Theocracy: Book 1.
Page 22
* * *
“Shit,” said Nathan Chung into his mouthpiece as he watched the ancient ship change course away from the station. “That must mean they couldn’t get in.”
“They seem to be heading for another station, a little over a hundred million kilometers from there,” said the Admiral over the circuit.
And I was so looking forward to getting out of this damned thing, thought the Colonel, banging a fist against the hard plastic tube that enclosed him.
“That will add five hours onto our time in the tubes,” said the Admiral. “And I still want us out at ten million kilometers, so the crews can fight the ships if needed.”
“Agreed,” said Chung with a sigh. He disconnected from the link, since there was nothing he could accomplish in it. He closed his eyes and started the sleep inducer going, hoping that the dream would not come this time. That wish was not granted.
Chapter Nineteen
This station did not warn them off or threaten to fire on them. In fact, it hadn’t tried to communicate with the humans at all, though Daedelus had admitted to being in com link with the station. Whatever the facts, the station, which was almost as large as the last, less friendly installation, had let them close with it and had then opened a door that could have let a thousand like their ship through at the same time.
As they passed through the gate, they saw that the walls were at least a hundred meters thick, though they couldn’t tell from their vantage if they were solid, or housed hundreds of passages and thousands of rooms. And then they passed into the hangar that the door protected, and all thoughts of the wall were lost in the wonder of the space revealed.
The dock itself was mostly empty space stretching to the center of the station, which had to be at least twenty kilometers, if not more. From top to bottom was an almost equal distance. And the space curved around to each side at distances that had to be as great.
Hanging in that space was a multitude of ships. Many were in slips along the outer wall and toward the inner pylon. There were ships of a size with Daedelus, some a little larger. Hanging in vacuum were ships on a much larger scale, including globular vessels that had to be cargo carriers, each over two kilometers in diameter.
“The outer door is closing,” said Derrick, pointing toward the rear of the bridge, where that view was shown.
Alyssa looked back and felt a bit of a chill run up her spine at the thought of being trapped in here. Then another thought interrupted that one and she felt a smile stretch her face. “Daedelus,” she said, getting the attention of the vessel. “Can anyone open that door?”
“Anyone that has an Imperial commercial or civilian ID,” said the ship. “There were pirates and criminals after all, whose entry was not considered desirable.”
“So, the Theocracy ships would not be able to follow us through?”
“Not with any transmitted code,” said the ship. “I could not guarantee they would not be able to force an entry through another part of the station.”
“And would the station try to keep them off?” asked Alyssa, crossing her fingers.
“With the limited resources at its disposal, yes,” said the ship. “This is not a military installation. And it depended on a sentient police and security presence to keep undesirables under control.”
“But it may give us some more time?”
“Yes, mistress,” said the machine mind. “And I could have the station cast a message that might make them think for a bit before they try.”
“Perfect,” said Alyssa, thinking of how the Theocrats would react when the ancient station gave them a warning to stay away. “Now, Patrick,” she said, touching the Monk on the shoulder. “Have the ship dock, while Derrick and myself gather what we’ll need to explore this place.”
Patrick was giving orders to the ship while she walked off the bridge, Derrick trailing behind. The door had closed behind her and she had taken a couple more steps before Derrick’s hand closed around her arm, stopping her short.
“I need to talk to you,” said Derrick, his eyes glaring into hers when she turned.
“Then talk,” she said as she jerked her arm away. Shadow bowed up and started to hiss, his eyes staring at the man who seemed to him to be assaulting his mistress.
“I don’t like the way you are spending your time with the primitive,” said Derrick, anger in his eyes.
“And I don’t think that is any of your business,” she replied, forcing her voice to stay even.
“It jeopardizes the mission,” said Derrick, lowering his voice and trying to gain some kind of control.
“How does it jeopardize our mission?” she asked, wondering if the man was losing his mind in his jealousy. “Would fucking you make any more sense?”
“Well,” said Derrick, anxiety warring with anger on his face.
“You’re my subordinate, Derrick,” said Alyssa, trying to keep her voice calm and controlled. “There are rules against that sort of conduct. While the Monk is not in my chain of command.”
“We are not in the fleet, Alyssa,” said Derrick, holding his hands out in a pleading manner. “We are colleagues in the intelligence business. So there is no reason that we couldn’t hook up.”
“Except that I don’t want to,” said the woman, stomping down with a foot. “That’s reason enough for me. It’s my choice. Not yours. Not the government’s, or the admiralty’s, or anyone elses. It’s mine.”
Derrick started to open his mouth, but she stuck a finger in his face. “Shut up, Derrick. This topic is not open for discussion. Now, we have a mission to prepare for. So let’s go get ready.”
