Redemption Protocol (Contact)

by Mike Freeman

  Their suit decoys were exhausted.

  “One hundred meters.”

  They'd needed two more seconds.

  The southern guardian opened fire. The first twenty centimeter long kinetic ripped through the atmo.

  Charles screamed, his hand blown off, or some fingers.

  Havoc braced for impact.

  71.

  In the vault under the Colosseum, Weaver pressed her hand against the alien plinth. As before, she felt the invigorating rush and displacement to an abstract location, but this time there was no sequence pushed toward her.

  Instead a ghostly carousel, like an abstract catalog, spun in front of her. She knew intuitively she could move toward it, navigating the carousel with her mind. The carousel provided page after page of different sequence levels to choose from. She recognized the power level symbol next to the difficulty levels. They were zero, nada, nothing. Ascending levels of difficulty but each with a zero power level accompanying them. Perhaps no threat, she thought. She hoped, anyway.

  She was in this abstract environment with all her senses replaced, buzzing with intellectual stimulation. In contrast to the gate, this time there was no sense of urgency and she didn't feel trapped. There was a clear intuitive doorway out and she took it.

  She blinked into reality, feeling energized.

  “Wow.”

  “Already?” Karch said.

  “It's different. It's more of a choice.”

  “How does it feel?”

  She realized the truth of it as she answered.

  “It feels fantastic. It's like stepping on top of a mountain on a clear day. You can see forever. The awareness has a quality to it. Sorry, I'm blathering.”

  Karch smiled at her.

  “You going back in?”

  “Yes. I just wanted to make sure I could get out.”

  Karch nodded.

  “Sounds good to me, girl.”

  “Ok.”

  “Ok.”

  Weaver pressed her hand back against the panel.

  72.

  The consequences of Havoc's earlier decision manifested themselves with divine authority.

  His three sky lances burned down through the atmosphere traveling six kilometers per second. The sky lances were fin-guided kinetic weapons massing a tonne each and their force was equivalent to a nuclear warhead. The guardians had time to register the threat and then they were obliterated. Shockwaves burst out across the plaza.

  Havoc hurtled toward the entrance, way too fast. He thrust his and Kemensky’s suits at maximum, trying to reduce the speed at which they would hit, or ideally go through, the black entrance.

  Kemensky waved his arms like he was trying to swim out of trouble.

  “Waaahhhhhh!”

  Havoc’s suit jets screamed at overload. Charles curved ahead of him. Charles was going to hit at an angle. It was the moment of truth. Was the mysterious blackness an entrance? Or an ending?

  The gap with the entrance closed to nothing. Kemensky, at least, was convinced he was going to die.

  “Nooo!”

  Charles plunged through the dark surface and vanished.

  Havoc tensed, Kemensky screamed and then they were through, hurtling down a dark hallway lined with gigantic obelisks. Havoc winced as Charles deflected off the right wall, spun upward and smashed into the top of an obelisk with a wrenching explosion of his suit's primary collision bag, which tore off as he cartwheeled away before crashing to the floor and careering down the hallway. Charles came to rest wrapped around the transparent plinth of an obelisk.

  Havoc, Tomas and Kemensky screamed down the center of the passage until they slowed to a halt. Havoc lay on his back like a starfish.

  “Well, gosh, Charles. That was exciting.”

  There was silence.

  Kemensky activated his suit lights. The beams of light pierced the darkness and augmented Havoc's radar image. Kemensky pointed as he lay on the floor.

  “Oh dear.”

  Havoc looked up. The huge obelisk that Charles had caught the top of with his collision bag was toppling ever so slowly past the point of no return. Havoc watched with a mix of fascination and horror as the obelisk accelerated and fell into the obelisk beside it.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  In slow motion, punctuated by a thunderous boom from each impact, the entire avenue of obelisks down the right hand side of the hallway toppled into their neighbors one at a time. The collisions continued like a rolling gun salute until the last obelisk in their section smashed into the first archway.

  The silence was deafening.

  Havoc dropped his head back to the floor with a clunk.

  “We come in peace.”

  73.

  Weaver navigated the abstract carousel with the thrill of an explorer in a new land.

  She picked a puzzle level that was easier than the entrance panel. A sequence appeared in front of her and flowed across her horizon, brightening as it did so, demanding a solution. Weaver analyzed the sequence and manipulated the symbols. She felt confident. She worked through the equations and offered a solution, knowing it to be right.

  Another carousel coalesced on the plain of her awareness as well as a doorway that she intuitively knew led back to the first carousel. But, she noticed, the sequence that she’d solved was still flowing; extending, permutating and requiring more attention. She worked through it and provided an updated solution, keen to examine the carousel.

  The sequence moved forward again as Weaver realized that she could manipulate the carousel in the center of the abstract space, spinning it to reveal arrays of ideograms. The ideograms were coded at the level of the puzzle that she’d accessed to get into this place and had varying and generally low power levels alongside. She picked one with a low power level and was transported to another location.

  A creature appeared, similar to the gargoyles that were guarding the pyramid. It was a winged creature, more like a dragon of folklore than anything else. Aspects of its physiology were highlighted as her attention shifted over it. In her awareness there was also a doorway back to the second carousel.

