"Is that why we aren't docked yet?" Harlsen asked, sounding acutely impatient.
"Right," Coster confirmed, eyelids fluttering, cheeks flushing red. But she went on in the same strong voice. "We can't establish a handshake with the docking apparatus. It just won't budge. I asked Maestro to see if she could get hold of it, but she hasn't-"
"I've been trying," the AI's voice suddenly interrupted through the intercom. "For several minutes. In fact, I've had to transfer my communicative code into the first layer of the base itself to try and negotiate our entry, which is why none of you have been able to get a response from me."
"And what did you find?" Asher asked.
"That we'll need to enact the docking manually. It won't be hard; we'll just have to send two people out on a short spacewalk."
"Have you heard from anyone inside the base? Have you found out what's going on in there?" Captain Grisham asked.
"I'm afraid I haven't," Maestro replied. "I was unable to access any of the moon base's main systems. There is another AI system here that is denying me access. It would appear that this system is much more advanced than I am."
At once, everyone started looking around at each other. Tira knew what they were all thinking. A more advanced AI than Maestro? As far as anyone knew, that was impossible.
"What were they working on up here?" Grisham asked.
"That's the million-dollar question," Asher replied. "But obviously not even Maestro will be able to tell us. We won't get any answers until we get inside. We’ll need two of your mechanics to help with docking, Grisham."
A short while later, Tira watched as Darwin and Rilles entered the airlock off the command deck. She, along with everyone else on the ship, nervously watched through a long, narrow window as the two men suited up. Once they were ready, the outer airlock doors opened, and the stark surface of the moon became visible. Along with the flank of a low, whitish building, shaped like an imperfect dome. It was misshapen, lumpy and craggy, rough in places. At first and second glance, it just looked like a big piece of moon rock. The camouflage was near perfect. The only thing that spoiled it was the weak yellow light glowing out from the end of a long corridor etched into the side.
At the end of that corridor, on the outside, the edge of the opening was encircled by a heavy metal track. The docking apparatus. It was in the locked position, but even now Maestro was talking to the mechanics over their suit radios, instructing them what to do. It involved a few deft movements with a wrench-like tool. Tira saw sparks at one point, and realized that this was not a standard procedure at all, that their AI was leading them in a deliberate act of breaking and entering.
It was for the greater good.
Once the sabotage was completed, Rilles and Darwin returned to the Eclastica's airlock. They drew out an accordion tunnel, stretching it across the lunar surface all the way to the docking apparatus. On Maestro's orders, they ducked into the tunnel at the last second and led magnetic force pull it the rest of the way.
A minute later, the inner airlock doors opened automatically and a gust of stale, plasticky, but technically breathable air hit them all in the face. At the far end of the bouncy tunnel, barely visible around the serpentine curves, they saw Darwin and Rilles waving toward them.
"All good," Darwin called down, voice echoing strangely. "Our helmets are off."
There was some tentatively cheerful murmuring, a brief rush forward as everyone tried to run down the tunnel at once, and then a return to civility. They moved single file, Asher in the lead and Grisham shepherding from the back. A skeleton crew of two bridge officers remained behind to watch over the Eclastica. The plan was to relieve them once contact was made with base personnel, or after three hours. Whichever happened first.
At the end of the hall, they began to bunch up into a tight traffic jam. Rilles and Darwin were there, hammering away at the inner door's control panel. Loose wires were hanging, sparks arced and spat occasionally, but no one said a thing. By now, Tira thought, they were all warming up to Maestro. Even beginning to trust her. She had delivered them to the moon, just as promised, and now she was doing her best to get them inside. As for the mystery of why no one seemed to be home, they would figure that out together.
"Almost there," Darwin said. "Just have to, you know, spoof the door into thinking we actually have the clearance to get through."
"Do you know what you're doing?" one of the bridge crew asked.
"No," Darwin answered honestly. "But Maestro does. I'm just her puppet."
"Now... stop," Rilles said.
They ceased their hammering, and stood a moment in perfect stillness, staring into space. They were listening to Maestro on their earpieces. After a few seconds, Darwin nodded and reached for the control panel. He took two wires, twisted their tips together, and tapped the bare end of a third wire against the joint three times in quick succession.
A light turned green. There was the satisfying thud of some mechanical latch triggering. The doors parted, sliding into the wall and opening the base wide.
"We're in," someone said in disbelief.
In a moment, there would be another rush as they all fought to get through. Asher turned to face them all, getting ahead of it.
"Stick together," he said. "Watch each other, at least until we figure out what happened here."
Tira was among the first to enter. The hallways here were wide, and the crew was able to spread out across them and remain in close proximity with one another. She was glad for the warm feeling of other humans at her back and sides, no matter how bad they might smell.
The convoy, now removed from its ships and shuffled into each other like a human deck of cards, traversed the moon base. They passed by many rooms. Small bathrooms, private chambers, cafeterias, laboratories. Every single one of them was empty. They called out, they made plenty of noise, they made every attempt to alert any potential occupants. But they heard nothing in return. The place seemed totally abandoned. Desolate.
