Kei was about to say something when IVIN interrupted the conversation.
“I think I have the proper password. Just give me a moment and we should have a map.”
“That was fast,” Soko said.
“Of course. Look at who's responsible for it,” the AI replied, sounding almost smug.
“Authorization recognized. Full access granted.”
Kei finished off his meal and stood up, wondering what the new information would reveal.
THE MAP LED them to an open chamber, about a mile further into the complex. Three tunnels converged on the circular structure. One had a blast door closed over it, but according to the map that was the route toward their destination.
A raised dais in the center of the chamber held several consoles, including the door control. With the authorization codes in hand they walked forward, but after entering them it remained shut.
Elsner walked over to the doorway to take a look, accompanied by Lauren.
“What do you see?” Mirko asked.
“Looks like it's going to be tough to blast through,” Elsner called back. “Might want to work on getting the door control fixed, because otherwise I'm not sure if we can get it open.”
“I'm not sure about this either,” Lauren said. “I'm stumped.”
“Let me try something,” Hammond said. “I've seen a few of these Ulic locks in my time.”
Mirko began to open his mouth. He wanted to get his team into position before they opened the door, mostly as a precaution. They needed to have everyone in place to deal with threats that might be lurking on the other side, preferably in cover with the ability to provide mutual support.
“Hold on for a moment. We-”
Hammond seemed to ignore him and touched a few buttons on the console. “Ah. And there we go.”
Mirko hear a whirling noise from beyond the doorway and brought his weapon up.
“Cover the doorway,” he barked, silently cursing at Dr. Hammond in the process. It might not be much, but if his impatience-
The doorway lifted. Mirko had just enough time to see movement on the other side before the plasma bolts began flying.
“Moritz!” he shouted, but by then it was too late.
KEI SAW Elsner fall and sprinted toward his wounded comrade, his heart sinking as he approached. One shot. It had only been one shot, but that might be enough.
He was still breathing by the time Kei reached him, but it didn't look good. The plasma bolt had melted its way through his chest plate with a combination of kinetic force and thermal energy, leaving a small entrance wound the diameter of his pinky. He didn't see an exit wound, but at this point there was no way to tell how far the shot had penetrated. It could be a minor wound, or it could have seared through vital organs and tissue.
Kei went to his knees and pulled Elsner behind cover, heedless of the plasma bolts zipping around him. He made a quick glance at Lauren to check that she was alright, then went to work on his patient. If-
“Maeda!” Soko barked over the radio link. “Grab Lauren and get here back here. You're too exposed!”
“Copy that, but-”
“We'll try to recover Elsner, but we can't afford to lose you two as well.”
“But-”
“Do it now!”
Kei cursed under his breath and made one last look at his companion, then prepared to break out of cover. He saw the wisdom in the decision. He knew very well that it was the right one to make, but the thought of it still made him feel sick. He was leaving a comrade here to die. If only-
“Dr. Hammond! Dr., stop!” Nina yelled into the radio link.
Kei glanced over his shoulder in time to see Hammond sprint toward their position, completely heedless of the plasma bolts zipping through the air. He slid into cover next to Kei and clapped him on the shoulder.
“I can help carry him if you'll cover us.”
“You're sure about this?”
Hammond nodded and grinned. “I'm no stranger to dangerous situations, young man. Now let's go.”
Kei nodded. “OK. On the count of three. One...”
“They're charging! They're charging!”
Kei took a chance and peeked out of cover. The sight made his blood run cold. Eon Path troops were storming out of the tunnel, firing their weapons in tight bursts and pressing forward with reckless abandon. Even the sight of their comrades falling around them did nothing to make them waver.
These weren't the troops they had faced on Caleth, he realized. Not the ones they had dealt with on the surface either, or the ones in the first chamber. These ones had military training and knew what they were doing. They had numbers, and they were willing to throw them around.
Kei raised his weapon and shot one of the attackers, but it barely made a dent in the enemy force. Rapid-fire plasma bolts forced him to duck back into cover. He looked back toward the rest of his team and saw them taking cover as well. One of them had deployed a limpet, but the firepower from the device couldn't hope to fend off the relentless enemy.
“Maeda, watch it. They're right on top-”
Griz's warning came far too late. Kei shot the first enemy that showed his face, but the next one closed in and bashed his plasma rifle away. He tried to grab for his handgun, but two more piled in and smashed him into the metal deck, driving the breath from his lungs. His vision went fuzzy for a moment, and he flailed helplessly. Was this the end for him?
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Lauren tried to fight back, tried her best to struggle and make it difficult for them, but to no avail. The Eon Path troops swarmed over their position and knocked her weapon away, then dragged her back into the tunnel with them. She saw Kei as well, seemingly groggy from the attack. And Dr. Hammond as well…
“Squad A, Squad B, hold the passageway,” one of the officers ordered, a man with short black hair and a severe expression. “The rest of you, let's move!”
“Stand,” one of her captors hissed into her ear, and she felt a muzzle jab into her back.
