by Mark Wandrey
Cherise didn't back down. "They will understand, it's the First Among the Chosen, and your father."
"And I'm a commander now, and this is our mission. He would understand that."
"Even for a simple retrieval mission?"
"He thought this cache was important enough to bother hiding; that makes it worth it."
Cherise watched her for a moment, her expression undecipherable in the dark. Eventually she nodded her head and turned away. Minu watched her go into the ruins where the bot was found. Sounds of shifting rubble and grunts of exertion drifted through the doorway.
Minu picked up the tablet and turned to head back to camp when she realized there was no need. A short distance away Pip was sitting next to a small improvised table working on a pair of computers while tending a simmering pot of reconstituted rations. A trio of low radiance lights were placed around the camp for foot level illumination. The lights would be all but impossible to see more than a dozen meters away.
"When did you move camp?" she asked Pip as she entered the circle of light.
"A few hours ago, when you showed no signs of emerging from your self-induced coma."
"Ah, I see." Minu glanced at the computer data he was going over and shook her head. Not only was much of it meaningless to her, she didn't know how he could follow them at the blurring speed they were being displayed. "How do you do that?”.
"What, this? I don't read it all. It's more like scan reading. I pick up the important stuff and shift it around as needed."
"Is that all for the map problem here?"
"No, this is a computer interface project I've been working on in my spare time. Creating micro-programs to better allow our computers to talk to Concordia computers."
"That sounds interesting," she lied, "what about our current mission?"
"My Mark One computer can handle that." She looked for another computer but didn't see one. Once Pip decided she was confused enough he tapped his forehead with a finger. "That old mark one computer, factory standard processor."
"You're a freak, do you know that?"
"That's what my father always used to say."
"What did he do for a living?"
"Butcher."
"Huh, and your mother?"
"She made kids and cooked meat most of the time."
"So where did the brains come from?"
"I have absolutely no idea," he admitted. "I went over our genealogy data once, didn't have much luck. Guess I'm just a wild card."
"Well, I'm glad fate dealt you into my deck," she said and decided the smell of the food was too much. She grabbed her mess kit and served herself a steaming bowl of the mystery meat stew. It wasn't terribly savory, and the meat was an even bigger mystery than usual. At least it was hot and filling. She quickly finished the bowl and then a second one.
Once the food was gone she cleaned her implements with a tiny spot of water and some sand before returning them to the pack and finding a place to sit. She took out her tablet and started going over the logs from the dragonfly-bot once more. Before she got very far she drifted off to sleep
Someone gave her a gentle shake and Minu came quickly awake. She’d slumped over in the chill night and someone slipped a bed roll under her head, and a blanket over her body. Even though she was sore from sleeping on the ground she was also surprisingly refreshed. The sun was just rising and her whole team was standing nearby, with the exception of Pip they all looked filthy and tired.
"I'm sorry," she apologized, "I just passed out." None of them seemed to care, except William who was giving her a resentful look.
"Don't worry about it," Aaron said and he cast a sidelong warning look at William who uncharacteristically kept his mouth shut. "We finished searching the building where the robot was found."
"You find anything?"
"Not a thing. It is almost as if the robot picked nowhere on purpose."
"That isn't entirely true," Pip chimed in. "I finished my analysis of the map and decided it was purposely altered."
"There's a big surprise," William snorted, finding someone he could give a hard time and get away with it.
"It was a big surprise. It isn't an easy thing messing with these maps. They are tiny encrypted data packets, self-verifying. It takes quite a bit of computer power to falsify one."
"Just another test?" Minu wondered.
"I don't think so. If you use the map we were given and go to where the cache is supposed to be, guess what you find?"
"Nothing," Luke said, "we were there already days ago."
"Yes, and you guys spent the last night there too." They looked confused. "Some scouts you guys are."
"Right!" Minu exclaimed. "There was a reason I was heading over here anyway, this was where the cache was supposed to be. The damned little robot was there all along, right under our noses, and we never noticed.
Gregg slapped himself in the forehead with the heel of his hand. "Of course, we were so busy looking for a short range radio marker; we never really looked around much. I was probably a few inches from it and never even saw the little thing."
"Who gives a shit?" William yelled. "We just wasted a whole day digging through the last place the cache might be in this miserable rock pile."
"Not wasted," Cherise pointed out. "We needed to search to be sure." William snorted and shook his head.
"So the robot thought this was the right place too?" Minu asked Pip who smiled and gave a thumbs up. "So we're screwed."
"Far from it. This confirmation let me make a few assumptions." He handed her a tablet displaying the now familiar map of the city. "First assumption is the map was tampered with in a logical manner, and not just scrambled. The robot is made to navigate around known structures and use existing cover. If the city map was altered in some random way it would never have ended up where it was."
"Why?" Minu asked.
"If it found too much discrepancy between the actual city and the map in its mind, it would assume the data was corrupt or incorrect and return to the portal to await further orders. You can send a bot like that on a mission without detailed maps, they are intelligent enough, but that wasn't how this one was sent. The operator knew where he wanted it to go, and how to get there. It's a safety measure to avoid having the bot used as a tool against the team deploying it. If you mess with the data..."
