Return to Dakistee

by Thomas DePrima

  "I understand he was pretty upset about being refused entrance to the tunnel."

  "Yeah, well, he should have called ahea…"

  "Attention!" Captain Robledo, Admiral Hubera's Flag Secretary, said loudly as he preceded Admiral Hubera into the room.

  Christa braced to attention and held it while Hubera took a seat at the table. He didn't invite Christa to sit down.

  "Lt. Commander Christa Carver reporting to the admiral as ordered, sir," Christa said as she stood in front of Hubera.

  Hubera just sat and scowled at her, as he had always done when students at the Academy reported to him. He had tried it with Jenetta Carver when she had appeared at the Admiralty Board, but it hadn't unsettled her in the slightest, and it didn't seem to be working with this Carver either.

  Christa's peripheral vision made her fully aware that Hubera was scowling at her as she stared straight ahead. He might be angry about being inconvenienced down on the surface of the planet, but he had no grounds for making any charges, so she wasn't nervous, and she was content to stand at attention until he spoke or returned her salute.

  Hubera finally stopped scowling and decided to bully her instead. In a voice dripping with acrimony, he said, "Just what made you think you could authorize the use of deadly force against Space Command personnel, Commander?"

  "I never gave such an order, sir."

  "The sentry at the tunnel said you did. He said he was prepared, on your orders, to use deadly force if I tried to enter the tunnel. Is that not correct, Captain Robledo?"

  Robledo, who had been standing quietly on Hubera's left, spoke up to support the Admiral's statement.

  "I think you misunderstood, sir," Christa directed at Hubera. "The order to use whatever force deemed necessary to stop unauthorized persons from entering the tunnel was not directed at Space Command personnel. At the time I gave the order in question, Lieutenant Carmoody and I were the only Space Command personnel on the planet, to the best of my knowledge. Had I been notified of your imminent arrival, I would surely have modified the order to exclude all Space Command personnel."

  "You have an excuse for everything, don't you, Commander?"

  "I'm just stating the facts as I know them, sir."

  Hubera scowled again and finally returned her salute, allowing her to drop her arm.

  "What have you found in the facility?"

  "Today was our first day of inspection, so we moved slow…"

  "I didn't ask how you moved," Hubera shouted. "I asked what you found."

  Without missing a beat, Christa said, "Empty dormitories and mess halls, sir."

  "That's all?"

  "That all, sir."

  "No cloning lab?"

  "No, sir."

  "No other useful technology?"

  "No, sir."

  "How much of the facility is still unchecked?"

  "We checked every room we reached, sir."

  "How big is it?"

  "Unknown, sir."

  "How can you not know? You were in there all day."

  "The facility is enormous, sir. We haven't had time for a detailed analysis yet. Upon learning of your arrival and that you wished to see me aboard the Murray, I dropped everything else and came up. If the Admiral would allow me to give a detailed report instead of simply replying to pointed questions, I think he will receive a better picture of the situation."

  Hubera drew in a large breath and exhaled it quickly, clearly demonstrating his exasperation at not being able to rattle Christa and not getting the answers he wanted. She hadn't once been insubordinate, and he didn't expect that she would become so. She was as bad as her sister.

  "Very well, Commander. Give me your detailed report."

  Over the next ten minutes Christa related everything that had happened since they first stepped into the new facility until they came topside and she learned of the Murray's arrival at Dakistee. Hubera had just stared at her somewhat impassively during the presentation, a remarkable achievement for someone of his temperament.

  "As I said earlier, sir," Christa said in conclusion, "if I had been notified of your pending arrival I would have amended my orders to allow for Space Command officer access to the facility. I do apologize for the inconvenience you experienced."

  "Carver, since the incident with Admiral Vroman, the travel plans of Admirals are held in strictest confidence."

  "Yes, sir. I meant that the imminent arrival of the Murray should have been made known. It would not have required mention of your presence on board."

