by Ken Lozito
“Yes, we are. They are relatively new,” Dash replied.
Brad nodded. "You got that right. We didn't think they were in use anywhere outside the Sierra development group Mr. Barker is heading up. How did you guys get them?"
"He's close friends with Dr. Bishop and Connor Gates," Dash replied.
Brad's eyes widened and he glanced at Travis, who looked just as bewildered for a moment. "I didn't know you worked for Dr. Bishop or that you knew Connor Gates. Of course, we’ll help you out. Anything that we can do, we will."
Travis nearly choked, looking as if he’d swallowed a lemon that was struggling to come back up.
Brad glared at Travis. "You can walk away at any time if you want, but I'm going to help these people." Without waiting for Travis to reply, Brad stood up. "Follow me,” he said to Dash and the others.
Dash retrieved the NEIIS data module and followed Brad. The others quickly joined them and eventually Travis followed, muttering to himself about breaking protocol and taking unnecessary risks with the NEIIS archives. Dash was just glad to have their help but for a slight warning in his mind about the implications of doing this work without the knowledge of Dr. Bishop or Connor. If he disclosed that bit of information to Brad and Travis now, they might not help, or at least the help would be delayed until they had official approval from Dr. Bishop. Neither of these appealed to Dash so he kept his mouth firmly shut.
Dash watched as Merissa walked next to Brad and noted the dwindling space between them as they continued on.
"Where are we going?" Merissa asked.
"Down to the lower level where the archive’s data storage facility is. There are a few slots we can stick your data module into and see what happens once we bring it online," Brad said.
Merissa smiled at him. "We really appreciate your help."
"It's the least we can do. And don’t mind Travis; he’s just a bit tightly wound,” Brad said.
Dash walked a short distance behind them and watched while they continued talking, finding that he couldn't tear his eyes away from the two of them. His jaw ached from clenching his teeth. He frowned and was surprised to find himself feeling the beginnings of jealousy. It was stupid and immature, and yet it was there inside him like a coiled viper gathering its fury for an attack. He gave himself a mental shake and told himself to stop being an idiot.
Travis caught up to Dash and walked next to him. "So where did you guys find this data module?"
"We found it at a new site about a hundred and twenty kilometers from Sanctuary," Dash replied.
Travis frowned. "And you just took the module out of the console?"
"No, we brought the entire console back to the Research Institute. We had help from the CDF," Dash replied.
Travis's eyes widened. "You have CDF support for field missions here?" he asked.
Dash kept watching Brad and Merissa talking, but since Travis was asking him questions, he couldn't listen to their conversation. "They happened to be in the area. Is it much farther?" Dash asked and didn't bother waiting for Travis to answer. "Hey, Brad, how much farther is it?"
Brad glanced back at them. "Not that much," he said and went back to speaking with Merissa.
Travis continued on ahead of him and Jim came to Dash’s side. "What's the matter?" Jim asked.
Dash shook his head. "Nothing," he grumbled.
This is what he'd asked her to do and she was probably just being friendly, so why was it making him so damn crazy? He heard Merissa laugh at something Brad said and almost sneered.
They exited the long corridor and entered an open space with a high cathedral ceiling. Along the walls were multiple NEIIS consoles, all with active glowing mesh screens. Interspersed among the consoles was colonial field equipment that Dash assumed was interconnected with their systems here and probably remotely connected to the ones in Sierra.
"You're so funny," Merissa was saying. "How long are you and Travis going to be at Sanctuary?"
Not that long, Dash hoped. Please say not that long. Please say you're going home right now.
"We’re only here for a few days," Brad replied.
Yes!
"Oh, that's too bad," Merissa said.
"Yeah, that is too bad," Dash said under his breath in a tone he thought was too soft to hear, but Merissa gave him a sidelong glance. Dash ignored her and looked at Brad. "So, where should I put this thing?"
Brad glanced at the other consoles for a moment. "Travis, why don't you get number fifteen ready while we go get the data module loaded," Brad said and gestured for Dash to follow him.