"The map is no longer accurate," Cherise finished. Pip gave another thumbs up.
"Okay then," Minu said, "go on."
"So with that little question answered, I set out trying to figure out how the loot was stashed. Either it was completely random, which seems very unlikely, or there is some sort of logic to it. There were so many possibilities I spent several hours trying to write a program to take them all into account. Kind of over thinking it, I guess."
"No, really?" Gregg laughed. Most of the others chuckled as well.
Pip grumbled then continued. "Anyway, I realized that whoever screwed up the map still wanted us to find the cache. Us specifically, as a matter of fact."
"How do you know that?"
"The only part of the map messed with are three building locations. We know that from your recon. Those are kept in data strings within the map, information that was added after the map was created. So I tried altering those locations with numbers that made sense."
"You gonna take us the end of this?" Minu asked in an exasperated tone. Pip simply enjoyed demonstrating his intelligence.
"Oh, sure. The coded location for this building here was altered by a string of numbers equal to the ID on the robot you found."
"No wonder we couldn't find anything from that map," Gregg said. The other scouts all nodded their heads. "But why all the effort to confuse the map user?"
Minu knew the answer. "My dad wasn't sure humans from Bellatrix would have the map. But if we have the map, the robot, and could read the robots ID number..."
"And that number is written in human English numbers," Pip pointed out, shaking his head, "your father i
s one smart cookie."
"I don't get it," William complained.
Pip gave him a pained look so Minu explained. "The robots ID are in English, there are no other species in the galaxy that can read it. Maybe a few Tog or Beezers and they'd never be digging through a backwater world like this. Since his team was being pursued by snakes, he didn't want to take any chance that this cache would be found."
"He almost did such a good job that no one would have found it," Aaron noted.
"That's my father," Minu said to herself, then to Pip; "So fix it."
"Already done," he said smugly and sent the revised map to all their tablets.
Pip was the only one that stayed at the camp while the others all raced through the ruins. With the data corrected in the map, the location of the cache showed up clearly in a building on the far side of the town square, that section having not been searched yet. The race through the rubble took several minutes. Minu nearly collided with fallen walls several times, always just avoiding them. Her body was on autopilot as her mind spun. There might be a clue to her father’s whereabouts there. There had to at least be a clue! The bot was damaged and then dispatched after Chriso's team got into trouble
"Flanking formation," she hissed as they closed in, "weapons out!" She couldn't completely discount the possibility of snakes being nearby, even after days in the town. If there were, a headlong flight for the portal would be their only option. The team was woefully under armed for any kind of real conflict, and there was always the ROE.
The young Chosen fanned out just as they'd been trained, surrounding the building in moments. Minu used her radio to confirm they were in position then raced for the door. There was no discussion of the leader hanging back, that wasn't the Chosen way. She snatched her pistol from its holster as she closed on one of the remarkably intact doorways. She chose the short barrel pistol for its superior maneuverability in close quarters. Besides, if there were T'Chillen warriors in that building the rifle would be no more effective than the rifle.
Minu dove at the door, forcing it open with a shoulder then hitting the floor in a roll, the pistol held in both hands. She came up in a crouch, her body coiled like a spring to strike. Gregg came in the other door in a similar manner to hopefully confuse any enemy. The room was empty.
The building was nearly as intact inside as out. Remnants of shelves lined the walls with what looked like rotting books and other unknown articles. If this was the cache it was as well hidden as the location itself. After sweeping the room with the life sensors on their weapons, Minu and Gregg both gave the all clear. The others entered the building in a more conventional manner.
"Well this was another waste of time," William groaned. Minu resisted the urge to shoot him, not easy considering her gun was still out and ready. Instead she nodded to Chester and Cherise. This was their part of the operation.
Creating a cache was basic training to a logistics and scout specialist. Finding them could be a bit more complicated. While there were rules humans followed in how and where a cache was established, those rules provided for a great deal of individuality and flexibility to accommodate the terrain, contents, and situation surrounding the necessity of the cache itself. It took the pair almost an hour to find it.
"Bingo," they both said at the same time. The others gathered around what looked like a big pile of power cords, their insulators cracked and peeling and metallic connectors heavily corroded.
"This is it?" William said.
"Will you shut up," Minu snapped. William turned red and clamped his jaws shut. "How can you tell?" she asked the two.
"Option two," Cherise said.
Chester nodded and continued. "Make an unexpected collection of improbable articles." Minu looked around the building. It looked like it might well have been a library or book store. What it didn't have anywhere were electrical devices. The pile of power cords didn't make sense. "Very hurried though," Chester said.
"Why do you say that?" Minu asked.
"They didn't bother making a hidey hole, or anything." He knelt down and began shifting the pile. Under the cords were two plastic cases clearly marked in English as “Samples”.