  Hubera sputtered a couple of times. He knew she was right. Regulations required that a base commander, even an outpost commander, be notified before a ship arrived at his or her command. But Hubera had wanted to just drop in, hoping he could catch her doing something he could spin into a dereliction of duty accusation, even if it wasn't enough to justify a formal charge, so he had specifically ordered the Murray's captain not to announce their arrival.

  "This is considered an inspection visit, and, as such, is excluded from the normal regulations and protocols regarding arriving ships."

  "Yes, sir. Impromptu arrivals often hold surprises for both parties."

  Hubera snorted slightly and then said, "So I'm supposed to return to the Admiralty Board and report that after half a year of work here, as well as considerable involvement by Space Command Headquarters to locate those damned cylinders, all you have to show for it is an empty underground bunker?"

  "That's all we've found so far, sir."

  "You said you searched the entire floor."

  "Yes, sir. There are one hundred dormitories, each capable of housing over one hundred people, and each has its own mess hall, but there are no community areas, no libraries or work spaces, and no exercise areas. At Fort Carver…"

  Hubera interrupted her with a very vocal, "That other facility is called the Loudescott Outpost, and that is the name you will use for it."

  "Yes, sir. The Loudescott Outpost was intended merely to serve as a work location where new clones and off-duty personnel could bivouac temporarily, but the scope of this facility indicates that it was much more. I don't yet know what the purpose was, but additional investigation should tell us. There must be more to this story than a facility created simply to function as an underground bunker, and I expect it will be uncovered with analysis."

  "Story? Uncovered? You're supposed to be a Space Command line officer, not a newsie. We have people enough to uncover stories. We ordered you here to open the facility, nothing more. You've accomplished your mission, and you will now return to Region Two at the earliest opportunity. Do I make myself clear?"

  "Yes, sir, your order that I leave the planet as soon as possible is very clear. I shall notify Higgins immediately that I require transportation out of Region One at the earliest opportunity. Since it could take days or even weeks for transportation to be made available, may I continue my work here until then?"

  Hubera snorted again. He couldn't think of a good reason to refuse her request since she would be on the planet anyway. "Very well, but don't let it delay your departure. I expect you to notify Higgins today of your transportation requirements."

  "Yes, sir. I shall notify Higgins as soon as I return to my shuttle that I'm to abandon this post and leave on the first transport out. Uh, while I am still here, may I borrow some of the Murray's people to assist my investigations? I only have one assistant and neither of us is trained as an engineer."

  "Certainly not. This is a scout-destroyer, not a battleship. The Murray doesn't have any personnel available for loan-out; the crew complement is too small."

  "I meant only while the ship is here, sir."

  "Now that I know this investigation has been pure folly, we'll be departing."

  "Yes, sir. I wasn't aware you were leaving immediately."

  "You're dismissed, Commander."

  "Yes, sir," Christa said, coming to attention.

  When Hubera had returned her salute, she turned on her heel and left the compar
tment. After the doors had closed behind her, she snorted in imitation of Hubera's snort, then smiled and headed for the shuttle bay.

  * * *

  "He ordered you to leave— before we complete the work here?" Carmoody asked in surprise.

  "He said we have plenty of people who can uncover the story now that the door is open," Christa replied.

  Carmoody made an exaggerated visual sweep around the shuttle with her head and eyes before grimacing and saying, "Yes, of course. I can see that now. We're definitely overstaffed. What are you going to do?"

  "On the trip back down to the planet, I sent a message to Admiral Carver, with a copy to Admiral Higgins, requesting transportation to Region Two in order to comply with Admiral Hubera's direct order that I terminate my work here and immediately quit the region as a passenger on the first available transport."

  "Did you explain to Hubera that we've only just begun our research here?"

  "I tried, but he had already made up his mind and refused to hear anything else. But, until transportation is arranged, we'll continue our investigation. It's getting late— I'm going to grab some chow and get some rack time. We can plan the day's effort over breakfast in the morning."

