The Ruins of Karzelek (The Mandrake Company series Book 4)

by Lionsdrake, Ruby

  His shuttle swooped down, and its lights were soon playing across piles and piles of rubble that apparently had not held enough ore to be worth carting out. It was as if a miniature mountain range sprouted from the cavern floor.

  Kalish had the oval relic out, map side up. She alternated examining it and looking out the view screen. She pointed and murmured something to her sister.

  “You’re the boss,” Tia said.

  The Divining Rod headed off in a different direction, though it also followed the floor, as closely as the rubble heaps allowed. Here and there, water and sludge lay in the valleys between the mounds, but none of the large puddles had the appearance of an ancient pool that had not been disturbed for eons.

  “This is where your map led you?” Kalish’s mother asked from the hatchway. She wore a tool belt, in addition to her weapons belt, and frowned darkly at everyone as she leaned into the bridge. Judging by the bags under her eyes, she had not slept in some time.

  “Yes, Mom,” Kalish said.

  “Well, the hull is fixed, if we need to get out of here.”

  “There’s little point in leaving until we find what we came for.”

  “Listen,” her mom said. “I’m worried about your father, too, but if we all end up in jail, we won’t be able to do him any good. This does not look like a promising site for ruins.”

  Kalish did not look back, but Sedge could see part of her profile from his spot, the grimness of her face and her clenched jaw. She probably needed a neck rub, but he dared not try it with her mother looking on.

  “I’m not finding anything promising,” Val said over the comm.

  “Nor I,” Thatcher added.

  The Divining Rod was heading straight for a corner—a dead end.

  Kalish brought her knuckles to her mouth, watching the view screen intently.

  “There,” she breathed, rising out of her seat as the ship crested the last of the rubble mounds.

  “It’s a pool of water,” Tia said. “Dirty looking water, at that. You make it sound like we’ve found some grand treasure.”

  Kalish must not have shared her suspicions with her sister. Sedge came forward to stand behind her, not caring if the mother glared at him.

  “It’s larger than it appeared on the map, and it looks deep, like something that’s been there a while.” Sedge pointed. “There’s a pump on that end, but it’s rusty and long-forgotten, it looks like.”

  Kalish slumped back into her seat. “Does that mean they pumped out the pool at one point? If they did, they would have found any tunnels down there.”

  “It’s worth checking anyway. Maybe the water filled in too quickly, and it ended up not being worth draining for them.”

  “Checking the sensors,” Kalish said, “but they’re not able to probe very far into the water. That’s surprising. If we were in the atmosphere, I could get readings all the way out to the nebula. Why would ten feet of water be an obstacle?”

  “I don’t know, but the fact that it is might mean something,” Sedge said. “Maybe this isn’t a normal pool.”

  Kalish’s mother snorted. “You’re as idealistic as she is.”

  “My idealism has proved fruitful in the past, Mom. We wouldn’t have this business otherwise.”

  Her mother sighed. “I know. You’re right.”

  “If the aliens didn’t want their secret shipbuilding facility to be found,” Sedge said, “they might have used a sensor-dampening material to block out probes.”

  “Underwater sensor-dampening material?” Kalish asked, though she turned in her seat, her face hopeful rather than skeptical. She wanted him to be right.

  “Why not? Lots of ships today have such a mesh built into the hulls.”

  “I wonder if that’s why the mining ships zeroed in on the Divining Rod,” Kalish said. “We don’t have anything like that.”

  “Perhaps.”

  “Does that mean we’re going to have to go underwater and take a look with our eyes?” Tia asked.

  “Is this ship seaworthy?” Sedge asked. The pool was large enough for the combat shuttles to dive into, and even the bulkier Divining Rod could make it with plenty of room to spare. So long as the pool did not end up being five feet deep, and they hit the bottom as soon as they entered.

  “Seaworthy?” the mother asked. “I’ve been working to make it space worthy. Nobody said anything about water.”

