by Korza, Jay
“It’s okay, Aunt Janine, he’s right. There are a lot of holes in it. Like timeline issues, biology issues, DNA stuff. I could probably make an easier argument for why I’m wrong rather than why I’m right.” Emily took a seat on a nearby crate.
“Oh, honey.” Janine sat with Emily while still giving the evil eye to Hillstep. “There are holes in your theory but there are a lot of solid pieces, too. In fact, I need you to write that theory up so we can include it in our notes and you can get credit for it.”
“Really?” Emily was embarrassed that she had almost started crying over what Hillstep had said.
“Yes, really.” Hillstep tried to redeem himself. “I apologize for attacking your theory like that. In my defense, I have a valid point, but I should be encouraging my protégé and not attacking. I was really just thinking out loud about what we need to do to validate as much of your theory as we can. I really do like where you are going with it.
“In this field, it’s best to come up with your theory, detail it out as much as possible, and then attack it with every brain cell you have. Once you’ve broken down all of the weak points, those are the areas that you give your attention to in order to prove them with more research or disprove them in order to change your theory to a more correct working model.”
“I understand. I shouldn’t have been such a baby about it.” Emily had regained her composure. “One thing we forgot to point out, using the working theory that the slave symbol we found here was somehow tied to the Unwutine language, we checked the other symbols against every character we know from their writings. There isn’t even a slight match between the two languages. Another dead end. And we are no closer to finding what they mean or how to open the chamber.”
“Well, you have only three weeks left before you go home.” Janine was standing again and examining the door. “You have two choices. You can work on shoring up your theory or stay with Hillstep and work on the door some more.”
“I’ll work with Hillstep, if that’s okay.” Emily took the pad from her aunt’s hand. “I can work on my theory from home or any terminal with Net access. But while I’m here, I want to keep learning from the other researchers and maybe rooting around the ruins will give me more clues to add to my theory before I leave.”
“Sounds like a plan to me. But you will go back up top and sit down at a proper terminal away from distractions and write your theory up. I’ll take you up there and show you the templates we use on these digs.” Hillstep wanted to redeem himself to both Janine and Emily, if he hadn’t already. “We’ll come back down here later tonight if there’s time; if not, then first thing tomorrow morning.”
As the three stepped back into the decontamination chamber, Emily realized they hadn’t even needed the suits they were wearing. “Well, this was kind of a waste. Getting into these suits is a pain in the ass and it was for nothing. We didn’t do anything but talk at the door. We didn’t even try to get in.”
Janine just laughed. “That’s the way it is sometimes with these digs. You plan your day one way and end up following a lead or a hunch in a completely different direction. You did good.” Looking over towards Lance, who was still working near the chamber, she added, “Besides, it’s better to have protection and not need it than to need protection and not have it.”
“Aunt Janine!” Hillstep and Emily said in unison.
“What?” Janine said with a failed attempt at coyness.
~
Emily wrote up her theory and added it to the official record of the research team. Over the next few weeks, she scoured the ruins for new clues to help her theory and also advance the project’s understanding of the other writings that were left behind. They never did find a way into any of the sealed rooms they found at the site.
Eventually Janine turned the team over to Doctor Hillstep and she went back to her university to continue teaching. Not too long after returning to the university, she was joined by Emily, who was granted early admission based on the research she had helped with at the dig. Ultimately, Emily used her original theory as her doctoral thesis and was able to prove a lot of what she had originally put forward, though the chambers were still never opened.
Chapter 14
Dig Site One – Open Sesame
“Fang will take point with Bloom in second, followed by Davies, Hood, Martinez, Patz, Snyder, and me.” Wilks began his briefing. “Team two will have Scan on point, followed by Doc, el-tee, Jockey, Trip, Cannon, and Snake.”
Not a bad layout, Daria thought. Wilks put Fang out front because he would be able to detect an enemy better and farther away than a human. Then he put Scan on point for team two. This allowed team two to react as quickly as team one because Scan could detect Fang’s emotions, so he could act almost simultaneously with him, giving team two the advantage of advance warning. Very smart.
“Now, el-tee,” he continued, “with all due respect. Are you going to be able to handle yourself in there?”
Daria was going to interject on Emily’s behalf but knew that would only confirm Wilks’ idea of Emily being weak. “If you’d like to find out while Bloom is trying to unlock that door, I’d be happy to show you”, she said, emphasizing her resolve by setting her weapon down against the wall.
She’s come a long way, Daria thought. But Wilks was a killer and would have no problem taking her out. Luckily, the show of force and confidence was enough for Wilks and he just smiled broadly. “Just don’t trip and accidentally shoot me, all right? I’d hate to have to see firsthand how good Doc is at her job.”
“There wouldn’t be anything left for her to patch up.”
OK, that’s enough, Daria said to Emily with a glare. Don’t push your luck, lady.
Everyone laughed aloud, except Fang. He couldn’t understand it. A challenge was a challenge, whether it came from a woman, a superior officer, or whoever. The lieutenant and Wilks should be fighting by now. Agh! These humans, he thought.
