by Ricky Sides
He was still pondering that mystery when Sheila shouted elatedly, “We’ve got it!” She wrote the code down on a piece of paper, and then moved over to the control panel mounted on the left door directly beneath the Phoenix graphic. Working quickly, Sheila disconnected the wires she had attached to the control box wiring, then replaced the faceplate she had removed to access the wiring.
“Pete, would you like to do the honors?” Captain Adkins asked.
Shaking his head, Pete said, “No thank you, Captain. This is the discovery of the Texas and her crew. Please, go ahead and follow your normal procedure.”
“Sergeant Baker, please proceed,” the captain said to the leader of his strike force.
“With pleasure, sir,” responded the sergeant. He took the note with the code from Sheila and with quick hand signals, he ordered his men to stand ready.
There was an air of anticipation as the sergeant entered the code in a small control panel mounted on the door. No one really knew what to expect when the doors opened. No one expected what they found as the doors slid apart and revealed a gaping black hole. The sergeant and his men turned on powerful flashlights, but the beams of light illuminated nothing except the walls, floor, and ceiling of a tunnel. There were recessed lights in the ceiling of the tunnel, but those lights were not working. Pete noted that the tunnel was approximately the same size as the door opening, with the exception of about twenty feet, just the other side of the doors. That area was wider in order to permit the doors to slide aside. The doors rested against massive doorstops just inches from the wall. He also observed that the tunnel seemed to travel through the mountain in a straight line.
“Sergeant Baker, take your team inside the tunnel and see what you can learn,” Captain Adkins ordered.
“Yes, sir,” the sergeant replied, and then he grinned at Lieutenant Wilcox and asked, “Do you want to come along, Lieutenant?”
“I thought you’d never ask,” replied Lieutenant Wilcox who had obviously wanted to accompany the team. He glanced at Pete who smiled and nodded his approval, and then he fell in behind the strike force team as they entered the tunnel.
Ten minutes later, the team radioed the all clear and requested the others join them.
The group of peacekeepers walked down the tunnel, looking curiously at their surroundings as they did so. But there wasn’t much to see in the tunnel.
Pete estimated they had traveled a bit over two hundred yards straight under the mountain when they came to the strike team waiting at the next door.
“Have you tried the code that opened the other door?” asked Captain Adkins.
“Not yet, sir,” responded the sergeant. “I wanted to check with you before proceeding,” he explained.
“Go ahead then, Sergeant,” the captain ordered.
The sergeant dutifully entered the code, but the door refused to open. The man then consulted the handwritten note. “Sorry, sir. I entered a wrong digit,” he explained, and then he keyed the code again. This time the doors slid aside revealing a darkened chamber.
A terrible stench assailed the noses of the peacekeepers. Several of the people began to gag and retch. There was no order given, but as one, the party turned and trotted back down the tunnel. They didn’t stop until they were well clear of the tunnel and back outside in the night air.
Maggie approached Pete and said, “That was advanced decomposition, and from the strength of the odor, I’m afraid we’re going to find a lot of bodies in there. We’ll have to suit up and wear oxygen masks while we clear this base.”
Pete nodded his understanding of the situation, but he said, “We’ll send in Lieutenant Wilcox and his team to document the base. They are more experienced at investigating such hazardous environments.”
Turning to Captain Adkins, Pete said, “I’m sorry, Trace, but under the circumstances, it would be best to let Lieutenant Wilcox and his men handle this.”
“That’s fine, Pete, but I wish you’d let Sergeant Baker go along. The training would be good experience for my strike force leader.”
“Lieutenant Wilcox has the final say in who accompanies his strike team,” Pete explained and then looked to the lieutenant who had joined them.
“The Sergeant is more than welcome to accompany us. He’s an excellent strike force leader and I agree, the experience will be good training for him,” Lieutenant Wilcox stated.
***
The lieutenant and his strike team, accompanied by Sergeant Baker of the Texas, entered the tunnel an hour later in full protective gear. The seven men proceeded through the tunnel until they came to the chamber they had opened. Inside the chamber, they found dozens of bodies. Most of the bodies were sitting with their backs to the wall or they lay prone on the floor of the chamber. The Lieutenant suspected they had died of asphyxiation, but due to the advanced decomposition of the bodies, he couldn’t be certain.
The strike force man documented the bodies carefully with a video camera. While he was doing that, the Lieutenant and the rest of the men examined the room. The floor was dusty, but there were no signs of debris, which would indicate that there had been structural damage.
It was readily apparent to the lieutenant that this would have been the hangar for the fighters that were to have been housed in the facility. The massive room was large enough to house one hundred fighters with room to spare. In the back of the hangar, situated high in the wall was a set of large windows, separated by a two-foot wide partition. The lieutenant estimated the windows to be about five feet tall and ten feet wide. He assumed this was a window to a sort of command center or possibly a control tower. When the cameraman was available, he had him to film those darkened windows.
