by T. R. Harris
“Oops,” was all he said in his defense.
No one lingered at that point. Riyad and Sherri were already at the aft cargo bay door, each armed with two of the M-101’s and enough magazines to choke a rhinoceros. Coop and Adam joined them after arming up. Then Adam gave the nod to open the door.
The atmosphere had tested safe for toxic levels of radiation, at least in the short run. Prolonged exposure could cause problems, but that would take months, if not longer. Still, each member of the team carried small Geiger counters set for automatic alerts against hotspots.
A surface density scan had pinpointed a large metallic panel nearby. Adam surveyed the bright, desolate landscape, searching for it. It wasn’t visible, meaning it was camouflaged. They knew the precise location and set out to find it.
It turned out to be an elevator platform painted a yellowish-tan to match the desert sand. It was large enough to easily lower ten or more of Jroshin-like starships below the surface. There must be an enormous hangar below their feet. Adam cringed. A bunker large enough to hold dozens, if not hundreds of the dark-matter-powered spacecraft.
“There has to be a way to enter without taking the main elevator,” Sherri said. She had a density scanner with her and began walking the perimeter of the metal elevator pad.
“I got something here,” she called out. “A smaller panel.”
The landscape plunged into a shallow wadi, but one deep enough to support a doorway carved into the side of the riverbank. The seams of the door were obvious up close, the disguise more a function of design than necessity. There was a control panel on the door with active lights aglow.
Copernicus anticipated this and came equipped with a small electronic device he’d taken from his underground command center. He placed the small box next to the control panel, and lights began to flash on his device. A moment later, a pattern was displayed. He punched the pattern in on the control box and the door opened inward.
“I’ll go in first,” Adam said. “There’s no way we could have landed without them knowing it. They have to be expecting us.”
Riyad and Coop took up flanking positions while Sherri stood back, covering them. Adam flung the door open, flooding the dark interior with harsh desert sunlight. He rushed in, diving to his right and crouching down, his M-101 glued to his cheek. The barrel light was on, and he quickly surveyed the interior.
He was in a small anteroom with stairs leading down. He moved to the stairs and aimed the barrel of his rifle into the dark abyss. The stairs led down for quite some distance before ending at a landing platform about a hundred feet down. This had to be only the beginning. The underground bunker had to be deep to avoid their density scans.
And still, no aliens were seen.
“Playing coy, I guess,” Coop said as he slipped in next to Adam. “Cover me.”
The spy/starship repairman began moving down the stairs slowly, hugging the right sidewall. When he reached the bottom, his barrel light swept both directions. He lifted his right hand and motioned with his fingers for the rest of the team to follow. They moved down one at a time, with Adam bringing up the rear.
“There’s another ladder to the left,” Copernicus reported. “It goes down about the same distance. Check out the floor. Virgin dust. No one’s been this way in a while.”
“They probably just use the big elevator,” Riyad said. “My turn to take point.”
He moved out and down the stairs. The team did this another two times, which placed them somewhere around four hundred feet below the surface. There were no more stairs, and the corridor widened to four times the width of the higher levels. There were also footprints and tire tracks in the thin coating of dust on the floor.
“Most of the footprints head off in this direction,” Sherri said, pointing to the left. That was in the direction of the topside elevator panel. They moved out again, with two of the team hugging opposite sides of the wide corridor with the other two trailing behind and watching their six.
“I’m feeling a slight breeze,” Sherri whispered through her throat comm.
They continued for another fifty feet before they came to a series of huge coils and braces, climbing up the sidewall and into a large, dark void reaching up. The equipment got more complicated the further they went until Sherri and Coop suddenly crouched down and turned off their barrel lights. Adam and Riyad did the same. The lead pair moved up a little more.
“Holy shit,” said Copernicus on the comm. “I think we hit the jackpot. Sherri, to the right. I’ll cover left.”
The dark pair disappeared ahead of Adam and Riyad, who rushed up to cover them. That’s when Adam understood what Copernicus meant.
They were at the edge of a vast underground chamber full of Gracilian black-hulled combat vessels. They rested under dim overhead and side lighting, which barely reflected off their surfaces. It was an ethereal scene, making the starships appear almost as holograms projected on the metal floor of the bunker. But they were real, and the sight of so many dormant killing machines sent Adam’s heart racing.
“How many do you think there are?” he asked.
The chamber was lit—to a degree—allowing the Humans to sight along the rows of the starships.
“There has to be a hundred—” Coop said.
“More,” Sherri countered. “A lot more.”
Adam was nervous. They’d made it far below ground and to the secret bunker holding the Gracilian war fleet. Why were they allowed to do so? Even if it was just Aric Jroshin and his single crew on site, there were enough of them to take out the four Humans, especially with the element of surprise and knowing the lay of the land. Something wasn’t right.
“Stay alert,” he said. “Don’t get distracted by what you see. Be on the lookout for what you don’t.”
“That’s easy for you to—”
Copernicus stopped in mid-sentence.
“What’s wrong, Coop?”
“We have company.”
15
The team collapsed on his position, following his gaze into the rows of silent starships.
