ARTIS PRIME

by Tobias Roote

  RIGA considered the probability they had some kind of internal security set up to compensate for the shields. She wouldn’t know until she could get in there to disable them.

  There were two choices. Jump directly into level five and try to take out the power to the shield, then attack the pinnacle before backup generators kicked in. Or, jump into the main building on the lower levels and fight her way up the pinnacle. There would be no way of using her Armillo invisibility. It was only really effective against humans; AI’s had too many inbuilt sensors. Either choice had a lot of issues and as RIGA worked alone, there were no plan B’s - either she succeeded or she didn’t.

  “Gossie, I will need to know what’s going on up here. Calibrate the relay drones to a private frequency and encrypt them. Send one down to the first point in level five that you can clearly detect to be unoccupied then we can relay them in from there. When we have a picture of what’s going on, I will jump down and sabotage the power supply, then jump back and hopefully into the pinnacle before they repair shields.

  As the drones jumped in giving RIGA visuals of the activities on level five, she realised that the cannibalisation of the lower levels to feed the need for construction of level four had caused major problems. It meant that there were whole areas that were not only uninhabitable by AI or human, but were massive holes stretching for hundreds of metres where great sections had been removed. It was positively inhospitable territory down there. No wonder Pelon had only concentrated his security at the higher levels. There would be no concerted attack possible from below.

  There had to be a way in. She had to find it, and soon. After some repositioning of drones, RIGA finally located a hostile route into the area of the power station and quickly prepared to jump. Gossie had set the relay drones to leapfrog along providing up to date location information ready to pull RIGA out if necessary.

  RIGA jumped.

  20. Into the Hole

  RIGA materialised into an area devoid of light, her sensors informing her she was on solid ground and in no immediate danger. The blackness became slightly offset by a dim glow from the ‘ported relay drones, providing a focus for her night vision that switched on at her command. Even with this, it was hard to discern any original features of the previous incarnations of Artis Prime. One day perhaps she would walk the depths to see what lay at its heart. Today, though, RIGA wanted to stop Pelon from whatever it was he was trying to do.

  She was standing in a stripped out corridor, the remains of cabling and sections of torn ducting hanging precariously, ready to snag the inattentive. Switching on her helm lights, which would work on full power for eighteen hours before recharging, RIGA took a closer look at the obstructions she was going to have to traverse to get to the power station. It wasn’t pretty down here, hopefully, it wouldn’t all be this bad.

  It was plain that there was only one direction she could travel in. Instructing the first drone to move ahead of her, RIGA adjusted the feedback to a low background hum and moved off in the direction of Pelon’s headquarters. The drone was transmitting a homing signal to Gossie on the ship who was bouncing it to RIGA. When Gossie lost contact with the drone RIGA would backtrack, anchor the drone at a waypoint, sending another drone to follow her until the same happened again.

  For her plan to succeed, RIGA needed to remain in touch with the ship, enabling a quick jump from the lower levels into the pinnacle.

  At least that was the plan.

  She moved forward following the guidance of the drone as it stalked ahead of her. Remembering Kalla’s defences, RIGA kept all her sensors finely tuned and although she didn’t expect to come across hidden cameras or hazards this far out, she wasn’t taking any chances.

  An hour later RIGA was half way to the hidden location of the power source when she came to a hole in the ground.

  The walls to either side had completely disappeared and her lights were unable to pierce the darkness. She sent a sonar ping downward, the echo indicated a drop of several hundred feet; too far for her to risk jumping.

  Sending three drones out; one ahead, the others left and right, RIGA soon understood the scale of the problem. It was cleanly cut, bearing the hallmarks of an intentional deterrent. The only option was to go up where the roof of the original corridor still hung ten feet above her.

  The three drones concentrated on mapping the ceiling area which was mostly intact across the hole. Crossing wasn’t the problem, but there were vibration sensors embedded everywhere within twenty feet of her position. They had obviously considered someone might try climbing across the old rails and effectively countered that. RIGA anticipated and planned for such a contingency.

  Removing a long thin coil from her shoulder pack, she set her blaster to its minimum setting and attached a tubed object to the front of it. The tube housed a highly magnetic material enclosed in a strong metallic paste. It was near silent on impact and would bond with any surface it connected with, hence the sealed firing tube. RIGA would have to position the magnetic piton perfectly to have any chance of getting to the other side.

  The drones kept her target point in sight. One hovered near where she needed to clamp the wire, the other the lip of the next corridor. She sighted on the ceiling above the nearest drone. RIGA fired the modified blaster noting as she did so, the near silent recoil to her hand would have severely hurt a human, but she didn’t flinch, instead maintaining an eagle eye on the target.

  She was satisfied to see the impact of the magnetic clamp as it caught fast to the ceiling directly above the hovering drone. Good enough, but on its own it wouldn’t hold her weight.

  RIGA now picked out another long tubular device and hooked it ‘top and tail’ to the wire. She watched as it raced along like a long blob of mercury defying gravity up the wire. It reached the magnetic clamp, which by the force of its attraction caught and held the end of the tube fast.

