* * *
"Be careful what you touch in here," Christa said when they entered the elevator, "and don't say anything in Nordakian. What we want to do first is examine every inch of the walls to see if there might be camouflaged controls. I realize it seems unlikely, but you've seen what they did with the consoles. When we touch something, we want to be as certain as possible that it won't have adverse consequences."
After forty minutes of examining the walls, Carmoody threw up her hands. "I can't see anything that indicates the walls are anything more than just walls."
"Nor can I," Christa said. "Okay, on to Plan B."
"What's Plan B?"
"We ask the elevator for information, like we did in the security rooms."
"The security rooms didn't answer us," Carmoody said.
"No, but maybe the elevator is feeling more talkative." Switching to Dakistian , Christa said, "Computer, can you hear me?"
A disembodied voice said, "State floor and destination, or close the door and you will be delivered to the housing floor."
Christa and Carmoody looked at one another and smiled.
* * *
Chapter Eleven
~ October 23rd, 2285 ~
"Computer, list the available stops," Christa said.
"There are five levels available— Administrative OfficesOperations, Housing, MedicalResearchLibrary, Recreation, and the Vault level."
"What's this level?"
"You are currently at the Rotunda entrance."
"Are there any other entrances?"
"Negative."
"What's the Vault level?"
"It is a level where the Vault is located," the computer interface said simply.
"What's in the Vault?"
"State floor and destination, or close the door and you will be delivered to the Housing level."
Christa looked over at Carmoody, who nodded and responded with, "Helpful."
"Computer, take us to the Vault level," Christa said.
"Level accepted."
The elevator just sat there until Christa remembered to say, "Hudaksei."
As had happened on the previous trip down, the floor seemed to fall out from under them, but this time they were prepared and barely nervous that the stop might be considerably more sudden than anticipated.
The doors opened to complete darkness, as had been the case with the last trip. Christa gave the command for illumination and the hallway before them was brilliantly lit in a second.
"Left or right?" Christa asked as they stepped into the corridor.
"We went right last time. Let's try left this time."
Where the corridor had disappeared into darkness on their first trip, they could actually see the end before additional lights came on this time. Christa walked right up to the door and said, "Open," in Dakistian.
Rather than opening immediately, a disembodied voice said, "ID?"
Christa thought for a second and remembered the name of an official she had seen while in the rotunda security room trying to access the computer files. She rattled it off.
"Password," the voice said.
"I don't remember."
"Then you must go to security, identify yourself, and request a new password."
It was no use arguing with a computer. They never relented. She would have gotten just as far if she started an argument with the marble tile on the floor.
"I'm going back up to the security station, Gracie. I'll be right back."
"Why don't we just check out the rest of the floor today, and we can do the security thing tomorrow."
"Well, we could— but I'm anxious to see what it is they felt they had to password protect down here."
"Okay, Christa. Do you want me to accompany you?"
"No, I'll be right back. With the speed of that elevator, the trip should only take about five minutes."
Carmoody was still standing by the door when Christa returned. "I set up IDs for each of us. Your ID is 'Grace Carmoody,' and the password is 'Fort Carver.'
"That's easy enough to remember."
"There was no sense making it difficult since we're the only ones likely to be using it. Okay, let's take a look at what's inside."
Christa provided her new ID and password when queried by the computer, and the two entrance doors slid open noiselessly. After giving the verbal command for illumination, she and Carmoody stepped into a cavernous area that disappeared into darkness at the far recesses without giving the slightest indication of how far it might extend. Christa could see at least fifty meters into the distance before darkness masked the rest. The roof of the chamber had to be at least twenty meters high, and the width of the area easily matched that. It took a couple of seconds for the impact of the room's immense size to be fully realized, and then a couple more before the room's contents registered. Christa's jaw dropped as everything coalesced. "Oh— my— God!"
"Are those what I think they are?" Carmoody asked, just as shocked by the find as Christa.
"I can't imagine what else they might be."
"There must be thousands."
"Tens of thousands, I'd say," Christa replied.
"Why are they here?"
"That's the million dollar question." Christa took a deep breath and added, "I never expected anything like this. I must report this immediately."
"We'd better change the password to something a little more complex. I have a feeling we're not going to be working alone here for much longer, and we don’t want the wrong people getting into this area, if you know what I mean."
"Yes, I know what you mean. No one without top-level security access can be permitted in here. And don't mention the ability to select the level in the elevator. In fact, don't mention anything about today to anybody until we get orders on how to proceed."
"Understood."
As the two women reached the surface, Christa reminded Carmoody to mask her emotions.
"You look like you just lost your best friend, Gracie."
"I'm sorry. I was thinking about what we just found. I'll clear my mind."
