by Arlin Fehr
'I'm not sure, obviously big enough.'
'I think it seems kinda thin if it's going up two kilometres to hold up the roof.'
'The Guardian did say it was reinforced.'
'Which means it probably cost a lot. Again we are left with some interesting questions about this place.'
'We can come back and ask the Guardian all about it after we get back.'
'If there's anything here when we get back. If this isn't entirely on the level, then they could clear out after we leave.'
'They'd leave some stuff behind, no way you'd move all this short term.'
Sam nodded at that, 'That's a good point, but still, so long as were here, I'd like to get some answers.'
'We can't really force the issue. If its just a civilian operation, they do still have rights.'
'Blast it, why couldn't this have been a Linkal outpost. It would have made things a lot more simple. Tag the location, and fly home to get the fleet.'
'Knowing you, you might have tried to fire a few shots with the Thercon first.'
'Probably. No sense making it easy on them.' Sam agreed.
***
John and Jing came up to the shaft they had been heading to. There was no elevator car sitting waiting for them, though a small bird was perched on a rock next to it.
'Jing, keep an eye open, I just remembered I forgot to tell the captain about that water filtration system we found. That seems like a bit of a big deal.'
'Okay John.' Jing said.
John turned around, looking up the elevator shaft while he toggled his comms on, 'Lt. Cmd. Macce to Captain Geer.'
'Geer here, what's your status?'
'We've reached the shaft and are holding position around it.'
'Great work you two, you made good time.'
'Feeling a little winded, I'm not cut out for the boots on the ground stuff. Jing is doing fairly well though.' John said.
'Good, stand by while we try to flush the Lobster to you. Vick and Ise are still on it's tail.'
'Oh one more thing Captain, Jing and I found something that might not reflect well on the builders of this facility.'
'Really? What's that?'
John heard a noise behind him, and heard Jing say, 'John, I think you might want to see this.'
John turned around, 'Stand by Captain, something's up.'
As he turned around, he noticed a herd of brown haired animals with wedge shaped heads and central horn that he recognized as Soci walking up to the shaft. The herd stopped in a group just short of them.
'John, what's going on?' Sam asked.
'We've got a herd of animals here. They just walked up to us and are just standing around looking at us. I recognized them. They're Soci, they're a meat animal from the colony of St. Patrica. They're harmless.' John said.
The herd spread out around them, forming a line. One of the bigger ones lowered it's head, horn up, and started to paw the ground.
'Uh... well they're supposed to be harmless. Jing, walk slowly back towards me.' John said.
Jing kept his eyes on the animal, but started to walk slowly backwards.
'Don't look away from the one pawing the ground. It's going to wait until your not looking,' John said, as he reached for his side arm and pulled it out of it's holster, 'What I'd give for an old school handgun with actual gunpowder. What I need now is noise, not force.'
John pointed his gun in the air, turned off the safety, and pulled the trigger. It made a high pitched whine as it shot a bolt of iron at high speeds through the air. The animals flinched, but the aggressive one didn't look away.
'That didn't work. Not enough bang with these blasted rail guns,' John said.
Jing finished his retreat and ended up next to John.
'What now John?' Jing asked.
'I don't really know. They're not really this aggressive.'
'Maybe they consider this their territory.' Jing suggested.
'Lets make some noise. Follow my lead.' John said.
John threw his arms in the air and started yelling at the top of his lungs. Jing did the same. Some of the animals moved nervously and stepped back, but most just stood still, watching, while the one that had been pawing the ground just snorted.
John and Jing stopped yelling and lowered their arms.
'What is wrong with these things? Soci are supposed to be timid!' John said angrily.
'Lt. Cmd. Macce, what's going on?' Sam asked.
'Sorry captain, these Soci aren't budging. They're not acting like they should. Normally they're rather timid, but these ones seem to have nerves of steel.'
More of the animals lowered their heads and started pawing the ground.
'Oh that's just fantastic,' John muttered, 'Yeah something's definitely wrong here. Normally they just leave dealing with threats to the herd's alpha.'
'John, let's just slowly move around to the other side of the shaft.'
John and Jing slowly moved to the side of the shaft and started to inch around. The Soci herd moved slowly and followed them around the edge of the shaft. Half of the heard went the other way and came around the other side.
'Okay... lets keep moving back.' John said.
The two kept up their slow retreat, and moved away from the elevator shaft. The heard formed a line between John and Jing and the elevator shaft but stopped following them.
The two stopped.
'Okay captain, the herd just pushed us away from the elevator shaft. We're still pretty close to it, but I don't think we'll be able to stay next to it.'
'Just keep an eye on it. If the herd didn't want you near it, maybe they won't let the Lobster pilot near it.'
'I hope your right Captain. Just be careful yourself, there's something wrong with these animals.' John said.
***
'Captain Geer to Advocate Okoh.'
Ise stopped and answered through her comm link, 'Advocate Okoh here, go ahead captain.'
'John just reported some unusually hostile animal behaviour, keep an eye open.'
'Yes Captain.'
