by R F Hurteau
“Have you got anything stronger?” he asked, raising it hopefully in Nelson’s direction. Nelson, somewhat bewildered, found himself shaking his head.
“What exactly do you mean, you’re with him?” Edwin asked.
“Considering the predicament you find yourselves in, a smidgen of discretion would be propitious. We’ve been here for hours. For all you know, we were biding our time, waiting for reinforcements to arrive, perhaps our envoy to return through the Gate with a Theran army at its back. Seems to me that a more proactive approach to a such a variable situation might have been advisable.”
He sat back in his chair, abandoning the water glass and folding his hands in his lap. “But, that’s just one man’s opinion, of course.”
“You see?” Nelson said, feeling justified by the stranger’s validation. “All this ridiculous posturing, getting the Council together, bringing them up here, it was a waste of time. Valuable time that we should have been using to interrogate them.”
“Humanely interrogate them,” offered Terrance.
“Nelson,” Edwin warned through gritted teeth.
“My intention was not to get your undergarments in a wad,” Terrance assured them. “In point of fact, we have no reinforcements of any kind. Fortune favors you in this regard, as we are indeed flying solo on this one.”
His crewmates seemed alarmed by his candor, but they didn’t protest. All three of them seemed too nervous about their circumstances to argue.
Nelson eyed the Culeians warily, but his gut was telling him this was the truth. “And why should we believe you?”
“Not much reason to lie,” the man offered with a shrug.
“And what is your purpose here?” Edwin was obviously struggling to bring the conversation back under his own control.
Nelson found himself smirking and had to stop himself. Edwin was his friend. He shouldn’t enjoy watching him suffer...but he was.
“Peacock said it. We were sent to forge an alliance with the Therans.”
Several voices shouted at once.
“You see!” said Nelson, triumphant.
“Terrance, keep your mouth shut!” one of the other outsiders said in a harsh voice.
Nelson pointed an accusing finger at the Culeians.
“They don’t even deny it!”
“Nelson!”
This warning came from Sylvia, who was glowering at him now. Ben, who sat between the two of them, looked back and forth from Sylvia to Nelson before sliding his seat back a little.
“I don’t want to be in the middle of this,” he said, his expression one of grave concern.
“You are making a mockery of this Council,” hissed Sylvia, leaning over Ben. Nelson didn’t understand how her tone could be so soft and so threatening all at once. “If these were your concerns, you should have spent some of that time you think was wasted bringing them to Edwin. Not tearing him down in front of everyone here. Be quiet and let him handle this. I think you’ve done enough.”
She leaned back in her chair, folding her hands on the table in front of her, the picture of composure.
Nelson grudgingly clamped his mouth shut on the many other things he wished to share at that moment.
“Listen,” said Terrance. “I’m going to be one hundred percent on the level here. We’ve got nothing to hide. We didn’t know Sanctuary was still inhabited. The Elves told us it was destroyed, and that’s what we believed. And, truth be told, I’m not sure the plan would have changed much if we had known you were here. Maybe, but probably not. I was against this whole mess to begin with. I don’t think Humans and Therans should be working together. I think it’s easy to see we’re just asking for trouble. But I don’t give the orders, I just follow them. Plain and simple.”
“And your orders...you were sent to sign a treaty with the Therans?” Edwin clarified. “The fifth man that arrived with you, he’s there now?”
Terrance nodded. “That’s right. His name’s Bohai Takahashi, and he’s our Ambassador. I’m just an engineer. So’s this guy, Leon. The quiet one is Rupert, and Dante is...well, I don’t know what he does. Mostly just hands us things.”
“I’m an administrative aid!” squeaked Dante in a high, shrill voice of haughty indignation.
“Well, you’re bloody near useless, that’s all I’m saying,” Terrance replied without so much as looking at the man.
“This drill,” Ben interjected, “you burrowed underground all the way from...wherever you came from. Culei?”