Brad led him to an open bay that was perfectly sized for the oval-shaped NEIIS data module Dash was carrying. Brad pulled out a tablet computer and entered a few commands. There was a slight humming sound and the open bay began to glow a deep orange.
"Alright, you can put it in there now,” Brad said.
Dash slid the data module into the bay and gave it a gentle push to nudge it firmly into place. There was an audible click as the data module locked in.
Brad gave it a quick once-over and then nodded in approval. The others had gathered at the main console in the middle of the large chamber. "Alright, Travis, I want you to power on number fifteen for me," Brad shouted.
Dash glanced back at the others. "Shouldn't we be over there with them?”
Brad shook his head. "No, we need to be here in case something goes wrong with this thing."
Dash had no idea what that meant and didn't get a chance to ask. The open bay doors closed and Dash watched as the spindly ridges on the data module began to glow.
"Looks good from over here," Travis called out.
Brad peered inside the closed bay and then nodded as if he'd arrived at some kind of decision. He glanced at Dash. "Looks good here. Let’s go over to the others," he said.
They quickly crossed the room and joined the others around a large mesh screen that Dash assumed was the NEIIS control console for the entire data archive. There was a flashing symbol that looked like a triangle with multiple cross-sections through the middle of it. Travis swiped his finger on it and all the glowing consoles appeared to dim at once.
Dash glanced around, his eyes going wide. "Is it supposed to do that?" he asked.
Brad frowned and shook his head. “This doesn’t look good. We need to turn it off, now!”
Travis swiped his hand across the triangle symbol again, but it didn't do anything. He tried another time with the same result—nothing happened. He tried tapping some of the other symbols on the mesh screen, but there was no response. He turned to Brad in alarm. There was a high-pitched whining sound coming from bay fifteen where the data module was. Dash glanced over and saw that the light coming from that bay was much brighter than anywhere else. NEIIS symbols flashed across all the mesh screens of the consoles in the room in rapid succession.
"Shut it down! We need to pull the power!" Travis said.
Brad already had his tablet out and was furiously tapping commands into it.
"What are you waiting for? Shut the damn power down!" Travis shouted.
Brad's eyes widened in shock. "I did shut the power down. It’s off. There must be a redundant power source coming in from somewhere.”
Dash looked around. All the consoles were still active, so where the hell were they getting power from? The data on the main NEIIS console changed and showed the map they'd been studying for the past few days—only this time it was much more detailed and had more symbols surrounding a site far to the north. It was flashing as if the site had just come online and they were communicating with it from here. All the NEIIS consoles flashed and locked onto the same symbol. Dash had no idea what it meant.
Travis ran from the room, shouting that he was going to try something to shut it down. Dash used his implants to record the data they were seeing and stored it on his PDA. The mesh consoles flashed again and more NEIIS symbols began to scroll across, going from right to left. The mesh screens became full of NEIIS symbols, some of whi
ch Dash recognized as system commands. He glanced at Brad, who was still trying to control the NEIIS system from his tablet, his brow furrowed in concentration. Then the consoles all powered off at once. The power had either finally been cut or the redundant system had simply run out of power and they were plunged momentarily into darkness but for the light on Brad's tablet.
"Is everyone alright?" Dash asked.
The others said yes except for Brad, who was walking over to bay fifteen. He pried open the doors and yanked out the module. There was a hissing sound coming from the bay and Dash saw dark scorch marks along the spindly lines of the module. He raced over and Brad glanced at him. Wisps of smoke came from the data module and then there was a slight spark and Brad dropped it to the floor, cursing. He shook his hand. "Damn! That thing burned me."
Merissa had walked over to them. "Here, let me take a look," she said. She had a small flashlight in her hand.
Brad held out his fingers and Merissa shined the light on them. They were hardly red at all. "I'm fine. It just caught me by surprise," Brad said.