A few seconds later, Grace managed a completely impassive expression. Christa nodded and they stepped out into the late afternoon sunlight. Ten minutes later, they were in Christa's shuttle sending a message to Jenetta, with a copy to Admiral Holt.
As Christa ended the message and sat back in the pilot's seat, the computer announced that a message had just arrived from Higgins.
"That certainly can't be a reply to the new message," Christa said as she called up the 'view messages' screen and selected the latest message to play. It was encrypted, so she positioned herself where the computer could verify her identify via retinal scan and held it until the computer was satisfied.
"Hello, Christa," the affable face of Admiral Holt said as the scan process completed. "Although Admiral Carver may have other thoughts on the subject, I'll tell you now that Admiral Hubera doesn't have the authority to boot you out of my deca-sector, and I'm quite upset that he attempted it. As a member of the Admiralty Board, Admiral Hubera votes on many vital issues that affect all of Galactic Alliance space, but his vote is just one of ten, and as an individual he has no power to command, although he deserves the respect owed his rank. Since he was never a line officer, he was never eligible to be a base commander and has never had the authority to direct the work efforts of Space Command personnel, except those of his aides and office staff, as well as the corps of cadets when he taught at the Academy. My instructions to you are to remain where you are until you hear from Admiral Carver. It's her decision and her decision alone to recall you to Region Two or have you remain on Dakistee until you decide your mission has been completed.
"Brian Holt, Rear Admiral, Upper, Commanding Officer of Higgins SCB, message complete."
"Some good news at last," Carmoody said. "I would have felt completely lost without you here, especially after this latest development. What do we do now?"
"We've reported the situation as required by Sp
ace Command regulations, so I suppose we're free to continue our investigation until someone orders us to stop."
"Let's go."
When they were again in the Vault, they walked along the main corridor, staring up at storage racks that stretched towards the ceiling.
"Of all the things I expected we might find down here," Christa said, "this would have to rank as perhaps the last."
"From everything I've read, they seemed like such an enlightened people. I don't understand it either."
As they moved deeper into the cavernous area, Christa ordered the lights on. It was surprising that after nineteen thousand, four hundred years, everything worked as well as it did.
Eventually the two women arrived at a raised platform that seemed like a control station. They climbed the stairs and discovered a computer console arrangement similar to that in the security rooms. There was not a speck of dust on any of the four chairs there.
"I guess there must be a virtual army of bots down here," Carmoody said. "Everything is so pristine."
"Yes, it would appear so. I wonder if we'd have any better luck accessing the main computer system from down here. Let's give it a try."
The women took seats as Christa touched the console table to illuminate it. The readouts jumped to life and began displaying an incredible amount of information. As a viewing monitor powered on, it displayed the picture of a woman.
"Who's that," Carmoody asked.
"It must be one of the facility's officials. Her title says Chief Administrative Director."
"She's a Dakistian? She looks kinda like us."
"The people of Dakistee didn’t look all that different from humans."
"But Nordakians look so different. Aren’t they direct descendents?"
"The dissidents who left in search of religious freedom didn't have FTL, so generations lived and died in space. There's speculation that the species mutated during their trip to Nordakia because of inadequate radiation shielding."
"Wow. I never read that."
"It's just speculation, but there's no arguing that the original inhabitants of this planet weren't as tall and didn't share the Nordakian ability to change skin color. Their skin color seemed to vary between a rich Moroccan brown and a Northern European link pink. In the news broadcasts of the period, I saw none of the extremes represented by deep blacks or albino colorations, and no Mongolian yellow coloration."
"The dissidents were lucky they left when they did. Their bodies may have mutated, but at least they didn't fall victim to the plague that sterilized the population of this planet and eventually led to its extinction."
"Uh, yes. They were lucky."
"Can we determine anything more about this individual?" Carmoody asked, pointing to the image on the viewer.
"There's a button here marked, 'Kudlaknee.' That means 'Presentation' in Dakistian. Perhaps it's like a vid biography."
As Christa pressed the button, the viewer changed to show a series of numbers. Readouts jumped to life and the viewer changed to show a graph with steadily increasing wave forms.
"What's it doing?" Carmoody asked.
"I have no idea," Christa replied. "But I don't like it."
"Tap the button again. Perhaps it will revert to the image."
Christa tapped the button once, but there was no change. She then tapped it twice, and still nothing changed. The console continued to display fluctuating information values and the waveform on the viewer continued to show increasing activity.
"Look," Carmoody said suddenly, pointing to a robotic arm that was descending from the ceiling far above. The slight whirring noise from its servos had attracted her attention.
The articulating arm moved with precision and latched onto a long box in a storage rack. After securing itself, it waited as the box was released by the rack's holding mechanism.
