“If what you said is correct, you have not.”
Anna chuckled. “Yeah, guess that’s right.”
Stretching in her chair, she suddenly realized that the pain in her shoulder was gone, too. She sat up and pulled her shirt sleeve up. The bite marks from the attack in the airlock were gone, not even a scar remaining. “Kate, could you scan my shoulder?”
The hologram shifted to give herself a clear view of the shoulder, and stared at it for a few seconds.
“That is odd. There is no sign of your previous injury. No muscle scarring, nothing.”
“I know. Why is that?”
“I do not know, Anna. I can not explain it.”
Anna turned around in her chair. “Do you think an ample amount of EM exposure over an extended period of time could cause this?”
“According to what we know about the electromagnetic spectrum, no. If anything, you should have some sort of radiation exposure, maybe some cells exhibiting early signs of cancer, depending on the form of energy to which you were exposed. But, you should not have healed like this.”
Anna nodded with the corners of her mouth tucked back. “That’s what I thought. Something happened. I don’t know what, but I want answers.”
Leaning back on one leg, Kate crossed her arms. She adopted that stern, motherly look again. “And just how do you propose to get those?”
Anna sat forward and put her socks back on. “I’m going back to the pyramid.”
“Hold on. You are not going back there. You just got back.”
“I’m not walking this time. I’m taking a drone with me.”
“Wh…a drone? What do you hope to accomplish with a drone that you did not do before?”
“Conduct a deeper scan of the pyramid. My hand scanner has to be within one meter of anything it scans for it to be truly effective. I can attempt extended scans with it, but it cannot produce any detailed results. Drones are capable of scanning planetary distances, so one should be able to focus a scan through a building less than a kilometer away.”
“But, you said you are not walking back. Do you intend for the drone to carry you?”
“Nope, I’m going to ride it.”
* * * * *
Hours later, Anna finished making her adjustments to Drone 17, the one she had picked as her favorite since it was the one that had found her. Sacrificing one of the internal compartment panels from inside the bridge, she sliced four chunks off one side and gave the rest to another drone to use as material to patch the rest of the fuel tank. With the pieces she acquired, she fashioned handles and footrests for herself, and welded them to the drone’s upper body.
“Okay, Seventeen,” she said through her wristcomp. “Let’s take you for a test flight.”
Anna climbed onto the drone’s back and, lying on her belly, settled into place. Although the drone was not designed to accommodate a rider, its relatively smooth dorsal hull plate allowed her to rest somewhat comfortably on top of it.
“Go up about five meters and hold position.”
In a split second, the drone’s thrusters engaged, pushing it into the air. Anna felt the rush of air against her entire body as it moved, and it gave her a little thrill. After a few seconds, the drone stopped moving and remained in place while its thrusters continued to fire.
“Kate,” Anna called out. “How’s Seventeen’s fuel output?”
“The drone’s fuel consumption has increased by three percent to accommodate for your added weight.”
“Not too bad. Seventeen, fly around the clearing at five kph.”
The drone moved forward and, as it approached the edge of the trees, curved to the left in a wide arc until it matched the clearing’s boundary. Anna raised her head and felt the soft breeze against her face. She looked at the ground below and watched as they drifted past the other drones hard at work around the ship.
She wanted to test the drone’s performance as well as the strength of her new emplacements. “Seventeen, increase speed to forty kph.”
Seventeen surged forward, almost catching Anna off-guard. Gripping the handles tighter, she pressed against the foot plates and grinned when they held against the added pressure. She pulled on the handles with the same result. Happy with the results, she pushed herself up on her knees and watched them fly around the ship a few more times before ordering them to land.
“How did it go?” Kate asked over the wristcomp’s comm channel.
“Excellent! I feel safe aboard it. Now, off to the pyramid!”
Chapter 15
The wind rushed through Anna’s hair as she and Seventeen soared over the treetops toward the pyramid. Although she knew the flight would only last a couple minutes, the freedom she felt exhilarated her, and she resolved to do this again while the drones still had fuel.
As expected, the flight ended about a minute later when the drone touched down several meters away from the bottom of the pyramid’s staircase. Anna slid from the top of the drone and gazed at the pyramid for a long moment, contemplating how she was going to attempt to crack the mysteries within. She thought about taking the drone to the top of the building, but dismissed the idea, thinking the energy field that disrupted her hand scanner would probably do the same to her robotic companion. In fact, she was not sure how far the field’s effects reached.
“Seventeen, conduct a scan of the general area, concentrating on EM emissions. Route your results to my wristcomp.”
Without a response, the drone rose a few meters off the ground and rotated in place, taking a full minute to complete the turn. As it began, Anna activated the screen of her wristcomp and created the link to the drone’s systems. The scan results appeared on the screen as they were being received by the drone, and showed a little less than half of its sweep when she first connected. Everything seemed fine, until the data from around the pyramid appeared. A high concentration of EM energy appeared in a dome around the structure, which extended a few meters out from the base.