  * * *

  The following morning, Christa and Carmoody entered the facility without an escort. Since they had searched the entire lower level, they didn't presently require any additional help from available personnel. Marines patrolling the camp above would alert Christa to any change in the status quo. Christa's standing order regarding access had been amended. No Space Command or Marine personnel would be denied entrance to the tunnel, although the Murray had departed and there were again only two Space Command officers on the planet.

  Christa had warned Carmoody about touching what looked like an ordinary table in the security room, so Grace was careful not to touch the console as they took seats in the room on the right side of the entrance. Despite the advance notice, Carmoody still reacted with an involuntary twitch as Christa gently touched the console near the leading edge and it illuminated. All at once, it came alive with lighted pressure points and monitor readouts.

  "Where is all the power coming from?" Carmoody asked. "I mean, this place is twenty thousand years old. The electrical grid had to have crumbled to dust eons ago."

  "I'd be willing to bet it uses the same system as the other facility. Our investigation there showed that it had a private generating system using thermal energy."

  "They drilled a thermal shaft just for one facility?"

  "They might share a common shaft, with each facility drawing what heated water it needs to power its generating equipment."

  "I'm impressed."

  Christa smiled and continued with her explanation of the control board. These symbols are Dakistian. We believe the priests who led the religious dissidents from the planet millennia ago changed the shape of the characters used in the language so that previous versions of the Almuth would eventually be undecipherable, but they had to retain the phonetic sounds or risk severe communication problems. The language changed slightly down through the centuries as colloquialisms crept in and scientific and technological advances were made, but the Nordakian language has remained remarkably close to Dakistian. My sisters and I have credited the Almuth for the phonetic purity. Every Nordakian is required to read from the Almuth each day. Although many of the religious practices were modified by the dissident priesthood, much of the document remained intact."

  "Since being informed I would be working with you on Dakistee," Carmoody said, "I've been studying the Nordakian language at every opportunity. I've also been studying the books you and your sisters wrote, as well as the files available through Space Command."

  "That's wonderful, Gracie," Christa said. Pointing to a symbol on one of the illuminated displays, she asked, "Do you know what this readout is for?"

  "I think the label says 'air quality.'"

  "Very good. This display seems to be giving information about the environmental conditions on the lower level. We didn't locate the engineering area down there, so there has to be more to this facility than we've found so far. I tried to make Hubera understand that, but his mind was closed to anything I said. Perhaps it was because he was still angry about being inconvenienced when the sentries refused to allow him entrance to the tunnel. But if he really wanted to see it, he could have come down after I amended the orders. Instead, he ordered the Murray to depart the planet. I don't understand the reason for his visit. If all he wanted was an update, he could have ordered me to send him a report."

  Carmoody had listened in silence and just nodded when Christa was finished.

  "Anyway, we have a lot to do and not much time to do it if I have to leave soon."

  Carmoody looked on as Christa investigated the console information and progressed through all the different displays available.

  "There has to be a lot more to this facility than we've so far discovered. There are far too many readouts here for just this floor and the lower one, but the information is too general to pinpoint anything. We have to locate the engineering area. It's too bad Admiral Hubera wouldn't loan us some people for even a few hours."

  "If there are more floors, there has to be a way of controlling the elevator to stop at them."

  "Yes, that's true. There are no visual controls in the elevator, so they must be audible. One thing I haven't tried yet is to contact the main computer orally." Speaking loudly in Dakistian, she said, "Computer, can you respond?"

  They waited for a full minute, listening for any response but heard nothing.

  "What does that mean?" Carmoody asked. "That it can't respond audibly, or that it didn't hear or recognize the command?"

  "I don't know. Perhaps there are no auditory sensors on this floor, but that wouldn't make sense since this appears to be a vital security area."

  "Can you input requests for information through the console?"

  "I didn't see anything that permitted that. Let's look through them again."

  After twenty minutes of searching, the two women conceded that no provision for posting queries to the computer existed via the console.