  “The hull will be airtight, naturally,” Kalish said, “and I’ve landed the ship in a lake before. The engines weren’t damaged by a little water. The only problem would be if we went down too deep. Spaceships don’t have to withstand all of the pressure that submarines do.”

  “I doubt that pool is that deep,” Sedge said dryly.

  “Navigating could be challenge too. We don’t have ballast tanks, so we would actually have to fire the thrusters.”

  “Maybe someone should just get out and stick her head underwater,” Tia said.

  “Do you have underwater suits?” Sedge asked. “Or even spacesuits? That might—”

  “We have company,” Thatcher said.

  “More mining ships?” Sedge guessed.

  “No. Eight Fleet fighters just showed up on my sensors.”

  “What?” Sedge said at the same time as Kalish.

  “They’re supposed to be two days behind,” she added.

  “They’re flying swiftly,” Thatcher said. “They’ll enter this cavern in less than two minutes.”

  “What do we do?” Tia asked.

  “Try it now.” Sedge pointed at the pool. “We have to find out if there’s anything worth defending, or if we should get out of here.”

  Kalish scowled at his last few words, but all she said was, “Do it, Tia.”

  “Anyone care to speculate on how they found us?” Val asked.

  “It’s possible Ms. Blackwell’s ship was tagged with a tracking device,” Thatcher said. “The mining ships were also zeroing in on the craft.”

  “We’re not tagged with anything,” Kalish snapped. “We just don’t have a sensor-dampening hull. It’s been weeks since we’ve seen Fleet ships, and until a few days ago, they had no reason to have an interest in me.”

  “What about pirates?” Sedge asked. “Did you communicate with them only from afar, or did any of them get close?”

  “The only ones I’ve been close to are you people.”

  Tia manipulated the controls as the conversation went on around her, and the pool grew large on the view screen. They dipped into the water, their thrusters going from keeping them aloft and hovering to pushing them below the surface. The running lights thrust through the murky water ahead of them. Even with the heavy sediment dulling visibility, deep, twisting passages stretched ahead of them instead of the shallow bottom that Sedge had feared they would encounter.

  “Which way?” Tia whispered. “Neither of those tunnels looks large enough for a big ship. We might be able to squeeze through that one.” She waved toward a side passage that yawned, dark and serpentine, the end impossible to see.

  “Can the sensors read it now?” Sedge asked, leaning over Kalish’s shoulder.

  “The sensors are completely bonked out.” She pointed at the panel. “Look, they think we’re half sunk in rock at the bottom of the lake.”

  Tia cursed, her hands darting across the controls. “Hurry up and decide. This is—it’s a real struggle not to let us float back up.”

  “Spaceships are designed to be light, like airplanes,” Sedge said. “Submarines are heavy. I know of craft that can be both, and I believe the combat shuttles are actually rated for limited underwater operations, but I agree that getting through here as quickly as possible is necessary. Although, we’ll be lucky to navigate that tunnel. This isn’t the kind of navigation a ship is designed for.”

  Tia snorted. “I’ve got the shields up. We’ll just fire the thrusters and bump along, bouncing off the walls and going in the direction we want.”

  “I... guess that could work.”r />
  “You find anything in that pool, Sedge?” Val asked, her voice breaking up, as if hundreds of thousands of miles separated them instead of a couple hundred meters. “We’re about to get a visual on those ships, and picking fights with Fleet fighters isn’t going to be healthy for Mandrake Company, either now in the moment or long-term.”

  “Follow us in,” Sedge barked. “Quick, before they’re close enough to spot you.” A vain command, most likely. If his people could detect the fighters, the fighters would be able to detect them. Unless the sensor-dampening qualities he had theorized could make them seem to disappear once they entered the water.

  “Into the tunnel. That one.” Kalish pointed at the opening yawning in the side wall.

  Tia turned into the passage, bumping against rock, sending shudders through the craft. Air bubbles burst upward in front of the view screen, making it difficult to see the route ahead. Their lights flooded the passage, a lumpy natural tube that had never seen a miner’s drill. Sedge had no idea what they would do if they hit a dead end.