“Who’s buying me the beer?” Bloom said from his makeshift perch. Everyone stopped laughing and looked at him. “I think I might understand it. Thing is, if I’m wrong, who knows what will happen. Considering what happened yesterday, I’m not sure if I want to try.”
Bloom was fluent in twenty-seven languages and only six of those were human. He had a talent for picking out patterns in speech, and symbols used in writing. The corps had tried to encourage, even force, Bloom into intelligence because of his talents. He said he’d resign first, even spend time in prison if he had to. No, he wasn’t going to sit at a terminal somewhere in space with a headset on for the rest of his life listening in on other people’s conversations. He just wouldn’t do it. So the corps kept him in Recon; he was good at it and once they knew his determination, they conceded to better judgment. And better judgment wasn’t a common thing for the military.
“C’mon, wuss. You want me to hold your hand?” Wilks approached Bloom. “You know we all trust you. If you think you got it, do it.” He gave Bloom a nod and a wink.
“All right.” He sighed. “Form up, guys, we’re going in.”
“Just a minute”, Daria said as she focused on the nothing that was in front of her. She was getting a transmission from base medical. “Doctor, please put this on general transmission for my team to hear.”
Everyone focused on the same nothing that Daria was looking at as they listened to the conversation. “First of all,” the doctor began, “you did an excellent job with your patient. I’ve never seen its like. He came around about a half-hour ago and began screaming. We did retrieve some audio from his visor, but most of it is incoherent; I’m transmitting what we did get. Here goes.”
The muffled sounds of recorded speech entered the team’s heads. “What do you mean you hit something? There’s nothing on that grid except dirt.” A pause as though he was hearing the other side of a conversation with a colleague who was no longer able to hold up his end of the conversation. He continued, “Yes, I’m almost two kilometers from the site, trying
to complete the survey.” Another pause. “No, I won’t come back right now. I’m too far out. It can wait. Let me finish this and I’ll be back in a couple hours.”
In the background began sounds of sheets rustling and bed rails being pulled with enough force to make the bed he was laying on move. You could hear nurses and doctors trying to calm him down with voices of reassurance. And then a scream from the recording rose above all the other noise. “What the hell is that! My eyes, my eyes! Ahhhhhh!”
Daria hadn’t noticed burn marks on him while she was treating his wounds. The many meters he was pushed on the ground from the shockwave must have worn off the seared flesh on his face from the intense heat of that massive explosion.
“Sorry it isn’t more encouraging and that we don’t have any more information at this point.” The doctor’s voice returned. “We had to sedate him and I don’t think he’ll come around for another day or so. I’ll keep you posted.”
The transmission ended. Daria had halted the insertion, so all eyes were now on her to give it the go again. She looked at Bloom. “By all means.” She made a sweeping gesture with her arm towards the door. “After you.”
“Everyone exchange ammo for close quarters battle. Lock and load!” This was from Wilks.
Special ammunition was used for CQB to reduce the amount of injuries from ricochet accidents. The rounds used jet fuel for propulsion, so they tended to bounce around for quite a while in a close quarters area before they ran out of fuel. This was not a good thing.
CQB ammunition used a slug that almost disintegrated on its second hard impact. A trigger in the nose of the slug was set off when it hit its first hard object; that allowed the round to shed its hard exterior coating. The second solid object it hit that it couldn’t penetrate would just about dissolve the slug.
The pros outweighed the cons of this clever round. Of course, if you were in the way of it before it made its second contact, personal armor or flesh wasn’t solid enough of a contact for the round to disintegrate. So tough luck for you in those cases, but in general it was a good idea.
Everyone removed their standard ammo and slapped home CQB in the magazine receiver. A push of a button behind the trigger cycled the first round into position for firing. A faint hum was heard as all the weapons powered-up. A small electrical charge was used to ignite the round’s fuel source. It was set on a very specific voltage so that accidental misfiring was avoided from electrical fields that soldiers sometimes encountered.
The two teams edged into entry positions while Bloom keyed in the opening sequence and said a private prayer. “On my mark,” he began, “three, two, one, mark.” Almost as a whisper, the last word left his mouth.
The wall before them seemed to slowly vanish into thin air. Fang waited until the object was completely gone before entering. The doors and hallways that followed were huge compared to the humans and even considered large by the much bigger Shirka leading the way. It was actually ideal for an entry team.
They swept the hallway and cleared rooms as they found them. Each room had equipment that was completely alien to each member of the team. Emily tried to keep herself in formation but felt an almost uncontrollable urge to stop at each console and display to examine it. Her newfound warrior side won the battle and she focused in on Daria’s back to cover her.
The initial floor of the building was small, with only twelve rooms altogether, none of which led anywhere. After the floor was cleared, the team gathered by what seemed to be a lift shaft.
