by Aer-ki Jyr
“If we are I haven’t heard about it, but it makes sense. There are non-Archons on ambrosia at a variety of dosage levels.”
“Have a look,” she prompted, staying seated. “I’ll wait.”
“Thanks,” Paul said, running up the stairs and stopping at the top. He turned back to look at her and waved. “All clear. Thanks for the ride.”
“You’re welcome,” she said, waving back and driving off.
Paul watched her go for a second then turned and walked over to the Human-access console bank off to his left. On his right, more towards the center of the massive pedestal, were metallic pads imbedded into the floor. He’d been told they were some means of dino-access to systems that they hadn’t been able to crack yet, possibly because of a genetic marker they didn’t possess.
He knew that the Ter’nat serviced the larger races, which was why they had access consoles on many of the pedestals, but he wondered how well a four-legged monster could punch computer keys, holographic or otherwise. Vocal input was always an option, but he didn’t think that would be the primary method. He didn’t have a good guess at what the metallic pads were for, other than maybe holographic generators, but he wasn’t going to spend time working on that problem now. He had something else to check.
As soon as Paul got to the Human consoles he accessed the restricted records easily and used the search function Liam had discovered yesterday to look for ambrosia, though that was their word for it. As far as the V’kit’no’sat were concerned it was just a chemical compound with a serial number, which was what Paul searched for.
Fortunately their number system was the same as Earth’s, based on tens, with only the symbols being different. Vocally, zero through nine were: Ex, At, Pa, Tre, Qua, Cho, Ic, Feir, Ren, and Vir, which Paul recited from memory as he input the 12 digit serial number.
It immediately found a match, with a host of stats attached, along with a descriptive text. As he read down through it all his eyes widened.
“Bingo,” he said, identifying the fact that this was an altered version of the stock Human ambrosia. Apparently a group identified as the Zen’zat got the altered version, which was listed as being more concentrated. An addendum noted that there were also small variations in the mixture for ‘security’ reasons.
The V’kit’no’sat word was highlighted as a link, which Paul tapped to bring up a side menu with additional data explaining in detail how the ambrosia altered the user’s physiology enough to enable touch recognition above and beyond the basic genetic locks. It also outlined the visual properties they’d experienced, plus a communications bonus with a lot of vocabulary he couldn’t understand.
Paul tagged the Zen’zat link and brought up the profile on what he had been originally looking for…a subsect of higher ranking Humans.
As he read he felt a headache developing. There were lots of missing terms that made comprehension difficult, plus the glowing nature of the holographic symbols made them bleed a bit, causing one symbol to resemble another if he didn’t look closely. If they had been English letters it wouldn’t have been a problem, but V’kit’no’sat symbols weren’t nearly that familiar to him, so the flash recognition process wasn’t so readily available, meaning he had to concentrate when he was reading as if he was back in 3rd grade all over again.
According to the information before him, the Zen’zat were both the Human leaders and those responsible for serving the other races. The rest of the Ter’nat were isolated into their own holdings.
“They had their own territory?” Paul mumbled as he dug further.
The information wasn’t laid out in an overview of Ter’nat society, which would have been extremely helpful, but he assumed that was less about security concerns and more about cultural common knowledge. Why put into records what everyone knows already?
Because of this fragmentation it took Paul more than four hours to get what he needed to form a basic picture of how the Zen’zat functioned…which then led to answers for many other questions they had, such as why was the sparring program in the secure area of the pyramid. The answer to that lay in the fact that the Zen’zat were the elite Ter’nat warriors, and only they received the equipment and training necessary to bring them up to what the V’kit’no’sat considered ‘par’ for field operations.
All Ter’nat, he discovered, did take ambrosia, but it was the Zen’zat that had the specialized version…and since they served as the inter-racial wing of the Human subsect of V’kit’no’sat society they were based primarily out of the pyramid, which was why the ambrosia stores that Davis had initially recovered from there had held the altered version rather than the generic, which was available through the Ter’nat colonies.
There were none on Earth, however. For whatever reason the Ter’nat had not been given colonization rights. Whether that was standard practice for their status within the Empire or just unique to this planet Paul hadn’t been able to discover, but that did mean that virtually all the Humans on the planet had been Zen’zat and there to service the other races, so no trace of the original ambrosia was produced or imported to the planet.
Furthermore, when the Rit’ko’sor had torched every city on the planet they weren’t looking for any Human settlements, so those survivors that must have become Paul’s most distant ancestors came from the Zen’zat stationed at various colonies around the planet, which the Raptors either missed in their purge or didn’t care to hunt down. Without access to any of their advanced technology or additional ambrosia supplements it was remarkable that they’d survived to repopulate the planet…though Paul didn’t envy the denigration they must have endured.
