A Shadow in the Flames (The New Aeneid Cycle)

by Michael G. Munz

  No more would die, Marette had vowed. Not if it was avoidable. She stated this clearly to the Space Agency as much as she dared—as much as she could in hopes that they would share her view. She walked the line between insisting that they listened to her and being so insubordinate that they would merely replace her with someone who would follow their orders. ESA was eager, but they did share her caution. They simply had less cause than she did to consider patience a virtue. Marette had pushed as hard as she dared. It bought her some time.

  She had absolutely zero assurance that it made any difference.

  ESA Command had grown increasingly irritated with her as the day went on. Literally five minutes before her ESA superiors transmitted a deceptively polite ultimatum that she send the team in, her compatriots in the AoA had signaled her. The gathered data had proven mostly inconclusive. They were still studying the scans, but they felt she could stall no longer. The tactical options that ESA had devised could not be proven viable, but nor were they deemed futile or disastrous, either. As for the ESA mole, there was no new information, and a step forward might help bring his plan to light. There were no certain solutions, yet no cause to abort.

  Some might consider news that a plan still could work to be a positive thing. Marette thought it a worthless uncertainty and a frustrating lack of progress, but they were no worse off. They had done all they could with the extra day. They had tried. She cursed. Trying was no comfort when it got them nowhere.

  The new team was ten strong, with two eight-man rovers to carry them and their gear from the former mining camp to the dig site. They rolled and rumbled along the grey lunar surface as the team leader, an Italian woman Marette's age called Altieri, reviewed the operation plan with the rest of the team. In reality, it was less an operation than an assault.

  ESA's plan was to use EMP and Geiger cannons to neutralize the device that had killed the first team—unofficially tagged a security drone. It was thought that a combination of the EMP on what appeared to be an automated device and the Geiger cannons' more powerful dose of radiation that had affected the midnight coating would shut the drone down. Other members of the team carried the recoilless ARG-rifles that the first team never got the chance to use. They were to attempt to stop it without destroying it if possible. Marette knew it would be her call as to when destructive force would be brought into play. She did not intend to hesitate this time.

  They rolled to the entrance of the tunnel and the team disembarked.

  Protocol and Marette's position as field chief required her to oversee from the rover, but as she watched the second team set up their equipment, guilt at not being able to join them more closely tugged at her. Pushing such useless regret out of her mind, she tested cameras and checked suit mics and sensors while the team readied their weapons and fanned out to defensively flank the command rover.

  This time she was the only double agent. With ESA's rush to get a second squad out, the AoA had no time to find a replacement for Alberto. Both organizations fortunately had similar goals in the current situation, yet Marette would have felt better having another of the Agents there with her. She closed her eyes, drew a slow breath, and tried not to hear screams echo in her memory. She had a job to do. Having to do it by herself had never bothered her before. She forced her head to clear. It would not bother her now!

  "F.C. Clarion, all systems prepped and ready," Altieri reported.

  "D'accord, Lieutenant," Marette acknowledged. "Maintain formation. We are going in." She eased the rover forward at a pace that the soldiers could match in their suits. They negotiated the simple incline and crept through the mouth of the tunnel until it engulfed them. Lights and scanners swept the area. A steady beep indicated nothing moving in the space ahead as the rover continued on course along the slate grey of the buried structure.

  The Space Agency had yet to confirm that it was a spacecraft. The AoA was betting on it. Scientific analysis of the crater and sheer, optimistic hypothesizing had led them to hope that what they would find would be a crashed spacecraft containing the technology they desperately needed to bring them leaps and bounds closer to their ultimate goal.

  "Levy, O'Brien," Altieri ordered, "check the tunnel supports. Confirm they haven't been damaged."

  Marette nodded her satisfaction as the two troopers acknowledged. It was a concern that she had discussed with Altieri before they had gone in. She took her eyes off of the team readouts to check the supports with her own eyes. As yet, they appeared normal.

