by R. A. Nargi
“There’s someone at the door.”
8
All of us followed Chiraine as she rushed across the ship to the launch bay. Off in one corner was the man door and airlock.
“I heard banging from in here and I looked out that window there,” she said. “I think he’s still out there.”
We crowded around a porthole. Outside was a human male leaning against some sort of mechanized cart. He wore dusty clothes and a wide-brimmed hat, which was tilted down shading his grizzled face.
“What the hell?” Ana-Zhi muttered.
“That’s impossible!” Galish said.
He was right. There weren’t supposed to be any humans in this system.
“You want me to kill?” Xooth said. “I shoot with ion lance. Sizzle good!”
“Hang on,” Ana-Zhi said. She pointed at me. “Captain, let’s go back to the bridge and see if we can communicate with this schmuff. The rest of you, strap on a sidearm and wait by a comm station.”
“You’re not thinking of letting him in, are you?” Chiraine asked.
Ana-Zhi gave her a withering look, then motioned me towards the corridor. She looked back at the rest of the crew. “What are you all waiting for, people? Let’s go. Arm up.”
Back at the bridge, Ana-Zhi activated the hull cameras near the launch bay.
“Could he be from the Mayir expedition?” I asked.
“That’s as good a guess as any. But then, where the hell is his ship? We would have seen it. The Rhya would never allow a full-size cloaking device through the Fountain.”
She steered one of the cameras towards the man and zoomed in on his face. He was a tall rangy man who looked to be in his fifties, with bright blue eyes and lots of squint lines etched into his sunburnt skin. His face was lean and angular, all hard planes, with a few scars. The biggest ran from the edge of his nose diagonally down towards the corner of his mouth.
“Not someone you want to meet in a dark alley,” I muttered.
“Speak for yourself,” Ana-Zhi said. She punched a button and spoke into a microphone in the console.
“Intruder, identify yourself.”
The man looked up lazily and ran his eyes along the ship. Probably trying to find our camera. It took him a second. The he turned to face us, and looked directly in the lens.
“My name is Wade Murroux. And I was hoping to bargain for a ride off this rock.”
Ana-Zhi and I looked at each other.
“From your accent, it doesn’t sound like you’re from around here,” Ana-Zhi said.
“That’s for damn sure. I hail from Beesan Prime.”
“Well, what’s your story, Wade Murroux from Beesan Prime?”
Murroux licked his lips. “Any chance I could tell you that story inside—and out of the sun? I’d be much obliged.”
“That would be a negative, Mr. Murroux. And, in fairness, I should disclose that we have a Renegade 50/04 trained on you with a jumpy Plargond on the trigger. So state your piece and don’t try anything.”
Murroux slowly held his hands up to show that he was unarmed. “I don’t want no trouble. Just a bit of human kindness.”
“Your story, Mr. Murroux? Or vacate the area posthaste.”
“Okay, okay. Fair enough. As I said, my name is Wade Murroux and I came here in 2339 as part of the Valerius II’s crew. I’m a medic by trade. Me and another crew member decided not to go back so we jumped ship. Narcissa, her name was. She was in some trouble back on Beesan and figured a new life here might be worth a shot. I liked the way she looked at me and decided to go with her. We were going to be Adam and Eve and make a bunch of babies and figure out how to farm a little piece of this dusthole.”
“Where’s the missus and all those babies?” Ana-Zhi asked. “Don’t tell me you’re planning on running out on her?”
“Truth is, she ran out on me. And none of those babies came to be, though it wasn’t for lack of trying. Seven years ago she took off. Jumped on the shuttle to Ordilon.”
I was confused. Ordilon was Yueld’s other moon, but what was this about a shuttle?
Murroux continued with his story. “I’m guessing Narcissa got picked up by the Rhya and brought back through the Fountain. There was no sign of her on Ordilon. I spent a few months looking. Or maybe she found a way to go planetside. Who knows? Either way, it was pretty clear that she didn’t want to have anything to do with me. So that was that. I settled in Maridu out of necessity. The Batalarians took me in and showed me some kindness, but they aren’t the most sociable people.”