To go from a space-faring race of superhumans to a collection of primitives suggested chaos and anarchy, with those who had the knowledge unable to pass it on to successive generations. They probably also had to resort to barbarism to survive, given that the foodstuff production facilities had been obliterated by the Rit’ko’sor warship along with every other structure on the planet during the purge, save for the pyramid. Its stone was too resistant to energy weapons to destroy with a single ship, so instead they had flooded it, breaching a number of elevated lakes that surrounded the low region it inhabited and completely covering the structure.
It was air tight, of course, but not only did it cut off access to any potential survivors, it erased it from the landscape, as the Raptors had done with everything else V’kit’no’sat on the planet, including their own cities, before they rounded up all their own and abandoned the frontier colony to continue the rebellion elsewhere.
Had Paul survived that attack he would have made a serious attempt to swim down and gain access to the pyramid, rather than be forced to hunt and kill wildlife to meek out a pathetic existence, though he acknowledged that if no one had survived on the southern continent then the oceans would have kept any other survivors from reaching the pyramid, given that the Raptors had destroyed all aircraft on the planet, along with every other large piece of technology they could find.
That was partially guesswork, Paul admitted, for the pyramid’s records didn’t detail their motivations, only their movements around the planet and a few visuals of the purges recorded by orbiting satellites until they too were destroyed. It had taken the others a long time to compile all that information, but for the first time in Star Force’s existence they had a decent picture of what had happened to bring them to this current point in history.
Like it or not, Earth just wasn’t very important to the V’kit’no’sat. The Rit’ko’sor didn’t care to keep it, and the rest of them had never reclaimed it…though the outcome of that war might have changed things in ways Paul had no way to even guess at. The long range communications relay system had continued to feed information to the submerged pyramid for years after the rebellion on Earth, then the data had suddenly stopped coming in, probably because the nearest relays had been severed but there was no way to be sure. One way or another Earth had been completely cut off and the fate of the V’kit’no�
��sat Empire was unknown, though Paul seriously doubted that the Raptors alone could have done them in, based off of what he’d already learned of their military and economic strength.
Which meant that Earth was still on the frontier, now populated with renegade Ter’nat who knew nothing of their past, and would be target practice if the V’kit’no’sat, or any of their constituent races returned, given their zero tolerance policy on any independent factions.
However, due to the chaotic nature of the rebellion and purge on Earth, and the lack of a follow up expedition to clean up the mess afterwards, the V’kit’no’sat had left the keys for Ter’nat ascendency behind. They had their independence, which was probably little more than an oversight, but anonymity was probably the best defense any opponent of the V’kit’no’sat could probably have. They also had recovered an intact pyramid, buried as it was at the bottom of an extinct lakebed, with intact databases and larger pieces of technology, some of which Paul still had on his ‘to see’ list.
But now, he discovered with applicable awe, they had also accidentally gained access to their secure systems via the enhanced ambrosia. When Davis’s scientists had originally replicated the compound they had no idea what it contained, let alone the access key to Zen’zat systems, which by nature reached into each and every race they served, as well as detailed military records of which they were an integral part.
To top that off, Ryan had confirmed that they did indeed have access to the firing controls for the pyramid’s weaponry. If they wanted, they could target a ship in orbit and fire right through the factory above them with little affect on the energy beam, the dynamics of which the scientists were just now beginning to scratch their heads over. They’d concluded that it wasn’t a laser and it wasn’t plasma…beyond that they didn’t have a clue what it could be, but the statistics available to them, relayed through Archon eyes, made it easily the most powerful weapon in the star system and probably the only one capable of defending against a V’kit’no’sat attack if they should ever return.
The Ter’nat wouldn’t have had access to those weapons, even if they’d retained possession of the temple, but the Zen’zat did, trusted as they were by their masters and, like it or not, Paul and the others Archons had accidentally inherited that mantle, bypassing the pyramid’s seemingly impregnable computer security measures not by hacking into them, but by training their way into them.
That thought made him smile every time it crossed his mind, knowing how ‘normal’ Humans were lazy enough that even if they had by chance come across the enhanced ambrosia it would have done them no good. Only those who trained at a very high level would gain the concentration necessary within their bodies to gain clearance to Zen’zat areas and tech. According to the records it took newly minted recruits more than a year to absorb enough of the ambrosia to be able to gain access to the doors, and several more years after that to gain computer access.
The fact that Davis had managed a peek at the markings indicating the sealed doors was a feather in his cap, and Paul made a mental note to relay that fact to him the next time they talked, but his utmost respect went to the V’kit’no’sat for designing such an ingenious security protocol. If the Ter’nat didn’t know of the enhanced ambrosia…which by the way the records were written it appeared they weren’t…then they would have been completely incapable of gaining control or data the V’kit’no’sat didn’t want them to have, and even if some of the ambrosia shipments were mixed up, it wouldn’t have an appreciable effect for years to come, and only then if a sufficiently intense training component was added.
“I think we just sucked up our quota of luck for the next millennia,” he said, shutting down the holographic interface and jogging back down the stairs. He ran back to the entrance he’d come from, using the green line as his guide, then headed down the insanely large ramp and back to the ‘hotel’ to get something to eat and find the others.