Anna studied the results for a few minutes. “Okay, concentrate a scan on the building due west from our location.”
Seventeen turned and faced the pyramid, and Anna turned her gaze back to the holographic screen floating above her arm. The readout confirmed that the drone was sending the signal out, but nothing came back.
After letting Seventeen try to break through the EM bubble for a minute or so, Anna stopped the attempt and contemplated another method. Thinking that the shaft in the side of the pyramid may provide a way for whatever may be inside to access something beyond the bubble, she instructed the drone to maneuver itself to that side and direct its scan toward the opening. Seventeen positioned itself and commenced its scan, but yielded nothing new.
“Damn,” said Anna after checking the new results.
Anna, frowning a little from frustration, thought for a few seconds more, then decided to try something else. After instructing the drone to focus its scan on her and store the results until she downloaded them, Anna walked halfway up the stairs and climbed over the side rail to land on the top of the second tier. She walked around to the opening, flailed her arms about for several seconds as if trying to get the drone’s attention, and retraced her steps back to the ground. Once she stood next to Seventeen again, she downloaded the sensor information and replayed the feed that showed her infrared signature follow the path on the pyramid. Her wristcomp signal, however, disappeared as soon as she passed through the EM barrier.
“Well! That was helpful.”
Wracking her brain, Anna rejected idea after idea, certain they would not work. Finally, she snapped her fingers.
“Seventeen,” she said. “Scan the building ahead, but start at the lowest possible frequency and modulate upward one Hertz per nanosecond.”
Knowing that the new procedure could take a while, Anna walked to the nearest building and sat on the paved stone just outside it. After a few minutes, she decided to call back to the ship and see how things were going there.
“Hey, Ka
te. How are things going back there?”
“Everything is proceeding accordingly. And there?”
“Well, I’m not making much progress. Right now, I have Seventeen doing an EM spectral scan.”
“What frequency range?”
“All of them.”
Kate paused for a second. “All of them?”
“Yeah.”
“At what rate?”
“One hertz per nanosecond.”
“I hope you do not have anything else to do for a while. You have quite a wait ahead of you.”
Anna raised an eyebrow. “How long?”
“If you scan from one hertz to ten to the twenty-seventh power hertz at that rate, according to my calculations, it would take thirty-one billion, seven hundred nine million, seven hundred ninety-one thousand, nine hundred eighty-three years, two hundred seventy-nine days, one hour, forty-six minutes, and forty seconds in Earth time to complete.”
Anna restrained the desire to laugh hysterically as the length of time tumbled inside her head.
“Anna? Are you there?” Kate asked, breaking the silence.
“Uh, yeah. I’m here. Really, I didn’t think it would take that long.”
“I suggest you revise your parameters.”
Anna rose to her feet. “Yeah, I agree.”
As she stepped toward the drone, she linked in again, then stopped to consider how she could change her request. The only way that came to mind was to eliminate the different types of energy waves that she knew could not possibly be used to create the bubble, and remove those from the request. Digging back through her memories of collegiate studies, she sifted through what she remembered.
“Seventeen,” she addressed through her wristcomp. “Modify the current order to remove the infrared, visible light, and near ultraviolet rays. Start by scanning through the radio waves for now.”
“If my estimates are correct on that,” muttered Anna to herself. “It should be done in a few minutes with that one.”
It wasn’t long before the drone indicated it had finished the task. The results of the scan, however, proved disappointing, as nothing worked.
Anna sighed as she strode back to her resting place against the crumbling building, “All right. Start scanning the EUV range and move up from there at best possible speed.”
Seconds after she sat down, her wristcomp signaled an incoming message.
“Scan complete.”
“What?” She read the message from Seventeen again. She pulled up the results, and was astonished to find the surface scan of the pyramid on the screen along with the precise frequency at which the scan produced the result.
“Did you scan the entire EM spectrum?”
“Affirmative.”
“How…” She called Kate again.
“Yes, Anna.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that the drones could scan the EM spectrum so fast?”
“You did not ask.” Anna pictured her with a smug smile on her face.
“Just how fast can they scan it?”
“The last broadband scan one of them performed finished in just under three minutes and forty-six seconds.”
“Thanks,” Anna grumbled before closing the channel.
She walked to the drone. “Seventeen, focus a scan on the building at the indicated frequency. Route the results to my display.”
Watching the screen, her expression dropped when the scan brought back the same, blocked result. She stared at the screen in disbelief. “What the hell?”
Anna walked up to where she thought the energy field stretched across the ground and stared at the pyramid, shocked and annoyed. She wanted to rip the obelisks out of their emplacements and smash them to pieces. As she formulated another plan of destruction to vent her swelling anger, a stray thought flashed through her mind.
She faced the drone and took a deep breath to center herself. “Seventeen, run a diagnostic on your sensors. I know how long this will take.”
About a minute later, the results returned indicating the sensor suite was in proper working order.
She combed her fingers through her hair, trying to figure out where the problem might be.
“Focus a full EM spectral scan at the building again.”