  The sequence flowed along the base of her horizon, demanding her attention. It was frustrating; she couldn't concentrate on the content before being drawn back to the sequence. She solved another term.

  If she could only focus long enough, she could access the details of this dragon creature. She solved the sequence again, trying to get ahead. Every time she advanced the sequence she felt a flush of success, but the sequence continued to press on her. It was relentless.

  She felt she had so much potential if she could only manage the sequences. She felt flustered by its continuous demands. She didn’t want to mess it up.

  She took the doorway and stepped back out.

  74.

  Havoc watched Charles get to his feet, grinning like an idiot. How appropriate, Havoc thought.

  Charles cradled his right hand in his left. He’d lost his smallest finger and only the first joint remained of his fourth. He was remarkably lucky. Still, Havoc thought, better to be lucky than good.

  “Your suit sealed?”

  Charles nodded, still flushed with adrenalin.

  “It’s fine.”

  Havoc nodded and walked back to the entrance. He stepped through cautiously, ready to leap back in the unlikely event that any of the guardians still existed. He needn't have worried. The guardians were gone, annihilated to dust with craters for tombstones. They might have been advanced alien technology but there was only so much you could do when a meteor hit you in the face. The kinetics had damaged the pyramid, though far less than Havoc had expected.

  He was pleased to see that Novosa had blades circulating inside the walls already. One transmitted images of the remains of the fourth Guardian, midway between the pyramid and the wall. Most of its structure was missing but the shards of claw suggested it had taken some kind of kinetic hit, though not of the same order of magnitude as the kill shots
that Havoc had delivered from space. Did it mean someone else, or something else, had already visited?

  “You ok?” Novosa asked.

  “Sure.”

  “What happened?”

  Charles couldn't hear Havoc, since the signals didn’t pass through the pyramid entrance, but Havoc wouldn’t have cared if he did.

  “Ask the idiot,” he replied with feeling.

  “You were instructed not to use orbital weapons, Havoc,” Whittenhorn said.

  “I didn't think we had a choice.”

  “You could start a war or worse,” Whittenhorn said.

  “Using orbital weapons sets a very bad precedent for the other nations,” Bergeron said.

  “Has it occurred to anyone else that those guardians might have had a purpose?” Touvenay said.

  “What do you mean?” Whittenhorn said.

  “Well, it occurs to me they might be there to keep something in, rather than keep us out.”

  Good point, Havoc thought. He supposed they’d find out, one way or another. Tyburn spoke on a different circuit, cutting over a comment being made by Bergeron.

  “Critics watch the battle then shoot the survivors. Good job, well done.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You’ve got two hours until you're back in the lovely sunshine. You going back in?”

  “Yeah, while we’re here.”

  “You think Charles can handle it?”

  Havoc smiled.

  “If stupidity got us into this mess, why can't he get us out?”

  Tyburn laughed.

  Havoc turned toward the dark entrance. He wondered if Touvenay had it right. Were the guardians there to keep them out, or to keep something else in?

  75.

  Weaver blinked back into the library.

  Karch stared at her with an astonished expression.

  “What the hell was that thing?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “On the wall. It looked like. I don't know. It looked like...”

  “A dragon?”

  “Yeah. Exactly.”

  “You saw that?”

  Karch pointed at the large curved section of wall.

  “On the wall.”

  “Hmm. That's what I saw inside.”

  “Is that them?”

  Weaver shrugged.

  “I don't know.”

  Karch’s demeanor was less than enthusiastic.

  “We've found a planet full of dragons?”

  Weaver looked around the glowing stacks. All of the answers or Pandora's Box? She had to pinch herself to make sure this was real.

  “I don't know.”

  “How was it? Are you ok?”

  Weaver took a drink from her suit dispenser.

  “Yes, I feel fine. I feel good, actually.”

  Darkwood set a container down at the base of the ramp.

  “That's all the equipment in now.”

  Weaver turned to him.

  “Great.”

  Fournier and Touvenay set down the last of their equipment. A smile played across Fournier’s face.

  “Stone has gone to help Novosa.”

  Weaver grinned.

  “I'm sure he has.”

  Darkwood pointed at the plinth.

  “Do you think you’d be able to locate the map symbol that indicates the alien ship inside the stack?”

  Weaver nodded. It would be good to have a goal in there, she thought.

  “Good idea. I can try.”

  Touvenay highlighted part of the complex ideogram that represented the alien ship on mission net.

  “It might be worth searching for this symbol separately as well. I think it’s the element that signifies the energy system of the ship.”

  Weaver nodded.

  “Great, I’ll do that.”

  Novosa streamed them video of three sky lances vaporizing the pyramid guardians. Three mushroom clouds hung in the atmo before drifting sideways to reveal craters and scarred ground.

  “Be careful in there, if anything’s going to be pissed off, it's probably now.”

  Karch grimaced.

  “Ouch.”

  “Is anyone hurt?” Weaver asked.

  Novosa looked pained.

  “Four of my boys are gone, that’s all I know.”

  “And the team?” Weaver said.

  “They went through the entrance.”