There was a door situated to the right of the windows. It was the first normal sized door that they had encountered in the facility. Lieutenant Wilcox walked to the door and tried it. The door opened easily and he saw a set of stairs leading up. Flashlight in hand, the lieutenant walked up the stairs and soon came to a staircase landing. There was a door to the left of that landing, which he realized must lead into the room with the windows. To the right, a hallway disappeared into the darkness. He turned his flashlight down the hall and noted that the hall extended about forty yards before coming to a dead end. There were doors on both sides of the halls. “Sergeant Baker, take two men and check out the rooms along the hall,” ordered Lieutenant Wilcox.
“Yes, sir,” the sergeant responded and he quickly picked two men to join him.
Then the lieutenant turned to the door that he thought led into the command center and tried it. That door opened easily and he stepped inside. A quick inspection of the room confirmed his assumption. There was a myriad of communications and computer equipment in the room.
Stepping back outside, he called for Sergeant David Thompson to join him. “Sergeant, take a man with you and look for the electrical control panels. Let’s get the lights on in here. We know the power is on or we couldn’t have opened the doors. A power surge may have tripped the breakers.”
“I’m on it, Lieutenant,” David responded, and then he turned and raced down the stairs with another peacekeeper to find the electrical room.
Sergeant Baker and the two peacekeepers who had accompanied him, met the lieutenant in the hall when he came looking for them to see what they had learned. They had already checked several of the rooms. Sergeant Baker reported, “So far, the rooms all appear to be living quarters that also served as offices for the occupants. There’s a desk, a computer, and a file cabinet in each room.” The sergeant’s voice sounded muffled through the faceplate of his oxygen mask.
“Alright, Sergeant, take these two men with you and get back downstairs. There was another door in the right wall. I want you to see where that leads. Remember the time everyone. We have twenty minutes left, and then we have to exit the facility or risk running out of air. I, for one, do not want to breathe the air down here. It’s bad enough with the mask,” Lieutenant Wilcox stated. He was referring to the smell
of decomposition.
The three men moved past the lieutenant to carry out his orders. They had just reached the landing when the lights came on inside the facility. They remained on for about two seconds and then went back off. A few seconds later, they turned back on, and this time they stayed on.
The cameraman entered one of the rooms and filmed it, and then he joined the lieutenant to film the control room. The camera operator documented several of the computers and communications stations.
“Lieutenant, I think you’ll want to see this,” Sergeant Thompson said over the radio.
“What have you got, Sergeant?” the lieutenant queried.
“I’m not sure, sir. It’s some sort of flying machine, but not like anything I’ve seen in the past,” the sergeant explained.
“Where are you, Sergeant,” the Lieutenant asked.
“I’m sorry, sir. I’ll meet you in the room with the bodies and show you,” David responded.
“On my way,” the lieutenant said. He signaled the cinematographer to accompany him, and then he walked rapidly down the stairs.
When the lieutenant reached the hangar room floor, he saw David waiting near the left wall beside a large bay door, which he had apparently opened. Moments later the lieutenant joined David, who turned and walked into the open bay.
“Pol’s going to want to see this,” the lieutenant muttered to himself.
As if on cue, Pol’s voice came over the radio saying, “I understand you found a flying machine, Lieutenant. Please document it carefully.”
“Will do, Pol,” the lieutenant responded with a smile.
Motioning to the cinematographer, the lieutenant stood beside the aircraft to give it scale as the cameraman filmed it from that angle. Then the man walked completely around the aircraft, filming it from all angles.
The lieutenant consulted his watch and frowned. “David, recall the others. We need to head out of the facility in eight minutes,” he said.
“At least the air filtration system is back online. In a few hours, most of the smell should be dissipated,” David responded, and then he passed along the recall order.
The lieutenant continued to examine the fuselage of the aircraft. It was a large bird. He estimated it to be twenty-four feet wide at its widest point, and approximately one hundred twenty feet long. It stood approximately fourteen feet high. Now he understood why the tunnel and doors leading out of the complex were so large. The aircraft was aerodynamically designed, tapering down to thin leading edges at the front and around the sides. It reminded the Lieutenant of the SR-71 spy plane fuselage. Soon he found the cover to a keypad that would supposedly let them gain entry by inserting the proper code. By the time the rest of the team arrived, they had only minutes to spare before they would have to exit the facility.
“Sergeant Baker, do you remember the code to open the bay doors?” asked Lieutenant Wilcox.
“Yes, sir, I do,” replied the sergeant.
“Try the door lock,” the lieutenant ordered and stepped aside.
Moments later the sergeant said, “It’s no good, sir. My code has one too many digits, so that can’t be it. I tried omitting the last digit, but nothing happened.”
“Alright, we’re out of time, so let’s head back outside and strip off the gear. The council wants a briefing ASAP,” the lieutenant stated.
***
“Is there no end to the thievery of the government?” Pol lamented as he saw that the mystery aircraft was composed of the Huxley alloy.
“Millions of taxpayers have been asking that question for generations, Pol,” Pete responded with a smile.
