Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  “Cargo bot,” Yvonne said. She pointed to the upended hover pallet nearby. There weren't any boxes or equipment around it. The pallet like the bot had been scavenged for parts. The power supply had been ripped out.

  “How are you getting anything without power?” she asked, looking down at the admiral's arm.

  The admiral studied the situation. Someone had come along and scavenged here, which was interesting. The question was what did they do with their ill gotten gains? “I have my own power. You can tap something through a USB jack if you provide the power,” Irons replied absently.

  “Oh.”

  “Not much here. Simple bot. I've got an updated map,” Sprite said.

  “When was it deactivated?” Irons asked.

  “Um... about six centuries ago,” she said.

  “Six? Only six?” he asked. That answered that.

  “Why?” she asked. “I... yes that is significant. Pardon me. It indicates that the station was active nearly a century after disappearing. Which begs the question why, and why didn't it contact the planet?” Sprite asked. She was now genuinely curious.

  “And what happened to the people on the station that survived. We'll find the answers in administration,” Irons said, unjacking and straightening up. “Let's find a terminal and see what we can see.”

  Sprite couldn't get into the station net after they docked despite Irons jacking in. The best she could get was a tourist map. Each station they jacked into was either off the net or smashed. Tapping into the station's ODN cables was a dead end. She was rebuffed which surprised her. It was frustrating to the AI, frustrating and very annoying. Each of the stops bothered the crew. They wanted to move on, to keep moving. The death, dark, and oppressive feeling of the station was wearing on their nerves.

  “It's like something is kicking me out. But it's cutting itself out of the net when it does,” she said, sounding annoyed.

  “How so?” Irons asked. Yvonne looked at him.

  “It's like whoever is on the other end isn't bothering with a firewall. When I send my initial ping out it cuts off a node in between me and the central net,” Sprite explained.

  “Oh.” he frowned. That was odd; it was like cutting off your nose to spite your face. Why would... but that meant something was active didn't it? He thought.

  “Yes. I don't understand why.”

  “Not very welcoming,” Franko said looking around. “Maybe we should take the hint and head back,” he said. “Grab what we can,” he said looking around. So far what they had seen hadn't impressed him. There wasn't any loot to be had.

  Irons looked his way. The crew were nervous, they can hear odd sounds at random times and the occasional puff of gas has them jumpy. The groaning of the station, the dark, and the claw marks hasn't helped their mindset either. From the sound of it the station's structure wasn't in good health. The sun and shade differential probably didn't help. He didn't want to bring up structural integrity. He didn't want a panic and mad dash for the launch.

  More than one of the crew wanted to take off his helmet but Irons had told them that if they did they would damn well walk home. Reluctantly they kept the helmets on.

  They heard water running and dripping just before they rounded a corner and found the leak. They found a corridor half filled with water, up to their knees. The bot had hovered over it and passed through and kept going on its search. The edge of the water lapped at their boots when they paused at the edge. Their lights played out over the surface of the water. I was dark, fouled, and contaminated by who knew what.

  “Do we have to go through here? Isn't there another way?” Adam asked. He was eying the water nervously. His instincts told him to stay out of it.

  “Unfortunately yes. The detour on the map would take us quite a bit out of our way,” Sprite informed them. Irons nodded. His scanners were getting through the water but giving him an echo. He toed a box aside with his foot and then started forward.

  “You're in a suit. Don't worry about drowning. Just keep a cool head and watch your footing. Take it slow,” he ordered.

  They had to wade through the water, down the companionway and around the corner, passing floating bits. Fortunately it was only knee deep. The splashing of their feet was distracting. Irons spotted the broken water line as they rounded another corner. He went over to it immediately and crumpled the end of it until the water flow dropped to a trickle. He felt Proteus use nanites to weld it shut.

  “Stay sharp. Watch out for any cables. The water could conduct the electricity into your suits,” Yvonne cautioned. Irons nodded as he turned back to them.

