The Key

by Brian Fisher

  Chapter 33

  Corin leveled his pistol at the back of the woman's head. She was pretty, much prettier than any woman he had seen in a very long time. She was sweaty and bleeding in places, but still intoxicatingly beautiful. He drew close enough to her that he could whisper, and tell from her scent of exotic spices that she was indeed, a Bakeeron, but not the one he was looking for.

  "What are you doing here?" he asked, brushing the pistol's barrel against her hair.

  Kamira started to turn to look him in the eye. The thought of being held captive by anyone, regardless of the situation, angered her to the point that she struggled to hold her temper in check. She was short on time and patience, making it that much harder for her to think clearly.

  "Don't move, unless you have a death wish." His voice had an edge to it as he gently pressed the muzzle of his pistol against the back of her head. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

  "I am Commander Kamira Nor, Chief Engineer of the star ship Redemption. There is a bomb at the heart of this planet, and I need to disarm it." Kamira growled, her heart racing, as she tried to think of what to do. Nothing came to her mind, so she decided to trust her fate.

  "Commander, huh?" Corin lowered his pistol. "Then you should know better than to be down here by yourself."

  "What are you doing down here alone then?" Kamira turned and looked him in the eye. Her gaze would have burned holes in ion nitrided carbon steel, but Corin ignored it.

  "I'm not alone. I have him." he said, gesturing toward the Sand Panther. "This is Brutus. I'm Corin." Corin ran a hand over his face as he let a series of thoughts run through his mind, then holstered his pistol. "If there really is a bomb, like you say, then we're all dead if you fail. Let's go." he gestured for Kamira to lead the way.

  "Just like that?" Kamira asked, not entirely sure what to make of this man.

  "Just like that Commander." Corin waited for Kamira to start walking then fell in step behind her, with Brutus bringing up the rear.

  The lights faded quickly, and then finally gave out as they traveled deeper into the bowels of the ravaged city. There was nothing here that had been left untouched by the battle being fought above. Every wall, every door, showed its age and damage in ways that left no doubt about its condition. Massive cracks formed in the center of the passageway floors, and along the creases of the ceilings, making Kamira wary of the entire city coming down on top of them.

  Left in the darkness, Kamira started to stumble before Corin reached into his pocket and retrieved a pair of night vision glasses, and handed them to Kamira.

  "Thank you." she said thankfully, putting the glasses on. "What brings you to Olcai? This isn't exactly the best time to be here you know."

  "I'm here looking for someone." Corin replied after a moment of thought.

  "Who?" Kamira asked without turning around.

  "She's a Bakeeron, like you." His voice carried none of the apprehension that he felt about disclosing anything about his mission. What could he be thinking?

  "Really? What's her name?" Kamira tried hard not to show this man any of her suspicions, or give him any reason to turn from a potential ally into a hardened enemy.

  "It's not important right now." Corin dismissed Kamira's probing. "Let's just take care of that bomb. Then we can worry about other things."

  "I was just curious, that's all." Kamira shrugged. "Maybe I know her. There really aren't that many Bakeerons around here."

  "I'll keep that in mind. Thanks." Corin replied absently, keeping his eyes open and a hand on his pistol.

  "There should be a door at the deepest part of the city." Kamira said quietly, not entirely sure what to make of her traveling companions.

  "Sounds a little ominous don't you think?" Corin turned to check on Brutus. The big cat paid little attention to Corin, as his eyes swept the corridors, methodically looking for the Ta'Reeth.

  "Yes, well that's what I was told." Kamira’s voice grew colder. "At least I'm not arbitrarily pointing guns at people."

  "Yeah, well it's kept me alive this long." Corin smirked. "The way things are, I'm surprised that you're still breathing."

  "T'Sula would have said the same thing." Kamira mumbled under her breath.

  "Sounds like a smart woman." Corin stepped through an open doorway.

  "How did you know that T'Sula's a woman?" Kamira stopped suddenly and spun around to face Corin.

  Corin paused. "Just a guess, from ah, the name." he stammered.

  Brutus snarled from deep inside, interrupting Kamira's thoughts. He barred his fangs and claws as he slowly scanned the corridor.

  "What is it?" Corin asked the giant feline in hushed tones. Brutus glanced down the corridor from where they had come, hunching his powerful shoulders, ready for an attack.