“Sergeant Baker, you said the rest of the base that you examined seemed to be barracks style sleeping quarters for about one hundred pilots, a mess hall, locker rooms, and a large bathroom, complete with showers. Was that the extent of the right side of the base or did you run out of time before completing the scouting mission?” asked Pete.
“We covered it all, sir. There was also a large storage room packed with food supplies, and I do mean large. There must be enough food stored in there to feed an army,” the sergeant responded.
Pete nodded his understanding, turned to Lieutenant Wilcox, and asked, “Lieutenant, did your team complete the examination of the left side of the complex?”
“No, sir. We ran out of time after locating the aircraft,” the lieutenant responded.
“Alright, let’s set our priorities. First on the agenda is the removal of the bodies. We need to go by the book on that. Those men died serving their country. The Constitution will be arriving soon. Bill is bringing some extra men to help in the retrieval and processing of the bodies. While that is being done, I want your team to document the facility. Try to find out what happened there. There should be some logs or journals that should help supply that information,” Pete said.
***
Even with the manpower brought in by the battleship Constitution, it was an enormous task to retrieve the bodies, clean up the hangar bay, and discover the truth concerning what had happened to the people inside the facility. On the night of the quakes, the base lost electrical power when a portion of the grid supplying the base failed. Without the electrical power, there was no way to open the large doors blocking the tunnel. With the power down, the air filtration system and emergency lighting ran off the base generators a few days until the fuel was exhausted. The trapped men had tried to dig through the walls, but they had nothing they could use to break through the solid rock.
During the last few hours, all the trapped men had gathered near the door where the strike team had found them. They waited futilely for the help they felt certain would come. Most had written letters to their loved ones and left them in the control room. Those letters were now in the possession of the peacekeepers, but there was scant hope of ever being able to deliver them, since none of the letters contained addresses. Some didn’t even include the last names of the recipients. The doomed men hadn’t thought of the possibility that the database with their next of kin would be lost.
The aircraft that had been discovered in the base was a transport vessel, which was at the base for the use of recovery of key government personnel in the event of nuclear war. It was unarmed, but it could ferry seventy passengers in the relative comfort of standard airliner seats with a small isle between the seats.
The code to open the door had been found in a base computer. The aircraft had been equipped with the Bleakman engines, but those engines had been tweaked considerably. Pol had actually called himself a, damned fool for not making the adaptations that someone under private government contract had made to his engines. By reconfiguring the emitter arrays, they had increased both the maximum altitude capability and the airspeed of the aircraft. The aircraft was equipped with four synchronized engines. Two of those engines would have been capable of flying the aircraft fully loaded. Four engines was an overabundance of caution, but considering its projected use, it wasn’t out of character for a government project. According to Pol, by the numbers, the aircraft should be able to fly at an altitude of five hundred feet, and travel at around six hundred miles per hour.
As it turned out, the strike force team had made the most significant discoveries during their original penetration into the base. The remaining sections of the base had been the maintenance section, the weapons storage facility, and a large laundry room. The water supply for the base was an underground aquifer. The water was filtered through an onsite, water treatment facility, but the water apparently needed little in the way of purification.
The one weakness of the base had turned out to be the power grid failure, which had caused the doors to become deathtraps. The engineers had not yet tapped the geothermal energy. Base plans called for several generators that would have been capable of providing sufficient energy to operate the base, including the doors. Because of those plans, the doors had not been linked to the grid served by the fuel-operated generators. The base maintenance chief had tried to hook up the do
or to the system, but could not reach one of the power lines needed because it was on the other side of the door. It had been recognized as a point of vulnerability, but one that would have been corrected in a few months when the geothermal energy generators went online.
Pete and Tim, acting as the council met with the Texas peacekeeper leaders at the site and asked them if they wanted to develop the base. Citing its remoteness, the difficulties supplying such a base would present, and a lack of personnel sufficient to staff that base while maintaining their current bases, the Texans declined. Captain Trace Adkins said, “We’ve already discussed the matter, and we feel that such a base would require the assets of the peacekeeper national organization. The base will require another round of fighters, the geothermal problem needs to be addressed, and personnel willing to live in the isolation will be difficult to find.”
The council ordered the base sealed, but they were taking the newly discovered aircraft back to Base 1, where Pol and his assistants would make some modifications to the aircraft. It would be added to their fleet for special missions. In the coming weeks, they would make a decision as to how best to utilize the base that they codenamed the citadel.
***
Namid was a bit nervous as she lifted the big aircraft off the floor of the hangar and nudged it toward the tunnel entrance. Once the aircraft hovered inside the tunnel, she stopped and checked one last time with the Peacekeeper to make certain that all personnel were out of the way before she began her flight out of the complex. She received confirmation that all personnel were accounted for, and that she was a go to exit when she was ready.
Namid swallowed hard as she activated the computer control that would launch her out of the citadel. She hated trusting the computer with the maneuver. Nevertheless, she activated the control and prayed that the lowest bidder hadn’t created this program.