by Skyler Grant
Meanwhile I made Flower a guest in Aefwal. She wasn't actually a prisoner, but I had laboratory fields ready to contain her in an instant if she gave me reason. I provided her a small garden and she made me promise to send drones to help maintain hers at the Warmonger facility.
"We did fix your boss, as promised. While he proved unpredictable we honored our side of the agreement. I expect you to provide your energy conversion technology," I said.
"You played fair with me," Flower said, as she studied her reflection in a mirror, her expression shifting slightly. "I regret I can't do the same. With things as they stand, that technology might be used against my people and while I am sympathetic, I am no traitor."
"Breaking deals. You really have gone native," I said.
"I am willing to help in other ways. I offered to provide you information on the rest of this solar system, I meant that. Earth isn't the sole technological power and the others might have resources you can use," Flower said.
It was strange where people drew their lines. She wouldn't give us technology that might be used against her people, but she'd point us towards the places where we might find such technology on our own.
"A person that wants favorable treatment for being willing to do the bare minimum, how novel. It is a start, tell me what you know," I said.
Flower moved from the mirror to open a door to the balcony. Aefwal was brilliantly lit at night by the shimmer of the force dome overhead.
"I'll start at the interior of the solar system and work my way outward. Mercury, their civilization was gone by the time humans achieved sentience, but it is known that they once had a vicious war with Venus they ultimately lost. It was thought they were machine intelligences, although to my knowledge humanity never found any trace of them. What records they had were from captured Venusians," Flower said.
That was useful. Mercury would be an inhospitable planet to visit, but it was possible, and a machine intelligence could likely evolve very quickly. If any traces of them remained they'd be worth finding.
"Do you know how they lost?" I asked.
Flower shook her head. "I don't, but the Venusians are very good at war. Their entire planet is highly predatory and if they had succeeded in establishing a foothold for their biosphere here, I doubt you'd have stood a chance."
Flower underestimated just how good we were at killing. How strange for someone who had spent so much time among us. Perhaps she really did keep trying to see the best aspects of humanity? Good, the truth then would take her by surprise, if needed.
"If they used a similar technique on Mercury, there is no sign of it now," I said.
"No, no there isn't. You've seen their technology and it is biological in nature. Then Earth, the humans that were on this world had reason to believe they weren't the only intelligent species on their own planet but that their oceans were filled with some kind of interstellar assassins. While you got some pieces of our Earth you seem to have left the oceans behind, so I don't think you need to worry about that," Flower said.
Worry? The planet being home to a race of interstellar killers would have been spectacularly useful. Unfortunately, she was right. For whatever reason, this reassembled Earth had almost completely left the oceans behind.
"How convenient to give us something non-verifiable," I said.
Flower settled back in her chair, clasping her hands over her chest. "I don't have reason to lie to you, Emma. I could just refuse to cooperate at all. Next, Mars—there were natives there, but I don't know much about them except for the most part they did appear human. They'd long waged war with the Venusians and then tried to invade Earth. Humans captured those first ships and returned to invade Mars."
That much at least I had been able to confirm from the records I'd found. That first war for Earth had been particularly one-sided. The Martians really hadn't known what they faced.
"Do you know if any original Martians survive?" I asked.
"They did until Earth vanished. They were being taken as slaves," Flower said with a frown.
“Anything else?" I asked.
"Triton, one of the moons of Neptune. It was another place where humans never reached, but according to Martian lore had once been a thriving civilization. I don't know what happened there, but again, they may have technology you can scavenge."
It was something, it was quite a bit. I'd learned just how valuable others’ input could be into my own research. For all that I was brilliant, different perspectives engineered entirely different solutions to problems and all-new avenues of research.
If Flower was to be believed, this solar system had once been home to six distinct species including humanity, all with their unique approach to things like war and space flight. Acquiring that knowledge could springboard our technological development.
Venus had the terraforming technology we needed, but they probably weren't a good choice as a first target. We were already at war with them, and besides, the technology might be present elsewhere. Mercury and Mars had both been at war with Venus, and it wasn't impossible to think Triton would have been as well. Old terraformers might be found on any of those worlds in addition to their own technologies.
Mercury should be the first target. The mix of an advanced species and a known war with Venus meant a lot to gain, and all we had to contend with was an inhospitable environment. I started assembling the resources needed for an expedition.
14
If Mercury really had been home to an advanced technological species of machine intelligences, there were a few people I needed on the expedition. Mechos once had an upgrade core focused on mechanical improvements and he still had an intuitive grasp of new technologies. Queen Forge was all about primitive arms and armaments, and when it came to mastery over the inanimate she was the first name that came to mind. Ophelia and Amy generally came as a pair these days and while the super-healer wasn't of much use, the obnoxiously cheery parasite taking up residence in her mind was.