"It's lowering a coffin to the floor in front of us," Carmoody said. "Ewww! I hate dead bodies. Especially mummified bodies. Put it back. Quick."
"I don't know how. Besides, I'd like to see the skeleton, if it hasn't turned to dust in twenty thousand years."
"You want to see a skeleton?"
"I want to see the original bone structure of Nordakians. I've seen images of the current skeleton. They have four more ribs than humans, but otherwise it's pretty similar. I understand the internal organs are pretty similar as well, allowing humans and Nordakians to breed."
"Nordakians and humans have procreated?"
"I'm not aware of any offspring yet, but there have been marriages."
While they talked, the box had neared the floor and an automated dolly arrived to accept it. Christa climbed down from the platform as the articulating arm carefully positioned the box on the cart. With her first good look at what she had thought was a coffin, she said, "I think our original assessment was incorrect, Gracie. This isn't an immense mausoleum; it's a stasis repository."
"Stasis? That can't be. Stasis isn't viable for more than forty-two years."
"I didn't say I thought they intended to sleep longer than that, just that this box is no coffin. Perhaps the people who functioned as caretakers were unable to awaken the sleepers, or perhaps a decision was made to let them sleep their lives away because there was no hope left for a cure to the plague."
"You think someone would just walk away and leave tens of thousands of people to die in their sleep?"
"I don't know, Gracie. I'm just speculating on possible reasons for so many people having died in their sleep, if indeed all these chambers are occupied."
On the platform, the console suddenly started producing a bleating sound. Christa and Carmoody hurried to determine the cause.
"I don't see a problem," Carmoody said. "No flashing lights or anything."
"Maybe it's a gentle reminder instead of an emergency alarm. Perhaps it has something to do with the stasis chamber that was just lowered. Look at the display— the waveforms have adopted a regular pattern."
"But what do they mean?"
"I don't know," Christa said as she stared at the viewer. "You don't suppose…"
"Suppose? Suppose what?"
"That the person in that stasis bed is being revived."
"After nineteen thousand, four hundred years? Impossible."
"So was a material that's impervious to all forms of energy weapons until we discovered the properties of Dakinium. Perhaps the Dakistians discovered a method of suspended animation where all bodily functions totally cease."
"Scientists have dreamed about that for centuries, but it's been conceded that such a process is impossible. A slowing of all bodily functions is the best they can accomplish."
"Alyysian physiology allows them to be completely frozen, then thawed and revived centuries later. It doesn't work with humans because our bodies are mostly water, and water expands by fifteen percent when frozen. That expansion destroys fragile cell structures. We've all seen what happens when you freeze a tomato and then thaw it out."
Carmoody nodded. "Yes, we did that experiment when I was in pre-school. What a soft, soggy mess that tomato became. You couldn't even pick it up because the outer skin had broken open."
"We know we're more advanced in many areas than the Dakistians were, but we also know they were ahead of us in others. This might be one of those areas."
The automated cart had begun to move away from the loading spot. Carmoody saw it and asked, "Where's that going? Or more importantly, should we follow it?"
"Yes, let's see where the computer is sending it. If it realized the body is deceased, it might be headed for a crematorium. We should try to stop it if that's the case."
The two Space Command officers hurried down from the platform and raced after the cart. The entrance door opened for the cart and remained open for the two women. They followed the cart to the elevator and then joined it inside. They felt the elevator begin to rise, then stop after several seconds and open. The cart exited and turned to the right, but the lights didn't come on until Christa gave t
he command.
The automated cart wound its way through a maze of corridors until it entered a large ward. When it stopped near the center of the room, another articulating arm lifted the enclosure from the cart. As the box came free, the cart left the room. Christa and Carmoody watched as a table rose from up the floor near the wall and the articulating arm placed the box on top of it. The arm then attached connection wires and tubes from the table to the box. The top cover of what they had thought was a coffin, at first, had been completely opaque until then, but, as they watched, the dark color faded until the cover was as transparent as glass.
"Amazing!" Christa said as they looked down at a female form that appeared to be middle-aged. She had magenta-colored hair with red highlights and, unlike the skin-tight stasis suit typically worn by stasis bed occupants, she was clothed in what looked to be a simple white terrycloth gown. Overall, she looked like someone who had climbed into the box just moments ago and closed her eyes. Christa remembered the debilitated condition of Jenetta's body after ten years in stasis. The two officers didn't observe any indications of respiration, but the condition of the body suggested that it might be receptive to resuscitation. "Gracie, go to the surface and call the Marine Central Command. Tell them we need a full medical team here immediately— preferably one with a doctor who has expertise in stasis recovery cases."
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