Victor had moved on ahead, Ise looked and saw him standing next to a tree looking at something in the distance. Ise walked over to him.
'What do you see Victor?'
'I think I spotted the pilot, he ducked down by a rock outcropping against the chamber wall. Let's go check it out,' Victor said, pulling his gun from his holster, 'weapons ready.'
Ise nodded and pulled her side arm out and checked it. They started to move forward.
Moving along a depression, they worked their way towards the out cropping that the pilot had disappeared into. They moved carefully, keeping each other in view and keeping an eye out for aggressive animals and the pilot himself.
They came to the edge of outcropping and stopped.
Victor unfolded his helmet back over his head and tapped the side. Ise unfolded her helmet, and heard his voice over the comms.
'I'm going to check. Stay put and make sure he's not sneaking around.'
'I should go first Victor, I'm a bit more resilient.'
'You're also more important to getting the ship home. Stay put.'
Victor eased himself around the edge of the rocks. Ise crouched low behind a boulder and kept a grip on her side arm.
'Ise? You can come here, he's gone, but there's something you should see.' Victor said over the comms.
Ise stood up and walked over. The outcropping contained a small pond, and there was a small gurgling spring coming out of the wall. However, more pressing, was the animal carcass sitting on the ground next to the pond.
It had a massive bloody hole in it's chest and a large cut running across either side of the hole. The animal had claws on it's legs, and large looking fangs sticking out of it's unmoving mouth. Ise knelt down low and looked closer at the wound.
'What happened to this animal?' Victor asked.
'I don't know... I'd have Lenny run an analysis, but we're still out of contact.' Ise said.
'Well the Linkal came t
his way, maybe this is his handiwork?' Victor suggested.
'Mmmm. That's possible. But why?'
Victor pulled out his tablet and activated something. He started to point it around the pond and surrounding area. It passed by the carcass and he stopped, pointing it at the dead animal.
'There's something metallic in that thing.'
'What?' Ise said, confused.
'Yeah, I was checking for any metallic signatures around here, like a door or something, and the carcass triggered a positive hit. There's something metallic inside it.'
'Where?'
'There's something right next to the wound.'
Ise reached her hand into the open wound. Her suit's glove protected her, though she still felt the warmth of the blood. She felt something hard, and pushed open the wound with her other hand. There was something solid that looked inorganic. Grabbing hold of it, she gave it a tug. The corpse jerked suddenly and she fell backwards, startled. She was still holding whatever she had grabbed onto.
'What did you do?' Victor asked.
'I gave whatever it is a tug,' Ise said, holding up her find, 'let's wash it off and see what it is.'
Ise moved to the pond and washed off the device she was holding, and her hands. The blood mixed with the water and made wispy tendrils of red. She held up the device and looked at it, but could scarcely believe her eyes.
'What is it Ise?' Victor asked.
'This is part of an Advocate uplink system.' Ise said.
'What?'
'This thing here is what's left of an Advocate uplink system. It looks like the actual communication node's been broken off, probably because of the wound, but this is part of the system in an Advocate that manages communications with a Guardian.'
Victor walked over to the carcass and continued scanning it with his tablet, 'There's more systems in this thing, we should check it out, but we really need to find out where the pilot went.'
'One moment,' Ise toggled her communication system on again, 'Advocate Okoh here, we've lost the trail of the pilot. He came to a small pond and his trail has vanished. There's a dead animal carcass here too, which we suspect was killed by the pilot.'
'John here, did you say the trail went cold near a pond?'
'Yes John.'
'We found a maintenance hatch of some kind near the bottom of a body of water, it's possible he found one and used it.'
Ise looked over at the pond. She contemplated going in there, but her attention was drawn to growling noise behind her.
She turned and looked, another animal, like the dead one, was standing the way they had come, and was staring at them with fangs bared. It had pointed ears which were laying back against it's head, and it's powerful looking front legs had a set of claws just like the dead one. It looked like a mountain lion from earth, except it was a red colour, and had slits on its face which were flared open with heavy breathing.
'Stand by, we've found another animal. It appears hostile.' Ise said over the comms.
'Be careful Ise,' said John.
Ise looked to Victor. He already had his side arm out.
'Stay behind me Vick. I don't think it'll be much of match for me, but I'd rather not find out. Let's try and get away slowly,' Ise said.
Victor nodded. Together, they started to back away, sticking to the rock wall behind them, and easing their way past the animal. It turned to watch them, but didn't seem to be interested in attacking them. After they moved a little ways off, it turned from them and walked to the carcass. It nudged it with it's snout and made soft whimpering noises.
'What should we do? If the pilot found a maintenance hatch, it'll be in that pond.' Victor said.
'We don't know for sure that's where he is. He could have given us the slip. But that is our only lead right now,' Ise said.
They looked at the animal as it mourned it's fallen kin. Over a rise, two metal skinned robots came walking towards the pond. One of them started towards Victor and Ise, while the other went towards the animal carcass. As it got close to the carcass, the animal with it looked up at it, and then sat down and just stared forward. The second robot came to a stop in front of Ise and Victor.