Lauren took the hint and started moving under her own power. So did Dr. Hammond, but Kei struggled to retain his balance.
“Move!” one of the Eon troops said, raising his rifle to smack him with the butt-end of the weapon.
“That's a great idea,” Hammond said dryly. “Hit him and knock the wind out of him again so he can't stand up.”
The soldier shot a glare at him, but he also lowered his gun. Two pairs of hands grabbed Kei under his arms and dragged him along the corridor. The sounds of gunfire started to fade away into the distance.
Lauren felt the fear in her heart begin to grow more and more pronounced. Prisoners. They had been taken captive by the enemy, and by the look of things Eon Path meant business. What did they want? Would they try to use them as hostages? Kill them once they got the chance? Or was there another reason for this?
The group jogged through the tunnels for some time, so long that she lost track of how much distance they had traveled. A mile? Two miles? More than that? She noticed Kei had regained his wits and moved alongside the rest of the group, but Lauren still worried about his condition. When they had been captured he looked completely stunned, maybe the victim of a concussion.
“Chin up,” Hammond said to her.
“What?”
“Chin up, keep moving forward,” he said. “You don't have anything to worry about right now. Eon Path thinks you're too valuable to waste, so they're not going to do anything to you. So you can feel safe.”
Those words still didn't do much to reassure her. They might be true enough, but then, how would he know? Right now the motives of their captors were a complete mystery.
But Dr. Hammond had said she was too valuable to waste, and the gears began turning in her head…
“You're a double agent, aren't you?” she asked.
“Hm?”
“Everything you said was just an act. A-”
“Quiet,” one of her escorts said, prodding her roughly, but Hammond
shook his head.
“No, enough of that. Let her talk. She's not doing any harm.”
Lauren took a deep breath. “Why?”
“That's a rather large leap in logic,” he said. “Just because I end up getting captured alongside you, now I'm suddenly a double agent, or whatever you want to call it?”
“You opened the door,” she said, the pieces of the puzzle beginning to line up in her mind. “You knew they were on the other side, so you opened the door and allowed them to ambush us.”
“Another wild guess. How did I manage to communicate with them? Your AI and your communications officer swept my coms system for external links.”
“So all of this just happened by chance? You expect us to believe that?”
“And what proof do you have of that?”
Lauren didn't respond. She couldn't, because at this point it was all just a gut feeling. He was responsible for this. She knew it. She could feel it, but she didn't have any concrete evidence to back it up. And…
Dr. Hammond laughed. “Everything you believe is based on theories and evidence. Eventually, if you study long and hard enough you'll realize how pointless it is. Some things can never be fully understood. And some things can never be understood at all. They seem impossible. Yet they exist. Even if there isn't any of your so-called evidence.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Lauren asked. “And aren't you admitting that you're guilty?”
“Perhaps I am. Perhaps I'm not,” Hammond shrugged. “Whatever the case, our goals align. We're searching for the same thing, and it would do us good to work together.”
“Except that now we're working for a terrorist organization,” Lauren said, eyeing her captors warily. “One that shot one of your old friends in cold blood.”
“Yes, and that was quite unfortunate. I don't support those methods. But realistically, sometimes we need to go beyond the normal channels in search of the answers we seek. Relying on governments and so-called legitimate institutions only slows our progress.”
“I thought you said that you weren't affiliated with Eon Path,” Lauren said. “And that you weren't pleased by them misinterpreting your writings.”
“I never said that, did I? There you go again, making assumptions without facts or evidence to back them up,” Hammond said with a smile.
Lauren bit back her response. Even if she wasn't being held captive by Eon Path, his demeanor was beginning to irk her. Never giving a straight answer, always denying responsibility or involvement in anything.
“Are you on their side or on ours?” she asked.
“It's always about sides and defined factions. Are you on the side of order, or that of chaos and anarchy? Which flag do you fly? Pointless. All of it is pointless. Simply abstract distinctions created to define us and cage us in a constructed reality.”
He was beginning to ramble, and Lauren had no idea what he meant by that. In her opinion there was little point in trying to decipher any deeper understanding of his words. He was just a terrorist like the rest of them, trying to gain the power of this place for his own ends.
“Now, let us continue,” Hammond said. “We still need to get to our destination, and the knowledge that you possess will be very helpful. I know that you might have reservations about working with them, but remember, every large organization has its outliers.”
She didn't answer.
“So will you aid us? It will help you to achieve your goal as well. You want to discover more about the long-dead civilization of the Ulics, don't you?”
“I'm also not sure that I want to help a terrorist organization find what they're looking for.”
“A terrorist organization. All a manner of perspective, don't you think? What one may call a terrorist another might call a-”
“Fine,” she said, glaring at him. “It's a matter of perspective. And from my perspective they're terrorists, or do you expect me to forget that they killed my mentor on Caleth?”
“Touché.”
“Enough of this,” the commander said. He glanced over at Kei. “What are we going to do with him?”