  Corin listened intently."I don't hear anything buddy." he whispered.

  "What's going on?" Kamira asked quietly.

  "Brutus sensed something, now shut up." Corin whispered back. He blinked his eyes and accessed the microprocessor imbedded in his skull behind his right ear. Corin winced as his hearing intensified to superhuman levels.

  "Don't tell me to shut up." Kamira whispered.

  "Ow. Not so loud." Corin covered his ears. "Get down!" he yelled as he threw himself over the top of Kamira, knocking her to the floor. Brutus bounded over them, and leapt to the side, an instant before a ball of plasma burned into the wall behind them.

  Corin looked around, finding himself in a large room, with only the one door. "We're dead." he mumbled, then covered his ears in pain before he disengaged the microprocessor.

  "Not yet." Kamira said, scrambling to her feet. She ran over to the door and slammed her hand down on the pressure plate, closing the door. Picking up a shard of metal from the floor, Kamira quickly pried the pressure plate open. She reached into her robes, and pulled out the bottle of spray bandage. Smoke poured out of the opening as Kamira sprayed a thick layer of spray bandage over the processors and wires. Satisfied with her handiwork, Kamira turned to survey her new surroundings.

  "That should hold them for a little while." she said, as she walked past Corin.

  "Yeah, but for how long?" Corin stood and dusted himself off. "Let's barricade the door with something big and heavy."

  Dust fell from the cracks in the ceiling and walls covering the tables, laden with various instruments that lined the walls of the circular room. Cracks ran along the walls in a spider web, and spread to the ceiling, gradually growing larger every time the room shook. Recessed in the center of the floor was a large round door, unadorned with artistry or markings of any kind.

  Kamira walked to the center of the room. She knelt down and touched the cold metal surface. "We go down."

  Corin joined her near the door. "How do you open it?"

  "Stand back." Kamira walked to a table with only a handful of instruments on it. The instruments themselves were old and nondescript, leaving Kamira with the feeling that this room had not been used in a very long time. On the wall behind the table was a simple pressure plate with a circle in the center. She reached up and pushed the plate. A gentle whir filled the room as the circular door smoothly slid away, revealing a deep black hole.

  "That's not good." Corin peered over the edge into endless darkness. The sheer walls of an enormous tube stretched farther than he could see. "How are we supposed to get down?"

  "What?" Kamira asked, stepping to Corin's side. She peered cautiously into the depths, nearly falling when something in the corridor began pounding relentlessly against the door.

  The pounding stopped, and the center of the door began to glow a dull red, growing quickly to an almost blinding white, before melting into a smoldering puddle on the floor. As soon as the center of the door melted away, Ta'Reeth plasma cannons roared to life, aimed at Kamira and Corin, incinerating whatever they touched.

  "I told you it wouldn't hold!" Corin yelled before jumping into the abyss. Brutus followed, bounding over Kamira and into the hol
e.

  Kamira closed her eyes and stepped over the edge. She fell into the darkness and slowly came to a stop. Opening her eyes, she looked around. She floated in the black abyss. No light filtered in and nothing touched her skin.

  "Is anybody there? Am I dead?" Corin's voice came from nearby.

  "No, you're not dead. Not yet anyway." Kamira responded, her voice a little brittle. She could hear Brutus growling in the dark.

  A pale blue stream of light shimmered in the distance. It danced momentarily then snaked through the darkness, stopping a few meters from Kamira. A bioluminescent eel floated in the water on the other side of a transparent wall. The faint light reflected off the wall showing its true shape. Kamira, Corin, and Brutus floated in a clear tube, running from the hull of the city, all of the way to the center of the planet.

  "I think I see something." Corin pointed to the edge of the light. At the edge of the darkness, the light caressed the molded shape of a cargo transport unit.

  Kamira moved her arms and kicked her legs in a futile attempt to move to the transport. Corin fished around in a cargo pocket before attaching a small cylinder over the muzzle of his pistol. Taking careful aim, he fired a shot at the edge of the transport. A faint ping resounded through the tube letting them all know that he had hit his mark. A moment later Corin began to move. He moved slowly at first, and then picked up speed as the tiny line retracted and coiled inside the cylinder on his pistol.

