by JD Clarke
“Well, don’t be shooting at any sounds,” I said, then as an afterthought added, “unless you think it’s best.” Legion and I took our helmets off as well. Sarge was right; at least we could hear if anything stirred. The helmets could amplify sound, but they made it hard to tell which direction it was coming from.
I used the magnets and triggered the spiral ramp that seemed to be standard on elevator platforms, and it slid smoothly down, giving us an easy access to the ground level. At least it was still working. I was not about to just jump down into the darkness, although that might have entered Legion’s thoughts. The guy was fearless. I made a mental note to add flashlights to the pulse rifles. We had none with us.
The light from the open elevator only lit half the ramp, the side that spiraled around on the door side. As we stepped onto the ground, my eyes had finally adjusted to the dark. “There’s the control panel, I think. I can just make it out.” I walked over to a large four-foot flat panel that was attached to a stand that held it at eye level. It was completely black and smooth, like many of the Ancient Ones’ control panels. I ran my hand across it, but nothing happened. I took out one of the magnets I had brought and placed it against the surface; it instantly responded by lighting up. Its surface was a maze of blue and green lines, circles, and squares with no written labels. A large red double circle was at the upper-left corner. I hesitated, my hand holding the magnet just above the surface of the red circle.
“I have your back, Jason.” Legion’s communication was reassuring. I could feel him close behind me.
“Here goes.” I touched the red circle. The ring’s artificial sky lit up, flickered like fluorescent lights coming on, and then steadied into a warm yellowish glow.
It was a dead world. Trees, brush, even grass—all dead and either leafless or a dry brown. Several of the trees had limbs that had broken and were hanging at angles, their once-lofty tops resting on the ground.
“You’re not gonna believe this view. There’s a shitload of metal monsters, thousands of them. They look like they were all headed this way when the power was shut off. They look like the machines you described from your dream, Jason. Twenty feet tall, two legs, long tail, and a big head.”
“Any of them active?” My heart began racing in reply to the Sarge’s report.
“Naw, they’re all just standing there. Come on up and see. You too, Noomi. Check this out.”
I could hear Noomi’s armored boots clang against the platform as she came out of the elevator.
“Jason.” Legion placed his hand on my shoulder, stopping me as I was turning to head for the ramp. But I had heard it too. A movement—subtle, the kind that makes you wonder if you really heard something.
“Aw, shit, shut it down! Shut it down now!” Sarge yelled, and his voice was instantly followed by the sound of his pulse rifle firing a steady stream of fire.
As I turned to reach the panel, a huge head burst through the dead trees. Two multibarreled machine guns were mounted on the lower jaw of the monster. The muzzles flared as the panel in front of us disintegrated under a barrage of explosive bullets. Legion ran to the left, firing his pulse rifle at the monster’s head. I ran right, firing blindly, diving behind a dead tree lying across the ground. Bullets rained down on the monstrous machine from the sergeant standing along the rail of the platform.
The monster turned his attention upward, and tracers streaked out to the platform, forcing the Sarge back. I jumped up and ran to cover behind another tree.
“I will circle the monster. Get behind him on this side. Keep his attention, Jason.” Legion’s communication was cool and deliberate.
I leaned around the tree and fired a quick burst at what appeared to be sensors on the metallic head. Instantly, a hailstorm of bullets riddled the tree. Bark and chunks of dead wood flew as the tree was splintered apart in response to my attack. I crouched low, using the tree as cover, but I could hear the monster’s heavy footfalls as he began to approach and circle the tree, still firing continuously. At this rate, there would soon be no tree left.
I braced, listened, and judged the monster’s direction, then took off, sprinting for another tree. The monster’s firing stopped as the Sarge again fired from above, distracting the monster and allowing me to reach new cover. But he had to retreat again as the twin guns opened up and began to ravage the platform. I took better aim and fired. A large black eyelike sensor shattered. I ducked behind the tree just as the massive head swung around and began spitting death in my direction. Then I heard Legion’s war cry. I looked back around just in time to see him leaping onto the mechanical creature’s tail and scampering up its back. He had dropped his rifle and was using both hands to scale up onto the monster’s back. It stopped a moment as if puzzled and then began to shake like a dog attempting to sling off water. I began firing at sensors along its sides. At the same time, the sergeant’s bullets began to strike the monster’s leg joint. I changed my focus and began firing at the large “knee” joint on my side of the monster.
The monster turned and fired a burst at the Sarge, then turned and fired at me. Legion, who had been holding on for dear life, crawled on upward onto the monster’s neck and removed his sword. He plunged it directly into the monster’s neck. He shoved it further in, almost to the hilt, and then jerked it left and right, severing electrical connections and sending a shower of sparks to the ground. The monster followed, collapsing in a heap with Legion on top, still twisting his sword into the beast until all the sparks died away and all movement had ceased.