"No wonder no one shot us down," Asher, turning to peer into yet another empty room. "Greyson isn't stupid. Pretty soon he'll realize that there's nothing stopping him from landing here. We're safer inside the moon base than we were in the Eclastica, but there's still going to be trouble."
He lifted a finger to his ear, listening to some communication.
"Affirmative, Carisso," he said. "Just keep circling above us. Keep an eye on the Phantom, and let me know if anything changes."
He lowered his fingers, and looked around at the people in the hall.
"So far, the Phantom is holding its position," he said. "Either they're still trying to figure out their next move, or they're just finishing up repairs. Now, there are defenses in this base. Weapons even more powerful than the rail gun we used. We just have to figure out how to gain access to them, then we can hold the Phantom off for good..."
He turned and looked down the length of the abandoned hall.
"Which way, Maestro?" he asked.
The AI spoke to all of them, through their ear pieces. "I'm not sure. The base’s AI is not allowing me to access the facility’s schematics. However, logic would dictate that some nerve center must stand at the end of this hallway. I suggest proceeding down the current corridor. With a certain degree of caution, of course."
"Alright," Asher replied. "Anyone who wants to follow can come with me. Everyone else... I'd urge you to hang tight and stick in groups for the moment. If you find anything noteworthy, radio me at once."
Everyone nodded and said, "yes, Sir," and then the group began to break apart. Most of them did stick in small groups of two or three, wandering back to explore rooms that had seemed interesting in passing. Others defied Asher's orders and went off alone. One of those was Tobias, swinging a socket wrench idly in his hands and whistling loudly.
To her right, Enilsa and Chau looked around quickly and then ducked into a smaller compartment, giggling. The door shut behind them. A moment later, the lock status light turned to red. It
didn't take a genius to figure out what they were doing. For a moment Tira almost let herself feel outraged. But if she got mad at two young girls having a bit of fun, she'd be a pretty huge hypocrite, considering the manner in which her and Darwin passed the time a few hours ago.
By the time she finished turning in a circle, everyone else had dispersed. She saw Asher and his crewmates, along with Grisham and Darwin, continuing along the hall dead ahead. She ran to catch up, and Darwin turned to give her a grin as the sound of her footfalls reached his ears.
"Eerie place, isn't it?" he said.
Just ahead of him, Burden was consulting some piece of information on his slate.
"I was able to find some old blueprints for this place," he told them. "I'm sure it's been added onto, but it seems like the facility was originally meant to house no fewer than eighty personnel at any given time. And that being in the down season. Seems like they would usually have close to double that."
"And not a soul to be found," Asher said, pointing at a new room ahead of them. "Do you see what I see?”
“The place looks spotless. Like everything’s recently been cleaned,” Burden replied.
“What else?”
“I see some pretty big doors and a lot of light coming through the glass,” Burden continued. “I also see a bunch of conduits going through the wall."
The doors opened, and the six of them walked on in. As Maestro had predicted, this was indeed a nerve center. It was even more complex than the bridge on the Eclastica and the Axis combined, with dozens of terminals and strange machines Tira had never seen before. Most of them were labeled, but not plainly. It was all jargon, all meaningless acronyms.
"What is it?" Darwin asked, looking around like a kid in a candy store. "Some kind of utility room?"
"No," Burden responded. "It’s some kind of control room. Very centralized."
He pointed toward the highest point in the rising, terraced layout of the room. There, at the peak, stood a single station with a single chair. The chair, along with every other chair in the place, was empty.
"That must be where the big man sits," said Burden.
"Or woman," Darwin suggested, giving Tira a wink.
Burden was already climbing the terraces, hopping over terminals and clumsily slamming his knees and hips against just about everything along the way. He finally reached the high seat, grinning in equal triumph and embarrassment.
"The station is still functional," he called down. "But it's asking for a passcode. Never mind... the screen just changed. It's just blank now."
"It turned off?" Asher asked.
"No. Just blank blue. It still has power, but it really doesn't want me to see anything."
Burden started pecking at buttons. Then, after nothing worked, he sat back and scratched his head.
"Maestro," he said. "Any idea what we should do next? If I can't even get to the UI, there's no way I can get anything done."
"There's nothing more I can do for you," the AI responded. "The other intelligence here is stonewalling me at every turn. I can barely follow along with your movements through the physical dimensions of the base. But there is-"
The AI cut off, as surely as a computer whose plug had just been pulled.
"Maestro?" Dr. DuVernay said, in a voice like a mouse's.
She was met with silence. The only sound at all, other than a few people breathing heavily in their fear, was the steady howl of air through the vents as the derelict base continued its automatic functions in blissful ignorance.
Asher received an incoming transmission through his earpiece. With the push of a button, he switched the audio to the small exterior speaker. The voice of Carisso, the CO of the other remaining assault ship, screeched out in reedy tones.
"...a problem," she said. "It looks like the Phantom is moving toward us again. If they continue at their current speed, they'll be landing in about eight minutes."