As Seventeen began the sweep again, Anna paced back and forth until the new results appeared on the holographic screen with a different frequency listed.
“That’s impossible. Scan it again.”
The third scan yielded an entirely different frequency.
“It’s modulating the frequency? Are you kidding me?”
She opened a channel and called the ship again.
“Kate, run a scan on the area and tell me what you find.”
A few seconds of silence dominated the channel. “I detect you, the drone, and an electromagnetic field very close to you.”
“Check the sensor logs from thirty-two days ago and compare the results.”
Another brief period of silence followed. “Analysis complete. The results are quite different. The EM field was not there before you left for the area.”
“…which tells me that something triggered it.”
“Could not be you messing with something while you were there. No, it could not be that.”
Anna noted Kate’s facetious tone. “I’m not in the mood, Kate. But, point taken. The problem now is the EM field continually modulates its frequency, making it virtually impossible to match and scan through it.”
As the words escaped her lips, a thought ran through her head. “Hang on.” She snapped her fingers. “I have an idea. Talk to you later.”
“Anna, I…” Anna cut Kate off by closing the channel.
“Seventeen, conduct a full EM spectral scan on the building and record each frequency you find and the time interval between each one over the next three hours.”
She trotted off to the woods surrounding the plaza. “Meanwhile, I’m going to think about this for a bit.”
* * * * *
Anna awoke to the gentle chime emanating from her wristcomp. Lying in the shade against a nearby tree, she stretched her arms and legs, moaning. Surprised she had fallen sleep, she opened her eyes and turned off the alarm she had set to signal the end of Seventeen’s scan. Looking around to make sure everything was clear, she stood, brushed off the seat of her pants, and walked back to the pyramid.
Stepping up to the drone, Anna patted its metal shell. “Well Seventeen, what did we find out?” Her wristcomp signaled an incoming message. She read the results. “I hope Kate can find something in all of this.”
She called the ship. “Kate, I have a list of frequencies and time intervals that Seventeen gathered over the last three hours. Can you see if you can find any sort of pattern in all of this?”
“I will see what I can do. Send it over.”
Anna transmitted the data and waited a couple minutes before becoming impatient.
“Kate?”
“Everything is fine, Anna. I am just studying the data. One moment, please.”
A few more minutes elapsed before Kate said, “Anna, I am sorry. I am not detecting a pattern in the information you sent me. Either the pattern is so long and complex that it cannot be determined with just three hours of information, or whatever is modulating the frequencies is doing it completely at random.”
Anna pouted, but nodded her understanding. “It’s okay. Thanks for trying, Kate.”
She glanced at the pyramid, and finally admitted defeat. “Okay, Seventeen. Let’s go home.”
She waited for the drone to descend to the ground, climbed onto its back, and gave the order to take off. Just as the engines fired, they died.
Anna raised her head, concerned, and slid back to the ground. Seventeen’s systems were offline. In fact, the drone was completely out of power.
“What the hell?” She examined it a little closer but found nothing wrong.
Puzzled, she toggled her wristcomp.
“Kate?”
She recei
ved no response from the device. In fact, the wristcomp also had no power.
Anna gazed at the device, and her eyes widened.
“Oh, no! No! No!” She pulled her hand scanner from her belt. As she swept it over Seventeen, she realized the scanner was also not operating.
“Why now?” She gazed into the sky. “Why me?”
Anna returned the hand scanner to its pouch and kicked a small pebble at her feet, watching it bounce along the stone pavement for several meters.
She looked back at the drone with a sad expression. “I’m so sorry.”
Taking a deep breath, she decided to hike back to the ship and ask Kate to watch the area until the field either shrank or disappeared entirely, so she could summon Seventeen home. She knew full well she had no way of moving it under her own power, so she didn’t even consider that option. With a heavy sigh of defeat, she set off toward the river.
As she reached the edge of the plaza she stopped, turned to take one last look at the drone, and stepped over the ridge. Only, her foot never reached the ground. Instead, she slammed into something that knocked her back to the pavement.
Stunned, Anna shook it off and peered at the air in front of her. She didn’t see anything, so she got back up and reached forward with her hand, probing the air. At an arm’s length in front of her, she met what felt like a solid, transparent wall. Confused, she glanced around, then back at her hand pressed against this unseen barrier. Deciding to test the extent of this new obstruction, she glided her hand against it and followed it, hoping to find an edge that would allow her to slip past it.
About a half hour later, Anna had walked around the perimeter of the plaza, her hand against the invisible wall the entire time. Looking back at the drone to confirm that she had come full circle, a feeling of dread descended over her. Somehow, the field had expanded and solidified, trapping her with the pyramid.
Chapter 16
Anna woke up with a start. Glancing around her, she regained her senses and realized she had fallen asleep within the chamber at the top of the pyramid. She didn’t know how long she’d been out, nor did she really know how long she’d been confined within the shield wall.
Alone in Paradise (The Chronicles of Anna Foster Book 2) Page 11