The others behind her chuckled, as she’d hoped. Andy might get an idea how tired she was from the slip, but the rest of these people would write it off – at least for now. She needed their trust if she was going to keep them safe.
“Hey, look at that rock wall,” Arjun said. He limped over, a crutch under one arm to help support his weight after his left ankle was injured in the first fight.
“What about it?” Charline asked. She turned toward the wall and dialed up the resolution on the armor’s camera system. There was something odd about the wall. Where she’d hit the stone, it cracked away, revealing … something else.
“It looks like metal,” Arjun said. He aimed his flashlight directly at the spot her stumble had revealed. The beam reflected almost like it would off steel.
But it wasn’t steel. The metal had a pale tone to it, more like aluminum or platinum, maybe. More importantly, it was polished and perfectly smooth. That wasn’t a naturally occurring outcrop of metal. What they were seeing had been made.
“Beth said she thought this entire cavern had been constructed by someone. Remember, Charline?” Andy asked. “When we were here the first time, she said the tunnel down was too smooth to be natural. We assumed it was some sort of underground complex left over from whoever used to live on this dead world.”
“Not so dead as we thought,” Charline said. “But yeah, it looks like Beth was right, as usual. Stand back, everyone.”
She had an idea. It might not help them at all to know more about this place they were stuck inside. Or it might make all the difference in the world. Either way, she was curious. An accidental brush against the wall had been enough to knock the stone loose. What about clearing some of the debris away on purpose?
Her first thought was to slam her fist into the wall, but there was no telling how hard the stuff under the rock might be. Damaging the suit could prove fatal if they ran into more trouble. Instead Charline reached toward the rock with one hand and scraped away the rock. It crumbled apart easily, dropping to the ground. More of the silvery metal revealed itself. Was the entire wall made of the stuff?
She shifted her excavations a little to the left. This time, when the weak rock crumbled away, her hand scraped against something rough instead of smooth. It took a little work to clear more of the surface rock without doing damage to the layer behind it, but when she was done Charline could see that the wall was constructed from large blocks of stone. The metal was a bar running between sections of the wall. She stepped back to let the others take a look.
“That’s a support strut,” Halcomb said. “We’ll probably find a bunch more of them evenly spaced around the walls. Dunno what the stuff you’ve scraped off is, though.”
“Limestone,” Arjun said. Everyone looked at him, and he shrugged. “I used to go spelunking for fun. This whole place is a limestone cave. The floor, the ceiling, all of it is calcium carbonate deposits. Water trickled in from somewhere, seeped through cracks, and brought minerals which were left behind as … all of this.”
“How deep under sea level are we here?” Andy asked.
“The cave entrance is about sea level, maybe a little above. So fifty meters down, give or take? It’s hard to be sure with that spiraling tunnel,” Arjun replied.
“The water leeched in from the body of water just east of here. The water was still there underneath the bioweapon shell. It must have leaked into this place,” Charline said. “And made all of this.”
“That would have taken a really long time,” Arjun said.
“About a thousand Earth years?” Charline asked. “That’s our best guess for how long it’s been since this place was wiped out.”
Arjun chuckled. “That would probably do it.”
Charline turned, facing her headlight into the gloomy back of the cavern. There had to be more to this place than just a big open space, right? It must have been used for something. Artifacts of this ancient race were incredibly long lived. They’d found the Satori buried on the moon for the same thousand years this place had been abandoned and managed to repair the damage. Rebuild the ship. Maybe there was something lost down here they could use to rescue themselves from their predicament.
“Come on, let’s finish this sweep and find someplace secure to rest,” Charline said.
SIXTEEN
They had to walk around several large pools of water as the team proceeded deeper into the cavern. Or complex, as it seemed might be a better description! A ruined artifact from some long lost civilization. Even the idea lit a fire to Charline’s nerves. They’d recovered lost tech before. The knowledge they’d gleaned from even the barest finds had been instrumental in humanity’s recent strides into space. She hoped there might be some similar stash buried in this place.
But then her lights shone on a wall. The cavern ended. There was nothing past this point. Her heart sank. No other exits meant no secret treasure trove and no other way out, as well. If the aliens aboard that ship were still cruising around outside, they couldn’t afford to leave by the route they’d come in.
“Looks like this is the end of the road,” Andy said. “We can check the left wall. We walked along the right side; maybe there are tunnels on the other end. Those bugs had to be getting in and out of here somehow.”
Charline looked into the deep pool of water not far from where they stood. She had a hunch there were tunnels, but they might be under the water. There could be a honeycomb of passages down there, invisible to their eyes. It was out of reach, though. Her suit might be able to handle water for a little longer, but it was already leaking like a sieve. Repairing it was going to take some time without materials, and they had little enough to spare.
“Wait. Look over there,” Arjun said. He took a few steps past where Charline stopped. Approaching the wall, he reached out a hand to trace the pattern of the flowing rock.
“What do you see?” Charline asked.
