Sanctuary

by Ken Lozito

  Jim had managed to acquire some Field Ops equipment for their journey. In particular, he’d found lightly armored shirts that were made of smart-mesh material. The tan-colored shirts were comfortable and extremely durable. Depending on the weather, they could change their composition to protect against the cold or become more breathable in warmer climates. They wouldn't help much if they found themselves in extreme weather conditions, but there was little risk of that where they were heading.

  Dash already had his equipment ready, but he checked his backpack anyway. They'd brought extra CAR-74 standard issue hunting rifles, as well as sonic blasters. They had plenty of ammunition, but Dash honestly hoped they wouldn't need any of it.

  “A hunting knife?" Merissa asked when she glanced into Dash’s open pack.

  The blade was forty-six centimeters in length and made from a carbon metallic alloy that was light and strong.

  “It was a gift and sometimes it's useful to have out in the field," Dash replied.

  Seeing the knife, Brad's eyes lit up. "Oh, hey, that's a Bowie knife! I love these things. Do you mind if I take a look?"

  Dash grabbed the polished wooden handle that was made of synthetic cherry wood with two decorative inlays for the pins. The sheath was made of soft synthetic leather that he had water-molded to the knife. He handed it to Brad, who looked at the sheath appreciatively and gave Dash an approving nod. Brad grasped the handle and pulled out the blade, making a low whistling sound. "Now that's a knife," Brad said.

  Merissa glanced from the Bowie knife to Dash. "Who gave it to you?"

  Brad handed back the knife and Dash put it in his pack. "Connor."

  Merissa's eyes widened in surprise. "I thought the two of you didn't get along so well."

  Dash shrugged and secured his backpack. "It was a few months after I arrived and we’d just done a local field mission. Hunting rifles and sonic blasters are all good to have, but sometimes an old-fashioned knife is just as useful. And as far as Connor and I not getting along—well, that's a more recent development."

  Merissa nodded knowingly.

  "We're reaching the coordinates," Jim called out from the front of the C-cat.

  Dash and the others went to the front and saw a small NEIIS outpost on the heads-up display. "Look at it! It's just sitting there right in the open," Dash said.

  Jim slowed their approach and hovered in the air.

  "It looks remarkably well-preserved," Merissa said. She placed her hand on Dash’s shoulder as she leaned forward to peer at the heads-up display. Her head came so close that he could smell the flowery scent of her hair.

  "Don't mind me," Dash said, grinning, which caught Merissa by surprise and she quickly backed away, muttering a hasty apology.

  Dash brought the scanners online and cycled through the different visual spectrums. The infrared didn't show any heat signatures from inside the NEIIS building, but that didn't mean there wasn't a power supply inside, and since the outpost appeared intact it was safe to assume there were no ryklars waiting inside. Dash kept that thought to himself.

  The NEIIS building was on top of a hill out in the open, and they didn't see any ryklars or any other animals in the area. He switched to the sonic wave detector and had the sensor pivot back and forth. The C-cat’s computer systems filtered out any noises detected by the sensors, then analyzed the new data, comparing it to all known ryklar sounds in the onboard database. Also, the computer system could detect the beating hearts of any ryklars in the area. The whole process only took milliseconds. Dash had reviewed how it worked before leaving.

  “Looks clear to me. Let's set her down just outside the building," Dash said.

  Jim circled the NEIIS outpost one more time and then extended the landing gear. The C-cat touched down softly and Jim cut the engines. Dash glanced at the others and saw the brimming excitement in their eyes. Even Selena, who had finally agreed to come along with them only at the last minute, was eager to see what was inside the outpost.

  As Dash opened the rear doors of the C-cat and waited for the ramp to extend, a soft breeze of cool, fresh air entered the enclosed space. The air this far north was noticeably drier, but the temperature was comfortable.

  Inside the C-cat, they were all armed with hunting rifles except Selena, who preferred the sonic blaster. Dash went down the ramp first and took a quick glance around. The area was quiet, and the only sound was the breeze blowing over the grass-covered hills. The others exited the C-cat and looked around, then headed toward the NEIIS outpost.

