“You should have been taught about all the safety measures and teams of AIs that monitor even the slightest variables in off-planet resource movements.”
“Sure,” Farmer said, brushing Adam off. He turned to look at another part of the wall.
“The rebels want to destabilize the Imperial territories,” Adam said at last. “Turn them back into rocks like this one, only without breathable air. Blowing up a mine to show that it is unstable and can cause a black hole isn’t right,” he added when he saw Farmer turn away.
“No, it isn’t,” Miranda agreed. “So, the Landers, in their infinite wisdom, built this.” She ran her fingers over the next image. It looked something between a hole in the ground and a handgun.
“And that box is the key that turns it on,” Miranda said, pointing at the picture where Farmer stood. Farmer stepped back to get a better look at it. Miranda snapped her fingers, realization dawning.
“That’s what I’ve been hearing all these cycles,” she said. “The location beacon for this box.”
“Like a homing call,” Farmer filled in. “Only why just you?”
“I don’t know,” Miranda shrugged. The three of them looked at each other.
“It doesn’t matter. What matters is getting out of here,” Adam said. He looked up at the hole in the ceiling. “Anyone who saw that blast probably thinks we’re dead. They’ll triage the wounded, and eventually send a search and/or recovery team down here. That should take,” Adam paused, doing some quick calculations. “Twelve hours? Give or take.”
“Twelve hours?” Miranda’s stomach grumbled. “What are we going to do for twelve hours?”
“I vote we find this thing,” Farmer said, raising his hand into the air.
“When did this become a democracy?” Adam crossed his arms over his chest.
“I’m just saying.”
“I will take your opinions under advisement. Recruit Farmer?” Adam asked Miranda. “What do you say?’
“I’m tired of being haunted by that sound,” Mirada said. “And I don’t want any rebels to find it. So, I vote we find it, and bury it where no transponder signal can escape it. For the Empire.”
“For the Empire!” Adam chorused. He punched Farmer in the shoulder.
“For the Empire,” Farmer said.
“It's settled. Let’s find this box.”
Chapter 19
Miranda felt the walls as they walked down the passageway. She couldn’t help herself. Their smooth red surface called to her, begging her to touch them. Everywhere she did the stone lit up. Everything in her was numb. Her hunger forgotten. Her pack no longer bit into her arms since they’d dropped all those holo mines. Her left hand began to shake. She placed it on the opposite wall. The passage narrowed so she could run her hands down both walls. A calm passed into her. Like the walls were telling her body it was all going to be okay.
“How much farther?” Farmer whined. Without the restraint of drill sergeants, he was reverting to the annoying side he only showed his equals.
“Who knows?” Adam chimed in. “Could be around that corner, could be a few more hours. It was your idea we go looking.”
Someone's stomach rumbled.
“I’m hungry,” Farmer complained. Miranda was too lost in the feel of the walls to care. They were feeding her as they fed off her heat.
“I think I have a bar in my rucksack,” Adam said. Farmer’s eyes lit up with greed. He looked ready to kill Adam oved the possibility of finding a ration pack on the prince’s corpse.
“Here.” The crown prince threw him a breakfast bar. Farmer caught it. He ate the thing down in two bites.
“Easy,” Adam said. He turned towards Farmer, raising both his hands into the air. “You don’t want to get sick eating that fast.”
“More,” Farmer demanded. Adam shook his head.
“That’s all I got.” Adam looked thoughtful for a minute. Farmer reached forward and shook his shoulders. A hard thing to accomplish while walking down a narrow descending passageway lit only by heat absorbing algae of some kind.
“I can check my pack for more when we stop,” Adam said, not using his rank or title to get Farmer to back down. He knew crazed tired hunger when he saw it. “But we might want to save it in case we’re here longer than the night.”
Farmer took his hands off the prince. There was no joke about how Adam could kill him for that. Farmer had essentially assaulted an officer, let alone that he’d just laid hands on the successor to the Empire.