“See how the rock flows in, here? It wouldn’t do that if this were a flat wall. It means there is a depression here. Maybe just a small alcove. But it could also mean there is empty space on the other side,” Arjun said.
Hope kindled inside Charline again. “Step back, and we’ll see.”
Once everyone was clear, she reached out toward the rock. Her robotic hands tore into the soft limestone, tearing chunks of it away. As she ripped into it Charline could see how the stone had been deposited slowly, in layers. How long had the liquid been pouring into this place to so completely hide everything that had once been here? She kept digging, and then all at once her hand reached through the stone – into open space behind it.
Charline’s heart pounded more rapidly. Excitement budding, she tore into the wall as fast as she could, ripping chunks of the rock away until she’d cleared a large enough hole to see what lay beyond.
“There’s a space back there, all right. Doesn’t look like the water leak was as bad past this point, too. Lot of limestone on the floor, but not on the walls or ceiling. Like it dribbled across the floor from the stuff I just tore out,” Charline said.
“Can you open it up?” Andy asked.
“Sure can.” Charline tore into the stuff again. It was slow going to make a hole large enough for not only humans to walk through, but her armor as well. She wasn’t going to leave it behind while they still might have hostile creatures around, though. Patience was a virtue, and as impatient as she felt to see what was back there, Charline forced herself to continue working methodically on the limestone blocking their way. Finally she judged that she’d cleared enough away for the armor to pass.
“I’m going to take a look inside,” Charline said. “Hang tight a moment.”
Before anyone could protest – like Andy – she walked through the hole she’d made into the space beyond.
It was a round tube barely high enough for her to walk upright. The feel of the place was disorienting. What looked to her eyes like deck plates were set into the ceiling and walls, as well as visible on the floor in spot
s the stone hadn’t buried it. The construction looked like something one might see in a zero-gravity environment, where there was no up or down. The effect the visual was having on her eyes was similar. Why had someone built a hall this way on a planet? Unless this was part of a spaceship? But she didn’t think that was the case. The tube she stood in was all metal, but there was no airlock to enter it.
There was what appeared to be a door at the far side of the tube, though. Charline wasn’t certain how it worked, but there was a panel set into the center. She walked closer to get a look. Definitely some sort of technology at work there. She’d helped design the adaptive software that allowed integration of the alien systems aboard the Satori with human tech. If this door really was built by the same people, maybe the software would work here, too?
“Got something interesting, folks. Come on in. I’m going to need to pop out of the armor to get a closer look,” Charline said. She popped the hatch. The air hit her, cool and tasting like water and dirt. It smelled a lot better than the inside of the suit after a few hours inside it. She wrinkled her nose as she stepped clear of the cockpit. Was that the armor smelling bad, or her?
“Is it a door?” Andy asked. He ran fingers over the round wall blocking their path.
“I think so,” Charline replied. She fished her multi-tool out of her pocket. Carefully, she pulled back the edge of the panel, prying it away from the door. It released with a popping sound.
“Oh, wow,” Andy said as he looked in over her shoulder.
“Indeed,” Charline replied.
Inside the panel was a complex array of small cubes. They didn’t seem to be connected to one another. Charline knew from experience they didn’t need to be. Simply having the cubes in proximity with one another was enough to enable them to operate. All she had to do was power them up and insert her own control crystal.
“Halcomb, run a power lead off the armor for me, would you? I need to plug some juice into this thing.” Charline fished her tablet out of her pocket, along with the only cube she had with her. They’d discovered a small cache of the things on their first visit to the planet and recovered as many as they could. This one would allow Charline to connect to the alien machinery using her tablet and the software she’d written to allow the connection.
The same sort of hack was behind the Satori’s use of alien tech. Luckily the cubes weren’t difficult to operate. You just had to be able to access their data streams and issue commands.
Halcomb came over with a wire, wordless for once. Charline took it from him and applied it to the side of the cubes’ housing. The cubes immediately lit up. A good sign. These things were built to last, but there was always a chance the mechanism had been damaged. Then she slipped her own cube in next to the others. It flashed dimly for a few seconds as it tried to make a connection. Then it lit up, glowing from within in the same way as the other cubes.
“I’m in!” Charline said. She tapped a few lines on her tablet, sorting through the command structure. It wasn’t difficult to find the control to open the door. That’s what the panel was designed to do, after all.
Another line of code, and there was a rumbling sound. Charline took a quick step back. As she did, the door broke into four slices which spun apart and recessed into the walls. They were in.
“Wow,” Charline said. She took a hesitant step toward the doorway.
“Better bring the armor. To be sure,” Andy said.
“I think we’re OK here,” Charline said. She turned on the flashlight on her tablet and walked past Andy into the room beyond. A thick layer of dust coated every flat surface. No water had penetrated this space, and the bugs had never been inside here, either. Their tracks would have been easy to spot.
Then her beam shone on metal, a long row of constructs made from the same silvery stuff they’d found earlier. But these were no wall struts. It was a row of what looked like metal statues of the centipede creatures. Why would anyone have made statues of the creatures? Were they pets? Was this a zoo?