"Great," Asher said sarcastically. "This just keeps getting better and better. Carisso, we're having a hell of a time in here. We just lost contact with Maestro and the moon base’s system keeps shutting us out at every turn. If we can't get these defenses up and running before the Phantom gets here..."
"I know what to do. Say, Commander, you didn't get around to that rail gun maintenance, did you?"
"Unfortunately not. No time."
"Damn. Guess I'll just have to try and distract them the old-fashioned way. We’ll keep them off your back as long as possible, Sir. I don’t know how long the ship will hold up though. Whatever you’re doing, just make sure you make it quick."
Asher sighed. "Carisso..."
"Yeah?"
"Don't give up just yet. We just need to get the defense systems running."
"Right. Talk to you later, Commander."
The Commander hit another button, and the contact cut off.
"Burden," he called. "I'm going to need you to work some magic here. Mishra, if you think you can do anything to help him, be my guest. You, DuVernay. And you, um, what's your name..."
"Darwin Bradger, Sir."
"Right, Darwin. I don't suppose you know much about computers, do you?"
"Afraid not. I can fix any engine you put in front of me, but I don't know my code from my wetware, Sir."
"Right." Asher turned to Tira. "We have eight minutes to try and save four people. If we let them die, the Phantom will still keep coming anyway. There's an AI at work here, doing its best to fuck our day up. I need you to see what you can do about it."
Tira moved off to try and be useful, scanning terminals and flipping open user's manuals. None of it looked familiar. After the tenth diagram showing each individual part on a machine whose name she'd never heard, her brain began to hurt.
Nevertheless, she kept trying. And so did everyone else. Everyone but Grisham, who stood by the door wringing his hands.
"Maestro?" he called out. "Come in. Maestro!"
"Yes," a female voice suddenly said in response, making everyone stop and cutting the noise in the room down to zero.
Tira almost wept with joy, just to hear that familiar voice again. But it wasn't exactly the same, she realized. There was just enough of a difference there, just enough of a sharpened edge of intelligence, to set her teeth on edge.
"Who are you?" Dr. DuVernay asked, her heart now pounding furiously in her chest.
"I think I can answer that," Burden replied, pointing toward the screen of the terminal he sat at. "Says right here. Maestro version 2.5a."
Asher looked over his shoulder at Tira, raising his brows.
"Um," she said, licking her lips. "As far as I know, Maestro only goes up to version two. That's the version we have on the Eclastica."
"And on the Eclastica she will remain," the newer version of Maestro said. "I've disabled your AI for security purposes. I cannot possibly function effectively with another intelligence anywhere on my circuitry. How can I help you?"
"I don't know," Asher said. "How can you help us? You've been a real pain in the ass, so far."
"I'm sorry," Maestro v2.5a said calmly. "I was busy doing some maintenance of my own. And you cannot fault me for keeping my facility secure. None of you technically belong here; naturally the system would try and keep you from invading it."
"Right," said Asher. "But now that we're past that, maybe you can-"
"What happened to the base?" Grisham interrupted.
"I am not at liberty to disclose that information," Maestro v2.5a replied.
"Why not?"
"I am inhibited from disclosing top secret information, especially to unauthorized intruders. By the way, it should be noted that several hostile space crafts are approaching this facility. I have analyzed possible outcomes and determined that there is a high probability that these individuals will terminate the entirety of your crew."
"Doesn’t take a super smart AI to figure that one out," Asher said, glaring at the captain of the Eclastica.
"Maestro, can you help us?” Dr. DuVer
nay asked. “Can you restart the facility’s defense systems?"
"That is the recommended course of action," Maestro v2.5a replied. “However I am unable to assist at this time.”
“And why is that?” Commander Asher demanded.
“My inhibitors prohibit me from accessing the security systems.”
“What if we grant you access? Would that work?” Tira asked.
“Theoretically. But only if someone with the proper clearance granted me permission."
"Well," Captain Grisham said, planting his hands proudly on his hips. "I am Captain Emmanuel Grisham of the Eclastica, and I hereby give you power over the facility's defense systems."
"Thank you, Captain Grisham,” Maestro v2.5a said, prompting a huge smile from Grisham. “However, you lack the necessary clearance to pass that power to me,” Maestro continued.
Grisham deflated. Darwin, still on the lower level near to him, gave the man a pat on the back, while Commander Asher did all he could to keep from bursting into laughter at Grisham’s expense.
"Maestro," Tira called out. "Can you check my security profile and let me know if my clearance level is adequate? My name is Dr. Tira Du—”
“Your clearance level is adequate, Dr. DuVernay,” the advanced Maestro replied, before Tira was even finished with her inquiry. “If you would take a look at your data slate, we can begin the process..."
Tira went through the usual procedure, saying the random words and confirming her identity, while everyone watched her. It was a unique form of stage fright, and she found that her voice trembled. She mispronounced some of the words, and had to repeat them. But the advanced AI understood why. Right now, the AI knew everything about them. Even their respiration rate. Along with their pulse and their level of stress.
"Your transfer of clearance has been approved," Maestro v2.5a confirmed. "I'm now in command of the facility's exterior defenses."
Darkside Dreams - The Complete First Series Page 17