“From the look of it, the bodies show no sign of violence. Like they took a nap and never woke up. Maybe poison or lack of air. I don’t see anything written down anywhere—the couple books here are stories and a manual on the shipping ‘bots out on the floor. About all there is until I can access this equipment.”
Two guards were placed on the door going in and access was confined to the maintenance crews until otherwise amended.
It took four days for them to even find how the power grid worked. In desperation a magnetic pulse was sent through some of the wires and traced through the rocks using sensitive field meters. For whatever reason, the power came from a set of panels almost on the opposite side of the warehouse, bypassing all the main junctions and winding up coming directly off the reactor’s distribution panels. The switch had been turned off.
Once they ensured there were no shorts Lucy gave the okay to turn it on. When it was first thrown all the lights in the place dimmed for a few seconds then stabilized. El, Tici, my wife, and Lucy stood in the control room along with two of the maintenance people. At first there was a loud hum then nothing, but six green lights lit on the main console with the big buttons.
“Okay, test one will be the one marked Main Door,” Lucy said.
When she pushed the button there was a sort of bang that could be heard, then the soldiers by the big pile of rock swore they heard groans as the lights dimmed and finally the power went off in here again. After a quick check maintenance turned the switch back on. The lights dimmed a second as there was a bang noise, then the lights stabilized again.
“Well.” She turned to us. “Door one is the big, main pile of rocks. What I suspect is it opened inward and they blew the entrance to insure it couldn’t be. So, I bet door two is the other big one we found.”
So it went, she tested three and four which were found to be smaller doors further away, both blocked. Number five she said was labeled E-1 and was the elevator shaft in the back here—there was a clunk, a bang and the circuit reset again.
Number six was labeled E-2. We heard nothing and the light stayed green a long time, then the same circuit reset.
“That one isn’t totally blocked,” Lucy said. “Have everyone spread out while we reset it and see if we can hear where it is located.” She had to do it, and reset, two more times before it was found.
“Here is where the noise is,” someone said.
The ‘here’ was a smaller room as far to the north corner as we could go. It was full of boxes. Lucy said it was marked breakdown room 37.
We had the robots and dollies busy all that day and night pulling tons of materials from that room and it was found there was a small freight elevator shaft there—it too was blocked with boxes and it took several hours getting it cleared as well. As the highest boxes came down, so did a square slab of steel. Lucy was the first one to peek above it using a remote camera device. She reported it empty except for a skeleton.
Once we found some braces to hold the floor up, we removed the remaining boxes and Lucy had the robots tow out the braces. The floor of the elevator fell with a bang and we got to look at the skeleton. It wasn’t human, it was huge, it was ugly, and it was an exoskeleton. “This, ladies and gents, is an MK.” She stepped around it and looked up the shaft, seeing nothing.
Lucy kept everyone back until Loka did a radiation test and it was deemed safe. After maintenance removed the skeleton and checked the old cables holding the floor platform they oiled up the ancient rollers in the corners and pronounced it possibly safe.
We cleared the shaft area and Lucy had someone go push the E-2 button. We saw the cables tighten up, we heard creaks and groans someplace way up the shaft, and the floor started moving out of sight. Minutes later there was a clank and a bang, then, the smallest of light could be seen slipping past the floor-plate around its edges.
“Well, for what it is worth, there is the surface,” Lucy told us.
Again the place was packed as everyone wanted to see. Tici got them out of the way.
El said, “I want guards with shotguns, rifles and grenades, and I want this post manned 24/7.”
“Staff and command meeting, mess hall, now!” Tici said.
Soon we were all there, most with coffee. The place was crammed with officers from Captains up.
El, Tici, and Lucy had been up front talking almost a half hour. El finally addressed the rest of us.
“Okay people, listen up.” In the back someone was still whispering to others. “I said listen up, Captain, you need a special invitation to shut the hell up?”