“So you want to go home?”
“There’s nothing for me here. And Beesan’s looking pretty good in retrospect, so I’m wondering if we might strike a trade. I help you find whatever you’re looking for and you bring me back. Or, if that’s too much trouble, at least hand me over to the Rhya.”
I had a million questions for this guy and so did Ana-Zhi, but she wanted the rest of the crew in on it too.
“Let’s bring him inside so we can talk proper,” Ana-Zhi said to me.
“Are you crazy? We don’t know this guy. What if he is some psycho who wants to take us out and steal the ship?”
“You watch too many movies, junior. And, besides, you don’t know me very well. I’m actually a very cautious individual.”
She punched at the microphone. “We appreciate your candor, Mr. Murroux. How about we continue this conversation inside?”
He nodded. “As I said, I’d be much obliged.”
“Splendid. So why don’t you strip off your clothes and meet us at the airlock.”
“My clothes? Strip? What are you talking about?”
“Surely you had bio security protocols on the Valerius,” Ana-Zhi said. “We can’t have any accidental contamination of nasties aboard.”
“There’s nothing on Taullae that can harm you. At least nothing on my person.”
“Nonetheless, rules are rules. Strip or we’re done here, Mr. Murroux. We’re already running a bit behind schedule, so make your decision posthaste.”
He grumbled about it, but he stripped off his clothes and stepped towards the airlock. The guy was pretty buff for a castaway.
“Your hat as well, Mr. Murroux.”
After running Murroux through both a decontamination and a full bio scan, Ana-Zhi let him into the launch bay. Xooth was there with a 50/04 along with me and Obarral, armed with RBs. The rest of the crew—including Chiraine—hung back behind a blast door and monitored our conversation through the comm system.
“Welcome aboard the Freya, Mr. Murroux,” I said. “I’m Captain Beck.”
“Sean Beck? Are you serious?”
I had been a little afraid of this. Without my beard and normal hair style, I had no defense against being recognized.
“Yes, nice to meet you, Murroux.”
“I can’t believe I got picked up by Sean Beck.”
I quickly changed the subject. The last thing I needed was a fan boy. “This is Ana-Zhi Agrada, my first mate, and this is Obarral. The little guy with the impulse rifle is Xooth.”
“And we weren’t lying when we said he can be a little twitchy,” Ana-Zhi said. She handed Murroux a robe and motioned to some equipment crates that we could use as seats.
“That’s some story, Mr. Murroux,” I said.
He was still looking at me in awe.
Ana-Zhi noticed and didn’t seem too happy about it. “As I said, we don’t have much time, so let’s chat about what you can offer us.”
“What are you looking for?”
“There’s an Ambit node up here,” I said. “We need to find it. Quickly.”
He thought for a minute. “An active node?”
“Yes, we’re assuming so.”
“So it would need power.”
“Yes.”
“A long-term power source.”
“My understanding is that the Ambit’s been running for over a thousand years,” I chimed in.
“Then there’s only one place on Ta
ullae it could be.”
We all looked at him.
“The zoo.”
Apparently the Yueldian Sky Reavers didn’t only collect trinkets from their raids on other systems. They also collected life forms. And they kept these life forms in a vast underground biosphere on Taullae. Over the past millennium those life forms had almost certainly died out, but according to Murroux, large parts of the biosphere were still operational.
“Have you been there?” Ana-Zhi asked.
“Not inside,” Murroux said. “The Batalarians are deeply fearful of that place. I figured they’d been around long enough to know what’s what.”
“But you can lead us there?”
“That I can.”
We needed to discuss this among ourselves, so Ana-Zhi parked Murroux in the holding cell, while the rest of us assembled in the galley.
Yates was the first one to speak and immediately expressed his doubts. “This is too dangerous.”
