by S A Pavli
"I'll ask my father to find out," said Melanie. “If there is a project anywhere to build a Trans-Gate, he’ll find it.”
"What I've seen of this installation up here makes me think it's expensive to build," said LeBlanc. “Can't see it being worthwhile for travel on-planet, but off-planet may be a different story.”
"You think they used it to travel to their moon?” asked Melanie.
"Yeah. We were discussing the huge size of their buildings and wondering how they managed to build such a city on the moon. If they had a Trans-Gate, that would explain it," said LeBlanc.
"Clever little Octopoids," said Leslie, smiling at Mark over her cup. He nervously avoided her gaze.
"Not clever enough," said LeBlanc. “They are all extinct.”
"Ray! Don’t be so heartless,” exclaimed Leslie reprovingly.
"Sorry Les, just stating facts," said LeBlanc. “Anyway, it's important that we find out if there is another gateway on the planet. That will confirm it.”
"That was our reasoning also Ray," said Mark. “But we have a whole planet to look in. It's going to be luck if we find it. But we'll start searching here in this city. Since they have a monument to it, they may also have the real thing.”
"OK. Well, tomorrow, we're going down with Major Pete who’s going to blow the airlock doors to the ground floor. That should give us easier access to the Trans-Gate area and we can set up good lighting and me and Jo can have a good look at it.”
"Blow open the doors! Ray, I'm not sure that's a good idea," said Melanie with alarm.
"No other way Melanie.” This was the voice of Anja, and she moved on screen next to LeBlanc. “Peter assures me that he is a munitions expert and can blow open the doors with no damage to anything else.”
“He’d better be right," said Melanie. “These are priceless artefacts. If we damage them, we'll go from being heroes to being blundering idiots.” Peter poked his head over Anja's shoulder.
"Don’t worry Melanie. The size of the charge is very small and short range. It's designed to slice open the metal and go no further. I've done it lots of times.”
"O K, but err on the side of caution," said Melanie.
"Understood,” agreed Peter.
"Any progress with the robot?” asked Melanie. Josephine's voice cut in and the camera panned to find her.
"Yeah, good progress Melanie. We've identified its major bits of hardware like the power supplies, the central processing and logic assemblies and backup storage. We have all the power busses but we don't know what their values are. If we put in the wrong voltages, we'll blow the little chap up.”
"Do you think his backup storage will be sound?” asked Mark.
"It’s solid state, so it should be," said Jo. “Once he's powered up he should go into bootstrap mode and reload himself from backup.”
"Does that mean he’ll be initialised and remember nothing of his past?” asked Melanie.
"Andy can answer that better than me," said Jo.
"Well, if he was one of ours, he would have saved his previous experiences on permanent backup and be able to recover them. Whether that will work after thousands of years…. ?” Andy shrugged expressively.
"Good answer," said Jo with a grin.
"I’ve done this before," said her husband ironically.
"How are you going to determine the correct voltages?” asked Melanie.
"My tame physicist," said Jo. “He can make calculations from first principles by looking at the size, design, insulation and power dissipation of the components. That should give us a close approximation to the voltages.”
"The original power supplies are unrecoverable?” asked Mark.
"Yeah, they’re chemical power cells. Completely dead and decayed," said Jo.
"O K guys, press on with that. It’ll be fantastic if we get that robot working," said Melanie. “Tomorrow, myself, James and Leslie are taking a trip to a valley, a few hundred miles from here, to get our hands on some flora and fauna. James wants to look at some rock formations and stuff, so we'll be gone all day. Mark and Jimmy will explore the city to see if they can find our Trans-Gate or whatever it is. You guys take care with blowing the doors, and we'll have a video conference tomorrow evening. Good Luck.”
"I'm not happy to have you guys going without me or Jimmy along,” said Mark.
"Captain Mark, what are you implying?” Leslie said with false severity. “That us scientific types can't take care of ourselves?” Mark looked embarrassed and tried not to look at Melanie.
"No it's just that our original brief was that scientists would always be accompanied by one of the military boys. Jimmy should go with you.”
"And leave you on your own? You know that's against procedure," said Melanie.
"I can take care of myself,” began Mark.
"We’ll be fine" said Melanie. “There doesn’t seem to be anything bigger than a rabbit on this planet.” Her dark eyes caressed Mark reassuringly. He shrugged and his eyes were soft and warm as he smiled at her.
"O K boss.”
The exchange was not lost on Leslie, and neither of them noticed the sudden grim set of her features. So that's the way it is, a voice inside her whispered, the bitch has been lying to me all along. Not interested in the Captain is she? In a pig's ear! She struggled to contain the jealousy that surged inside her. She remembered how she had thrown herself at him and he had ignored her, except for that one time. I'm only good enough for a one night stand then she thought, and the jealousy transformed into humiliation and resentment. She stood quickly and left the room before she gave herself away.
Chapter 27
The next morning Melanie was up early to prepare the equipment for their field trip. The field trip kit was already packed, but certain chemicals needed to be added and the portable electronic equipment checked. The computer's battery was low, so she put that on charge and took herself off for some breakfast . The smell of hot food permeated the room and she found Jimmy and James Walters tucking into their breakfast. She was greeted cheerfully by the men.
