“There, stop.” Jing Tzu pointed into space. “A massive electromagnetic spike. That’s what disabled Yutu.”
“I thought it was hardened against EMP from a PEP weapon.”
“It is, this is different, maybe a direct hit from something designed to overload electronic circuitry.”
“Well, at least it didn’t damage it. Yutu is designed to shut down immediately to protect its systems. But, I have a better idea.”
“What’s that?”
“Something that will give them a shock if they try it again.” The commander turned back to Yutu. “Access.”
The robot stood up on all four limbs as the panel on its back slid open again. Jing Tzu proceeded to tap commands into the interface.
“What are you doing?”
Jing Tzu didn’t answer for a few more minutes until he was finished. “Self-destruct.” He winked at Chen. “If Yutu senses another attack like that it will give them all a very big surprise.”
Chen looked concerned. “Is that wise?”
Jing Tzu spun around, visibly angry at his subordinate questioning his authority. “This place is an abomination. As soon as we are safely on the planet’s surface away from here I will instruct Yutu to return—and self-destruct. It will take this place with it. Destroy it, hopefully for good.”
The first officer simply nodded. Jing Tzu turned back to the machine. “Yutu, locate spare EVA suits.”
The robot moved off, shifting its head this way and that, scanning the area. Like a metal sniffer dog, it poked and prodded with its sensors. It stopped beside three elongated storage containers with the Xaing Zu Industries logo on the side. “Located.” It pointed with one of its forelimbs.
They cracked them open and spent the next few minutes checking the suits’ resources. None were fully charged but they were reasonably well resourced otherwise. With the help of the robot they calculated they had enough to make it to the Xaing Zu ship and still have 32.5% resources in reserve, more than enough. A few more minutes and they were back at the entrance door, suited and booted, carrying their helmets.
Jing Tzu stuck his ear to the inside of the door and listened. He could hear muffled sounds far off in the depths of the colony. Whatever was going on was still in play. He opened the door a crack and peered out. Two colonists passed right by, but didn’t see him—a moment earlier and they would have. He watched them move along the concourse and finally out of sight, he thought one of them might be Jann Malbec. When he was sure they were gone, he stepped out and looked around, then he signaled to Chen to follow. They moved out of the storage pod as silently as a bulky EVA suit would allow. Yutu followed, hunkered low to the floor. Fortunately they didn’t have far to go, just a few meters to the soil processing access door. Jing Tzu opened it while Chen kept watch. They finally slipped inside, unseen.
The space was narrow, and short. Only a few feet of floor before they started to descend down a steep ramp into the subterranean cave system beneath Colony One. It was designed as an access route for maintenance crews who needed to service the soil processing machinery and harvester robots. The walls and floor of this cave were not sealed and hence the air within had a high concentration of perchlorates. Not something you want to spend much time breathing, as it could cause thyroid problems. But that was the least of their worries, they weren’t planning on staying here too long.
It was dark. The hum of machinery grew more intense as they descended. Yutu went ahead, a beam of light flicked on from its head. It slowed down as it probed the area by bouncing a multitude of frequencies around the volume. It stopped, forcing Jing Tzu and Chen to halt.
“What’s it doing?”
“Shhh.” Jing Tzu held a finger to his lips.
The robot’s head tilted this way and that, and just when the commander considered it had stopped completely, it shot off across the cave with impressive speed. A figure darted out from a hiding place and ran. But it didn’t get far. By the time Jing Tzu and Chen had caught up with the robot it had both of its forelimbs resting on the shoulders of its victim, pinning him to the floor. The figure held an arm across his face and shouted. “Get this goddamn thing off me.”
Jing Tzu looked down at him. It was Peter VanHoff.
20
Dome Five
As Gizmo worked to repair the operation room console, Jann had a moment to consider their next move. With the limited data that the droid could provide, she began to get a picture of where people were located. The bulk of the lifeforms, as Gizmo put it, were in the biodome. This made sense as Jann considered the colonists were too scared to move from whatever hiding places they had found for themselves in there, and if you were of the mindset to lay low and keep out of trouble, then the biodome was the perfect place for it. She also discovered from Xenon that the remains of the Xaing Zu crew were locked up in one of the food processing pods, so at least she didn’t have to consider them as an immediate threat.
Of the colonists that had run out of the biodome, some were in the medlab looking after Nills and the injured. The rest were here in the operations room with her. She looked around. Some were tending to the COM mercenary she had just blasted. Surprisingly, he was still alive, lying on the floor unconscious. How long the effects of a blast from a PEP weapon lasted, she had no idea. So he could potentially wake up at any minute and start causing trouble. Although, he was bound to be in considerable pain from all the burns inflicted on him by the exploding electronics. Nevertheless, it would be a good idea to restrain him now, before he came to.
But her main consideration was COM, and how to immobilize them as a threat. Yet, to do this they needed to know where they all were—and where was VanHoff?
“Gizmo, any joy with that console?”
“That depends on how you define joy. There is the joy of fixing, and then there is the joy of having fixed.”
Jann looked over at Xenon and sighed. He was in the process of tying up the mercenary. He just nodded at the quirky robot and smiled as if he had read her mind.