  The drone could see the site clearly and kept the feed to RIGA going as the tubular device morphed around the magnet to form a clamp with a laser at its centre. When the laser activated, it drilled right through the centre of the magnet and into the ceiling above. Three spindly wire legs then extended into the newly made hole and proceeded to drag the majority of the tube device in with them. The tube soldered itself firmly to the inner edges while the extended legs also bonded to provide additional anchorage. A light briefly flashed green. The drone picked up the flash and notified RIGA. The line was fixed.

  RIGA was aware there was now only the one chance. The momentum would take her only so far, so her timing had to be perfect to give her the additional distance to free-fall to the safety of the corridor on the other side. In addition, she had to do so silently to avoid alerting the security detectors.

  Fixing a handle to the wire that would detach itself on her mental command, RIGA pulled it taut. Then taking a last look at the far drone, measured her swing with mathematical precision and launched into the darkness. At the exact point where maximum distance and height was optimised the ring detached, and RIGA fell through her calculated arc.

  To further reduce resistance, or risk catching the floor of the corridor as she landed, RIGA rolled into a ball, something no human being could achieve as she flew through the darkness. When she sensed that the floor was beneath and the drone above, she unfurled to roll and land so that she ended standing upright with her blaster out, prepared for any attack from out of the darkness.

  The drones fed back the log of the swing, the recorded noise level was so low it should register as a small fall of a rusting metal and be ignored. RIGA hoped so. She pulled in the drones, an alarm went off in her head telling her that she had lost contact with the ship. RIGA sent one drone back to the entrance of the corridor to provide relay to Gossie. Having confirmed with the AI that all was well, RIGA continued her progress into the unmapped depths of the asteroid.

  The engineers, who built the power generator, must have decided that the hole in the cavern was sufficient deterrent to keep intruders at
bay. Because RIGA arrived at a point very close to the power source before any additional form of security became evident.

  Learning from the recent experience with Kalla, RIGA now slowed to a crawl. When she finally came across a pressure plate stretching the width of the corridor she was able to halt the drones before they set off any alarm bells.

  Her link with Gossie ensured that she had the added benefit of the ships sensors operating outside of the levels giving pinpoint accuracy for everything as they proceeded. The only problem, RIGA now had, was how far did the pressure plate extend.

  ‘Gossie, jump a drone to the other end of this corridor and have it slowly return to me at a slow pace and monitor for any differential in the air pressure. Bearing in mind Kalla’s was 4% so, we should work to similar tolerances.’

  As Gossie proceeded to take control of the drone, RIGA monitored for any visual signals that might indicate other traps. The distance was precisely ten feet, RIGA and the drones were jumped fifteen feet to ensure their reappearance didn’t cause a displaced air pressure wave, tripping the alarm.

  RIGA suddenly discovered the drones dropped at her feet totally inert. ‘Gossie, what happened to the drones?’

  There was no answer, the drone left behind at the hole was now out of touch. The two remaining ones were dead, no response at all. RIGA knelt down to take a closer look and noticed the fuel cells were empty. She belatedly realised the effort of transporting the jump feed had depleted their power supplies to near zero. She scanned the other drones for sign of damage and noted they were also depleted, but not as badly. She had less time than she thought and had concerns there was sufficient power to pull her out again.

  Still feeling perturbed at not taking the power issue into consideration beforehand, RIGA now used her heel connection to slip power into the dead drones, whereby they quickly resumed their activities. With the transmitting power of both drones back at full strength. RIGA now picked up a weak signal from Gossie. It was enough to initiate a jump of a single drone to the other side of the pressure zone. When the drone had teleported, she was rewarded with a full strength signal from Gossie.

  'I need you to deploy backup drones and make a note to have larger power reserves added to future upgrades,' RIGA called the AI.

  'Noted,' Gossie responded having already read the drone logs and noted the near disaster without comment.

  Had the power failure occurred before the transfer was completed it would have been bad news. This new technology needed more research, she decided and set a background process aside to manage the problem.

  Alarms sounded in her head, there were multiple alerts, taking RIGA by surprise and swinging her automatically around into a defensive position within the confines of the corridor. She scanned for the threats.

  She noticed the increase in readings on all of her sensors now she was within the complex with the shielding on the other side of the pressure zone. The rapid onset of readings had set off the alerts on all sensors which had been finely tuned. The same alerts had triggered the threat response in her systems. She turned them down and resumed a more relaxed pose assimilating the new data as she did so.

  ‘ I think we could be getting close to the source. Stay ready.’

  ‘All looking quiet from here RIGA. Proceed, but with caution.'

  RIGA liked that about Gossie. She could be in the worst possible position for her personal safety and Gossie would always scold her as if she was a trainee in the Academy.

  As she progressed through the last of the corridors, RIGA began to come across the occasional camera. She flipped her hood and activated her leathers, slinking invisibly underneath them with the drones under her arm. There would be no humans down here, she was sure. However, the cameras were standard visual reporters and she couldn’t distinguish any infra-red, or electronic activity sensors attached to them. The AI controlled cameras were a different matter, they were able to detect minute differences and extrapolate faster than a blink of an eye. Fortunately, there were very few in actual use, as if an AI was that sophisticated, it could manage a lot more than simply watching a wall of screens. So, it was left to normal computers that whilst diligent, lacked the processing power to make a difference.

