by J. N. Chaney
“That might take time we don’t have,” said Rackham.
I turned to see what Petra had to say and realized she’d been surprisingly quiet this whole time. She stood with her back to us, looking at something I hadn’t noticed before. We were in an egress. Just beyond her, it opened up into a larger chamber, but it didn’t look like the facility anymore. The walls were made of stone and the design had changed.
“It’s like home,” Petra said quietly.
She wasn’t far off. This was definitely a cave system of sorts, but it lacked the cold and damp morbidity that were so prevalent on Glacio. At least from my perspective. For someone who had grown up underground, it must have felt a tad more familiar to her, maybe nostalgic.
“Do you want to wait until it’s all clear?” I asked her.
Shuddering, Petra turned to face us and shook her head adamantly. “No. If it’s all the same to you, Captain, I'd prefer to get the job done so we can leave.”
I gave her a nod before addressing the Cognitive. “Carl, how fast can you disable a turret or defense drone once it comes online?”
“Under 30 seconds, Captain,” he replied. “And that is a conservative estimate.”
“Right. 30 seconds. I think we can handle that. Let’s move. I want to get the hell out of here.”
We took off again, and the farther we went, the more it became clear that these underground tunnels were far different from Petra’s homeworld. Bright artificial light illuminated the way forward, and it didn’t flicker or show any signs of power failure. The stone walls had been just as clean as the metallic rooms in the previous area. It was eerie to be here, traversing a place the inhabitants of which had long since perished, but the facility remained in such a pristine condition.
We continued through the corridor, weaving through different chambers until they all began to blend together and I lost track of how many we’d passed through. “How much longer until we get there, Carl?”
“Just around the next corner, Captain,” he answered.
I wanted to get this whole thing over with but decided that erring on the side of caution would be prudent. “Let’s take a five minute breather. I want to check in with Abby.”
“Very well,” said Carl. “I will use this time to attempt to disarm any further traps.”
“What’s taking you so long, Jace?” she asked. Her face came on the data pad in little waves from a poor connection. “We’ve been back a few minutes already. I’m at the entrance.”
“I’m trying, but we ran into some complications,” I told her.
“Do you want us to join you?” she asked.
“No, Abby. Just get the core back to the dropship. We’ll be there before too long.”
She slid me an impish smile before hanging up. I chuckled and glanced up to find both Rackham and Petra staring at me and wearing amused looks of their own. Carl reappeared next, saving me from having to come up with something to say.
“Captain, the way is clear. There was more heavy artillery along the ceiling in the next compartment, but I’ve deactivated them. You have only to walk to the door, and it will open.”
12
Despite Carl’s assurances, we approached the capsule’s storage chamber with extreme caution. The heavy artillery he spoke of were powered down, their noses pointed harmlessly at the ground. That wasn’t to say I didn’t move quickly to get past them. To our right, instead of a stone wall, was a long series of windows. I could hear something rushing but couldn’t make out what it was.
“There is a natural underground river,” Carl said, almost as though he’d read my thoughts. “Three meters deep.”
“Well, we ain’t stopping to enjoy the view,” I said, not slowing my pace.
I hit the open door a few seconds later, Rackham and Petra hot on my heels. The room itself wasn’t much. A square three meters or so, though all the available wall space was taken up by panels of blinking lights. It reminded me a little of the hub where we had first discovered Carl, just without all the wires. Four silver grates on the ceiling must have housed fans or some kind of ventilation system.
My eyes took in the entire space, looking for any sign of Hygeia’s tampering, but saw nothing. In the middle of the room was the capsule with the drives. I recognized it immediately, though it was slightly different from Athena’s. This looked like a newer version, but it still had the same basic shape.
“Carl,” I snapped, pointing at the workstation. “Do another check. I don’t want to have to swap it out with something that weighs exactly the same or something.”
The Cognitive tilted his head in confusion. “I’m afraid I don’t understand what you mean.”
I flapped a hand. “Never mind. Just check to make sure we aren’t going to trigger something by getting too close.”
“I don’t detect anything obvious like the guns outside,” he said after a brief pause. “However, Hygeia may have buried sensors in places I cannot access. Please proceed with caution, Captain.”
“Wonderful. Just be ready to shut something down.” I glanced at Petra and Rackham. “You two be ready to cover me, got it?”
I edged forward carefully, keeping a watchful eye out for any change in the room. Nothing happened and I stood in front of the capsule in a handful of seconds. I stared down at the thing for a moment, wondering if it would be enough to save Athena. It damn well better be, I decided, and reached down for it.
My hand hesitated for a fraction, but I couldn’t just leave it. Steeling myself for some kind of rebuttal, I grabbed it and jumped back. Nothing happened, and I felt like a fool when Petra burst into laughter. “We’re never going to speak of that,” I griped.
“Oh, I don’t think I can promise—”
Rackham’s response was cut off by an alarm screaming, the sound bouncing around the room at top volume. The door slammed closed, cutting off our exit, and Hygeia’s form appeared, but it differed. I realized that it wasn’t her, at least not in hard light form. It was a holo version of her, and she looked angry.