  Weaver couldn’t believe it.

  “They’re inside the pyramid?”

  76.

  Havoc stepped back through the cloak of darkness at the pyramid entrance and into the hallway. In orbit, Whittenhorn and Bergeron were still complaining about the sky lances. Re-entering the pyramid had a pleasing effect on the voices in Havoc’s head. They cut off instantly.

  Their suits lights illuminated disturbing fragments of the giant obelisks in the hallway. The effect was atmospheric but it didn't negatively affect his perception – his hyperspectral vision mapped out the corridor ahead in perfect clarity. It looked like a long tunnel into a tomb. Maybe it was?

  Kemensky turned as Havoc approached.

  “You alright, Havoc?”

  “Just some whining in my ears. It's gone now. How’s our hero?”

  Tomas looked at Charles.

  “He'll live, at least until we get him later.”

  Havoc nodded.

  “Many a true word spoken in jest, Tomas. And don't pretend you didn't put him up to it.”

  Tomas smirked.

  Charles grinned.

  “We’re all here aren’t we?”

  Havoc thought that Charles was proud of his little war wound. He was of that age.

  “We're all here. I’m not sure about you.”

  Charles looked hurt. Havoc didn’t care. If Charles wanted praise for his stunt he wasn’t going to get it from him. For a start, he didn’t want to encourage a repeat performance.

  “Are we going further inside?” Tomas asked.

  Havoc looked around the group.

  “Well?”

  They considered then nodded. Havoc sized up the two princes.

  “Fair enough. You two can either slave your suits to me or stay here. Your call.”

  Both princes adopted the expression of moody teenagers.

  But then, Havoc thought, that was the bloody point, wasn’t it?

  77.

  Weaver accessed the carousel to search for the ideogram that denoted the alien ship or its energy system.

  She had no idea of the ordering of the alien language – she was working off a tiny base of probably flawed understanding. The only thing she could confidently determine was the difficulty and power level of the concepts she was accessing. She arbitrarily picked a difficulty level that was two below that of the entrance gate and started her search from there.

  She continuously solved the sequences so that she could browse the content. She felt a hit of pure elation every time she solved a sequence entry. The sensation was addictive. Every time she was tardy in finding a solution the sequence brightened and her sense of urgency increased. What would happen, she wondered, if she simply stopped solving the unending ribbon that stretched across her horizon?

  Once she reached the difficulty level of the entrance gate she finally plucked up the courage to fail deliberately. After all, she reasoned, the indexes had a power level of zero. She stopped solving the sequence. Her stress level climbed as the intensity of the light built, painlessly, to a climax.

  She found herself back in the cavern, re-inhabiting her body and senses. She looked down. Her hand had broken contact with the plinth.

  She breathed with relief as she examined the record of her vitals over the last few seconds. Nothing stood out. She checked that her external monitors were recording faithfully – she didn’t want some alien virus to slip in while she wandered around the virtual library.

  She re-entered the carousel. She was two levels above the difficulty of the gate entrance when she found the constituent symbol that Touvenay had suggested
was a ship’s energy system. The symbol had a low power level associated with it. She felt relaxed and confident as she accessed it.

  Her horizon shifted and information on a type of energy system materialized in her abstract domain. Power curves, system relationships, propulsion mechanics and energy equations flooded into her awareness. Principles, conceptual diagrams and component overviews spread before her. She understood that she wasn’t seeing the design of a ship – she was seeing the general design principles for an energy system of that type. It was engrossing – enthralling even – and she found herself not just accessing the information but trying to understand it.

  It felt like the next instant that the access sequence blazed fiercely at her.

  She’d neglected the sequence. She was terribly behind.

  The sequence shone so brightly that its intensity hurt. She was terrified. This was not the harmless feeling of the index puzzle. She felt like daggers were being driven through her being. As the intensity grew, the pain got worse. She tried to focus on the sequence and manipulate the equations.

  She substituted a term, saw a solution, focused on it and tried to move forward. Nothing. The sequence was like ice now, ice with an edge, cold and sharp. It cut her mind. The pain distracted her.

  She realized she’d missed a term; she had tried to substitute too quickly and made a mistake. The intensity was overwhelming. Her mind was splitting, the sequences rising up and enveloping her. Brilliant fury raged across her horizon. She couldn't do it. She desperately tried to escape but the sequence blocked her. The light grew and cut and burned. She was in trouble. She was trapped.

  The brightness. It was too much.

  78.

  Havoc led his group down the pyramid's lengthy entrance hall. He prowled forward, paranoid and alert, while his microdrones communicated images and mapping of what lay ahead.

  Their suit lights threw illuminating beams across their monumental surroundings. The arched passageway soared overhead, dwarfing their party like ants in a cathedral. The obelisks towered over them, carved in a cacophony of abstract shapes. Some of the obelisks had features that suggested effigies of living beings. Havoc wondered if they would spring into life like the guardians outside. He was sure everyone was wondering the same thing. The fact that the obelisks glowed dimly in his vision because they were a slightly higher temperature than their surroundings only added to his paranoia. They had passed ninety six of the massive statues – forty eight down each side. It didn't bear thinking about.