  When you really thought about it there would be little interest from other AI’s in what Pelon and his people were doing down here. They would logically surmise that the power supply was just that, and ignore it. This was precisely what RIGA hoped - that no attention had been placed by the AI’s above on the importance of continued operation of power for their continued existence. They would assume it perfectly safe at this level.

  RIGA intended to prove them wrong.

  The drone proximity alarm went off in her head. She returned to the last corridor corner and posted the last drone way up out of visual detection so anyone walking down the corridor wouldn’t automatically look up at it. When she was satisfied it was discreetly placed she returned to her last position.

  She was about to enter the engineering rooms, the sensor alerts she was running were on a fine hair trigger as the door to the first section opened under her gentle tweaking. There was nobody around, but there were two consoles which as she approached detected her presence and not checking her authorisation, automatically activated, awaiting input.

  RIGA looked at them closely. The words over the dials and switches indicated their lack of importance, they were only there to monitor and not to manage the power flow. She needed to move deeper into the complex.

  As she prepared to open the next portal RIGA sensed something approaching on the other side. Quickly flipping her hood and digging her heel into her leg, she went invisible again as the door opened. A human and an AI walked through. RIGA barely managing to slip behind a cabinet full of some kind of tapes before they were fully into the room. Hopefully, she wouldn’t be detected by the AI from there.

  “I’m telling you, there is nothing out there, there is rubble slipping down the shaft all the time. It’s a waste of time,” the human guard insisted.

  “We have been put on high alert, there is a high probability we will be infiltrated in the next period. The Master has insisted we check out every single abnormal reading wherever, and whatever, it seems. We will do as ordered,” the AI escorting the human guard insisted.

  The two walked through the doorway

  ‘Gossie, hide the drones in passive-mode. Give me thirty minutes and switch them back on again.’ RIGA instructed while the door was open.

  ‘..a... will... done,’ Gossie’s garbled message came through as the door closed.

  Damm! RIGA thought. She now had to finish the task and get back to this point in thirty minutes. She raised her right arm and pulled back her hand exposing her wrist. A tiny dart gun ejaculated a magnetic tipped hair-thin probe which contained a homing device on a frequency set too high for human ears. It would be of little interest to AI’s who would reject it as high pitched humming from badly tuned equipment. The emitter landed above the door the guards had exited through. Nobody should notice it there. It had a reliable life of only fifteen minutes, hopefully, time enough to complete the mission and get back to the corridor.

  RIGA opened the door, still cloaked by her leathers which made her whole body invisible ensuring she showed nothing to the world. She had a little time before it needed replenishing; time to move. The room was empty but had an array of machines, all illuminated with an array of lights. These were routing controls, they could be dealt with on her way out. She needed to find the actual generators.

  In the next room, she struck lucky. There were six generators set in a circular pattern around a large control console with cables running up through the centre of the building. It was manned by two AI’s and two humans as well as a guard on the other door probably leading to the central hub providing access to the main building. RIGA anticipated there would be a greater number of guards on the other side so had to work fast. The guard had seen the door open and nobody come through, and he had his gun rais
ed, looking suspiciously for any threat.

  She sped, still invisible, around the room in a few seconds and dropped the guard, leaping from there towards the central console before he had fallen to the floor.

  RIGA decided the two AI’s were now the greater risk and took them both out with her blaster before she landed in the middle of the control room. She checked they were actually unable to connect to any networks by blowing off their heads which would contain their comms antennas. The two humans went down as fast; one with a steel heel in his head from a high kick and the other from a throat punch that RIGA found particularly effective with human targets. They always fell silently clutching their throats. She had never seen one even try to hold a gun once their airways were crushed.

  The room was clear and gave RIGA complete access to the generator systems. Now she needed to ensure she was uninterrupted for a while. Had the cameras been manned by AI's they would have seen a whirlwind effect in the generator room and in seconds complete carnage of the workforce. As it was, no alarms sounded giving her time to approach the inner door from the side. It shouldn’t react to her presence as she wasn’t visible, but RIGA wasn’t about to take that chance. Her tendrils made short work of entering the control panel and within a few minutes, the doors were locked with a very complex security code.

  Next, she concentrated on disabling the power system. It appeared to be a mixture of fusion and hydrogen. Interesting, but no time to investigate. She need to shut it down, but with this fuel mix she was more likely to start a chain reaction that would destroy the asteroid; she needed to disable it without wanton destruction. Accessing her database to update her knowledge of the system, it promptly gave her a quick ‘how to do a quick and dirty shut-down’ without taking too much time.

  RIGA, being no scientist, nevertheless understood what was important. The ice from the asteroid was being used to convert into hydrogen and the temperature was crucial to the ongoing process. If she dialled down the temperature, it would stop the reaction and the power would go off-line. She scanned controls for heat and pressure. She found them, they were installed in multiple sets of two generators per feed.