'Please leave this area. Clean up is required,' the robot said.
'We believe the alien pilot fled through a maintenance hatch in the pond. We need to go after him.' Victor said.
'You may return after clean up is finished, please leave the area,' the robot said.
'Look we're a military ship on a military mission, and this is for the protection of this facility as well as all of mankind. If that pilot is allowed to run amok, he could seriously damage your systems,' Ise said.
'You may return after clean up is finished, please leave the area,' the robot repeated.
Ise sighed and turned around, 'Come on Vick, we're going to have to wait a bit.'
Victor fell in beside her as they walked up a near by hill.
'What now?' Victor asked.
'I've had an idea. Let's go down by that grove of trees.' Ise said, pointing at a small grouping of green trees with bushy foliage. Once they had reached the grove and gone in the middle, it became apparent that it would be very difficult to be seen while under it's leaves.
Victor looked around carefully and then looked at Ise, 'What's the plan?'
'I thought we might be able to be a little more direct,' she said holding out the piece of equipment she had ripped from the animal carcass.
***
Victor looked at the small cube. It had some connectors that looked as though they had been torn off on both sides, he looked back at Ise's face, 'I'm not sure that's going to do much of anything at this point.'
'This is an older piece of Advocate tech, but even though the connectors are damaged, we should be able to access it.'
'How do you figure?'
'My systems will be able to double as it's missing systems. If we can just plug me in, I can make use of this.' Ise said.
'And what is this exactly?' Victor asked.
'Mmm that's the beautiful part. This is part of the encryption system of the advocate uplink systems. If we can turn it on, I might be able to get the encryption keys to access the Guardian systems here. I could bypass it's security without triggering any counter measures'
Victor took the device from Ise, and looked at it closely, 'Are you sure that's a good idea?'
'A Guardian you have keys for isn't much of a threat. One way or another, we need to get to that pilot, and there's a lot of strange things going on here. If I can get the Guardian to co-operate with us, we can get into the other parts of this facility.' Ise explained.
'Okay, how are we going to do this?' Victor said.
Ise reached for the device and tugged on one of the torn wires, 'This should be for power.'
'I can power that off of my pistol's power pack.'
'It'll burn out the system if you do that, too much voltage. It'll be better if you just link it up with my own power system.'
'Can we do that?' Victor asked.
Ise reached up to her folded up helmet and unclasped it's connecters. She pulled it off of her suit and handed it to Victor. With both hands she reached to the back of her head and felt around. Victor watched as she pulled two wires from a hidden compartment in the back of her neck. She pulled them out, and they extended about two feet each.
'That's all I've got Victor. You'll have to work from behind me. The green wire will be for power, and the yellow one I'll need you to connect to the yellow wire on the box.'
'Anything else?' Victor asked.
'Let me see the box again,' she said, with a hand reaching over her shoulder.
Victor handed her the box. She turned it over in her hand and then held it out again, with another wire held between her fingers, 'You're not going to like this, but that one is going to have to connect to your tablet.'
'I can splice it with my multitool, but my tablet's not going to be able to recognize any Advocate systems with a splice job like that. Why can't I j
ust plug into you normally?' Victor said.
'Those wires your holding are from my plug. So that's not really an option anymore.'
'Okay. Can you get this thing online then? And why do you need me to plug in anyway?' Victor asked.
'I can get it online. I need you to plug in, because you're going to need you to help me push the Guardian into a diagnostic mode.'
'How am I going to do that?' Victor asked, taking back the device and moving behind Ise. He pulled out his multitool from a pocket on his suit and began to work on getting the wires coming from Ise to connect with the ones coming from the box.
'Here, give me your tablet while you're working, and I'll get it ready,' Ise said, reaching a hand over her shoulder.
Victor held out his tablet and Ise grabbed it. He turned his attention back to his wiring task.
'Do these wires have a charge right now?' Victor asked.
'I've cut the power.' Ise said.
Victor stripped the insulation off the end of the wires coming from Ise, and cut the ends. Taking the wires coming off of the device which he was balancing awkwardly in the crux of his arm, he began to splice the wires together.
'Okay Victor, I'm ready here.'
'I just finished up with the wires,' he looked at the dangling wires, 'should be enough length for you to hold this, just don't drop it. I don't have anything to secure the joints. If it gets tugged too hard, it'll just come apart.'
Victor handed the box back to Ise, and took his tablet back from here. He looked at what she had done and was surprised.
'This is a complete decryption script here, how did you do it so fast?'
'I accessed your tablet with my wireless systems and uploaded the script I already had,' she said.
Victor frowned, 'That sort of thing is standard with Advocates? The file needed to hack into other Guardian systems?'
'Didn't you know? Military Advocates all have the same file.'
'Huh. No, I didn't know. Never been relevant considering that I've only ever been on missions involving the Linkal.' Victor said.
'Well, I'm ready to go, lets do this.'
'Right.'
***
...
Guardian control systems being accessed.
Control unit I.D. 139-CK, type: Animal uplink system