Ghost of the Argus (Corrosive Knights Book 5)

by E. R. Torre

  All of a sudden and in unison, they stopped and strong lights coming from them lit up the Rover.

  Latitia applied the brakes and stopped. The Independents held their breaths as several long, tense seconds passed.

  Abruptly, several of the more distant machines reactivated and continued their work. A line of machines stretching out to the Space Elevator base, however, remained frozen. The lights mounted on them swiveled and formed an illuminated path from the Rover to the Space Elevator.

  “They’re inviting us in,” B’taav said. “Maybe you had it all wrong. Maybe they’re friendly.”

  “I wouldn’t count on it,” Latitia said.

  The Rover made good time approaching the Space Elevator.

  The well-lit terrain before them was smooth and allowed Latitia to keep up a steady speed, cutting down their journey by hours. Latitia and B’taav gazed at the area around them, amazed by the scope of industry.

  What at first looked like standard digging and hauling machines were, on closer examination, a variety of models. The two largest machines hauled and broke up the terrain. A smaller machine surveyed land and took samples. A fourth variety, much smaller than any of the others, swirled around its bigger brothers and was dedicated to cleaning the larger vehicles’ treads or welding and fixing damaged parts.

  Through their journey, B’taav and Latitia didn’t see a single person in or around any of the vehicles. For that matter, none of the machines had visible crew compartments or windows.

  “They’re automated,” B’taav said. “Every one of them.”

  As they moved forward, every light they passed turned off, leaving inky darkness behind them.

  “Take a look at this,” Latitia said.

  B’taav checked the Rover’s external readout monitors.

  “Radiation levels are dropping,” Latitia said. “You were right. Whoever is behind this discovered a way to clean the radiation from the soil. At the rate its dropping, by the time we get to the Space Elevator’s base there might not be any at all.”

  An hour later, they neared the end of the path and the Space Elevator’s ground base.

  “Incredible,” Latitia said.

  There was no other way to describe it. The base dwarfed the largest cities in the Epsillon Empire.

  The light path they followed was down to a single spot. Latitia slowed and stopped.

  “I’m detecting very minor levels of radiation,” Latitia said. “Even on the Rover.”

  Latitia shut the engine off.

  “Now what?” B’taav asked.

  “Let’s go outside.”

  “Do you have any weapons?”

  “Only a couple of fusion handguns,” Latitia said. “I doubt they’ll be much help.”

  Latitia stepped to the Rover’s rear entrance. B’taav and she put on their helmets. When their space suits pressurized, she opened the vehicle’s rear hatch. A stiff breeze blew inside the vehicle. Other than that breeze, nothing else moved.

  B’taav and Latitia walked onto the illuminated circle. Muddy dirt surrounded them.

  “We’re being checked out, I imagine,” Latitia said.

  Some two hundred feet away was the Space Elevator’s base. Its gray walls rose up and up, disappearing into the sky.

  The Independents remained in place for several minutes, unsure of what to do. No one came to greet them, nor was any attempt made to communicate.

  B’taav noted a small protrusion in the muddy ground a dozen feet away. He walked to it.

  “B’taav? It might not be wise…”

  B’taav crouched next to the protrusion and wiped sludge from its top. The protrusion proved to be a heavy metal grill.

  There were many more such grills in the ground and at regular distances. A sudden rush of air blew out from it, sending sludge in all directions.

  “It’s some kind of exhaust vent,” B’taav said.

  Latitia pulled an electronic screwdriver from her space suit belt. She detached the grill from the vent.

  “Give me a hand,” Latitia said.

  Together, they lifted the grill and set it aside. They then illuminated the area below. The vent dropped some six feet before taking a ninety degree turn toward the Space Elevator’s base.

  “This may get us in,” B’taav said.

  Latitia noted the bones of a small rodent at the bottom of the shaft.

  “If we go this way, let’s hope we have better luck than the rat—”

  Latitia stopped talking. A shape high in the air caught her attention. It was dark, barely visible, and moved toward the Independents at incredible speeds. It took two sharp, near impossible turns. A human pilot would have been squashed by the maneuvers.

  “It’s a drone!” Latitia said.

  The object hurled at them and there was little the Independents could do. If the drone was a missile, they were finished.

  Latitia grabbed B’taav’s hand.

  “Steady,” she said.

  The black object gained even more speed.

  Latitia and B’taav took a step back. The object continued its drop, falling with greater and greater speed.

  “Run!” Latitia yelled.

  They did, moving away from the Rover. They fell to the ground as a burst of energy slammed into their vehicle. The Rover erupted into a ball of flame.

  “Are you OK?” Latitia yelled.

  “Yes,” B’taav replied. He got to his feet and helped Latitia up. “You?”

  “I’ve been better.”

  They looked up but could no longer see their attacker. Their Rover was in pieces.

  A loud clang came from their right and the Independents spun around.