  The transport, roughly oblong in shape, stretched from nearly one side of tunnel to the other. A bank of computer panels lined one side. In the center, a flat expanse with slots cut diagonally across it, dominated the otherwise empty deck.

  Corin bent his knees, absorbing the impact as he contacted the transport. He grabbed the console as he skidded across the deck, keeping himself from careening over the edge and back into the abyss. Fumbling in the darkness, he managed to activate the computer and power up the transport unit. Aside from the lights on the console, the only illumination came from the pale blue running lights along the edge of the transport. Small black straps snaked out of the slots nearest his feet and fastened themselves around his ankles.

  "Hold on you two. I'm on my way." Small thrusters fired momentarily, aligning the transport, and sending the craft toward Kamira.

  Kamira watched as the transport came closer. It slowed, and finally came to a stop just before she made contact. Her feet touched the deck and were immediately wrapped in black bands. Brutus floated nearby, moving his giant paws through the air as if he could swim in it.

  "Hold on pal." Corin consoled the big cat. Moments later, Brutus stood secured to the deck by black bands wrapped tightly around his legs.

  "Here we go." Corin took a deep breath and started the descent to the core.

  The transport sped through the transparent shaft, dropping to the center of the planet. The meager light from the computer console and running lights could not adequately penetrate the darkness, leaving its passengers in a shroud of darkness and silence.

  A light blossomed in the distance, like a flower opening to greet the day. Brilliant white light speared the oppressing darkness, blinding the passengers on the transport. The blazing green of plasma cannon fire burst out of the blinding white before it tore into the underbelly of the transport.

  "Where did that come from?" Corin asked, clutching the controls as the transport pitched wildly to the side, slamming hard into the transparent wall. Kamira picked herself up off the deck, grimacing as she held her knee.

  "Are you alright?" Corin asked Kamira.

  "I'll be fine. How's Brutus?" Kamira said, looking over at the massive feline.

  "He's alright. Brace yourselves." Corin shouted a second before another volley of plasma ripped into the transport. Pieces of blackened thrusters and hull fragments exploded from the hull and careened off the inside of the shaft, clattering into the distance.

  The enemy fire became heavier the closer they came to the core. The transport shuddered violently then veered sharply, slamming into the wall again. Giant cracks snaked out from the point of impact, reaching farther than either Corin or Kamira could possibly see. The cracks widened in the transparent barrier, they kept growing until icy water began to spray into the tube.

  "Oh gods! We have to hurry!" Kamira yelled as she worked frantically to free her ensnared feet.

  "Hold on." Corin called to her while he worked frantically at the transport controls. The transport thrusters sputtered. The thrusters that were still intact came hesitantly to life. Corin quickly backed the craft away from the wall and aimed it towards the light of the core.

  "If this doesn't kill us, you can thank me later." he said before he ignited the thrusters. Plasma fire poured out of the opening, ripping the transport to shreds. Thrusters tore away from the main body of the craft, sending it spinning on three axes. Brutus howled, Kamira vomited and Corin closed his eyes as the transport burst through the opening at the end of the tunnel. It crashed to the ground and came to rest with the deck facing up. Miraculously, all aboard were safe.

  "That's the last time I let you drive." Kamira complained, fighting with her restraints.

  "Hey, you're alive aren't you?" Corin managed to release the straps from around his ankles. He hurried over to Kamira and helped her release herself and Brutus. Brutus stood up, flexed his paws and licked Corin's face. Kamira balanced herself against the wreckage and walked to the edge. She peered over the side, and then lowered herself the two meters to the floor. Corin followed suit before Brutus leapt easily from the deck to the floor.

  "They must have known that someone would come." Corin said, pointing to several Ta'Reeth arms and legs sticking out from underneath the wrecked transport.

  "Yeah, well, if you put a bomb at the heart of a planet, you might place a few guards there too." Kamira muttered as she walked around the expansive room. White unadorned walls curved to a clear domed ceiling. Through the ceiling, she could see a vast array of sea creatures moving in the darkness, just beyond the reach of the light. A circular door, much like the one they came through before, dominated the center of the room.

  "This room must be a loading dock for the transport." Corin looked around.