“I think that it’s safe to assume that because we’re all still here,” Emily began, “we can take a closer look at what’s on this level before proceeding.” OK, so her scientific mind was exerting itself a little more than she cared to admit. “We should get as much information as we can with what we have before we continue. Wilks, deploy your men to give us a safe perimeter. Bloom, you’re with me. Daria, take Davies and see what you can find.”
“Aye, aye, ma’am,” came in unison from all who were given orders.
Wilks deployed his unit to cover the entrance and the lift shaft and placed sentries intermittently in the hallway. Daria started at the rear with Davies while Emily took Bloom to the front rooms to begin their investigation.
Scan looked nervous. “I just don’t feel right”, he mumbled to Snake, who was standing beside him at the shaft. “Something’s wrong.”
Chapter 15
Vengeance’s Pride – The Decision
Supreme Command be damned, he thought. He was in command of this mission and if he was wrong, they could torture him later. But something had to be done now.
“Get a team together.” He motioned to his first officer. “Now.”
Chapter 16
Aboard the Vanguard – The Briefing
“Gentlemen,” the general began, “no, scratch that. We’re not gentlemen, are we? If we were gentlemen, none of us would be here. No, we’re killers, each and every one of us. Do you know the difference between a killer and a soldier?” No one answered. “A soldier kills because he has to. He’s sent into battle with orders and a weapon. He points his gun in the direction he’s told to, and he kills whoever is in that direction. Each one of you in this room could walk up to a stranger, look into their eyes, and end their life without a second thought if you felt it was necessary.
“It’s that ability that makes you unique and exactly what we, the Coalition, needs right now. You know of the hostile forces that are invading our sector and of their superior weaponry. The way the Coalition sees it, we only have one of two chances. The first involves a team of scientists and marines on a world at the outer rim of our known explored space.”
Glances and murmurs began after the last statement. Seth wondered to himself just how much they were going to tell them and how much was actually being left out. His personal feelings for the general made him think that the old man would tell them everything he knew, whether he was supposed to or not. The general allowed the murmurs to subside before he finished telling the group what the other team’s mission was.
Then he continued debriefing the soldiers—killers—on what their role in this whole thing was. “We are traveling deep into the heart of what we believe to be our enemy’s territory. We are to undertake the single most dangerous recon mission in the history of man.” He smiled a smile that made most of his cadre shiver from deep within. There was just something eerie about his grin. “You might be wondering why it is that I say that. For starters, we don’t even know where we’re going. We’ve never charted this region of space and have no idea of the layout of our enemy’s forces, bases, or even home planet. Our job is to stumble around this sector until we find something or get captured.” His grin widened, almost too eerie to take at this point.
“The top brass hopes that a team of extremely fine-tuned soldiers will be able to live long enough after capture to escape and bring back valuable information. That’s how desperate they are back home. They’re willing to throw away your lives on a chance, a hope that they might get something, no matter how slight, in return for your death. Well, I’m not.
“This ship is the finest in the fleet. It uses some of the alien’s technology that we found at the initial dig site more than five years ago. We are currently traveling nine times faster than our normal propulsion systems would allow.” Again murmurs and looks were passed through the crowd of listeners. Seth noticed that Surgeon was taking it all in stride, never losing focus. Damn, how he admired that guy.
“The exterior hull is also designed from information gathered at the dig. Although the interior is standard Coalition layout, the exterior hull shape and the energy signature that the engines produce should allow us to be undetectable to any of the aliens’ sensors.”
“Isn’t the information from the site more than a thousand years old?” Joker asked.
The general continued, “That’s a good point, son. Based on the very limited amount of information we gathered from our outposts that were destroyed, it seems a
s though their weapons signatures are exactly the same from the information we obtained at the first excavation site. Our scientists find it very odd that there has been no variation in their weapons signature for a thousand years. However, they are hoping that if their weapons haven’t changed in that time that maybe their sensor packages haven’t either. It’s a pretty big IF but unfortunately it’s the best they can do.
“Now,” he continued, pointing to the star charts, “I have decided to head in the direction of this solar system here.” He highlighted a system containing fifteen planets and a binary star. “Strategically speaking, this is where I would place a primary defense grid. We’re going to sneak in to the system using this ring of asteroids for cover, along with the radiation from the binary star to mask our presence in the system.
“If our recon comes up empty-handed, I have mapped out five other systems that I feel are likely to hold military forces based on their location, size, and resources. Of course, they may not think as we do and could possibly have a completely different strategy when it comes to troop placement.”
Joker, feeling confident, decided to speak up again. “Or they just don’t have anyone as smart as you running things, sir.” This actually got a small, if not careful, laugh from the group.
“Hopefully, son, they’re as dumb as you. Then we won’t have any problems at all.” It was hard to tell if he was joking but when he threw his head back and began to laugh, everyone joined in. The general eyed Joker and gave him a wink to let him know that there were no hard feelings.
The briefing continued for another four hours and two kegs. They went over maps and information from long-range probes as well as information gathered from the original dig site. During all this, Seth just couldn’t help thinking about the other team. He wondered how their mission was going.