There was nothing there, no movement, nothing.
“What do you see?”
“There, on the short forward wing.” He flicked on his barrel light, highlighting the spot.
And there, resting on the black metal hull, was a shiny, four-and-a-half-inch in diameter metal globe.
“It’s an Aris service module,” Sherri said a little too loudly. Her voice also trembled with fear. The tiny artificial intelligence devices could be friend or foe; she’d known them to be both. She also knew they could teleport short distances and with the ability to send out debilitating electric shocks if provoked.
“What are the Gracilians doing with a service module?” she asked rhetorically.
“They had them at the dark matter research station,” Copernicus said. “They obviously found more.
“Is the thing active?” Riyad asked. The globe hadn’t reacted to their presence or the four beams of light that lit it up.
“It has to be,” Adam said. “They wouldn’t leave it lying around on one of their starships.”
Adam began scanning the other nearby ships with his light beam. It only took a moment before he discovered three more of the globes, each resting quietly at various points on three more starships.
“Four of them,” Sherri said. “We’ve never seen four together. This isn’t right.”
“No shit,” Copernicus said. “None of this is right.”
“Movement!” Riyad called out. “I have movement! Off to the left, and it’s not Aris service modules.”
To punctuate his statement, a series of blinding flash bolts lit off and streaked their way. The team ran into the graveyard of starships, seeking cover within the undercarriage of the fighters. They sighted the points of origin for the bolt launches and sent return fire that way, in the form of deafening blasts from their M-101s.
The attackers separated, as witnessed by the dispersal of their flas
h bolts. The Human kept firing until the flashes trickled to a stop.
“Coop, Riyad, go right,” Adam ordered. “We’ll go left. Move!”
The team rushed under the starships, meeting up at the point where the flash fire had originated. They came upon a couple of dead aliens, but they weren’t Gracilians. A third alien was wounded but alive. They had to be mercenaries, which supported Adam’s belief that Aric’s crew was the only natives on the planet. Adam slid down on a knee next to the survivor, placing the warm barrel of his weapon under the alien’s chin.
“How many troops are in the complex?”
The alien grimaced in pain. Adam shoved the barrel a little harder into his skin. “How many?”
“Over a hundred.”
That wasn’t the answer he been hoping for. “Where are they?”
“Everywhere.”
“Why didn’t you attack earlier?”
“Orders.”
“Where is Jroshin?”
“Who?”
“Aric Jroshin.”
“I know not that name.”
“He goes by Si-Vad,” Copernicus said.
“Yes! The Si-Vad,” the alien answered. “He is here. Command center.”
“Where is that?” Adam asked.
The alien’s eyes shifted to his right. “I will not tell you.”
“You already have.” Adam pressed the trigger on the M-101, which probably wasn’t a good idea this close to his victim. He shrugged. Just more alien blood to wipe off his face.
“That way,” Adam said, making a chopping motion with his hand to the right.
“Did he say they were ordered not to attack until now?” Sherri asked.
“That’s what he said.”
“So Jroshin wanted us to find the spaceships—and the service modules.”
“Seems like it.”
Sherri snorted. “That’s not good. He’s pretty confident we’re not going to live long enough to tell anyone.”
Adam smiled. “Just another alien in the process of underestimating us.”
“I hope so.”
There was another opening leading away from the hangar. A fourth mercenary had succumbed to his injuries and was lying in a puddle of blood at the portal. But if there are a hundred of them in the complex, losing four of them wouldn’t make a difference.
They entered the new hallway, moving cautiously, expecting another attack at any moment. At one point, the corridor joined up with a large circular room with various doorways leading off in different directions. The room had tables and backless seating. The four Humans stopped before entering, not sure what to do. The sight was unsettling, to say the least, because resting on the tables were another eight of the Aris service modules. Adam realized they could be the same from the hangar—plus a few more—since the objects could teleport. But like the others, they sat inert.
Sherri played with her throat mic frequency, opening it to broadband, capable of picking up multiple signals. She then stepped up to the nearest module.
“Can you communicate with me?” In the old days, their ATDs allowed for direct telepathic communications with the units. Without them, she knew the modules could tap into available comm systems. She waited a moment while the men stood guard—still nothing.
Adam stepped up to her. “Do these things look different to you?” he asked.
Sherri nodded. “Yeah, they look new. They don’t have that greenish patina.”
“You don’t think—” Adam began.
16
“Yes, they are creations of the Gracilians.”
The voice startled the Humans, coming from a hidden speaker near the ceiling.
“Now, please lower your weapons,” said the voice of Aric Jroshin. “There is a force of twenty waiting through the doorways. I do not wish to kill you. If I did, I would have done it earlier. Do as I say. There is much to discuss.”
Adam nodded to the others. The moment they let the barrels of their M-101s point to the floor, alien troops comprised of a variety of races rushed in, cued by hidden cameras. The aliens were dressed in black armor tac vests. They moved with fluidity and quickly disarmed the Humans. Barrels of Xan-fi flash rifles began directing them forward, through one of the doorways and down another long corridor. Eventually, they were led into a more sedate room with a low ceiling and plush furniture. Aric Jroshin—or a person Adam figured to be Jroshin—was seated on a couch. Two older Gracilians sat nearby, appearing comfortable and in control. A trio of guards lined the walls, their weapons aimed at the Humans.