“No ma’am, sorry,” came from behind me someplace.
“Today we found two major things. A way to get out of here and the remains of a dead MK. Anyone who hasn’t seen it, it sits outside E-2. We also found the remains of humans—one lies on a bunk outside the control center.
“We have been discussing a plan of action. That elevator was blocked to stop the MKs from getting in. Also they blew up all the other entrances. We believe the four skeletons in the control center were the remains of humans who either stayed behind, or hid here. Lucy is working on the records system they used. Seems it is different or was sabotaged, she isn’t sure yet. Tici?”
Tici stepped forward. “We plan to send up a work robot to look at what awaits up top. If we find any live MKs we will reseal this place and leave as we came. If it looks clear Lucy will go next and check the immediate area for imminent dangers and if it all still looks good we will send up an armed party and go from there. For now, everyone will pull equipment maintenance and physical training. Sorry, no questions yet, we have no more answers than you do. Dismissed.”
“Command staff hold up,” El said.
After the rest had filed out, Tici had guards posted at the entrances and our group met near the serving line. Loka refilled our coffee cups and sat down.
El said, in a carefully lowered voice, “There is one item for consideration before we do this. That MK carcass. It isn’t a few thousand years old. Lucy dates it at most, two-hundred-fifty, and it looks like it died from a fall down the elevator shaft. There is a possibility Earth is still infested with live MKs so, although we don’t want to spread unnecessary alarm, we need to be sure everyone stays sharp.”
“The human skeletons?” Loka asked.
Lucy said, “A quick dating test says possibly fourteen-hundred to two-thousand years. It fits.”
“Oh, okay.”
We asked more questions but realized there were still too few answers.
“Get some rest all, big day starts in seven hours,” Lucy said.
Dang, where did the time go? Loka and I retired but she was wound up over the day’s finds. She relaxed finally, after she talked herself out. I think we might have gotten four hours sleep.
~~~
Thank God for the mess hall and strong coffee as 6AM came far too early. Loka looked at me as we gulped coffee and ate some food. “Sorry dear, didn’t mean to keep you awake, it is all just so exciting and scary.”
“I know love, I know,” I told her, and patted her hand.
At 7AM Lucy had a maintenance robot on the elevator platform and raised it as we all hugged the camera’s monitor panel to see.
As it neared the top a door slid sideways and light poured in. The robot moved forward on its treads to the edge and stopped. Lucy said, “Won’t work, the ground is broken and too uneven for those treads to navigate.”
What we saw was a large, rock strewn, barren landscape with what was clearly a path or road coming from the right and looping around toward the door. However, dotted along it were trees—big ones and young ones pushing up through the piles of broken black stuff. Lucy called it blacktop.
After we all saw what there was to see, Lucy had the robot oil the pulleys and cables it could reach with its long maintenance arm and she had it return below. As soon as she hit the button the door slid closed nosily. “Have to fix that too if we stay awhile,” she said.
“Well, they are
n’t waiting at the front door,” El said, and smiled.
After analyzing the video Lucy was next. She took several boxes and placed them around the platform and explained, “This is a camera remote. I will try to stay in view as much as possible. This in the back is a relay for your earpieces, this other is a radiation counter and the fourth is a mini weather station.” I had recognized the Geiger Counter thing with its two scales.
We watched her on the monitor as she went walking about. “Almost at the top of a mountain. The top is behind the door, maybe a half mile higher, steep too. I can see why they put this here now.” She followed the remains of the road and was soon out of sight. “The road winds down and around a few huge rocks. I am recording this so you’ll see it all when I get back. I found one of the entrances, the remains of a sign says Government Property, Authorized personnel only. There are two huge doors and a few hundred dead MK carcasses in front of it. This was the main entrance I believe. Let me follow it back down and around. I think I know where this is and it isn’t either of the Gate centers.”
