by Arlin Fehr
Victor knelt down and grabbed a tool from his belt. He worked the panel off of the base. It came free with some effort. He looked inside, there were a few indicator lights active, though most of the electrical systems seemed to be offline. He looked around for a data port. He found one, and to his mild annoyance, saw that it wasn't the same kind as on his equipment.
'You were right Mr. Fan. It's an older port.'
'Any chance we have an adaptor on the ship?' Jing asked.
'Not even a little chance.'
Victor aimed the lights on the side of his helmet. Two cones of light illuminated the electrical systems of the FTL signaller. He saw that there had been some work done to it. Everything was sitting kind of loose.
'What about the serial number?'
Victor leaned down and looked around the cavity. He spotted a plate just under some wires and carefully pushed them aside.
'Victor to the Kanto, come in please,' Victor said over his comms.
'Read you loud and clear Vick,' replied Sam.
'I've got a serial number if you want Lenny to run it though his archives,' Victor said.
'Victor, this is Ise, please give me the serial number.'
'Roger that. It's 6-9-3-G-X-X-1-1-3.'
'Acknowledge. Please stand by,' Ise replied.
Victor let the wires drop again and looked around the cavity, 'Hey Jing, you said the mid range array looked a little neglected?'
'Yes. Why, what did you find?'
'I've identified the control panels for the the different arrays. The mid range array is completely dead. Doesn't look like anyone tried to fix it either.'
'Didn't look like anyone had bothered fixing the tower. They probably just left it off after it went down.' Jing said.
'Yeah,' Victor leaned in closer to the mid range array control panel, 'You know, this wouldn't be hard to fix really. With the right equipment. It almost looks like they just didn't bother.'
'That's weird. Maybe they didn't think they'd need to make any in-system calls. What about the other two?' Jing asked.
'Short range seems to be idle. Long range array is live... hang on a second.'
Victor repositioned himself and his light. He looked at one of the banks of indicator lights. He recognized the layout, and remembered what each light meant from his training long ago.
Victor frowned. He stood up and pulled another tool off his belt and pointed it at the tallest array. He looked at the result and turned to Jing.
Jing cocked his head, 'Something the matter Victor?'
'The long range array is transmitting.'
CHAPTER 3
U.P.N. Kanto - Bridge
'Advocate, archival search is completed. Would you like to review the results?'
'Yes.' Ise said.
'Acknowledged. FTL signaller, serial number 693GXX113, was originally installed on the U.P.N. Orca, an automated bulk hauler used by the supply corps to supply a deep space listening post. The freighter was reported missing approximately eighteen years ago. A search was conducted, though no sign of the ship or wreckage was ever discovered. The ship was declared lost in space and a new automated freighter replaced it.'
'Thank you Lenny.'
'Captain, Lenny says the FTL signaller belonged to an automated bulk hauler that went missing eighteen years ago. It was a military ship.'
'What was the ship's name?' Sam asked.
'The Orca.' Ise replied.
'Hmm... Some one took the effort to install this here, and it's probably whoever found or stole the Orca. Seeing as it's a piece of military equipment, I don't think there's any chance of this being a Linkal base.'
'I'd have to agree.' Ise said.
The sound of Victor's voice came on through the bridge's speakers, 'Lt. Hale to the Kanto. Come in please.'
'Go ahead Vick.' Sam said.
'Captain, this array is transmitting. The long range array is transmitting to an unknown recipient.'
'Can you track it?'
'Maybe if I was back on the ship. This thing's got an ancient data port. No way I can interface with it.'
'Roger that Vick, head back to the ship. We'll touch down.'
'Aye Captain.'
'John, set us down.' Sam ordered the helmsmen.
'Yes Ma'am.'
Sam swung around in her seat and looked at Ise.
'If there's more military hardware down there, and the Lobster gets his hands on it, it could be very bad.'
'The repeater is almost twenty years old Captain. The Lobsters aren't going to get much from it.'
'They'd love to get their hands on either our jump drives or our faster than light communications systems. They've tried many times to get one of our arrays. Twenty years old or not, we'll have to destroy the array before we let them get one.'
'We can hit it with the Thercon before we leave orbit.' Ise said.
'We've got one more thing we need to do first. If that array is transmitting, it suggests someone is in this base. I want to know who got their hands on military hardware, and I want to know what else they got their hand on.'
'What's our next move?' Ise asked.
'We'll head for one of the entrance buildings and see if we can get in.'
***
Jing had just made it back to the ship when he heard they were going to go check out one of the two entrance buildings. He walked over to a storage locker and switched out his oxygen gear. Victor had gone back to the bridge to see if he could track down the destination of the transmission. Ise had come down and suited back up to accompany him to the building. She carried a pistol and a computer tablet.
The ramp cracked open and Jing grabbed a cable to lower himself to the ground. His free hand held onto a rail gun pistol of his own. Ise jumped from the end of the ramp and landed in a cloud of dust. Jing waited.
'All clear,' he heard Ise say.