"Your field kit checked out James?" she asked as she poured her coffee and rifled through pre -packed food packages. Walters grunted affirmatively.
"I've checked out the hover car. All systems go," said Jimmy between mouthfuls of food. Melanie decided on coffee and a muesli bar and joined the men at the table.
"Ready to go then. When our doctor gets out of bed," she said.
"We did agree oh seven hundred," said Walters. He looked at his watch. “Still an hour to go.”
"I'm not the only one itching to go then,” grinned Melanie.
"Yeah, it’ll be good to do some real work," said Walters. “I've been trying to date these buildings,” he added. “By looking at subsidence, earth movement, erosion, that sort of thing.”
"Go on," said Melanie with interest.
"Preliminary indications are between one hundred and two hundred thousand years.” Melanie looked at him boggle eyed.
"That's fantastic," she said. “This city is hundreds of thousands of years old?
"This city is actually more modern,“ said Walters. “Probably built just before the disaster. It's the dry desert conditions," said Walters. “And the lack of any significant earth movement here. This is solid crust, we are nowhere near any seismic activity or fault lines. Nothing has changed here for millions of years.”
"Not much hope of finding anything in more active locations then," said Melanie.
"No, vegetation growth alone would have destroyed this place if it wasn't so dry. But we should see something. What is buried is often thrown back up again or exposed by earthquake and subsidence. A whole civilisation can't disappear, even in two hundred thousand years.” Walters took a final slurp of his coffee and stood.
"Right, I'm going to check out our pressure suits. Jimmy, can you pack some provisions and water?” Jimmy nodded and paused for a moment .
"Er, do you think I should pack a couple of stun guns?” Melanie and Walter
s looked at each other doubtfully.
"Do you think something might try to eat us,” asked Melanie with an amused expression.
"There is that," said Jimmy, “But also, you may want to take some samples of the local wildlife. The guns are very easy to use. I can show you if you like James.”
"I'm game," said Walters.
"O K, just don't shoot any of us,” agreed Melanie ironically. He nodded, finished his coffee and followed Walters out of the room. Melanie nursed her coffee for a while, and was about to leave when Leslie entered the room. Melanie greeted her warmly, and failed to notice her lukewarm response as she walked to the galley without comment.
Melanie made some conversational remarks but Leslie just gave a non -committal grunt. There was silence for a few moments, as Leslie busied herself heating her breakfast. Melanie looked at her watch and stood.
"I'll go and give James a hand with checking out the pressure suits. Gonna need fifteen minutes to get suited up and departure is at oh seven hundred.
"I'll be there," said Leslie shortly. Melanie gave a small shrug and stood.
"See you then," she said cheerfully as she left the room. Leslie said nothing, but as Melanie left the room, she directed a scowling glare at her receding back.
At oh seven hundred the exploration team were ready to go. Mark had put in an appearance to carry out final checks on their suits and equipment and declared himself satisfied.
"Carry out a close video surveillance of the area before disembarking, stay together and always in radio contact,” he advised.
"Stop fussing Mark, this is going to be a picnic," said Walters. Melanie was piloting and as the airlock doors closed on the hover car Mark made his way up to the Bridge followed by Jimmy.
"Once they’re on their way, me and you can go outside and do some exploring," said Mark.
"Shall I check out the other hover car? We can cover a lot more ground in that,” asked Jimmy.
"I think we'll just concentrate on the big building on the square for today Jimmy. Tomorrow we can use the car to explore a bit further. But you can organise some tools. We may need to break down some doors.”
"I've got just the stuff," said Jimmy. They both arrived at the flight deck and Mark set one of the screens to show the hover cars interior. Melanie's face was to the front as she was piloting, with James behind. Leslie was to one side and not visible.
"Hello hover one, receiving your transmission.”
"Hello Mark, hearing you loud and clear," replied Melanie, smiling into the camera.
"Alden, check out the transmission from the mobile cameras please,” asked Mark.
"Cameras one two and three on screen," said Alden. Three small insets appeared on the screen showing the transmission from the three helmet mounted cameras. They showed pictures of walls and floors, with one showing part of Leslie's thigh.
"Clear reception on all three,” confirmed Mark. “Show the external cam Alden.” The main view switched to show shots from the hover car's external camera. The hover car was cruising at ten metres above the desert and accelerating up to its maximum speed of three hundred and fifty kph.
"What's your ETA Melanie?” asked Mark.
"Oh eight thirty Mark. We're about four hundred kilometre's from the area we’ve chosen. We should start to see some vegetation in about half an hour, so it's going to be pretty boring until then.”
"What sort of area are you visiting?”
"I guess it's the equivalent to the Nile delta on Earth,” she replied. “It would have been heavily populated and intensively farmed. There should be lots to see there.”
"I didn't know you were going that far," said Mark. “I could have flown you there with the shuttle.”
"Saving half an hour is not crucial. We are interested in the land in between anyway and we may make a couple of stops. James wants to make some measurements and take samples.”