  As they moved he could feel things under him. It was hard to see where it was safe to walk; the surface of the water was slick with different fluids. Hydraulic fluids made swirls off to one side. He wondered if the air and exposure of water had rusted some of the steel in the area.

  “Stay away from the walls and watch your footing. Anyone gets poked by something sharp and reddish in color is in for a tetanus shot. Not something you want,” Irons said. “Trust me.”

  “Great,” Adam said, rifle held up over his head. He waded through the water behind Irons.

  At the end of the tunnel Irons found a closed hatch door and the waiting bot. He frowned. The bot should have found another route. He looked at it and then the door.

  “This is the shortest route to the others admiral. I had it wait,” Sprite said.

  “Oh. Now you tell me,” he said. He looked the door over until he found an access panel. Fortunately it was above water. He reached over and started opening it up.

  “What's the hold up?” Savo asked from the rear. Apparently he'd elected to play rear guard.

  “Door,” Irons said over his shoulder. He glanced at the others. They were standing in a column, shining their lights all over the place. “Someone keep an eye on the ceiling. Check for any more leaks or holes,” he said as his hands pulled the cover plate off and set it aside. It was important to keep the others busy while he worked, if only for their piece of mind. He reached in and disconnected the power cable and pulled it out. He plugged the generator on his back into the cable and watched the door's control panel light up. “And we have power. Door...” he frowned. According to the read out there was a vacuum on the other side. That explained why the door was shut.

  “Okay, we've got a breach on the other side. A good one,” he said. He looked through the port hole. His lights refracted off the glass. He shut them off and let his eyes adjust. After a moment his right eye cycled to low light mode and his scanners penetrated the glass enough to get a look. What he saw he didn't like.

  “Okay, definitely a breach. I'd say a two meter sized hole and the deck is gone. Something punched right through the corridor at a diagonal. Just punched through and kept going at a guess,” he said. The companionway was a colander, filled with sharp looking floating debris. He had been tempted to just crack the seal and open the door but that jagged debris changed his mind. It was just too dangerous to chance it.

  “Great. Now what?” Franko demanded.

  “Checking... probe two has an alternate route,” Sprite said. The map changed and a blue line traced its way from their present position back the way they came to the next intersection and then took a different path from there. The bot passed them and went on its way.

  “Okay people,” Irons said, unjacking the cable and turning. “You heard the lady. Back that way,” he said pointing. “Hopefully that way's not blocked as well.”

  “Pain in the ass,” Savo muttered.

  “Dem's de break's mon,” a guard said with a shrug. Savo shook his head.

  Savo slowed as Irons paused at a corner. He looked back and then checked the map. “Damn this is taking forever,” the chimp muttered.

  “We're getting there,” Irons said. They were in the ring still, not quite where he wanted to be. The station was in disrepair, it probably reeked of different smells and stains. He was glad the suit protected him from them. He could see the read
outs on his HUD though. Anyone alive in here must have lost their sense of smell at birth.

  Crud was everywhere, on the walls, on the decking, the ceiling... he didn't want to think about the monumental task of just trying to clean the place, let alone restore it to its former glory. It might be easier to scrap the damn station and start over from scratch.

  “Are we there yet?” Gus asked. Savo gave the kid an amused look. Over the kid's shoulder he saw something. It took a moment for his eyes to focus on it and for his brain to kick in and realize what he was seeing. It was an eye. Not a Terran eye either, it was filmed over and had scales around the eye instead of skin. After a moment it blinked and then narrowed. A second later and it was gone.

  “What the hell was that?” he asked.

  “What was what?” Irons asked. He turned. Savo pointed over the kid's shoulder. Gus turned to look.

  “That. I saw an eye. In the tube there,” the chimp said, sounding a little shaken. Irons paused and then went over to the tube. His scanners caught something, a heat source moving away.