“C’mon, Virg,” Galish said. “It’s a failed zoo filled with the universe’s most lethal lifeforms. What could go wrong?”
“Everything. But, more importantly, how do we know that this isn’t a colossal waste of time? We’ve got less than three days left to find the Kryrk, and, thanks to her, no leads.” He was staring right at Chiraine.
“How is it suddenly my fault that a thousand-year-old data network has developed some kinks? I’m doing the best I can!”
“Chiraine’s right,” I said. “We don’t have much of a choice. We need to find this next node and hope to Dynark there’s a reference to where the Kryrk is stored.”
“Of course we have a choice,” Yates said. “We get paid no matter what. We can sit around and play four-tin monte until it’s time to go home, and we’ll still collect.”
“Sure we will,” I said. “Just not as much. Plus, don’t you want to find the Kryrk for the pure joy of finding it?”
“Now you’re starting to sound like your father.”
“I don’t think so,” I said. But it got me wondering—wondering what it was like being with my dad on a mission.
“Perhaps we could just do a flyover,” Obarral said. “We have a perfectly-fine EMR array to scan for the underground structure.”
Ana-Zhi nodded. “That’s a possibility. We could also scan for electrical activity.”
“Yes!” Chiraine said. “When a node gets disconnected, it continually attempts to hook back into the network. We might be able to zero in on it.”
“Then what?” Galish asked.
“Then we dig,” Ana-Zhi said.
It was settled. The only thing left to figure out was what to do with Murroux.
Ana-Zhi ended up deciding to let Murroux stay aboard, but Xooth would closely guard him.
“Remember,” Ana-Zhi said, pointing to Xooth. “Jumpy.”
Xooth smiled evilly.
We escorted Murroux to the bridge and set off, skimming just a few dozen meters off the dusty surface of Taullae, with Murroux guiding us. Meanwhile, Yates and Chiraine operated the scanners.
“How deep is this zoo?” Ana-Zhi asked Murroux.
“I told you, I never actually went inside. But judging from the entrance, I’d guess it’s at least fifty meters. But it could go down four times that. Who knows?”
“That doesn’t sound very helpful,” Galish said. “Why are we bringing him along again? We could find the place ourselves.”
“Sure you could,” Murroux said. “But how long would it take you? I was under the impression that time was of the essence.”
“It is,” Ana-Zhi said. “So stop your jawing and keep navigating.”
We arrived twenty minutes later. I could immediately tell that we were in the right place. Massive solar arrays and light tubes ran in a grid that covered at least sixteen hectares. At the southern end of the grid was a low blocky structure.
“That’s the entrance,” Murroux said.
“Not too close, Galish,” Ana-Zhi said. “We don’t know what kind of defenses this place has. And I imagine for it to have lasted a thousand years, it must have some defenses.”
“Well, I can see at least two D-beam cannons,” I said. “One on each of those two diagonal corners.”
“Good eyes, Captain.”
“Yes, those are D-beams, all right,” Murroux said. “But I’m not sure they are even operational.”
“Better safe than sorry,” Ana-Zhi said. “Yates, make sure you scan the weapons as well, and you might as well go ahead and scan for life forms. Just for shits and giggles.”
I asked, “How far out are we from a full tableau?”
“Close, Captain,” Yates said. “Real close. EMR’s done and we’re just waiting for the energy and biomass scans. This place is gigantic, by the way.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
We set down outside the perimeter of the underground zoo complex, well away from the D-beam cannons and the entrance. As Obarral and Galish prepped for the ground op, Ana-Zhi pulled me aside. “Same marching orders. You stay on board with Galish and the princess. I’ll go with Yates, Xooth, Obarral, and Murroux. We’re just going to try a few data grabs on the surface first. My preference is to avoid going underground.”
I took a deep breath. “I can go with.”
“That wasn’t the deal.”
I glanced back towards the bridge, in the direction of Chiraine. “It’s starting to get suspicious. I mean, what kind of captain just sits on his ass during a mission?”
