by Frank Carey
"Well, I know what next year's color is going to be," he said. "It's beautiful."
She looked at him with her black, almond eyes. "You really think so?"
"Ruby, you are beautiful. You know why?"
She shook her head.
"Because this is the real you. No more suits, no more subterfuge. This is you, and you are beautiful."
She smiled and looked away. "I knew there was a reason I liked you. You see truth. The Alue have stories about members of our race who could see truth. I always thought they were myths."
"Follow your heart, Ruby. I followed mine and never divorced Marta. Eventually, I came to believe that we would get together again, and we did. I came to believe that the pain and loneliness would go away, and it did. You watch, this time next year you won't even remember this."
She leaned her head against his shoulder. "Thanks for the pep talk. I needed it."
"Glad to oblige. Oh look, the Venlantens are returning."
Led by a bemused Clint, Ciara and Shanna walked up to the rest of the group, the two women still talking about plant things and the Venlanten home world. "Shanna, Ciara, we're here," Clint said before they ran into someone.
"What? Oh. Sorry," Shanna said. "We got caught up in a thing."
Clint mouthed, "B-F-F," and everyone laughed.
"Hiram, get your lazy butt over here," Harmon called. Hiram ran up moments later with the director in tow. "What did we miss?" he asked, ever so slightly out of breath, while Eduardo wasn't even breathing hard.
"Nothing, except maybe some exercise," Harm noted. Shanna cuffed him.
"Brute!" he said, rubbing his arm.
"Wuss," she countered.
"I told you," Tannith commented.
"You know each other?" Ciara asked.
"We all know each other," Nebulon explained. "I've worked with Shanna on several digs."
"And I helped with research and analysis."
"Who else do you know that you forgot to tell me about?" Ciara asked.
"No one," the xeno and historian said together.
Ciara gave them both the hairy eye.
"Honey, look what the two doctors found," Hiram said while holding up the hologram.
Shanna's eyes went wide as her hands started to shake. "Where... Where is this?"
Harm pointed to the ground. "One hundred feet below us. We think the entry is inside El Castillo. Hiram, I see you got the cats. Did you get the other crates?"
"Yep. According to the instructions, we were supposed to press a button on the side of one of the crates, then stand back. The crates popped open as several dozen small robots poured out and headed into El Castillo. We haven't seen hide nor hair of them since."
"Good, that means they're working." Harm pulled another datapad from his pocket.
"How many of those do you have?" Tannith asked.
"Just two." He tapped some commands and a hologram of the ziggurat appeared. He pressed a button on the screen and the outside of the structure disappeared, revealing the interior structure.
Nebulon motioned for the elf to hand the device over. Once in hand, she manipulated the image. "What the hell kind of resolution are we talking about here?"
"About an inch. If you need higher, we can send a bot back to do a high-res pass."
"Director, I'm familiar with El Castillo, but I have no idea what this is," she said as she pointed to a room at the bottom of the structure.
The director put on a pair of glasses and peered at the section she was pointing at. "It's a room, but there isn't a room there. My Prince, what kind of scanners are you using?"
"The bots are equipped with modified nanoscanners designed to map collapsed buildings during rescue operations. The various bots are performing a standard search and rescue pattern."
"This could revolutionize xenoarchaeology," Shanna said. "It would cut our initial site mapping from a month to a day. Where can we get some of these?"
"Well, you can keep these when we're finished with the site," Harm said. "I'll have Gloria get a hold of you to arrange a demo of everything in Elven Industries catalog."
"Gloria? As in Gloria Aymar?" Hiram asked.
"Yeah. She's my sister-in-law and Tannith's cousin."
"And we get to keep all the toys?"
"Yeah, as long as you're willing to write some performance reports. I've got copies of the manuals in the Algonquin."
Shanna just shook her head. "Okay, so that room isn't supposed to be there. Any idea what's inside?"
Harm deactivated the display and proceeded to type in a series of commands. "I'm rerouting four probe bots to the room to perform high-res scans. They'll be done in a few minutes. Meanwhile..." He trilled. Moments later four house cats appeared and sat down in front of him. He made a series of noises. The cats got up and ran up the stairs into the temple at the top of El Castillo. "I've sent them in as a precaution. All this scanning may be noticed."