  "Checks out so far."

  They continued deeper. The opening would be visible in a few moments. Their lights blazed a path before them. It was impossibly still.

  The tunnel supports remained untouched all the way to the end. The airlock sat as it had before, perpendicular to the tunnel with one end open to the vacuum and the other flush against the structure.

  "Hold," Marette ordered, and stopped the rover. There was no sign of movement on sensors. Nothing could be seen through the narrow side windows. She waited longer than needed, just to be certain. "No sign of activity, Lieutenant. Send two of your people to make a visual inspection inside the lock."

  Altieri acknowledged and Marette watched as the two forward troopers moved ahead. The team adjusted formation to cover them as they stepped around to the side and peered into the hatch with weapons ready.

  "Looks clear," one reported. "The hatch on the other side is closed." He moved forward into the airlock. The second followed, and then they both disappeared from view. Marette glanced at their video feeds. Everything appeared normal. The lock was empty. The hatch at the far end remained shut.

  "All clear inside," they reported. "Zero activity."

  "Understood," Altieri replied. "Check behind the lock."

  Marette watched on the screen as the two troopers turned their backs to the closed hatch. A moment later, they emerged and moved out to continue their inspection. "Blue squad, move up." Half the team went forward to join them. Marette waited and watched. All readouts were clear. A moment later, the team reported the same.

  Marette took a breath but resisted the urge to let herself relax. "Lieutenant Altieri, I want two people watching the hatch at all times. Is that understood?"

  "Contois, Dietrich, you heard her. You're on hatch duty."

  "Have we checked the airlock seal yet?" Marette asked.

  "Checking it right now, ma'am," another reported. She waited. "Looks like seal integrity has been compromised. We'll need to reseal it."

  "Wait until the rest of your prep is taken care of, Crewman, then worry about the seal."

  "Yes, ma'am."

  "Uh, Lieutenant?" It was Dietrich. He'd moved close to the hatch, inspecting it by the view from his camera. "Come take a look at this."

  "Report, Dietrich. What do you have?"

  "Well, it looks like the door behind the hatch is closed."

  The lieutenant walked into the lock while Marette tried to see what she could on the video feed. "He's right, Chief," Altieri reported. "We didn't bring cutting tools with us. Isn't that how the last team got it open?"

  Marette scowled. It made sense that if the lock seal was breached, the door behind it might seal up. Whatever the structure was, it obviously had power. The last time, the door had opened on its own when the lock had been pressurized; actual cutting had gotten them nothing but a cracked helmet. Would the door re-open under the same conditions as before? If it did not, at least it would buy her the time she had been unable to get earlier. Perhaps more time than even she wanted if they had no way to get inside.

  "Ignore that for now, Lieutenant," she ordered. "Finish your preparations for entry."

  Guards stood watch as the rest of the team unloaded further equipment from the rover. Remote-controlled mini-turrets were set up inside the lock, each about the size of a large dog and modified with an additional, if limited, supply of EMP pods. Only two of the four they had brought could fit in the lock itself, but once it was safe to continue behind the hatchway, al
l four would be placed in the structure as sentry guns. It was hoped that the miniature weapons platforms would prevent further loss of life.

  Marette had tagged one with a sensor feed. While the AoA hadn't been able to place an agent, she could at least secure an additional source of data beyond ESA's control.

  The mini-turrets were set up. The seal against the structure was reestablished. Once the team evacuated the lock and all that was left inside were the sentries, Marette did one final check on all systems. A moment later, she gave the order. "Seal the outer doors, Lieutenant. Then stand by for my command to pressurize the lock."

  Altieri stood at the exterior controls of the airlock. "Order acknowledged. Lock doors closing." Marette couldn't help but imagine the sound of a giant dungeon door creaking shut. "Outer door secure."

  Marette scanned the turret readouts. All systems nominal. "Pressurize the lock."

  "Pressurizing. . ."