They switched places. Farmer got in the middle, and Adam took up the rear. Miranda observed the whole thing without caring. The numbness was taking full control.
It was only because she had her hands on both walls that she felt it. The passageway opened into a large gaping cavern. She stopped and felt the wall again. It was a sign. Words telling her what was ahead.
“I think this is the...” she felt the script again, “armory.” Her voice held little conviction. Most of the script up to this point had just been old. Like adding ‘thee’s and ‘thou’s to common. But this was different. It had words in it that Miranda didn’t have meaning for. It reminded her of Old Empire. Readable, but not refined like the diction garden writings of this millennia.
They stepped into a large antechamber. Smaller chambers the size of footlockers filled the walls from floor to ceiling. All in the red stone. It was polished until it shone like marble. Miranda stared in wonder.
Large columns provided a kind of inner chamber in the center of the hall, on which rested a black box.
“This is where they would have kept all the weapons stores,” Miranda said.
“Nothing left now,” Adam said. He was looking in all the holes, trying to find anything. Farmer went straight for the box. He ran his hands over the smooth surface. Miranda followed his lead up to the pedestal.
He picked it up, turning it this way and that.
“Farmer, I don’t think you should do that.”
The script on the pedestal was covered in a fine layer of red sand. Miranda wiped it off with her hand.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” she said.
There were no booby traps here. Nothing to mark it as different or separate. Only a warning on the wall. It read:
DANGER: DO NOT TOUCH
Well, Farmer had gone and blown that one already. Miranda had to remind herself that this had once been a city. This could well be someone’s home, though she doubted that. More likely it was a workplace.
The floor rumbled as the column descended. Farmer still held the box.
Oscar began to whistle in alarm. Miranda watched as the doors to the chamber started to close. The rumble echoed and filled the chamber
“We need to get out of here!” she yelled over the noise.
“I agree!” Adam said. Oscar added his two beeps.
“What’s happening?” she asked.
“I think it’s an ancient alarm system,” Adam answered.
“It’s time,” Farmer said. He tucked the box under his left arm and pulled out his blaster with his right hand. He aimed it directly at Miranda’s back.
“Duck!” Oscar beeped. Miranda flattened herself to the ground just as Farmer got off his shot.
“Die, Farmer slag!” he screamed.
Miranda scrambled off the pedestal to the safety of the column. Farmer’s blast missed her by inches. His gun was real. It wasn’t their holo.
“Miranda!” Adam yelled. Farmer switched to firing at the prince. It gave her enough time to slip behind the columns. They looked unharmed by the blaster fire. At least that was one good thing. Farmer shot off another round from his blaster.
With the doors to the chamber shutting quickly, Miranda knew they’d need another way out. She looked around and spotted another set of doors. Daylight shone through crumbling sandstone.
“That’s the way out!” Miranda pointed. “That passage leads to the surface!”
“Do you think we can get to it?” Farmer’s shots
went wide.
“Yes,” Miranda said. She grabbed for her rifle, but it was missing. She felt her hip and this time found what she was looking for. “I’ll cover you.”
The prince nodded. They leaped into action.
Both running for the door, Miranda stopping long enough behind each column to fire back at Farmer. She landed three shots. Farmer staggered for a moment, then started shooting at them again.
“What kind of gun is that?” Adam asked.
“It’s my training holo,” she said, “It’s the only thing I got.” He nodded. She shot again. They were halfway there. Only one more sprint and they would be at the door. She volleyed off another round of shots. One hit him in the head, two in the chest. He stood there stunned, but only for a minute. It was enough. Adam was at the door. He had to get on his back to shimmy under it so far down. He reached out a hand for Miranda.
“Come on!”
“Stay straight and you’ll pop out in the confidence course,” she yelled. The ancient earth door was too close to the floor for her to get through with her backpack and there was Farmer to deal with. She had this strange feeling that they should not leave him alone in this place. The door was thicker than she was tall. Even if she’d wanted to go with him, it was too late now.