“Gizmo, I just want to know where the bulk of the COM crew are located.” Jann tried again.
“Well why didn’t you say so?” Gizmo spun around to face Jann. “The console is too badly damaged for me to effect repairs in any immediate time frame, and I have no visual or audio feeds. So, from the limited amount of data available to me, and extrapolating two-dimensional direction vectors over time, my best guess is the main COM cohort are somewhere in the connecting tunnel between domes four and five, and accommodation.”
“And VanHoff?”
“Much as I hate to admit it, but I do not know with any certainty where he is.”
“Well, we know he was in the medlab until a short time ago. I would imagine that COM are keeping him close, keeping him safe,” said Xenon. He was now examining the PEP weapon belonging to the fallen mercenary.
“Gizmo, can we lockdown the facility so no one can get out?”
The little robot moved to an undamaged section of the operations room and tapped some icons. “It is already locked down.”
“Good,” said Jann. “Now we just need to isolate COM. Can we close off that sector?”
“Yes, but unfortunately I can not do this remotely.” Gizmo swiveled his head back to look at Jann. “Come, let me show you.” It moved over to the holo-table and brought up a 3D schematic of the colony. “This door here will close off the entire sector from the rest of the colony. No way out for COM. But you must do this manually.”
Jann considered this for a moment, then stood back from the holo-table and faced the others. “Okay, so here’s what we do…” But before she had time to explain her plan a COM mercenary appeared in the doorway to the operations room. He just stood there, not moving, and his eyes possessed a very long distance stare.
“Shit.” Jann grabbed her weapon and pointed it at him as the others dove for cover. “Drop the weapon!”
The mercenary looked confused. His head tilted to the side for a moment then looked down at
his weapon. He lifted it up and examined it as if its function and purpose had escaped his memory.
“Just drop it!” Jann moved closer, her weapon held with both hands, arms outstretched. Xenon also raised his weapon and pointed at the confused mercenary.
Something suddenly snapped into place in the mercenary’s confused mind and several things happened all at once. He let out a long blood-curdling scream that physically stunned them. At the same time he raised his weapon, having somehow remembered its function, and fired a blast before running off.
Jann took a moment to react, and fired. But the mercenary had gone and her shot dissipated off the far wall of the concourse. She ran out the door, followed by Xenon. Jann looked around but he was nowhere to be seen. “Dammit. Where did he come from?”
“It is unlikely he’s the same mercenary that went psycho in the biodome. Which means we have a second one to deal with,” said Xenon.
Jann was still looking down the concourse in the direction of dome five. “This could work in our favor. It looks like he’s headed for the main COM cohort. So if we can get that door closed then they can fight it out between themselves in there.” She lowered her weapon and turned back to Xenon. Some of the other colonists had come out of the operations room holding various rudimentary weapons.
“Anyone hit?”
“Yes, Melva. She’s alive, but unconscious.”
Jann walked back into the operations room. Melva was lying on the floor, flat on her back. A large burn mark, the size of a dinner plate, bloomed out across her chest.
“You’d better get her to the medlab, and take that COM mercenary as well,” Jann instructed.
The colonists started to gather up the fallen.
Gizmo, you stay here and get that console back up and running.”
“I shall do my best, Jann.”
“Xenon. You and I will go and get the door to that sector sealed. If we can do that, then we have a chance at finishing this. Come on, let’s go.”
Commander Willem Kruger had tracked the psychotic crewmember that had gone ballistic inside the biodome to a cluster of domes on the far side of the facility. These were connected via a short tunnel to a concourse that acted as a kind of backbone for the Colony One infrastructure. Several sectors were linked to this concourse. The area that he and the rest of his crew were now searching consisted of two small domes, collectively named accommodation, and two larger ones, each with the unimaginative titles of dome four and dome five. His crew had already conducted a thorough search of all these sectors except for dome five. All were clear. Kruger checked his PEP weapon for the umpteenth time and then signaled for his crew to gather around.
“Okay, listen up. I want this guy taken down quick. I don’t care if he’s your best buddy, he’s now a homicidal maniac ready to gut you on sight. So take him down at the first opportunity. Got it?”
Both Slade and Jones nodded.
“Second thing, and this is very important so pay attention,” Kruger paused for a moment and looked over at the entrance to dome five. “There is a methane processing reactor in there, highly volatile.”
“Well that’s just great.”
“Put a sock in it, Jones. It is what it is, so let’s just be careful what we’re shooting at. The storage tanks are on the outside of the dome so that’s something. But do me a favor and try not to shoot the processing unit.”
“Why not, sir?” said Slade
Kruger and Jones each gave an exasperated sigh. “Ka-boom. That’s why.” The commander did an exploding gesture with his hands to emphasize the point. But as he was about to lead them in, a scream echoed from back along the concourse.
“Shit, what the hell was that?” Jones swiveled in its direction, weapon at the ready.
Kruger snapped his fingers. “You stay here. If anyone shows up at that door not looking real friendly, you take them out, no questions.”
“Yes sir.”
“Slade, you come with me.”