Just then the lights turned back on and the NEIIS screens all flickered out. Dash squatted down and held his hand near the data module to see if it was still radiating heat. It was warm to the touch. He opened the storage case and snatched the module up, dropping it inside. He didn't think it would ever work again, but he had a data recording of what had transpired and they'd seen what was on that map. There was definitely more to it. Coming to the archives had paid off.
Travis came back into the room and glared at Brad. "I knew this was a bad idea. We almost lost everything," Travis said and looked at Dash. "What the heck is that thing? We've never had something like this happen where we lost control of the entire system."
Brad was still shaking his hand. "Ease off, Travis. They couldn't have known. It must've activated some kind of latent protocol or something."
Travis shook his head. "Latent protocol," he muttered. "I hope you're ready for some more pain because you're filing this report."
Brad rolled his eyes. "Fine. I'll just tell them what happened. Now we gotta run a bunch of system checks to see if we can get this thing back online." Brad glanced at Dash and the others. "Look, I know this isn't your fault, so don't worry about it, okay? We've got a ton of work to do so is it alright if you show yourselves out?"
For a moment, Dash regarded the first decent technical engineer he’d ever met. "Are you sure you don't need any help? We'd be happy to stay and maybe help with that report you need to file," Dash offered.
Brad shook his head and waved them away. "Don't worry about it. Travis is just being dramatic," he said and leaned in. "He'll complain about this for months."
"I heard that," Travis called out from the main console.
Brad grinned. "I better go help him out. Good luck.”
Dash thanked him and together they left the NEIIS archives behind. Once they were out of earshot of the tech experts, they all began talking at once.
"Well, I'd say that was a resounding success. There was much more information on this thing than I thought," Dash said.
Merissa shook her head. "Yeah, but it almost broke the archives. Everything happened so fast and now the module is useless.”
"Yes, it did, but I recorded it, and all we have to do is get back to the Research Institute and take a look at what we've got. You saw that new site marked on the map. I think what we were seeing is that it activated the site somehow, or at least opened a communications channel or whatever the NEIIS equivalent is," Dash said.
Merissa’s brows furrowed for a moment.
"I think we found something. I mean really found something this time,” Dash said, his voice going high with excitement.
Jim nodded and Selena looked excited as well. After a moment's consideration, Merissa smiled.
"Let's hurry back to the laboratory and see what we’ve got," Dash said.
Jim frowned. "I take it this afternoon's hike is out?"
The others glanced at Dash. "We can still go if you guys want to, but . . ."
"Yeah, we know. I want to see what we found, too," Merissa said.
“Couldn’t have said it better myself. Let's get back there," Dash said.
Chapter Twelve
The CDF Hellcat blazed a trail through the air as it flew over what the colonial cartographers referred to as the Great Plains area of the supercontinent of New Earth. Lieutenant Vince Maddox sat in the cockpit and watched the live video feed of the surrounding area on the large heads-up display that stretched from his left, where he sat in the copilot’s seat, all the way to the right, where Lieutenant Mitchell sat piloting the attack craft. The crisp display showed New Earth’s landscape in stunning clarity, from the rolling green hills to the forests that were just tiny, puffy specks far off in the distance. A large herd of landrunners galloped below, numbering in the hundreds. Maddox watched the landrunners race along, moving at speeds in excess of eighty kilometers per hour. He knew they could sustain those speeds for hours, which had something to do with the efficiency of their gait when running. Landrunners had four long, thick legs and muscular bodies covered in thick, coarse, dark brown hair. At an all-out run, they moved swiftly, almost graceful in their cadence. Had he been standing on the ground, he would have felt the vibrations of such a large herd pounding by. It wasn’t until the landrunners slowed down that their long legs became a liability as they almost clumsily plodded along.
