by Mara Amberly
“For example,” he said, “but it’s like pulling out a rock from a pile. Another may fall down to take its place. It probably wouldn’t be as useful as we’d like it to be.”
“I don’t know about that,” Juliane said. “I think it’s best to bring one along, just in case we need it. I’d also suggest some traditional tools and more precise ones. For instance, a laser cutter, a crowbar, a drill… I’m not sure what else.”
She added their names to the list. “Some tools will be beyond my reach, but I’ll get what I can.”
Eric nodded. “There was also an armoury on the second floor of the base, as I recall. The floors are numbered starting from the top; the higher numbers are at the bottom. I don’t know what our chances would be of reaching it if we enter through the main underwater entrance.”
“I’d say it’s gone. There are a number of ways in now,” Juliane replied. “The best are on the lower levels of the base. It sustained less damage than the top.”
“I’m wondering how the ice survived,” Cora stated, as she thought the whole thing over. “If the attack came from above, wouldn’t the Antarctic ice have fractured?”
Juliane glanced at Eric, her expression suggesting Cora made a fair point.
“They’ve probably reinforced it,” Eric said. “My people don’t leave much to chance. We can look into it further, but I’d say it’s likely that even after the base was destroyed, it remained in place like the cloak.”
Juliane accepted Eric’s explanation, but she didn’t appear to know one way or the other.
“The inside of the base is… I can’t think of any word for it but tragic,” Juliane replied with a haunted expression.
“I’m sorry that we’re going to have to ‘image’ the environment, but it’s one of the few ways we can prove the truth of what happened. I’d suggest we use a 3D imager. Its images are harder to fake and I don’t want those men and women to have any doubt that we’re telling the truth.”
“I have the technology already,” Eric said, speaking of his wrist device.
“That should do nicely then,” Juliane said, adding it to the list. She also placed a tick beside it.
“With the ship, you could make an additional entrance if you wanted to?” Cora asked.
There was a flicker of annoyance in Eric’s eyes.
“If the base is as fragile as it sounds, there’s little I could do without risking the collapse of further corridors inside.”
Juliane seemed to accept Eric at his word, though there was a subtle rise in tension in the room.
“So who is going? I’ll need to be in order to take the images. Cora, what would you like to do?”
Eric knew it was probably rude of him to put her on the spot, but he also needed to know the role each of them would have in the mission.
“Well,” she said, a little uncertainly. “I could come with you but I think I’d rather stay on the ship if that’s alright?”
Eric nodded, accepting her choice. “It’ll be helpful to have someone track our location and ensure the footage is recorded when I send it back to the ship. You could keep an eye on the scanners too. I’m concerned we might trip something.”
“I’ll do what I can, but I’ll need you to explain some of it to me.”
“I can do that. I’m just being a bit paranoid, so I think of all the tricks my people could use before I get there.”
“Alright,” she replied. While Cora sounded a little uneasy, she didn’t appear too worried, because she smiled.
“I’ll be coming with you,” Juliane confirmed. “You’ll need me to guide you through the base. I’ve dived there many times before. Eric, I’ll put in an order for your diving suit and any other gear I think we’ll need.”
Chapter 14
December 2135 – Near Shenalon Valteran Base, Antarctica
“I read you loud and clear, Equinox.”
Eric could practically hear Cora’s eye-roll on the other end of the comms.
“I don’t understand the need to use your ship’s name, but I hear you clearly, Eric.”
He chuckled, “alright Cora.”
“I hear you both too, loud and clear,” Juliane said, giving Eric the thumbs up.
Eric and Juliane were deep underwater, below the glacier now. They each had enough oxygen to keep them going for just under 12 hours. Surfacing easily was out of the question. Eric might be able to fall back on using his wrist device, but he had to avoid using it under the water. For all he knew the entire base was flooded.
The area was so successfully cloaked that there was no visible sign of the base until they got close to it. Once he penetrated the cloaking shield, he was taken aback by the confronting sight of the ruins. He could only imagine how hard it must be for Juliane when the body of her husband was likely still in there.
Eric realised then that he hadn’t considered the other alternative. Juliane said some of the troops had left the planet. Was it possible he might’ve left?
Eric let that thought settle for a while as he swam through the freezing water. His diving suit was so effective it was practically a work of art. Technology had developed to a high level in light of the fact many people now lived in underwater domes. It was still a pleasant surprise compared to the lower technology level he’d grown accustomed to over the last few months.
He’d applied a protective cover over his TSAI, even though it was developed to tolerate extreme cold and aquatic environments. He activated it and scanned the wreckage of the base from the outside, as well as seeking out energy signatures. There were none in the water below them but many existed in the ruined base. They wouldn’t have been detectable from outside the shield if there was a dampening field in place, but he could tell that some of the electrical systems were still operational. He knew the security system was likely to have backups and reserve systems for its different functions. That might have preserved some of the base or it could be a source of trouble.