Terrance shook his head. “It’s an amphibious vehicle, constructed for subterranean and nautical travel. It utilizes a continuous caterpillar track with retractable flippers that propels it both on land and underwater. It was designed to dig through ice, earth, permafrost, you name it. But we’re still working out some kinks. It can’t excavate as large of an area as we were hoping, or do so as fast as we’d’ve liked, at least not yet. The final model was intended to bore a direct path from the edge of the ice shelf to the Gate for our transport vehicles.”
Nelson could tell the idea of the drill excited Ben.
“I’d like to take a team to go look at it,” Ben said to Edwin. “If that’s okay with the rest of the Council.”
“I should go with you,” added Terrance. “I can explain how it works. Or Leon, he’d do in a pinch, I suppose.”
Edwin shook his head. “No, it doesn’t look very large. I would need to send guards as well if you were to go, and then there wouldn’t be much room to look around.”
He turned to Ben and nodded. “Go ahead. Take three of your men and check it out. Bring back specific questions for Mr. Wallace. He seems to be very cooperative.”
Ben stood up, almost skipping, and left the room in a dash before Edwin could change his mind.
“I am,” Terrance agreed, much to the chagrin of his companions.
Nelson wasn’t prepared to admit it, but Terrance did appear eager to help. He longed to ask more questions, but there was now no one between him and Sylvia’s evil eye.
He decided that he would wait and hope that Edwin asked the things he wanted to know.
“Yes. Why is that?” Edwin asked, and Nelson made a little victorious fist under the table. Edwin was getting to the real questions, at last. “Why are you so willing to tell us everything? You do realize that admitting to trying to ally with the Elves makes you our enemy, don’t you?”
Terrance appeared to ponder this for a while before answering. “I harbor no fondness for the Elves, them having devastated our planet and all. Nor do I have any particular interest in allying with them, as I have voiced to my comrades on multiple occasions. I was one of the leading engineers, I might even venture to say the foremost, that worked to develop that drill. You could say, if it wasn’t for myself, she woulda never left the drawing board. However, I don’t find it enticing to know that she most probably will be turned against my own people in due time. That, above all, is my defense. Your existence has tipped the scales of an inevitable war.”
“How’s that?”
Terrance paused and looked back and forth between Edwin and Nelson.
“Well, knowing this place is still functioning, that’s a huge bonus. This is the perfect first line of defense when the Elves come through. Controlling Sanctuary may yet be the defining factor in determining the outcome of a very dark future.”
“You’re wrong,” interjected Meagan O’Dell. “We haven’t got much to defend ourselves with, let alone the planet. When the Elves ran this place, they had no need for defenses. All of our precautions are still in their fledgling stages.”
Terrance seemed to consider this. “Why didn’t you just bury it?” he asked. “The Gate, I mean?”
“We tried that,” Edwin admitted. “But it proved impossible. We tried covering it with ice, but the ice touching the Gate itself kept melting away. Anything in front of it slid through. So we’ve focused on our other options, instead.”
“Listen, I know I’m no diplomat, and I don’t have th
e authority to speak on behalf of my government. But one thing I do know for certain is that the Elves will betray us, and most assuredly destroy you on their way to finish off the rest of the world. I think our only option is to work together. Up until this point you have been on your own, with, no doubt, limited resources.”
Nelson nodded, unable to contain himself any longer.
“Not that it’s any of your business,” he snapped, “but yeah. A lot of our materials are repurposed and recycled. So what? We’re doing okay for ourselves.”
“You’re doing okay—for now. But I’m willing to bet you’d be doing a heck of a lot better if you had the resources and the manpower needed to accomplish your goals. How many people you got up here?” He glanced around at them as if to take a headcount.
“Eight thousand, give or take,” Edwin replied, somewhat suspicious.
“And how many of them are engineers? Scientists?”
Nelson could see the worried faces that the Council members exchanged.
“Not enough,” Edwin admitted at last.