He walked to the end of the ramp and lowered himself down. He set down on the ground and tugged on the cable. It retracted back to the ship.
Ise and Jing walked towards the entrance building.
This is much larger than I was expecting, Jing thought to himself.
He looked closely at the door. It was a single piece of metal, with no visible seams or hinges. He leaned in towards where the door met with the door frame. He looked carefully at it and noticed the slight evidence of a recess. The door was sitting in a grove. Moving to the other side, he noticed another. He took a step back and saw what looked like a removable panel.
'I think this door will retract downward when it opens.' Jing said over his comm.
'Can you see any control panel?' Sam asked from the ship.
'I found a panel. I'm going to see if I can get it open,' he said.
'Be careful.'
'Aye captain.'
Jing looked at the panel and saw it was secured with a latch and a physical lock.
'This thing is kept on with a lock,' Jing said.
'What model? I might be able to hack it.' Victor said.
'Unless you brought a locksmith kit, that could be a bit of a trick. It's an old physical lock.'
'Lock and key type?' Victor asked, a note of disbelief in his voice.
'Yeah. I've got a thermal cutter with me. I should be able to cut it.' Jing said.
'Roger that. Proceed.' Sam said over the comms.
Jing grabbed his cutter from his tool belt and lifted it up. He positioned it carefully, and flicked it on. The material of the lock began to glow. He shut off the cutter to prevent damage to the equipment behind the panel.
He secured his cutter and pulled a multitool off his belt. He struck the lock with it and it deformed from the blow. He hit it a few more times before the mechanism gave way. The panel popped open easily.
'I've got the panel open. It's definitely an older system, but it still seems to be in good condition. Thankfully door control systems haven't exactly been a hot bed of innovation. Now if it had had an encryption and password that would have been different.'
&
nbsp; Jing input a command on the the panel, and watched as the metal door slid downward. He saw the door itself was around ten centimetres thick. Once it was all the way down, a covering slid out from the floor, bridging the gap where the door had been.
'I've got it open. It was pretty thick. Glad I didn't have to cut through it.' Jing commented.
'What do you see?' Ise asked.
'There's a ramp that goes down a good twenty meters, then it levels off, and the corridor terminates in another door.'
'Can you see another control panel?' Ise asked.
'Yes. This one's not even covered.'
'Permission to check out the second door captain?' Ise asked over the comms.
'Permission granted. Make sure you know how to open the first door from the inside first.'
'Roger that Captain.'
Jing stepped past the door frame and looked around. He spotted another panel on the wall. He walked up to it and tried a close command. The door slid closed. Ise was still standing outside.
'Jing?' Ise asked. The comm system was still able to broadcast through the walls. That was good a good sign.
'Hold on a second.'
Jing tried another command. The door slid open.
Ise glared at him, 'Little warning next time.'
'Wouldn't have been any good to get both of us trapped. You could have gone back to the ship and got my cutting gear. Lets go try the other door.'
Ise nodded and they walked down the ramp. The second door looked a little different, but it opened without trouble. Inside there was yet another door and panel. Jing examined it closely.
'Okay, this one's an airlock. It could take a minute to cycle.'
'Can you show me how to start it? You should wait out side. If they're waiting for us, I'll have a much better chance of surviving this.' Ise said.
'I can, but I don't think we should get our Advocate killed.'
'I have no intention of dying.'
Jing looked at her and turned to the panel, 'You'll need to activate the airlock cycle with these commands here, once it's done, the inner door should automatically open. Once you're through, I can start another cycle from the outside and come join you.'
Ise nodded. Jing stepped outside of the airlock and closed the door.
***
Ise triggered the airlock cycle and waited as the sound of air rushing began fill her ears. She check the HUD on her suit. It gave her an analysis of the air in the airlock. It said it was breathable, but she left her helmet on anyway.
Gripping her pistol tightly, she raised it at the ready. A green light came on over the door, and it slid open.
Lights flickered to life as she stepped inside. There was no one waiting for her. She saw an open room with concrete roof and walls. The floor was made tiled metal sheets. There was a another door across the room from here. She cautiously stepped out of the airlock and swept her gun around the room. There were large holding containers of some kind on the left side of the room. They sat empty, with unknown stains in them. On the left side of the room, there were metal tanks with pipes coming off them and disappearing through an alcove in the roof. Next to those sat two glass tanks which held a clear liquid.
'Ise?,' said Jing over the comm.
'Looks like a holding room for something. It's all clear.'
She didn't wait for Jing to come through the airlock before she walked over to the holding containers on the left side of the room. There was a compartment in the wall. She pulled it open and looked inside. She looked carefully at the items and checked her link with Lenny. It was still active.
'Lenny, identify these items.'
'Yes Advocate. Please wait.'
Ise picked one of the items up and looked it over.
'The items are various pieces of medical equipment. They are mostly diagnostic devices and some surgical implements. The devices are obsolete, though commonly still used by outlying colony worlds.'