For an hour we didn’t hear a word from her and I was getting worried we’d lost her, but she finally said, “Well, there is no doubt, they nuked themselves and the MKs. There was once a large city a few miles from here. Okay, seen enough, heading back. Loka, Eldon, you there?”
Loka beat me to it, “Yes Lucy, we are.”
“Remember how you washed down and tested the boxes at the reactor room?” she asked.
“Yes.” I said.
“Well, have everyone stay away from the shaft and find those red fire hose stations. One of you shoot back to Honor Central and pick up a suit and the special soap. I’m hotter than a volcano. I need a couple of those big memory sticks from the bench as well. El, help them please? I should have run the tests sooner. Afraid this body is scrap now. Loka, bring one of the shut down guard bots to the shaft as well. We will have to do another transfer.”
Loka and I explained the reactor and how she fixed it and we helped her decontaminate and then transfer. Loka and Tici took off to get the items. I told El to move everyone as far away as possible. I found the only spot nearby that had a floor drain and laid out a hose near it.
“We just need to get me clean enough to do a transfer of memory. Glad I shielded this body now—damn, that was so stupid of me.
“Sorry all. Case of the dumb-ass. Part of the problem of being a reasoning robot is we can reasonably get brain farts too. Okay, I’m back at the elevator shaft, let me know when everything is in place. El, evacuate all but a few dozen troops back to Honor Central. We have most of what we need, and with caution can come back and get anything else but I am afraid the surface will be death for you people, fast or slow depending on how close you get. I know most read the reports. Eldon and Loka were very lucky.”
It was several hours before Tici came back with some troops and all the gear. We set up the soap spray and a deactivated robot. We followed her directions because the robot didn’t have a memory stick access port. She had us get a special adapter that plugged into the back where she told us to shoot them. At least she had planned for this possibility and Loka knew what to do and where the thing was. The adapter was plugged to one of the computer terminals that had the needed port for the stick. They had brought back two suits so Tici and I were chosen to do the scrubbing.
After the area was evacuated Lucy came down and set the counter over the drain and then went back in the shaft. “Do it first and turn it on.”
I did and it took two scrubs before it stayed at the high end of the green. She then stood over the drain and indicated the areas needed. The main access port was below her left breast and when she took the top off it almost looked real. “Going to miss this body, was getting to like it,” she said, sadly.
We scrubbed and scrubbed and she stayed in the red. She had me go to the highest setting and yes, it went down a lot when I hit the port area. “Okay, it is just too hot over the large area. Tici, please trade that suit to Loka—she has done this several times and to explain it all again will expose everyone to unneeded radiation.”
“No problem at all. She’ll be right here.”
Twenty minutes later Loka was beside me. “Transfer the sticks from me to the computer adapter. Do it three times, partly because of the amount of info and partly to make a backup. Then, when this shuts down, toss it into the shaft and raise it back up. I have limited ability to speak in that ‘bot so after this body ceases to function and the transfer is complete keep those sticks safe until I need the rest. It won’t all fit in the guard ‘bots memory. When ready, insert stick one, I can tell you when to do number two but will cease to function when it is done. Wait long enough then do the rest. If all else fails, you can go to honor gate and retrieve the old sticks. I will lose all the info from Earth, but still.”
Well, the transfer to the guard bot went fine. It could only talk by bringing up sentences on the computer screen. Lucy was fine as we sent her old body up the shaft.
“Reseal it with boxes then have everyone return to Honor Gate and place a radiation warning sign at the gate entrance to Earth,” came up on the screen.
As we all returned to Honor Central and sealed the door-frame, Lucy, Loka, Tici, and a few of our engineers went to work assembling another Lucy.
I guess you’d say she was improving with age. It took six days and what emerged was as close to human looking as you could get—she really looked like the vision she had first showed Loka and I.
“Sexy!” I said.
“Aren’t I though?” She giggled. “Command staff meeting, if possible, in thirty minutes please?”