Derrick nodded his head, a hurt expression on his face. Alyssa looked away, and started to head back down the corridor. But Shadow was watching the face of the man, and was sending that image back to Alyssa. And the expression she saw let her know she should be ready for anything from the man. And that Patrick should as well.
* * *
“Everyone ready?” asked Alyssa.
She looked over the other three members of her party and knew that they were as ready as they could get. All of the humans were decked out in new skin suits provided by Daedelus. The suits were said to be much more advanced than the combat suits their own tech produced, though they weren’t even top of the line military wear in the ancients’ time. All the humans had web gear over the suits from which hung a variety of equipment. All also carried side arms and rifles. Patrick was equipped differently from the rest, carrying his shield, sword sheathed over his back.
Shadow meowed, and Alyssa looked at her feline companion with a smile. He also wore an outerwear skin suit, cut to his shape and covering everything but his face and the pads of his feet. The ship had not been able to come up with anything that matched his natural foot pads for stealth. And of course, there were the slits in each paw that allowed his marvelous claws to come to the attack.
“I am ready,” came the voice of the ship over their implants. “And docking is complete.” The last statement was preceded by the gentle bump of something hitting the hull. The inner door opened and the party moved in a quick walk into the lock. The outer door had turned transparent, and they could see the tunnel stretching away from the door to end at yet another door, this one presumably leading into the station.
“The tunnel is pressurized,” said the ship. “Opening outer door.”
The door slid open and the tunnel beckoned. Alyssa waved them forward and headed for the door to the station, the other members of the team following her. When she got to the other door nothing happened, when she had been expecting it to slid open at their approach. She pushed on of the pair of buttons set by the door and waited expectantly. But again, nothing happened.
“The commander is the only one among you who can open that door,” said Daedelus. “Only he has the proper protein sequence to get through an outer entrance.”
“Are we going to have to go through this throughout the station?” complained Derrick, glaring at Patrick.
“Thank God for little favors,” growled Derrick.
The door slid open, and they walked into another small room, obviously the airlock for this opening. “Wonder why they didn’t use plasma shields for their locks?” said Alyssa.
“There are some work areas where such were used,” said the ship. “But doors of hard material were considered more trustworthy in all respects.”
The inner door opened when Alyssa touched the button. She guessed that only the outer door needed someone of trust to open it, which made sense, since it could let onto vacuum. Even in the time of the ancients that had to be inconvenient, if not deadly.
The airlock led into a long room with lots of chairs and small tables. There were even plants in the many planters, all alive and thriving.
“Is there anyone alive on the station?” she asked as she eyed a luxuriant growth along one wall.
“Negative,” said the ship. “No sentient organics occupy the station. There are a number of service robots that maintain the environment of the station.”
“What about your man in the loop law?” asked Derrick as a small door opened in the wall, where none had been apparent before, and a diminutive robot rolled out.
“The law was intended to not allow machines to revolt,” said the ship. “It was modified through time to only include those machines that could be seen as true threats to humanity. Small service robots of limited computing capacity were eventually exempted from the law.”
We always find ways around the inconvenient laws, she thought as they walked toward the next door, this one with unknown symbols over it. All of the team was ready, tense, with the exception of Patrick, who moved like a cat wearing the serene face of a saint. Alyssa wondered why they were so tense, when the ship had told them the station was unoccupied by sentient beings. But did that mean there was no danger?
“What about cybernetic threats?” she asked as the door opened and revealed a wonder.
“There should be no threats from that quarter,” said the ship. “As there needs to be a sentient controller to initiate their action.”
Alyssa nodded her head as she looked out on the space revealed. The room itself opened onto a twenty meter wide promenade. And that overlooked an open space that had to be six kilometers across. Across the way and curving around were many levels of promenades, and walkways leading from them to a central shaft that would be a kilometer thick if it was a meter. Many windows looked out of that shaft, making it look like an enormous office building.
Alyssa turned around and looked back at the wall they had just exited from. There were beautiful murals of stunning colors running in both directions along that wall. She looked to the right and there were doors going on to around the curve, many with signs sticking out from the walls.
She then walked to the railing that kept people from falling into the gulf between walkways and the central building. She looked down into what looked like a canyon that dropped to nowhere. Looking up gave her the same perspective. She searched for something to drop. She didn’t really know why she wanted to drop something. Maybe it was something left over from childhood. But nothing came to hand.
Shadow meowed, and she gave him a look and a laugh. “Don’t worry stinker. I’m not going to throw you out there.”
“Try this,” said Patrick, handing her an apple that he pulled from a leg pocket of his suit.
“Thanks,” she said, taking the fruit and turning back to the railing. She held the fruit over the chasm and let it go, they shouted in surprise as the apple slowly and lazily floated downward.
“The gravity field in the open area is about one twentieth normal,” said the ship before she could get the question out. “It was both a precaution against people falling, and an inducement for people to use self powered flight as recreation.”