“Culei has some of the finest engineers on this planet. I should know—I’m one of them! And we’re familiar with your domes, too. We happen to have the original plans.”
This was a shocking revelation. Nelson felt his eyes go wide.
“You have what now?”
“It’s true. Our own capital was based off of the same technology used to build this place.”
“Terrance, I don’t think—”
“Hush up, Leon,” Terrance replied, brushing off his companion’s protests with a hint of annoyance. “No one asked you.”
Edwin sat back down, and Nelson leaned in toward him and Sylvia.
“Do we really believe what this guy is saying?”
“He seems genuine,” whispered Sylvia. Her eyes darted toward the strangers, narrowing as she pondered them. “But that doesn’t mean we should trust him.”
“Still, we’re hurting here. We all know it. We need supplies, food, manpower. He’s right about one thing—we’re the first thing the Elves will find when they come through that Gate. I don’t think we stand much of a chance on our own. Making friends on the outside might not be a bad idea.” Edwin straightened up.
Then he gave a firm nod. “All right.” He looked to Denton. “Has your team finished repairing the turret controls?”
Denton’s face contorted more than usual, which was saying something. Nelson had always thought that the man looked like he was suffering. As if the act of having to think caused him physical pain. “Not yet. It should be soon, though.”
“I just hope it’s soon enough. If this Bohai comes back with Elves, I want to be ready.”
“I truly don’t know how much time you have,” Terrance said. “They should be coming through to inspect the drill at some point. That was kind of the whole reason for the trip. Plans for a prototype of what we can offer. They’re going to want proof that we can deliver on our promises, you know?”
Nelson came out of his seat, eyes shifting from Terrance to Edwin.
“We can’t let them take that thing through the Gate.”
He saw the same grim determination that he felt reflected in Edwin’s face. “And we can’t let them hang around outside studying it.”
“No.” Edwin turned back to Terrance, his voice taking on a tone of something like urgency. “How soon are you expecting them to collect the plans?”
“I’m not sure. We were hoping things would go quick. But you know how these political types can be...eh, no offense intended. Present company excluded, I’m sure.” Then he cast a sidelong glance at his companions. “Except for Dante.”
“Damn.” Edwin slouched in his chair, and Nelson could practically see his mind racing through their options. “All right. Denton, I want you to assemble a team and keep them at the entrance to the tunnel, twenty-four hours a day. If the Elves come back before our turrets are up, we don’t want to be caught unawares. Nelson.”
At this, Nelson straightened up, preparing himself for whatever important task Edwin had for him.
“I want you to take one of the guards outside and show Mr. Wallace down to Core Operations. Show him what we’re working with and see if he can be of any assistance speeding up the repairs.”
Nelson gaped. “You want me to...what?”
“You heard me, Nelson. Take Mr. Wallace—”
He couldn’t believe his ears. “But he could sabotage everything! This might have been their plan all along! Get in here and take us down from the inside!”
Edwin raised an eyebrow. “If it was, it wasn’t a very good one. He can’t do much more harm than that lunatic with the cane already did. Just bring him down, have our guys keep an eye on him, and let him take a look. That is,” he said, addressing Terrance now, “if you’re certain you’re willing to assist us?”
Terrance shrugged. “I don’t see why not. Nothing pressing on my schedule at the moment.”
His eyes lit up. “I work better with a little something to warm my belly.”
“Get our gun turrets back in working order, and I’ll put you up in the tavern. You can help yourself to whatever you’d like, compliments of the Council.”
Edwin jerked his chin in the direction of the door. “Go on, Nelson. The sooner the better.”
Nelson tugged at his collar with a look of consternation before marching out of the room.
“Come on, then!” he barked at Terrance. “Let’s go.”
As they left, he heard Edwin continuing to dole out assignments.
“The rest of you, please follow the guards, who will show you to your quarters. You will remain there unless summoned...” his voice drifted off behind them.