  “Definitely something,” he said as the others looked at the dark tube warily. He shined a light inside. There was no sign of whatever had been in there. It was a maintenance tube, an access crawl way along an EPS conduit. The tube was named a Jeffery’s tube for some archaic reason.

  “Something was definitely in there?” Yvonne asked.

  “Whatever it was it's gone now,” Irons replied. Cables were a tangled mess in there further down. He had no intention of getting into such a confined space.

  “Should we follow?” Adam asked. Irons turned and picked up a broken cover plate.

  “No,” the admiral said, holding it up with one hand and then tacking it in place with his right. Savo reached over and placed a palm on it to steady it.

  “Thanks,” Irons said, tacking all the sides. “Anything that comes here will be blocked.”

  “Why did you do that?” Gus asked.

  “Because I don't like something coming in behind us,” Irons replied. “Mind any open access panels. We don't need anyone getting dragged off.”

  “Great, this just gets better and better,” Franko muttered. “I vote we return to the ship. Screw this place,” he said, picking up a battered toy and then throwing it down in disgust. “Waste of time.”

  “Maybe. Then again maybe not. Something is alive in here, we've confirmed that much. Something that's not eager to meet face to face apparently,” the admiral said. He turned to Yvonne.

  “I'd like to go on,” she said with a nod. Irons nodded.

  “Then we go on,” Savo said nodding. “I don't like the idea of something scaring us off so easily,” he said.

  “Haunted house,” Adam muttered.

  “What was that?” Yvonne asked.

  “Nothing ma'am. Well...”

  “Spit it out Adam.”

  “Well,” he toed the deck for a moment and then sighed and shrugged. “See, I remember watching this sitcom mystery thing a while back. Something about a neo great dane and a bunch of kids. It was supposed to be a remake of an animated kids show.”

  “So? Get to the point,” Yvonne said impatiently. Irons checked the other tubes around them, tacking each.

  “Well, it was a weird program, I'm barely remembering it. Something about a blond guy named Fred, a mousy woman named Velma, and a red head who kept getting into trouble named Daph or Daphnie. There was another guy but I forgot his name. Anyway,” he said as Yvonne gave him a dirty look. “They go around solving mysteries. Most of it boiled down to someone in a monster suit trying to chase off people from a place or area. Usually money or something was involved.”

  “Oh.”

  “They used the cover of a monster to keep people at bay. Scare tactic,” Irons said. “Bluff.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Interesting,” Irons mused. “But not conclusive. It's a thought though,” he said. “Let's keep going,” he said motioning them forward. “Right fork,” he said waving to Savo. Savo stopped heading to the left and turned to the right muttering darkly. The chimp paused and let the admiral pass him to take point.

  “Where are you guys at?” Barry asked, an hour into their exploring. Irons paused, holding a hand up. The doors were a pain in the ass. They had been detoured twice by closed doors. One door he'd been able to open, the other had been blocked by debris on the other side. He wasn't sure why that last door they had passed through had been closed. They had just finished getting through it when Barry put the call in. Savo passed him to take point and then looked back. He nodded.

  “What's up Barry? Getting lonely?” Yvonne asked.

  “I thought you guys were nearby.”

  The admiral immediately froze. “Wait, why?” Irons demanded before Yvonne could say anything. He looked at the map. They were still about a hundred meters away from Barry's team. They had another set of doors to go through before they would link up.

  “Yeah man, thought I heard some people around the corner from me,” Barry replied.

  “Fall back Barry,” Irons immediately ordered, looking at the HUD. “We've got a set of doors in between us and you. We're a hundred meters out and several corners away.”

  “So that's not you. Oh... Shit,” Barry said sucking in a breath. They could hear him moving back and cursing softly.

  “Use your generator. Get to the nearest set of doors and close them behind you,” Irons suggested.

  “Good idea. Only one problem. We didn't bring the damn thing,” Barry grunted sounding a little sheepish.

  “Great,” Irons said.