“I’ve done that,” said Derrick, a wide smile on his face. “Back at the L1 station, near the center.”
“That is something I would like to try,” said Patrick, his eyes following the fruit as it picked up a bit of speed, and then slowed from air resistance.
“We need to get going,” said Derrick, the scowl still on his face. “We don’t have time for reminiscing.”
Alyssa nodded her head and started down one side of the walkway. We only have time for it if it suits you, she thought, taking another good look at her subordinate through Shadow’s eyes. But she kept her mouth shut and led the way, knowing that she had two sets of eyes on Derrick.
They passed door after door, some only five meters apart, other with much greater separation. One was a set of double doors, with nothing closer than twenty meters either way. She nodded at those doors and turned toward them. They slid aside at her approach, and the lights came on in a large room on the other side.
The room looked like a tavern or restaurant, and even had a polished wooden bar on the side. Everything looked like it was prepared for a night’s crowd. A voice was saying something that they couldn’t understand, then said something else in what sounded like another completely different language.
“The house computer is apologizing for the establishment not being open,” said the ship. “It states that the establishment will be open again as soon as possible.”
“And when was the last time this place had any customers?” asked Derrick, his face showing a nervous tick as he scanned the empty room.
“Approximately seven thousand, four hundred and fifty-three years ago,” said the ship’s computer.
“This place creeps me out,” said Derrick, his hands tight on his rifle. “What in the hell happened here? What happened to all the damned people?”
“Can you tell us what happened here, Daedelus?” asked Alyssa, her own hackles rising as she looked around the ghost haunted room.
“I can do better than that,” said the ship. It was silent for a few moments, then came back. “I have instructed the station computer to show video of what happened at this particular place when the disaster struck.”
“You didn’t have these records on my world?” asked Patrick, his eyes narrowing.
“I am sorry that I did not,” said the ship. “I have not been off the moon since the disaster struck, and all structures on the surface were damaged to the point where no memory records remain. But here is the answer to the question about this place.”
A holo sprang into being over a stage area at one side of the room, and the visitors moved that way, trying to take in everything that was happening.
Alyssa stared in rapt attention at the scene of people sitting around the same tables that now stood empty, conversing, drinking, and eating food from elegant place settings. Men and women moved through the room, bringing drinks and food to the patrons. That in itself established the luxury of this place, to have live sentient servers. The holo played on the same stage that the people in the vid were watching a holo play at. One couple, elegantly dressed in strange but colorful clothing, headed for the entrance, and most probably to home. They never got there.
What came through the door was very familiar to Alyssa. Some of the aliens lived on her home world, where they were known to be the most inoffensive of creatures. Hustedeans, with their short stubby tails, strong springing legs and open faces. The first one through the door gunned down the couple that was closest, the one walking toward the door. A dozen more of the creatures sprang through the door in the next moment and started crisscrossing the room with beams of coherent light and streams of high velocity rounds.
People died where they sat, not able to move before they were cut in half or turned into expanding clouds of red vapor. Someone must have had some kind of weapon, because one of the aliens was hit and its upper torso and head slid off the creature. The rest identified the shooter, a stat
ion security man by his uniform, and turned him into a mass of shredded smoking flesh.
“My God,” said Derrick, his eyes riveted on the scene. “Was the old Empire destroyed by an alien invasion? But I thought Husteads were supposed to be friendly aliens.”
“Ship,” said Alyssa, pointing a finger at the holo. “Zoom in where I’m pointing and back up about fifteen seconds.”
The holo performed the requested actions and Alyssa saw what she needed to see. “Stop,” she said, moving closer to the holo. “Look here,” she said, pointing to the cut through the alien. A cut that gleamed of newly exposed metal. “This is a robot. Either a combat model, or some kind of server model adapted to combat.”
“But, how did robots do this?” asked Patrick, looking from the holo to the door and back again. “I thought there was a law that told them not to harm human beings.”
“Or any sentient life forms,” agreed Alyssa, her eyes narrowing. “Ship. How in the hell did these robots come to do this? And I’m assuming not just here, but all across the Galaxy?”
“These robots were obviously set on this course by a sentient creature,” said the ship.
“How could they have done that?” asked Alyssa, her mind reeling at the idea that the old Empire might have fallen at the hands of machines, after they had done so much to prevent that.
“Someone with a lot of power may have rewritten the law,” said the ship.
“And where would we find this person?” said Derrick, shaking his head as soon as the words left his mouth. “I guess I should ask, where would we locate his operating base, since he can’t be alive, can he?”
“There was only one immortal being in the known Galaxy,” said the ship. “All humans and aliens were good for at most two or three standard centuries. Only the ancient enemies were capable of longer natural life spans, extending several millennia.”
“I would have thought the ancients would have lived longer than three centuries,” said Derrick, frowning. “We’re almost to two centuries ourselves.”