Juliane caught up and they approached an open space beneath the base. The airlock was gone. Instead, there was a gaping hole in the middle of a large room, which had once been a waiting area for transportation to the docks.
“I’ve never understood why there’s a hole at the bottom of the base,” Juliane said.
“I’d say a missile homed in on the transport beacon,” Eric replied. “That would be my guess.”
Juliane pulled a flare from her suit vest and secured it to the torn metal near the exit. It was electronic and would burn brightly for many hours. Juliane had more of them and in the dark ruins, they could certainly prove useful. Eric could track his way back with his TSAI, but every advantage they had, the better.
Juliane pressed down two buttons to activate it, and then she and Eric swam up through a hole in the floor.
Both Eric and Juliane had backpack compartments below their oxygen tanks. Neither backpack was easy to access when they were swimming, so they carried less significant items there, like tools they might need.
It was much darker inside, so Eric switched on a light at chest height that was part of his diving gear. The corridor opened up into a room with a desk still standing and a large amount of drifting debris. More rubble littered the floor and the room was completely flooded.
Juliane gestured to the right, over a pile of debris where a corridor lay beyond.
It looked as though it had partially-collapsed; it was barely standing. Eric was concerned the whole thing could come down at the merest touch.
“TSAI,” he spoke through the comms in his breathing apparatus, “scan the maximum area for humanoid life signs.” Eric knew it probably wouldn’t work, but he had to try.
He was expecting an answer of ‘two’, but that wasn’t what he received.
“Query disabled due to security protocols in effect. Please try again.”
Even though the base was a ruin, his TSAI recognised it as a military facility and wouldn’t allow him to carry out the scan.
“TSAI, warn of any major
structural weaknesses you identify as we approach them.”
“Affirmative. Surroundings are structurally unsound. Critical warnings enabled.”
Good TSAI, Eric thought, as he followed Juliane through a gap in the rubble that was way too small for his liking.
These were the extremes she’d gone to in order to try and find her missing husband, he realised. There were small fish that had found their way in from the outside environment, and it was fascinating watching them dart in and out of the light.
Eric managed to pass through the gap without touching the sides, but he still felt uneasy on the other side. The corridor was fractured, and parts the ceiling had come down. He could see the ventilation system above, and the first bodies floating in the water. He retched within his breathing mask and realised throwing up would be a very bad idea.
Eric closed his eyes, pacing his breathing and quickly swam on. Once he did there were no more bodies in sight and his nausea settled down, though he remained nervous about what might be out there.
“Are you alright?” Juliane asked him. Her voice sounded crystal clear over the comms.
“I am now,” he said, as he tried to settle the trembling of his hands.
Eric wondered why this had such an intense effect on him. Perhaps it was his Valteran nature, though others often thought him unfeeling. It couldn’t be further from the truth.
As Eric turned, he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye, and a big movement at that. It was like a spider, only its limbs moved like tentacles. Perhaps that’s what they were. It was about as long as his forearm, and it moved easily through the water.
“Yikes, where did you come from?” he asked it, not that he was expecting an answer.
“The wildlife’s moving in,” Juliane replied over the comms.
Cora’s voice soon joined Juliane’s. “What is it?”
“Just a squid,” Juliane replied. “It shouldn’t be a danger.”
“I see. Do they get big?” Cora asked.
“Let’s hope not,” Eric replied, putting that particularly disturbing thought out of his mind. “We should get moving. This isn’t a safe place to stay.”
Eric found it tedious and exhausting – swimming through the corridors of the base, scanning the environment and carefully making their way between floors. The further they advanced, the further Eric knew they’d have to swim to return to safety.
The corridor ended in a pile of rubble, that offered no easy way through.
“It wasn’t like this the last time I was here,” Juliane said. “The corridor must’ve collapsed.”
“Be careful,” Eric replied when Juliane pushed on the rocks.
She reluctantly turned away. “We could try blasting them, but there has to be another way through this rat’s maze of a base. Do you have the schematic handy?”
“Cora does. Cora, the way ahead of us is blocked. Can you see any other passages leading further into the base on the scan?”
Cora already had the schematic open on the screen, as Eric had prepared it in advance.
“I’m looking. There’s the hole that cuts through the floors but that’s a way back. I think I can see a way in, but you’d need to backtrack.”
Eric didn’t see any other choice; at least, without taking a huge risk.
“We’re going to head back. Let us know when we get close to it,” he said.
He and Juliane retraced their path, and as they passed through the gap in the rubble once-more, Eric could see some of it drifting down in the torchlight. It looked to him like it was slowly starting to give away. He pointed it out to Juliane once they were through.
His TSAI didn’t warn him about it, but he wasn’t sure how sensitive it was to threats.
The whole place was unstable and unsafe. He thought now that they’d have been better off cutting their way in from outside. Somehow, Juliane had got in before and ventured further into the base, so it was his hope they could do so again. He realised now that he didn’t stand much of a chance of assessing whether there had been a threat within the base. It was simply too big, poorly-lit and heavily-damaged to tell.