Ise looked at the device in her hand more carefully, it had a handle, a switch, and a thumb trigger. There was a small display screen on the back of it.
'What's this?' Ise asked.
'Medical Diagnostic tool. The medical attendant grasps the device by the handle and points the far end at the patient. When the trigger is pulled, the device will take a medical snap shot of the subject and display the results on the screen at the back of the device. The device is primarily used for emergency situations to prioritize treatment over multiple patients.'
Ise set it back down. She went over to the containers. She bent down and looked in them. She saw anchor points inside the boxes, where a chain could be fastened to.
She turned around and saw Jing standing on the other end of the room looking at the tanks.
She walked over to him.
'Any ideas?' she asked.
'Filtration system. The metal tanks are for the air, and the clear tanks are for water. There'll be a few more like this depending on the size of the facility. These are just the buffer tanks, the actual filtration plant will be somewhere on the other side of the wall. It does strike me as odd that they've got them right on the other side of an entrance. Usually this sort of thing is rather important and built somewhere in the most protected areas of the base.'
'Any idea why?' Ise asked.
'If this was the first part of the base made, it stands to reason that would be one of the first things they built. Of course, we have no way of knowing if this was the first place made.'
'But we do know it's got power and air. That means someone's probably still home.'
Jing nodded, 'Yep.'
Ise looked over at the other door, 'Think you can get it open?'
'Other than the lock on the outer door, this place has been pretty light on security measures thus far.'
'That's a point against it being smugglers or terrorist,' Ise commented.
'Hold off on opening that door Jing. I want you to see if you can access any computer systems and learn anything about this place,' Samantha said over the suit comm.
'Could be a bit of a trick Captain, the only panels I see in here are door controls. No access terminals to be seen.'
'Ise?' Sam asked.
'Lenny, do you detect any wireless signals we can tap into?'
'Affirmative. A wireless network is present, though it is too weak in signal for meaningful connection. Recommend getting closer to source.'
'Direction of source?'
'Approximately two kilometres below your position.'
Ise's eyes widened in surprise, 'Captain, there's a wireless network below us, but it's two kilometres below us. I'm surprised were picking anything up at all, either this rock is really insubstantial, or this is one heck of a network.'
***
Samantha thought about what they knew so far. It wasn't that much unfortunately. The light security measures so far were making her quite confident that this wasn't any sort of para-military base. It was also clearly human. Both these factors together spelled bad news for the base if they had a Lobster pilot on the loose.
'Victor, any thoughts on this wireless network?'
'We're only just in range. There's not enough signal strength to establish any connection, but Ise is right, either the rock on this planetoid isn't very substantial, or that's one heck of a network for us to pick it up at all.'
'Ise, any sign of recent activity?' Sam asked over the communication link.
'No captain. It doesn't look like this entrance has been used in some time. No sign of the Lobster either.'
Sam nodded to herself, 'He must have gone for the other entrance building. Alright gang, what's our options? I want to hear this from each of your perspectives.'
'I say we head back and let someone else deal with this. A base off the charts in the middle of nowhere is no ones idea of a vacation spot. Whoever is out here probably didn't want to be found.' John said from the helm.
Sam nodded.
'We can't just leave them with an enemy pilot running amok in their facil
ity. We're here to protect people from the Linkal!' Jing said over the Comm.
'We're here looking for a Linkal base. This clearly isn't one,' Victor said, 'But they do have a piece of old military hardware. We should investigate.'
'Ise? Any thoughts?' Sam asked.
'I'll follow your orders, but I think Dan's medical care should take precedence.'
There was a noise from the back of the Bridge. Sam turned around in her seat and saw Daniel leaning in the doorway, wearing the lower half of his flight suit and some bandages.
'I'll be fine, thank you. Lenny said I'll be fine provided I don't do anything strenuous.' Daniel said.
Sam frowned at him, 'And you thought going for a walk in your condition didn't qualify?'
'Captain, I've heard what's going on. If there's a Lobster pilot down there and there's humans in danger, we need to check it out. I can wait. They might not be able to.'
'What harm can one pilot do?' John asked from his station.
'A lot. Don't you remember the New Harvest shipyard raid? After we drove off the Linkal task force, a single remaining enemy pilot managed to breach the shipyard facility and effectively disabled it,' Daniel said.
'This isn't exactly a point of strategic value,' Victor pointed out.
'That's not the point. I'm fine. I'll live. Provided I don't get into any fist fights or anything rough, I'll stay fine. We don't know if this place will stay fine.' Dan said.
Samantha stood up and walked over to Dan, 'Can I talk to you in the medical bay for a moment Daniel?'
'Yes Captain.' Dan said, stepping out of the bridge.
John, you have the bridge. Get Jing and Ise to investigate as much as they can.'
'Yes Captain.' John said.
***
Daniel and Samantha walked back into the Medical bay. Daniel sat down on the medical bed and winced as he did.
'You're not okay Daniel. You're injured and clearly in pain.' Sam said.