  "Why do you say that?" Kamira asked. She glanced up at the hole in the ceiling that they had just come through. The door had sealed behind them, but was not holding out the rush of water from the shattered access tube.

  "Because there's nothing else here." Corin walked to the door in the center of the room. "What you're looking for is down there." he said, pointing down.

  "Stand back. We don't have much time." Kamira pointed to the leaking ceiling as she strode to a console imbedded in the wall. She touched the screen and scanned through the menu that appeared there. Finding the option that she wanted, Kamira accessed it.

  The door quietly slid down half a meter and then slid open. Corin peered over the edge to find a large mechanical lift that rested just below the opening.

  "Well, are you coming?" Corin asked just after jumping down onto the lift.

  Kamira shook her head slightly, and eased herself onto the lift. She stepped to the side, making room for Brutus to drop down.

  "Please keep all appendages inside the lift at all times." Corin smirked, and pressed the control pad. The lift smoothly dropped toward the center of the core.

  Heavy beams made out of a dark gray composite crossed in a giant latticework, giving strength to the core. The core itself was enormous. Between the outer shell and the core, there was enough space to build several starships the size of Redemption, and still have all of the lifts and support structure for Olcai itself. Five other lifts ran in different directions, equidistant from each other, and intersecting at the center of the planet.

  "Those other lifts must run to the other five cities." Kamira muttered.

  "Probably, but why?" Corin asked.

  "I don't know for sure. If I had to guess, I would say that it probably has to do with the cloning operation." Kamira
peered over the side. A massive, spherical chamber loomed ominously ahead.

  The center of the core, the very heart of Olcai, was a gigantic metal sphere, bristling with cables and supports that hung suspended at the very center of the planet. It occurred to Kamira, as they approached, that this place was older than she could fathom, and possibly more advanced than anything she had ever seen. This place was born from the death of Olcaina, and the need to give the people of Olcai a home, a place to be. This place, this core was indeed the alpha and the omega for the Olcai.

  The lift slowed as it approached the core. A large circular door slid open, allowing the lift to enter. Inside the chamber, thousands lights flickered to life. The lift gently came to rest on a massive, rectangular platform near the center of the sphere, unsupported by trusses and cables. Kamira stepped off the lift, followed by Brutus, and finally Corin. Free of its passengers, the lift retreated from the sphere, with the door closing behind it.

  Lining the inside of the chamber, with no space left uncovered, were coal black capsules. The capsules were roughly the size of a person, with a clear lid that allowed viewing of what was inside. Inside the capsules, featureless Olcai faces stared out at the world with unseeing eyes.

  "Oh my god." Corin muttered in astonishment. "This place is a giant cloning chamber."

  "It's more than that. This place is sacred. It's the end of their old world, and the beginning of everything else." Kamira looked at him. "This is literally the center of their world, the center of their existence."

  "O.K., great history lesson. Now, where's the bomb?" Corin looked over the side.

  "I don't know." Kamira slammed her hand down on the railing in sudden frustration. She knew that there was no possible way of searching the entire core, and no time to do it.

  Corin blinked and accessed one of his implants. Opening his eyes, he scanned the sphere.

  "What is that?" Kamira asked, pointing up. A dark section of the core shimmered slightly.

  "I'm not sure." Corin focused on the section where Kamira pointed. "It looks like a forcefield. I'm not positive, but it looks like something blew a hole in the wall."

  "I don't see any trace of a bomb." Kamira stared at the shimmering darkness.

  "Hold on. Let's take a closer look." Corin accessed a computer terminal in the center of the platform, and smoothly guided it over to the hole in the wall.

  Kamira reached out and touched a capsule as the platform stopped. She traced her fingers along the obsidian contours. The transparent cover allowed her to see an unborn Olcai resting peacefully, its smooth black skin a stark contrast to the milky white fluids surrounding it. She looked at the creature, with its innocence and potential, and quietly wondered what kind of world it would be born into.

  She paused for a moment longer, chastising herself for calling the unborn Olcai a creature, instead of person. As she gazed at the clone, an oily brown substance seeped into the nutrient bath, covering everything it touched. The Olcai began to thrash wildly, its mouth opening and closing, forming words that it would never say and no one would ever hear.