  The hiss of filling oxygen played over the turret's audio feed. "Pressure at thirty percent. . . fifty percent. . . seventy. . . eighty-five. . . ninety-five. . . ninety-seven. . . ninety-eight. . . ninety-nine. Pressurization complete and holding steady."

  Her fingers settled over the controls of the turrets. They were designed to work autonomously—if necessary, to fire at anything that moved—but she wanted to keep them in check until she had to fire. Marette did not know what she would find inside. A part of her even hoped that perhaps some of the first team might have survived. Unlikely as that was, she did not wish to kill them upon their moment of salvation.

  "Open the inner hatch."

  Marette heard the hatch bolts disengage over the transmitters and watched as the lock door slid steadily open. Bit by bit, the grey of the structure took its place behind it. It remained, solid and unmoving. Marette counted her heartbeats as she waited. She could see no sign of a mark from the first team's attempt to drill. What sort of metal could absorb and reflect energy so well?

  It moved.

  It opened as soundlessly as before, a simple and elegant motion made ominous by the sweat of her palms on the controls and the sight of the bodies that still lay on the blackness beyond. The door stopped.

  The void stood still.

  Marette switched on the floodlights. They flashed to full and bathed the motionless bodies in harsh illumination. The midnight coating that covered all else absorbed the rest of the light. She reminded herself to breathe.

  "Structure doors have opened," Marette broadcasted. "No sign of hostiles. Stand by." How long had it been until the drone had emerged the first time? Just under four minutes by the data.

  Marette waited. She watched the chronometer as seconds ticked away. She tried not to look at the first team. Her gaze kept sliding from the darkness onto the still bodies. She willed for the drone to come, if only to give her a distraction.

  Two minutes. Still there was no movement.

  Three minutes. She tried to visually gauge the distance to the back wall and found it impossible.

  Four minutes. She glanced outside at the waiting team. She would make them wait longer.

  The chronometer read five minutes before she ordered them in. "Carefully," she warned.

  The team entered in twos. The first four moved to stand abreast in the structure entry and guard the lock as two more prepared the sentry guns for movement. Ordinarily Marette would have been able to steer them by remote, but the hasty armament refit had sacrificed movement for firepower. The turrets' purpose here was defense, not exploration. The troopers released their surface anchors and started to roll them forward manually.

  She watched on the video feeds as Altieri led them into the structure. Troopers fanned out while the turrets were ponderously lifted over the airlock's edge and into the maw.

  Levy saw it before she did. "It's opening!"

  As the lieutenant began giving orders, Marette fixated on the rapid rectangular spillback at the end of the chamber. Troopers trained weapons on the appearing door. Marette hastily checked the turrets. Only one had been lifted inside; the trooper carrying it was reengaging the anchors. The other—

  "Shit!"

  The curse came loud over the channel as the trooper with the second turret dropped it at the lip of the lock, blocking the entry. Two more of the team rushed in from behind to help clear it. The rest of the team was cut of from the chamber.

  Within the structure, the grey door opened.

  Marette cursed and reinitialized the first turret, locking onto the far doorway just as the drone hovered through it like a ghost.

  She did not wait. "Open fire!"

  Tiny bolts of EMP leaped through the darkness from the four troopers' weapons as Marette fired an EMP pod at the thing. The pod flared in contact with the drone as the troopers' bolts slammed into it one by one. It faltered, dropped a few inches, and then continued forward. "Geiger cannons! Rifles! Fire!"

  "Get that damned turret out of the way!" Altieri yelled to the team in the doorway. The sound of gunfire followed her voice. Crimson ghosts fired from the Geiger radiation cannons ripped out at the drone and were absorbed or flew past it into the black-coated wall behind it. Darkness shattered from the walls in craters where they hit. Rifle slugs flew forward and tore into the drone as Marette fired the same from the mini-turret. The drone stopped and faltered in the air. Dented and damaged, it endured, and began to glow red. Marette cursed again, remembering what would come next.