“Warning! You are not authorized to be in this area. Return the central data system within 10 seconds or perish. 10.”
I groaned. “Son of a bitch. Carl!”
“9… 8...”
“Working on it, Captain.”
“7…”
Rackham was turning in a circle, looking for something to shoot, but there wasn’t anything. Petra’s eyes were wild, but we had nothing to defend against yet.
“6… 5…”
I used the last few seconds we had to stuff the capsule in the small pack I’d brought.
“4… 3… 2…”
Capsule secured, I reached for the rifle as Hygeia finished her countdown. “1. Defense and retrieval system activated.”
“Retrieval?” Petra piped up. “What does that—”
The grates I’d mistaken for air vents dropped open, revealing exactly what that meant.”
“What the hell are those?” asked Rackham.
Four large shapes scuttled out onto the ceiling. They looked almost familiar. Like… “Trilobites! Fire!” I yelled.
All of our weapons fired at once—Petra’s and my rifles, paired with Rackham’s big ass gun. One of the trilobites was hit, though I couldn’t say if it was me or Petra and didn’t much care. It fell to the floor and tried to crawl awkwardly. It was a slightly different design, but I’d tangled with enough on Earth to know it should die the same way. I unloaded both my pistols on it until the little machine stopped moving.
I began reloading as I swung around to see where the other three had gone. Rackham had decided against the launcher in this small room, which seemed like a wise choice, and instead had a pistol out and was aiming at one of the nearby bots. Petra backed up against the door, but it wasn’t fear I saw in her eyes, which would have been understandable given that she’d lost an arm to one of these. Instead, she was yelling blood and fury as she fired her rifle into one of the machines.
She got one to fall finall
y and turned her attention back to the other, but as the first one dropped, it seemed to spin around and glide toward her.
“What the fuck?” I muttered. The trilobite was flying.
At that moment the door slid open and Petra fell backward. The move confused the trilobite, only managing to catch her metal arm.
She yelped as the trilobite tugged on her prosthetic, forcing her to drop the gun in her other hand. She gripped her metal arm with her free hand and pulled against the bug’s grasp as it continued to yank on her. Placing her feet against the side of the door, she jerked the trilobite back and, in a wide arc, slammed the machine into the ground with her hand pressing through its belly. Pieces of the trilobite scattered across the nearby floor.
I took over shooting the one on the ceiling, finally causing it to fall and stop moving entirely. Rackham was still struggling when his prey rose into the air and charged him the same way the other one had to Petra. He ducked and it ran into the wall behind him, catching itself and remaining undamaged.
“Come on,” I said, grabbing Rackham by the arm and pushing him back into the corridor we’d come through. “Carl, shut that godsdamn door!”
The door slid shut immediately. Petra stood panting with both hands on her knees and a feral smile on her face. I couldn’t say I liked the look, but I wasn’t about to tell her that.
“Captain Hughes,” said Carl, materializing in the hall. “The threat has not been neutralized. I cannot stop them all and will have to dig deeper into Hygeia’s processing. I fear the door will not hold them much longer.”
“I thought there was only one left,” said Rackham.
“Unfortunately, not,” Carl replied.
“There are more coming through the ceiling,” Petra said, guessing.
I cursed and started reloading. “Fine, we’ll hold them off until you can take them out.”
He nodded once and disappeared.
“You heard the man,” I told the other two. “That door ain’t gonna hold forever.”
“Lost my pistol in there,” said Rackham, waving at the door.
I pointed at the grenade launcher. “Use what you got. Just try not to blow us all to hell if you can help it.”
His mouth widened into a smile that told me he had no objections to that plan.
A small spot on the door began to ripple. The trilobites were coming.
“Don’t shoot the door,” I warned. “No sense giving them a bigger opening. If we’re lucky, they’ll all come through the same spot.”
“Fish in a barrel,” said Petra.
“What?” I asked, giving her a sideways glance.
“Old saying from Earth,” she said. “Nevermind.”
More ripples appeared on the door, followed shortly by actual holes as the metal liquified.
“Screw, it,” I snapped. “Get back in the other hall. Once we have cover, shoot the fucking door, Rackham.”
I pushed Petra behind me, wanting to give her as much protection as possible. Freddie would never forgive me if I got his fiancé killed.
Once we were far enough away, the lieutenant hefted the launcher over his shoulder and, without another word, took aim. As soon as the grenade punched free, he joined us on the other side of the wall and covered his ears.
The explosion shook the corridor, followed by a hard rumble below our feet. Shoving up from the floor, Rackham and I poked our heads around the corner.
“It worked,” he said.
The lieutenant was right. Four more of the murder bots—or pieces of them—littered the floor, along with rubble from the nearby walls on either side of the hall. The door, surprisingly, still stood largely intact. I let out a sigh of relief and clapped Rackham on the back. “Nice shot.”
A commotion sounded behind us and Petra screamed. I twisted around to see her scrambling. It only took a moment to see why. A horde of the trilobites had come down the opposite end of the hallway. The one leading the pack reached her before I could react.
It fell on top of her, and in an act of desperation, she shot her prosthetic fist straight through the machine’s body in one swift motion.
