Chapter 8 Breadcrumbs
“So what’s our first move?” said Lucy calling him away from Bryson.
He looked around. A trail of lights lead away from the dockside to a glowing blue panel set in the smooth polished rock beside a large set of double steel doors. “I guess we follow the trail of breadcrumbs.”
He strode up to the door and pressed his palm against it. A thin white band of light ran up and down the panel scanning his hand. After a few moments it changed from blue to green and the doors slid silently and effortless back into the rock. A series of lights illuminated a corridor leading off to the left, one of many leading off from the large anteroom the other side of the door. They followed him slowly into the room.
Set into the rock above each corridor was a large inert screen, turning around to survey the room several more screens could be seen angled out at 45 degrees above the main double doors. Either side of the doors were raised plinths with a bank of controls radiating around them. Apart from the lights everything was cold and lifeless.
Bryson took a deep breath. “Air's fresh enough, but it’s like the whole set-up has been mothballed for centuries.”
Lucy ran her fingers over one of the inert consoles carving a straight line through a layer of dust. “You could embark an entire army from here, no problem.”
“I wonder what would happen if we tried one of the other corridors?” Carol asked moving towards one of the dark openings on the far right of the antechamber.
There was a sudden blinding flash and she was thrown back into the centre of the room by an invisible force field sealing of the entrance she had approached. The screen above the illuminated corridor came to life a large green arrow on the screen indicating the way forward. Anna helped Carol up off the floor and checked she was okay.
Carol brushed herself down. “That was one hell of a kick.”
“Perhaps I should have a crack at blasting through it?” asked David.
He shook his head. “There's no threat so we play along and follow the trail, for now. Carol do you want to see if you can raise base camp and let them know the score.”
“Under this amount of rock you must be joking.”
Suddenly one of the angled screens above the main doors lit up and they could see several of their comrades back at base around a table playing cards. One of the consoles ranged around the left plinth came to life.
“Is that Luther?” he asked Carol.
As Carol nodded, the man he'd referred to as Luther leapt out of his seat tipping the table over and spun round “Who said that?
Carol laughed. “Calm down Luther it's only us.”
“I can hear you, but I can't see you, where the hell are you?”
“Long story, so I'll just give you the edited highlights” he said, running through the recent events that had lead them to the anteroom, before concluding the briefing. ”So stay sharp and we'll check in when can.”
As Luther nodded in agreement the screen went blank.
“Right I'll take point, Bryson your team will cover the rear. Now let’s see where this rabbit hole goes.” he said setting off down the corridor as the others fell in behind him.
As they made their way deeper into the subterranean complex he was dimly aware of a number of other passages and doors leading off the one they were following. But in light of Carol's experience decided it was prudent to focus on the path they were being encourage to follow. The size and complexity of the unfamiliar structure was bewildering and he found himself hoping their data loggers weren’t being jammed, so they had at least a fighting chance of retracing their steps unaided if need be. After about thirty minutes the passage levelled out and a door off to their right slid open beckoning them inside. David and Lucy took up positions either side of the opening pistols drawn ready to cover him as he stepped inside the dark opening. The lights came on and he gestured to them to lower their weapons.
They were in what appeared to be a small barracks. Bunks we're ranged down the left hand side of the room with lockers running down the opposite wall. Each locker had a small computer screen and fabricator built into it. What appeared to be the master at arms control sat against the far wall. Presumably it was from here that the load out for each individual squad members locker were set. Either side of it was a single door, the left lead to a toilet and shower block, the right to an advanced medical bay.
Anna gasped in amazement. “This is the most sophisticated medical bay I've seen. A full body scanner, genetic sequencers, tissue builders and god knows what else.”
“That's nothing.” shouted Lucy. “The showers have got real water, none of that sonic pulse crap!”
“The beds aren't bad either.” said David sprawling out on a bunk.
“Okay, okay, you lazy lot of wimps I get the message, hours in a cold, damp, cramped cargo hold isn't good enough for you. I want everyone to report to Anna for a medical check then get a shower and grab some sleep, you've got eight hours R & R.”
There was an ironic cheer as they lined up outside the medical bay.
“I want your weapons locked and loaded at all times.” barked Bryson. "And I'll be expecting you all to take your turn at watch.”
Andrews was the first into the medical bay. He stood in the body scanner. A few moments later there was a startled shout as it closed around him. He dashed into the room with Bryson close behind.
Bryson charge his rifle and raised it to his shoulder. “Do you want me to blast him out?”
Anna grabbed the barrel of his rifle and gentle lowered it. “Let’s wait and see what happens, I think I've just initiated an automatic treatment cycle.”
Bryson raised an eyebrow. “You think you've initiated a treatment cycle.”
Before she could reply the doors opened and a smiling Andrews stepped out.
“You okay?”
“Never felt better, I feel like a new man.”
Anna pulled out her own portable medical kit and scanned him. “It’s like his leg was never broken, it's as good new, if not better. Plus some old scar tissue from a previous wound has been removed. If these readings are correct the bone stitcher's are redundant, hell I'm redundant.”
“Bryn your next, let’s see how good this kit really is.”
“Yes sir.” Said Bryn stepping forward into the scanner.
The doors closed as soon as he stepped inside. Anna watched the controls intently as they waited. One minute became two, then three. Then the doors slid back and Bryn stepped out beaming waving two hands above his head.