  “Any theories on why they built these outposts?" Jim asked.

  "Nothing concrete,” Dash replied. “Perhaps they were future sites for cities, but it's hard to know for sure.”

  The NEIIS had seemed to alternate between curvature and angles in their buildings. In this case, the outpost was octagonal in shape rather than the rounded architecture they'd encountered near Sanctuary, and Dr. Bishop had hypothesized that those differences reflected two separate populations of NEIIS who possibly were parts of different cultures. But the feature common to both types of architecture was the bronze metallic alloy of which this outpost was constructed. It was extremely durable to have lasted this long, and upon closer inspection, there was a deep, almost golden hue that remained untarnished by the weather or the sun.

  They found the main doors on the northern side of the building. The control panel activated when Dash touched it and the main door opened easily. Lighted panels inside the outpost came on as the door opened, revealing several NEIIS consoles. Dash led the way and saw that there were NEIIS living quarters on one side and a standard work area at the far end. He glanced inside the living quarters and noted the lack of furniture, particularly a bed. How had the NEIIS slept? Judging by the height of the shelves and what passed for chairs, he believed the NEIIS weren't very tall. If he had to guess based on the few pieces of furniture in the room, they might have averaged a little over one and a half meters—or perhaps they just preferred smaller furniture. No one could be sure because they hadn't found any NEIIS skeletal remains.

  "Not a lot in the way of comfort, is there?" Merissa said.

  "It doesn't look that way, or maybe they took the furniture with them when they left,” Dash said.

  Merissa stepped inside the living quarters and looked at a control panel just inside the door. She peered at it for a moment and then wiped away the dust before pressing one of the buttons. A table extended from the wall. "Or the furniture could just be hidden away. The NEIIS seem to be a pragmatic bunch," Merissa said.

  Dash's eyes widened in surprise and he took a closer look at the control panel for the room. There was a grouping of triangular buttons with a small, pale mesh screen above it. He walked over to the table and pressed his hand on the smooth surface. The table didn’t give at all.

  “What is it?” Merissa asked.

  “The table is pretty strong,” Dash replied and glanced around the room. “I keep wondering what the NEIIS were doing here. Why build these in the first place? Though there are living quarters, I don’t get the feeling that this was anyone’s home.”

  Merissa looked around. “Reminds me of one of our FORBs.”

  Dash nodded. “Exactly, but why were they here? What were they studying . . .”

  “And why did they leave?” Merissa said.

  “Yeah,” Dash said. “I keep hoping we’ll find some kind of indication of what happened to them.”

  “Did you ever consider that perhaps the NEIIS weren’t from this world?” Merissa asked.

  “It’s not a very popular theory. Based on what we know about them, we don’t think they were space-faring,” Dash said.

  “As far as we know,” Merissa said, sounding unconvinced. She smiled when he looked at her. “Come on, you know we haven’t come anywhere near to learning all we can about the NEIIS.”

  “You’ll get no argument from me. So are you proposing that the NEIIS came to this planet and played in their proverbial sandbox for a few hundred or maybe ev
en a thousand years, then just decided to leave?” Dash asked.

  Merissa shrugged.

  Brad called out to them from the outer room. "These consoles look to be in working order.”

  "Let's go see what our tech guy’s found," Dash said.

  They left the living quarters and walked over to the consoles as Jim and Selena came in through the main doorway.

  "I have two recon drones on a tight-knit patrol of the area just as a precaution," Jim said.

  Dash nodded. They'd agreed beforehand that they would take every precaution regarding their safety. Even though they hadn’t detected anything on the C-cat scanners, using the recon drones was just good sense.

  Brad glanced at Dash. "When you were at the other outpost, what exactly did you do?"