"By whom?" Eduardo asked.
"Any sentry systems still active inside."
"Hey, Ciara, you're back," Ruby said as she walked up to join the group. "Did I miss anything?"
The Joneses and Eduardo just stared.
"We think we found the door to the lower structure," Harm said. "Dammit, where are my manners. Dr. Shanna Syron, Hiram Jones, and Dir. Eduardo Duarte, I would like you to meet my dearest friend, Ruby. Ruby, if you haven't already heard, is an Alue, a member of the race formally known as the AIs."
"But you're a Zeta Reticulan from the Orion constellation," Eduardo whispered."
Ruby made a buzzer noise. "Wrong! Never been there. But, we think my people's secret Earth base is hidden beneath us. Now, isn't that a hoot!"
Eduardo fainted.
CHAPTER TEN
Surrounded by robocats of every size and color, the members of the expedition stood around the blank stone wall hiding the stairway down to the lower structure. Harm reached over and tapped the wall with his knuckle, producing a solid thump. He activated his data pad's holoprojector and brought up the high-res scan of what was beyond the wall. The scan showed a stairway leading downward at an Earth-normal angle. He ran his hand along the wall's surface, but found no indication of an external locking mechanism, sensor pad, or even a keyhole. This isn't surprising since he was standing a few feet away from a snack bar and gift kiosk. "How many thousands of people have run their hands over this wall?" he asked.
"Ancient people built this edifice?" Rutile asked while shining her hand torch at the nooks in the ceiling.
"Yes, over a thousand standard years ago. It is amazing they were able to put something like this together using the primitive tools they had at their disposal."
"Or they had help," Harm pointed out.
Ruby walked around, staring first at the floor, then the ceiling. "Hey, look at that mandala up there," she said while pointing to a spot above where Harm was standing. "It matches the one Harm's standing on."
Harm looked down and saw nothing. "You see mandalas"
"Yep. Really bright colors with maybe forty polygons. Don't you see it?"
"Nope. I see a stone floor. Nebs, you've got the enhanced eyesight. See anything?"
Nebulon walked over and looked first at the floor, then the ceiling. "Nada."
"Let me try," Agendor said. He walked over and looked. "Nothing."
"Jeez, are you all blind?" the Alue said. She walked over and stood over a spot just in front of the wall. "It's right there, as plain as the nose on your face."
As she bent over, her head lined up with the two spots. In front of her, a doorway appeared through which they could see a brightly lit room and a stairway leading downward.
"Oh look, I'm a key now," Ruby quipped as she started to step forward.
Harm stopped her. "Whoa there, young lady. Let's send some bots in first," he said while nodding to Hiram. Using the datapad Harm had given him, the digger first directed a swarm of lightbots standing-by outside to join them and head into the lower structure to act as lumin
ation. Next, he commanded the probe bots to use the stairway to enter the lower structure. Meanwhile, Harm ordered most of the cats to follow the probes, leaving a handful behind in El Castillo to act as backup. Once all the robotic wildlife had gone down the stairs, the group followed with the 1st Logash and Ruby in the lead.
"Watch your corners," Grayson said as his team carefully descended into the lower levels, their way lit by dozens of robotic spiders with illuminated orbs for their abdomens.
Harm looked back and saw six cats following, watching every angle.
"We're getting close," Nebulon quietly reported while reading her scanner. "Another twenty feet."
"Eyes open, everyone," Grayson said when they were in view of a level floor.
Grayson signaled a stop at the bottom of the stairs. The lightbots had swarmed outward at least fifty feet from the group, leaving anything beyond hidden in the darkness. "Team, defensive ring. Move."
The team moved to positions along the edge of the light pool created by the bots. Once in place, they knelt and aimed their weapons into the darkness.
"They can see in that darkness?" Eduardo asked.
"Yes, rather well actually," Rutile said.
"So can elves and Tyens," Nebulon added.
"I need to eat more carrots," Ciara quipped.