"Good job, let’s get the hell off this rock," Minu said. For the first time William whole heartedly agreed with her.
"Team, come in!" It was Pip's voice, and he sounded very excited.
"Go ahead," Minu spoke into radio.
"The portal monitors just went nuts."
"Shit," Minu said and snatched up her tablet. She linked it with the monitor’s channel and opened a window. There was the portal, shimmering brightly in the evening darkness, obviously active. The others looked over her shoulder and watched as a pair of small stooped over figures scurried through, both wearing dull armor and carrying deadly looking weapons. Their triangular heads held steady as their turreted eyes swiveled around independently, taking in the surrounding.
"Rasa," Aaron said, putting a name to the alien species. Minu recognized the name for the aliens. They were low in the hierarchy of the Concordia (though not as low as humans), making up for their status with tenacity and aggressiveness. A reptilian species well known for their scrounging skills.
"Back to the camp, quick," she said and took off at a run. Just before she put the tablet away, four more Rasa came skittering through. "Things just got a lot more complicated."
Chapter 6
September 18th, 515 AE
Galactic Frontier, Planet GBX49881, Ruins
Minu kept her tablet in one hand as they raced through the wreckage. One of the salvage cases was over her shoulder, Cherise had the other. It wasn't physically heavy; it was the emotional baggage it carried with it that drug down on her heart.
The Rasa deployed just the way she would have, three of them established a perimeter while another pair used sensor equipment as the leader watched. "They're going to find the monitor," she said a second before one of the sensor operators pointed a claw right at her. One of the aliens skittered into view, both eye turrets fixed as if they were staring at her and she shivered. A moment later it reached out and the image went dead. If they'd been T'Chillen or Mok-Tok the camera would have just been destroyed. The Rasa were much more frugal, the former human equipment would now serve them. She made a mental note to see if it was worth the effort to put self-destruct charges on such devices.
"We're blind she told the others as they paused next to an avenue. "Stay alert so we don't get flanked."
"What about that robot we found," William asked, "Send it out to keep an eye on them."
"No," Minu answered.
"Why, because it might have a secret note from daddy?"
"No, you asshole, because it might have intel buried in the memory that Pip couldn't coax out." William just mumbled something and looked away. "Pip, how you coming?"
"Camp is almost packed," he huffed in reply. She'd hoped he could do the job; he wasn't exactly the most fit of her team.
"Great, ETA is five minutes."
"I'l be ready," he said with conviction.
With two of her scouts in front and two behind, all with weapons out and ready, Minu crossed the avenue along with Cherise and Chester. "Isn't there usually an inventory of a cache?" Minu asked Chester who was closest to her.
"Usually," he agreed, "but as hastily as this one was dropped, I'm not surprised there isn't. Why?"
"Well, it doesn't make any sense for them to send this size of a team. Two logistics people suggest a large cache or at least something bulky." She looked down at the case she carried and shook her head. "I wonder if the Rasa already nabbed the majority of the cache and are just coming back for the rest?"
"The room looked undisturbed," Cherise said, having overheard the last of the conversation. They were only a couple buildings away from their camp and waiting while the scouts checked the last of the route. "No, this is all that was there."
"Clear," Gregg said in her ear and they were running again. As Minu came into the small open area of th
eir camp, Pip was just zipping his pack and struggling to get onto it his shoulders. All their other packs were sitting against a crumbling wall and she could see no trace of anyone having slept here.
"Excellent job," Aaron said and slapped him on the back.
"Awesome," Minu agreed. Pip tried to look hurt that they'd had any doubt.
"I know my job," he said. Minu could just see the barest hint of a smile. It was the first field operation for Pip, and he'd wanted to succeed as much as the rest.
"Everyone get it together," Minu told them, "quickly."
"Rasa scout inbound," Luke announced. Minu had seen him go off to watch the eastern approach, toward the portal.
"They've fixed us," Minu told them. "Let’s fall back and give them some space."
"What are we backing out for?" William demanded. He held his weapon with white knuckled intensity. "There are only six of them and they don't know how many we have, we can take them."
"That isn't how we operate," she told him. "The three R’s and the ROE make it clear."
"That only applies to higher order species," he persisted.
"It applies to any situation with an alien species where blatant aggression is not displayed," she snapped, almost a direct quote from the training manuals. "If they're not shooting to kill, we withdraw."
"But how are we going to get out of here if they control the portal?"
"We wait." William looked mutinously at the others, and found no support whatsoever. Not even among the other two whom he'd worked with before.
"She's right," Luke agreed. Chester nodded his head as well.
"To damn right," Cherise said in a tone that Minu knew meant she was getting angry. "What the fuck is your problem, anyway?" she demanded, deciding to just let it out. "You've been riding her ass from the time we got here. You think you can do better?"
"Maybe I can," he said, his voice lacking the full bluster of his attitude.
"Too bad you don't have the scores to back up that bravado," Pip pointed out. Minu felt like hugging him. "Only one in twenty Chosen have the test scores to be command."