifteen centimeters off the ground surface eleven meters away. It had been five hours since T’sell had arrived at the gaudily decorated starport located on the southern hemisphere of Ru-Bai. Using her prodigious mental powers had allowed her to track the thief to this run-down industrial area. She was well away from the bustling center of the city as two small yellow suns dipped low on the horizon and a third huge bright red sun stayed high overhead.
The area she had tracked the thief to was industrial, frayed and dilapidated. There was no foot traffic on the streets and no vehicles passing by along the cracked roadway. Worn down buildings with faded exteriors shaded her from the ever-present light of three suns. Something about the magnetic storms that plague this planet caused unusual and fast acting decay in structures. The human that was slumped in front of her reeked of desperation and his mind smelled of fear. T’sell loathed that she had been forced to rip the location of her prey from his sub-conscious, but it had been too well hidden for her to use less subtle methods.
Lakos had been the name she had recovered from his cortex and an apartment location in the city. It was not honorable but it was necessary. I must find the shipment before it is sent to the Holdfast. The mental compulsion she had used against the human agent would wear off in seconds and he would begin to stir. She drew her Darisu from its sheathe and held it with both hands by the hilt, point straight up. Zari were an ancient race and held solemn traditions in the martial arts. Her stance was ceremonial and indicated she would kill. The Darisu blade edge was lined with carbon nanotubes; so sharp it could slice through durasteel...
T’sell offered a silent prayer as she cut off the head from the man in one swift stroke of her blade. I am sorry I must do this. May the Eternal guide your path in the green-lands. The agent had been working for a criminal enterprise, the Vortex mercenary group that dealt in all manner of illegal activities. She had been sent to the Saiph system by her employer, the CEO of Dynamic Space Development, to recover certain Valdren artifacts before they were shipped off to the Magellus system and locked up tight in the hands of the Alliance. Her investigation had landed her on the world of Ru-Bai, a lawless planet that catered to criminals, mercenaries and those seeking respite from the strictures and codes of Republic space.
Under the triple suns of the Saiph system, shadows were few, which meant there were few places to hide while out in the open air. T’sell T’savri had lived to be ninety years old by taking bold action when it was called for and evading her enemies if she needed to lay low. Now was a time of bold action. Zari could live to be two hundred and fifty human years, so she was in the prime of her life. Her instincts had served her well over the decades. The dead human agent should offer few clues to any that attempted to retrieve information about her mission here. Most likely no one would care or notice on this world of lawless scum.
&nbs
p; She slipped into the driver’s seat of her ground vehicle, engaged manual control over the computer and sped off from the cluster of dilapidated buildings. Her target was located in a tower complex off the main thoroughfare. After four minutes the small ground vehicle topped a hill and T’sell saw the gleaming blue and silver towers of Ru-Bai’s largest city ten kilometers distant. She accelerated to the maximum speed the vehicle was capable of achieving, ignoring the warnings from the car’s computer that she was driving at an unsafe velocity. She prayed she would arrive before her target had an opportunity to flee once again, leaving a cold trail for her to follow to another star system.
Arriving near the city center a few minutes later, T’sell was forced to decrease the velocity of the vehicle as she avoided an increased stream of traffic at the center of the city. She parked the vehicle and hurried to the building.
Apartment 7915 on the seventy-ninth floor of the Harra Building contained her target. Reaching the right floor was not straight-forward because of the gated and keyed elevator system. The people that lived here had paid for extra security and only those that lived here could gain access through biometric keys. Seated at the front desk behind an encasement of clear plasteel was a human security guard. He looked at her unsmiling.
“Can I help you?” he asked. The human was dressed in ordinary garb for his kind. Since T’sell had modified her surface facial and body features using Nanite modules she looked human herself, and would not be recognized in any database found on planets throughout the Verge. The security guard saw a long haired blonde human woman with big boobs wearing a black mini-skirt and thigh-high black leather boots.