Eric was thankful for all the walking he’d done lately, as it had improved his fitness. It took a great deal of physical effort to avoid obstacles as they traced their way back.
“You’re coming up on the end of the corridor now,” Cora said, as she monitored their beacons on the screen in front of her.
“I see it,” Juliane said, as she swam carefully through the water.
“Continue straight ahead. That would’ve been to the left of the way you came in,” Cora explained. “The map only goes a small way but that corridor doesn’t look blocked.”
“The TSAI only mapped a short way into the corridor when we swam past it. We’ll see what’s in there,” he told her. “You didn’t come this way before?”
“I don’t think so,” Juliane replied. “I don’t think the way was open before.”
They swam on in silence and soon found the corridor more intact than the previous one. They were in good spirits until Eric spotted another squid; this one was carrying off a human hand. There wasn’t much left of it, but he felt the bile rise in his throat as he swam past. He didn’t want to look at it or think of it any more than he needed to.
“Is that…?” he heard Juliane ask.
“It is. Keep going,” Eric replied.
Soon they reached their first closed door. He’d ordinarily have classed it a watertight door, but he wasn’t sure anything was watertight in the base right now. It had a small handwheel, and he placed a hand against the door to feel its temperature, before finally beginning to turn the wheel.
“You might want to move to the side of the corridor. I don’t know what’s going to come out of there,” he said, grimacing.
Once Juliane had moved, he tried to open it. The wheel was heavy and stiff to turn, but he soon felt a click and was able to push the door inwards.
The room was flooded, but not entirely. There was a section along the top of the corridor that wasn’t submerged.
“An air pocket,” Juliane replied. “That’s a good find.”
She closed the door behind them before the water level could rise further.
It made Eric uneasy, as he preferred a direct route out of the base. Still, he understood Juliane’s reasoning, so he didn’t express his preference otherwise. He knew it was unlikely they’d get stuck in that corridor and even if they did, he had a cutting torch in his backpack.
Juliane set another electronic flare by the door. It illuminated the corridor well and Eric knew it wouldn’t consume oxygen.
The corridor curved and sloped downwards to some kind of bay. Further along, the corridor was fully submerged, until they reached another, larger air pocket. As the corridor sloped up again, more of it was exposed to the air until they reached a place no longer submerged.
“Wow, I wonder if anyone could still be alive in here.”
“Not after three years,” Juliane replied.
Eric’s heart sank, as he realised it was the one thought he shouldn’t have voiced aloud.
“Do you think it’s safe to take off the breathing gear?” he asked.
“No,” she replied. “I don’t.”
It stayed on, but Eric was able to retract the flippers, which made walking somewhat easier.
There was a set of stairs that led up to a higher level, and he and Juliane climbed it very carefully, as the steps – and the floor for that matter – were extremely slippery.
It led to a training hall, where basketball hoops still hung on the wall. Water had seeped in, and the floor and walls were stained, though not submerged.
“This is haunting,” Juliane exclaimed, as she looked around her. It seemed like time had been frozen for a moment until she decided she’d had enough of it and walked on.
There were no stairs leading up here, though there was an elevator. They knew better than to try it and slowly began to explore the area that had survi
ved the attack.
“I need to rest,” Juliane eventually said, in an adjoining corridor. They hadn’t yet found another staircase.
“I think I could use a break too,” Eric admitted, as they sat down on a perfectly intact bench.
“You’re both alright there?” Cora asked.
“Yes, perfectly alright. I have,” he replied, as he checked the reading on his TSAI, “10 hours of oxygen remaining.” Turning to Juliane, he added, “I’d like to leave a good margin for error.”
“I read 9 hours remaining at current levels,” she said, checking the gauge. “Can you scan me to make sure there’s no leak?”
Eric carried out the scan Juliane requested.
“No leak detected,” the TSAI replied in a cheery female voice.
“That’s one less thing to worry about, I suppose,” she said.
“You’re sure we’re not safe breathing the air in here?”
“I wouldn’t risk it,” she replied. “Besides, water could come rushing in at any moment.”
“Now there’s a pleasant thought.”
At least they were prepared should the unexpected happen.
They moved on a short time later and finally found stairs to the next level.
“This is all new to me,” Juliane said. “I was able to access base-wide messages via a terminal, but I didn’t get this far into the base. I had no idea so much of it had survived.”
“Is that where you found out about the-” he was tempted to call it a mutiny, but Eric didn’t want to speak ill of Juliane’s husband. Besides, even if they had mutinied, it didn’t justify the response that followed. “About the attack?”
“No, my husband contacted me,” she said. “He told me to leave before the attack and I did, but I came back later. Most of the settlements here are so far away, and if you haven’t noticed already, it’s bloody cold out there.”
“Completely understandable,” he said.
It explained a few things, but Eric knew there were times to talk in-depth and this wasn’t one of them. Every moment they were on the base they were using up their oxygen and at risk.
At the top of the stairs, there was a sign marked ‘Research Labs’.