  "What now?" Carmoody asked.

  "This is just one console of three on this side of the entrance, and there may be three on the other side. Let's check them all to see if they contain different functions. Do you feel comfortable going it alone?"

  "I think so. If I have any questions or problems, you'll be nearby, right?"

  "Right."

  "Okay, let's do it."

  At one point, while they worked, Christa snapped her fingers lightly to get Carmoody's attention. When Grace looked over, Christa pointed to the rotunda. A small army of bots were emerging from hidden closets around the huge circular room. They began to work with amazing speed, scrubbing and polishing floors, walls, and ceiling. One bot, tasked to clean the windows on the security rooms, paused and stared for a couple of seconds at the two female officers, then continued its work. When the rotunda was finished, all bots scurried back to their hidden locations and disappeared from view.

  "Amazing," Carmoody said. "Do they have the same bots at Fort Carver?"

  "I don't know. I never saw any. If we hadn't just seen them emerge from their storage locations, I wouldn't have suspected they were here in such quantity."

  "I guess the rotunda was once a busy place," Carmoody said, "so they were probably designed to get the job done as quickly as possible while the area was unoccupied. Did you notice the way that one bot stared at us?"

  "Perhaps it was the first time in almost two hundred centuries it had seen a live person and was confused by our presence. Or perhaps it was simply alerting central control that people were in this security room. They cleaned the other security room but never entered this one."

  "That's probably it."

  Hours later, the two women completed their work with the security consoles.

  "Anything?" Christa asked when Carmoody had wrapped up her efforts.

/>   "I found no way to access any part of the system, other than the personnel database."

  "Same here," Christa said. "I've never been so stonewalled by a computer system. I think the personnel database is the only data system connected to these consoles, except for an environmental data feed. They must have intended security personnel to perform basic monitoring services 24/7 so engineering personnel would only have to be summoned when conditions varied outside established parameters."

  "That doesn't help us, though."

  "No, it doesn't."

  "What next?"

  "We now know how to operate these consoles, and we can establish security controls. Let's set up a password and lock each of the consoles so they're safe from tampering by the archeologists, just in case the dig site people get in. Then we'll grab some lunch and tackle the issue with the elevator."

  * * *

  "We'll reach the planet in two days time. It will be early morning, local time, Excellency," Gxidescu reported. "Our spies there report no Nordakian Space Force or Space Command ships are currently in orbit. We should have a clear field for our operation."

  "Excellent. Our attack will no doubt come as quite a surprise to Azula Carver. I wish I could see her face when she learns how we respond to infidels who dare involve themselves in our sacred matters. It would be most fitting if we could find proof that she created the false Almuth delivered to our homeland. But we may never know how she managed to convince the King and certain church elders that it was genuine. I regret that we won't be able to put her on trial and exact retribution. A traditional stoning, with a large audience, would be glorious. But Region Two is far beyond our reach."

  "Yes, Excellency."

  "Are the sacred Warriors of Jubada ready?"

  "They have been practicing each and every day of our journey. They are ready and most anxious to take possession of the land promised in the scriptures of Jubada."

  "When we arrive at the planet, we must be ready to launch as soon as we place the jamming satellites. It may be weeks before anyone arrives to investigate, but we can't guarantee that, so we must be entrenched and ready to repel all attempts to displace us. Our maps tell us that the planet is sparsely populated, with most people located in one of three major locations. As each outlying area is conquered, we'll move to the next. The three large population centers will be reserved for last. By then we may have been able to recruit, or conscript, additional soldiers for our holy struggle. I wish we had been able to acquire more reconditioned fighters on Nordakia, but we won’t rest until the entire planet is ours. The followers of the One True Word will again have a homeland. And as we plant our crops, the ground will be enriched by the blood of infidels. Those idiot puppets of the royal family on Nordakia actually believed we would go to a hot, miserable little planet like Slabeca while a planet rich in agrarian potential was allowed to lie fallow. The fools."