  “Thatcher, Calendula?” he said. “We’re far enough in that you should be able to follow us.” Assuming the fighters had not already blasted into the cavern to harry the shuttles.

  Nothing except static and fuzz answered him over the comm.

  “What’s going on up here?” came Striker’s voice from the corridor.

  “Are we underwater?” Tick asked. “I thought I heard—”

  The shields bumped against a rounded chunk of rock hanging down from the ceiling, and more bubbles arose around them, the swishing of the currents just audible.

  “Yup, that’s what I heard.” Tick stared at the view screen.

  He and Striker pushed onto the bridge, though there was scarcely room to breathe with everyone up there.

  “We’ve lost contact with the others,” Sedge said.

  “Oh?” Tick tapped his comm-patch. “Thatcher? Val?”

  “Our comm is fine,” Kalish said. “It’s something in the rocks. Our sensors aren’t working, either.”

  “So we can’t tell what’s ahead?” Striker asked. “Or if anything is ahead?”

  “Just visually.”

  The passage bent downward, then swung to the left. Sweat gleamed on Tia’s forehead as she navigated the tricky route.

  “Kalish?” Sedge asked softly. “Does any of the information you gathered imply what size spaceships the aliens might have been building here?” He remembered that the wreck that had been found had been large, what remained of it, more like a colony ship than a scrappy little freighter.

  “No,” she said.

  He kept his thoughts to himself, that it seemed unlikely that such a passage as this could have led into and out of a secret shipyard. Even if the water had not been here ten thousand years earlier, this course would not have allowed anything except small ships through. Even the Divining Rod was having trouble, a thought emphasized when they bumped against another rock in the ceiling, bounced downward, and scraped along the lumpy floor. The shields should protect them from damage, so long as they did not get stuck.

  Sedge grimaced, trying to decide if the passage was growing narrower or if that was his imagination. It continued on much farther than he would have expected, and as the minutes and rocks rolled past, he worried about Thatcher and Val. As capable as Thatcher was, Sedge did not know if they could beat four-to-one odds, especially since they would be reluctant to risk killing shots. They would most likely try to disable the ships instead, while the Fleet pilots would be shooting to kill. What did they care about scruffy mercenaries that might very well be breaking laws by being here?

  “There’s no sign of the shuttles behind us, is there?” Sedge asked, hoping the others might yet zip into the tunnel behind them.

  “Sorry, no,” Kalish said.

  “They probably took off,” Tick said, “up the caverns and out the miners’ entrance. Might be leading them away from us, or just getting out of the tunnels. Once they make air, the shuttles are every bit as fast as anything Fleet has.”

  Sedge did not answer. He hoped his comrades found a safe escape instead of fighting a losing battle against the Fleet, but either scenario meant the Divining Rod was all alone now, to face whatever fate awaited it.

  “We’ve descended three hundred feet,” Kalish said. “Looks like we might be rising now. I hope so.”

  A groan came from within the belly of the ship, some support protesting the water pressure—or the bumping and jolting ride through the tunnels.

  “Me too,” said her mother. “I don’t have unlimited parts and patches.”

  Another ten minutes passed, and the tunnel grew wider, the walls less lumpy and more even.

  “Look.” Kalish pointed toward the sides. “That doesn’t look natural, does it? Maybe this area was carved out by human hand. Or alien hand.”

  Sedge grunted noncommittally. The miners could have explored back here at one point, too, found ore, and excavated it back when the pump had been operating.

  A beep came from the panel.

  “Sensors are getting readings again, for a little ways at least,” Kalish said. “There’s an opening up ahead. A big one.” She squirmed in her chair.

  For her sake, Sedge hoped they found what she had been hunting for all this time.

  “Is it underwater?” Striker asked. “Because I’m not a good swimmer.”

  “I thought you were good at all sports, Chief of Boom,” Tick said. “I’m certain I’ve heard you mention that.”

  “Swimming’s not a sport. It’s a torment to your ear canals, nose, and other holes where water isn’t supposed to go.”