"I've got another mandala," Ruby said. She walked over to the wall on the left of the stairway and examined a spot at her head level. To the others, it was just a blank wall. "The pattern's different and there's a slight glow coming from its center." She looked over at Shanna. "It's your expedition."
Shanna smiled. "Yeah, it is, isn't it? Let's start with simple. Put you hand over it."
Ruby shrugged, then covered the spot with her hand.
The lights came on, revealing a vast space filled with an assortment of partitions, doorway, stairwells, and equipment. "I've been here before," Nebulon said.
"When?" Ruby asked.
"When I visited Area 51. It looked like this--controlled chaos. They had built the base over the course of decades--each build different from the last. One of the reasons they left was the confusion caused by the different architectures clashing functionally."
As the others looked around, Harm and Hiram scanned the area around them. "The six blobs are on this level on a heading of 218 degrees true," Hiram said. "Wait a minute... We have company."
"Confirmed. Inbound from 013 degrees true. It's big and semi-organic."
"What the hell does that mean," Tannith asked nervously.
"We called them cyborgs back in the day," Hiram said.
"Fall back to the ziggurat! Team, defensive positions. Go hot, safeties off!" Grayson ordered. The civilians headed for the stairs, except for Ruby. She walked past the security team and placed herself squarely in the path of the approaching cyborg.
"Ruby! Harm yelled, but it was too late. Something appeared from behind a large piece of equipment. The creature was big, at least ten meters long with pieces of flesh emerging from metal plates on his back. Before anyone could move, the creature ran up to Ruby and came to an abrupt stop. It lowered its head and sniffed the Alue. Ruby, standing as if she were in a trance, reached out her hand and placed it on the creature’s snout. “Do not be afraid. This is a legrole, a biosynthetic lifeform used for long-term site security. You are all safe as long as I am present.”
Harm lowered his weapon. “Ruby, how do you know all this?” he asked.
“I don’t have a freakin’ clue,” she replied in a very quiet voice. After a moment, she removed her hand as the creature turned and ran off. When it was out of sight, she collapsed.
"Maintain alert. Medic!" Grayson yelled as he ran over to the unconscious Alue. "Ruby, snap out of it," the young neoLogash said as he cradled her head. She opened her eyes and looked at him.
"Hey, you. Why am I on the floor?"
"You were tired, so we stopped to let you take a nap," he replied as the team’s corpsman checked her out, placed his hand on her arm, and closed his eyes while his crystal pulsed bright blue.
"She's fine. No sign of trauma or injury," he reported.
"Injury?" She sat up. Would someone like to tell me what the plark is going on?"
Grayson helped her to her feet will explaining what happened. "Do you remember anything?"
She shook her head, her hair cascading down her shoulder. "I remember the security alert, then nothing. Hey, did anyone ever tell you you're kinda cute?"
Grayson smiled while glancing at the medic who took Ruby's arm in hand. He shook his head and shrugged. "I have been made aware that several people find my appearance appealing."
"Damn, you sound just like your father. That elf really needs to lighten up."
"So he has been told many times. Are you sure you're OK?"
"Fit as a fiddle. Let's get this party moving. Anyone got a nutribar? I'm starved."
Grayson pulled out one from his vest and handed it to her. She nodded thanks as she wolfed it down.
"That's the first time she's eaten since manifesting her body," Tannith observed.
"Something about this place is affecting her physiology," Agendor said as he studied his scanner, one that he had taken from the Minerva and had been enhanced by Harmon. "There's an unidentified, low-level field emanating from the center of the structure. It may be what's affecting her."
Shanna looked at her scanner and saw the coast was clear, so she ordered them to proceed. With Grayson's team in the lead and cats bringing up the rear, they headed out toward the location of the six blobs.
As they approached, Harmon signaled for them to stop. "I'm picking up a life form near the blobs."
"Shit. Another cyborg, sir?" Grayson asked.
"You called me 'sir.' That's so sweet. No, not a cyborg. This one is reading Alue."
Ruby looked at him and tilted her head sideways about 45 degrees. They could hear her vertebrae cracking. "Oh, this'll be fun."
Everyone stared at her. She smiled back.