“Nooo!” Adam cried. He reached for her, but she stepped back. They were both on their bellies. She shared a moment of eye contact with Adam. Both knew their duty to the Empire. Her sacrifice meant his safety. That was all that really mattered.
“I’ll get help,” he promised. They watched each other until the door shuddered closed. A plume of dust rose from the forgotten floors. She coughed and looked back. Farmer had stopped firing, but that was because he couldn’t get a good shot on her at this angle.
“Time to face my demon.” She stood, noticing for the first time a small control panel by the door. A control panel she immediately smashed with the butt of her holo. They were sealed in. Her with her holo and him with a blaster.
She took in a long breath and let it out. It was time. She and the rebels were finally going to finish this.
Chapter 20
“Why won’t you just die?” Farmer screamed. He raised his blaster rifle up to his shoulder and shot again. Again, the shot went wide. It ricocheted off the rocks behind her and up into the vaulted ceiling. The mountain rumbled its anger, the floor beneath them kicking and bucking. It wanted this maniac out of its core.
“You’re going to kill us all!” she shouted.
“That’s the plan,” Farmer said. He smiled his sardonic smile and fired.
Miranda ducked, but she didn’t need to.
Oscar beeped at her.
“What do you mean the homing system of the laser is being negatively impacted by these rocks?” she asked Oscar.
“Just that,” he beeped. She rolled her eyes and her body behind another barrier. All of Farmer’s shots went wide.
“What does that mean for us?” Miranda asked.
“Farmer couldn’t hit us unless he threw it at us,” Oscar beeped back.
“I’ll take it under advisement,” Miranda told the droid. She gave his head an affectionate pat and checked her holo. It was down to three bars. She took a long breath in. As she breathed out, she moved. Sprint, duck, sprint, duck, until she was in firing range of Farmer.
They were trapped together. Unless she could get one good shot. The cavern rumbled. Something or someone was trying to blast their way in here. Most likely to get them out. The rocks beneath her feet shifted. She braced herself against her hiding spot with her free hand. A small rock the size of her palm hit her knee.
“Ouch,” she said, rubbing her knee. An idea hit her. She picked up the rock and threw it as hard as she could towards Farmer’s head. He remained focused on firing at the door, not realizing that Miranda had gotten that close.
“Die, you—” His scowl cut short as the rock hit him in the back of the neck. He stopped firing and put his free hand behind his head. It pulled away bloody. Miranda watched as Farmer’s eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed to the ground in a heap.
A red light flickered at his vest. Miranda grabbed the box from his fingers and made to run. He reached out with a hand, grabbing her ankle. He’d just been pretending to be knocked out.
“Why?” he asked as he took her feet out from under her. She used the momentum to break free of his grasp, rolling into a crouch like they’d been taught.
Miranda watched him, gauging his path as he circled the room’s center. He was measuring her up, looking for a place to strike.
“Why resist me? You know you’re going to lose again,” he said. She remained alert. He was trying to wear her down. Sure, he’d won every one of their mock battles, but this wasn’t play anymore.
“It was you all along, wasn’t it?” she said, trying to play a game of her own. She motioned Oscar to start recording. If she was going to die, then she was going to be an exonerated corpse.
“How can you be so dense?” he said, flapping his arms around. Miranda didn’t rise to the bait. He was trying to get under her ors. If she let him, she would lose. All she had to do was hold off long enough for Adam to get help.
“You could have escaped with your Ironside. Lived happily ever after, yet here you are: asking me about who killed all those Farmers in BASIC.”
“And leave the box in your hands?” she countered. They both knew that was a half-truth. Farmer’s eyes shown.
“My mission was never this,” Farmer said, lifting the box. Miranda’s mind raced. She couldn’t look at her holo to see how much time had passed. Her internal sense would have to be enough. “It’s just a nice bonus.”