“You call it ‘sitting on your ass.’ I call it ‘command and control.’ Doesn’t matter. You’re staying.”
“What if I want to go?”
“As my great-great-grandma used to say: tough titties.”
“I am the captain. Technically, right?”
She put a hefty hand on each of my shoulders in that friendly, yet threatening way of hers. “Let’s not succumb to delusions of grandeur, shall we, Jannigan?”
Back on the bridge I felt a little bit like a loser, staying put with an academic and an injured guy, while the real crew was out there doing the work.
Well, if I wasn’t a loser, I certainly was an imposter. That came through loud and clear when Murroux was fawning over me. Or fawning over Sean, to be more accurate. Even after all these years I couldn’t get used to it.
I wasn’t like my father. Or Lirala for that matter. I didn’t crave attention. I didn’t have to be the loudest guy in the room. I didn’t need everyone hanging on my every word. That was bullshit as far as I was concerned.
My thoughts were interrupted by Chiraine.
“You have a weird look on your face. Everything okay?”
“Yeah.”
“You concerned about the incursion team?”
“A little,” I said, looking down. “We didn’t have time to be as thorough as I’d like. In terms of threat assessment.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “A lot of the area on the tableau looks dark. It narrows down the area of consideration quite a bit. Plus nothing really came back on the bio scan. It’s probably just a big empty structure down there.”
“I guess. The question is, are they going to be able to find anything from the surface. Empty or not, no one wants to go down there.”
The sled was loaded up with all kinds of equipment, including the Raker and a portable version of the Freya’s EMR array. Ana-Zhi had a copy of the tableau on her datapad, so she had a map of sorts to start the scanning process.
It went slowly. Chiraine and I watched as the team methodically ran down and up a row, and over, and then down again. The Raker was perched up front on the sled like a hood ornament on a Cimber Exeter. Its displays blinked and it occasionally changed position as it scanned, but even after a few hours it didn’t find anything to connect with.
“I think we need to go in,” Ana-Zhi said over the radio.
“I thought the plan was to just go in through the surface.”
“Negative. Scan shows at dozen meters of catasteel. We
’d never cut through it in time. We’re going to need to go in through the front door.”
I didn’t like it, but we didn’t have much of a choice.
We tested the video link on the sled and then the team geared up in their exosuits and headed towards the entrance building.
“Are they going to be able to get in?” Chiraine asked. “I thought this facility was all locked up.”
“They’ll get in,” Galish said. “Xooth is an annoying little dimbag, but he knows his way around a donokkal, I’ll give him that.”
“A what?”
“A donokkal. It’s a Plargondian device. Very rare.”
“What’s it do?”
“You wouldn’t understand the technology. It’s esoteric to say the least. But picture an electronic lock pick that works on nearly every door manufactured in the past two millennia.”
“Okay…”
It turned out that Hap Galish was right. Whatever ancient security tech the building had was no match for Xooth and his magic lock pick.
After he disabled the controller, a set of blast doors creaked open. Beyond them was a ramp heading down. Guide lights winked on, illuminating the entrance, which was filled with all kinds of dust and strands of some sort of insect residue.
As the team walked the sled down the ramp, wall-mounted security scanners tracked them.
“You guys are seeing that, right?” I asked Ana-Zhi. “Scanners.”
“Affirmative. Nothing to worry about. The drones are messing with them.”
I had forgotten about the micro drones that flew beside the sled. They were almost impossible to see unless they were caught in a beam of light piped down from a tube.
At the bottom of the ramp was another set of security doors that opened into a smaller room that seemed to function as some sort of sally port. Ana-Zhi seemed extra cautious in this room and they did a lot of scanning before proceeding.
“Those doors are sealing behind them,” Chiraine said.
“I saw that. Probably part of the security programming to prevent whatever was in there from escaping. I’m surprised it’s still working.”
“That’s actually a good sign. It means the node is operational. They should be scanning with the Raker now.”