Thirty minutes later El, Lucy and Tici were talking then Lucy took over. “First, I need to apologize to everyone here, I screwed up and it cost us valuable time. What I found, and what I believe, is that the Earth people, in desperation, used nukes, either on themselves to stop from being eaten, or against the MKs, or both. Watch the vid screen.”
It was of her trip around the mountain. As she turned down past the main entrance the remains of a large city came to view, twisted, distorted, old remains of buildings. Everything was destroyed, totally.
“As soon as I saw that I knew, but it was already too late. I never turned on the counter. When I did it was off scale. It just didn’t dawn on me with the trees and all.
“What this tells me is the MK are either immune to radiation or its effects take longer because that skeleton in the shaft wasn’t that old. Without one to test I can’t say. Might have been another group came back to see if any humans got away, who can say?” On the video she turned around and passed a sign. All it said was, ‘Cheyenne Mountain, authorized personal only’.
“What I did find that is new is some code hidden in the guard bot. When you are trapped in a little room for days, you search every inch of the room to have something to do and stop from going insane. It is the missing code to unscramble the files in the control center. If it is okay with El, I’d like to take a couple techs and Loka and Eldon and go back to see what we can find. While we are gone I need you to see how Lord P is doing on the portable fort. We need it to push ahead.”
“Okay, but take Tici too, he writes all the reports to Lord P on what we are doing,” El said
“It is late afternoon, say 6AM in the morning good for everyone?” Lucy asked. No one said anything. “Fine, six it is and Loka, bring the counter, no surprises this time.”
We actually managed some real sleep as I had dreams of fighting MKs and saving my lady fair.
At 6AM we were up, fed, and ready to go. As we entered through the Earth Gate Loka said radiation was low in the green. As we neared the E-2 area it started rising to the low yellows and Lucy backed us off. We went to the control room and it was again in the green so it wasn’t radiation killed them either.
Lucy spent a few minutes at the power console, by the computer terminal. “Nice, I’m in. Hmmm, interesting. Not quite what I expected but logical. The four here died from a sleeping
drug overdose, on purpose. I am recording it. Also I found an inventory list and several messages from the surface, the last was from the town. There is nothing here anywhere about the gate but a few classified files are in code and I don’t have the key to break them yet.
“Seems they were responsible for the nuke on the city, I’ll wait to show all of you. It is quite a bit.” When she was done she said to us, “We need to reseal that E-2 area again. I’ll program the work bots to do that and the last thing I want to do on the way out is reactivate the guards.”
“Couldn’t other parts of Earth be safe from radiation?” I asked her.
“Sure, probably are. It isn’t that I’m worried about. The MKs have returned at least once, or are still there. We do not want our presence known. Maybe someday you can go back and check it out but not right now. Right now we still want to stay hidden from the enemy.”
It took two days for them to repack the room, then she had them doing like before, moving things just for the sake of moving them. “They have maintenance bots, the whole system is self perpetuating until they run out of parts. They need to keep moving or they will rot in place and cease to function. We need the guards working, just in case.”
As we retreated and she sent the robots on their merry way to nowhere, I felt a loss, to know billions of humans died.
~~~
Lucy has spent the next three weeks working on the data from Earth. She stood in the Lab staring at the computer terminals, hour after hour and day after day. She was fine, but we checked every once in a while as we continued to train. Lord P had gone into overdrive as he sent more and more equipment to El. The latest was Lucy’s modified fort idea. Lord P modified her mods some as well. The ratchets were now two man winches that raised the wall in winds up to thirty-five miles an hour. Also, clipping onto the hooks up top were 20MM gun platforms with nasty spikes around the edges. If you had enough of them you could ring the whole fort in 20MMs. I had no clue how you would reload them, but impressive none-the-less. The reason 20MMs were chosen was because we found and removed tons of the shells from the supplies on Earth along with a few of the cannons that fired them.
A Planet's Search For History Page 11