“Way to go, Legion!” Sarge cried out, his head again visible along the edge of the platform. “OK, Noomi, all clear! You can come back out now.”
“No! Sarge, keep Noomi in the elevator!” I called out. “Don’t let her come out of the elevator.”
The Sarge held up his hand, motioning Noomi to stop. “What? Is there another one active?” His head spun, looking in all directions.
“No, not yet, but I think it activated in response to Noomi’s presence.”
“That is a reasonable assumption. The mechanism became active when I emerged onto the platform. It is highly probable that the purpose of these machines is to destroy other forms of robotic or computerized life, the enemies of the Ancient Ones.”
“Yeah, right, just keep your circuits in the elevator.” The sergeant’s eyes were still searching the area for further threats.
“Anything, Sarge?”
“No, all clear from up here.”
“OK, Legion, let’s try and remove the head. We’ll take it back with us, try and figure out how this thing works and why they shut them down.”
Legion jumped down to the ground to join me. “They turned them off because they cannot be trusted. We should leave them here or dump them into space.”
“Maybe that was the idea. Dump a load of these things on a planet controlled by the Unity or Colossus and let them chew up the intelligent machines. Then the Ancient Ones could just waltz in and take over the planet.”
“Waltz?” Legion was probably getting the meaning of my comment. The neural net was good at conveying concepts. It communicated concepts, not words. He was just giving me a hard time.
“Yeah, waltz, something that’s easily done, like strolling up a mechanical dinosaur’s back and sticking it with a sword. You know, easy, anyone could do it.”
That earned me a slap on the chest, which nearly took me off my feet, and Legion’s head bobbed again in laughter.
It took some effort on Legion’s part, but he managed to bypass the now-destroyed master control panel and release the computer controls from their locked status so the ring’s computer system was under our mental control. We reduced the gravity to 20 percent of Earth’s normal gravity. That made it easier to carry the robot’s massive head up to the elevator. After loading it, Legion returned the ring’s gravity to 1 g, like the rest of the mother ship, and we all rode the elevator down.
“The weaponry is a multibarrel 25 mm rapid fire system usi
ng caseless ammunition with explosive-tipped projectiles, probably capable of sustained fire in excess of 1,500 rounds per minute, using your Earth standards, although it was only firing bursts of three hundred rounds per minute during your battle with it.” Noomi was pouring over the head with great interest.
“Yeah, but that was enough to destroy the lower control panel and turn the forward section of the platform into swiss cheese.” Sarge was standing beside her, taking a closer look himself.
“Why did they not all attack us? Why was this the only one to become alive?” Legion asked.
“Maybe the others aren’t in working condition. They’ve been inactive for a long time. Maybe their sensors are not working.”
Noomi looked up the Sarge. “The probability of the only functioning robotic fighting machine out of thousands being the one that was closest to us when we entered is unlikely.”
“Maybe they have a sensor range. Perhaps this is the only one that was within range when Noomi stepped out of the elevator,” I added.
“That is a more likely hypothesis, Commander. We would have to examine the sensors and programming to be certain. We should also examine the other units to determine their operational condition.”
“We’ll get some maintenance robots to cart this thing to Dr. Tanakai’s lab. You and the doc can dissect and analyze it all you want there.”
The Plan
I asked Mako, Legion, and the Sarge to meet me in the mess hall in an hour. That gave us time to get out of our battle armor and take a shower. The armor had climate controls, but I always got sweaty wearing it. It also had full life support and would protect us from most hostile environments, even exposure to empty space.
When I walked into the mess hall, the three of them and Dena were seated there at a table with a plate piled high with grilled steaks and four large pitchers of what appeared to be beer. Dena and Mako were laughing as the Sarge described Legion’s attack on the metal T. rex in a very comic “caveman vs. Godzilla” way. I took my seat next to Dena.
“And where were you during all this?” Dena turned to ask me.
“Hell, I was doing what the Sarge was doing—hiding and watching the show.” They laughed and began passing the plate of steaks around. “I assume these are compliments of the Fifth Ring.” It was the only ring with wild or domestic animals living on it. The Ancient Ones were vegetarians, and their onboard gardens normally supplied our mess hall.
“Yes, it’s incompatible with our digestive systems, so it has no nutritional value, but it won’t hurt us either. And the good thing is I can eat all I want without gaining any weight,” Dena teased.
“And the beer?” I asked.
“The drink is from Sergeant Klanton. He has raided my lab in order to make his beer-brewing contraption,” Mako said.
“Every good marine should know how to make the essentials needed for survival.”
“You could have manufactured what you needed from the ship’s factories,” Mako replied.