"We should keep moving...I think," Hiram said with a long hard look at Harmon.
"Doctor?" Grayson asked Shanna.
She nodded back. "Proceed."
The rest of their short journey was uneventful. Finally, they found themselves standing in front of a pair of immense doors. Harm scanned the room beyond. "Six ships, all with active power systems. The life readings are coming from..." The doors slid open without warning.
"We're wasting time," Ruby said as she removed her hand from the wall next to the door and walked inside before anyone could stop her. Running, she headed to a door inset into the wall to the right of their position. When she got there, she palmed the wall and strode inside.
Grayson and his team arrived first and found Ruby standing opposite another Alue, both oblivious to the neoLogash. Just as the rest of the expedition arrived, the two Alue raised their left hands and pressed their palms together. As the expedition members watched, the two Alue flared with blinding white light. When their vision cleared, the group saw several dozen orbs of light hovering above the Alue.
"Harmon!" Hiram yelled as he read the readouts from his scanner in horror.
"I see it," Harm said as he pulled out his commlink.
"Too late!" Hiram said as the orbs shot straight up and disappeared into the ceiling.
"Damn, Damn, Damn," Harmon said as he frantically typed commands into the link.
"What's wrong?" Ciara yelled. Meanwhile, the two Alue just stood there, staring at each other.
"Those orbs were Alue. They just entered Earth's InterWeb network through the Algonquin's data system." He shut down the commlink. "I think we just saw the beginning of the Alue life cycle."
CHAPTER ELEVEN
"Wish me luck," Ciara said to Clint before walking over to where their new friend sat drinking bottled water.
"Good luck. Remember the first rule of first contact situations..."
"I know, don't get angry and kill the contact."
She walked over and sat down in
front of the Alue. Behind him stood Agendor and several members of the 1st Logash.
"Director Devlin, is this going to take long. I have a number of chores that need performed..."
"Caleb, this shouldn't take long, I promise, so let's get started. I just have a few questions."
"Shoot," Caleb said as he leaned back in his seat. He was wearing the same silvery jumpsuit Ciara had seen in pictures from countless UFO books and classic scifi vids.
"First, how long has this base been here? We're trying to calibrate some instruments, and your help would be greatly appreciated."
"This base has been here since right after the elves took out Atlantis. We detected the explosion from the next system over and sent a ship to investigate. Gods, what a mess. We scanned for Logash DNA and found it in all three races, so we sent ships after the two refugee ships while we settled here to build a base, as per protocol."
"I see. Great information. You really are helping us."
"I have a question," Caleb said.
"Let me hear it."
"How is it there are living Logash standing behind me? We killed them all a couple million years ago."
"It seems you missed a few,” Ciara said. “I'd keep it down about the killing thing. They get twitchy when they hear about what happened back in the day."
"Oh," Caleb whispered. He looked over at Agendor and smiled. Agendor smiled back, then winked.
"Caleb, what happened between you and Ruby?"
"We mated. You should try it. I guarantee, you won't be disappointed."
"And the orbs?" Ciara said.
"Offspring. You must have a network link nearby or that wouldn't have happened."
"So, your life cycle starts with offspring living in a computer network?"
"Closest thing this universe has to our mating caves,” Caleb said. “We needed new sources of raw materials, and more room to grow, so we jumped at the chance handed to us by those fools, the Logash.”
The sound of something being crushed filled the area. Caleb slowly turned, stopping when he saw the pulsing blue eyes of an enraged Logash staring at him.
"I've had enough of this shit," Ruby yelled. She ran over, grabbed Caleb by his silvery lapels, and lifted him out of his seat. "You scrawny piece of rat droppings, how dare you speak of the great Logash that way. To think that I made offspring with your help makes my skin crawl. Now, cut the crap. You will sit in that chair and tell this woman everything about what happened from the moment the Logash opened the doorway into the Alue universe. You will not leave out one detail, not one speck of data. If you do, or if you insult anyone ever again, I will reach into your chest cavity, pull out everything I find inside, and show it to you as you die, then I will feed you to that creature we met earlier. Do you understand me?"