by Jacen Aster
Henry nodded. “I figure the velocity dependent shield is probably meant to protect against stellar body impacts or similar. Still no idea how to bypass them though.”
Vivian waved that off, only half paying attention now. “Don't worry about that. With the new information, I can have us on our way in a couple hours, tops. Overlapping shields always have small weaknesses.”
Saint Claire clapped his hands together excitedly. “Well now, I knew it would work out. Marvelous work, Henry. That alone more than justifies what I'm paying you. Now, let's get the rest of this anarchy tamed so we can lift when Viv gets us our entrance.”
With that, they dove back into the chaos of preparations.
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
Shuttle One rocked hard as it slipped through Vivian's manufactured gap in the planetary shield. A few moments later, the ship broke through and immediately dove for the ground, hoping to avoid any anti-air fire if there were unhappy natives. When none came, Everand leveled the shuttle into a much gentler downward slope.
A few moments more and they broke through a light cloud cover and got their first proper sight of the planet below. Henry gave a low whistle. “Well, doesn't that just look like paradise?”
Murmurs of assent met his comment as the others soaked in the view. Sparse green forests and a rather pastoral spread of fields filled with a rich blue grass met their gaze. Rivers and streams rolled and tumbled through the lot, occasionally interrupted by gentle waterfalls, lakes, and pools. It really did look like a picture perfect paradise.
Saint Claire eventually broke the silence as they approached the surface. “It's certainly one of the nicer planets I've set down on in an expedition.” Waving a hand at the sensor console he was manning, he added, “Near ideal atmosphere for most species as well, but no sign of major settlements for a few hundred kilometers in any direction. I am picking up a couple of small power sources that could be equipment in standby mode, though. Better land away from those lest we risk waking up something we don't want to. Everand, pick a field and set us down.”
Fifteen minutes later, both shuttles were grounded and the senior staff stepped out onto the small field Everand had chosen. The security teams quickly fanned out after them, securing a small area around the ships. Saint Claire spoke up again, projecting his voice over the controlled chaos of the landing party. “Alright people. Deploy and report. I want to know just what mess we've landed in post haste.”
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
It was a few hours later that a pair of startling facts were reported nearly on top of one another. The security teams had moved off to check out the nearest two power sources, and surprisingly, they reported that they were well-appointed but long-abandoned idyllic estates. The second and far more startling find, was that the paradise of forest and field ended in a stark line some four hundred kilometers to the east. There it changed into an equally pleasant but different swathe of land filled with a beautiful, and oddly temperate, white sands desert. Gentle dunes and amazingly vibrant oases covered and dotted the new terrain.
Looking at their slowly filling holomap, surrounded once again by the senior team members, Saint Claire muttered, “So we seem to have landed in a manufactured ecosystem. Some sort of massive resort area of the planet perhaps? Quite the impressive undertaking. I wonder how far it extends, and where the guests went.”
It was Henry that tackled that question, rhetorical as it may have been intended to be. He stepped forward and tapped a bit of data in the margins of the map. “Actually, these temperature readings, in combination with some of the data we got on the way down, make me a bit suspicious.”
Saint Claire, startled from his musings, shot Henry a quizzical look. “Suspicious of what?”
“That it isn't a resort area of the planet. Rather that the entire world as a whole may be like that. An entire resort world roving the stars. I mean, think about it for a moment. How is a world that moves in and out of orbits ecologically stable? Even ignoring any travel time between systems, every sun would be different. No ecological system, let alone paradise environments like these, would survive without some pretty advanced artificial help. Not to mention there are no noticeable barriers between the areas to account for the differing temperature data. There's no way it's natural. At the very least, it would cause some massive weather issues if it was.”
Saint Claire frowned. “But then where are the people? What could possibly have happened to a species capable of moving an entire world and creating such a ridiculously sophisticated artificial ecosystem? There's no sign of battle damage or any kind of catastrophic systems failure.”
Robel shook his head. “No idea about that, but if Henry is right there's an obvious place to look for an answer. Any planet like he's describing would need a spaceport, wouldn't it? Probably a single central port so the airspace in paradise wouldn't be all cluttered up.”
Several heads nodded in acknowledgment of that idea, including Saint Claire's. Saint Claire started issuing orders quickly after he nodded. “Alright, Robel, Henry, Everand, Toris, take Shuttle Two and look for something of that nature. Analyze our planetfall data and start in the most likely zones. Stay low and slow to let the scanners get a good look. If they went for minimal impact, it might be hidden mostly or entirely underground. Don't land if you find it. Return here and we'll move the base camp. If such a thing exists, it's the most likely place for us to find answers quickly.”
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
Saint Claire's words had been well chosen. The spaceport had, in point of fact, been partially concealed underground. It wasn't quite so concealed that they might have missed it with a quicker search, but such is hindsight. At the slow pace they had performed their scouting, it had taken nearly a week to locate the port, and even that had been as much luck as anything, as they had surveyed less than a tenth of the planet’s surface in that time frame. Even so, they had witnessed half a dozen ecosystems over the course of the search. Every single one was a unique flavor of paradise and each lent more and more credence to Henry's “resort planet” theory. Jungles, forests, mountains, even snow-covered plains had all been added to their maps.