They stepped in through the half open door of dome five. It was a large space that was part manufacturing plant, part storage space and part workshop. Strewn here and there were stacks of crates, machine parts and even the skeleton of an old lander module that someone had stripped of all useful components. Kruger moved silently and gave a hand signal that instructed Slade to move out and start searching. It didn’t take them long. The deranged mercenary shot out from behind a mountain of crates and fired off two blasts in quick succession. Kruger and Slade dived for cover. A moment later, the commander stuck his head up from behind a crate and scanned the area. The mercenary was nowhere to be seen. He signaled to Slade again to move out. This time Kruger kept his weapon high and ready to fire at the first opportunity.
The whoop of a PEP weapon being fired, back where Kruger had left Jones, stopped them dead in their tracks. “Sounds like Jones has met someone who wasn’t real friendly,” Slade whispered.
But before Kruger could answer, the mercenary burst out from cover again. This time he didn’t get a chance to discharge his weapon. He was encased in a ball of electrical craziness that hit him from two different directions at the same time. He shook and jerked and bounced around like a pinball before collapsing to the floor, incandescent flashes still arcing around his body.
When the light show had finally stopped Kruger and Slade approached the body with caution. He was dead, no question about that. It was job done as far as the commander was concerned so he shouldered his weapon. “Okay, let’s get out of here. It’s time to start herding the colonists back into the biodome.”
They walked off slowly, there was no rush. The thorn in Kruger’s side had finally been taken care of. From here on in it would be just a mop up operation.
A scream reverberated around the dome as another deranged COM crewmember came bursting through the door. It was Benson, his weapon aimed in their direction. Before either Kruger or Slade could unshoulder their weapons he fired. It was at that instant that Willem Kruger, commander of the Colony One Mars mission, realized they were both standing right in front of the methane reactor.
“Oh shit,” was all he could manage.
Jann and Xenon slowly inched their way down along the concourse, moving on opposite sides, keeping close to the walls. Up ahead on the left was the entrance tunnel to where they assumed the COM mercenaries were. It was set at right angles to the concourse, so Jann crept along and peered carefully around the corner. She signaled to Xenon who darted across and took up a position beside her.
“All clear, as far as I can tell.” She ventured another look around the corner. “Come on, let’s get that door closed.”
They entered the tunnel, and could now see the door, about halfway along. This was a large circular bulkhead, hinged on one side and opened back against the tunnel wall on their side. Closing this would isolate everything on the far side and lock the COM mercenaries in. Jann hurried forward, but as she came close to the door she thought she could see a body farther in, on the far side, close to the junction for the domes.
“There’s someone on the floor down there.”
Xenon looked down the tunnel, moving his head around trying to see. “I can just make out a foot.”
Jann looked back at Xenon. “Could it be a colonist?”
Xenon said nothing for a moment as he considered this. Then he stuck his head around the side of the door. “Hard to know from here.”
Jann stepped out from the wall and started forward. “I’ll take a closer look.”
Xenon seemed unsure of this decision but didn’t protest as Jann moved quietly down the tunnel. She passed the bulkhead door. The foot turned into a leg which eventually turned into the body of a COM mercenary. Jann checked his nametag, Jones. He was still alive but had obviously been hit by a PEP weapon. He lay unconscious with a thin trail of smoke rising up from the blast mark. Jann couldn’t tell if he had been one of the infected. Was he the same one that attacked them in the operations room? She wasn’t sure but he seemed shorter, with
different color hair, more blond. She looked back at Xenon. “Come on, give me a hand with him.”
Xenon stalled for a moment before stepping over the threshold of the bulkhead door. He ran down to her. “Jann, this is very risky.”
“Quick, we’ll grab one leg each and drag him back.”
He did so reluctantly. “I don’t see why you’re going out of your way for this guy.”
“Call it my maternal instinct.”
Xenon smiled and nodded.
Jann suddenly lost her balance as the tunnel physically shook with the force of a massive explosion. She dropped the leg she had been dragging and braced herself against the wall. Xenon was doing the same, and staring into her eyes as if to say. I told you this was a stupid idea.
She began to feel the atmosphere being sucked out. Not so much that it would knock her over but enough to know that this was serious, and getting more so. A klaxon blared and red strobe lights kicked on overhead.
“What the hell was that?” Jann was getting herself upright again.
“We’d better get out of here.” They ran for the door but it was automatically closing. Having detected the drop in pressure the bulkhead was sealing itself to protect the integrity of the main colony facility. It was sacrificing this sector, and all who were in it.
“Hurry!” Xenon dived through the door to the other side, grabbed the edge with both hands and planted his feet against the wall trying to stop it from closing. Jann squeezed in through the gap and just managed to bring her feet in as the door slammed shut. They sat there for a few moments, gasping and calming themselves down. “That was close.” Xenon gave a wry smile.
Jann smiled back and looked at the bulkhead door. “Well, I think that solves our COM infestation problem.”
After a few moments the alarms stopped just as Gizmo came racing down the tunnel.
“What the hell just happened back there, Gizmo?”
Colony Three Mars (Colony Mars Book 3) Page 13