Charline stepped cautiously toward one of the things, realization dawning. They were jointed, articulated. She rapped a hand on one and listened to the echo. Hollow as well.
“What the hell are those things? They look like the big bad bugs!” Halcomb said.
“Even the right size,” Arjun added.
Charline found a series of deep holes in the back of the metal construct. They were too deep for fingers and too small for human hands. But they looked to be just about right for centipede legs. There was a seam running down the back of the thing. Not a welded seam, but something that looked like it could split open.
“It’s armor,” Charline breathed. “Armor for the bugs.”
SEVENTEEN
Andy set off in the armor to go retrieve the rest of their gear. Charline didn’t protest. She was growing attached to the suit, in a strange sort of love and hate way, but the idea of exploring something completely new was enthralling. Besides, she was the only person there with the technical knowhow to get the things running.
The room would be their base of operations. Andy was going to set a motion sensor in the tunnel to the surface, just in case someone cleared away the rubble and came looking for them. That alien ship was still out there. Who knew when they might decide to come down and take a look at the cave?
There was plenty of water all around them, but food supplies were limited. Charline did a little mental math. With rationing, they could survive another week or so. Much past that and they would be in trouble. Eating ratzard was out of the question. The insects they’d killed might be edible, but there was no equipment to test, and she wasn’t going to order someone to be a guinea pig for the experiment. They were just going to have to find something else edible before their supplies ran out.
“I think there’s a mechanical latch down inside this hole,” Halcomb said. He was peering at the back of one of the metal insects.
“Think this will reach?” Charline asked, handing him her multitool with the screwdriver extended.
“It might, just,” Halcomb said. He took the tool and fished around inside the armor.
Charline looked around. There were six of the suits, all stashed away. That wasn’t all that the place contained, though. A wall rack was filled with what looked like weapons. She wasn’t sure how they were supposed to be used. Maybe they could be mounted on the armor? There was more, a strange variety of what might be furnishings or filing cabinets, for all she knew. Most of it didn’t make sense to her. Why was there a weapons locker down there? It was a supply cache, and the armored suits were clearly intended for fighting, as were the weapons on the walls.
What sort of place had this been? A military compound? A police precinct? Something else, so alien that she didn’t even begin to understand it?
The revelation that the armor was made for the giant centipedes was even more startling. Were they the sentient beings who’d built the city? Was it their civilization that lay in ruins on this world? Or were they some sort of servant race to another group that was long gone?
Charline looked out toward the entrance of their room. If they’d killed the last of those creatures during the fight, she might have inadvertently wiped out the final remnants of a species that had once wandered the stars. The thought was disturbing. Would humanity someday suffer the same fate? A few apelike remnants barely eking out an existence on a ruined world?
“Got it!” Halcomb said.
There was a click followed by a hissing noise. He stepped back rapidly as the armor split down the middle of its back, opening up to reveal what was inside. The interior was a complex web of what looked like sensor pads and electronics. The insect would pop open the shell, slip inside, then close it up again. The stuff seemed more like an armored space suit than a powered exo-skeleton. Charline couldn’t see any signs of motors that would enhance the wearer’s strength, for example. Not that these bugs needed more strength. They had plenty just with what nature had given them.
; “It’s interesting, but I don’t know what we can do with it,” Arjun said. He fished inside the armor, poking with his fingers at some of the pads.
The armor hummed, giving off a distinct buzzing feel. Lights sprang up around the interior. The space where the eyes would be in the face area began to glow.
“Holy shit. It’s still got power!” Halcomb breathed.
“So did the Satori, remember,” Charline said. “It had been buried about as long as this stuff. They built to last, whoever constructed all this.”
“Was it really the insects, you think? Or someone else?” Arjun asked.
“I don’t know. We may never know. But there should be a power cube somewhere in this armor. That could be very useful, if we can extract it and get it running with our equipment,” Charline said.
“Not to mention the suits themselves are good metal,” Halcomb said. “With this stuff I can print damned near whatever you want to make.”
Charline’s eyes widened. He was right. The fabricator could manage a lot, given the right materials. Here were all the pieces they could ask for. There were cables and wires, metal plating, and more stuff that she could barely identify. But the fabricator would take in all those things, break them into constituent parts, and use the materials to build whatever they programmed.
“Circuit boards?” Charline asked.
“Looks like all the parts are there, yes,” Halcomb said. “I can’t make you a supercomputer, but I can do something simple.”
“What about motors? Gears?” Charline asked.
“Sure, those are easy enough. What are you thinking to build?”
Charline tapped her chin with a finger. It was a crazy idea, but it was also an awesome idea. “I want to build more armored suits.”
“What! Why?” Halcomb asked.
“Because that enemy up topside isn’t going to stay there forever. Sooner or later, they’re going to come down here after us,” Charline said.
Dust & Iron (Adventures of the Starship Satori Book 9) Page 7