  "Turret two online!" a trooper shouted.

  In a flash she set it to automatic. The three troopers beside it added their weapons to the deluge as EMP pods slammed into the drone. Lightning burst around it in a ball of burning energy. It engulfed the floating mass in a maelstrom until gravity suddenly seized the drone and dropped it, powerless, to the floor. The lightning winked out. The drone lay still.

  At once, they all ceased fire.

  No one moved. They waited, watching the motionless metal hulk lying amid the blackness.

  The silence was stunning.

  Chilling. . .

  Motionless. . .

  Dead. . .

  "FUCK!" someone shouted in a release of tension.

  "Stow it, Soto!" the lieutenant snapped.

  Marette breathed again and studied the shattered thing suspiciously on the video feed. "Lieutenant, how does the drone look from where you are?"

  "I'd expect to see my great grandfather up and around before that thing, Chief. From here it looks pretty well gone. Are you reading anything on it, Dietrich?"

  "No, ma'am. No energy output that I can read. We bloody well fragged the bastard."

  "All right. Finish setting up the mini-turrets. Then I want two troopers to bring the bodies out while the rest stand guard. Absolutely no one is to approach the drone until we see if any more are on their way."

  The team acknowledged her orders and went to work. She waited until the turrets were able to run autonomously and then keyed in the sequence to remote pilot the second rover down from the surface.

  If more drones lurked in the structure, they did not make themselves known. The far door had closed shortly after the first had come through, and while the team stood guard over the removal of the bodies, it showed no sign of opening again. Regardless, she could sense the contained tension in everyone even fifteen minutes afterward when the last of the first team had been borne away.

  "All right," Marette began. "You have done well. For the moment, we will hold this chamber for study. At no time are you to regard the area as secured. Be on your guard. Lieutenant, I want to know what that black material is."

  Marette sat back and watched the team do their jobs. Altieri divided them between guard and study. Troopers became techs with more equipment retrieved from the second rover, and the scanning began. As Marette watched, her thoughts drifted back to the Space Agency mole problem. If they could hold this area, their first solid step inside, real discoveries could be made. They needed to control that security leak before they could continue. She had faith in the AoA.
They would solve the problem, but how long would it take?

  Marette frowned, reminding herself that her own task was before her. As she herself had said, the area was not secured. She refocused, watching the blackness of the chamber as the team worked diligently and meticulously, recording everything bit by bit. The far door remained closed.

  And then it happened.

  "Oh my god. . ." It came from Levy where he was studying the black material. "Sir, ah, Lieutenant—have a look at this."

  Marette turned her attention to his camera as Altieri approached. The wall was still black but for four glowing symbols arranged in a square. Each was about three centimeters wide and glowed just as clearly as the readouts on her own monitors. And suddenly they were gone.

  "What did you do, Levy?" the lieutenant asked.

  The crewman held up a sample bottle. "We were all set to take a sample of the stuff. I put my hand against the wall for just a moment to steady myself and those things just started glowing."

  "Touch it again," Marette ordered over the comm. She watched as the glove of his suit made contact with the black wall. It was a gesture that up to this point, she realized, had not occurred. A moment after he touched it, the symbols appeared again around his hand. He let go, and, again, they disappeared shortly thereafter.

  Altieri touched the wall before her, first with one hand, then the other. Marette watched in amazement as the symbols appeared around each contact point. The first team had said the material was largely organic, but what was it? She weighed a risk quickly and made a decision.

  "Touch one of the symbols," she said.

  Altieri touched the wall again as Levy stepped back. After a moment, she brushed a finger across the upper left symbol. Almost immediately a larger area expanded out from the center of the arrangement to form a glowing oval along the surface of the wall. Over half a meter wide and half as tall, it shined a luminescent blue over the faces of the team. At least twenty more symbols arranged themselves inside.