“I don't know, but I suppose you're going to suggest something, aren't you Bray?”
“He's a liability. We're wasting too many troops keeping an eye on him.”
“All two of them?”
Bray scowled. “There's more than that, Dr., and he's dangerous.”
“Yes, and he's also a useful bargaining chip, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't just throw him away,” Dr. Hammond said. “Now, where were we? Ah yes, there's the matter of you assisting us in our endeavors.”
“Why should I do that?”
“You can do that, or we can make your defiance very costly for your companion,” Bray said.
Lauren's blood ran cold. That was what she had been afraid of. She wouldn't give in to threats to her own personal safety, but if those threats were being directed at someone else…
“Don't worry about me,” Kei said.
“Shut your mouth.”
“Or what? You'll shoot me?” he said defiantly. “Don't you dare give them anything.”
“He's got you there,” Hammond said. Lauren thought he sounded almost amused.
“Maybe not,” Bray said, still scowling. “Let's put it this way, if you don't tell us what we need to know then we're going to make this very painful for you. Both of you. One of you is bound to tell us something.”
“Do you want to lie through your teeth, or should I?” Kei said with a grin, apparently confident despite their situation.
“If you try to deceive us-”
“What are you going to do?” Hammond broke in. “Shoot one of them? That's a wonderful idea. If you don't give me the information that I want I'm going to shoot you, in which case I'll never get the information I want. Marvelous. Simply marvelous.”
Bray bristled at the rebuke. “Then we don't have to kill them. There's other ways to make them talk.”
“Yes, torture them. Something that takes a lot of time and effort, and often fails to yield any results. And then we're stuck dragging two injured prisoners with us. Stop acting like a two-bit movie villain and think things through.”
“Do you have any better ideas?”
“I might.” He motioned toward her. “Come with me, please. And have your men give us a bit of space. I don't think she's foolish enough to try to run.”
Lauren felt her guards release her, and she followed after him. At this point she felt like she had no other choice.
KEI WATCHED THEM GO, but he continued to take stock of their surroundings. His injury had subsided, but he continued to slow down and act like he was still hurt. It might be just a small act of defiance, but if he could impede Eon Path's progress even a small amount that might give the others time to catch up.
They'd be in a tough situation though. With him captured and Elsner either dead or badly injured they'd only have five able-bodied soldiers. If Elsner was injured they needed to give him medical treatment, which took away at least one more of the squad. They might decide to evacuate him, but that meant dealing with the enemies still outside.
Waiting for rescue might be a fool's errand anyhow. As far as he was concerned, he and Lauren were on their own.
“I THINK you'll come around in time.”
“Why would I do that?” Lauren asked.
“Because right now you have no comprehension or understanding of what we're searching for. What we're attempting to unravel and discover.”
“And that would make a difference?”
“Undoubtably.”
“Why?”
“Because everyone is thinking the wrong way. To them this is about their boundaries, their nations and their confederations. Everyone wants their own personal fiefdom, and they're concerned with maintaining or gaining their own power. Power that pales in comparison to those that came before us.”
“The Ulics were far more advanced than we are in our current state,” Lauren agreed, “but tha
t doesn't mean that we can't achieve the same level of competence one day.”
“Are you so sure about that?” he asked. “With our disparate, fractured nature? Our knowledge over the last two millennia has exploded. At no time in human history have we been able to expand so quickly. In the time it took for us to go from bronze tools to iron we managed to explore the planet, discover how to fly, then went into space and traveled to new galaxies.”
“Yes.”
“And where did that lead us? All that knowledge, and we spent ten years killing each other across the stars. And what for? Wealth? Political power? Creed? All of that pales in comparison to the Ulics and what they were able to accomplish. They were a single people, united in their purpose.”
“Then what use would they have for such a massive weapon?”
“Ah,” he said, “and that is the problem, isn't it? You think that we're searching for a weapon.”
“I thought-”
“You thought, yes, but you translated the passage wrong,” Hammond explained. “You translated it as the sword that splits the heavens. That's incorrect. The more accurate translation is the that the Eon Gate is the sword against the heavens.”
“That seems… minor.”
“If you truly think that's the case then you've learned nothing in your studies. Even a minor difference of words can have huge implications.”
“And what do you think that implication is?”
“Quite simply, it tells us about the most amazing discovery in the history of mankind.”
Lauren frowned. “Really. Isn't that a bit-”
“A bit exaggerated, is that what you want to say?” Dr. Hammond asked. “Yes, I've been told that before. My theories and beliefs are outlandish, the stuff of fiction and of conspiracy theorists. But I truly believe what I say, and this is not out of wild speculation. What I've seen...”
“What have you seen?” she asked. “What have you seen that you think is so important?”
“The Ulics,” he said. “They were so advanced, so far beyond our comprehension. The fact that we can even understand the basics of their society and technology is a testament to how far humanity has come. But we are still only capable of scratching the surface of their power and their understanding. We're so far behind them that we're not even looking in the right places. Unfortunately, Doran was one of them.”
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