  "I opened the control panel on the bottom to clear out some of the debris. It was in pretty bad shape, much worse than this one. Then I powered it on. It went through some kind of automated startup sequence and then highlighted a particular symbol. I selected the symbol and that's when we noticed the map with the highlighted locations. We didn't have much time because the ryklars attacked," Dash replied.

  Brad pressed his lips together and his brows pulled in tight while he thought. After a few moments, he shrugged. "Alright, I'll just power it on now," Brad said.

  They gathered around the NEIIS console and watched as Brad glided his fingers across the pale mesh screen. The console immediately activated, as if it had been in standby mode all these years, then went through some kind of startup sequence with different flashing symbols. Then, NEIIS symbols began scrolling from right to left across the screen. Dash recognized the triangle with a few slashes across the middle and pressed his fingers on that one. The other symbols disappeared and a map came to prominence on the console.

  "It looks the same as before," Dash said. He brought out his PDA and engaged the holo-display to show the map they'd seen from the other outpost.

  "They’re identical," Merissa said.

  Several of the NEIIS sites were flashing. Then, the entire map refreshed and another city appeared far to the north. The NEIIS reference had a subset of symbols circling around the new location.

  Dash peered at the symbols and brought up the translator on his PDA.

  “Why do you think those sites are highlighted?" Jim asked.

  "I think those are the active sites, meaning that it's able to establish some kind of connection," Dash said and frowned for a moment. Then he looked at Brad. "Can you scan for any NEIIS signals or anything to indicate that they were using a network of some kind?"

  Brad nodded and brought out his tablet. He entered a few commands and then held it up as if he was trying to get a radio signal. He slowly turned, stopping at various points and making a circle. "There's definitely a broadcast being sent and received. I think you're right."

  Merissa glanced at Dash’s PDA. “It’s another city reference, almost like Sanctuary, but not quite . . .”

  Selena cleared her throat. "If there is something broadcasting, shouldn’t we turn it off?"

  Dash frowned, not understanding why she was so worried.

  Selena shook her head in exasperation. "This outpost is checking in with the other sites. That's fine, but what if it's also signaling the ryklars? We know they do that, too. How would we know if turning this thing on sends a signal to the ryklars? You know, enacting the protection protocol they were following for some of the other sites that have been discovered," she said, looking at all of them.

  Dash pursed his lips in thought. He hadn’t considered that. "She might have a point. Let's copy the data from this map and shut down the console, unless you know how to stop the broadcast," he said, looking at Brad.

  Brad glanced at the console and tapped one of the symbols in the upper left corner. The map disappeared. Then he looked at his own tablet. "It’s still broadcasting a signal. Let me just see if I can do something in the control panel."

  Brad squatted down and opened the panel at the base of the console. He reached inside and after a few moments the mesh console went dark. Standing back up, he checked his tablet and nodded. "The broadcast has stopped."

  Dash did a quick check of the recon drones and they hadn’t detected anything. For the first time since leaving Sanctuary, he was glad Brad had been with them.

  "Alright, so we’ve confirmed that there are active sites out there. I think we should go check out the central one that's about fifteen hundred kilometers north of here. What do the rest of you think?" Dash asked.

  Jim glanced out the door and then looked back at them. "I'm not sure we should make the trip today. It would be nightfall before we reached it and I don't want to explore an NEIIS city in the dark."

  Dash nodded. "We could camp here tonight and explore this outpost, maybe see if we can get more information off the console as long as it doesn't broadcast our position," he said, looking at Selena. "Good call on that, by the way."

  Selena smiled and then nodded.

  "I think camping here's a good idea," Merissa said. "There's a control panel in the living quarters, and who knows? Maybe the NEIIS have other things hidden away. It's worth taking a look."

  “Alright, then it's decided. We'll stay here and explore the area a bit. I'll draft a reply to send to Dr. Bishop to let them know what we've discovered, but I'm not going to send them our current location—at least not yet. Jim, since we’re staying here, we should utilize all the recon drones. How far can they patrol?" Dash asked.