Anna ran forward grabbed his right armed and scanned his newly rebuilt hand. “Amazing we can grow replacement body parts in a tissue tank and graft them on surgically. But this machine fabricated a replacement based on a genome map and simply grew it back on the end of his arm.”
“No wonder Malstrom wants this place.” said Bryson.
“Not this.” he had a faraway look in his eyes. “They want the mother lode, whoever or whatever is controlling it, the master database that makes all this possible...” his voice trailed away and he snapped back to the present. “Anna if you’re sure it’s safe, run everyone through it. Hell they've all taking a beating the last two years. It’s about time they got some five star treatment.”
“Can I have some cosmetic surgery as well?” someone yelled from the back of the queue to much laughter and merriment.
“There are just some things no amount of tech can improve.” he retorted.
An hour later everyone had been through medical, showered and bunked down. Bryson after setting up the watch rota was busying himself with the master at arms terminal.
Anna touched him gently on the shoulder. ”Everyone apart from you has been scanned perhaps it'll cure your amnesia?”
He shook his head. “My time is coming, but not yet. The deeper we go the stronger the feeling gets that I've been here before, for better or worse we'll all find out the truth soon enough.”
Before Anna could reply Bryson called him
over.
Bryson was scrolling through the database. “Amazing it’s linked into the medical unit and can generate an optimal load out for each officer based on their physical and mental condition. I've set it to fabricate replacement armour, parts, weapons and ammo. It'll be ready by the time they wake up”
“No upgrades?”
“That's the strange bit. This thing must have a massive database of advanced weaponry, but I can't see anything we don't already have. It’s like we've being given minimal security clearance.”
“Perhaps it a test, perhaps we have to prove ourselves worthy.”
“Now you’re starting to sound like a mystic, at this rate I really am going to have to shoot you.”
He laughed. “Best get some sleep, I have a feeling we've still got quite a journey ahead of us.”
He lay back on the bunk and stretched. It felt good to get out of his combat suit and cloak. In fact he couldn't remember the last time he'd taken them off. He yawned, stretched again, and looked around, most of them we're already asleep. He could barely make out their shapes in the dim glow of the lights, that had automatically begun to fade to a soft twilight, as soon as people began climbing into the bunks. It was becoming increasingly hard to stay awake as the bed moulded itself to his body, caressing him in a cocoon of warmth and comfort. The last thing he saw before drifting off was Bryson relieving Harvey to take the next watch.
Strange, dimly remembered dreams, filled his sleep. Shadowy creatures with vicious teeth chasing him through a dark wood with a thick carpet of dead leaves under his feet. He was running away from the ruins of an ancient temple with an old roll of parchment, covered in glyphs he couldn't make head or tail of, but he knew that it was important and the shadows with teeth wanted it back. He tried not to think about what they would do to him if they caught up with him. He dodged through the trees occasionally letting off a round or two with his pistol to deter any of them from getting too close. One shot must have got lucky, because it was followed by an anguished guttural howl of pain and rage, before something heavy crashed to the ground in the dark undergrowth a few meters behind him. Then he was clear of the woods. Running across a flat, featureless, grassy plateau. The twin moons, of whatever forsaken planet he was on, lighting his way under a clear night sky. He was running out of ground as the lumbering hulks with teeth closed on him from all directions. Casting caution to the winds he launched himself over the edge of a deep ravine and, scrambling up the far side, made a dash for the small spacecraft that was waiting for him. He’d barley secured the airlock door behind him, when the creatures we're upon it, throwing themselves against the vessel. Banging the hull with whatever weapons they could find. Quickly initiating the firing sequence, he lifted off, climbing steeply into the sky. The creatures slipped off the hull into the slipstream of his afterburners and were incinerated. As the craft broke free of the atmosphere he weaved and dodged incoming fire from a couple of patrol craft that had been sent to intercept him. He activated the hyperdrive, hoping and praying that it would initiate the wormhole jump to hyperspace, before they could bring the heavy guns of their orbital defences to bear on him. Just as the wormhole formed an alarm sounded. He awoke to find himself in the barracks. A number of people were already up and getting ready to move out, as the dream rapidly faded from his consciousness.
“Sleep all right?” asked Anna.
“Best sleep, I've had in years.” he replied.
“That's what everyone's saying.” added David as he slipped into his tried and tested, battered and patched, combat suit. “I've got to get me one of these bunks in the sales.”
“But no new armour?”
“I made this,” he said tapping his suit. “and unlike this fancy fabricated kit I know what it takes to break it, so I trust it. Besides I don't see you taking an upgrade.”
“I'm like you, why upgrade something you can trust to something you can't.” he swung himself out the bed and touch fists with David, before slipping back into his combat armour and sliding his cloak over it.
Fifteen minutes later they were ready to move out.
Turning left out of the barracks they continued to follow the trail of lights along the corridor, which soon began to drop deeper and deeper, down into the complex. Suddenly they found themselves in a large round chamber. The roof lost in the gloom above with a series of deserted balconies running around the walls. A massive rotunda of solid rock in the centre of the chamber ran from the floor to the ceiling. A series of walkways radiating out from steel doors embedded in it to each balcony, like the spokes of a giant wheel. A further series of polished steel doors encircled the base of the rotunda, as it towered before them. As they approached one slid open to reveal a large lift.
He looked at Bryson.
Bryson shrugged. “We've come this far no point turning back now.”
He nodded and a few minutes later they were all in a lift accelerating ever deeper into the mysterious bowels of the planet.
Rebels Page 13