On the word ‘bonus’ he jumped at her, swiping with the blade of his blaster at her midsection. She jumped back, but not far enough. A line of red marked where he’d pierced flesh. It stung, but the numbness from the walls still protected her from all her aches and pains. She shifted to the other side.
“It’s better buried than with you.”
“Likewise, I’m sure.” He lunged, and would have stabbed her clean through, but Oscar tripped him at the last minute. His stab went wide as he stumbled. The black box flew out of his hand, sliding to a stop a few feet from either of them.
“No!” he screamed. They both lunged for the box. Miranda got her hands on it first, but Farmer was right on top of her. They grappled with it; his blaster forgotten on the floor where he’d fallen.
He hadn’t counted on Oscar staying behind. But now she’d lost her only advantage, surprise. He used his legs to leverage the box out of her hands, pushing her aside.
“So, your little droid stayed behind to save you,” Farmer sneered. His face was a mask of rage, warpaint and dirt turning him inhuman. He grabbed his rifle.
“No one’s coming to save me,” she said. The truth of her words sunk into his face. His smile grew from a glimmer into a beam of sarcasm and pride. He bellowed out a monstrous laugh.
“You don’t say?” he said. His long legs and wind tossed hair made him look deranged. More a mad scientist than debonair soldier of fortune. In that moment she saw him as he really was fake cheese in a rat trap.
“You killed them all,” she spat at him. “I don’t know how, but I know it was you.”
“Of course, it was me,” he sneered back.
“Why?” They were still circling, each of them waiting for the chance to get the other.
“Why? My mission.”
“So, killing a medic was your mission.”
Farmer scoffed.
“If that was my mission, I would have been off this rock long before now.”
“So why kill him?”
“He was a test.”
“A test?”
“Yes, for the drug I stuck in you.” Miranda thought back to the pin prick she'd felt right before she’d passed out in the med bay for the first time.
“That was you?”
“Do I need to keep repeating myself?” he said. “How dum
b are you. Of course, it was me! It was all me. I thought I got lucky. Finish up my assignment in the second week. Get to go home. Stuck you with that drug and you’d fall out as cold as that medic, but no. You had to have the antidote already in your system.”
He paced around the floor, muttering more to himself than to Miranda at this point.
“Then there was the training course tripwire. Took me hours to set that up.”
“You were with me in the med bay the whole time. I don’t see how you could do it.”
“Had to reprogram a droid. First, he had to track down the parts. Then there was programming the assembly, not to mention hiding it so it wouldn’t be seen. I couldn’t know it worked until you ran the course. It was on a timer so it would only go off with your DNA code. All that work and the thing misfired. Death by electrocution, I thought. That’ll get me out of here.”
Miranda looked at him with wide eyes, her mouth slack at his confession. He’d reprogrammed a droid. Had it been her Oscar? No, there was no way he’d be able to reprogram Oscar. Oscar’s code was too complex. Then again, Miranda wasn’t a programmer, so she didn’t know.
“Oh, don’t give me that look. We all wanted out of this place as soon as possible. Reprogram over my tracks so no one would suspect me if they found the droid later, fry you, and then I’d get to go home. Fake an injury and fly away. But no, it only threw you.” Miranda opened her mouth as if to say something. Farmer raised up a hand to stop her.
“The poisoned roll was me. Used a different toxin I picked up from med bay. It was helpful, really, all those times you kept ending back up there. Made it easy for me to sneak things out. I thought it fitting, given we're in BASIC and all.” He laughed at his own joke. Miranda remembered all the cadences about how bad the food was here and grimaced. How many times had they sung about the food killing them? He had made that happen, but not for her.
“Not that it mattered since that stupid Farmer went and ate it. By then I’d tried too many times. The heat was too high, so I put all my plans on simmer.” He took a long breath and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
Imperial Hilt (Imperial War Saga Book 2) Page 12