“Now, Mako, that would have deprived you of being part of the process.” The Sarge flashed his big winning smile. “So what’s up, Jason? Why the meeting?”
“I plan on capturing one of the Unity’s factory planets. A major planet,” I said, cutting into my steak. It was cooked just right, tender and juicy. “I want to go over the plan and get everyone’s feedback on it.”
“They’ll have a buttload of warships defending it if it’s one of their major factories,” the Sarge said with a mouthful.
“It is. It is one of the warship-production facilities. Sybil got the information of its location from some of the Unity members we captured and recruited. I think we can plan on facing thirty to forty Unity warships,” I said. I was surprised at how good the beer was as I took another drink, amber with a good head. “Using the tactics we went over together, Sarge, do you think we can handle forty warships?”
“If we have all twenty of our warships together, yeah, I think so. Assuming the Unity don’t fight to the last man, but then they never do.”
“We can take the planet, but can we keep it? They will come back and try to recapture what is theirs.” Legion was a sharp strategist. It’s why he alone was able to unite his own people. He had been a difficult enemy to us at one time also. I was glad to have him on our side, and I always welcomed his advice.
“That’s up to Mako.” I turned to Dr. Tanakai next, asking, “How about it, is the time device working? Can we use it as a defensive shield?”
“Sybil and I have gotten it working, but it requires enormous power to operate. What did you have in mind?”
“I want to use it to project a shield large enough to cover the entire factory site on a planet, an area comparable to the size of Los Angeles back on Earth. Can you do that, Mako?”
“Jason, that’s going to require tremendous power. Even the Defiant would be stressed to generate that amount of power. From what we have seen in the other Unity factory planets, it might be possible, but it will leave very little power for anything else. The factory may not function at all, and I assume your aim in capturing the factory is to produce more warships.”
“We have to capture and hold the factory. We have to let the Unity know we are a force to be reckoned with. We have to keep them busy here so they cannot spread to our home system and threaten Earth.”
“Mako, how does this shield work? Will it protect us from space assaults? Will it keep ground forces out?” Dena asked as she finished her steak.
“It works by forming a time matrix, like a crystal. Within the described area, all motion ceases. Time, in effect, stops. The device we constructed from the Ancient Ones’ information can project a time crystal to any distance we want, provided we have the necessary power. It could form an impenetrable umbrella above the factory facilities. Anything that comes into contact with the matrix is caught in it, frozen in time.”
“But won’t light be stopped as well?”
“Yes, Dena, good observation. It will stop as well. Not even light will penetrate the shield. The shield will appear absolutely black from the underside or from outside of it.”
“But, Mako, won’t that make us blind to what is happening? If the Unity fire their nuclear missiles and lasers into the shield and it should fail for some reason, the area below will receive a torrent of enemy fire all at once when time resumes. All the weapons caught in the time matrix will be free to resume their course to their intended targets. No ground-based defense system could counter that.”
“If the shield were constant, yes. But I have designed it to pulse. For very short microseconds of time, random areas of it will shut off just long enough for some light to reach the ground. Not long enough for a sustained laser burst to penetrate. Our own ground-based defense systems will be able to use the information gained in these brief glimpses to target defensive bursts of lasers or antimissile fire at the enemy’s weapons. We will be able to, in effect, counter the enemy’s assault at our leisure. We will be able to even counter the enemy’s light-based weapons because we will be able to plot their warship’s positions before they fire and be ready with our own defensive fire. The brief periods of lapse in the shield’s formation will be random and as needed for our own targeting. The Unity will not be able to penetrate it, no matter how intelligent they are.”
“And ground assaults?” Legion asked again.
“Unfortunately, the shield will not project completely to the surface of the planet. It will come into contact with the planet’s surface in places, but not effectively. There are certain problems involved with projecting the shield onto the planet’s surface, which I have yet to resolve. Also, the model I have built in the lab is not large enough to be useful. We will have to construct a much larger unit for planetary defenses.”
“I will need your Warriors to provide ground defense, Legion,” I told him.
“They will be ready. They will be anxious to leave when I tell them the news. They long for combat.”
“Can we use this t
ime shield for our warships?” the Sarge asked.
“No, the warships do not generate enough power. We could equip the Defiant with some small shields, but not enough to completely surround her. I don’t think the time shields are practical for anything other than planetary defenses.”
“Thanks, Mako. How soon can we be ready for the assault?” I asked.
“The time shield will be ready in just a few more days,” Mako said with a big grin as he saw the shock on my face. “Sybil told me you were interested in the information about this planet. She predicted an attack and also that you would be counting on using the time shield to defend the planet. I began production months ago.”
“Sybil is getting to know me too well,” I answered. And if Sybil was beginning to be capable of predicting my actions, then the Unity would soon be capable of predicting my actions also. That was the bad news.