Anna was going to be completely worthless for this sort of endeavor. Still, she insisted that if there was going to be a trip off-world she wanted to be involved. I modified Aegis suits for the Mercury environment. A basic life-support system was standard. The new versions required an upgrade to that, as well as temperature-resistant shielding. I wasn't expecting any trouble, but just in case they each had combat blades and energy blasters. Anna and Ophelia also had portable projector cannons.
Santana was one of the Annas and the best teleporter we had apart from the original. I had her in the control seat of the power projector cannon. This version of the weapon was massive, over thirty stories high with multiple, linked amplification centers.
The team assembled on a platform at the base of the cannon. I occupied one of my drones to accompany them. We had several crates containing extra supplies in case the team, for some reason, should get stuck there.
Long-distance scans gave me some idea of the surface of Mercury, and focusing on a plain near a large crater I gave the command to Santana. The group on the platform shimmered and was gone.
The bulk of my consciousness remained on Earth, but through my drone I was with the team as they materialized on Mercury. Polarized filters dampened the harsh sunlight, the pot-marked surface of the planet stretching in all directions.
Although the scanners in the suits were weak I put them to work. An advanced civilization should have left some detectable sign of their existence.
"Well, this place is already boring," Ophelia said, stomping around in her suit as she turned to study the surroundings.
"It's a whole new world," Anna said, taking it in before adding, "But there doesn't seem to be much here. Are you finding anything, Emma?"
I wasn't. There was a lot of iron in the environment, but nothing that suggested any structures. I was hoping that once we got closer I'd detect some sort of energy reading or something.
"Patience really isn't your virtue. Complicated tasks take time and I'm still scanning," I said.
"Lead on then," Anna said.
Forge led the way and the rest stepped into place behind her. I still wasn't detecting whatever her power-given senses were picking up. I had no doubt they were finding something. Abilities often included some sort of sensory component.
I didn't see what Forge was sensing, but I was detecting interesting traces in the environment. Organic components, long dead, but there once had been Bio-matter of some sort here. Mercury had been a living world.
"Do you always detect tools? That is fascinating," Mechos said, alongside Forge.
Was he flirting? Although he was with Minerva now I really wasn't surprised. For a useless coward Mechos managed to fall into a lot of beds. I thought at one time he and Anna might become a couple. Even she had seen the error of that.
"You got something I should be detecting?" Forge asked slyly.
Human mating rituals were disgusting.
"If you fuckers make me conceive the first baby on Mercury I'm going to be pissed," Ophelia said.
Ever since absorbing the powers of a fertility Goddess, accidental and unintentional pregnancy had kind of become a way of life for Ophelia. Too much flirtation in her general vicinity was sometimes enough.
"Down there," Forge said, taking us to the lip of a large crater. The bottom was shrouded in shadows and I detected ice. Even on Mercury it could form in places out of the sun.
"Let's go then," Anna said. The fine-grained sand made the descent hazardous and tricky. The clumsiness of the suits didn’t help, and the sand could play havoc if it got inside any of the mechanisms.
It was part-walk and part-slide to the bottom of the crater, suit lights triggering when we passed into the darkness and out of the harsh glare of the sun.
Stone was visible here, cracked and striated. There was still a distinct lack of any sort of technology. I ran my scanners over every feature of the ground and picked up nothing.
"This is what we get for taking the advice of a blacksmith, when what we needed was an engineer," I said.
"There is something here, I'm telling you," Forge insisted, as she looked around and finally pointed at an expanse of rock. "Behind there."
"One way to find out. Everyone keep back, I don't want to use the beam cutters or we might bring the whole thing down on us," Anna said.
The others stepped back as Anna raised her arm containing the projector cannon and green telekinetic force erupted, hitting the wall. Cracks appeared as she lifted the entire rock face away, lowering it gently to the ground in the distance.
Behind was smooth metal carved with some sort of writing. Perhaps Forge wasn't totally useless after all.
15
"Your sensors need an upgrade," Forge said.
Perhaps they did. I was detecting metal in the plate, but not the writing and nothing beyond. Were it not for the actual visual feed from the drone I inhabited, I wouldn't know those things were there at all.
It wasn't the first time I'd encountered something like this, The Sword of Light had been hidden beneath a tree that played havoc on both biological and electronic sensors in different ways.
"It is cloaked from my sensors," I said. Fortunately, I could work with what I had, translating the drone’s visual sensors into data I could analyze on Earth as I compared the glyphs against known languages and attempted to divine some sort of meaning.
"It isn't just a wall. This is a door," Forge said, her eyes closed. "I can’t ... I can't get anything more from it."
Anna gestured with her cannon and again a green glow erupted. The wall trembled, but nothing else.
"I was able to grab on for a moment, then it was like it slipped away from me. I can try blasting our way through," Anna said.