“So...” Terrance said after a few minutes of tense silence. “You’ve got a tavern, eh?”
Nelson scowled. “Yes. We have a market, too. A couple of markets.”
“A couple! You don’t say.”
Nelson chose to let the sarcastic tone roll of his back. “We’re not savages, you know. We’ve done a lot of good here, considering what we’re working with.”
“I don’t doubt it. I’d love to hear all about this place. A hundred and twenty-five years of isolation from the outside world. I can’t begin to imagine what that must have been like.”
“Well, you’ll have to do your best, because I don’t have time for storytelling right now,” Nelson snapped, his mood continuing to sour. “We’ve got a job to do, and you’d better not try anything. I’ll know if you do!”
“So, you’re an engineer, too, then?”
Nelson sniffed. “Before we overthrew the Elves, I worked in Core Operations.”
He hoped this was a good enough non-answer to satisfy Terrance’s incessant curiosity.
“That sounds impressive.”
“Thank you,” he said curtly.
“What’d you do?”
“I was responsible for monitoring and reporting on all vital systems for the city.”
“Hmm.” Terrance gave a knowing nod. “A pencil pusher.”
“Excuse me?” A wave of indignation washed over Nelson. “I’ll have you know that I did a lot more than keep logs, thank you very much.”
“Apologies. I meant no offense. I just call it like I see it, you know?”
Nelson considered this for a while before deciding to be the bigger man.
“I’m sure you didn’t,” he said. “Here we are.”
He led Terrance into Core Operations. It was quiet, and to Nelson’s dismay, he saw that most of its occupants were sitting at their stations, writing in their logbooks.
He felt his cheeks redden, and he directed Terrance’s attention toward the weapon controls, where a half dozen people were scuttling around, looking, to his relief, much more active than the rest of the room.
Terrance shoved his way up to the console, eyeing it critically, and Nelson found himself growing defensive before the other man had even uttered a single word. “We do what we can with what we’ve got.”
Terrance nodded thoughtfully. “This is all new, eh? I can tell. Doesn’t match the equipment around it.”
“We built it to control the gun turrets. We made those, too,” Nelson added with pride. “There are detailed records in the system of a lot of pre-Sequencing technology. We were just never allowed to access it when the Elves ran the city. The turrets weren’t so hard to construct, it’s the projectiles they use that are tricky.”
“But they aren’t working at all right now?”
“A wild man with a cane busted up the whole console!”
Nelson was aware of the way his voice was growing more and more desperate.
“Well, maybe you shouldn’t allow canes in here.”
Terrance bent down to get a closer look at the controls. “Or at least not wild men with canes. Boy. He sure did a number on this thing.”
He leaned back a bit, sucking on his bottom lip as he made a show of looking the weapons station over. His thinning ponytail hung limp behind him like a tassle.
“I think your biggest issue might just be these touch panels. You overbuilt it, that’s all. A good old-fashioned analog design with some sturdy buttons and knobs would be much less susceptible to attack. But that’d require reworking the whole system. Hmm.”
Nelson watched, nervous, as Terrance observed the machine and those tinkering with it for several long minutes.
At last the other man stood, turning back to Nelson.
“Yeah, I can help,” he said, and Nelson’s body flooded with relief. “I’m going to need a list of everything you have to work with, though, and as soon as possible. Materials and any compatible parts. I need to know what we’ve got if you want me to be of any use.”
Nelson was nodding. “We already have that. You there!” He pointed at a young man who was elbow deep in the wiring beneath the panel, trying in vain to identify which strands had been damaged by the glass shrapnel from the display. “Where’s our master list?”
“Killian Graves has it, sir,” the young man responded without looking up. “Down in Pods.”
“What? What does Killian need it for? He has nothing to do with this project.”
“I know, sir, but someone just brought it down a little while ago. Some of the rarer items had already been earmarked for their research, or something to that effect. Someone went to compare the lists and get our stuff back before it got lost in the shuffle.”