  A large concrete panel slid away from the side of the Space Elevator’s platform and revealed an equally large opening. A dozen figures stood just inside the granite-like walls. Their bodies were thin, muscular, and, from a distance, almost looked human. None of them had faces. Instead, they bore a dark, shining ceramic surface without eyes, ears, nose, or a mouth. The figures did not wear spacesuits. In the harsh light, their skin was equal parts grey and dark blue. Their hands had no fingers, instead merging into what appeared to be an equally amorphous rifle. The weapons were aimed at the Independents.

  “Robots?” B’taav said.

  The figures motioned B’taav and Latitia into the Space Elevator’s platform.

  There was little either of them could do but oblige.

  33

  The sliding doors separating Latitia and B’taav from Pomos’ surface slid shut with a loud clang. They locked. The Independents were trapped inside the Space Elevator’s platform.

  According to the readings in the Independents’ space suits, the structure’s interior had traces of breathable air but the temperature was fifty degrees below freezing. It was also free of radiation.

  The dozen metallic figures circled the Independents. Their formless faces turned on them. When they moved, they did so with remarkable precision. No motion was wasted and once stopped they were as still as statues.

  As magnificent as the robots were, they projected a frightening power. B’taav sensed they could outrun or outmuscle any living being and snap them into pieces without much effort.

  After a few seconds and, as if bored with their guests, most of the robots walked away. Three robots remained. Two stood behind B’taav and Latitia and the third faced them.

  That robot stepped up to the Independents. A mouth appeared on its blank face. It spoke.

  “Follow me.”

  The voice was pleasant, even polite. There was no mistaking it for anything other than a command.

  B’taav and Latitia walked behind the figure while the other two robots followed. They moved through a dark corridor and up a flight of metal stairs.

  They passed through chambers flooded with bursts of compressed air. The readings within their space suit confirmed that with each burst, whatever lingering radioactivity left on their space suits was scrubbed away.

  After passing
two such chambers, they walked through a set of increasingly larger rooms filled with lifts, pulleys, and trains.

  “We’re following their freight,” B’taav said.

  Cargo trains took the raw ore and dumped it into a series of processors. They moved from crushers to sorters. In time the ore was cleaned and separated. The purified product was then loaded onto smaller trains.

  “I have yet to see a single person.”

  “I’m guessing we won’t,” Latitia said.

  “You think this whole place is automated? There has to be some kind of human supervision, right?”

  “Why?”

  They walked some more, eventually arriving at a central station. The smaller trains dumped their refined loads into cargo boxes connected to a series of lifts. The cargo boxes were then moved into a container and parked, one after the other, in rows.

  When each container was filled with the smaller cargo boxes, it moved up. Behind it was another empty container ready for more boxes.

  “It’s the Space Elevator’s train,” Latitia said. “Filled up one section at a time and preparing to depart.”

  B’taav considered the tons of ore.

  “Whatever they’re building, it’s massive.”

  The robot before them came to a stop. The last couple of boxes of ore were loaded into the container and the robot moved once again.

  Latitia and B’taav followed. They approached the side of that container. At the front of this last segment of the train was a small door. The robot stopped before it and pressed its hand against the metal side. There was a low hum and the door slid open. The robot motioned the Independents to enter and stepped aside.

  “After you,” Latitia told B’taav.

  B’taav walked through the door. Beyond it was a small passenger compartment. It had twenty seats and faced a metal wall. The seats were simple yet designed to keep passengers secure and safe.

  The robots remained outside the door. It slid shut.

  As soon as it did, Latitia and B’taav felt the container move.

  “Sit down,” Latitia said. “Hurry!”

  They strapped themselves in. Though doing so took seconds, they already felt the press of gravity. The Space Elevator quickly picked up speed. Their hosts didn’t care if the human passengers were safely in place.

  B’taav put on his seat belt just as the forces of gravity hit him the hardest.

  The speed they were moving at was dizzying and his body felt like it was about to collapse. Then, just as the pain reached near intolerable levels, it was gone.

  “B’taav?”

  The voice came from the Independent’s side.

  “How are you doing?” Latitia asked.

  The elevator slowed.

  “Fine, I guess.”

  “We should be nearing the Orbital Platform,” Latitia said.

  B’taav took several deep breaths. He felt a series of chills and sweat dripped down his face.

  Latitia removed B’taav’s seatbelt and helped him to his feet. B’taav adjusted the magnetism of his boots and settled on the floor.

  “You don’t look so good,” Latitia said.

  “I feel… weak,” he said. “Good timing.”

  They walked around the room, looking for a way out. Other than the sealed door they were brought through, there was none.

  The Space Elevator slowed even more. It stopped.

  Seconds passed and rumblings were felt. The vibrations grew until, abruptly, the Independents felt a violent pull. If it wasn’t for the gravity boots, they would have crashed against the compartment’s ceiling. There was a heavy groan and an even louder rumble. The walls of their section in the Space Elevator train opened and the cargo removed.

  The Independents stepped closer to the compartment’s exit. The vibrations stopped and they heard the sound of metallic groans. Once again the walls of this segment of the Space Elevator train slid shut with a loud clang.

  As soon as the container walls were sealed, the door before them opened.