  "They have a ten-kilometer range. I can task a couple to go a bit farther out and daisy-chain them, but I think we should keep a majority in closer. I'll go set those up," Jim said.

  "I'll give you a hand," Brad offered.

  Merissa caught Dash's eye after Jim and Brad left. "See, I told you he'd be helpful."

  Dash smiled. "I'm sorry I ever doubted you."

  Merissa chuckled.

  They went back to the C-cat and unloaded the equipment they needed to make camp and cook some food, then spent the next few hours exploring the outpost and the surrounding area. It was remarkably intact and the systems still worked.

  The sun dipped below the horizon and a starry night showed above while New Earth's rings shone like bright celestial pathways arching over the horizon. Despite their tranquil surroundings, Dash found that he kept checking the recon drones just to be sure nothing was trying to sneak up on them undetected. Not wanting to be caught off guard this time, he made sure the alarms were in place in case anything larger than a small dog was detected. Things were going pretty well for their first night away from Sanctuary. They were learning a lot about the NEIIS, given the pristine condition the outpost was in. This was an excellent start to what he hoped was going to be an unforgettable journey.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Connor walked outside the Field Ops landing ground. This was the last place to search and he suspected he should've gone there first. If nothing else, Dash had proven that he was quite clever when he focused his extremely active brain on a task.

  A comlink request appeared on his internal heads-up display showing Lenora's identification. He allowed it to come through.

  "You still trying to figure out which vehicle they stole?" Lenora asked.

  "Yes, because that'll give us some indication of how far they can travel in a day. Still think we need to wait for them to check in?" Connor replied.

  There was a long pause before Lenora answered. She'd been snippy with him for the past few days.

  "Yes, I do. I know Dash; he’ll check in," Lenora said.

  Connor continued walking across the airfield and came to a small hangar. "I hope you're right."

  "You'll see," Lenora answered.

  "In the meantime, I’m going to keep looking for whatever vehicle they stole," Connor said.

  Lenora closed the comlink and Connor headed toward the hangar. In the past twenty-four hours he’d studied the NEIIS map Dash had discovered so often that he knew it like the back of his hand. However, he
couldn't just go charging off, even if they did find the vehicle Dash and the others had taken. Lenora might be right and the best thing they could do was wait. Connor thought they'd taken every precaution to prevent what Dash and the others had successfully pulled off. Even Captain Ramsey had been surprised and a bit amused.

  As Connor reached the hangar, the large doors opened and Captain Ramsey poked his head out. Upon seeing Connor, he chuckled.

  "I finally figured it out," Captain Ramsey said and pulled the hangar bay doors open so Connor could see inside. "Thanks to our good friend Bernard Duncan, we received a shipment of C-cats to help with our vehicle shortages," Captain Ramsey said and led Connor inside, bringing him to an empty space between two of the Airbus model C-cats designed for large capacity. "I have to admit, the kid is smart. He must've figured out that we locked him out of the vehicle control systems for anything currently registered with Sanctuary. But since these vehicles just arrived, we haven't registered them yet."

  Connor's eyes widened in surprise. "Well, Lenora wouldn't keep the kid around if he wasn't smart. What’s the range of these things?"

  Captain Ramsey grinned tiredly. "You're gonna love this. These C-cats have newer fuel cells, which increases their range considerably. And since they're not hauling any weapon systems like a Hellcat does, the range is pretty far. They could make the trip from here to Sierra almost three or four times before having to recharge. This gives them a range of five thousand kilometers, easy."

  Connor blew out a long, frustrated breath and rubbed his chin. With that kind of range, Dash and his team could be anywhere. "Well, shit,” he said.

  "You got that right, and you can bet those little shits disabled the transponder on that C-cat. We have no idea where they are. On top of that, there is a ten-minute window where we had a couple of monitoring stations go offline," Captain Ramsey said.

  "Let me guess, this was one of them along with a few others seemingly at random so as not to draw attention," Connor replied.

  Ramsey nodded. "You've got that right."