"O K, enjoy yourselves and don't talk to any strangers," said Mark. “Signing off for now while we prepare for our trip, but Alden will have us permanently patched through.” Mark took a final look at Melanie's smiling image on the screen before turning away. “C’mon Jimmy, let's get our stuff together.”
It took them an hour to prepare, and encased in their sealed suits and both carrying heavy backpacks the exited the shuttle's airlock and looked around them at the town square again. It was a clear hot day and they could feel the heat of the sun through their suits. Alden closed the airlock door behind them and they trudged slowly away from the shuttle towards the largest building on the periphery of the square. Mark had decided to explore that purely on a whim ; it was the grandest looking building on the square. Close up, they could see that the front doors were made of glass, heavily grimed of course, and closed tight.
"Bad lack, the doors are closed," said Jimmy, his voice clear and loud through the suit's speaker.
"No that's probably a good thing Jimmy," said Mark. “It means the interior of the building will be much cleaner.”
"Getting these open may be beyond us though Cap n. They look bloody heavy," said Jimmy. And they did indeed look huge and heavy.
"That's a lot of glass,” muttered Mark, giving them an experimental shove. They were completely immovable.
"Every building has a side entrance,” suggested Jimmy. “Let's walk around it and see.” Mark grunted his agreement and led the way around the curve of the building. They had gone half way around the building, losing sight of the square when they found the goods entrance. It had a broad ramp, leading up to huge metal doors which were closed, but next to the ramp was a side door with a square glass panelled extension.
"Goods in with the security office,” suggested Mark. The door to the extension was open.
"Get your ID pass ready," said Jimmy. They stepped through the door into an alcove. The floor was covered with a deep layer of un -marked sand and they left deep footprints as they walked.
"Nobody's been here for thousands of years," said Mark. The bright sun barely penetrated the grime of the windows and they paused to allow their eyes to adjust to the gloom. There was some furniture in the room, and another open door led into the interior of the building.
"Someone's left the door open for us," said Mark. Very little light penetrated through the inner door and they both turned on their lights. Jimmy pointed to a pile of bones in the corner.
"They're everywhere," he said. Through the door they entered a long corridor which disappeared into the gloom in one direction, but ended in a door next to them.
"That door leads to the loading bay," said Mark.
"It's a big loading bay," said Jimmy. “I wonder what they used it for.”
"This could be the alien equivalent of a burger factory for all we know," said Mark. Jimmy had walked over and tried the door, and with a good shove forced it partly open. He shoved his head through the gap and shone his torch inside.
"Lots of machinery in here," he said.
"See if you can force the door further open," said Mark. It took both of them to force the jammed door open far enough to allow them to squeeze through the gap. They found themselves in a large open space with dark boxes and hulking machinery all around them. They followed the wall until they came to another set of double doors. A good shove got them through them.
"We d better keep track of our movements," said Mark.
"No worry there," said Jimmy. He took out a spray can and sprayed a pattern on the wall. It was fluorescent paint, and he had painted an arrow pointing back the way they had come with a number one next to it.
"Good idea Jimmy," said Mark admiringly.
"Standard military practice for finding your way in and out of unfamiliar places," he said.
The double doors had led to a short broad corridor that ended in a pair of high solid looking doors which were closed. They thought that they were going no further, but closer examination revealed a small door set in the wall next to the huge double doors. It was shut, and they could see what was obviously a se
curity lock set in the door. Mark wiped the grime off the lock mechanism and examined it closely.
"It's a card operated security lock,” he announced.
"I may be able to force it," said Jimmy. “Doesn’t look very heavy.” He pulled out a long metal crowbar strapped to his side and applied it to the gap between the door and its frame. As he put his weight behind it they could see the door bend and deform. There was a crack of something breaking followed by a screech of metal and the door slid open a couple of inches. Jimmy applied himself with enthusiasm and gradually, an inch at a time, the stubborn door was forced open.
"I feel like an archaeologist raiding the tomb of Tutankhamen ," said Jimmy, breathing heavily from his exertions. Mark chuckled.
"King Tut would not believe anything he saw here," he said, stepping through the door carefully. Jimmy followed and they played their lights around them. It was a large space, they could not see the opposite wall, and in front of them they could see a selection of hulking machines.
"This looks familiar Jimmy," said Mark.
"This looks familiar?" said Jimmy incredulously.
"Yeah, think of the video we got from Anja’s team. The Trans-Gate chamber on the moon?”
"Bloody hell , do you think we found it first time?” exclaimed Jimmy.
"It's fantastic good fortune to find one in this city," said Mark. “It's about the only intact city on the planet. But let's not get too excited. It might just be a machine room. Let's see if we can find the gate.” They walked around the periphery of the room, keeping close to the outside wall, until they found a clear path through the machinery leading to the centre of the room. Mark was convinced they had found it, and as they walked down the corridor between the dark brooding hulks of the old machines he felt the weight of countless dead centuries pressing on him. Ahead of them the arch of the Trans-Gate reared up out of the gloom and they stopped, awed in front of it.
"Fantastic,” muttered Jimmy.
"Incredible,” agreed Mark. “Do you know what this means Jimmy? When this was working, you could walk through this arch, and walk out on the moon.”