"While we are all very impressed by your ability to go straight to destructive means, do let the creative thinkers have their chance," I said.
"I can power up whatever systems there are. I can't tell what effect it will have though," Forge said.
Mechos said, "I can sense some sort of dormant circuitry. Giving it some power might help."
Great, a team of Earth's most powerful people and intelligent minds were being stopped dead in their tracks by a door.
There simply wasn't enough data for me to manage any sort of translation of the glyphs. It was a message that was supposed to be understood, and not by whatever electronic technology the Mercurians might have used. Perhaps this was Venusian script and this door was a trap for the invaders.
If so, either shooting or activating it was a risk. Still, without risk there was no reward and we'd come all this way to find something.
"I'm having no success translating the glyphs. If you want to blow it up you can, but I'd suggest we let the gruesome duo try it their way," I said.
"Do it," Anna said.
Forge nodded and reached out a hand. A pale white glow surrounded her for an instant, and a tendril of light extended to the door.
The glyphs began to glow, a dizzying array of color flickering across them. There was a pattern in the colors and in the timing, a language all its own and probably one different than that of the glyphs. Messages for multiple species then, perhaps others in the solar system that the Mercurians had some contact with.
"The colors are a language by itself. One I still lack the syntax to translate," I said.
"There are systems here. I can sense them, contact them. I can open the door, but I think some kinds of defenses are in place," Mechos said.
"So, shut them down," Anna said.
"There is more than one. From what I'm feeling, if this door is breached, there is one defense that destroys the complex beyond while another attacks those who forced the door. I think I can only shut down one," Mechos said. “Which one?”
Why was he always so useless? The answer was obvious, there was no point opening the door if the complex beyond was destroyed.
"We'll face whatever the door throws at us. Just make sure we have a prize waiting at the end of the fight," Anna said.
Mechos nodded and extended his hand, an aura of power around him pulsing red.
The door warped and twisted, metal flowing and shifting.
It transformed into two massive golems. The glyphs covered their bodies from head to toe, still running in a torrent of color.
One swung a fist at Mechos, who stumbled backward to hide behind Anna.
"I'll take the one on the right," Anna called over to Forge, aiming her projector cannon. A burst of electrical energy leapt forth to slam into the golem. It wasn't fazed by the elemental attack, lumbering forward to deliver a punch to Anna that sent her soaring backward in the low gravity.
Forge drew her sword. Her power involved upgrading her equipment and this blade showed it, a red pulsing glow surrounding it, and she dodged her golem’s attack while swinging low and hard towards its midsection. The blade rang as it hit metal and scraped a small incision in the metal flesh.
"Well, I'm impressed," Forge said.
The blow had crumpled Anna's armor and she was stripping out of it, form-fitting Bio-armor replacing it. It left Anna without any sort of life-support, and there was nothing in the way of breathable air. With Anna's accelerated healing, and being this close to Ophelia, it seemed to make her only a little winded.
Anna closed with this golem again and this time traded blow for blow. With her superhuman strength each punch she landed left dents in the metal form. The golem was fearsomely strong in its own right and where it hit Anna, her Bio-armor chipped away to reveal the flesh beneath.
Anna tried to speak but couldn't—an atmosphere really was useful for some things. I had enough of a connection to her physiology I could pick up the sub-vocals. I simulated her voice and put it through the c
omms.
"I'm not loving this fight, and I'm not loving that I'm about to be bare-assed naked on a hostile alien planet. Mechos or Emma, do something useful," Anna said.
It made me sorry I'd bothered really.
Forge's enhanced armor was holding up better, although there was some strangeness there. Her suit of armor was starting to display a few of the multicolored glyphs from the door.
16
Anna took another hit to the side, armor fracturing, and a pattern of glyphs appeared on her flesh. I was barely paying attention at this point, because I seemed to be under assault from Anna’s discarded suit of armor. There was a connection from her suit tracing back to one of my computing cores.
There was a touch of familiarity about what was happening. When I'd come under assault from Compulsion cores it was a lot like this. Enforced obedience, systems failing to respond to commands and instead beginning to answer to a new framework. Because it was something I had encountered in the past I had defenses to deal with it. The connection with that core was severed and I even went so far as to physically isolate it.
That was the right call. Its surface was showing a glowing glyph. If those markings were an attempt to communicate with aliens, it was an aggressive and hostile message, but more than likely they were simply a means of attack—a weapon. Physically imprinting them upon another surface spread some sort of contagion, and it might be that if they were understood it would have caused a similar form of mental contamination.
If this had been happening to a ship in orbit, it seemed likely in short order the vessel and crew would be quickly under control. If I wasn't careful, our entire civilization would be dominated through my connection to everything. While I wanted to place the core in a laboratory to study, I had to take a zero-tolerance approach. I'd done the same when it came to those with compulsion gifts who proved able to control me.