She quickly had to back up again. There was no way she could smash them all, even with the new hardware. Cursing as I reached her, I grabbed her normal hand and pulled her back into the passage we’d just destroyed. More were pouring through the ruined door and streaming in to trap us.
“What do we do?” squeaked Petra.
“Carl, status!” I barked.
“Still working, Captain. Perhaps another minute more.”
“We don’t have a minute,” I said. My eyes fell on a broken window nearby, which had shattered glass all over the floor. There was rushing water beyond it.
He saw me looking at it and shrugged. “Don’t have much choice.”
“Petra, move!” I yelled, pointing at it.
Her eyes went wide. “Into the water?”
I stared at her for a moment and groaned. Of course, she didn’t know how to swim. The trilobites were almost on us and there wasn’t time to do anything else. “Kick hard when you hit the stream,” I told her.
She gave me an annoyed look and then jumped. Rackham went through the open space next to her. One of the trilobites touched my boot and I shot it with my gun.
I couldn’t do any more than that and leaped behind my people into the cold water below.
My suit wasn’t so heavy that it dragged me to the bottom, but I had my work cut out for me to break the surface again. I came up sputtering, kicking feverishly.
“Over here!” Petra called.
I looked toward where her voice came from and saw her and Rackham standing in shallow water. I made my way to them, happy to have better footing.
A buzz sounded from above and we craned our necks to see the trilobites crawling down, some of their wings outstretched. “Oh, hell,” I muttered. “Rackham, I hope you have something left.”
“One more grenade!”
“I don’t know if that is such a good idea,” Petra said.
“No choice,” I pointed out. “Do it, Rackham. And make it count.”
He obliged, firing the last of his grenades into the under part of the cavern. The blast was louder than before, echoing through the cave and assaulting our ears. Rackham’s aim had been a little too good. The walkway cracked and started to dip, the foundation giving way with a terrible screech.
The stone fell in pieces, bringing trilobites with them, metal and rock raining down around us.
I woke to the sound of Petra yelling at me. “Gods,” I mumbled, but the word came out in bubbles. Disoriented, I sucked in air, only to get a mouthful of water. I was partially submerged. As soon as that understanding became clear, I started kicking and discovered my legs and one arm were pinned down. The fog began to fade, and it occurred to me it must be debris.
Now I grasped what Petra was saying. “Hold on, I’m coming to you!” she yelled.
She made it over to me and started pulling rubble off with her upgraded arm until I could get free. “Thanks,” I gasped. “Where’s Oberon?”
She pointed off to the side. The lieutenant was sitting up on a bank I hadn’t noticed before. “I’m fine,” Rackham called out.
“The trilobites?” I asked.
“Carl finally shut them down,” she replied. “But we have another problem, Captain.”
I groaned. Why couldn’t there ever be good news? “What is it now?”
She pulled out a portable emitter and passed it to me.
Sigmond’s miniature form appeared in seconds. “Pardon me, Captain. I’ll get straight to it,” he said. “Major Sanchez has called an emergency meeting between Alliance leaders. A station on the edge of Sarkonian space has just been attacked by the Celestials.”
13
I gaped at Sigmond in disbelief and tried to process what he’d just said. “What about Earth?” I asked, voice hoarse.
The Cognitive didn’t keep me in suspense. “Earth is safe, sir. I verified with Kar
en and Leif personally.”
“Well, that’s something, I guess. They hit Sarkonian territory, you say?”
“That’s right. A small station, though Major Sanchez has all the details. Sir, your suit’s sensors appear to be functional, and I’m unaware of any injuries. Are you able to make your way out of the facility?”
“I think so. Let Abigail know what happened and get people down here to start packing up.”
Casting a look around the underground body of water, my eyes landed on the ruined walkway. It had collapsed into the shallow end of the water and one half jutted up into a peak. It looked like it was still partially attached, hinging at the top. I waved Rackham over and pointed up to it. “What do you two think? Can we scale that?”
Petra shook her head. “I don’t recommend that, Captain. I’ve seen some nasty cave ins. It might look steady but one wrong move could end in catastrophe.” She gestured with her hands to demonstrate.
I tapped a hand to my comm, relieved to find it still worked despite my recent swim. “Carl, can you see if there’s any other way out of this place?”
The Celestial Cognitive popped up using the mini emitter that was still in my hands. “As it happens, there is a maintenance shaft.”
Rackham rubbed his hands together and looked around in the murky darkness. “Great, where is it?”
Carl pointed at the pile of rubble. “Behind there.”
We found an area near the cave wall where smaller pieces had fallen. Petra managed to use the strength of her arm to help clear a space for us to move through. An open ingress led to a set of perfectly cut stairs. Rackham went first, but I put a hand on his shoulder to keep him back.
“Hold on a minute, Lieutenant. Carl, I don’t feel like setting off another alarm right now. I need you to be absolutely sure it’s safe before we go traipsing in.”
“I have purged all traces of Hygeia’s previous programming during your time in the stream,” he assured me. “And while you were sleeping.”
“I wasn’t sleeping, as you well know. I swear to gods if something shoots or stabs me in there, I’m holding you responsible, Carl.”