  Kamira gasped in shock, and then ran to the next capsule and the next after that. Each one was the same. Unborn Olcai writhed in pain, thrashing in a futile attempt to ward off an unstoppable attacker.

  "I wonder if they know that they are going to die." Kamira wiped a tear from her cheek.

  "What are you talking about?" Corin asked.

  "I can't stop this bomb." Kamira looked at him and shook her head. "It's a Ta'Reeth weapon. It's biological not technological. There's nothing I can do."

  "Great." Corin slammed his hand down on the console. "We're dead."

  "Hold on." Kamira ran to the computer, knocking Corin out of the way. Her hands flew over the screen, barely touching it to access what she needed.

  "We may be dead, but there are millions of others that we might be able to save." Sweat beaded on her brow as she worked, frantically digging deeper into the database.

  "What are you doing?" Corin blinked his eyes, disengaging his enhanced vision.

  "Simple. I'm instructing the individual cities to activate their emergency protocols. Each city was built with an emergency biosphere. That should protect them from the loss of atmosphere." Kamira’s fingers paused for a second then continued to fly over the screen. "When the gravity fails and the supports are destroyed, the cities should act as life rafts until help can arrive."

  "Slow down. What do you mean the gravity is going to fail?" Corin’s mouth dropped open. "The supports are going to be destroyed? What are you talking about?"

  "Corin, this planet is going to explode. These clones are the bomb." Kamira stopped working on the computer and faced him. "We are going to die. When this bomb goes off, we can't get away from it. It’s going to vaporize us, the core, and flash boil billions of gallons of water." she took a deep breath. "I have been able to activate the emergency protocols of every city, except the one that we came from. That city has sustained too much damage. They'll be lucky to survive the blast, let alone everything else."

  "We are not going to die. Not today." Corin grimaced as he closed his eyes. There was a look of determination on his face that Kamira was not going to question.

  "What are you doing?" Kamira finally dared to ask.

  "Shut up. I need to concentrate." Corin snapped. His hands clinched into fists so tight that blood trickled down his fingers. "Come on. Come on." he whispered.

  The clone capsules turned brown on the inside then started to shake. The clones themselves were no longer visible in fetid nutrient bath. A few thousand of the clones thrashed into view, each of them bloated and disfigured in pain as the Ta'Reeth agent devastated their bodies, turning them into an agent of destruction.

  "Stand back!" Corin yelled over the din. A loud explosion rocked the core, breaking a handful of cloning capsules loose from their fittings. The forcefield flickered and died. Water rushed in through the ruptured wall, quickly filling the bottom of the core with cold, dark ocean water.

  Precious seconds passed by as a ship eased through the ruptured core, coming to stop, and hovering barely a meter from the platform. A small hatch opened on its side, allowing Brutus to leap from the platform, and into the airlock. Corin quickly followed the big cat.

  "Are you coming or what?" Corin asked, extending a hand to help Kamira.

  "Of course I'm coming." she whispered in his ear as she scrambled aboard and the airlock closed behind her.

  A door opened at the other end of the airlock, and Brutus and Corin stepped quickly through.

  "There's an extra seat in the crew station." Corin said just before the door slammed closed, locking Kamira in the airlock.

  "What are you doing?" she screamed, pounding her fists against the airlock door.

  "It wasn't me." Corin paused long enough to check a monitor imbedded in the bulkhead. "The computer says that its reading some kind of radiation on you, and won't let you come any farther than the airlock." he let out a deep breath that he had not realized he had been holding. "Sit tight. I'm going to get us out of this."

  Corin ran to the crew station, threw himself into the pilot's seat, and kicked in the engines. Vengeance roared to life. The engines pushed the ship through the ruptured core and into the depths of the ocean. Dark blue water rushed past the hull, threatening to tear the little ship apart. Vengeance rushed through the waters and exploded out of the water and straight into the sky.

  "Kamira, I'm picking up a strange reading. The computer has located a radiation signature that matches yours exactly. I'm going to check it out. It'll only take a second." Corin called into the intercom.

  A moment later, the ship hovered next to a tall building with a hole blown in the side. The airlock opened, and two figures hastily climbed aboard.

  "I thought you were dead." Kamira cried as she threw her arms around her cousin. The airlock closed and the ship raced for the stars as the planet exploded in a fiery display of molten metal and steam.