A group of 13 of them were clustered around two of the tables, swapping stories and intel when Paul arrived. Andy looked up at him as he approached and frowned, sensing something was up.
“What?” he asked as Paul looked down on all of them. The other turned to look at the new arrival when Andy asked the question, pausing their previous conversations.
“Zen’zat,” he said simply. “We have access because the pyramid thinks we’re Zen’zat.”
8
Emily walked up to the massive door on tier 23 and touched the tiny imprint on the center near the floor…which was situated directly underneath a much larger imprint located well above her head and out of reach. As soon as her ambrosia laden fingers touched the stone-like material the door bisected along an invisible seem, cutting the circular dent in half as either side retracted into the walls.
“Now that’s interesting,” Megan said from beside her as large metallic skeletons were immediately visible inside what was a cavernous room, far bigger than most they’d been exploring in the sub tier 18 region that had been previously inaccessible to the research team.
“Exoskeletons?” Emily guessed as they walked inside the well lit fitting area and into the wide, dino-sized walkway that separated the nearest two rows of crane-like apparatus holding the skeletons in place. Off to the left and right were more rows, filled with all sizes and makes of the technology.
“These aren’t listed in the database files,” one of the three techs accompanying them stated as she looked around, using a head-mounted camera to take visuals for analysis at a later time.
“Not surprising since they’re in a secure area,” one of the other techs pointed out.
“Multiple races,” Megan added, “and we saw some of the Raptors wearing them in the assault on the pyramid.”
“I don’t see anything that small here,” Emily said, squinting to try and make out the furthest ones away, visible only through the mess of metallic structures cluttering the bay floor. From what little she could see of the far wall, there weren’t any small scale stations.
“Big boys’ hangout then?” Megan guessed.
“Looks like it…wait, no, I see something in the middle. Two somethings, actually.”
“Got it,” Megan said, searching for more of what looked like Human access stations…which would make sense, given that the door had an access point for them as well. She began walking off in that direction along with Emily, while the techs had to hustle to keep pace behind them.
On their way to the closest station they walked underneath one of the metallic spines that stretched out more than 100 meters, resplendent with a helmeted head and ‘ribs’ coming out at random points along the length of the construct, but it had no legs…as if, whatever it was for, it was worn as some type of backpack on one of the long necked dinosaurs.
In another section of the bay they could see different sized skeletons, and some of them did have legs…two legs jutting down from a spine segment that had both a helmet and tail cap. Another had a split skeleton, running two spines laterally with a large open area in the center, connected between helmet and tail cap.
“Battle armor?” Emily guessed as they approached the station.
“With all the exposed area?” Megan differed.
“Shield emitters?”
Megan hesitated in giving an answer, then swung around behind the inside of the control booth that was a bisected circle containing two 180 degree arcs separated by a narrow walkway that provided entrances on either side. “Let’s find out.”
The control panel responded to her touch and a flurry of holograms arose above the keyboards, detailing three distinct sets of skeletons. Megan tagged one of the long-neck versions with her index finger and it superimposed over the others, offering more detailed schematics. The word ‘shomul’ac’ appeared on a small floating button beneath the hologram, prompting a lip-biting grimace as the Archon tried to figure out what they were looking at. The V’kit’no’sat word meant ‘deployed,’ but what there was to deploy she didn’t know so after a few fruitless seconds
of thinking she decided to tap the button and find out.
“Told you,” Emily said, thoroughly impressed. The holographic image of the skeletal construct mechanically expanded, branching out to cover a much larger area with spider web-like connecting ribs that outlined the full body shape of an Oso’lon. Once that grid was in place, the empty spaces in between filled in with material until the entire suit of armor was complete from head to tail.
“Just like the regenerators,” Megan said, referencing the medical devices that would alter their shape to fit the patient. They had flowed as if liquid metal…and the holographic schematic had moved in an eerily similar manner.
“I doubt these are medical equipment,” a tech told the Archon.
Megan glanced back at the man. “Duh.”
He frowned. “I only meant…”
“This is all military,” Emily cut him off, “or at least has a military aspect. They could be construction or environmental suits too, but we definitely saw them being used as armor during the battle.”
“Which is probably why this bay is located in a secure area,” Megan added, beginning to search through the local database. One of the first things that popped up was a maintenance log, with the most recent entry flagged. She brought it up and read through a brief account of a suit being damaged from some type of physical impact…she couldn’t identify the vocabulary used…and the repairs that had to be instituted, which began with them having to cut the Era’tran free in the field. They’d hauled the deployed armor back inside and set to work micro-repairing the connective structure enough to get the pieces to finally retract.
An update to the log indicated that some sort of reprogramming had been scheduled, along with replacement parts ordered, but that was the last entry. Apparently the local rebellion had occurred prior to the repair work being completed.