“Come in, Copernicus Smith. Sit, and your friends, too.”
They followed instructions.
Aric focused his attention first on Riyad and then on Adam. He leaned forward slightly. “I believe you are Adam Cain. I have seen vids. And of course, this would be Riyad Tarazi and Sherri Valentine.” The alien returned his attention to Copernicus and smiled. “You have powerful friends, indeed, Mr. Smith. Why did you not tell me? I have no idea how you tracked me to this location, but seeing who you brought, it seems plausible.”
Coop bristled. The alien had just given Adam and his people credit for what Copernicus had done. For far too long, the deep cover spy had lived in the shadow of his three more famous friends. It was continuing. But to his credit, Coop didn’t correct him, telling Aric that it was he who built the tracking device that led them here. They may need to track the alien’s ship in the future.
Adam let out a small laugh. Typical, he thought. I’m already planning beyond the capture, to a time when the tide will turn, the eternal optimist. One of these days, I’m going to be wrong.
Hopefully, it wouldn’t be today.
There was a shiny, new Aris service module sitting on a table to Aric’s right. He picked up the object and spun it around in his hands for a moment.
“You obviously recognized this,” he said. “It is a replica of an ancient Aris device they used to attend to their daily needs, including the infusion of energy.” Aric studied the faces of the Humans. “You are angered,” he said. “You wonder how is it that we have been able to achieve this feat, to duplicate the technology of the Aris, the beings who seeded the galaxy with advanced forms of life three billion years ago, creating the wondrous variety that surrounds us to this day? It is simple. It is because the Gracilians are the heirs to the Aris legacy. As it will be proven, we are to become the new Aris in the galaxy.”
“Do you have delusions of grandeur much?” Sherri asked. “What makes you think you’re the equal of the Aris. You forget we’ve met them; you haven’t.”
Aric laughed. “That is true. I have heard of your exploits. Yet you do not realize the link we have with the Aris.” The alien looked at Sherri with joy in his eyes. “In truth, even my name Aric is a derivative of Aris. That should be obvious.”
“All I see that’s obvious here,” Adam began, “is that your race is nearly extinct, yet you’re trying to act more powerful than you are.”
“Act? On the contrary, you have seen our fleet, and you, Copernicus Smith, you have guessed as to the power source we have employed.”
“Dark energy.”
“That is correct.” Aric leaned back, still lovingly stroking the service module. “Allow me a moment to explain.”
Adam grinned. Here it comes, what he calls the James Bond Reveal, when the villain would spill his guts, vomiting up information the hero would later use to defeat his foe. It never failed. The ego of bad guys was legend.
“We Gracilians have been scrounging the Zaniff Field and the surrounding Cadon region for a hundred years. Our planet is the closest to that of the ancient homeworld of the Aris. We discovered artifacts long before others and have been studying dark energy since then. Our efforts have produced astounding results, which I will demonstrate in a moment. But first, let me take you back three billion years ago, when the Aris first began their experiments with biological manipulation. Where do you think the Aris went to first? Earth, Formil? No, they came to Gracilia first. And
what would the Aris be attempting to achieve? They would be on a mission to duplicate themselves within the genetics of other races. We Gracilians were the first, making us the direct manifestation of the Aris, their most direct descendants.”
“It didn’t go like that,” Adam said. “The Aris weren’t looking to make copies of themselves. They wanted something better, not the same. The same wasn’t working. They were looking for the Apex Being.”
“Yes, and I know it is rumored that person was your offspring, Lila Bol. Gracilia may be located far out on the Kidis Spar, but we are not without information. But what you say is immaterial. The Aris created most life in the galaxy, and it all started with the Gracilians. And now we have learned how to harness dark energy.” He held up the service module. “We have even recreated the Aris most important tool, the so-called service modules.”
“How did you do that?” Sherri asked, overcome by her curiosity.
“Humans have a quaint term for it: reverse engineering. We cannot improve on the concept. Having acquired a number of the ancient modules, we broke them apart and learned their secrets.”
“They also contain the sum knowledge of the Aris,” Sherri stated, dumfounded.
Aric laughed. “Unfortunately, the genetic memory we were not able to duplicate. However, we have learned the secrets of their artificial intelligence and energy production. Over time, the modules will contain the sum total of Gracilian knowledge.”
“What are you going to do with them?” Sherri persisted. “Those things are dangerous. They were designed primarily to supply the Aris with direct energy to keep them alive. That’s not how you live, so the primary function of the modules is lost on you.”
“That is true; however, these are devices with incredible abilities beyond simply their energy production. They can teleport; they can operate complex machinery by direct control; and their energy production—although not life-sustaining for us—can be channeled into weapons.” He smirked. “I did not need to send my troops against you. I could have simply had the modules stun you into unconsciousness.”