  “So you’re a sinker, eh?”

  “It’s not my fault. Look at all this muscle.” Striker thumped his fist against his chest. “It’s iron hard. Iron doesn’t float.”

  “And here I would have thought all that hot air in your lungs would keep you up.”

  “Looks like the water ends,” Kalish said over the men’s ribbing. “We’ll have to wait until we break above the surface to measure the content of the air inside. And to see if there’s anything in the cavern.”

  All eyes were locked to the view screen as the ship ascended, nothing except for its lights illuminating the darkness around them. Sedge had thought they might come up outside of the cavern complex, in some lake under the stars, but given the lack of moisture they had encountered on the planet, that was probably unlikely.

  His ears plugged up as they rose, and he was in the process of yawning and trying to pop them when the ship broke the surface. Tia turned off the thrusters, and they bobbed in the water, waves rippling outward. Rivulets streamed down the front of the craft, and fog obscured the view beyond it.

  “We’re in a big lake,” Kalish said, her eyes toward the sensors. “And there’s an island in the middle. Looks flat. I think you can land on it, Tia.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Anything on the island?” their mother asked.

  “Yes,” Kalish said. “Some large buildings. They’re similar in shape to those from the refinery, but they’re larger. Maybe like hangars.” She turned in her seat, meeting Sedge’s eyes.

  He nodded back. They could not see anything visually yet, but he hoped this was it, that their guesses would prove worth it.

  “The ceiling is high,” Tia said. “I’m taking us up and over.”

  Sedge leaned over Kalish’s shoulder, so he could see the sensors, trying to get more of a feel for the space around them. She caught his hand and squeezed it.

  “This is it,” she whispered.

  He squeezed her hand back, hoping the senior Ms. Blackwell was too busy watching the view screen to notice or comment.

  Water sloughed from the ship as Tia lifted them out of the water.

  “Commander Thatcher,” Tick said, trying his comm again. “This is Sergeant Tick, do you read me?”

  “The sensors don’t show anything beyond this chamber,” Sedge said. “I can see the
mouth of the tunnel we exited, but that’s it.”

  “So we think the aliens deliberately put something in the rock all around this place to keep others from finding it?” Tick asked.

  “It’s possible.”

  “How would they have communicated with each other then?” Tick asked.

  “Maybe they didn’t,” Sedge said. “Maybe their people were isolated when they worked here. Or maybe the entire place was automated with robots doing the work.”

  Striker grunted. “Not more of those black robots that hurl lightning bolts, I hope.”

  Sedge’s shoulder twitched at the memory. He hoped they would not find any more of those either, though he admitted that a shipyard would likely have just as much security as a refinery. They would have to be careful. At least he did not see any cliffs that he could fall from in here.

  The island came into view, the Divining Rod’s lights skimming across the relatively flat land mass. It was at least a mile wide, with several buildings in sight. As Kalish had guessed, they were large enough to be hangars. Anticipation fluttered in Sedge’s stomach. Even if this was not his quest, he could not help but be excited at the prospect of finding alien spaceships, especially when so little evidence of them had been discovered in the centuries humans had inhabited the system. What if they found an intact craft? They could be written into history for such a discovery. Of course, at the moment, they were likely to be written into it as criminals, rather than intrepid explorers. Neither that thought, nor the knowledge that Fleet ships waited in orbit, could completely squash his eagerness, and he searched the shadows for clues while Tia brought them in for a landing.

  “That building got squished,” Striker said, pointing to the closest one. Massive rocks had fallen from the ceiling far above, breaking through the roof.

  “You get to explore that one,” Tick said.

  “The others appear to be in fairly good condition,” Kalish said, “at least from the outside. The air outside is... surprisingly breathable. I don’t see another way out, but maybe there are some of those strange plants that don’t need sun out there, filtering the air.”

  “Plants.” Sedge grimaced. He far preferred mechanical air purifiers.

  “Can you tell if there’s anything in the buildings?” Tick asked.