They had also, three days in, experienced their first planetary jump. It had been a fascinating experience, though an admittedly alarming one. No one was quite sure what the method of travel had been, but it caused a spectacular kaleidoscope of colors to play all along the planetary shields. The jump lasted two days and Shuttle One had joined the spaceport search during that time, speeding things up nicely. Thankfully, when they emerged, they were still in known space, if only just barely. According to their charts they were now located in a rather remote trinary star system.
The jump had been the origin of their new found haste, unknowing how much time occurred between each such event. It was with sighs of relief all around that they discovered the spaceport and the base camp was immediately shifted into position a kilometer west of the newly discovered buildings. Not wishing to risk its airspace, as if any defenses existed they would undoubtedly be covering the port, they prepared a ground team to check out the facility. Henry, Vivian, and Saint Claire joined a six man security team led by Toris as they deployed to what appeared to be the main building. They encountered no defenses up to the main door, though Vivian, Henry, and Toris had quietly noted several likely looking places for concealed turret systems.
Soon, Vivian was kneeling in front of their entrance of choice, having pried a panel loose, and was, surprisingly, conspiring with Henry over the locking mechanisms. “Look here,” she pointed to an orange-colored lead, “think that's an alarm?”
Henry frowned and added it to the portable they were using to map what wiring they'd seen thus far. “Could be. It seems to be isolated from the main system. It could also be something innocuous. Video feed, even a doorbell?”
She gave an amused snort. “Yeah, this likely being a public facility increases the odds of crap like that, I guess. Run a deep scan over the walls, would you? S
ee if you can find audio-video gear or other miscellaneous systems.”
Henry nodded and moved off, grinning as he heard her cursing about doorbells and wishing for a military bunker under her breath. His scan eventually found a fair number of isolated systems. Pulling, or cutting, more sections free had revealed a number of complications, including their first sign of active defenses in a small but deadly autocannon just over the door. An auto cannon hooked into that orange wire, which apparently was an alarm...probably. It was possible they simply didn’t like door to door salesmen and it was still a doorbell.
Either way, Vivian quickly defeated its anti-tamper gear and disabled it, just in case. The cannon and some equally disabled audio-video gear had provided helpful insight into the general engineering principles of this species’ systems. Two impatient hours later, which Henry and Vivian thought was excellent time for completely unknown technology, but had made everyone else twitchy, the door slid open with an impressive silence. Very impressive given the apparent lack of maintenance.
The last person only just made it inside the door before all hell broke loose.
Toris stepped forward to make room for those entering...and suddenly glowed blue. The light was coming from a pair of seemingly decorative pillars he had stepped between. In an instant, the cool blue light turned a harsh puce and a siren wailed. Concealed hatches burst open and cubes shot out, quickly unfolding into security mechs. The first mech to finish unfolding spit out something in a harsh tone, an unfriendly sounding first sample of the local spoken language.
Toris and the security team opened fire as the mechs raised their weapons, but it was too late. Only one of the dozen mechs fell and the rest fired off a half-invisible cone of energy. The pulse washed over the front half of the group and Toris, Vivian, Saint Claire and some of the security team dropped like puppets with cut strings.
Henry, the closest to the door, reached forward and forcefully wrenched the nearest security officer, a rather fetching female Fligera, back through the door with him. They made it around the frame, flattening against the outside wall, just in time to avoid the second pulse. Wasting no time, he grabbed her wrist and made for the corner of the building, fumbling in a pocket as he towed her in his wake.
They had almost reached the corner when the first mech emerged from the door behind them, rotating its sensors and weapons in their direction. His companion made to raise her rifle, but Henry slapped it down with the hand that had been holding her. Jabbing the electronic probe he'd been fumbling for at the mech with the other hand, he stabbed a button and the mech froze for a few precious moments. Henry pulled them the rest of the way around the corner and motioned for silence, holding them both as still as possible. When he didn't hear immediate pursuit, he sighed in relief and silently pulled his partner in escape on. They rounded a storage building before she dug in her heels.
“Where are we going? We can't just leave them. And what was that device? Why didn't you freeze all of them?”
Henry started, looking at her incredulously. “That was just a probe. I used it to send a broad frequency pulse. For just a moment, it couldn't ‘see’ anything but nonsense on its sensors. It's easy to adjust for though, it probably won't work again.” Henry let out a deep sigh. “As for where we are going? Back to base camp, of course. Unless you think you can take on a dozen crowd control mechs by yourself.”
“Crowd control?”
“Just a guess. I don't think those pulses are lethal. Some sort of crowd control, I think. Which means, if we can get help, we can get the others back safely. Hopefully.”
She hesitated, obviously processing his claims. Henry took a moment to look her over while she did. Like all Fligera, she was covered in color-shifting fur. Hers covered a wide red and orange spectrum and the fact that the color was not fluctuating under stress, as was a common reaction of her species, spoke of excellent shift-control. At a half-head shorter than Henry, she was fairly typical for her race, and had the common streamlined build and lithe body brought by their super dense musculature and bone structure.