  An intense beam of light flashed on the Independents.

  Standing before them and just outside the Space Elevator compartment were another trio of robotic figures. They looked identical to the ones that accompanied them to the Space Elevator on Pomos. Their weapons were trained on Latitia and B’taav.

  “Looks like this is our stop,” Latitia said.

  The Independents exited the compartment.

  The area around them did not appear all that different from that in the Space Elevator’s platform. They were again surrounded by very heavy machinery in a very large warehouse sized room. Smaller trains carried the refined ore away. They disappeared into a series of openings.

  Latitia read the atmospheric display within her helmet.

  “The atmosphere here is pure,” Latitia said. “Temps remain well below freezing.”

  Two of the robots were at Latitia and B’taav’s side while the third motioned to them and walked away. The Independents followed.

  They walked through the warehouse and past a door to a large service elevator. They were silently whisked up. After rising an undetermined distance, they were bathed in complete darkness. The darkness lasted only seconds before their view radically changed.

  “By the Gods,” Latitia whispered.

  This elevator, like the Space Elevator itself, ran inside a tinsel glass tube and this section of the ride allowed them a three hundred sixty degree view of their surroundings. They emerged from the lower base of a very large Space Station, one of the larger ones B’taav had ever seen, and zipped towards another smaller section above it. Far below them was the planet Pomos.

  B’taav stepped up to the glass. He looked down at the lower section of the Space Station and tried to get some sense of its shape and design and, through that, an idea of who the manufacturer might be.

  “She’s so damn bland,” B’taav said.

  “The ultimate in functionality,” Latitia said. “No windows, no lights. Unnecessary for this group.”

  Rockets and pulse cannons lined the walls of the Space Platform. They moved about silently, alert for any incoming threats.

  The elevator continued its ascent while B’taav and Latitia’s attention focused on their destination. They spotted a large sublevel of the Orbital Platform, a sphere on top of the sphere they emerged from.

  They were again enveloped in darkness before the elevator came to a stop.

  When the doors opened, they felt the pull of artificial gravity. Before them was a long hallway.

  Latitia once again examined the atmospheric readings within her helmet’s display. Temperatures were climbing while the atmosphere remained breathable.

  “Move,” one of the three robotic figures said.

  B’taav and Latitia stepped into the hallway with their escorts following closely behind. The elevator doors shut. There was a rumble and the elevator descended.

  B’taav and Latitia looked at the corridor before them. They spotted small apertures spread about the walls, floor, and ceiling. B’taav paused before one of them. The apertures were little more than small black holes.

  “Step to the middle of the corridor,” a voice boomed.

  B’taav and Latitia did so.

  “Spread your arms out.”

  They did this as well.

  A hissing sound filled the corridor and air was pumped in. It was followed by a heavy blue tinted liquid that gushed out of the holes and slammed into the Independents.

  B’taav stumbled from the pressure of the liquid and Latitia grabbed him.

  “You would have been better… better off without me,” B’taav mumbled.

  The liquid didn’t stick to their suits and, abruptly, was shut off. More air whirled through the corridor, this time sucking what remained of the liquid in the corridor and on them out. The process done, Latitia once again examined the computer readout inside her helmet.

  “We’re clean,” she said. “Really clean. No dust, no grit, no—”

 
“Follow us,” the lead robot said.

  The Independents did as told.

  They were escorted past this small hallway and into a larger outer area.

  There they found an ordinary, though immaculate, office room. The floor had a dark red carpet and the walls were pale white. There was a seating area and a computer console. Windows at the side walls looked out at Pomos.

  The mechanical escorts moved past this room and into another small corridor.

  “It’s like a waiting room,” B’taav said.

  Rooms like these were usually outfitted with security devices ranging from infrared cameras to passive and active thermal scanners and metal detectors. Whoever waited beyond this room knew they were safe when their visitors stepped through… should the visitors be allow to do so.

  The robots took B’taav and Latitia to the opposite side of the corridor and came to a stop. They waited for several seconds while the security equipment did its work. Then the first of the three robots pressed its hand against the wall. The wall slid away, revealing a large, elegant office.

  The office was dimly lit and filled with dark shadows. A mahogany desk took up its inner half and a set of three very elegant chairs were arranged before it. Behind the desk was a large bookcase filled with what appeared to be very old and worn books. A brown globe on a dark wooden base stood beside the desk. The office was enclosed in an enormous tinsel glass bubble. In all directions except for the entry, the floor, and the ceiling were clear views of outer space. Pomos loomed large below. On the opposite side of the room the destroyed moon of Solyanna was visible.

  As beautiful as it was, the office made B’taav’s skin crawl.

  “End of the line,” he said.

  The Independents and their robot escorts stepped inside. Latitia ignored the desk and walked to the side window. B’taav remained at the foot of the door. Their unease grew with each passing second. There was no one in the office to greet them, yet B’taav could feel a presence within. Something dark, evil. Worse, B’taav felt the infection was roaring back. He found it increasingly difficult to remain standing. He leaned against the wall.