He watched them with the dispassionate eye of a hunter who knew their weaknesses. A well-placed shot could disable a landrunner easily enough. He ought to know; he’d been practicing a lot recently. Landrunners had heavily armored skulls, but toward the rear of their muscular bodies were their flexible, stubby tail, which paradoxically both aided their energy-efficient runner’s gait and was also the creatures' Achilles heel. Even from a civilian hunting rifle, a shot in the soft tail section would bring down the large creature, screaming and thrashing in pain. Then other creatures of New Earth would show their true colors as they pounced on the opportunity for an easy meal.
The colonists lived in a dream world, safely tucked away in the encampments, rebuilding their lost cities. They had no idea what kind of world New Earth really was. Humanity’s new home wasn’t for the faint of heart. Some of the creatures had evolved to become highly efficient killing machines.
The tactical display came to prominence over the video feed and highlighted an area west of their position. Mitchell adjusted their heading. “More ryklars,” he said.
Maddox magnified the view and his trained eye saw the backs of the spotted predators as they crept along, almost completely blending in with the ground.
“Another large pack of them,” Maddox confirmed.
Ryklars were some of the most dangerous predators they’d encountered on this planet. Maddox had started hunting them while on a remote mission. They’d set up a base camp, and after he'd stood his watch, he’d taken his AR-71 and slipped out of the camp. He hadn’t gone looking for ryklars, but he’d stumbled into one of the smaller packs that numbered no more than eight of the creatures. When he’d killed the first one, the remaining seven had pursued him relentlessly. Maddox had been forced to run but had luckily managed to take the rest of them out during his retreat. In that moment of glorious retribution, he’d felt alive, finally having found his place. When he hunted and killed the ryklars, he could forget the faces that haunted him.
A master alarm came to prominence on the heads-up display and the Hellcat dipped down as if they'd encountered severe turbulence.
“It's that damn stabilizer again," Lieutenant Mitchell said.
There was a graphical display of one of the flight stabilizers that required attention.
Captain Fletcher came to the cockpit. "What's happening?"
"It's the rear flight stabilizer again, sir. We’ll need to set her down for repairs," Lieutenant Maddox said.
“Very well,” Captain Fletcher said. “Send our status back to Central Command, al
ong with our ETA for repairs."
"Yes, sir," Lieutenant Mitchell said.
Captain Fletcher left the cockpit and Maddox glanced at Lieutenant Mitchell. "I'll take over and set her down," Maddox said.
Lieutenant Mitchell switched the flight controls over to Maddox's workstation and then proceeded to send an update to Central Command. With one of the rear stabilizers broken, it felt like the Hellcat was dragging its ass to the side as they flew. It was incredibly sluggish and seemed to fight Maddox for control. He guided the Hellcat well away from the large pack of ryklars they’d observed and found a suitable spot in the open plains. They could defend this position if they needed to. He extended the landing gear and hovered in the air for a moment, checking to make sure the area was clear. The Hellcat bobbed up and down in the air and Maddox's stomach became queasy. He finally set the ship down and the landing gear bit into the ground a little bit harder than he'd anticipated.
Lieutenant Mitchell winced. "Geez, Vince, you really stuck the landing," he groused.
"If you'd repaired it right the first time, it wouldn't have been so rough a landing," Maddox replied.
They'd been doing patch repair jobs for months. The Hellcat was in need of some downtime with a real mechanic crew to do a complete overhaul; however, with resources so constricted there was little chance of that happening. Regardless, Maddox didn't want to return to Sierra anytime soon. Perhaps never. It seemed that the colonial government didn't know what to do with the Colonial Defense Force anymore. Maddox had been a soldier for four years and in the beginning, he’d loved it. He loved the people he served with. They became his brothers and sisters, his family. But the Vemus had killed a lot of them. They were gone. Though the war was over, it seemed that the colonists had forgotten the sacrifice of the CDF. Seeing the general—former General Connor Gates—was like a slap in the face, and the sting of it hadn’t left him even though it had been days ago. Among most soldiers in the CDF, General Gates was a legend, and the fact that he’d abandoned them hadn’t sat well with anyone Maddox knew.