Suddenly, she nodded decisively. “Right. We will circle around the camp completely by at least a kilometer, then come back in from the far side. There is too great a chance that the mechs found it already. With the defenses activated, the camp could have been surrounded on all sides, for all we know.” She abruptly strode off, leaving a suddenly flat-footed Henry struggling to catch up with her.
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
The words of Kiratalle or “Kira,” the newly discovered name of his companion, proved to be rather prophetic. When they reached the base camp, it was empty of people. Both shuttles were gone and there was a swarm of security mechs removing the rest of the gear.
“Shit.” Lowering the binoculars she had been studying the base camp with, she stated the obvious. “We aren't getting any help from the camp, we can't escape for help without the shuttles, and probably not without Miss Vivian either. Guess it's just us.”
Henry nodded. “We need more information then. Maybe we can break into one of the smaller buildings. See if we can gain access to their network.”
She only pondered his suggestion a moment before agreeing. “Alright, back the way we came. Pick a likely building and get us in.”
After returning to the spaceport compound, it didn't take long for Henry to break into a small service building. Its security was nowhere close to what he and Vivian had beaten on the main facility. Bonus points for no decorative pillars with scanning devices of doom hidden in them. Though, even with the ease of entry into the building, accessing an alien network was another matter entirely.
Henry gave a grunt of frustration.
“What is it?”
He sighed. “It's the language. Saint Claire made a basic translation program, but it's not enough.”
“You've been working for a half hour and you have nothing?” There was clear accusation in her tone.
He shook his head. “I didn't say that.” Taking a deep breath to calm himself before he snapped at her, he continued on the exhale. “We were right about this being a resort world. Only there was some sort of plague that struck the race who created it, as well as others in their region of space. There's a queue of comm logs openly accessible that tell a bit of a tale.”
Henry leaned back in the alien chair he was occupying and scrubbed tired eyes with the palms of his hands. After a moment to get his thoughts together, he started again. “This place was closed early on and placed in quarantine mode, so anyone who showed up without the access codes or known immunity would be locked up by the mechs. That's what happened to us, by the way. It didn't have any of our species on file so it defaulted to assuming we could be infected. There are dozens of logs after that, broad reports to their entire communications network just held in a buffer for someone to read. This place has been abandoned for centuries now, just running on automation. There is nothing saying what happened to the original race though.”
“Can't you add our races as immune?”
“I can, purely because we actually are immune according to the cross reference I did on my portable. Trouble is that I checked what would happen if I did. The crew would be moved from the relatively luxurious quarantine appointments to a prison-style holding cell, since they are still unauthorized intruders. I can't change that. The translation matrix just isn't good enough for an attempt to hack into anything properly secured. I'm having trouble just sorting the publicly accessible stuff.”
“The ability to change our immune status is publicly accessible?”
“Yep, like I said, only because we actually are immune. There's a proper little input in the system for medical files. I just upload our medical data for it to analyze and it declares us immune.”
Kira was silent for the better part of a minute. Henry almost spoke again before she asked a question, “Can we free them when they are in transit between quarantine and holding?”
Henry hesitated, mulling that over for a moment. “Not al
l of them, no, but....”
“But?”
“Vivian and Saint Claire have been separated out as ‘command units.’ We might be able to get just them. With their help, we could properly hack the network, maybe make some real progress on a solution.”
“Show me.”
Henry pulled up a map of the compound and began explaining.
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
A flash of light and a hideous electronic squeal came at nearly the same instant that an overcharged bolt of plasma reduced a security mech's head to slag. The other three mechs froze as they were blinded by the jury-rigged sensor mine going off. Two more fell before the last mech began moving again. Too late. It too died under a hail of plasma fire coming from two angles.
Kira and Henry broke from cover, reaching the transport those mechs had been guarding at a dead run. Not bothering with the undoubtedly deadlocked controls, Henry used a high-grade plasma cutter to slice apart the transport's door hinges, silently thanking God that they weren't armored. He hadn't been able to access the design schematics for the transport and thus hadn't been sure. Kira took aim at the door as Henry ripped it open.
Both of them relaxed as the interior showed only Vivian and Saint Claire. Vivian, her own manacles already on the floor, was removing her boss's. Both were dressed in plain gray jumpsuits, undoubtedly the height of local prison fashion.
“I'm not even going to ask how you're doing that without tools, Viv.” Henry remarked.
“As if I would answer.” she snarked back, just as Saint Claire's manacles joined hers on the floor. They both jumped out. Saint Claire was surprisingly spry for an older fellow.
“Enough chatter,” Kira snapped. “We've only got a few minutes, at best, to get clear.” She turned and took off, obviously expecting them to follow. Though Vivian raised an eyebrow, they did.
Henry's mine had done its job, disrupting the mech's comms as well as sensors, and they managed to avoid any pursuit. Soon, they were holed up in the service building again. A quick update later had Vivian and Saint Claire pouring over the network access terminal.