  “What now? We've got sounds ahead and behind us as well,” Barry said. “We're cut off.”

  “Probe one is destroyed,” Sprite reported.

  Irons flinched. “What? How?”

  “Unknown. Playback...” Sprite said. Irons winced again as he saw the playback. Something had dropped on the probe from above. Fortunately military probes weren't civilian cleaner bots. These probes had sensors on all axis. It caught the sight of teeth and claws. There was enough there for Irons to venture a guess. One he didn't like.

  “Barry Dilgarth. Repeat. Dilgarth.” He had to get the warning out now.

  “Shit!” Barry snarled, voice rising. “You've got to be fracken kidding me! Those monsters! Please not those monsters!”

  “Stay calm, we're on our way. Set up a defensive perimeter and hold tight,” Irons said grimly, motioning them into movement again. “We've got to be cautious, I don't want to run headlong into a trap but we're on our way,” he said. “They like to attack from above, behind or the side. Find a nice place to hold up that you can hold and hang in there.”

  “Easy for you to say, you've got numbers on your side. Sounds like a lot of them,” Barry said nerves fraying. He turned up his external mike loud enough for the radio to hear. There was the distinct sound of hissing and breathing from outside his suit. That was ominous the admiral realized. If they could hear the aliens... no not good.

  “Not good. Not good. So not good,” someone on Barry's team babbled incoherently. Irons frowned. These were civilians; they weren't trained to handle combat. Great.

  “Find a closet! A room! Anything. Watch the ceiling and any Jeffery tubes!” Yvonne said as Savo broke into a loping run. The chimp's short legs couldn't keep up with the longer legged Terrans. Irons slowed long enough to grab the chimp by the back of his suit and toss him up on his back. The chimp shrieked in surprise but managed to hold on with one hand.

  “Thanks,” Savo ground out, grabbing hold and hanging on to the generator for dear life. Before Irons could answer the screaming and weapon fire began.

  “Shit! We're cut off!” Their point called back. He could see the light shining on a hatch “There is another door and it's stuck like the others!” he said, voice rising with the tension.

  “Move aside,” Irons said, elbowing the others clear. He got to the view port and looked. It was cracked. He could see light on the other side. Someone rounded the bend
and fired wildly. Raptor shapes came out of the dark in front to be blown away. But another pair attacked from either flank. The woman went down wailing in terror.

  “Damn it,” Yvonne said, looking at the tablet. The probe floated nearby. She swatted at it angrily. It buzzed and then rolled back and forth before drifting away.

  “Don't take it out on the drone,” Sprite said angrily over the net.

  “I'll take it out anyone I damn well please until we can get in there and save them!” Yvonne snarled. “Come on they're dying in there!” she said.

  Just as Irons started hooking up the cables and the chimp climbed down off him he saw something on his sensors.

  “We're surrounded. Coming in from all sides. Above as well. Watch it!” he called shooting a look at Savo.

  “Shit!” Savo said, looking at the open air duct. He went from one to another, searching wildly. “I've got topside, the rest of you watch the walls. Center of the companionway. Admiral get that damn door open!” The chimp ordered.

  “Working on it,” Irons said. The control panel was smashed so he let his right arm morph around the ODN cables as power came up. He could hear snarls on the other side of the door. He turned to see their rear guard firing at shadows and eyes. Great. He at first thought they were firing blind but then his sensor overlay registered. The kid either had cat eyes or was just lucky. He caught a Dilgarth on the shoulder, sending it reeling back creeling piteously. That made the others around it hesitate.

  These things were viscous and not smart, not your typical Dilgarth. Garthians would go silent before attacking, distracting the prey if they knew that the prey knew they were there. These just kept coming.

  “Door opening. Watch it, others on the other side!” he said withdrawing his hand and morphing it into a plasma gun. He fired up into the air duct over his head at the sensor contact there. Plasma lit the area and the tube. There was a squeal and then bits of something or other dribbled down.